107. A Sick Doggy and Why are we going on a Boat?

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Saturday 1/7- With tattoo recovery still in process, there will be no pool, beach, or significant amounts of sun for us for about a week or until it is mostly healed. That’s probably ok, though, because we can always find things to do around the house that have to be done, and instead of relaxing in or around the water, we’ll at least be somewhat productive. Lately I’ve been spending chunks of my day doing some training for the upcoming tax season, so I spent a handful of hours doing that, and when I was finished working on tax training, I kept working on the blog. Seriously, this blog job literally never ends!

Thursday 1/12- In the last few months we have noticed that Breeze has been losing weight. Back when we left MN she was a pretty chunky dog, but during our first few months here she lost all of that extra chunk and was a pretty healthy weight and has been pretty stable for the past year (the heat will do that to you here, this has happened to many humans that move down here too!). When she started losing weight again we didn’t think too much of it, but as we started noticing that we could see some of her ribs we paid more attention. We learned that it’s pretty common to pick up a parasite down here, so about a month ago we got some anti-parasite meds from the vet to see if that would fix the issue. After giving her those meds and letting them run their cycle we noticed that things weren’t getting any better, and actually might have been getting worse.

She seems to be mostly herself and always in good spirits, and gets super excited when we asked her if she wanted to go for a ride like she always has been. She also  gets very excited any time Ramie leaves and comes back home, she is such a daddy's girl! A big difference that we noticed, though, was that she wasn't as active during the day and, as I mentioned before, we were now able to see her ribs, hips, and spine through her fur. Something wasn’t right, so we called a vet who has been highly recommended and who actually comes to your house to check out your pets.

Fabiola came over right away this morning to check Breeze out. The first thing that she did was weigh her, and our doggy who was nearly 80 lbs when we left MN, and was about 65lbs last September when we brought her to the vet here, was down to 46 lbs. Fabiola confirmed that Breeze definitely had to put on some weight. So, Fabiola's orders were that in addition to the dog food that we were feeding her, we were to start giving Breeze people food. Boy, was Breeze going to love that!! Rice, sweet potato, carrots, and meat. Man, this girl was going to be eating the same types of meals that we do!! Fabiola also drew some blood for some lab work and gave Breeze a shot of some vitamins. When Fabiola was checking Breeze out, she also noticed some irritation in Breeze’s abdomen when she touched there, so she gave her a little bit of pain killer to ease whatever might be bothering her. That was all for today, she’d send the blood off to the lab to get tested and let us know in the next couple of days what was up with our doggo.

Now that Breeze got checked out by the doctor, she got to spend the day relaxing by herself. Why? Because we’re going on a boat!! 

Prior to Covid, Loren & Nancy organized a catamaran outing with their big group of friends from the mountain every year and have always had a great time. Due to Covid, this outing hasn’t happened in the last two years, but it was going to happen this year, and it was happening today! Loren & Nancy’s motto is always “the more the merrier” so we invited Geoff & Tracy to come along for the day too. We were all super excited for this fun day.

Loren put a lot of time and leg work into putting together an awesome deal on the entire package including transportation to and from the marina in Quepos, the boat tour, food and drinks and all tips. All we had to do is walk down the road a little ways from our house where everyone was meeting up around noon to catch the busses. We chatted with a few people we knew and once all 70 of us were there we jumped on one of the three buses that would take us to the marina about 1 hour north of Uvita. We loaded up and headed out. It wasn't long before we noticed shots being passed around among friends & strangers and the laughter and fun began.

We arrived at the marina early and had to wait until 3pm before we could board the double decker catamaran. We grabbed some drinks from a nearby convenience store and just admired the large fishing boats and yachts docked here (as a side-note, this is the same marina we went deep-sea fishing from last February when an old friend of Ramie’s came down). Just before we boarded the catamaran we were all given wrist bands that served two purposes. The first was to indicate what we were eating for dinner, the second was our pass for the included drinks. Once all of that was taken care of, our big group, along with everyone else who wasn’t part of our group but who also booked the boat trip headed down the pier for the afternoon fun to begin.

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The catamaran would take us out for a sightseeing tour along the Quepos Coast for some scenic vistas and up-close views of some neat rock formations. After cruising around for a while, the catamaran pulled into a small bay where they grabbed a mooring ball and we were free to swim, use the water slides, snorkel, or if you were brave enough, jump off the top deck.

We stayed on the lower deck and had a great time watching the brave people jump off the top while we enjoyed a couple of beverages. Some of those daring souls were doing flips, some diving head first, and others doing cannonballs to try to get people on board standing along the railing wet.  It was a lot of fun for us onlookers to watch while the people already in the water were cheering the next jumper on. After all of the experienced & hard-core “jumpers” had their first few jumps behind them, one of our friends that had already jumped a couple times walked by and asked, "You're not jumping?”… We all laughed and didn’t say much else. 

(This section is written from Ramie’s point of view)

Next thing I noticed was Tracy heading up the stairs and Dana following right behind her. I guess their liquid courage had started kicking in? Geoff & I stayed back and kept watching and the next thing we saw was Tracy jumping off the top. Once she was in the water she was trying to coax Dana to jump.  I told Geoff that I just couldn't believe it, and then, “I'm going up just to see if she will do it and then I'm going to use the water slide”. Sure enough I got to the top and saw that Dana was a bit nervous. She kept telling others to go in front of her so she could “watch” and make sure everything looked ok. Of course, once I got up there, she told me to go before her too, so what did I do? There I went, right over the edge! Once I was clear of the landing zone, Dana must have decided that everything was safe enough and she finally did it! That jump was a lot farther than it looked though, I think it was about 20’ from the top deck to the surface of the water. Once in the water we just enjoyed floating and watching everyone continue to jump, Geoff opted not to swim but did take our pictures from the boat. No worries, there is always next year Geoff!

(Ok, Dana’s back). While yes, I started out as a bit of a chicken, I always do feel better watching a couple of examples go before me. It was a thrill and I’m glad I did it. Next year maybe I won’t be such a chicken and just go for it! Maybe even twice!

When we were finished swimming, we got back on the boat and it was time to eat. It wasn’t a seated meal or anything like that, you went through the line, got served your choice of fish or chicken and all of the sides that went along with it, and you found a comfy spot to sit or stand and eat wherever you wanted on boat. Everything quieted down when everyone was eating but once the food was eaten, the drinks started flowing again and the boat moved out of the bay so we could all watch the sunset. 

It was a little cloudy and started raining but the sun did make an appearance just enough for us to watch it set. We eventually pulled back into the marina and were told to head straight to the buses. Before we headed to the parking lot, though, I think everyone stopped at the little convenience store to get just a couple more drinks for the ride, including us. Once on the bus we got separated from Geoff and Tracy because seats were already filling up. We ended up in the 4-across seats at the very back of the bus, and Ramie unfortunately got stuck next to a really drunk woman (not me, the one on the other side of him!) She was so drunk that she tried to sit down right on top of him instead of on her own seat and Ramie had to help her slide over since she could barely move herself. Ramie was afraid she was going to puke on him (yes she was that drunk) so he was mentally preparing himself for that fun as I sat on the other side of him with our backpack and all of our stuff hoping that we wouldn’t all get sprayed if she did upchuck. The wheels on the bus went round and round

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and the laughter and fun continued. Low and behold more shots were being passed around! We eventually made it back to Uvita and Ramie survived without getting puked on.  He thinks she passed out on the guy on the other side of her. The 4 of us walked back to our house and sat out by the pool and ate some well needed food to sober up before Geoff and Tracy headed home for the night. It was a super fun day and we will for sure be in for future trips like this. Thanks again to Loren & Nancy for organizing another fun get-together with lots of fun gringos from Uvita. 

Pura Vida