Saturday 3/29- Since we have guests here, our normal tax-season schedule would get changed up, at least somewhat, for the next couple of weeks. While typically we would work Saturdays, we are going to take them off while mom & Taylor are visiting. Even though they are content relaxing at home, we really do want to do things with them, bring them places, and have fun together. Today’s plan was to go on an ATV ride. We didn’t plan an overly long or overly adventurous ride today, but one that was long enough to give mom a taste of what our ATV days are like, since she reads so much about them here in the blog (hi mom). We started with our regular medium-short route over the mountain and up toward the coffee plantation, stopping at our favorite scenic overlooks along the way. We reached out to Deiner beforehand to find out when he would be around, since typically he is at the feria on Saturdays, but he was taking the day off, so he told us to come up any time today. Deiner really wanted to see Taylor again and meet my mom, and mom really wanted to see the plantation and see and do all of the things we’ve written about many times, so we had to make this happen.
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There must have been a land slide in the last few days, we had to wait for the machinery to clear a path and move out of our way
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We enjoyed our typical time with the Don Emilio family, ate some of Rita’s delicious chicharones (we can never pass these up when we go to visit), and had a couple of shots of moonshine with the family (mom even partook in the moonshine!). Even though the plantation was closed to tours on Saturdays, we weren’t the only ones who showed up; there were some other people who just happened to be out on an ATV ride that stopped by as well. After we spent an hour or two at the plantation, Deiner suggested that we all hop in our rides and head over to Jungle Fish for a walk around the grounds, a visit to the meditation tree, and, for anyone interested, lunch. We like Jungle Fish and have walked around their grounds multiple times, so we knew what to expect, I think everyone else was new to the experience.
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| Costa Rican ducks come with a cool hair-do |
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| Heading to the meditation tree |
You may be wondering what is the meditation tree? This is what Deiner calls the huge, old (probably around 400years old) tree along this path in the jungle. Its hollow inside, and as you can see from the pictures, you can walk inside the trunk and look up out the top of it or stand inside and meditate in nature. Yes its still alive and well. Its an amazing thing to see, and if you ever come to visit and you want to see it for yourself, just let us know.
The other ATV riders didn’t stay for lunch, but we didn’t have any other plans, so we did. We all ordered our typical fried whole fish meal except for Taylor who doesn’t care much for fish.
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| Whole tilapia caught from the ponds on this property- that's how the restaurant got its name: Jungle Fish! |
We had a great day of hanging out with our friends from up the mountain and showing our guests the things that they read about in the blog.
Sunday 3/30- Sunday Funday, what did we do? Today we started the morning by heading to the beach. No trip to Costa Rica is complete without spending some time at the beach, so this morning before it got too hot out, we headed to Ventanas Beach. We even brought Skye with us! The tide was low while we were there, so we got to explore the caves and swim in the water. Skye had a blast playing in the water (even though she still won’t even get near our pool) and made a little mini-me friend. We spent a few hours here, and then reached the consensus that, while it was fun to be here for a little while, it’s more comfortable to hang out back at the house where there are chairs and no sand to get in your bathing suit, so we headed back to the pool for the rest of the day.
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| Inside one of the natural sea caves |
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| Unfortunately we didn't grab any photos of the Skye mini-me... who looked just like her but smaller |
The Official Casa Costa Breeze end of March rainfall total was 6.18 inches As I’ve mentioned before, mom and Taylor are very content just hanging out by the pool, so we didn’t have big plans for the rest of the week, but even though Ramie and I still spent time working at our jobs, we definitely made sure that they got out of the house a few more times.
Tuesday 4/1- This evening we introduced mom and Geoff and Tracy. They had met Taylor the last time she was here, but wanted to see her again as well. We spent a few hours together and had a nice dinner together at Aracari, overlooking the ocean for sunset.
Wednesday 4/2- While I was busy working today, Ramie brought mom & Taylor to the feria to pick up some veggies and show mom the little local farmers market (which is TINY compared to the big one we go to in San Isidro) and souvenir shopping to some of the little shops around town. Taylor also had a dentist appointment today. This is the 2nd time she’s gone for a cleaning while she’s visited us, as it’s much less expensive here than it is in the US. Last time she was here she also had some cavities taken care of. This time she needed an xray to look at her wisdom teeth. Our regular dentist didn’t have the machine for the panoramic view but she made a call to another dentist about 40 minutes south that does have that machine to see if they could get Taylor in. The answer was yes, and they could get her in right now, so Ramie and Taylor finished up with dentist #1 and headed south to Palmar Norte for dentist #2. Once they got there, they only waited a few minutes before Taylor was called back. She was in and out in less than 5 minutes and they were on their way back home in no time. Now they had to wait to see what the word was about her wisdom teeth. They knew that one needed to be removed, but the question is would it be a regular extraction or a surgical extraction?
Friday 4/4- Today Ramie was called away from his tax work and our guests to help move Karen & Dennis’s pallets that were currently being stored at Randall’s warehouse up to their house. While Ramie had told them previously that he would help with all of this, and he’s a good guy and would stick to his word and help our friends, part of this may have been somewhat self-serving too. We had about a half pallet worth of stuff stacked in those pallets, and we were ready to get our stuff! We ordered a new full-size barbecue grill, another battery for our solar system (it would now be set up better to handle our house, especially during green season) and a whole bunch of other little things that we’ve been wanting but didn’t want to have shipped down. It would be like another Christmas for us, so soon after Taylor and mom just brought us so many things too. When Ramie had finished delivering Karen and Dennis’s things and grabbing the easiest to grab of our things (some stuff is mixed in their bins and would be handed over when they were finished unpacking), he came home and got to work building the grill. One of these days we might have to test this out!
Ramie had also received a message back from the dentist that Taylor's tooth could be removed by a regular extraction and didn’t need surgery. She explained that this way would definitely cost less, and she wanted to know if Taylor wanted to come in today to have it done. Yes, dental work here is that quick! No waiting months to get in for appointments! Ramie asked Taylor what she wanted to do and the look on her face said enough...
She has never had anything like that done and said she had to psych herself up to do it, but with her leaving soon, and the recovery time she needed to make sure it would heal up well, it would be very close to the time she left. Ultimately she said she didn't want to do it right now and maybe when she comes back in August… We will see!
We also took this evening to do something tourist-y, and even something new to Ramie and I. We scheduled a guided night walk to check out the nocturnal creatures in our area. The tour is done up the mountain on the grounds of one of the fancy hotels. They have walking trails that go through the jungle, near a river, and in lots of places where animals would come through when there aren’t too many people around. Decked out in rubber boots and with flashlights in hand, we took the hike and saw and heard many night-time bugs, frogs, and birds, and yes, we even ran across a snake. It was a private tour with just the 4 of us in our group and our guides (yes, 2 guides for the 4 of us) were top-notch. This is a tour that Ramie and I would go on again, which cannot be said for all of the tours that we’ve been on (where once was more than enough). Even mom and Taylor had a great time. It is certainly worth it.
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| A night time butterfly. |
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| The most dangerous snake in Costa Rica. A Fer-de-Lance or as they call it a Terciopelo |
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| A Gecko, Do you see it? |
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| Poison Dart Frog |
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| Glass Tree Frog, You can see through their skin and see their organs when looked at from their belly |
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| Tarantula |
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| A really pretty beetle |
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| A very hungry caterpillar |
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| Whip Scorpion. It actually is not a scorpion at all and they are very friendly and not dangerous. |
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| Some sort of spider, obviously! |
Saturday 4/5- Can you believe that Ramie and I took a 2nd Saturday of tax season off work!? Yes, we did, and we made sure that we enjoyed the day. We brought mom and Taylor to the little town of Dominical to walk along their sidewalk craft market near the beach and look for more souvenirs and do some sight-seeing. Since we were here in town and as it was getting close to lunch time, we stopped at Fuego, the craft brewery that we like, to get a drink and some lunch.
After that, it was back to the house to enjoy the pool. It has been
quite hot during their stay here, and neither mom nor Taylor were really
used to this after coming out of the Minnesota winter, so they often
needed to take a dip to cool off and get comfortable again.
Sunday 4/6- We didn’t really have too much planned for today, but we wanted to get out and explore with mom & Taylor a little bit more. We decided to take them on an ATV ride around town to show mom more of the places that we go, things that we talk about in the blog, and to do a little bit more exploring of our own in a few places we don’t go very often. We also drove back through the bamboo forest and made a stop at one of the nearby waterfalls that we like.
Tuesday 4/8- Taylor & Mom’s time visiting us here in Costa Rica was quickly coming to an end and today would be their last full day with us. We didn’t do too much during the day, but Karen & Dennis wanted to meet them before they left, so we had dinner together at La Choza, the Mexican restaurant that we discovered our very first time here in Uvita. It’s still delicious Mexican food, and we all enjoyed the company.
Wednesday 4/9- Today was the day mom and Taylor would head back to the chilly North. Their flight wasn’t until midnight, so they had the whole day to relax, pack their things, and soak in the last of the Costa Rican sun and heat. The shuttle driver came to pick them up shortly after dinner time, and they would be back home tomorrow mid-morning sometime.
As always it is so great to have guests at Casa Costa Breeze. It was great to show mom around our little town and introduce her to some of the places and people that she hears about and reads about in the blog. It’s always nice to have Taylor visit too, as it’s becoming a place that she knows well and can help decide what outings she wants to go on and places to see. Until next time ladies…
Thursday 4/10- After 2 weeks of extra hustle and bustle around the casa, today was quiet again. I think Skye was confused, because after all of the extra attention and snuggles she had been getting, today Ramie and I spent all day back at the computers and Skye was left to entertain herself. That didn’t last too long, though, because after about 24 hours of “back to normal” with just the 3 of us at home, Randall dropped off Luna for a long weekend of dog sitting. While Luna is old (about as old as Breeze would have been) and doesn’t play very much, Skye would have someone to bug. Poor Luna always misses her family when she’s here, but after a few days she’ll warm up to us and might even play with Skye.
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| Come on Luna, lets play! |
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| Luna getting a much needed bath |
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| Snow in Uvita? No, that's just Luna's fur after brushing her |
Friday 4/11- We are coming up on the tax filing deadline, and by this point in the game, most of Ramie’s high-priority work is done. It’s now up to me and the boss at the seasonal job to finish as many client meetings as we can so we can get all of those returns that Ramie has prepared out the door and filed. This was the perfect opportunity for Ramie to take a day to work at Karen & Dennis’s house to help them install the Starlink for their internet. Unfortunately, it didn't go as smoothly as he had hoped. There was a lot of up and down the ladder, on and off the roof, while having to move a huge ladder around everywhere. Then, after getting everything just about done, having to redo everything he already did. It turns out that after he had the main cable ran and secured in place, he had to take it all apart and redo it. Why? Well, because apparently the connectors are different on each end. One end is a straight connector and the other end looks like an “L”. He thought that he was being smart and started on the roof side of the installation, which is the hardest part, then ran the cable to the location where it would go through the wall of the house and connect to the router, however. The problem was that “L” was too big to fit through the hole in the side of the house. This was why Ramie had to remove the entire cable and start from inside the house, then proceed up to the roof. He ended up working on this for most of the day, but eventually they got everything installed. Just when they thought the headache was done, a new problem was discovered. They were unable to activate service on this dish. Why? Because apparently the prior owner has to transfer the account to the new owner (this is not what Ramie was told when he was researching this earlier to determine if it was even a wise choice for Karen & Dennis to buy a used Starlink setup.) Normally you would think that this couldn’t be that hard, but the prior owner is out of the country and this equipment was bought through a mutual friend… Ramie will see what he can do to get this snafu taken care of.
Saturday 4/12- In that final push before filing day, and after having the last 2 Saturdays off work, you better believe that I had several client meetings stacked up for today. My dance card was full. On the flip side, any tax work that Ramie had left was already on extension and was no rush, so he went back to Karen & Dennis’s house and spent the morning mounting their TV and helping them with some other things that they asked him to take care of. This won’t be it for his work with them, though, because soon, whenever he and they are ready, he’ll be spending a lot of time setting up a solar power system very similar to ours.
It's been a few days now, and Luna has warmed up to us and to Skye and is loving all the attention she is getting. She has gotten a bath, lots of scratches and when she feels up for it will, chase Skye around the yard, or vice versa.
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| Luna loved laying close to us, and if we were in the pool she would get as close as she could. |
Stay tuned for our next blog post. The tax season may be over, but busy season doesn’t end here…
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