Monday, January 26, 2009

Friday, January 23
As we headed out the door at 6:30am, Kaz’s bus was going by the house. Kaz waved it down to see if he could get his card. The bus driver stopped, opened his window, and told Kaz he had left his card on the bus. Kaz ran on, got the card, yelled goodbye to everyone, and jumped off.
Our flights down were uneventful, and this time, our luggage arrived with us. A gentleman named Leslie who has three children studying at the Cloud Forest School picked us up at the airport, allowed us to stop at the parrot garden he introduced us to when we had visited last September, and delivered us to our house. The first 3 hours of the drive were pretty easy. we were not stopped at any of the checkpoints and only came upon one bridge that was out
Now, I am no stranger to dirt roads- my family’s home in Wellfleet, MA has a dirt road across from it and another behind it. Heck, the town is still full of dirt roads, and for about 40 years, I have walked, ridden my bike and driven on them. But, the last 45 minutes of the trip today from the airport in San Jose to our house in Monteverde was on a dirt road I can only describe this way: Imagine you have a washboard and you bend it into a soft “W” shape. Then bend it in half the other way to make a hill with 45-degree slopes on both sides. Then, take big globs of rubber cement and randomly plop them onto the washboard and stick big rocks on the cement. Then, take a Matchbox car and drive it up one side of the mountain and down the other. Did I mention that it is dark and there are no streetlights and rabbits, cows, dogs, and cats run across the “road” when you least expect it as you negotiate the hairpin turns, and that there are high cliffs periodically to the right with no guardrails?
Somehow, we made it to the house by around 7:00pm. It really does get dark here at 6:00 every night nearly year-round, and the sun comes up at 6:00am nearly every day. No need for sunrise and sunset charts!

Thursday, January 22
Kaz had a really nice send-off, including receiving a 2-foot by 1-foot card signed by around 50 of his friends. Of course, he left the card on the bus. Dave’s parents both came by to say goodbye tonight. Dave gave me a wonderful send-off, too, but I won’t say anymore than that for fear of entering the “too much information” zone…
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  1. nanaJanuary 28, 2009 at 8:31 PM

    Hi, you two! We love your observations. Lots of laughs for US but not so funny for you. But it sounds like you are keeping your sense of humor alive so far.I hope you can find another place to live soon.At least there have been some highlites like rainbows, farm life and hikes. Sounds like a good distraction from magnet programs. It's great that Pat can see what you are doing; how long will she be there?

    As for your wild ride up the hills, Derek and I and the Williams can relate to that. When we first went to Costa Rica, we had 20 miles or so of washboard en route to Jose' Antonio Park where we had hoped to live with the monkeys for a week. If we had gotten a flat tire, no one would ever have found us. We got to our minimalistic cabins just as darkness was falling- like you said- at about 6pm. I wanted to go straight down to the beach but the other 3 were intent upon getting the key to the lock box (very primitive style, as I recall)which entailed a tiring walk up to the office at the top of the hill. I went to the beach just in time to catch some birdwatchers with their cameras set for the sun's flash. All night I was sure I heard monkeys up in the trees, but as you,too, discovered, it was insects singing. It took us a few days to find the squirrel monkeys swinging through the high branches.
    As for things here, it is icky with ice and rain as I suppose Dave has already told you. I'll check in again soon. Love, Nana

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