This week's post will focus on life at the clinic (we don't want you all to think that we are simply touring around the country!). So, for all of you friends of Kyle and Sam who have been reading our blog, you will probably be disappointed not to find any pictures of cool birds, lizards, volcanoes, or waterfalls. Don't worry, I am confident that there will be many more in future posts. First, some background. Alajuelita - the city where the clinic resides - adjoins San Jose (the capital) to the south. This is not to be confused with Alajuela, the [View Full Entry]

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We took a fun day trip to Poas Volcano and La Paz Waterfall/Animal Reserve. Our first stop was the volcano - a beautiful drive up lush green fields including many strawberry farms. You park at the top and then walk to the crater, where you are greeted by the amazing sight of a huge crater with swirling gases mixing with clouds coming down from the slopes of the crater. And the boys immediately noticed the sulfur smell. During the half hour we stayed at the crater viewpoint, it would periodically be blanketed by clouds and then suddenly they would dissipate in [View Full Entry]

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We have now completed 1 month here in Costa Rica and while still pinch ourselves a little bit every morning, we have settled into a bit of a daily routine - wake up, leave the house by 7, drop the boys off at school, drive to the clinic, start seeing patients at 8, work until noon, have lunch with our colleagues and volunteers, then head out - to spanish class or to do errands/study spanish - until it is time to pick up the boys at school at 3:15. The weather even has a pretty standard rhythm to it - beautiful, [View Full Entry]

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Christian told us before we left that Santa Theresa was his favorite beach in all of Costa Rica, so we had pretty high expectations - and they were easily met and exceeded. It basically requires a 4WD vehicle to get there (big potholes dominate the road). The white sand beach stretches forever and the waves are big - apparently some of largest and most consistent anywhere in the country. There was a surfing competition going on while we were there, which the boys thought was pretty cool. They weren't as excited about swimming in the surf with Steve. The current and [View Full Entry]

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Our next stop was the funky town of Montezuma - full of laid back folks enjoying the good life on the Costa Rican coast. The boys explored the tidal pools and then we had dinner at an open-air restaurant overlooking the beach. Kyle and Sam also helped support the local economy by purchasing hand-carved wood necklaces of a dolphin and crocodile respectively. We headed back to our hotel before the nightlife got too crazy. We came back the next morning to check out the waterfall just outside town. Unbeknownst to us, the trail to the waterfall is a bit of a [View Full Entry]

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This week's blog update will be split into a couple of different entries so that each spot on our 4-day tour of the southern Nicoya peninsula gets its due. Before we left on Thursday morning, the boys enjoyed being on vacation with Steve as their school celebrated the nation's Independence Day. This mostly involved playing catch in the yard and going out on errands, while Nancy went into the clinic every morning. She and Christian (the Costa Rican doc) really seem to click in their approach to medicine. The big news on the clinic front was heavy flooding in the area, [View Full Entry]

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Saturday was the Costa Rican Independence Day. The country - along with other Central American nations - won its independence from Spain in 1821. The boys started school just in time to get a heavy dose of national songs, symbols, and history. By the end of the week, Kyle was even able to sing along to a few lines in the national anthem when we heard it while driving in our car. ("That doesn't make me less American, does it?") Speaking of cars, we are now the proud owners of a 1997 Honda CR-V. We purchased it from the mechanic friend [View Full Entry]

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Some of you have inquired about how to contact us or send us stuff - beyond using email. Now that we are established, we have some of those basics worked out. Our home phone number is 506-249-4810 and our cell is 506-361-6459. When calling from the US, you need to out a 011 in front of the 506. Also, unless it is an emergency, we suggest you call our home number, since we don't know what if any charges there are on the cell phone for receiving international calls. Our home address is: De la Cruz Roja, 300 metros al oeste [View Full Entry]

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Well, we have become quite well established here in our new Costa Rican home. We now have appliances (fridge, stove, microwave, and washer/dryer). Nancy has scrubbed all the cupboards and drawers - which we have filled with dishes, etc. Kyle & Sam have decorated their rooms with posters and such from home. We are all getting used to the mildly warm showers and the occasional creepy-crawly bugs that appear. The boys have also made fast friends with our landlord's children (boy age 10 and girl age 6 - who speak only Spanish) and animals (1 dog and 1 cat). They [View Full Entry]

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One hour before our scheduled 2PM landing in San Jose, the pilot came on to inform us that there had been an "incident" on the runway - the ONLY runway - at the airport. Therefore, we had to be diverted to the only other big airport in the country - Liberia - and wait to see what would happen next. To make a long story short, we ended up being placed on buses for the 3.5 hour drive to San Jose. On the bright side, it gave us a great look at the countryside in Guanacaste (volcanos, farmland, etc.) and also [View Full Entry]

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