Bienvenidos a Rio Piedras

We have settled in to our next home in Rio Piedras, near Arenal.  Our house here is very new, and built by a couple from the US, so it is really modern.  We have a great kitchen, which includes a nice oven and fridge, a dishwasher (if only we could find someone who could sell us detergent for it!), and we have a great view of the lake from the kitchen and living room.  The first thing Ella and Violet noticed was that we have a bathtub.  They got in for a soak only a few minutes after we arrived.  The couple that owns the house lives just two houses up the street with their two daughters, dog, horse, and parrot.  Their daughter Reina is a little younger than Ella, and it was fun to have them around for a few days. After that, they headed to Oregon and Utah (yes, Sean is from Utah; small world eh?), but we enjoyed playing with them for a little while.  

We have 2 bedrooms here, so the kids all sleep in this bedroom.

This is the master. The bed is so much more comfortable than in our Jungle House. We haven't been awakened by Howler monkeys yet, but we did have a pair of Toucans tap on this window one morning.  I was too slow to get the camera, but they were very pretty. 

Our view of Lake Arenal

The Arenal Volcano in the distance.  When Chad and I were here 9 years ago, we watched and heard the volcano erupt at night. It was one of the highlights of our trip.  We were disappointed to hear that the volcano is no longer erupting, although it is still smoking and so is still considered active. 

The first night here the kids found this little cat. They were sooo excited and fed it scraps of meat and worried about it all night.  We found out the next day it was the neighbors cat, and returned it to them. 

Violet, Reina and Ella

Reina's horse, Red.

Flying kites at the top of the hill.

A lot of the people in this area are here for windsurfing and kite boarding.  It is almost always windy at the lake. Lessons are pretty pricey, or we would try it for ourselves. 

The towns nearby seem a lot cleaner than those in the Puerto Viejo area.  Rio Piedras is a pretty small town, so we can go to either Nuevo Arenal or Tilaran for shopping; its about a 20 minute drive for either. Both have nice parks and clean streets.  La Fortuna is a little further away, but has a lot of the touristy attractions.  We've been there a few times to sit in the free hot springs.

La Fortuna

A pretty shop full of Guatemalan quilts and decorations. 

Three kids getting around town on 1 bike. 

A couple of weeks ago when we were visiting with Danny and Leann from Quebec, they told us about a fun place to go near La Fortuna, that was similar to the Jaguar Recovery Center. It is called Proyecto Asis, and like the Jaguar Recovery Center, they take in sick or injured animals, and they make every effort to reintroduce them into the jungle.  It was more expensive, but we had a similar experience to what we had at Jaguar.  The monkeys were the big hit.

A pecary. These are diminishing in numbers because locals (and the local Jaguars) hunt them for meat.  This one has been at Proyecto Asis since it was a baby, and is very tame; he even came up to the gate so we could pet him.  The guide made him squirt a weird stinky liquid out of his back, which was really gross.  Apparently that's how they mark their territory in the wild. 

Jessica and Hercules, Spider Monkeys.  These guys only have 4 fingers, and lack the opposable thumb that other primates have.  They have made up for that with their very nimble and controlled tail, which can do much more than other primates' tails.  

We each got to hold Jessica's hand.  She is much more outgoing than Hercules. She has an affinity for pulling hair, so she kept trying to pull us in closer to get a big handful. 

A Huron named Sammy

A small boa constrictor native to Costa Rica. 

A whole cage full of birds that look just like Grandma and Grandpa's pet Albird Einstein!  In nature, and in this enclosure, these birds naturally pair up for life. Maybe we should find Albird a girlfriend.

A type of wild turkey.

The White Faced Capuchins

There was one whole cage full of baby boy Capuchin monkeys.  In the wild, monkeys live in groups with one male and lots of females. Often the Alpha male will abandon the baby boys to control the future challengers to his throne.  These little guys were so cute, and soooo little.  

Another Spider Monkey who liked to have his back rubbed. 

She came down to Ella's level so that Ella could rub her back. Ella thought this was the best part of Proyecto Asis.

The guide let us touch this toucan's tongue.  It looked and felt just like a feather. 

A baby Coati Mundi.  This little guy was soooo cute.  He is a cousin to the raccoon, and he would probably rip your face off and nibble on it, but he was really really cute!!!

We've spent a few days at the lake, and have had a lot of fun looking for pieces of Native Costa Rican pottery.  We've tried to find out how old it is, and we haven't found any real definitive answers, but everyone seems to agree that it was here before 1502 when the Spanish came. Some say it could be much older. It is everywhere! We find 50 or more pieces each time we go to the beach, but we only let the kids keep the ones that are especially pretty or interesting. We feel like archaeologists, trying to think of how the pots were made and what they were used for.  Michael, Ella and Chad even tried to make some of their own pottery from the clay at the beach. If we hear of a museum or collection that we could give these pieces to (the ones we've found, not the ones we've made), we will, but so far it seems like we are the only ones interested in the pottery.  We have had a lot of fun finding it!

Looking for pottery

We thought these rocks looked like little volcanoes.

The beach in Nuevo Arenal

Violet made a clay cookie, Ella made a doughnut, and Michael made a little cup.

In our new house we are up at the level of the tops of the trees.  We don't see armadillos crawling past, but we have seen some beautiful birds.

Green Parrots

A really fuzzy, big, silver squirrel.

I'm not sure what kind of bird this is, but it was very pretty.

Random bug.

We've seen quite a few snakes on the road while driving.  This one got run over by another car while we were stopping to look at it.  We believe it is a poisonous Coral snake.  Remind us not to go exploring in the sugar cane late at night.  (Sorry for the blood and guts.)

We've been fixing up the house to make it feel like Christmas. Michael and I have been hard at work making snowflakes, we found a Christmas tree at the grocery store for only $8, and we have decorated it with all kinds of haphazard stuff. We made our countdown to Christmas, and even drank hot cocoa one night to help us feel Christmas-y.  

We found stockings at the grocery store for only $.60 a piece. We decorated them to make them happy. 

The kids decorating the Christmas tree.  Yes, Violet is nearly always naked. We are getting used to it. 

Watching the lights on the tree.