Christmas 2006 and Maggie

Some time in September, one of our neighbours cats adopted us. Her name is Maggie and one day she just started sitting in the middle of our main floor or on our back terrace. Essentially she just moved in so we agreed to take over feeding and caring for her. Austin and Andrew are in love with her and she is a wonderfully tranquil kitty. She meows only when she needs out and this only happens in the night sometimes if she can't wait until 6:00 a.m. or so when we open all the doors. Andrew has newly christened her Magnolia but Maggie or Mags remain her nicknames. Here is a picture of her under our Christmas tree having a nap (one of her most favourite pastimes!). This week she has moved onto our kingsize bed where she now takes her rests both day and night. She likes John's side of the bed the best.

Christmas in the tropics has been quite different. I managed to do all my usual baking while substituting various ingredients depending on what I could rustle up here or in San Jose. I went on a shopping trip to San Jose mid December and was able to get a can of whole cranberries, some baking chocolate and some sweet yams in a can that can be made into some semblance of a pumpkin pie. I used butter toffee candies for toffee bits when I made the Skor bars and I ground my own almonds. I made my own pastry for the butter tarts and because the brown sugar here is less refined with more molasses in it, the tarts have a distinct flavor but delicious all the same. Anyway, it was quite the adventure and I'm now renowned for my baking delights! Our neighbours threw a Christmas party on the 23rd which was great fun and we invited our new friends and neighbours from the Toronto area for Christmas dinner. They have a son who is a bit younger than our boys but they all get along great together and enjoy each others company. As turkey's here are an import and cost around $80.00 U.S. we opted for two good sized chickens instead. As long as you have the stuffing, (poultry seasoning and sage compliments of our Cdn. friends who brought me some) gravy, etc. it's still a great Christmas dinner. I brought my tree, ornaments, about 10 treasures and our deer family with me from Canada. Having these familiar items made it seem more like home; especially at night when everything is lit up. So, here is a picture of the tree, some of my treasures displayed on top of the cupboards and a few of the house now that we are more set up.

Cheers to all, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you.

Field Trip to Camaronal and Punta Islita

In early December we travelled with our neighbours, Mark and Julia, to beaches Camaronal & Punta Islita. Camaronal is the beach that we overlook from our house and is the turtle nesting grounds. It is an isolated beach with black sand and large expansive fields leading up to it. Most of this area is protected and therefore will stay quite "wild" looking. The beach is famous also for its surf and there are many who travel here just to surf.

To get there from our house you have to cross a river which is quite wide but manageable with a 4x4 now that we are into the dry season. Here are a couple pictures of Camaronal beach; some driftwood and a huge bunch of cactus. Andrew is now about 5' 4", certainly taller than his mother and Austin is up to my chin.





Punta Islita has a beautiful hotel and golf course and a charming small town square. Here is a picture of the church, waterfall just outside of town and a picture of the bay from high above at the restaurant. We had a wonderful lunch up top and a quick dip in the bay prior to a downfall of rain - where is that dry season they all talk about?

Settling In

Here are a few pictures of John the fix-it man. Our furniture, which we purchased in San Jose, arrived safely and just a few hours after we did. The power for the stove was not in place so that presented a challenge but other than that it went fairly smoothly. John put in our dryer vent as well as organized conversations with the electrician about the stove. In fact, the temporary fix for the stove is still in place and I'm not sure if it will ever be corrected as it should be.

Meanwhile, my neighbours were kind enough to give me the ant killer potion as my counter tops were running wild with ants as were our floors. We have learned not to kill the "cleaner ants"; only the small ones. In fact, we're most grateful for when the cleaner ants arrive to "clean up" all the other unwanted insects. Speaking of insects, there are many. This is not the place to live if you are frightened by spiders, mud wasps, ants, crickets, grasshoppers, scorpions, etc. etc. etc. Generally, they are more of a nuisance however my leg is just recovering from a series of spider bites that were both painful and itchy. Not knowing what they were, I stopped into the pharmacy and the pharmacist diagnosed them as spider bites and gave me the topical cream which eased them considerably. I now check my bed each night!

On a happier note, we love the howler monkey's and the parakeets although they do make quite a racket! It's quite noisy in the tropics (daytime) but the nighttime is very peaceful and way up here on the ridge it's fantastic as there are no dogs barking or roosters crowing; a blessing indeed.

Arriving in Costa Rica

Our family arrived in Costa Rica on August 9th, 2006; complete with 17 pieces of luggage. We had arranged to stay at an apartment hotel, named Portofino Condominiums, in Alajuela which is a small town near the airport of San Jose.


We spent two weeks in San Jose shopping for furniture, buying vehicles, seeing our lawyer, banking and getting our drivers licences. We made one trip out to the beach to see our house prior to taking possession towards the end of August. We moved in around August 24th-25th giving us just enough time to arrange for our satellite internet/phone service so the boys could start their homeschooling on Sept. 4th. In actual fact, the homeschool kids didn't start until the 11th but who knew?

In October the heavy rainfall caused one of our major bridges, the link between Playa Carrillo and Playa Samara, to wash out. This presented two options; one to drive through the teak plantation or to drive down the bank and through the river which was the shortest route. Amazingly, the bridge was repaired within two weeks which is quite a feat for here.

November brought us the "winds of change" marking the turn from the wet season to the dry season. These CAT 1 winds were quite an experience for us prairie types. There was no sleep that first night as one of the construction sheds blew apart and a huge sheet of metal went flying by the boys' room. The windows and doors banged and shuttered and by morning the house was full of leaves and dirt. The community lost a lot of trees and branches and of course the power went out. Since we've been here the power has been out at least 4 times with durations up to 10 hours. It reminds us a bit of our childhood in rural Alberta so we do feel like pioneers.

We (the royal "We") have got most of the light fixtures, towel racks, toilet paper holders and some mirrors mounted. John has been a real trooper as all this type of work falls to him. We are still putting up curtain rods and drapes but these things take time. I first had to pick out the materials and then have them sewed (twice) as the first time a few things went wrong.... Anyway, here are a few photos of the move in, including a picture of filling the pool. As it takes approximately 5 minutes for each photo to download I will end this first post and try and get some more onto the site later.