It's Getting Close! Yea!

Our house is nearing completion and we are anxious to get in.  My smarty daughter exclaimed, "This will be the fastest house built for John and Diane Franklin!" "Well" I tell her, "It helps when I don't accidently burn it down when it is halfway completed!"  If you don't know the story and want to hear it, just drop me an email, I will get back to you personally on that mishap!

I always wanted to have a yellow home some day.  Only in Latin American would I have the guts for

 such a bright yellow along with rusty red.  ChaChaCha!

The bamboo railings and balusters are supposed to be installed this week. Can't wait to see how that looks inside along the loft area looking down into the kitchen/living area. 

A new favorite food, Yucca Fritters!  YUM!
Typically yucca in Costa Rica is boiled and served mashed on your plate and you can add butter, salt
and pepper.  John was not a fan.  So I tried fried sticks of yucca, John said they were much better.  But the big hit was yucca fritters!  Absolutely fantastic!  If you can get some yucca, give this a try.  I guarantee, they are great!

Yucca Fritters

Peel off outer layer by slicing through tough outer skin down the length of the yucca.  Peel off skin.
Either grate yucca or put chunks of peeled yucca into food processor to make about 3 to 4 cups of semi-finely processed yucca.
Finely chop an onion and a sweet pepper or put into food processor
Put all in bowl
Add 2 eggs, salt and pepper
Mix well
Heat a good amount of coconut oil in heavy pan
Drop by small handfuls into pan, gently making them flat, gentle now, don't smooch!
Once browned on bottom, turn with spatula and brown other side
add some more coconut oil for the next batch.  Be happy you are getting your daily dose of coconut oil!
Serve with sour cream or ketchup.  I like sour cream and of course John likes the ketchup!

This waterfall is so far off in the distance, I don't even know how many miles away to guess it is.
 At every turn Southern Costa Rica delights.  It is a gorgeous area! 

Mr. Lizard keeps showing up around our rental house.  He is so well camouflaged that we often miss him.  When he runs he runs on his back legs, very exciting to watch. 

This Friday we take another "border run" to Panama.  We are going to a very remote border crossing recommend by a Facebook Southern Zone of CR group.  Hope to come back with interesting things to share. 

Adios!

May 30, 2014

Our house is about 6 weeks from completion. Plastering should be completed next week and painting started. Our builder prefers to plaster the inside drywall and put a special paint on to combat the mold and humidity from living in the tropics. He uses a greenboard where ever moisture is present, like in bathrooms and outside where water will splash up on the house, he uses cement board. Everything gets plastered over. Even our basement block has plaster, much more than we expected.

This is a sloth near our house, it was in a tree between the rental house and our new house. A worker told us that he has seen sloths here in Serenity about 6 times so far. But spotting sloths is very hard since they don't move very fast and blend in with nature. John would have missed it had it not been pointed out to him. He rushed home to get me and we got pictures. (Still no sloth crossing the road though.)

At a party someone brought Ceviche de Banano (green banana ceviche). Most common is ceviche made with fish. But this was a vegan ceviche and it was very tasty. So I asked Aldemar to find out who made it and could I get the recipe. He brought his sister Cecelia over and she taught me how to make Ceviche de Banano. This is a picture of us working in the kitchen. Aldemar stayed to translate and then I helped his niece with her English homework. It turned out to be a very interesting Sunday afternoon.

 

 

We mostly eat outside and have found it helpful to cook some things outside on the porch.  Here I am making pancakes on a Sunday morning.  At our new house we will have a kitchenette on our veranda so cooking out there will be easy.

Two weeks ago when we went to San Isidro many of the roads were closed in preparation for a parade celebrating Saint Isidore, patron saint of farmers. While at the bank sirens were blaring with a fire truck leading the procession right by the bank. Painted ox carts being pulled by decorated Brahma bulls were common along with horses, carriages, children with carts filled with produce, floats of agriculture displays, everyone dressed in traditional colorful clothing and more. This is a picture of one of ox carts and bulls. Costa Ricans love their parades, celebrations and holidays.

And finally but not least, as we were driving through a mountain neighborhood a pair of Scarlet Macaws came swooping down to our car and circling it. It was an amazing site. Normally we only see them high in the sky flying in pairs like 2 stunt planes, swooping, spiraling and making quite a spectacle; and sometimes in trees. The colors right in front of our windshield were vivid and the birds huge!! We got out of the car and a lady from nearby house came out to try to talk to us about the birds. Unfortunately she only spoke Spanish and our Spanish is very limited. It seems that she feeds them because one landed on a frame crossing her sidewalk to her front door. It allowed us to get near and take many pictures. As this one hammed it up for the camera the other stayed nearby calling from a tree along with many toucans flying back and forth. I've got to get back to this lady and find out how she attracts both macaws and toucans; somehow finding a way to converse with her. Oh how I wish we knew more Spanish! We are trying but our old brains keep forgetting all that they try to teach us!

 

May Changes

Afternoon of Heavy Rain

Now that the rainy season has started; which brings afternoon rains, we have stood amazed at the deluge of water a few hours of rain can bring down a mountain. We have never lived on a mountain before so this is all new to us.

The easiest way out of Serenity is crossing what has been a little river. But the deluge has seriously washed away the land bridge (tubes underneath to drain water) we normally drive over. Two afternoons of rain last week brought so much water down of what was a quiet stream, that the strong current washed away the road bed and left us with a difficult drive over it. And forget about driving over the stream during the deluge, the current is strong enough to wash a car down the river or at least cause serious damage. There is another way out going further up the mountain in Serenity and across the mountain top by the Community Center. But that road is VERY steep and washed out. It is supposed to be worked on this week to improve the drive up. Hopefully we won't have any emergencies and need to leave Serenity when it is raining hard because neither way out is safe right now in a heavy rain. We obviously need a bridge but not sure when that will happen. But no doubt, we need a new bridge before August when even heavier rains will come for 3 to 4 months.

 Before Picture--We can easily walk across the bridge, unto the rock and climb down to a little pool of water below the falls for swimming.

After Picture--This is what happens to the river after a few hours of hard rain.

  Look for the little bridge in lower left corner!  No swimming today!

This is the "lazy" stream crossing after a hard rain.

  You can't really get the feel for the torrent of water it has produced by looking at the picture. 
We couldn't drive across until the next morning.

House Update

The stairways are constructed in our new house so I got to go upstairs for the first time this past weekend. It is going to be a great area for guests. It is exciting to think about many of our family and friends visiting Costa Rica and us. Don’t make plans to come until after the holidays though unless you really like rain. The rainiest months are September, October and November. That leaves December as a month of transition into the dry season but really...do you want to travel at a time of heavy holiday traffic and high air-fares? Best to wait for January through April. I am liking this May weather also, it is cooler but you do have rainy afternoons.

 That whole upstairs area is for guests!  I had told John for me to be able to move to Costa Rica,

 I had to have a guest area.

All the "green" should be plastered or this week. The house will be stucco. 

Mangoes, Mangoes Everywhere!

This is the high season for mangoes in southern Costa Rica. They grow up and down our mountain road, really an exciting sight to see. The market has them pretty cheap too. I didn't know there are different types of mangoes. The smaller mangoes are the sweetest and less fibrous. What to do with all these mangoes...? Fruit smoothies, tomato salsa (a chopped mango adds a nice dimension), mango salsa for fish (delicious!), jam, salads and more. Never has my kitchen been so filled with tropical fruit. I also chopped and freeze all types of fruit for frozen fruit smoothies, makes it very much like sherbet.

Diane with a new friend, Jaden, one of our builder's daughters.

Water Apples

We have water apples galore on our property. There are so many falling to the ground that it smells like vinegar standing on the veranda! Water apples are very popular here, I will have to ask what they do with them. We really aren't fond of them eating them like an apple as they are soft in texture. They would be good in smoothies and would like to try making water apple preserves.

We had a green banana ceviche at a party. It was amazing. I really need to get the recipe for that! It reminded me of potato salad! I put Aldemar on the hunt for the recipe.

Relearning Nature

Trees down here behave very oddly to someone that hails from Michigan. The fruit trees often have 2 or more crops and some trees, like the mandarin lemons, bear year round. Leaves on some trees fall off only to be replaced the next week! We have seen orange trees with new blossoms that are also producing fruit of all stages, some of the fruit near maturity. There is so much to learn about nature in Costa Rica. Since we love nature, it is exciting for us to discover new things about it.

Rainy Season Approaching

The rainy season has started slowly and will build so that by September, October and November we will experience lots of rain. Right now the vegetation, rivers and ground are being replenished from hardly any rain for the past four months. Some Costa Ricans, (mostly just those who have been to the States) sometimes call the rainy season “winter” but that just seems odd to me. Days that still reach into the 70s to 80s can't be “winter”. I'll stick with “rainy season”. Currently we have mixed cloudy/sunny days with periods of rain but haven't had a full day of rain yet. The further you get away from the mountain the more likely to have sun. Sometimes we can we look out into the valley from our new house and see sunshine way out there in the valley and other mountains.

House Construction

Our house is about 2 months from completion. We have picked out most of the lighting, tiles and fixtures. Still working on kitchen appliances. This is the third house John and I have built together and we both find it intriguing; it is an exciting process. I like the designing part and John is into the construction so we fit well together building a new building because it exercises our creative sides.

The upstairs level is for guests.  Bedroom, full bath and loft area. 

As I have mentioned before, many Costa Rican guys that work outside often bring their dogs to work with them. Pictured here is tired little Oszo. His owner, Victor, was walking back and forth taking gravel down the hill to a building site. Pictured with Victor is Odilio. Oszo the dog, finally got tired and needed a ride. Oszo follows Victor everywhere but has little legs. One Sunday, when Victor took his family to the ocean, Oszo got anxious for Victors return. So Oszo trotted up to our building site (Victor sometimes works for our builder) looking for Victor. After about 2 hours I said to John, “Lets go up to the house to see if Oszo is still up there because I haven't seen him back down.” Sure enough, Oszo was in our house waiting Victor. Awhhh!

Victor, Oszo and Odilio

Pacific Ocean Picnic

While driving home from San Jose a couple weeks ago, we had food in the car along with a blanket. We stopped at a popular roadside cliff overlooking the ocean for a picnic. The waves were very large that day, the picture doesn't really show how big they were. And we saw 4 Scarlet Macaws while there. It made for an lovely picnic.

Surfs Up!

Scarlet Macaws

Semana Santa-Holy Week in Costa Rica

Easter in Costa Rica

In many Spanish speaking countries Holy Week is also called Semana Santa.  Holy Week in Costa Rica is very special and an important time for families to spend time together. Most workers get off from Thursday through Sunday. Good Friday is celebrated with family and a meal. Some new Costa Rican friends (Christian and Charlotte) invited us to their family dinner for Good Friday.

Our new friends in Costa Rica at their family Good Friday dinner. 

 Christian's father built this house and all the beautiful furniture and wood work. 

We had noticed during a trip to San Isidro this week 'logs' being sold along the road and the farmer's market. These 'logs' were about 3 feet long and approximately 8 inches in diameter. Since we hadn't seen 'logs' being sold before we realized it had something to do with Semana Santa.

Turned out the logs are from palm trees. They are cut lengthwise and the heart of palm taken out to make a special dish for the family dinner. Christian’s mother made a traditional Good Friday meal with one of the dishes being made from heart of palm. The meal was very tasty. We really enjoyed the meal and time with their extended family.

We came home in the dark, driving through the mountains from San Isidro to Serenity. The amount of people walking home from family dinners was as heavy as the car traffic. John had to be extra cautious on the dark winding roads because around the bend might be a family on the side of the pavement.  They don't walk on the shoulder but on the pavement because there likely is no shoulder. We came across a family walking home with their two goats. Then as we drove through Pejibaye there was a procession with Biblical characters; Jesus, Disciples, Mary, Roman soldiers, friends and enemies of Jesus, etc. It was a very interesting day and evening.

During an outing one day, we kept seeing booths along a mountain road with wooden trays and bowls. I thought one of these wooden bowls would be perfect for fruit and veggies so we stopped at one. The produce in the wooden bowl ((I am sure they have a special name but I don’t know it) shows some of the lovely produce from our weekly trip to the farmer's market.

This little fellow wanted to come up on our front porch. He was about 1.5 feet away and almost made it up but became camera shy and took off.  He was about 15 to 18 inches long from nose to tail.   The more common Costa Rican Iguana has a heavier body; this guy was skinny and had a flap on his head that looked like a leaf.

Missing Michigan

Now that the weather in Michigan is turning warmer, I find that I have times when I long for Davisburg, my old house and all the loved ones we left behind.  It was really hard to miss Michigan when Northern America was consistently in single digits or below 0 degrees and getting tons of snow.  It was a good time to skip out on winter, what a brutal one it was!!

 

But once another beautiful day is underway, I have had my coffee, been able to sit and watch 6 different types of hummingbirds come to my feeder, I am cheerfully excited about our adventure here in Costa Rica.  There are certainly people I miss and can say, "Michigan, I do miss you."  (In the better weather.)

 

Tall House!

Our roofs are on and we are getting pretty excited. We never realized the house was going to be sooooo tall. At least there will be no one in back of us complaining we are blocking their view of the valley. We have the house situated far enough over near the tree line so no one will be building directly in back of us.  The two levels of roof are to allow warm air to rise and escape out the windows between the two roofs.  

 

Our builder, Christian Arce, did an amazing job on the basement. We are shocked he is going to all the trouble to put such a nice plaster and paint finish on the block basement walls. The basement arches were another big surprise how nice they turned out. On the weekends, when the guys go home, we can sit up on our veranda and enjoy our “home”. Tonight we saw three young toucans while sitting up there.

We are in the “hunting stage” for house fixtures and tile. Fortunately we think we have located enough choices that we don't have to drive to San Jose in the north part of Costa Rica. We thought we were taking a trip there this week but this Saturday found enough choices to satisfy our needs and canceled our trip to the north. We will drive down the other side of the mountain early tomorrow morning to look at a hardware (ferreteria) store down along the coast to make sure we are satisfied with our choices.

 

 

Enjoying the Sights

This past Saturday we were walking through a coffee farm inter-planted with banana trees. The bananas give the coffee plants shade. Thought you might like to see coffee and bananas growing on a lovely little farm in the mountains.

 Unripe Coffee Beans

 

John and I continue to pick mandarin lemons and make a lemon/orange juice drink. We often have visitors stopping here while touring Serenity for our “lemonade” refreshment. The lemons grow wild and we get oranges from Aldemar's brother down the road. Yum! No coke please!

 

Almost Three Months

We are almost going on three months of living in Costa Rica and life here is very good. This is the dry season and every day is like summer reaching around 85 in the sun for a few hours. In the shade it is cooler; very lovely usually with a nice breeze. We wonder what we will feel about the rainy season. I have talked to many Norte Americanos and Costa Ricans who say their favorite time of the year is the rainy season. I will have to see for myself, can't imagine saying that.

We went back to Aldemar's boyhood swimming hole this week. It is a lovely place in the river with a waterfall, rock ledges and cool flowing water. Both John and I find we like it better than going to the ocean where it is hot, sandy and the waves turn the water murky. I know we aren't in the majority and “paradise” to many is sandy beaches and blue ocean waters but we like the cooler mountains; it is plenty warm enough here for us plus the water is clean. We can also swim in a smaller pool under the falls in the river right next to our rental house if we don't want to drive a mile to the larger swimming spot.

 

Swimming Hole. Bottom is all rock so it is very nice for walking.

 

Off to Panama!

We had to travel to Panama this week to renew our passports. Every 90 days visitors have to leave the country. Although we have applied for residency and been accepted by immigration we don't yet have our official cedulas. We expect to get our cedulas in the fall, takes about a year after acceptance. A cedula is Costa Rica's official certificate that you are now a resident, (not a citizen), but accepted as a resident. But immigration and motor vehicle departments don't operate by the same guidelines. So to keep our drivers licenses and auto insurance current we have to go out of the country and have our passports stamped. Even banks won't wait on you if your passport is overdue the 90 days. Once we have our cedulas we don't have to leave every 90 days.

Crossing the border to Panama was very laborious. It took about 3.5 hours to finally get over the boarder and on our way to the city of David. That was 3.5 hours at the boarder, on top of 2+ hours driving down there.  Our builder, Christian, came with us so we had an experienced Costa Rican help us. There were so many windows, applications and fees to pay. Get this stamped, pay an exit fee, fill out this form, go to this window, buy this stamp, talk to this person, get your picture taken, get your car fumigated, etc.! It is really crazy!

 

For those going to Panama, there is a new exit tax, $7.00.  They only had one person collecting for everyone wanting to cross, even babies.  Took 1.5 hours to get through that line. You can pay this tax ahead of time at Bancredito.  Not sure where you will find one but that would save you a long line if you can find one before you get to the boarder.  Maybe one in a city near you.  We will look beforehand next time for that bank. 

 

Panama Border Crossing

Not to worry my loved ones, but I got to feel my first earthquake while at the border. John and Christian didn't feel it because they were standing in another area. I was sitting on a very large heavy cement bench and was wondering why it was moving. I heard some people in CR felt the tremors also. To put your mind at ease, where we are living is not earthquake prone, hurricane prone or any volcanoes.

Once away from the border of Costa Rica & Panama, Panama was lovely; shopping was nice and we had lunch at TGIF. Yep! The franchise restaurant. Christian said they really don't care for many of Panama's independent eateries so we went safe.  Didn't care for the border, it seemed really dirty, noisy and too many trucks. 

Update on the House

Christian says he hopes to have our house done in 3 months from this point. It is exciting to anticipate moving in. We are getting to the point where a lot of decisions will have to be made. Won't have any trouble finding tile, (tile is a big thing in the tropics) but light fixtures aren't meeting my approval so far. Got to keep looking...

Christian's brothers are cabinet makers so will work with me on the look I want. Going for a more modern look this time. Our roof is more complete than this picture shows but this is what I have on my computer right now from a few days ago.