Polly and Donna's Escape from the Frozen North

What a great surprise! In late January, my sister, Polly and one of my best friends, Donna hopped on a cheap charter and came for a week long visit to CR.

Our itinerary was very full and the week just flew by. They arrived on a Monday night to Liberia airport which is about an hour and a half from our house.

Here's a couple of pictures from Tuesday evening when we had sunset celebrations at our Samara lot. We then went onto a lovely dinner at our friends, the Shepherd's who live very close to our Samara lot.

On Wednesday we had girls day at Barragones beach. No sighting of Mel; it was an extremely quiet, private day on the beach.

Donna and I went shopping on the Thursday to Nicoya while Auntie Polly was the substitute gym teacher for the boys that day. This evening we joined our friends Mary and Fred and a host of other folks for a cocktail party at Las Palmeras. By now, the girls' heads are spinning from all the people they have met and their names!

On Friday, both Donna and Polly took the Wingnuts Canopy tour - see them getting ready to be harnessed up with their cute tour guide John. That evening we had friends over for cocktails and then had dinner at Shake Joe's on the beach; compliments of Donna.

John took Donna on the Saturday to Isla de Pajaros in Palo Verde National Park where she saw many species of birds. As they are migratory in nature, many of them will be gone by March so it was a great opportunity to see them. Our family went in December so here are a couple of pictures from that tour. Polly and I had ladies lunch with Sherry on Saturday and that evening we all went to Rancharlo's for dinner and to hear our friend, Franz play his saxophone.

Sunday, Donna and I went down to Carrillo beach for the morning and that evening we all went to our neighbours for the Superbowl party.

Monday morning was pack up time (you should have seen all of Donna's shopping - she's a real asset to our economy here!) and then off to the airport.

The week went by too fast but it was so terrific to see both of them even for a short while.

Visit to Barragones Beach

We all decide to venture to Barragones Beach where Mel Gibson has property. Lucky for Jim and Yvette, they got to see Mel as he came down to the beach on his quad to check on the set up for his evening beach party. I'm not sure what happened to our invitations but we didn't get them!

The picture of Bryce and Tina is right next to where they were setting up for the beach party. The boys enjoyed the surf and built a "crab emporium".

We were also lucky enough to see the Howler monkeys as they passed over us in the tree tops.

Wildeboer - Jackson visit to CR

Jim and Yvette Wildeboer and their son, Tyson ventured to Costa Rica for 3 weeks over the Christmas season. Yvette's sister, Tina, husband Bryce and children Melissa and Joel joined them along with Bryce's parents, Irene and Jim Jackson.

We visited Camaronal beach where the boys enjoyed the surf. This is the black beach that we see from our house. We even watched over a hatch ling turtle as it made its way to the sea.

Further on, we tried to have lunch at the Monkey Bar atop Punta Islita but alas it was closed, therefore, we drove on to San Miguel and had lunch at the Blue Pelican.

Christmas 2007

This year we finished up the renovations by December 15th and we got busy decorating our house for Christmas. We had a joint Christmas party with Sherry and Larry for all our friends and neighbours on the 22nd. Our friends, Majic and Anna and daughter Daniella stayed with us for Christmas which was great. Along with the Wildeboers, Jacksons and our neighbours, Larry & Sherry, George and Elaine, we were a grand total of 20 for Christmas dinner. We even had turkey - 2 of them to be exact. It really felt like Christmas this year and everyone had a fabulous time. Some of us took the boys to the beach on Christmas night for a beach bonfire which was fun although the Canadian boys (our visitors) were a bit nervous of the crabs as they were all heading out to sea and the beach was just crawling with them!

Here's a few shots from Christmas and the kids with their loot.

Also, one picture of Shadow leaping inside the Christmas tree the day I put it up. Luckily, she didn't bother with it again and so I was able to decorate it without incident. She likes to sleep under the tree on the tree skirt just like Maggie did last year.

One picture of the Gallant family as we don't take those too often and one picture of our new wrought iron chairs on our sun patio. George lent us a picnic table for Christmas day and about 8 folks ate their dinner out there. Our table is on order and hopefully will arrive this spring sometime. In the foreground you can see my bougainvilleas blooming; they were just beautiful for their first year.

Back Home

The weary travellers make it back to San Jose. We stayed the night and caught the bus home on Monday.

A couple of shots of the new landscaping in the front of the house.

Visiting Friends and Relatives

Here's a picture of my nephew Brian and his boy Marcus and his niece. One of my Dad and Patsy; Austin with Glen Henderson; one of me and the boys with my friend Blythe and her daughter Megan and one of the boys with my Uncle Bernard Rostaing. This was the last visiting we did before heading home on August 11.

Fall 2007 Happenings

The time has just zipped by since our return mid August. The boys started school early because we want them to finish by the end of April; in time for our trip to Portugal in May.

John is continuing with the house projects and I'm the paint consultant. So far, our painter, who works for us three days a week has completed our bottom level and all of our main bedrooms. We are now working in the main living area and it's quite a disaster zone. Anway, progress is being made. Our window bars are made but require painting before installation so that remains on the "to do list". Our new wrought iron chairs have arrived for the sun patio but we need to order the table in San Jose. We'll probably make a trip in December for that.

Andrew wants to take guitar lessons so we'll buy him a guitar when we go to San Jose as well. On the weather front we've had an excessively wet rainy season. We had 16 days straight of rain, fog and cloud but then it ended and returned to a more normal pattern of sun in the day and a bit of rain at night. We were starting to feel like ducks! Next up for excitement were the five earthquake tremors on November 5th. We prairie people were ready to run for the street. John moved our cars out of the garage up onto the street after the 3rd shock. The first four were about 15-20 minutes apart with a loud sonic type boom preceeding them. We thought they were over and then the last one hit an hour later and it seemed to be the severest to me but that is my opinion. The only thing that moved was the pile of DVD's sitting on our coffee table but still what an experience. We are no match for Mother Nature and she certainly can let you know. Apparently these tremors are quite common here but they were new to us and I was scared!

The next night, the winds of change started up with a venegeance and these usually blow for about three days which they did, dying down on the 9th of November. This marks the change of seasons and we are now in the dry season with the sun shining every day and the odd shower.

Next on the calendar was my birthday weekend which was nice and sunny and our friends from San Jose visited. We went to the beach twice and in our pool, had a BBQ and ate cake of course. We had some more high winds the night of the 15th and all day the 16th but since then it has been quite calm. Gives us a chance to pick up all the leaves that are whipped off the trees, dry as dust, when the wind blows.

This weekend, we've been bothered with a pasote (unsure of the spelling) but an animal that is brown in color, has a racoon ringed tail and a long snout. When I was floating in the pool Saturday and Austin was in his room on the computer, he ate our bananas. When I came up I saw the remains and knew it wasn't our kitty. I had been suspicious of something eating our neighbours cat food but couldn't catch it. But I saw it again on our sun patio last evening and in fact while I was typing this message he poked his nose in our back door again! I shooed him away, brave soul that I am.

John and Andrew went on an all day quad trip all the way down the coast to Mal Pais and back yesterday. They were dusty and dirty but two happy campers. Austin and I held down the fort and baked brownies.

Will try and post pictures when I have a chance.