March 2014 updates

On Saturday March 15, 2014 Serenity Gardens Eco Village had their first community party. Serenity currently only has 6 residents but as a “Thank You” to Serenity's crew who make this a beautiful place we invited the workers and their families for an afternoon barbecue. We had around 50 people, good food and lots of smiles. Even with a language barrier we all had a wonderful time.

Serenity Gardens' first community party.  Look carefully in the background, many heads back there!

Of course the weather was good, it is the dry season after all!

Man! Can those guys cook chicken!!! They built a wood fire, put a very large kettle over the fire, added oil to the pot and when good and hot in went the chicken and spices. Wow! Us Norte Americanos were shocked! Now that is chicken!

Our Tico Chicken Cooks, they will be invited back!

Aldemar, Juan and Steve built a walkway across some rocks to easily get to the falls. There is a nice swimming hole at the bottom of the falls. I must admit it is a bit chilly. We like the hot springs more! I heard there are some hot springs somewhere around the southern zone but haven't been there yet. Northern CR has many hot springs, but then they also have many volcanoes!

 These falls are right next to our rental house.  Walkway built this week to make access easier.

Diane standing in the river, yes really in the river...

getting ready to dive!

Aldemar and his crew spent the week beautifying things around here in honor of our guests. They polished up the river trail to the jungle gazebo, adding gravel to the walking trail.

Our house is coming along. Basement is almost finished except for the sand plaster inside and stucco on the outside. First floor concrete is poured and steel beaming has started to be erected. I was shocked when I saw how tall the architect made the walls and ceilings; seems too tall to me but then warm air rises...

Our builders, some of them live nearby and are excited to have work.  Others come from San Isidro and live on site Monday thru Friday.  No cement trucks here, all cement mixed on site. 

 Back breaking work!

View of basement and new steel going up on top of first floor.

Update since I wrote about the party:

We have been getting return visits and receiving food gifts from the Ticos that attended the party. This is really neat! We have gotten plantain, a pineapple, lunch from Aldemar's mom, and a dessert when we stopped by to thank a family for the pineapple. Now that was interesting! We don't speak much Spanish and they don't speak English at all. Here we are sitting at their table trying to converse with the little Spanish we know. I loved it! I had wanted an adventure and we are getting it.

 

Aldemar has really added color and fullness to our lives by introducing us to many of his family. With family up and down this mountain road, we have been meeting so many of our neighbors through Aldemar. I don't think I have ever met such a happy family. They are always smiling! His mom and dad always talk away in Spanish when we pick up our milk twice a week; doesn't matter to them that we are often totally confused, smiling but shrugging our shoulders. They are just happy to see us and want to tell us stuff. And to be honest, we are happy to see them too!

Last night we were invited to a birthday party at one of Aldemar's brother's house. So interesting! We had a most delicious fish dinner, a special toast to the two who had birthdays with an unusual drink (can't even begin to remember what we were told it is called) and chocolate birthday cake. The cake was similar to what we would have in the US but the rest of the food and drink was typical Tico style.

We are enjoying being included in Tico events and making new friends.  Aldemar told us that for years this area has been depressed without jobs and now that Serenity is getting built "they are excited and happy that the Americans and Canadians are coming."  And once the village is built there will still be jobs with all the residents here wanting all types of work to be done.  I have been asked numerous times if I need a housekeeper.  Maybe when I am in my "grande" house.

Today Aldemar took us to his boyhood swimming spot. Nice waterfalls, rocks, and a huge swimming hole at the bottom of the main falls. Even John went swimming. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to take family and friends there! I will get pictures another time, we didn't take the camera.

Welcome Gina and Norm!!

Some friends we met through our farm came to visit this past week and pick out their own lot in Serenity Gardens. Mostly they stayed at OSA (the sister community) but did spend a night here so we could take them to San Isidro's Farmers Market and show them around. They love Serenity and didn't want to leave. So very excited! Gina and Norm are younger than us so they aren't ready to retire but this gives them a good goal to aim and plan for; they are hoping to build in 3 years. Since they know (much sooner than we did) that moving to Costa Rica is in their future they can plan and wisely move ahead.

Paradise Lost...Briefly

 

Toucans!

The front porch is where we eat all our meals and drink coffee so we get to see wildlife as it goes by. After having monkeys checked off my “must see at Serenity” list, next was toucans. I never knew what to listen for (to signal me they were near) until I got to see one while sitting on the porch. The best I can describe is they sound like a big squeaky rusty hinge or a child's squeaky swing although not irritating, actually a pleasant sound. We have seen them twice now from the porch and both times in pairs, calling to each other. I really like their sound, very tropical and different, it always reminds me of the first time we stayed in OSA. They are huge, colorful and very exciting to see. Check!!

Now Bring On The Sloths!

Paradise Lost

Briefly...

For family and friends left behind in the brutal winter North America has been experiencing, especially all of you in Michigan, (our home state) you might get smug on this one and go “ha-ha!” I understand the human spirit and many of you have endured one of the worst winters on record while I keep posting pictures of our perpetual summer vacation.  So here is your opportunity to be smug.

Two weeks ago I found a tick on my leg. At the time I figured I found it in time, not swollen with my blood or its head not too far into my skin, it was rather easy to remove with a bit of a tug. The area just showed a red spot similar to a mosquito bite and didn't itch or bother me for 2 weeks. But on Wednesday last week I noticed the little red bite was showing signs of infection, angry red swollen and traveling. I also wasn't feeling good and spent most of the day in bed. One eye the previous day started to show signs of a reaction to something, red and swollen. I managed to sit up long enough to research the internet (have minimal service at the rental house now, very minimal) and discovered many of my symptoms on tick bite sites; horrible body aches, fever, swollen red eye, loss of appetite and a very angry looking bite.

By the next morning it became obvious I needed medical help, I had to lay down and couldn't keep my head up. I haven't hurt that much with body aches since my 20s! Aldemar to the rescue, as always! What a blessing he is to have here! He escorted us to town to find a Farmacia to take care of me. We needed him to translate and find the best Farmacia for us. Step back into time, further back than the 60s, and you will get an idea of the place. (I could have gone to the hospital but really hated the idea and was grateful Aldemar said the Farmacia would take care of me.) Lots of wooden display cabinets with glass fronts and a back room examination room. I was seen by Dr. Victor and given a very powerful injection of antibiotic and pills to take home, all for $42.00. By that evening I was sitting up a bit on the couch, took a quick shower, asked for something to eat and slept peacefully that night. The next morning I was pretty good and by afternoon feeling excellent, no signs remaining except the leg wound; which is clearing up. Wow! Amazing care one can get at a Farmacia!

Hey, I know a new Spanish word: garrapata (tick!)

Basement

Our basement is coming along pretty good. Especially when you consider everything is done by hand. No cement trucks here, all mixing of concrete is done on site! They will be mixing and pouring that whole floor by hand and both main floor and top floor get concrete also.

John just called me out to the deck to try out my back machine.  I have compressed discs and keep my back healthy by exercising my lower back and neck.  Years ago he made me a machine based on the one I used in physical therapy to strengthen by muscles to keep the discs separated.  I have been without it since just before we loaded the container, just a little less than 3 months ago.  He finally got it back in operation on the front porch as it took some special engineering to set it up without the support we had in our basement in Davisburg.  Yea, my back is back exercising!

Picking Up Our Car, Going to the Big City

Our Sixth Week

We will be driving to San Jose on Monday morning to pick up our car, the Honda CRV we shipped from Michigan. We will stay in the area so we can meet with our attorney on Tuesday and do some shopping for things we can't find here in the southern region. One of the funniest things John wants to find are wooden clothes pins. All we can find are little plastic ones, made here in Costa Rica. It is rather odd when you hear two men discussing the clothes pins on the line. One of our part-time neighbors had wooden clothes pins on his clothesline and when John spotted them, he immediately asked Shannon where he got them...Walgreens in Texas, his home state. There they sit so proudly on his clothesline and every time we drive by, I want to snatch them off the line!!

We feel at times we have gone back to living in the 60s. Here in the southern region towns and stores resemble the 60s. Public bathrooms remind me of traveling when I was a little girl. Gas stations pump your gas. Costa Ricans make do with much less, much like it was in the 60s. No Fast Food Chains in the southern area. (One McDonalds 1 hour away) And we don't mind a bit that things are less here; it fits us well.

Serenity is Growing

Currently there are three houses. We rent one, Aldemar lives in another and the Octagon house will soon be occupied. We have another woman coming this week!! Currently I am the only woman around here so I am anxious to have her here. With all the men that work here, employed by Serenity and also the construction sites, I am greatly out numbered. The new woman's name is Diane! Imagine the confusion that will arise with that! “Oh, you're Diane? I saw John with a different woman just yesterday!”

We have three more houses under construction and a fourth to start in the near future. It won't be long before we have a neighborhood!

Our Basement and Foundation

Old Farmer's Fence Post in our yard

Epiphytes grow in trees and posts every where

 

Blossoms from a Water Apple Tree in our Yard.

It is over 45 feet tall, a beautiful tree.

 

One of our construction site workers

rides his horse to work.

 

 

 

His horse at our job site

 

Aldemar picked these bananas this week. That’s a LOT of bananas!!

  Good thing John now likes bananas, never liked them in Michigan.

 

And finally (didn't want you think we live everyday in paradise)...this spider dropped on John's head when we came in the laundry room door one night!!  That is a piece of paper to get size reference.  Glad it was him and not me!! 

Notes from San Jose
Tonight we are in a hotel room, have to stay the night here to take care of business tomorrow.  Picked up our car today, it came in prefect condition.  John knows how to pack a container right!!!

San Jose has all the modern stores and conveniences.  Actually we are in a suburb, called Santa Anna.  Even though you can find most things you want and need here, we will give them up to have the beauty and peacefulness of the southern zone.  TOO MUCH TRAFFIC HERE!!!
We are not city people and it drives us nuts!  So we will go back to lots of jungle vegetation and 60s towns because that is what drew us here.  I love to sit at our property (on weekends when the workers aren't around) as the sun is going down and watch the mountains and scenery turn to dusk.  I listen to the birds, hear the cows mooing on the next mountain over and watch them head in for the night, we heard owls last night, sometimes a howler monkey will call out and just enjoy the serenity of our new home site. 

Who Did We Use to Move?

I have been asked who we used to help us with our move to Costa Rica.  Kevin at Great Sunrises helped us with our shipping, both household and car, applying for our residency, opening a bank account, and much more.  If it is something you need to move to CR, Kevin is the guy.

We are very happy with his service and employees.  We highly recommend his company.

All our belongings came; nothing stolen.  Kevin set us up with a nice attorney to apply for our residency applications.  All the meetings with the embassy, police department, picture taking, etc. went like clockwork.  When interviewing different companies for the job we were told things that never even happened such as, don't bring any electronic equipment because it costs too much for import taxes and with another company not to pack our own boxes, they would have to do it all themselves and number each item.  We hated that idea, it would cost too much and we wanted to pack our own boxes.  As for import taxes, Kevin and his employees, helped us get our values claimed on items to very reasonable costs.  Mostly we used garage sale prices, what you would get for items in a sale. 

If you check him out be sure to tell him Johnny and Diane Franklin sent you, he does have a referral reward.  But that is not why we are recommending his company, believe me if there had been problems, we would not send you there.  Drop me a line too so I can follow up on it.

Web Site
www.greatsunriseenterprisescostarica.com

We Got Our Stuff!!

Hooray! We now are sleeping on a real bed, can sit on a couch, cook with enough pots and pans, have tools and many more things that make life easier. The biggest plus is the bed, no more air mattress! And now that we are off the floor we have discovered we are not cold in the wee hours of the morning. Ahhhh!!! That bed has never felt so good!

 

Our contents came (with delays at every turn; Detroit, New York, the Bahamas & Customs) on Wednesday. We were first told to expect our contents Saturday. Boo Hoo...Wednesday seems like a long way from Saturday. Each night extra on that air mattress was another slap in the face, or should I say slap on our backs? (Actually, our backs are doing pretty good. Tropical life agrees with us.)

We have found only one thing broken, a gallon glass jar, no big deal. We haven't found anything stolen (common from what we hear) and most boxes were never even opened. We heard that Brazil is really bad for things stolen from shipments.

Moving Crew—Thankfully Aldemar and two of his workers here at Serenity helped unload the truck. Although we paid for the 3 man crew that drove it here to unload, the extra guys got it done pretty fast and they appreciated that they made some extra cash.

Basement Dug!

The building permit was finally granted and we broke ground today, Friday, February 14^th. Happy Valentines Day!! John gave me a hole in the ground for Valentines Day!! Yahoo!!

The builder says the house should take 5 months to complete, turn-key. I am very grateful for this rental house but it will be so exciting to move into a house we designed that has the things we want. It is a little higher elevation than this house so a little cooler and has a stronger breeze.

Monkeys Came Back

We had monkeys in the trees next to the house again this week. There were bunches of them, too many to count. They eat leaves, flowers and buds high up in the branches and move along the river eating as they go.

Iguanas, the “squirrels” of Costa Rica.

Iguanas run out into the roads and they run fast!! We see them all the time although never have seen them in our yard or on jungle walks here in Serenity. Still haven't seen another sloth. I imagine they are in the trees around here but they are really hard to spot. On our CR tours last year, it took a wild life expert to point them out to us. Aldemar tells me he has seen Toucans around here lately, but I haven't. He knows more what to look and listen for. We did see a 8 foot long snake in the river the other day a on walk. But typically you don't see much of snakes. I used to see more snakes in the gardens at Rocky Gardens than we have here.

 

We have a routine now of going to San Isidro each Thursday for shopping and business. We come home with a week's worth of fruit, veggies, meat and fish from the farmer's market and breads from the La panaderia for under $40.00.

Internet?

Not yet, we are very unhappy to say. We can get a signal if we go up the mountain to our property but must pay for time on our netbook and Ipad. We can make phone calls up there also. No TV and Vonage phone here at the house. I read when I have time on my hands and we still go to bed early. John is thrilled to have “jobs” around the house now that we have our stuff. He fixes things, sets up things and all kinds of things now that he has tools. All in all, life is good and relaxing.

I went to pick up my shoe...!!

Second big spider in the laundry room!

Our day at the beach last Sunday

Oxen in our local town

Worry...A Waste of Time

Worry, a Waste of Time

When I was a kid, I remember a sermon where worry was described as a sin because that meant you weren't trusting in God to take care of you. Not sure where I stand on such a harsh pronouncement of worry but I do know that much of what we worry about never comes to pass. We FINALLY received our container contents, after countless delays, in Detroit, New York, the Bahamas, and finally with Customs here in Costa Rica.

Our Moving Crew

Aldemar (our favorite Tico) is in the middle in a stripped shirt, his Serenity crew to the right.

 

Imagine that John and Diane Franklin reduced their life belongings to fit in this truck!! 

I am so proud of us!

 

Here were our list of worries:

Although we thought we were going to avoid it, our container got caught up in the Holidays and three weeks were lost. The container never left Detroit for over a week and New York for 2 weeks after it left our house.

Freezing cold weather...would liquid contents freeze and burst causing problems with customs and our boxes leaking? (I lost a bit of sleep over that one.)

Stealing (many people told us how they were looted when they shipped.)

Breakage (Oh! The reports of breakage were horrendous!)

Customs finding questionable items and trashing our boxes looking for more.

Customs questioning what were we planning on doing with all the gardening/farming items and having trouble with it.

What if our contents got mixed up with another container (like mixed up babies in a hospital) and we were sent someone else's belongings?

As you can see, the worries were many. BUT I am pleased to say, we have only found one broken item and no theft. Most of our boxes were never even opened by Customs; we might have spotted 2 boxes out of almost 250! We aren't sure if they were opened or not. Almost all the boxes had our original taping still intact.

For Those Moving to Costa Rica...

I recently found out that I have some readers of this blog that are following it because they are planning a move to CR and want more information. For those readers here are some tips for shipping household goods:

• Choose a shipper that originates here in CR. Our shipper has contacts and inspectors that he selects personally and he followed our progress the whole way. Don't select a company from your home country.
• Pay extra for loading time. The allotted 2 hours is simply not enough to pack the container properly and secure the contents to prevent breakage. John packed our container for 5 days! We had to pay extra but because John packed everything so tight and carefully, we didn't have breakage. If you are just going to throw things into a container in the allotted time and not pack carefully, why bother? Sell your stuff and buy new once you arrive because it will likely be damaged.
• Wrap furniture and anything that can break thoroughly. We bought lots of bubble wrap, had Styrofoam, sheets, blankets, mattress covers and LOTS of tape. We couldn't believe how much tape we went through. We had friends picking up more tape for us even after buying lots, twice!
• Only ship household goods you don't want to part with because maybe they are sentimental or of good quality. We mostly gave our sentimental items to family but had quality household goods that we knew we either couldn't find here or it was cheaper to ship. Finding quality items in Costa Rica is hard, especially in the southern zone.
• Here is something we didn't do but only if we could do it over again! (Again? No Way! It was really hard and impossible without friends helping.) Anyway...try your hardest to figure out what you need right away and pay extra for boxes to fly with you, (we did do that.) What we didn't figure beforehand was to pack boxes that had contents we needed right away in the rental house while waiting for our house to be built. We didn't plan well on that and had to go through way too many boxes, finding maybe a few things in each box that we needed now. We have most of the boxes in storage and couldn't find everything we really need right now.
• When you ship household goods, you have to inventory the boxes and number them; which we did. We thought we had done a pretty good at this but have found we needed to be more specific with our personal column. We had a column for ourselves that the shipper and Customs didn't see and just deleted our column when we emailed them their copy. Their list looked more generic; such as “misc used kitchen items” or “misc. personal items” or “hand tools”, etc. If we would have done this in more detail we could have found items that we know are in the stacks somewhere, just can't find them because we didn't open up every box.

It is wonderful to have our belongings. Kinda like old friends showing up (actually having some friends show up would be better!) It was a odd feeling when the back of the truck was opened up and I recognized old blanket and old sheet wrapped around things. Strange how being without your “stuff” makes you REALLY desire it, even an old blanket can trigger a smile!

A few more of Serenity's workers. 

This is how they cut acres and acres of grass in

Serenity, by machete!!  But they are happy to have work that Ex-Pats bring. 

Monkeys At My Doorstep!! More Pictures

Big Surprise!

I stepped out on the porch to sweep it and noticed things dropping out of the trees about 30 feet away from the house. I have been telling John how much I wanted to see monkeys in our neighborhood. John has been apprehensive about monkeys in our yard, he feels all monkeys steal. I kept trying to convince him Howler monkeys don't steal; which are the type we would have. Stepping off the porch I got a big surprise!! Seven monkeys next to the house up in the trees, howler monkeys! Papa, Mama, baby and 4 others. We got some decent pictures also!

Our builder has put in our driveway and built the living quarters for the workers and set up the water supply from the mountain this week. The workers will be living on site for 5 months according to the builder. They have sleeping areas, kitchen, toilet and outdoor shower. Just waiting for the permits to be in hand and they are ready to go!

This the builders home for the next 5 months

I wanted to take a picture of all we bought at the farmer's market this week but thought you might be too jealous to enjoy seeing it all. Cooking here is pretty enjoyable, at least for now. Hope it remains a joy to have tons of veggies and fruit, fresh ocean fish, fresh chicken and grass fed beef to make meals with. It is so easy to be creative and make very tasty dishes. Yesterday I made a very delicious mango salsa for our ocean fish; amazing meal with delicious broccoli and fresh salad. So far we haven't found a restaurant with a fish dinner that good.

The past 12 years following Weston A Price and Nourishing Traditions has prepared me for cooking here. If you want to eat well in Costa Rica you better know how to cook from scratch, any foods brought in from other countries are expensive. And I am even still cooking for dogs! I make broth and meat scraps for Concinaero, a very nice black/white dog that lives nearby. Each day he comes by for a meal, just like “Tramp” in Lady and the Tramp.

John planting a banana tree on our property

 I have lots of dogs visit us but this one is my favorite.  Aldemar let me name her, I chose Lilly.

 

Loved the jungle the first time, had to go further on another.  This is in Serenity, in our little village.

 

Love, Diane