While moving to a new country, city, or neighbourhood can be extremely exciting; the act of actually packing, hauling, and transporting one's worldly possessions has the well earned reputation of being a most unpleasant and stressful experience. We knew all along that the day would come when we would have to leave our beautiful yard and comfortable home and return to Canada. Having to move all of our possessions to a new home in Costa Rica one week prior to leaving for Canada, well...in the words of an eight year old boy; it was "weird". Another aspect of moving is that [View Full Entry]

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Upon our return from the journey to the Caribbean coast we started exploring our opportunities back in Canada. According to my leave agreement it was necessary to indicate my intentions to return or not by the 15th of March. I had already contacted my buddy in human resources to find out what might be available and Nataghia was exploring her opportunities as well. As it turned out my opportunities were limited to a couple of teaching positions in small remote communities and a principal position in a small town similar to Eastend. In the meantime Nataghia found a nice opportunity with [View Full Entry]

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After 10 weeks of alternating between hosting company, recovering, and taking care of life’s chores Team Family settled right into the home school, work, and “normal” life with great anticipation. It only took three days to have the unanimous feeling that we should be doing something else. We came to Costa Rica with the goal to explore, discover, and understand this beautiful and interesting country. After six months we feel like we have achieved our goals. We feel that all of us have achieved a great deal of personal growth and we are ready for our next challenge in life. My [View Full Entry]

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After returning from our visa vacation in Nicaragua we enjoyed a quiet relaxing weekend in and around Esparza. We hadn’t seen some of our Costa Rican friends for a while so we invited Marlon, Andrea, and their one year old daughter Camilla to spend Sunday afternoon at Playa Dona Ana. It was Camilla’s first trip to the ocean and we enjoyed watching her parents fuss over her. It is very interesting to watch the subtle differences in child rearing no matter where we are. In Costa Rica the child is always golden and it seems like the parents will do everything [View Full Entry]

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Without time to get lonely after Sharon and Jeff set off on their travels we began planning for the arrival of my sister Genny and her husband Mitch, who were supposed to fly into San Jose late on January 29th. We were going to meet them the next morning and do some sight seeing in the San Jose area. As I imagined them flying over the US on their way, Genny called me to say they were still at the Saskatoon airport. Their flight had been canceled due to weather/technical difficulties. With a cold spell hitting the Prairies with average temperatures [View Full Entry]

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As the sun set on our adventure with the McLeod’s we were forced to face the bitter reality of life. After a week away, no matter where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing, going home is always a good feeling. Of course it is nice to sleep in one’s own bed and cook in a familiar kitchen but the backlog of laundry and other not so enjoyable aspects of life need to be dealt with eventually. This is especially true if the arrival of more guests is immanent and with the owner of the school emailing and calling about my [View Full Entry]

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After an early morning bus ride home from Monteverde we reorganized our things and headed up the Inter-Americana Highway on our way to meet the McLeod's in Samara. We were making terrific time, for Costa Rica, and had gone 50 kilometers in 45 minutes when traffic slowed to a crawl. The next 10 KM took 45 minutes and we finally made it to the turn off towards the Friendship Bridge and our final destination for the day, Hacienda San Fernando near Samara. When planning any excursion in Costa Rica it is very important to allow for at least one hour travel [View Full Entry]

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We have to go to Monteverde. When the McLeod’s visited Costa Rica some 17 years ago they never made it to the famous Costa Rican community of Monteverde because they didn’t have a 4x4. Monteverde has a unique history, climate, geography, ecology, and is very difficult to get to. Therefore people want to go there. Monteverde, means Green Mountain in English, and after spending two nights in Monteverde I wonder what kind of green the name refers to. I'm pretty sure you know it isn't the green that Puerto Viejo is known for and that what I'm talking about is dollars. [View Full Entry]

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Early on Saturday, December 29th we met up with the McLeod’s at the parque central. With breakfast burritos to eat on the road we set off for Arenal Volcano. Ron wanted to get an early start as the road between Esparza and San Ramon is busy and traffic has a tendency to get backed up. It was our lucky day as Ron easily passed a big logging truck, Lach followed closely behind and we were off. The ride from San Ramon to La Fortuna is a windy, climbing ride and on this day it was a bit overcast. We drove through [View Full Entry]

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After being our guests in Costa Rica for nearly three whole days and not getting to the beach on any of them made the McLeod's plan for the next day easy. Ariana had been waiting to go since Christmas Day and I applaud her grown up patience. Before heading out we filled up on pancakes and bacon, with fresh strawberries and yummy pineapple. Not as good as the Boxing Day brunch in Saskatoon, but Gail appreciated Ron's delicious cafe con leche. Then it was time to follow the little blue car - the McLeod's had rented their own big 4WD [View Full Entry]

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