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!

  

Python Goes One Chicken Too Far

(Correction: I've been informed by a reader that Costa Rica has no "Pythons" so consider all references to Python to be Boa Constrictor.) 

Words are hardly adequate to describe the incredible past week and a half for Layne and me but words being my coinage, I'll have to try and pay the price. As my readers know, the highlight of virtually every week around here is our Sunday hike with "the Santa Eulalia gang" and Sunday the 30th of December was no exception. It started out normally enough: we'd spend a couple of hours traipsing the back trails of our barrio with a loose plan to end up at some restaurant along the way for lunch. As we followed picturesque Calle Vanilla that runs below the ridge behind our house, the adventure began to unfold.

First of all, this remote dirt lane is beautiful just on its own, with huge stands of bamboo reaching to the sky and the yellow-flowered vanilla trees for which the road is named offering their own charm. As we meandered up the last unpaved portion into a small village, we noticed a rustic house with a large covered patio nestled deep in the jungle. Seidy liked the look of the place snuggled in the greenery, so we stopped for a closer look. Just inside the front foliage was a group of men standing over a huge  they had just slain, capital punishment for poaching their chickens. The fearsome creature was magnificent, really, with its complex brown, beige and black pattern and enormous as you can see. Amazing!

With Marcial and Seidy's inimitable networking skills, we were all soon chatting in English and Spanish with Don Yeyo, learning that his brother uses the large patio area to make furniture on the weekends, including the wooden rocking chairs that Layne and I covet for our veranda. Good information to have. 

Bonnie and Seidy look on as Don Yeyo chats

Orchids... 

... and more orchids!

More beautiful flowers

Amazing foliage

Seidy admires the garden as Marcial enjoys rice pudding

The lady of the house brought out dishes of a yummy rice pudding and showed us her yard full of orchids and other lovely plants. Ho-hum -- just another day on the trail!

By contrast, our return trip was uneventful, unless you count finding a hidden river. With the help of some bamboo walking sticks machete'd for us by "Costa Rica Dundee" aka Marcial, we strolled down a steep grassy slope along a narrow cow trail, discovered only the day before by Marcial and his son Daniel, to a pretty little babbling stream. 

Seidy, Marcial and Yours Truly relax by the pool

We carefully picked our way across the rocks to take a break by a quiet pool before hiking up the other slope to the road and on to a convenience store for cold water and cold beers. Exercising a little restraint this day, there was no tequila in our plans as we all made our happy way back home.

But the next night was a different matter: New Year's Eve at Stephen and Bonnie's house was a festive affair attended by the whole gang, including our long-absent friends Chris and Sue who had returned that very day from packing and shipping duties back in the States. Their container won't arrive for another month or two but they were ecstatic to be back among their Santa Eulalia friends. We managed to hold off on the champagne until close to midnight when the multitude of large and small fireworks visible across the valley offered the perfect way to bring in the New Year.

With everything closed for the holidays, life slowed to a quieter pace for a day or two but for Layne and me there were more adventures in the offing. My son Damian had written a few weeks earlier asking if I might come to California to assist him following knee surgery he was facing in early January and, of course, I was happy to say Yes. But with the prospect of a month in chilly and damp San Francisco, I was longing for just one more trip to the beach before I departed, a little more sun and surf to hold me until I return in early February.

So with some help from Marcial we made last minute arrangements to bus down to Esterillos Oeste for an overnight stay at his friend Wilberth's beachfront hotel, Rancho Coral. It seems Marcial met Wilberth and his wife Eve Araya some years ago and bonded on many levels, not the least is that the two men share the same last name of Artavia and were born and raised in the north central portion of the country. Although not directly related, they nevertheless call each other primo, or cousin.

Rancho Coral gardens

Rancho Coral is a real find! Comfortable and secluded with only seven apartments, the gardens rampant with greenery and adorned with an abundance of hammocks strung from tree to tree, chickens running free along with a dozen or so friendly dogs rescued by Wilberth and Eve, the place is an absolute delight. The broad beige sandy beach is just steps away from your room and the surf is wonderfully clean and clear and delightfully warm. The breakfast is delicious, the coffee good and strong. One night was not nearly enough. In fact, we plan to return during the low season with the whole Santa Eulalia gang and take over the place. Look out, Wilberth and Eve!

Playa Esterillos Oeste

Enjoying some Aqua Pipa, fresh from the coconut

View from a hammock #1

View from a hammock #2

The real drama was in our bus travels. When we pre-purchased our tickets in San Jose in order to assure ourselves of seats, the cashier said that the bus leaving San Jose at 7:00 a.m. should arrive at the Atenas bus stop on the main road about 7:30 a.m. When we stepped out of our taxi at 7:15, however, we had barely time to catch our breath before our bus arrived. Even then the driver somehow missed our stop and let us off a mile down the road at a deserted parada where Wilberth soon came to pick us up. 

Waiting for Wilberth

Returning on Saturday night, it was just the opposite: along with a half dozen Ticos, we waited almost an hour and a half for the big vehicle to show up. Go figure. Or as we say in Costa Rica, Pura Vida!

(PS - As a holiday gift to my readers, Layne's novel MORAL TURPITUDE is available for FREE through January 31st. (NC-17 but not erotica.) To download it, click HERE to go directly to the book page; then click Add to Cart. You will have to register but it's very simple and you will get no spam. At the Cart page, enter Coupon Code QN77G, then click Update. The price will change to $0.00. Enjoy!)

Livin' It Up at the Hotel California

Yours Truly doing shovel duty

Washing windows, selling "stuff," having garage sales, cleaning out the barn, dumping old files, sorting through photographs for scanning, moving boxes out of the barn, moving boxes back into the barn, shoveling dirt from rotten planter boxes -- oh, and long walks on Cronan Ranch trails. Welcome to life in California! Other than some nice dinners with our good friend Ruth, our social life is just about non-existent here, at least compared to the busy schedule of dinner parties around Marcial and Seidy's outdoor firepit, philosophical discussions with Marc, trips to the beach with Sally and Leonard, breakfasts with Mark and Nancy, chili cook-offs, dances at Kay's Cafe and such that we enjoy in Costa Rica. Quite a change!

Of course, we do enjoy wildlife sightings here, such as deer on the front and back acres and a wild turkey wandering around the front yard now and then. The neighborhood dog Abby pays regular visits to demand some petting and we enjoy having her come around.

A busy location for a nest

One delightful little wildlife vignette involves a bird that had foolishly built its nest, apparently while the house was empty, right in the jumble of jasmine vines along our back patio next to the gate. It took me a while to realize it because the nest is virtually invisible unless you move the vines aside. But when we first moved back in, whenever I would walk toward the gate, a bird would suddenly fly out of the foliage up into a nearby tree. Finally, I pushed the jasmine leaves out of the way and found the nest with four small eggs in it. Since then we've tried to be sensitive to her need to stay with her little ones but it's tough since we have to walk through that gate frequently. My curiosity prompted me to look in the nest occasionally and I soon saw little fuzzy heads in there, meaning the eggs had hatched. The other day when I looked in, I came face to face with momma-bird, who looked at me with a frightened eye, then zoomed out of the nest. How she'll teach the little ones to fly I'm not sure, but we await that development with great interest.

Images of the eclipse on our wall

The solar eclipse yesterday offered us a unique vision when we went outside to watch the oddly dimming light from the setting sun. Naturally, we couldn't look directly at the sun but what a surprise we had when we turned away from the western skies and noticed the shadows being cast on the wall of our house. Somehow - and I certainly don't understand this - as the sunlight filtered through the trees, it created multiple images of the eclipse on the wall. What an eerie effect and quite amazing to us.

Dinner out to celebrate!

Our really big news of the last month is that Layne finished his novel, I completed the formatting for electronic publishing and it has been published on Smashwords.com. It is available for downloading and can be read on computers or electronic readers such as the Kindle or Nook; there is no print version. It's been about two weeks now and we anxiously await approval for inclusion in their Premium Catalog so the book can be sold through Amazon, Apple and other major retailers. Entitled "Moral Turpitude," it's quite an adventure story, a real page-turner, I think. (No I'm not prejudiced!) Here's a description:

Davis Sheffield, formerly Robert Davis Jones, is the billionaire majority shareholder of Sheffield Industries, a private defense contractor. When Sheffield family members accuse Davis of “moral turpitude,” based on kinky exploits from his past, he faces a civil suit to remove him from management. Warned by Ange Parker, a young, idealistic attorney, he must go into hiding to avoid being served even as he sends Ange, armed with proxies and powers of attorney, into the corporate lion's den to represent his interests. Enjoying his sudden freedom and anonymity, playboy Davis heads for San Francisco where he indulges in fanciful and erotic adventures involving street people, city officials and a beautiful Pagan dominatrix. Meanwhile, Ange has learned she must face far greater dangers than she bargained for as she maneuvers between corporate intrigues, the ruthlessness of a drug cartel and a paranoid arms dealer, all while struggling with inner demons that threaten her confidence. Only the protection of her female Zulu bodyguard and unlimited financial resources from Davis help her avoid disaster. Under desperate circumstances in far-flung corners of the world from Costa Rica to the jungles of Borneo, Ange and Davis fight for survival against a sadistic killer, hungry tigers and corrupt CIA agents. Finding unexpected strength in their growing love while devising creative strategies to survive, Ange and Davis learn how precious life and love can be.

I hope my readers will take a moment to visit his page: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/159570 and download a free sample - or just buy the book! It's only $2.99 and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

So as the days heat up here in the foothills and the dry air begins to turn the grasses golden brown, we fill our time working on the house and clearing out the barn. Although we enjoy seeing the yellow flowers open up each day, the smell of the jasmine and the majesty of the blue oaks, we still miss the world we came to love in Costa Rica. One of these days.... 

Tulips in the Garden, Rats in the Barby!

If we had to return to California, at least we arrived in a good season. Although we did need a fire in the woodstove the first few nights to keep down the chill, the weather has actually been quite pleasant and today is warming up nicely. The blue oaks are bursting out in that fabulous neon green of a Sierra foothill spring, my red tulips are in bloom and there was a big gray rat living in the barbeque unit. Say what?? Yes, I'm afraid California has its unsavory creatures just as much as Costa Rica with it's Fer-de-lance and poison frogs.

We decided to pull out the rather dilapidated barbeque unit last night to check its condition in hopes of grilling hamburgers. The thing has been sitting outside, sheltered by its plastic cover, for some two years but we were still surprised to find a big gray rodent nested inside. Rather than confront the little bugger (you know what they say about a cornered rat!), we opted to leave the lid open in hopes he/she would voluntarily vacate the premises.

But in some ways it is nice to be back here in our old house. As we open the dozens of boxes and plastic tubs from the storage barn, we are dropped off in Memory Lane -- from familiar pots and pans to favorite clothing to sentimental artwork and other keepsakes. It's going to be hard to weed out, once again, what to keep and what to toss. Already we have ads on Craigslist for file cabinets, complete with hanging folders, bowling balls, office supplies and more. The work ahead is daunting. There are the garden planter boxes, which are rotting and needing work, some painting to do in the bathrooms, plus repairs to the pasture shelter and fencing. With a small ranchette like this, the work never seems to end.

The backyard chimenea

Cronan Ranch Trail

After a few frantic days of looking for a car to buy - we found a good 2002 Subaru Outback - and schlepping futons and sleeping bags down from the storage barn for our first few nights, we are finding time to go for long walks on our favorite old trails. At least we aren't in the mad rush we were two years ago when we had just over a month to pack and move out of this house that we had lived in for over fourteen years. So for now, we cut off work most evenings by 5:00 p.m. or so, sit out on the patio with a cocktail and enjoy the late afternoon sunshine. We stayed out there all evening a few nights ago with a small fire in the chimenea, just enjoying the tranquility of our back acreage.

But we miss Costa Rica and still hope to return one day. Although we have great memories of our old lives here in California and so enjoy seeing our friends, the new life we found in Costa Rica continues to broadcast its seductive allure. To paraphrase the old song from South Pacific, "Costa Rica will whisper/ on the wind of the sea/... Come to me, come to me." 

Don't Cry for Me, Costa Rica!

Our Santa Eulalia neighborhood

Just as we are feeling comfortably settled into our Santa Eulalia neighborhood, we've been hit with a wild pitch: We must return to our home in California! It has been a stressful two weeks since we got the news that the tenant renting our house had broken the lease. On top of that, our property manager said we probably needed to reduce the rent in order to lease it again. Given the small margins we have had between the mortgage and the rental income, we've decided our best course of action is to return to our Pilot Hill ranchette to live for a while as we look for ways to cut our expenses there. If we manage to do that, hopefully we will be able to return to Costa Rica one of these days.

At least it's springtime there so we won't be heading from tropical balmy days to frigid wintry weather. But it's also "springtime" here with many fruits and vegetables coming into season. Our avocado tree in front has bulbous green fruit all over it but they probably won't ripen before we depart on April 11th. Likewise, our mango tree in the backyard has fruit ripening but still too green to pick. 

Avocados about to ripen

Still-green mangos

We have so many mandarinas (like a tangerine), they are falling on the ground in abundance. Even our landlords came over recently to ask if they could pick a few. They filled two big bags and we still have so many I'm beginning to add them to salads just to try and use them.

Sadly, my brand new orchids, which I just bought a few weeks ago, cannot travel with me. I plan to offer them to Seidy (finally, this IS the correct spelling of her name!). She has a yard full of wild orchids of all kinds so I'm sure they''ll have a good home. Likewise, my "kitchen garden" of herbs will be parceled out to friends nearby. Bonnie wants the basil and I'm sure Jackie will take the oregano and rosemary. Hopefully, someone will take the big Aloe Vera plant. Sigh.

Goodbye to my herb garden

Of course, we had planned to go back to the States later this year to see family and friends, as we have every year, so this just pushed those plans forward a bit. We will now have time to deal with some of the "stuff" still in the barn. I worry that between the heat and the moisture that some things of value are being ruined. Long-time readers will recall what a hectic dash out of our home we had to make in December of 2009 when we decided to rent the house and head for Costa Rica. The prospective renters were being pushed out of their home due to a foreclosure. To paraphrase an old saying: Manure rolls downhill, so we had to get out of our house of over 14 years in less than six weeks. A lot of our stuff just ended up in our large storage barn. This return to residency there will give us a chance to clear it out.

We also look forward with joy to the opportunity to spend time with old friends again. Dinner parties with Ruth, chats over the fence with our neighbor Susan, time to drive into San Francisco to see our son Damian and grandson Kai and other friends there. We will make our pilgrimage to Portland to visit family there this summer and on to Spokane to see Layne's son Jess and his family. I will have a chance to fly to Texas and spend some time with my mom.

Still it's a bittersweet pill to have to leave Costa Rica, our adopted homeland that has welcomed us so warmly. As time allows, I'll continue to post reports on our activities as we settle back into life in California. And as circumstances allow, we hope to return to Costa Rica, at least for visits if not for good. Pura Vida!!