Easter! and the Beach

Full Speed!

Pancho and Tormenta

Last sunday (Easter) we went up to the neighboring town of Santa Marta to check out their Feria, which is basically a day of food, soccer games and a competition on horseback. The soccer teams didn't show up though so there wasn't soccer. Pancho was participating in the "carrera de cinta". What they do is string a rope across the street that has 6 clothes pins in the middle of it and each pin has a small ring attached to it, about the size of one you would wear on your finger. Then the guys take turns galloping down the street and trying to stick a fancy chopstick- like thing through the ring!!  It was really fun to watch, and we think Isaac should practice in the back field so he can compete in the next one (they happen often).

Farm surgery

We also forgot to mention that a couple of week ago, Fierra (the stray that moved to the farm right before we got here) got fixed - yay! no extra puppies!  The vet came out from town, and did the operation on a table right behind the cabin.  We used one of our headlamps for some extra light!  It was really neat, Isaac's mom helped, and Isaac got to hold her legs up at one point.  We carried her up, and put her in Koda's kennel when it was all finished, so she could wake up and not be bothered by the other dogs.  She is recovering well, although her outer stitches have fallen out, so it looks a bit gross.  We just spray her with "purple spray" now and then, and that does the trick!  Costa Ricans use purple spray for pretty much any animal cut type thing - it's magic!

Playa Arcos

We took a trip to the coast on Monday, and spent the day at Playa Ballena and Playa Arco.  The current was really strong, and the park people wouldn't let us in the water AT ALL until after lunch.  That was okay though, because we had lots of hammocks and books!  Playa Arco  only exists at low tide, with really neat caves, and stunning tall rock cliffs that drop right down all around you.  You can only get to the beach by walking along Playa Ballena, and over a little hill.  We had both beaches to ourselves!

Naomi hanging out

Its alright i guess...

Semana Santa!

Parakeets at Rafas

Happy Semana Santa!  We've got lot's to update...

I'm on a horse!

We managed to get out for our first horse ride the other week.  Tormenta and Caramela were great, and didn't seem to mind the weight on their backs.  They each got a bucket of molasses as a reward for not bucking anyone off.

We spent a morning at Rafa and Digna's house just down the road.  Isaac's family has known Rafa since they first came here, and he and his wife both spent some time in New Jersey, so their English is really good (lucky for me!).  Rafa breeds song birds, and in their back yard they have two big houses for the birds (parrots, cockatiels, budgies, and many more!)  It was so neat!  Rafa pairs the birds up, and then they lay in these little bird houses.  We got to peek in a few boxes at some babies (terrifying and cute at the same time?). 

New fence

Isaac and I finished the bamboo fence around the garden.  I had two jobs (sand the edges to make them look nice, and hold the bamboo up while Isaac wired it all together).  Isaac pretty much did everything else.  It was a beautiful, bright YELLOW bamboo fence for about 4 hours before the sun bleached it to dull beige, but it's still pretty!

Check ma specs!

We had a delicious lunch on Thursday at Rocio's.  Lis and I went over early in the morning to help with tortilla-making and vegetable chopping.  It seems to me that a lot of the delicious food here involves really A LOT of chopping.  It was delicious! Green papaya picadillo, palmito/veggie soup, rice, yummy salad, fresh handmade tortillas, and yummy arroz con leche (rice pudding),  topped with miel de chiverre and miel de coco (basically blended coconut cooked with cane sugar until it is delicious!) for a desert.

We'll head to a fair in Monte Carlo tomorrow that should be fun.  And Isaac and I are planning a little trip to Drake Bay and Corcovado National Park in a couple of weeks, which will be really neat.  You have to boat down a river, and then south along the coast to get there!  Let the adventures continue!

Isaac washing the dog

We’re almost at our 2 month mark, time is flying!!  Hope everyone is doing well, we miss you!  And have a happy Easter!

Last Couple of Days

All grown up

Who knew baby birds went from being these tiny, baldish alien-like creatures, to cute little round bird-looking babies in about 2 days!  We had a nest right above the bedroom unit door, and were lucky enough to get to watch them grow (and get fed!). 

We went to a birthday celebration for Pancho and Estevan on Sunday.  Have you ever been to a birthday party that started at 9am? Yup, we were up bright and early, and eating chicherones (deep fried pig skin) by 10:30!  Pancho built a beautiful cabin for this guy, up above Monte Carlo, so we spent the day relaxing and visiting, and EATING.  I helped Rocio make green banana salad the day before, and chopped green bananas for 2 hours.  The salad takes a long time to make, and if you didn't know you would think it was some variation of potatoe or pasta salad, but it is DELICIOUS!  

Yogurt

We have made a couple of batches of yogurt from the cow's milk.  It's pretty easy to make, the only tricky part is getting it to cool slowly, so we have been putting it in a hot water bath, and wrapping it in about 5 towels.  It seems to work! Our compost adventure is ever continuing.  We didn't realize that we built the compost right where the water come barreling off the garden roof.  So, our hot compost is hot and SOAKED, way more wet than it should be.  We decided to move it to under the garden roof where it will be more protected.  It was SOOOO stinky to move.  

Isaac and Warren cut down some bamboo yesterday to build a fence around the garden that will hopefully keep the dogs out.  This morning Isaac and I re-dug some of the rain ditches along the house and chicken coop that had grown over.  Koda got a kick from Macho (the horse) on the way back from the river today.  Isaac actually caught it on film (because we were filming Macho line himself up with a Guyababa tree, and then walk backwards and smash it with his butt really hard, to get all the ripe fruit to fall - smart horse).  Koda acted like he broke his leg, and cried and cried, but he seems fine now.  Hopefully he learned something! 

Washing the dogs

The chicken or the egg?

Have you ever seen a chicken lay an egg? I have!  I saw it actually LAY the egg.  I was up early one morning to head to the market and went to collect the eggs. One of the hens was sitting in the basket, beside two other eggs.  I noticed that she looked kind of in the middle of something, so I just crouched down and waited…and then I realized she was going to lay an egg!  I wanted to yell for Isaac to come and watch, but I didn’t want to startle her, so I just waited.  Sure enough, within a couple of minutes out plopped an egg!  How cool.

Snake scales

Here are some other happenings:

Cesar

We’ve started a hot compost to make some good soil for our veggie garden.  Isaac’s mom and dad bought 700 sacks of chicken manure last year, so we’re using some of that, with a mixture of dry leaves and grass.  It’s actually been kind of fun to make so far, except for the ant nests that are surrounding it.

Pica Caballo

Isaac and I have been tutoring Adrian in math.  He’s in Grade 6, and most of the math is the same as Grade 7 math in B.C., so I’m familiar with it from last year! It’s pretty funny.  I figure out what we’re going to do, and then make up some little sheets, and flash card games, and then Isaac does most of the talking, while I cheer from the sidelines and add my two bits now and then.  He did really, really well on his last exam! Yeah tag-team tutoring!

We have been working on the side gardens, and came across a Pica Caballo yesterday, a BIG hairy, jumpy spider.

Fer de Lance

Rocio killed a Fer-de-Lance snake beside her house today, so we got to go down and inspect it.  It’s a bit sad it had to die, but kind of helpful because now I know what NOT to step on.   They are a type of pit viper, and if you get bitten they say you have to be within 4 hours of a hospital, or you’ll die.  I hope NEVER to see a live one. 

My Spanish is improving.  I am listening to this CD that we downloaded, and it’s magic!  I came back from milking the cow today with all this exciting news from Rocio (her oldest son got his drivers license, her trip to Golfito was really hot, we can help her make tamales tomorrow afternoon, and I will help her on Saturday with making the green banana salad for the Pancho and Estevan’s Birthday dinner on Sunday).  Isaac couldn’t believe how I “got all that out of her.” 

Naomi in the Garden

Pinapples at the market

Church in San Isidro

Loading Sugercane

Tucan in our backyard

 Also, we have been making the most delicious No-Knead Bread, it’s SO easy, and here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html. Try it out, we have been putting oats or sesame seeds on top – yum!  Next on the list is homemade yogurt!

Mainly Animals

Window survivor

Thirsty Charko

 Well its been a quiet couple of days. Koda only killed one chicken but it was ours so thats OK. My mom and dad have arrived after their trip to Ecuador, which sounds pretty nice! You can check out their photos at:

www.flickr.com/photos/4u2lookat

We've been keeping busy around the farm doing this and that. On Monday we went out to Miguel and Suzanne's for my dads birthday. They made us a delicious dinner and we had Torta Chillena for dessert. Soooo goood!

Dogs crossing the river

Poppy

 Every now and then a bird smashes into our windows because they see the reflection of outside in them. We've tried numerous things to deter them (hanging random things in front of them, putting the curtains in the middle of the window, stickers on the glass) but they still hit them sometimes. So far we've had the little guy in the photo above, a humming bird and as i am writing this one just hit! So far they have all flown away all right, but they are pretty dazed for about 25 minutes. I usually put a basket over them so the dogs don't eat'em and them plunk them into a tree so they can recover in peace. They don't mind having their picture taken there so out of it!!!
                                                           Pura Vida                 Isaac

Birds nest behind our house

Our backyard

Chicken Eater

We’ve had an eventful couple of days, that’s for sure! And we’re sending our love, too!

bug petroglyph at Los Cusingos

Mom and Dad’s last day was spent wandering through Los Cusingos, Alexander Skutch’s bird sanctuary that is about 5 mins down the road. We followed a treasure map through the jungle all the way to some amazing petroglyphs. I’ve never seen so many in one place!

Aaaaand, well…we have a bit of a chicken killer on our hands. Not one of our chickens, (that might have been less terrible), but a chicken that was happily living down the road.

spiky jungle trunk

Yesterday Isaac and I went out for a walk with the dogs. We talked about whether or not Koda should be on leash, and how WEIRD that seems to Costa Ricans. According to Isaac, Ticos don’t “walk” their dogs; their dogs follow them wherever they go. They would never go for a walk with the purpose of exercising their dogs. Anyways, we had almost made the whole loop when we lost Koda to the next yard.  There was barking, and squawking, and flapping, and the next thing we saw was Koda pass by with a cute little grey chicken in his mouth. We’d been calling him, and he was not listening so off we both went trying to catch the beast. Fun, a game!!! Of course, he continued to dodge us until he ran up into a little wooded area, and returned, sans chicken. He knew he was in trouble, and if he didn’t, the tackle from Isaac made it clear.

walking the jungle path

We didn’t know whether or not he had killed the poor chicken, and no one was home at the house. Soooo, today on our way home from town, we stopped by.  Isaac had to deal with it, because I’m next to useless as far as explanations and apologies in Spanish go. It ended up being the house of a girl who went to school in Quizarra with Isaac, and remembered him and his brothers. She hadn’t even noticed a chicken missing, so her and Isaac took a little walk. They found the chicken, and yes it was dead. We apologized x 10, and offered money but she refused to take anything. She was really, really good about the whole thing and said she understood. It was sad though, because she had bigger hens for laying, and then about three little, docile chickens that were basically her pets and who came into her house, and followed her around. Of course, he had to eat one of the sweet ones!

alacran in the sleeping cabin

Oh, and to top that off, the day before yesterday Koda nipped a little boy, who was coming up to visit the horses with Rocio, on the bum! All I could hear was crying, and screaming in Spanish. I decided selfishly to let Isaac deal with that one. Of course, because we ARE NOT in Canada, the mom was tearing a strip off her little boy, and didn’t say one thing about the dog. Apparently she had told him to stay next to her, and not run off as they were walking up the driveway. He didn’t listen, and came flying past Koda, and turned around and went flying past him in the other direction. Koda gets excited about small moving things (chickens, niños…etc.) Costa Rica forgive us!

First Beach Trip!!

Playa Ventanas

On Thursday we all loaded into the truck and drove for an hour down to the pacific coast. We went to on of our favorite beaches Playa Ventanas. Its a pretty sweet little bay with these caves that the water comes ripping through at high tide. Spent the day there in the sun boogie boarding, chillen in the hammock and eating fruit. Naomi and I managed to only partially scorch the skin off our bodies!

Lookin badass

Leslie havin a read

 We took Koda with us, and although he thought the temperature in the truck on the way there and in the sun at the beach was a bit much, he had a great time romping around chasing lizards. On the way back through San Isidro we stopped in town to get some pizza from this great little pizza place and for some reason they served us beer in mugs. Not like beer mugs...coffee mugs, beats me! We also had to run around and find some aloe gel for our burns!

Lincoln enjoying the sun