Year One

In a few hours we will mark our first year away from the everyday job world!  It is hard to believe that we have been living here for almost one year.  I can not say that I have regretted any minute of our time here, it has been very exciting and rewarding with all of our new friends we have made both expat and Tico.

I also found out that Migracion will be reviewing our application for residency the first part of August and with any luck we’ll get our residency card in September.  That would be really great to have and not have to worry about being a tourist anymore.

The dogs have adjusted ok so far, I know a lot of people look at them on the beach as if we are crazy to bring a breed like this to this place.  They are happy so that’s what really counts!

Even though it is raining today, which we need very much, it can not dull our sprits since we know that sunny days are ahead.  The garden is loving this rain and as long as I don’t have to water it I am loving it too!

Pura Vida!!!

 

Yard Work and Hidden Treasures

One thing most people think about when living in the rainforest are the inhabitants that live here too!  With three dogs who run and play all the time we always fear that one day they will run into something they shouldn’t.

So while raking a few leaves today I discovered this little guy hiding under some leaves right next to the path to the shower outside.  I was able to flip it into a 5 gallon plastic pale and called the Rescue center to see if they could help relocate this snake safely.  To their surprise and ours it turns out to be a male hog-nosed pit viper.  They currently have a female at the center but no male.  So this little guy will now live and love under the guidance of the center. 

 

 

Small male hog-nosed pit viper

 

 

 

 

Good to have it gone, just have to wait for the next one to show up.

 

Nature Returns

The last couple of mornings we have been hearing the howlers off in the trees rather close to the house.  We have never seen the howlers around here until today.  It was  a lone male and female eating the fruit in the fig tree back behind the house.  This is a first, even the people who have lived around here have not seen monkeys this close.  Since this is part of a Cacao farm nothing likes the Cacao except the birds that eat the insects.

 

 

 

 

To our surprise we saw another mom sloth with a baby, but this baby is just about ready to leave and go on it’s own.  Much bigger than the other sloth we have been following.

Wow, what a morning!!!!

 

When it rains, it pours

It has been since May that we have seen any sloths roaming thru the trees around our house.  So today there were two females, one alone and the mom and baby again.  Good to see that the baby is doing fine and getting a bit bigger each time we see them.  Maybe it’s the rain that brings them out, not sure but since we found the tiny baby 2-toed at the bottom of our tree the other week we have been worried about the other baby in the neighborhood. 

 

 

 

Some day we expect to see the small one on her own going from tree to tree finding only the best of leaves a sloth could want!!

 

 

 

The week old 2-toed baby was taken to the rescue center to see if they could possibly nurse it back to good health and have not heard any news.  There seemed to be a lot of baby sloths being dropped lately not sure why.  Our fingers are crossed on this one.  An update:  we just talked with the folks from the center and it seems this little one didn’t survive.  It fell to the ground from about 60 feet so chances were slim to begin with.

 

Lazy Day

You can tell when it is really a lazy day here on the Caribe, especially after a couple of days of rain.  This large green iguana was high up in a tree laying on its back sunning itself and just watching for any hungry hawks that might be looking for lunch, supper and breakfast.

 

This photo was taken at quite some distance away, but I would bet this guy is about four feet long.  Pura Vida.

 

Endangered, but not gone (yet)

This morning I had the opportunity to see a baby green iguana crawling on the side of our bodega. So I thought I would share as there are less and less of these creatures each year. The are hunted for food even though it is illegal.

 

Building a Better Police Station

As a small community located in the southeastern part of Costa Rica, far away from the capital city of San Jose, we are trying to get people involved in doing some upgrades to the local police station, improving living conditions and adding a jail to temporally hold criminals for court.  Should this effort fall short we will miss an opportunity to  meet our goal, stopping crime!

Here is the list of materials that are needed to get started on the renovation of the police station. So now is the time to go look in your bodega and see if you have anything to contribute. Even if you have things that are not on the list and think they can be of use, let us know. We are also looking for any skilled carpenters, welders, plumbers and electricians, as well as general laborers, that are willing to donate their time. Please respond with a message or give Rami Zein a call, 8985-6652, to let us know what you can contribute. THANKS!!

Wood – Laurel
7 pieces 2” x 4” x 4 barras
2 pieces 2” x 10” x 2 barras
200 barras of ½” x 2” (for lattice work)
20 barras of 2” x 3”

Metal
24 sheets corrugated metal (3.66 m) #28
15 square steel structural tubes, galvanized 2 x 3 x 1/16
5 square steel structural tubes, galvanized 3 x 3 x 1/16
3 zinc roofing covers (1.83 m) #28
2 welded wire mesh (2.35 x 6m)
5 welding sticks – Hilco 6013-3/32
8 1” round metal tubes (for cell bars)
6 rectangular metal tubes (1.2 x 25.4 x 50.8mm)

Electrical/Plumbing
31 tubes for electrical cables – ½”
18 unions for electrical cable tubes – ½”
25 curved unions for electrical cable tubes – ½”
70 m cable #12
50 m cable TSJ 2×12
15 m cable TSJ 3×12
1 breaker #15
4 breakers #20
12 mountable light sockets 4”
12 double outlets
3 ½” PVC stopcocks
1 pump designed for wells – half horsepower with a 20 liter tank

Fibrolit
10 sheets – 12mm
6 sheets – 9 mm
Paint
2 gallons oil-based paint – dark blue
3 gallons oil-based paint – white
2 quarts paint for metal – red
1 liter turpintine

Nails/Screws/etc.
100 insulated plastic staples with nails for electical cable
50 1” screws for gipsun
200 2” drillbit screws for metal roofing

Concrete
3 bags of Concretemix
10 cement panels (1.1 m)

Additional
2 rolls of electrical tape #33
4 3” paintbrushes
1 14” disc to cut metal
1 9” disc to cut concrete
2 heavyduty padlocks with 2 6” padlock bases
3 pairs of metal hinges B13 industrial
1 4oz container of PVC glue
4 meters of gravel

Table
We need a carpenter who can build a long table for eating – wood provided
8 plastic chairs

Money
Cash donations are welcomed. Although we are hoping to do this project mostly through donated materials and labour, we may still have to buy some items and hire some specialized labour. Every little bit helps.

 

Hot Daze

Well it was another hot day yesterday, about 92f (33c) in the shade. Only one thing to do on a day like this and that’s head to the beach. Sit in the shade and catch the cool ocean breeze of the afternoon and have a couple of beers. And oh ya, go swimming.

While my daughter and grand daughter were here in June we did some monkeying around:

Shay playing with the baby howler monkey in Costa Rica

 

Blogger Down

My other blog does not work anymore and it seems like more people are having the same problem. So I switched to WordPress and hopefully they do not have the same problems as GOO GLE!

So I will be starting all over using this as my main blog page. Sorry for the lack of response from Goo gle to try and fix their problem but I guess they are too busy trying to get their video to work! So from now on you can find me here!

 

>New Blog Site

>Please visit me at https://movedtocostarica.wordpress.com. Google Blogger does not work anymore and I can not access it from my computer for some reason. A lot of other people are having the same issue, but it seems like Google is not responding so I started a new BLOG, one that works!

Thanks………. See you on the other side!