One week down and moving into the second... After the first day of school, Ari said, “One day was enough. I don’t want to go back.” Now after a week is done, I think he really likes it (although we don’t get more than an “it’s ok” out of him, you can tell that he does). He comes home dirty (from playing at recess) and smiling everyday. The other night at dinner he said, “There are some things that are better , some things that are worse and some things that are just different.” The things that are better [View Full Entry]

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Ari’s first day of school is tomorrow (well, today by the time you read this - or maybe even yesterday, last week or last month). We are all very excited. Since his teachers were on strike when we left Yardley, he hasn’t had a real day of school since October 21 (well, there was that one day he went back and visited after Thanksgiving). I think Ari is nervous and excited - although he is being very calm and cool about the whole thing. We will see how he is in the morning. I can’t wait for him to meet some [View Full Entry]

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So, I thought I’d try my hand at writing a journal entry since Mark relinquished his “adventuring” responsibilities last week while he spent a week back in the US for work. This is Dara. How did the rest of the family hold up in Costa Rica with my improving, but still very limited, Spanish skills? Well, pretty well (if I do say so myself). The biggest mistake I’ve made so far has been asking for a bathroom (servicio) when I really wanted a beer (cerveza)…a little embarrassing, but that was a long time ago already (at least 4 or 5 weeks [View Full Entry]

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Sorry to have left you hanging so precariously… When we last left our intrepid adventurers, they were standing outside of Steve ‘n Lisa’s Restaurant, about 10 minutes outside of Jaco. Since the bus cruised by and there wasn’t another due for a while, we went in for a late breakfast overlooking the ocean. After eating we debated what to do - head back to Jaco and hit the beach and the pool, or go about ½ a mile the other direction to a side road that lead off to waterfalls - we had seen signs saying they were 4km down that [View Full Entry]

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In reviewing this blog before publishing it, I realize that the blogs have become much more travel log and much less “blog.” Well, frankly, we’ve been busy and I really want to share with everyone all our interesting and funny (at least they seem that way to us) adventures. If anyone has any suggestions, questions or if more explanation is needed, please do not hesitate to put it in the comments. The kids will be starting school soon, so I think once that happens, we will get into a routine and hopefully the blogs won’t be so busy. Well, we spent [View Full Entry]

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Right off the bat, let me apologize - this blog has no pictures. We are at the beach and left the cable to connect the camera back at our apartment. No, this isn’t just some slick marketing ploy to get you to tune in next time. So tune in next time to see the pictures. So we decided to take a vacation before the kids went back to school. Sure, you could say that the past 6 weeks (or however long it’s been - it’s hard to keep track) have been a vacation, but except for the stint at Asis, the [View Full Entry]

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Well, things have been pretty slow since we’ve moved in - school for the kids doesn’t start until Jan 30 or later, depending on what school we choose. So most days have been Dara’s homeschool in the mornings followed by an outing to the playground or errands around town in the afternoon. The kids have really been great. Remember those old family vacations when you were young - a week or two on the road with no one but your sister to play with (or no one but your brother - if you have more than one brother or sister or [View Full Entry]

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Ever wonder what is out past where the road ends? Well, that is where we spent Christmas weekend. If you look on a map of Costa Rica, in the northern part of the country near Nicaragua from the middle of country out to the Caribbean there is a big area that has no roads. This area is called Las Llanuras or the plains. As the name implies, it is relatively flat and a high water table makes any low spots swampy. It is banana, pineapple and cow country. It took us about 4 hours to get there - 2 hours to [View Full Entry]

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Sorry we haven’t had an update in a while - things have been busy, but more importantly, we haven’t had internet access in our home. Hopefully that will get set up soon. With a suggestion from my mom, I did go out and get one of those hard-drives that plug into the USB port so now I can take that to the internet cafe (yes, they have all sorts of computer equipment her -- they have everything, just like back home... but more about that in a different blog, after we get caught up). Anyway, to pick up where we left [View Full Entry]

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Happy Winter Solstice! I don't have time for a long entry -- we are in the foothills of Volcano Arenal (the most active volcano in the country, if not the continent) in the northwest part of Costa Rica and everything is great except for the rooster with jet-lag, the klyptomaniac toucans and the monkeys that pull Ari's hair. The Instituto Asis is beautiful, small private nature reserve that does a few different things -- mainly it cares for injured animals and does community environmental education. As a sideline, it also teaches Spanish. everyone is doing very well and Ari is really [View Full Entry]

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