COFFEE, BIRDS, & BUTTERFLIES

Buenos Dias,

We are having a great time in Costa Rica. Above are a few pictures that show what splendor we see most every day! That is the house we are renting for the next 7 months. Wonderful woman named Laurel owns this and lives steps away in her own house, and she has been invaluable to us in so many ways. I also included two pictures of beautiful plants, and a picture of women selling fruit from a cart in downtown Heredia. The bird is a Blue Crowned Motmot. Many mornings this wonderfully colored bird is sitting outside of our kitchen window. I wanted to include more photos, but I am having trouble just aligning and posting these 6, I will do my best to post many more in the future.

We have done some traveling by bus, which is really an adventure. I am 6 feet tall, and the seats are made for people that are about 5’2!!! I have to sit sideways, and hope that I can get out without using a can opener and WD-40!! A driver took a turn rather fast and Deb was worried I would fall out of the seat. No chance of that, I was just hoping to get out of that seat by the end of that day!! I love the journey that we are on day by day, and these little things like seats being too small sort of add to the charm of it all for me.

I titled this, Coffee, Birds, & Butterflies because every morning Deb and I sit on the front porch of the house drinking our coffee and watching dozens of birds and butterflies doing their thing. And that is where I am going now, I hear the birds calling!!! So I will say adios for this post and Deb will take hold of the keyboard and put into words her thoughts.

We miss you all and are looking forward to the visits some of you are going to make to share this adventure in Paradise with us.

Pura Vida.

Hola.  I want to tell you about where we are living first of all.  The song by “Our House” sung and written by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, comes to mind each day when we sit out on the porch watching the birds and butterflies.  One of Laurel’s two cats joins us on the porch just before the rain starts.  Her name is Kitty.  Yesterday I was sitting out on the porch, Laurel was working in her garden, and I saw Kitty out near her in the garden.  I was busy working a puzzle so I wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on.  When I looked up, I saw Kitty walking toward Laurel’s house with a rat in her mouth.  Laurel often keeps the door to her studio and to her home open and so I see her quickly closing the studio and then her door to her house.  That cat was definitely going into the house to have at that rat.  Both cats are wonderful hunters.  The other cat is named Mutt.  Mutt doesn’t have much to do with anybody, not even Laurel.  She is only interested in Laurel when it’s feeding time.  They both also hunt and eat lizards we’re told.

We walk into the downtown of Santa Barbara almost everyday.  It is a pretty good walk down the mountain, very steep in spots.  We “meet the nicest people. People at the grocery store have gotten to know us as well as the cab drivers because once we get down there we are not walking up that mountain!  There are always cab drivers waiting outside the grocery store to take us home.  With the tip it costs about $2.00.

The people here are the warmest, most lovely people.  They have such good manners.  If we are trying to communicate with someone who doesn’t understand us and we don’t understand that person, usually they will find someone who does speak English to help us out.  However, they teach us, all the time. new Spanish words.  For instance, we got in a cab at the grocery store last Friday and said “hola” to the driver.  He asked us if we spoke Spanish and we indicated that only a little bit.  He said, with a smile and two finger gesture, “poquito.”   We carry around with us, the Costa Rican Spanish Phrasebook & Dictionary put out by Lonely Planet and it comes in very handy at times like that.  We were able to look up the word “poquito” and learned what it meant.  On Saturday we were in Heredia which, incidentally, is the sister city to Richfield, Mn., and took pictures of the ladies at the fruit stand that you see in the picture above.  Afterwards, Tim said ‘beautiful” and the young woman in the front said, “bonita” which we looked up and learned means “pretty.”   Those who have learned English are eager to practice speaking it so it is seldom a problem understanding each other.

Tim talked about the buses and the fact that that’s how we get around.  Most of the time the buses are crowded with people having to stand.  If someone our age gets on the bus, with or without packages, a young person will generally offer us their seat.  If a mom with kids gets on, they will do the same.  Very generous and kind.  We were sitting in the Central Park in Heredia on a park bench and a young mom came along with a couple of kids and some food and was obviously looking for a place to sit as the park was packed with people that day.  I realized what was happening (from all my days of day care) and ran over to her to offer her our bench.  We were ready to leave anyway.  This is what people do here.  They look out for each other.

In reading our book published by Moon on Costa Rica I learned that there is a University for Peace!  Imagine that!  They are “charged with the mission of global education and research in support of the peace and security goals of the United Nations and contributing to building a culture of peace. The 749 acre facility includes botanical gardens containing busts of famous figures, such as Ghandi and Henry Dunant (founder of the Red Cross).”  For those of you who don’t know, Costa Rica, years ago, got rid of their military and decided, instead, to put their money into health care and education.  What a novel idea!  In so many ways they are so advanced from the United States.  We could learn so much from these people and their values.

Tim just came in from the porch to report to me how many raptors he has seen floating the air currents above us.  That’s a daily occurrance.  Hummingbirds will come within 6-8 feet of us because of the flowering shrubs in front of the porch.  They are beautiful.

Each day (almost) it rains even if it’s for five minutes.  Most of the time it comes anywhere from 1:00 P.M.-5:00 P.M.  Sometimes we will get downpours that will last for an hour, other times we will get showers that last longer or, like yesterday, we got a shower that lasted for about 5-10 minutes.  We have experienced three days without rain at all since we got here.  We can see the clouds moving in  when it’s getting ready to rain.  They seem to be down in the valley below us over the city of Escazu.  Sometimes they are so thick that we can’t see the city at all.  Then it rains, it clears up and, at night, the city is so clear that we see all the lights which sparkle, unlike anything we’ve ever seen.  They literally twinkle-they aren’t just there.  They move.  It’s amazing to see.  We look at them every night.  Many nights it is so clear that we see the lights all the way up the mountain behind Escazu.

The pictures above show these beautiful colored plants.  The one above the women at the produce stand is of torch ginger, the other is (next to the produce stand) beehive ginger.  We went to the Arc Herb Gardens which is where we got those pics.  We had an amazing time there.   My sister would love it!  There was bamboo growing probably 60-80 feet in the air!  So many herbs and flowers and they mark everything with what they can be used for.  It was a gorgeous place!

I have to mention that we received bad news last week about our friend and veterinarian, Dr. Oakes,  passing away after a six year battle with cancer.  He was a wonderful person, father, husband and friend to so many, including our beloved animal friends.  We were heartbroken to hear of his passing and we wish his family our sincerest condolences.  He is so missed by so many.

We have had problems with our computer due to shoving it in the overhead compartment on the planes down here but Laurel gave us the name of her computer guy, Ken, who, on last Sunday, after he and his family went to church, he came by and picked up our computer, took it home and fixed it up for us.  He also educated us on how to use  our laptop properly and how to take care of it so it will last.  He delivered it to us on Friday.  What a great guy.  It’s working great.  We had difficulties with our blog, though, which is why it took so long to get this out to you.  Hopefully, it will go smoother next time which will be in another week.  It is so fun to share this with you all.  Wish we could do it in person.  It would be fun to see all of you down here.

I think I’ve mentioned everything except the temperature down here.  It is generally in the 70s during the day and may get down to 60 at night.  Today, already, it is 73 at 9:30 and is supposed to be a high of 77.  Not bad.  Being in the tropics, I will tell you though, it is humid.   You have to keep windows open to keep from growing mold.  As long as you do that, there is no problem.

On that note, it is time for me to say adios for now.  We will have more to write about next week.  All our love to you.

Pura Vida