Short-term Friends & Lessons Learned

Lessons learned this week:

A swift kick in the bum.

We went to a botanical garden called Las Islas, where we saw tons of red dart frogs (poisonous) and some really amazing plants.  As we were leaving we met a few kids who lived down the road, who came to the creek to swim.  We stayed and played with them for a while. Not having friends near by has been one of the things we have missed most about being in Costa Rica.  It was nice to see the kids play. Thinking that I was far younger and far more invincible than I really am, I jumped into the pool from the little bridge like the kids were doing. Of course, I smacked my tailbone really hard on the bottom of the pool.  It was pretty painful that day, but it seems to be getting worse each day since, instead of getting better. I am painfully awesome.

Pretty mushrooms

 This is a black pepper plant.  The little balls are each peppercorns that would be dried and then ground. We tasted one. Very peppery. 

We learned that the frogs live in these bromeliads that grow in the branches of large trees.  The bromeliads catch water in the little cups at the base of each leaf, and that is where the frogs lay their eggs. When the tadpoles hatch, the mother frog will actually carry the tadpoles from one cup of water  to another on her back. 

Giant tree ferns

When we told the kids that we had to leave, they decided they wanted to meet us there another day.  We decided on Tuesday at 2. The kids decided that we should bring cookies next time. We showed up at 2 on Tuesday, but the kids weren't there. I'm sure if my kids told me they were going to go swimming with some Americans who were bringing them cookies, I probably wouldn't let my kid go either. 

A surf lesson at Coccles beach.

Michael's instructor Douglas was awesome. He pushed him out to the waves that Michael couldn't have made it to on his own.  Michael was able to stand up on his second attempt. It was really fun. 

While we were watching Michael, we met a cute family from Quebec.  Chantelle is the same age as Ella, and has a similar love of Hello Kitty.  Nathan is near Violet's age, and so so cute. My girls have been overly shy since we've been here. I'm sure they are feeling a little insecure because we've been out of our routine and away from what they know. Also, people touch kids a lot here in Costa Rica. Whenever we go into a store or restaurant, people often comment on their pretty blonde hair, and then reach out to touch their hair and face.   We don't do that in the states.   We hardly touch anyone ever, unless it is a handshake. Whether for that reason or something else, the girls were very slow to start playing with Chantelle and Nathan, but ended up having a lot of fun with them.  We haven't run in to too many other people travelling with their kids, so it was fun to trade stories and info with their parents Leann and Danny.   Danny works with a television film crew that was doing a documentary in Costa Rica, and they decided to bring the whole family.  They are nearing the end of their 7 week vacation.   Danny showed us some awesome pictures of the sharks that they were filming, and they invited us over to their hotel pool later that week.  It was refreshing to have other adults to talk to.

As if to add insult to injury, the day at Coccles beach watching Michael surf resulted in some awesome sunburns...

A lesson in "How the sun will fry your lily white skin".

Further lessons in Biology

This is a poor picture of an Armadillo that I saw behind our house while I was doing the dishes. Did you know that these crazy animals lay a single egg which always hatches into identical triplets?  Bizarre. I also saw an Agouti doing the dishes.  If doing the dishes in Utah was this much fun, I'd probably do it more often.  Probably. 

We see these crazy ugly vultures everywhere. Here they were tearing apart the corpse of something extremely smelly and disgusting. 

The outside of a blue Morpho butterfly.

We saw bunches of these little guys on a little walk we took in a stream in Bribri.

I'm pretty sure my kids are more afraid of ants than they are of crocodiles. They will throw sticks at a crocodile (and have), but if anyone claims to see an ant, they all start crying and run away.  The blasted things are mean. We believe this is a "bullet ant", named that way because their bite supposedly feels like a gunshot. This one was about an inch long. 

A living sand dollar. We found thousands of these at Playa Negra in about waist deep water.

We took these next photos at Cahuita National Park, and most of the animals were right at the entrance to the park on the beach.  Honestly, anyone were coming to Costa Rica for a week and wanted to stay in only one place, I would recommend Cahuita.  You can see monkeys, howlers, iguanas, caiman, raccoon, sloths, and I'm sure there is a lot more. 

The caiman that the kids (and Chad) threw sticks at. 

We think this is a male Howler monkey because he was all alone, and Howlers usually travel in packs.  The male Howlers are only allowed to live in the family until they are about 1 year old, and then they get kicked out. Poor guy. He was super cute.

Feeding the White Faced Capuchin bananas. There were probably 15 monkeys in the trees right around the kids. 

An adult Howler near the entrance to Cahuita.

This crazy parrot was right near the entrance to Cahuita.  He didn't seem to belong to anyone, and freely roamed the trees and bushes, but he definately seemed trained.  He said "hola" and did this hillarious laugh that made my kids giggle like crazy. 

This is what he does when he says "goodbye". 

A cooking lesson, a dance class and some lessons in English and Spanish.

Meet our friends Samuel and Maryuri (pronounced Marjory).  We met them at church and they have a relentless way of encouraging us to hang out. It has been fun to be with them at their house, watching them and helping them cook.  And then they insisted that we dance.  Samuel is trying to learn English, and Chad has been studying his Spanish, so they sit together and talk about a wide array of topics, from how much did our house cost, to "como se dice poop?".

Maryuri works at the Dole banana plantation, and they live in the nearby town of Bananito Sur.  Incidentally, they hate bananas.  Maryuri says that her group at work packs 2 freight containers (the size you see on trains and semi trucks) each day.  They have an awesome little house and yard with a great garden and 3 pigs.  They are giving and always seem to be inviting someone to their home to eat... including us. The first day they invited us over to their house to eat, they served Chicharones or fried pig skins, that Samuel cooked on their outdoor stove on the back porch.  I was very worried that my kids were not going to eat it, and that they would offend Maryuri and Samuel.  I shouldn't have worried.  Every one of my kids liked the pork rinds, even my picky little Ella. Maryuri makes amazing cakes from scratch, and of course the kids gobbled that up too.  I think they really like our kids. Samuel always asks if he can just have one of them.  But not Violet, she is "!tremenda!". This last Sunday, Samuel and Maryuri invited us over for lunch (arroz guacho con chilote), and then we invited them over for dinner at our house (fish tacos with seared tuna). It was fun to spend the whole day with them. 

Maryuri made this delicious cake for us, and even let me have a copy of the recipe.   She let the girls stir the batter and lick the spoons from the sweetened condensed milk.  They loved it.

Samuel and Maryuri couldn't believe that Chad and I don't like to dance.  They just wouldn't accept that as a possible reality.  They taught us a few steps and then showed us how it should be done.  Their stereo was SOOOO LOUD!

Sorry for the shaky videography. Michael was doing his best with my phone's camera.  

Samuel loves Michael Jackson videos, and showed the kids a few. This is Violet hiding her eyes during Thriller...

A lesson in What to eat in Puerto Viejo


Eat this....

The delicious "Mariscos" dish from Mopri.  It is so good we've been there twice and ordered the same thing it is a selection of mussels, clams, calamari, octopus, fish and shrimp in a Caribbean broth. Soooo good. 

Don't eat this.  My quest to eat authentic Carribean / Tico food went too far this time. We sat down at the crowded little Soda, and the waitress said, 'We only serve soup'. And I thought, 'well that must be some really good soup'. It did have a nice flavor, and we did eat most of the veggies and a little of the beef knuckle, but we couldn't even get Violet to try the chicken feet or boiled pork skin. That's where she draws the line. 

Eat here.  Bread and Chocolate was excellent. We loved everything we tried, including the Cayenne pepper chocolate truffles. 

Don't eat anywhere in Manzanillo.  We chose to eat at the biggest soda in town, right out on the main corner.  It was the least dodgy looking place available. (That doesn't mean it wasn't dodgy looking ... just the least dodgy looking.)  When they brought out our meals, the cheese that came with the girls spaghetti was crawling with little white worms.  

Definitely eat at Pita Bonita.  This is another place that we had to eat at twice.  Their hummus is so good I could cry, with fluffy pita bread that they bake themselves.  I wish I had the self control to have taken a photo of the food before we devoured it... but it was so beautiful we just dove right in.  The owner is from the states and her husband is from Israel. Her little girl, Sky, sat with us and shared her toys with Ella and Violet.

Lamb kebabs and really wonderful french fries.

Hummus pita.

Fantastic bowl of used-to-be-hummus.

Life lesson: Chad really doesn't like to hike.

I have known this for some time. When I was 7 months pregnant with Ella we hiked up Timpanogas, and I'm positive that Chad complained more than I did. But I thought I would give it another go in Manzanillo, since we were all sunburned and didn't want a regular day at the beach.  I should learn that even on a good day, Chad doesn't like hiking.  When he is sunburned and has to carry  a wiggly 2 year old up a muddy path, he hates hiking. Nevertheless, we got some pretty photos. Oh, and the wormy cheese for lunch after said hike did not go over well either. Someday we will laugh about it.

I love these very much.

One of these little hermit crabs pinched on to Michael's hand and wouldn't let go.  Michael started screaming his head off.  We tried putting the crab in water, and on the sand, and were in the process of trying to pry the claw open with a pocket knife when the crab finally let go. Michael said, "Why would it do that? I was just about to let it go!"

This isn't a very good picture except that it shows that the water in the river was a dark reddish brown color. We're not sure why. Michael was convinced that it would turn the whole ocean brown eventually. 

This is how they snorkel.  They were so excited to see some little fish. 

It was a bit of a weird week. The sunburn kept us away from beaches in the heat of the day, but we still saw plenty of awesome stuff. Even staying in to do the dishes has been pretty exciting. But I was a bit homesick this week. Back home my dad had surgery to remove a non-cancerous tumor that has been pushing on his brain. I hear he is home from the hospital now, and recovering well, but I miss him and my mom this week.  Why has no one invented a teleporter yet?


And now, some lessons in awesomeness... Pay attention!

Brawlin in the rental car to a sweet overlook in Bribri.