OUR COSTA RICAN ADVENTURE

19 March

Monday - back to school after a fun weekend with Dennis & Debbie.

Tate stuck a star sticker on the wall for Brice telling him that if he misses her while she's gone at school then he can look at the star and it will make him feel better. These are the most precious moments of parenting.

After we sent Tate off to school, Brice, Dennis, Debbie and I ventured off to Beisanz Beach (a favorite of the locals). A taxi that we had arranged the night before arrived promply at 8 am - I find that the taxi drivers are very punctual and for the most part the rates are very fair and consistent. And only rarely do we ride in a taxi that's not been immaculately cleaned. A surprising number of taxi drivers are from other areas of the country, they are only here for the tourist "high season". Most of them are missing their families in other areas, generally down on the overdevelopment of the area, dangerous traffic, and poor condition of the roads. This taxi driver, Miguel, was local and he was able to point out three two-toed sloths and a Titi monkey on the drive down to the beach (who needs a guide in the National Park, when you've got a good taxi driver, right?).

Biesanz Beach is pretty small, clean, and absent of souvenir vendors. Brice brought his swim ring and was content to float and drift around in the gentle swells. For the most part it's a protected bay, and the waves only pick up a little bit with the rising tide.

I did feel a bit guilty swimming around in the ocean knowing that Tate was working hard at school. One of the bridges between Quepos and Paquita (the town where Tate's school is) is closed now as a new bridge is in the final phase of constrution. Nobody knows when it will open up, (supposedly only days, but days easily turn into weeks here). The detour for Tate's school bus is an additional 15 minutes (each way), so the bus picks her up now at 7:00 am and she returns home at around 1:15 pm.

As soon as Tate got home, we had to say good-bye to our friends Dennis & Debbie who were on their way to adventure in the highlands of Monteverde.

It was so great to see them.

20 March

I thought I should make an honorable mention to our beloved supermarket, Super Mas. Now while it's not Berryvale, it has nicely met all of our needs while we've been here. A favorite morning pitstop is at their in-store bakery for an "arrollado con pasas" (try saying that 3 times very quickly). Brice is also a juice box addict; and I should note here that will be making dentists appointments immediately when we get back to Mt. Shasta (and for anyone looking for a great pediatric dentist, we've found a dentist that we love in Medford).

21 March

The long awaited "pinata candy fairy" finally arrived to take the pinata candy away and deliver a more teeth friendly gift. Tate got a fancy headband for her hair and Brice got a coconut that's been made into a purse to carry his collection of coins. Brice is quite obsessed with his money to the point where he wants it on the table next to him when he's sleeping. I even find coins in his bed in the morning.

22 March

Brice and I had to go and buy Tate a hula hoop to bring to school next week, so we checked out the toy store for the first time. Now "toy store" is a loose descriptor, there is so much overlap in inventory from store to store so it's a bit arbitrary which one to pick. Let's just say that this one had the biggest toy inventory, and we did indeed find the hula-hoop. We also took the opportunity to talk about Brice's upcoming birthday and we even went so far as to begin planning a party for our return to Mount Shasta. Three years old so (according to family rules) that means he gets to invite three friends to his birthday party. Here's a picture of Brice at the post offfice (correo) mailing off his invitations.

23 March

This morning Brice and I stepped into one of our favorite cafes to grab a couple of banana muffins for tomorrow's breakfast. While at the counter I heard someone ask, "are you from Mount Shasta?". After a double-take, I realized that it was Jasmine, who we had met through Shelby back home. Jasmine had known that we were living in Quepos and had been on the lookout for us. It was very fun to bump into a familiar face several thousand miles from home.

Later that day we bumped into Jasmine again as she was awaiting a bus to head to the Carribean coast. The kids and I were out and about picking up some dinner and a few things at the farmers market. The market sets up on Friday afternoons so there are a few vendors open for business. It was a beautiful time of night right at sunset. The market is on a street right on the breakwall where at high tide the ocean is right up to the wall. So after we picked up our pineapple and bananas we watched the pink sun sink into the ocean before heading home.

24 March

Saturdays are special because we don't have to send Tate off to school. We give her the choice of what to do and today she was interested in going to the beach.

We hauled up our magical staircase to the bus stop where we met a family who had just arrived from Vancouver and were going to the beach for the first time. We filled them in on the options and they decided to follow us as we seemed to appear to know what we were doing and where we were going. In any case we got off at the first bus stop which drops down to a small beach oasis. Our friend Mari sets us up beachside with several chairs and a generous umbrella (shade for us is absolutely essential). Mari has a dog that follows her around occasionally stops by for a rest in the shade.

As this was a weekend day, the snow cone guy was doing brisk business, and we were happy to oblige when he parked himself right in front of us. He rattled the flavors off in spanish and Tate understood everything he said; and overrode my order of "fresa" (strawberry) in favor of "naranja" (orange).

And alas, I coudn't resist taking a shot of Brice peeing into the sea.

After a tired afternoon we popped in a movie (in English, a rarity): Sesame Street's "Follow that Bird".

25 March

Dad arrived this morning, after Brice had woken up but before Tate was up. He had spent the night in San Jose and had gotten on the first plane to Quepos. Apparently he was the only passenger on the flight.

The kids we excited to take Dad to Biesanz Beach, so after the ceremonial unpacking of Dad's bag (which usually contains all sorts of surpises and goodies) we quickly packed up and headed to town to fetch a taxi. Dad had brought down the kids' snorkel sets which they were both very excited to use. Those darn masks never fit right, but the snorkel and fins are sure fun.

We enjoyed sharing the beach with more locals than tourists, and appreciated how grand the voyage to the beach on a Sunday is for many families. Most families bring a TON of stuff and a TON of food, which makes our puny load of P&J sandwiches and two towels for the four of us seem entirely inadequate. We enjoyed watching an impromtu game of futbol (all ages, from 3 to 30) and we met a brand new Tico baby, Justin, in the admiring arms of his grandmother. Grandmothers play a very important role in Tico families; rarely do I see a baby out and about with only it's mom, either the baby is home with Grandma or Grandma comes to town to carry or help with the baby.

We spent the afternoon at home: Brice napped, Geoff napped, Tate did some artwork, and Mom did some reading. As we missed out on getting groceries today (the market closes at noon on Sundays), we opted to go out to dinner. The kids picked sushi, so after a swim session we headed to one of the two sushi places in town. What I failed to get a picture of is what the kids dressed themselves in. They insisted on wearing their party-est party clothes; fluffy dress for Tate and vest and tie for Brice.

The owner, waiter, and sushi chef (same guy) was a bit surprised by the formal attire, but ran with it as he returned to our table with a bandana fashioned around his neck as a tie. Tate had developed a fondness for waiters and had brought with her a hand-drawn masterpiece to bestow on our waiter. The picture was a coloring of a fish, with was altogether very appropriate. The waiter was charmed and jokingly asked if he could make sashimi out of it?

It was all you can eat sushi $14/each, kids eat free; such a great deal and what great sushi. Yum. We were all so very full after that meal. We'll definitely go back there again.