A Broad In Costa Rica

Now We Can Have Crop Failure

Then we could qualify for a bailout, like in the good old days when farmers got all the free money.

Overnight, Hal became the Intrepid Farmer. That worm workshop did something to him... he can't stop digging. He even constructed a rake. Because he couldn't find any really good quality rakes, mostly just those flimsy plastic ones and a couple of different hard metal ones. But not like real farmers use, apparently. Who is this guy?

For now, he has seeds germinating in little piles all over the kitchen and the patio. He hopes to turn this (photo left) into this (photo below right). Actually, melons grow pretty fast here. We had them growing in our first compost pile... now that was easy!

His farmer jones really got going with the worm workshop, but the seed was planted a-ways before that... right after our landlord "re-designed" the front yard, creating a barren field.

First, Mr. Landlord decided to cut down the two gigantic mango trees. Mango trees drop big leaves which are messy. They also provide fruit for us and the birds... but maybe he's not a tree person. Ok. It's his yard. So Antonio, our intrepid gardener, comes over and cuts 'em down... by hand with a machete. This just impresses the heck outta me. His picture should be in the dictionary next to intrepid.

My incessant whining about how the front yard becomes a swamp in the rainy season prompted some action. As soon as we left for Key West in February, a team of guys with shovels and picks appeared to dig up the front yard. Our housesitters, Barbara and Dave, had to live through that... They were excellent sports and sent me pictures of the progress. Yikes - what a mess!

By the time we got back two weeks later, every blade of grass and plant had been removed, the ground had been dug up and turned over, gravel was added under the topsoil at the drainfield, a huge pipe was added just below the surface to get all the rainwater from the house to the front wall into the new drainage system... and they weren't even near done. We had two to three guys at our house for another month! Here's a little video of the kind of excitement I'm talking about here:

While they were at it, the guys fixed a bunch of other stuff, too: painting the front of the house, fixing a broken door, repairing soffits. They were better at the other stuff than at drainfield repair because now there is now an actual pool of sewer water that bubbles up after a hard rain down near the wall... yuck is not a strong enough word to describe how we feel about that.

I don't think there's any fixing this save digging up the whole yard and starting from scratch. The basic problem is that the yard simply does not perc. It's a big mound of clay: impenetrable. We know this for sure after digging in it. Escazú doesn't have that nice volcanic soil like they have over in Heredia. Sigh. I'm not moving to Heredia. Especially not to farm.

Not that I really want to move, but the sewer in the yard has me back on the guesthouse management scheme. We'll see. I'm not making any major changes until it feels right... the universe just isn't opening any doors and I'm sick of banging knocking. For the moment. So we're hanging tight. Why not? Life is still good, we're not living in a tent. Yet.

"They're all in love with me."

I always know when Hal has a new tica girlfriend. He's so obvious. Take this BIG bunch of bananas for instance. BIG clue. Hal doesn't eat bananas. He doesn't even like them unless they are fried in buddah and served hot with ice cream and melted Bribri chocolate. Which he only makes when we have people to dinner...

So yesterday morning when he came home from the farmer's market with this huge bunch of bananas and no dinner party in our immediate future, I knew another beautiful tica - and 99% of young ticas are breathtakingly, traffic-stoppingly beautiful -  had stolen his heart.

The sad thing is he thinks the feeling is mutual. You know, because of his wit and (mature) good looks. Silly goose, that's why I love him. This morning, I mentioned the whole "rich gringo" thing in relationship to the reciprocal flirting thing. Bad move. He stared at me blankly. Denial ain't a river in Egypt... it's sitting across from me right now.

"No," he chuckles, recovering nicely. "Señorita Monica [he knows all their names] is in love with me."

Uh huh. As long as all this mutual love is at arms' length, I can live with it. Besides, he also came home with a bunch of half-dead flowers, bought from doña Carmen. Doña Carmen, who is neither young nor particularly beautiful, is his regular Saturday morning flower girlfriend. Seems all her flowers were pretty pathetic yesterday, but Hal bought some anyway, proving his heart is in the right place. Even though Feng Shui dictates not having dead flowers in your house, surely flowers steeped in so much love can only bring good energy.

So... I guess I'll go have a banana. Or two. And get used to having more of them around the house as long as Miss Monica is selling at the farmer's market.

If you have bananas fried in butter with ice cream and chocolate for breakfast, all those calories are burned off during the day and won't make you fat, right? Especially bananas steeped in all that love.

"What Are THOSE...

...por favor?" We utter these words constantly at the farmer's market. Then follow up with, "What do you do with it?" or "How do you prepare it?" There are so many odd, funny looking, sometimes inedible-looking, yet delicious fruits and vegetables in Costa Rica. This red item is a mamon chino - delicious! A kilo is 300 colones, about 60 cents. If something is grown here, it's practically free!

Jon over at Dos Colones has some great photos from his farmer's market with names and often directions. So many veggies, so little time.

Farmer's Market Haul

Jal went to the Farmer's Market today. He got all this for 7500 colones ($15). Melons are out of season and so were expensive today at 1000 colones ($2) a pop. Including 300 colones to rent the cart, 100 colones for each kid that helped haul the goods, 500 colones to park and 500 colones for the blind guy at the gate. The marimba band wasn't there today or they would have gotten another 500 colones!

El Rambutan

A few years ago, after dining at one of our favorite Key West restaurants, Ambrosia, we were presented with an odd looking little fruit. We were told it was a lychee, "a delicacy, delicious - please try"! We did and sure enough it was. They are also breathtakingly expensive in the states. We decided to stick to M&Ms and nuts for party snacks...

Happily, in Costa Reeeeee-ca, land of abundant fruits and vegetables, we've found lychee's relative, rambutan. They are beautiful, taste exactly like a lychee and at 500 colones ($1) per kilo (2.2 lbs), are breathtakingly affordable. Like all the other fruits and vegetables here!

At the farmer's market in Alajuela yesterday, the boys bought 2 kilos. Plenty of fiber, juicy, not too sweet, odd looking and cheap. These MUST be good for you! Except the nut: it's poisonous so don't eat it!

According to Wikipedia, it's best to eat rambutan sparingly - they are very YANG. Gotta balance with a touch of YIN... I'm thinking of serving it up with a little melon and green tea... Yummy!

Muchachos Grande

Wherever we go, everyone assumes the boys are ticos. And wondering why these great looking tico kids are dragging around those dumb old pasty-faced gringos... Pretty amusing.

It gets really hysterical when the local doing the assuming speaks rapid-fire Spanish to the boys, with a head nod toward the 'rents. Ryan gets it for the most part, and can answer back. Watching realization dawn that these boys are not ticos AND we are their parents... Well, it's confusing enough in the states. Here, there's another layer of assumptions to get thru...

Ryan is so good at Spanish these days. He and Hal are doing the translating for me and Mo. Mo just stands there with a stunned look on his face. The deer in the headlights. Like he never heard Spanish before. It's amazing... I thought it would be the other way around. But Ryan is plowing ahead, picking up the language. Mo knows more than he lets on, but he is loathe to do any lettin' on. Except in the food court.

And except the other day when he came home from school with a big grin on his face and told me how much Spanish he spoke that day. Apparently there is a new girl in school. She is way cute and only speaks Spanish. FINALLY. Mo's been pretty cheerful the last few days actually...

Saturday morning in Costa Rica. A cold rainy day; I'm wearing a sweatshirt and thick socks. I love this weather!!! It's not depressing when it rains here because everything is so green. GREEN like you've never seen it. Even when the sky is black, the landscape is just a slightly different shade of green. It's so beautiful. Like rain on the ocean in Key West.

Still no TV - we rarely miss it - so the boys play a little basketball between showers, Hal is taking them to the Farmer's Market in Alajuela, I'm answering emails, doing some Key West MLS research. A nice quiet weekend day. Lovely. iQué tenga un buen día! [Have a good day!]

Weekend of Ooohs and Awes

When you visit Costa Rica, be sure to bring your wallet. And a debit card. God made Costa Rica breathtaking; she didn't make it free. And before you return home to report on your visit, arm yourself with every synonym for fabulous, breathtaking, amazing, magical, unbelievable and incredible you can find. You'll need them.

Hal's mom, Joni, and his Aunt Sally have been here for a week. [FLICKR PHOTOS] We visited every tourist destination within an hour's drive that caught our eye: the Rainforest Aerial Tram, the Café Britt tour, the La Paz Waterfall Gardens (which also includes it's own Hummingbird Area and Butterfly House), and a weekend at the Viña Romantica. Nothing too expensive on its own (except the Aerial Tram); all worth every cent. We oohed and aaahed so much our jaws ache.

Joni and Sally went to the Butterfly Farm on their own and that was their favorite attraction. Hal and the boys and I will go one day, but we've been to George and Sam's magical  Key West Butterfly Conservatory... Could anyone do it better? I can't imagine.

My favorite by far was the La Paz Waterfall Gardens [FLICKR PHOTOS]. A local told us "not to bother paying to go in. You can drive past the park, down the road and see the biggest waterfall for free." We did that and the view was so enticing, the walkways we could see inside the park so perilously close to the falls, that we drove back and couldn't slap down our $25pp fast enough!

Thank goodness we didn't miss this! There's a swell hummingbird garden where you can see hummingbirds up close and personal. Hal got this swell photo, but lots more of feeders just as the hummingbird flew away. Hummingbirds are FAST. [FLICKR PHOTOS] Their colors are amazing, and the garden was swarmed. It seems we have basically created a Hummingbird McDonalds.  There were feeders everywhere filled with vials of sugar water. Are we creating a generation of hummingbirds that can't feed themselves in the wild? Will they be obese? I'm a little concerned.

The La Paz butterfly house, billed as the largest conservatory in the world, is exceptionally ho hum. Old and empty, I was not impressed. There is a gigantic building going up right beside the old one which we presume will be the new butterfly house. With butterflies in it.

But the main attraction here, the waterfalls, are STUNNING. The owners have created an amazing walkway that takes you up close and personal. We (the boys and Hal and I) found it thrilling. Isn't that funny? Who knew getting soaking wet from a real live waterfall - five, actually - could make a body so happy??? But there you have it. We were all giggling and soaking wet and just awed by the power of all that water flowing over all those mountains for all those thousands of years. Or at least since the last earthquake. Can't wait to go again.

The other place we will definitely go again is the Viña Romantica. Perched on a hillside (ok, everything is perched on a hillside) with only three rooms, it is a perfect little getaway with fantastic pizza. Costa Rica is not known for its pizza. We have two teenagers - good pizza is important. Renee, the owner and chef, is a pizza expert. She makes her own crust, breads, fantastic soups and bruschetta, and has a good wine selection (so says Hal, my designated drinker). We'll be back.

We made two other real finds this weekend: one is the farmer's market in Alajuela.  It's a market as big as the Big Pine Flea Market, brimming with luscious fruits and vegetables, local herbal medicines, flip-flops, chickens, cheeses, and all SO inexpensive. A kilo of tomatoes is 100 colonnes. That's 20cents to us gringos. We feel like our lives are on hold till we can get there this Saturday morning to shop!

The other find is a bamboo farm waaaaaay out in the woods  near the Aerial Tram. The owner, Brian, makes furniture out of bamboo that he grows right there. Totally awesome. We are furniture shopping for our new rental home and his beds, lamps, benches are very reasonably priced and lovely to behold! He had some bamboo stuff there, too, but I'm not buying any stuff. I've sworn off. At least for today.

Rainforest Aerial Tram was quite the ride, literally 120' off the ground, gliding silently among the treetops. Amazing. My regret is that we were there at 1pm... so most of the wildlife, birds, snakes and butterflies were enjoying a siesta. Next time we go, we'll be on the first tram at 6:30am! If you are going to go all the way out there and spend $55pp, why not get up early for the show?

Being in Costa Rica is like being on a movie set for Jurassic Park. You expect dinosaurs to come crashing thru the trees any minute. The scenery, driving thru the barrios, the rainforest, the green, the mountains, driving thru the clouds, the fact Brian CAN grow bamboo like this... it is all totally inspired. God had fun making Costa Rica. And we haven't even been to the beach yet! Everyone says not to buy property until you've seen all of Costa Rica because you want to live everywhere you go. True for us!!!

Joni and Sally left today. They are a hoot! In their 70's and ready for anything, they were excellent first guests. Showing them our new little habitat made us feel like locals - we're gettin' the hang of this 3rd world country stuff! Trying to make do without Triscuits and natural peanut butter, but look what we are getting in return. Seems a fair trade. Hasta mañana. Miss you guys, more soon - xoxoso'b