A Funny Thing Happened On the Way...

Es una problema!

Heading home today after my workout at the gym, the bus unexpectedly came to a stop in the middle of a stretch of road that runs alongside the river. We passengers all looked out the windows to see what the slow-down was and discovered that ahead of us a large limb had fallen across the road. Leaning down from the main trunk of the tree, the branches were spread all across one lane of the street with just room enough for small vehicles to squeeze under the bole hanging over other side. Until that limb was removed, there was no way our bus was getting through.

Students start walking as the school bus turns around

A school bus and several cars were beginning to stack up on the other side and I knew the same was happening behind us. As I sat there wondering what I should do to get home, someone rang the bell to get off the bus. With the doors now open I realized that once I made my way up the long hill ahead, the rest of the way home was pretty easy and although it was still a distance, I knew I could hike it with no trouble. So off the bus I went and began walking on the narrow shoulder next to the traffic as it crept along to slip underneath the limb. I glanced to my left and noticed a white taxi, one of the "pirate" taxis that are cheaper than the red ones, right beside me and it was empty.

"Señor," I said to the driver through his open window, "¿Disponible?" meaning, Are you available?

"Sí," he said, and I hopped in the back seat, thanking my lucky stars for the perfect timing.

We took our turn carefully negotiating the small opening and once past the traffic jam, continued on up the hill toward Santa Eulalia, chatting a bit in Spanish about the weather, always a safe subject for my limited language skills. You'll recall that Costa Rica uses no addresses, no street names for the most part and house numbers are rare indeed. As it turned out, this taxista apparently didn't know exactly where he was going for his fare. At the school near our home, he stopped and asked a couple of schoolboys where blah-blah was. Of course, I couldn't understand his question but he let me know that he had to turn around as he had apparently gone past his destination. But since he had saved me that long uphill hike, I was happy to walk the short distance home. When I tried to offer him some money for the lift, he said, no, no monies, instead handing me his card so I could call him directly for a future ride. And I think I will!

Dry hillsides in the distance

Our conversation about the weather focused on how dry it is right now. The hillsides are turning brown and our grass requires regular watering. But whoever said Costa Rica has no seasons just didn't recognize the kind of cycles that occur here. Right now, for instance, it's sugarcane-cutting season and huge fields of the tall plants are disappearing here in Santa Eulalia. On my solitary walk the other morning, I encountered workers with machetes, hacking away at the plants while a tractor stood by to cart away big metal cradles full of the harvest.

Gorgeous bougainvillea

Partly because of the dry climate, the bougainvillea is now in full bloom all over the neighborhood, a riot of fuchsia, orangey peach and pale pink. Our mango tree is heavy with fruit; we expect a bumper crop in a month or two. The avocado tree in the front yard is also showing its coming yield and unlike last year, I hope to be around to enjoy it in April and May.

On our Sunday hike this week we learned of another fruit in season, the Starfruit, a unique yellow oblong with parallel peaks along its sides. When cut crosswise, the resulting section is shaped like a star. The firm flesh is sweet tart and very refreshing. Marcial explained how to make a "fresco," or fresh fruit drink, by putting the fruit - seeds, skin and all -- into a blender with a bit of sweetener and some water and ice. Turn on the machine and voila! you have a delicious drink.

Starfruit in abundance

Marcial cuts up Starfruit as Bonnie looks on

Stephen's smile says it all

We retraced part of our steps from last week's "hike from hell," stopping at the pig farm to visit with the family that lives in the small shack on the property. 

A very humble abode for this family

One child was a cute little girl who spoke enthusiastically to Marcial and Seidy, although their rapid conversation was lost on me. However, I did manage to communicate a bit with the man who had a boot in his lap along with a big needle and thread. "¿Arreglar su zapato?" I bravely asked. With a big smile, he looked up and answered yes, obviously pleased that I was trying to speak Spanish.

As we started down the steep hill just beyond the pig farm, we stopped to watch some men trying to capture a boa constrictor, another chicken killer, by rousting it out of its hole. Their plan was not to kill it, they said, but just to move it elsewhere. The leader really wanted us to video his efforts but clearly it was going to take too long for us to stay and watch. Later Marcial told us that this man is a jack-of-all-trades,  catching snakes being only one of his many skills.

So we started off again down the trail but poor Bonnie took a spill on the powdery dirt injuring her knee enough to force her to turn back. She and Eroca headed off for smoother terrain while Marcial, Seidy, Stephen and I continued on, back down to the lovely little river. This time, however, we opted to walk on land instead of the riverbed but Marcial and Seidy's dog Blackie took a dip to cool off.

Marcial and Stephen enjoy the scenery

Stephen waits in the shade as Marcial hikes down

Blackie wades in!

View from the top

"Our" little valley

As we hiked through a beautiful secluded valley, we fantasized developing our own small community there. According to Marcial, it's the perfect climate and terrain for growing Plumeria; we could see a number of wild white Plumeria trees all over the hillside above us. In our imagined future, we would export Plumeria cuttings and make our retirement fortune as we relaxed in our quiet little valley by the river. Ah, Pura Vida!

A Last-Minute Birthday Bash

Perhaps it's in bad taste to brag about one's own birthday party, but I must. Besides, my friends here in Santa Eulalia organized the thing in about 24 hours so that has to be some kind of record right there and worthy of note for that reason alone. But since it turned into such a splendid party, I really must share the photos and a bit of the story.

It all came about, I suppose, because I kept gloating that I was able to keep up on the "hike from hell" despite it being the last day of my 67th year. So everyone knew my birthday was the next day. After our relaxing afternoon on Marcial and Seidy's patio, I made the short walk home (somewhat surprised I could still walk at all!) and not long after, I found an email from Sue saying, unless I objected, they were all coming to my house the next evening to celebrate my birthday. I was instructed to do nothing to prepare, assured that they would bring all food and drink.

Eroca and her outrageously delicious carrot cake!

For a natural-born hostess like me, these were difficult orders to follow but I did my best, heading to the gym early Monday morning for a workout then taking the 10:00 a.m. bus back to Santa Eulalia, where I spent most of the afternoon writing a blog on the previous day's strenuous hike. Marc and Eroca arrived around 5:15 p.m. with two cakes in hand and that seemed to signal the start of the party. Never short of anything to talk about, we entertained each other until a taxi arrived with Bonnie and Stephen and Chris and Sue, carrying plates of food and bottles of drink. When Marcial and Seidy showed up a little later, things were in full swing.

Sous-chef Stephen at work

Both Chris and Stephen are accomplished chefs who enjoy nothing more than whipping up something scrumptious in the kitchen. Chris had already prepared a special cabbage lasagna (I know it sounds strange but trust me, it was delicious!) and just needed an oven to bake it for an hour. Unbeknownst to him, my oven was awaiting a new lower element to replace a broken one so we had to resort to using the Broil setting on Lo. Chris must have felt like he was on Chopped on the Food Channel and had just been handed a pork roast with marshmallows to cook without a working oven! But he soldiered on and by using aluminum foil over the pan and setting it on a lower shelf, somehow it worked.

Meanwhile, Stephen was serving as sous-chef, cutting up the broccoli for the side dish and working his magic on a big salad with yummy chunks of mango mixed in. Seidy got in the act with her fantastic homemade tortillas while Eroca added candles to the cakes. Bonnie found a way to be helpful by tasting the icing!

The best tortillas you ever tasted

Bonnie shares icing with Eroca

Eroca, Bonnie & Seidy dish up!

Through the magic of the Internet, we even had virtual Layne at the party. Using Skype to Skype with video, he was displayed on the TV screen and we took turns saying Hi to him, giving him a running commentary on the evening's fun. It would have been wonderful to have him here in person but with his face on the big screen, we were able to share some of the pleasure by long distance at least.

Marcial and Seidy talk with "Virtual Layne"

Dinner is served!

Eventually, dinner was ready and we all helped our plates, ready to retire to the back patio. But not before Marcial took a moment to address the group, expressing for everyone our joy at being together and humbling me with very sweet comments about how much I am loved and appreciated by this great group of people.

Make a wish, Kat! 

When the cake was brought out - happily, a few candles short of my age! - I made my wish and blew out the candles as everyone sang the birthday serenade. It was a very special birthday, made even richer by all the Facebook birthday wishes I received, one I shall long remember as a perfect example of the Pura Vida world I've come to love.

Muchas gracias, mis amigos!!

The Hike From Hell!

Happy Birthday to me, I fell on my knee! 

Yes, today's my birthday and it'll be party time here tonight. The Santa Eulalia gang is bringing all the food for a celebration of my big day. And indeed, I am nursing a bit of a bunged up knee from a fall in the river on yesterday's "hike from hell," as Chris baptized it after my dunk in the drink. There'll probably be no dancing for me tonight.

Marcial reconnoiters far down the hill

Yesterday was actually one of our most beautiful and fun treks, but it was difficult, steep and challenging. To summarize, we had three bloodies, two fallers, one punctured and one quitter. Well, Eroca didn't really quit; she just decided on that first steep downhill that she had on the wrong shoes, so she turned back and walked most of the way into town to where Marc was doing his Sunday shift at Kay's Gringo Cafe. A very wise move, as it turned out; they were definitely the wrong shoes for this hike. 

The rest of us trudged on... and on ... and on, following steep cow trails down to the river that meanders through Santa Eulalia before eventually joining up with the Rio Grande in the canyon far below Atenas.

Seidy heads down the hill

Sue snaps Chris "caught" as Eroca looks on

Things were off-kilter from the start: I tore my favorite shorts before even leaving home, Chris and Sue missed their bus, Seidy forgot her camera and Sue's camera battery died after one shot. Then navigating the first barbed wire fence, Chris decided that given his height, he should just step over the fence instead of going through as the rest of us had. Oops. His pant leg caught on the wire, cut his leg a bit and yanked a hole in his favorite pants. First blood was drawn.

Marcial removes the spike

When we had almost reached the bottom of the hill, Sue took her first fall, sliding feet-first on the powdery dirt right into my boots, but I managed somehow to stay upright as we laughed at the treacherous terrain. Finally we reached the river only to find that Marcial had stepped on a huge thorn somewhere along the way. So we sat on some rocks while he dug the offending spike out from his boot.

Marcial helps Sue over the rocks

It being the dry season, the river was quite low leaving many exposed rocks for us to scramble over and allowing a lengthy exploration of the stream. As one bank became impassable, we would simply cross over to the other side, switching sides four or five times. It was on that last crossing that I foolishly decided to follow Seidy, who had stepped lightly across the water on rocks that seemed well spaced to me. But I'm much bigger than Seidy so as I reached with my left foot for the next rock, the stone under my right foot rolled and down I went, catching myself with my right hand and right knee. As I extracted myself from this ignominious position, submerged up to my thighs, Marcial quickly said: "Give me the camera!" It seems the featured players in my regular narratives here enjoy seeing their pictures so Marcial definitely had his priorities in order. Of course, everyone was asking if I was okay and other than a slight pain in that knee and my injured pride, I was fine. Luckily, so was my camera and cell phone. But with blood dripping from a small split in the shin, I became "second blood" on this hellacious excursion. Later Marcial himself became "third blood" as some brush tore his leg. Lesson learned: follow Marcial, our fearless leader Costa Rica Dundee, not little Seidy who moves like a cat.

The scenery along the river was splendid, however, especially one amazing sheer cliff that soared high above us with chunks of rock hanging precariously from the upper reaches. Each layer of rock seemed to extend further out over the river than the one below it, making it appear as if the rock face was leaning toward us. One good earthquake, we decided, and that that big mass of rock hanging by only a narrow strip would come tumbling down, as we could see many hundreds of other boulders had done in the past.

Boulders for a river crossing

At one spot where we wanted to cross, the river was uncooperative offering no suitable causeway so Marcial and Chris proceeded to build a "bridge" by moving large rocks into the shallows of the stream. As they did so, Marcial noticed a dark "rock" he had almost stepped on before realizing it was a turtle. The poor fellow became a star attraction for a few minutes as we stopped to admire him and take his picture before setting him back into the creek.

Chris building a "bridge"; Marcial holding our turtle

Señor Tortuga

Seidy urges me on!

But what goes down must come back up so it was soon time for the uphill portion of the hike, the part Sue and I dread. As well we should in this case as parts of the trail were almost vertical, or so it seemed. At each switchback we would take a short break, drink water and question Marcial as to how much further we had to go. "Oh, not too much farther," he would say. Sue and I would exchange skeptical looks, having heard the same thing at the last stop. At one point, I asked Marcial if he knew where we were or if perhaps we were lost. "No, not lost," he said, "but we do have to find our way from here." Isn't that about the same as lost?

Sue takes a break with the valley below

A bunch of cute piglets

Eventually we began to see familiar landmarks -- the chicken farm in the distance, an old abandoned cabin on a hillside. Crossing through still more barbed wire fences -- some of which left more bloody marks on our legs -- we arrived at a small pig farm located behind Marcial and Seidy's property. By now Sue and I were definitely dragging, trying to avoid catching our boots on vines or stumbling over the rough ground. Indeed, Sue's second fall was on grassy furrowed ground just beyond the pig farm. But no harm, no foul, as we say.

Just squeeze!

Walking through orchards behind Marcial's home, we stopped under an orange tree where Seidy deftly used her walking stick to knock down fruit, which Marcial then peeled and cut off the top for a fresh-squeezed cup of orange juice! "Vitaminas y minerales," Seidy said sagely, and indeed the juice was a definite pick-me-up. 

But it was the cervezas on Marcial's patio that really brought us all back to life. Joined now by Stephen, Eroca and Marc and fortified by fresh fruit and sausage sandwiches we enjoyed a long and wonderful afternoon, looking at family photos of the boys when they were kids and of Marcial and Seidy as a young married couple. It was a memorable time for us all as we continued to deepen our friendship sharing good food, intimate conversation and the joys of Pura Vida!

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Costa Rica Calls with San Carlos Memories

My bus arrives

I'm B-a-a-ck! After a somewhat stressful month of caring for my son Damian following knee surgery, I'm happy to say I'm back in Costa Rica. And how wonderful it is to be here! The sun is shining, the sweet mandarins and luscious mangos are ripening on our trees, the air feels fresh and clean and I'm about to catch a bus into Atenas for breakfast at Tres Hermanas and to pick up a few groceries.

Happily, the surgery to remove torn cartilage was successful and Damian is doing all the right things to make a complete recovery. My time there was a mix of concern for his healing and joy at having such a luxurious length of time with him and my precious grandson Kai, now a full-fledged teenager of fourteen years. One of the high points for me was attending a musical performance featuring Kai on trumpet with his four-piece ensemble at Sonoma State University. Boy, was I proud of him for making the effort to go despite feeling poorly from a lingering cold.

Sadly, my darling Layne is now in Portland, Oregon, for a month visiting his sister and planning to attend the 100th birthday of the family matriarch Hazel this weekend. That, of course, will be a joyous occasion but other aspects of his trip are more challenging, with health and mobility issues plaguing his sister Annie and her husband Jim. I know they are glad to have him there but I miss him terribly. With me gone a month and now Layne to be gone a month, this will be the longest we have ever been apart in our 33 years of love and partnership.

The gang by the river

But now that I'm back in our comfortable home, it's time to bring my loyal readers up to date on the local adventures, beginning with the last Sunday hike before I left for California. It was a long-planned excursion to San Carlos, the region where our friend Marcial was born and, like most Ticos speaking of their hometown, he claims it to be the most beautiful part of Costa Rica. After our visit there, I am inclined to agree!

Several years ago in a quirk of Fate - a case of mistaken identity - Marcial chanced to meet a man who had a piece of property for sale very near where he had been raised, so of course he was interested in seeing it. But as these things often go, the planned trip to see the land did not happen and it was some two years later when Marcial again contacted the man that he was able to visit the property in person. Needless to say, he fell in love with it and in partnership with his son Gabriel was able to purchase it for a very good price. He and Seidy hope one day to build a house on it and retire in the peace and tranquility of San Carlos.

We arrive at the neighbor's home

Nestled deep down a secluded hillside at the confluence of two small rivers, the land is a riot of foliage and flowers with the music of waters rushing over rocks and down small waterfalls as a constant background orchestra. Following a two-hour ride in a rented van holding nine of us and trailed by another car with four more, we passed through Ciudad Quesado, the largest town in the San Carlos canton, where Marcial pointed out his high school and other landmarks of his youth. Leaving town we ventured out into remote wilderness over the predictably rough and pot-holed roads and up steep inclines with magnificent views to finally arrive at the property.

Following Marcial down... 

Well, actually at the neighbor's property at the top of the hill, from whence we struck off on foot down an overgrown single-track path through precipitous but beautiful terrain. As we hiked down the sheer trail, Layne and I looked askance at one another, thinking "What goes down must come back up!" But that would be much later, so laughing it off we followed our friends a kilometer or more to the clearing at the bottom beside the rivers.

Bonnie taking in the scenery

Bonnie's son Adam and Stephen relax

Sue and Chris look happy

The neighbor has built a large colorful rancho, which she allows most anyone to use, and it was there that we spread out our potluck picnic lunch and the inevitable supply of tequila and beer. 

Marcial breaks out the tequila

Seidy visits with Daniel and Jai

Most of this lovely day was spent lounging in the rancho or on rocks beside the river but the high point for me was when Marcial led the way through the jungle to a stretch of his property where the river pools above a small waterfall. 

Following Chris to the river

Stephen captures Seidy by the river

Yours Truly, lovin' it!

So refreshing!

Marcial, at home in "his" river

The water is calm enough for a swim, although at midstream you still feel a strong current and swimming upstream against it is an invigorating athletic challenge. The cool moving water offered the perfect freshness for the warm day and the setting was ever so idyllic. I felt such ecstasy, such incredible privilege, such breathtaking happiness to be swimming alongside my friends in an unspoiled river deep in the jungles of Costa Rica. Certainly not an experience the ordinary tourist would have!

Santa Eulalia sunset

Much later as we trudged back up the hill, some of us taking advantage of a Jeep ride halfway up, we all expressed our wonder at our great good fortune in knowing such friends as Marcial and Seidy who share their lives with us with such generosity.

The next night following our Sunday outing was my last night before leaving for California and it seemed the Santa Eulalia sunset was determined to remind me of the beauty I was leaving behind. You can well imagine just how good it is to be back here. Pura Vida indeed!