animal crackers

Our nephew Will was excited to see the picture of the scorpion so we thought we better take it up a few notches and keep him impressed. He’s only 3, but we want to keep our cool reputations. Here are some more animal pictures. These were all taken on our last big adventure around the country. The monkeys were super tame, we fed them bananas and plantains. It was thrilling. Its really impressive how they swing with such ease from branch to branch by their tails and long arms. Their little hands were unbelievably human. FIVE FINGERS! The crocodiles were under a bridge we drove over. Eerie. They look so prehistoric. There were about a dozen of them, basking in the murky water to catch some sun. And possibly waiting to catch something/someone else? The iguana was so photogenic, we wondered how many other people have shot his portrait? And last but not least, the giant beetle was caught in our house last night by Uncle Aaron. He heard the buzzing of the wings from upstairs and went down to investigate. He choose to use the coffee pot over the usual “creature trap” for optimal viewing. Now who’s impressed?

Canela Lee Zuleta Harper

We were so thrilled to see our dear friend Erica Harper in San Jose and meet her partner Marco and their new baby Canela. Canela is Spanish for CINNAMON. What a sweetheart. She was born at their home on Nov. 12th. We are in awe of Erica for having her baby at home...not to mention she did it standing up! Gravity and sound vibration should not be taken for granted!
It was really inspiring and grounding to see how they are living their lives. Erica and Marco are both artists and make a living doing street theater-circus performances. Think unicycles and juggling fire. Their performances are complete with costumes and social commentary. They also sell crafts and jewelry that they make. Beautiful. Stellar examples of living with creativity and integrity.

sawdust

Many things have been dismissed as unnessessary in these parts.These folks get by just fine in their seemingly primitive approaches to taking care of business. The same holds true for milling. No hulking buildings with their steel teeth and hydro electrics chomping away at the jungle. Instead, a couple of young men take petite nibbles on our surrrounding trees. Using only an extended chainsaw fixed with a jig, these dudes slowly but steadily (and neatly) mill los arboles of our area. The planks are mostly used for concrete forming in all the building done here. The operators of these saws are all lean, incredibly strong, and evidently deaf as ear protection seems to be a thing for the weak. ouch. The younger helper pictured here was last seen helping us out with the mural at his school. We were a bit surprised to see him sweating so hard on an early saturday morning. So much for Saturday cartoons!

Frutas y Queso

While we were staying at Zancudo Beach, we did some sign painting in trade for a couple free nights at the cabina we were staying in. There was a produce truck that rumbled through this one road town selling fruit, vegetables, cheese, homemade rum, etc. People hang signs out by the road to signal they want "Willy" to stop. Here are a couple of our favorites.

miles and miles

We've been out of the blog loop as we were travelling around the country for a week without the computer. Our friend Chris Kuhlman from L.A. met up with us here and we rented a car and made some tracks. We were so impressed by the diversity of the landscape. Being 'down south' in Ojochal for 6 weeks in the humidity and warmth has been great, but the mountain air of Monteverde was WONDERFUL. We finally got to wear long sleeves and cuddle under a quilt just like all our friends and family back home. Our adventures were numerous. Here is just a tiny glimpse of the landscapes we travelled across... we saw agricultural expanse, coffee plantations, cloud forests and even two active volcanoes. Looking through the binoculars from the base of Volcan Arenal we could see boulders rolling down the hillside, spewed from within...the sound was like a grumbling and rumbling we've never experienced before.

Thanksgiving in the Tropics

This was the first time in 6 years that we didn't spend Thanksgiving with Aaron's family. When we talked to Grandma Gladhart she said there had been snow flurries and ice in Kansas. It was 80 degrees here and we were barefoot. We roasted a chicken we had gotten from this really inspiring, beautiful farm here. It is a bio-dynamic farm, which is a method of organic farming that integrates and emphasizes the relationships between soil, plants, and animals. This chicken was the best we have EVER eaten!

Our meal was very simple yet delicious...roasted chicken with garlic and rosemary, sweet potatoes, and a new recipe I call "Costa Rican Ensalada" which is just chopped tomato, avodado and cucumber with lime juice and "Chilero" our new favorite hot sauce. The food was completely local with the exception of our Chilean and French wine. Did we miss the traditional feast? Not really, though I did make up some devilled eggs in honor of Grandma Gladhart to keep that tradition alive.

We spent the afternoon playing cards, painting, and putting on a shadow puppet show. It was nice to spend the day alone but we did have one visitor. This scorpion! It was about 4 inches long, not including the tail. Its one thing to see these enshrined in a cast resin belt buckle or bolo tie, but ON THE WALL?!?!? Aaron calmly got out the "creature trap" which is an empty plastic bowl and the cardboard backing from a notebook. To date, he has extracted giant grasshoppers, roaches, spiders, centipedes, bats and scorpions with it. Just because we aren't scraping ice doesn't mean we don't have our own issues...

1 cerveza. 2 cerveza.

Living in Costa Rica has freed me from the paralysis we experience in the U.S. that can come from having too many choices. We feel it is our right to get to decide between 20 kinds of peanut butter or 3 aisles dedicated to morning cereals. Not in costa rica... and i mean right down to our beer. There are basically 2 choices: Imperial or Pilsen with Bavaria(strangely, this Germanic sounding cerveza is brewed right here) coming in a distant 3rd. Seriously. 2...Every cafe, bar, and convenience store in the country has a Pilsen or Imperial sign hanging out front, lit up like a beacon in an otherwise black jungle night.
You could do worse. I know I have at the Replay simply with a Pabst. These beers are refreshing and usually ice cold no matter where you get them. They are the beer you reach for following an afternoon full of mowing in July. Ken and I have gotten into a little habit after finishing up a day's work of painting at the school. We move on down to the neighborhood mercado for the goods. Then, we slowly make our way up our winding, axel- breaking road home sipping on Pilsens and munching on bags of locally made plantain chips(our favorite new food group.)
Sooo... the next time any of you beauties tip back an Oatmeal Stout or Boulevard pale take one attentive gulp for your poor, deprived friends in the tropics. salut!