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.