Sunday 12/28- There is a good chance that we came home from our vacation more tired than we were when we left, and this morning we actually slept much later than we usually do. First things first, it was time to drink some “good” coffee, as I wouldn’t consider the coffee on the cruise ship very good coffee. I mean, we are pretty spoiled living in Costa Rica so it is hard to compete with that! After we got our caffeine fix, we decided that we would grab some quick essentials at the grocery store first and then go pick up Skye.
It didn’t take us long to get the groceries that we needed, and we pulled up to Paola’s house right at 7:30am. How strange, none of the dogs were going crazy barking this time! We called Skye’s name and saw her come running out of the house and toward the fence where our truck was parked. She stood by the fence looking at the truck, looking for us. A few of the other dogs noticed us standing near the gate and decided to come say hi to us, but still no Skye... so we called her name again! She glanced over and it took her a second to process who we were, but once it clicked she ran to us so fast and was jumping and whimpering with excitement. As we were talking to Paola and thanking her for coming to pick us up and for watching Skye, Skye decided that it was time to go and ran to the truck and waited for us to finish. She was ready to go home too!
Once we were home it was a low-key day for us. We had lots of laundry to do and things to put away. Skye was passed out on the outdoor couch and pretty much slept all day.
While we were on the cruise, Ramie had been keeping an eye on the solar and noticed that we weren’t making much solar power and had to manually charge the batteries almost every day. We asked some of our friends here if it had been very rainy, and Karen and Dennis how their solar production was, and by the sounds of it we should have had some really good solar production.
Monday 12/29- Vacation mode is over and it's back to reality, I’m back at work, and Ramie is back to work fixing a bunch of stuff that got broken or went wrong with Frank & Rose’s house, while we were away.
In addition to everything going on at our house and next door, Ramie also got a call from Randall in the middle of it all and asked if he could help unload a container. Unfortunately, this time Ramie had to decline as he had other more pressing priorities.
Tuesday 12/30- While I was working, Ramie spent the day cleaning out and organizing the dry room. It has once again become a catch all and things haven’t been cleaned up and put back in their places after we dug out the suitcases. It was just a complete, disorganized mess.
It took him the majority of the day to get everything organized back to how it belonged. The plus side is that this is the only room in our house that we use our A/C. Yes, it’s set to dehumidify mode, but it still keeps that room cooler and dryer than the rest of the house, so it was place for him to hide out and he wasn't a sweaty mess like he normally is when he finishes working
Wednesday 12/31- New Years Eve!
The Official Casa Costa Breeze end of December rainfall total was 7.26 inches
The Official Casa Costa Breeze end of 2025 rainfall total was 196.05 inches or 16.34 feet
Thursday 1/1- Happy New Year!
Friday 1/2- One thing that Ramie worked on before we left for our cruise was to figure out how to get our Costa Rica driver’s license renewed. It expires in March, but you're allowed to renew it 3 months in advance. Due to the craziness that sometimes happens here, we like to do get important things done nice and early in case there are any problems. Several weeks ago, Ramie scheduled appointments for today for us to get this done. Before you can renew your drivers license, though, you have to get a “medical certificate” stating that you are in good enough health to drive.
This whole thing is really a joke and more or less just a money grab for the country. When we first got our initial driver’s license here we had to go and see a doctor. He basically took your pulse to see if you were alive and had you looked at the 2nd line of an eye chart to show that you could see, and that was about it. This time we didn’t even have to go to a doctor to get checked out. We paid our lawyer $50 each and she filled out the information in a template: height, weight, age, glasses (yes or no), and your address and phone number. Not even a single medical question on it, but if you don't have this certificate, you can't renew your driver’s license. PURA VIDA mentality at its finest!
Our appointments were scheduled for 11:40 and 11:50, one for each of us. There is no DMV down here for this, and you actually get your driver’s license renewed at certain branches of Banco de Cost Rica. Yep, you read that right! You go to the bank to get your drivers license renewed! Again, something that is totally off the wall, but very much what you’d expect from Costa Rica! We are always early for things and arrived at about 11:25 expecting a line of people and to likely get into our appointment much later than the scheduled time (at least that's what happened last time when we were getting our original license here). To our shock and surprise we were directed to the office right away! The guy asked some general questions like our blood type, if we wore glasses, and if you wanted to be an organ donor. I mean, you’d think that this would all be part of the medical certificate, right? 🤦♀️ After he input the info we got our picture taken, paid the fee, and the license is printed and given to you right there on the spot. We walked out of our appointment, both of us completely finished with new cards in hand at 11:38am, even before our scheduled appointment time!! This had to be the fastest official thing that we’ve ever gone through in Costa Rica! This was by far much easier than the first time getting our license, where we had to travel 2 hours to a small town near the Panama border to get it. If you want to read about that experience Click HERE!When we got home from our appointments Ramie had more yard work to do and I did some work on the blog.
Saturday 1/3- It’s the weekend, and we’re falling behind due to our vacation, so today it was back to the regular grind of working on the blog and computer stuff again. We talked and dreamed about what cruise we should do next and Ramie’s Research started searching to see what kind of deals there were. I think we are going to try to get back into our old cruising habits, so if anyone wants to join us, let us know!
Sunday 1/4- We have had some ribs in the freezer for a little while and I was getting sick of moving them around when I was digging for things in there so I pulled them out yesterday to thaw so that we could throw them on the smoker. Since the smoker was already going, we decided to throw some pork chops on too since those were so good last time.
While those were on the smoker, Karen and Dennis came over for a couple of hours to visit and catch up after their trip back to FL and our cruise. We also kept dreaming and researching options for our next cruise.
Tuesday 1/6- Today Ramie would be helping Randall move and deliver that heavy cement tabletop and stools that they picked up about a month ago and have been storing at the warehouse. This was a coordinated effort and had to be planned out in advance as this tabletop weighed about 1,000 lbs, if not more, and the stools and bases for the table are each a two-person lift. When Ramie arrived at the warehouse this morning, he helped Randall load the truck (with the fork lift) while they waited for Lowell to arrive. When the 3 guys got to the house they were delivering to, the owner of this table also had some guys there to help (this was part of the deal when the guy hired the moving company, as Lowell, Randall, and Ramie couldn’t do it themselves!!) The tabletop had to be carried about 200 feet or so, but it was extra challenging because they have to maneuver this thing through the house to get to the back yard where it would be placed. The plan was to have 6 guys carry it: they would strap pipes to the bottom of it to use as handles and have 3 guys on each side of the tabletop. They couldn’t use a cart or any sort of equipment because the tile that they had to cross was too fragile and would crack and break with that amount of weight.The first obstacle was to get it off the truck. As they moved it off the back of the tailgate, some of the guys had to support nearly the full weight of the table until everyone was able to grab a pipe. When it was finally off the truck, the next obstacle was to pass through a hallway that was just barely wide enough for the table top to fit through; the guys had to stand sideways and shuffle through until it opened up to a larger space where they could turn and walk straight forward again. Then, from there, they had to navigate around some water features that were on the edges of the sidewalk without falling into them, down some steps, and then through some columns that were only slightly wider than that first hallway. All the while, the pipes were also spinning in their hands so they had to keep re-adjusting as they walked. Ramie said that if the location would have been much further, they would not have been able to carry it, everyone was giving it all they had and were out of strength by the time they got it to where it was to be set. When they finally had it set on it’s bases, they then had to level the table and center it which meant to lift it again and move tiny little bits at a time. Next, they unloaded the cement stools from the truck and let the owner and his workers take care of them on their own. They did have another piece of furniture that they had to move, though, which was a very large wooden couch. Ramie says that this piece really should have just been lit on fire, but the guy insisted that he wanted it upstairs in this house. The problem they would run into here was that there were two landings in the stairway that they had to try to get this 10’ long couch around, and this stairwell had glass railings so they couldn’t really put any pressure on the sides. Rich people's problems, right!? It took 5 guys to lift this thing and twist it to get it upstairs and set in place. When they were finally done with this delivery, Ramie went back to the warehouse to help with a couple of other deliveries that day.
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| Northern Cat Eye Snake. Non venomous and very docile. They eat geckos, frogs, etc. I was no bigger around than your pointer finger. |
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| Snowy Egret - about the size of a Great Blue Heron |
Friday 1/9- The shipping company has been busy lately and Randall called Ramie to help unload another container today. This took them about 5 hours, and when he was finished he made it home in time to meet with the window screen contractor who is installing screens on some of the windows in Frank and Rose's house next door. While the window screen guys were installing those, the fumigator also showed up to fumigate that house. Many people fumigate down here because we do essentially live in the jungle and bugs get into your house. Their house has never been fumigated (neither has ours), but the last few guests have mentioned some cockroaches and ants in the house, so it's time to have it done.
We were sitting out back and noticed that Skye went running after something by the fence between our house and Frank & Rose’s house. We know that we have a “Fairchild lizard” (the name that we gave it comes from the extremely long toes on these guys) that lives in that area of our back yard. We just assumed it was that lizard that she was chasing, but Ramie was facing that direction and something caught his eye. He looked closer and saw that it was a cockroach running from Frank & Rose’s side of the fence, across our deck, and towards our house.
He grabbed a flip flop and smacked it. Then another and another started showing up. We looked closer at the fence line and there had to be hundreds of cockroaches, if not thousands, making a run across for the border (fence) to our house, since ours wasn’t full of the toxic chemical that the fumigator just sprayed. I grabbed another flip flop and we smashed cockroaches like a whack a mole machine.
I’m not kidding when I say hundreds… you could literally hear them scurrying through the rocks and see them all over the place. Ramie ran to the front of the house and was on whack a mole duty there while he called the fumigator to come back and spray our house too. When he was talking to him on the phone, the fumigator was kind of laughing and said yes, that can happen but not often, and they were dying, and would probably just make it to the edge and fall over dead. Well, we had never had a cockroach problem at our house before and didn't want to risk one starting now, so we needed him to come back to make sure that didn't happen!! He was at another house in the neighborhood and promised he would be right back when he finished there.
We continued to play whack a mole and think that we had it under control, when he arrived. We talked to him and told him what was going on. I asked him 1,001 questions about whether this was pet safe and if it would have any side effects for us or Skye, and learned that this was an all natural blend that only kills ants, cockroaches, some other small bugs and small spiders, but doesn’t even hurt the geckos and things like that. While I was asking questions, the guy with the gas powered unit started it up and walked along the fence line where the cockroaches were coming from and continued around our yard. The main guy had gone inside and started spraying, and then we heard the guy outside shut off the machine and yell to the main guy to come outside and check this out (at least that’s what my rough translation sounded like to me). His eyes were wide and his expression said something like holy shit!
The main guy walked over to him and he stirred up even more cockroaches… again you could literally hear them skittering. The main guy said that the house next door had a MUCH bigger problem than they had realized and both them and us spraying was probably a really good thing. The outside guy started the machine back up and made another pass around our yard, and then a few more along the fence line while the inside guy finished up. After they left, we still had to whack a few more, but eventually they ceased and you could tell that the majority of them had died now. I’m afraid to see what the cockroach graveyard in Frank & Rose’s yard looks like tomorrow!! This whole thing is truly something that nightmares are made of and I hope to never see this again! Ramie says that he has seen a lot of cockroaches in the tunnels at the prison he used to work at, but nothing even close to this extreme. I’m glad we sprayed as well, even though we know we didn't have a bug problem at our house, at least I can be confident that the cockroaches from next door will be deterred and hopefully won't start a congregation in our house now.
Saturday 1/10- Normally on Sunday mornings we start our morning by a quick run to the grocery store for veggies and essentials for the week, but instead of waiting until tomorrow, we ran that errand this morning. That never takes long, and since we were home and it was still early, we did some work in the yard this morning too. After we finished that and had worked up a good thirst, Ramie twisted my arm and we made an impromptu trip to the brewery here in town. While this isn’t a GREAT brewery, nothing like the ones we left behind in MN, Ramie got a decent IPA, and they also have a full bar, so I could get a drink of my choice.
Sunday 1/11- Since I didn’t have to go to the grocery store this morning, I did a little bit of baking in the AM. I’m not a big fan of baking, but when I do get the urge, I do several batches of things like muffins or banana bread. When those were all done, we brought Skye for an ATV ride to the waterfall.
We know that she likes going in the water a little bit, but only where she can walk in and still touch. She won’t even get near our pool, so instead of driving all the way to secret beach or going to one of the closer beaches and risk other very aggressive dogs (we have heard horror stories, and after turtle walks Ramie has witnessed very badly behaved dogs and their negligent owners that allow the BS to happen), we opted to go to the waterfall. When we arrived, we were shocked by the number of people there, families hanging out, parties going on, grills set up, etc. We let Skye swim a little bit, but between her nervousness in general, her extra nervousness about so many people, and the water, she didn’t really want to play and swim too much. We didn’t stay long, but I think she enjoyed the ride and the swim.
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| OMG!!!! We are going for a ride!!! I love this!!!! |
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| Look at those smiles!!!! |
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| I'm doing it, dad!!! |
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