Dad and Grandma Gallant come for a visit

On a last minute charter deal, my dad and his sister, Marie came for a quick week long visit. This was my dad's first time here and Grandma Gallant's second. With most of our construction projects finished we could all take time to enjoy their visit. They joined us for our Cafe con Leche coffee group and we joined some friends for a pizza night. We took them down to meet friends at Samara beach where we learned how to play Mexican train dominoes. John took my Dad for a quad ride.

We went cashew picking and then learned how to process the cashews. Once you see those pictures you'll understand why they're so expensive! We picked the fruit at Josue's house where we met his father, Victor, wife Cecilia and little boy George. Josue climbed the tree to pick us some Zapote fruit as well. We picked a couple of mangos but the mango crop has not been good this year due to the high winds we experienced in early March. There goes my mango margaritas!

With the cashews, here's how the process goes: The fruit is squeezed for the juice and then the squished fruit can be stewed with brown sugar and brandy for a lovely dessert (especially over ice cream). The cashew nut needs to be roasted over a fire allowing the toxic resin inside to sizzle and steam away until the entire nut is charred. Then quickly douse the flames to stop the roasting process. Next use a hammer to hit the end of the nut to crack it and then pry out your nut. Viola, you have cashews. See our little pile' emphasis on little. It took quite awhile to get a dessert bowl full but they were delicious and we had quite the time learning how to roast them. Our friend Gretchen and her son, Nahim, showed us. See my dad cracking the cashews.

We also went up to our condo lot for a look around and Dad and the boys rode in the back which Dad thought was terrific as he could see everything better. Pretty good for 79 years old I think. The boys had a ball with him. We had the neighbours over for a cocktail party to meet both of them and we went to the Shepherd's for a visit one day too. Before we knew it the week was over and back to the airport we went. Short but definitely very sweet.

Wallace and Laurie visit from Drumheller

March saw our friends from Drumheller visit. They stayed for a few days before taking a tour in southern Costa Rica. Wallace helped us make a corral for all the puppies as they were starting to escape from the bathroom shower. We went to Barragones beach one day and spent a day in our pool. Unfortunately, both guests were sunburned; Laurie the worst. We also took them on a quad tour which was great fun.

Debbie and Randy visit from Canada

John's sister Debbie and her husband Randy came for a visit in January. They stayed a week in Samara and a week with us at the house. We took them on a quad trip to San Miguel including riding on two beaches and crossing two rivers. We went to Barragones beach and we hosted a party for them which also happened to be a friend's birthday.

Rescuing the Tourists

January 6th saw us rescuing a pair of tourists who had driven their small rental car down a side road that was too steep for them to get back up. They hiked about 3 km. back up before they came to our house for help. This is how we met Dan and Flora. We were able to get them out the next day and in turn Dan helped us with the wiring for our security system and our rancho. Here's a few pictures of us as we hike through the mango orchard with them.

Puppies

In January, a stray dog was laying on our pool deck near death. Austin and Andrew gave her some water and something to eat but she just didn't have the strength anymore. In the morning we gave her a bit more and then Austin and I proceeded to clean her up. The poor thing was so malnourished that we could see every bone. She was covered in ticks, fleas and lice. After picking everything off and spraying her down we showered her and let her rest. Within about 3 days she was much improved and I named her Diamond. After all, a dog is a man's best friend and diamonds are a girls best friend; so it made sense to me!

As her health and weight improved I suppose it was no surprise that we found she was pregnant and so 3 weeks later she delivered 8 puppies. She delivered the night of Frida, February 13th and luckily she chose our pool shower which was just the right size for her and easy to clean. Surprisingly, they were healthy and didn't look at all malnourished and Diamond was holding her own. With such a large litter to feed, we lost the runt a week later but all 7 others are alive and well. Diamond did develop eclampsia and I had to race to Nicoya to get her some calcium which helped her completely. She is now gaining weight and weaning her puppies as they are 7 weeks old now. Two of them will be delivered to their new homes tomorrow and we are keeping one; Austin named her Lucy. She's the black one in the pictures. The others will be off to their new homes soon we hope! We've really gone to the dogs - who would have guessed that we'd have 9 dogs and a cat????

December tales

December has been a really busy month so far and we still have Christmas and the New Year to go.

After the Papagayo winds finished, John and Josue were able to fix the roof tiles that had leaked during the rainy season and get the yard tidied up from all the leaves, branches, etc. We had a small tremor one night and that "shook loose" a huge spider (see picture). Apparently earthquake tremors bring out spiders - who knew??

Josue and John took the boys on a fantastic hike through the mango orchard and up to the top of a huge hill where they took some great view shots.

I was fortunate enough to meet an artist, from the U.S., who is in Samara for a year's sabbatical, whom I hired to paint a jungle mural on the cone of our rancho. It turned out just fantastic and we even had him add our cat, Shadow, to the mix.

Meanwhile, John hired two welders to complete the railings and so other than electric, we are finished that project. This was very timely as we were preparing for our annual Christmas party and we certainly needed a railing before inviting a horde of people.

Austin helped me with our usual round of baking as we make at least 10 different cookies, squares and tarts for the festive season.

Our friends, Fred and Mary kicked off the Christmas season with a wonderful party on the 13th which saw us staying out until midnight. We could hardly believe it ourselves! We hosted a huge Christmas party with our next door neighours on December 20th with over 50 guests in attendance. When you're all ex-pats it just seems natural for all of us to get together, hence the large numbers for a party. Everyone brings something special so we had a wonderful assortment of dishes and desserts.

Meanwhile, school has been hectic, plus the shopping and we've acquired a dog. First the dog story and then a shopping tale.

A beautiful tiger stripped dog (part pointer) showed up one day and just stayed. We weren't sure what to do with him but he is really well trained and has such a gentle disposition. He must have been someone's dog but he didn't leave so we bought some dog food and a dish and he seems very happy to be here. Even I like the dog and that's saying quite a bit for those who know me. We've named him Buddy but I think he's been called Tigre (tiger in Spanish) as he seems to perk up when we call that name. Anyway, he only barks when vehicles go by or people on foot so he's a terrific watch dog and everyone in the neighbourhood thinks he's top notch. Anyway, I wonder if he "just shows up" then perhaps one day "he'll just disappear" but of course we hope not as we want to keep him. He seems well cared for and doesn't have ticks and fleas, etc. John has talked to the vet about him so he'll be looked at to prevent future troubles as a tropical climate can be hard on dogs. We think he's our Christmas present.

Now the shopping adventure. We were in the very newest store in Nicoya, shopping for a turkey (always a challenge here in the tropics) and the store clerk who was helping me gave a startled cry and I jerked back my shopping cart only to find that I had run over a snake! Now that move didn't make it very happy. I've gotten a lot better about not fearing "things" and so I only gave a small shriek while calling Andrew and John. Andrew came over and because he's always fully clothed in jeans and socks and runners he started playing with the snake and it was all twined around his foot. Meanwhile all the ticos were gathering in the store looking at the snake but making no moves to remove it from the store. It was only a small "garter" type snake but in the end, John had to grab it behind the head and take it out of the store. The security guards with all their uniforms and guns were no help at all. Anyway, I'll never say I've seen it all as we never know what we're going to run in to; literally apparently!

We're off to Nicoya again because we've been invited to a tica wedding on the 27th and I must find a wedding gift. I think this is quite an honor and I'll post some pictures and write about a Costa Rican wedding in my next post. The fellow who was lead construction foreman of our rancho project and his wife have just had a baby so we need a baby gift and our weekly worker has invited us to their place next Sunday.

John and I are hosting Christmas dinner for 14; neighbours and friends who all help out with the dinner so that's the next big event on the calendar and I'm glad to report that we did get a turkey despite the snake incident!

Our next exciting news is that John's sister Debbie and husband Randy are coming for a visit on the 10th of January and I'm hopeful that my sister, Polly, can get a flight for January as well.

So, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all from the Gallant's.

Preparation for the Winds of Change

In Costa Rica, we experience the Papagayo winds each November which mark the change from the wet season to the dry season. It is a unique experience for prairie folk such as ourselves as suddenly the gale force winds begin and last anywhere from 3 to 10 days. Unfortunately for us we got the 10 day version this year beginning the night of November 17 and ending on the 27th. I would argue that we still had moderate winds today and we don't know how tonight will go but I can say with assurance that we've had enough already!

The picture of Josue trimming back our palm tree is in preparation for those winds. By making the tree much narrower it survives the onslaught much better. You can see the boys carrying up the fronds to the street level for burning. They're great helpers but they sure weren't keen on all the leaf clean up after the winds. These winds dry the leaves right off many of the trees so they can enter their dormant state; some of which will flower later in the dry season.

There's a picture of Andrew holding one of the flower pods that come off the palm tree that has dried and he has burned our names into using a magnifying glass and the rays of the sun. Ingenious, isn't he?? He made a "ship" for us and each of our neighbours. He's holding the S.S. Gallant and the S.S. Orofino. Austin is peaking out from behind.

My bougainvilleas are starting to bloom again and some other periennial type plants have died off as the season changes. We no longer have to run our dehumidifiers and there are considerably less "biting" bugs although other types seem to take their place but are mostly annoying not itchy!

We still have very cloudy weather but no more rain and we're hoping that the sun will join us full time soon. To all our American friends - Happy Thanksgiving and we'll be thinking of you as we join our American friends for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow evening.