Blogs from San Ramon, Alajuela, Costa Rica, Central America Caribbean - page 5

I visited the site of my casita in Baho La Paz last week. When I was there in February the bulldozer was not able to complete the land leveling (NO trees were removed!!!) because of the heavy rains. But now, 1 1/2 months later, all the walls are up, the crown is being finished, and the roof starts this week. It is becoming VERY real - this move anticipated to take place sometime this summer. I have a wonderful crew of Ticos working on the house - a master builder and assistant and 5 brothers in the Ramirez family. The Ramirez's have been my home-away-from-home on all my visits to CR since 2004. And they have reported seeing the Resplendant Quetzal and white-faced monkeys in the forests on my land. Our reforestation efforts are starting to ... read more

Being a former restaurant owner and foodie, I love learning about local foods. Costa Rica is blessed with some of the best fruits, vegetables, fish etc. in the world but local cuisine is sometimes lacking creativity and strong flavors. Since moving to the country, my neighbor Mariellas has been inspirational in teaching me some local favorites. We just planted an organic vegetable garden that both our households will share and we also have plenty or oranges, limons and bananas on our land. On a lazy Sunday, our neighbors invited us over to make cheese empanadas. Their family has cows and makes the local cheese which is a fresh cheese that looks like a cross between tofu and feta. Often the corn comes from our garden. A couple of weeks before, Mariellas taught me to make fresh ... read more

Preston and Andrew took us to the properties that they have in San Ramon. They are so beautiful they don't look real. One property had a lot with this incredible tree that looked like something out of a movie. Piper wanted that lot... it would make for an amazing back yard...... read more

Staying at Angel Valley Farm Bed & Breakfast. We'll be taking the Boomer's Tour, but it doesn't start until Monday. Piper is the first young person they've had on the tour. One other couple is with us - Lou and Lorraine. We all hit it off immediately and as we are going to be in close quarters for a week I am sure we were all secretly thankful. We're met at the B&B by Mae - she's the resident Chef and is, herself, an expat. The owner of the B&B and Tour leader is Andrew Mastrandonas. He comes up from San Ramon to take us to dinner. I adore Costa Rican food - it reminds me very much of the Cuban food I used to eat in Miami. Something I haven't been able to get in ... read more

Our first trip to Costa Rica. I fell in love as the plane was landing. I've never seen a more beautiful place. We took only carry-on bags so immigration and customs was no big deal. We were met at the airport by our B&B's driver, Kenneth, and Pietro - an indispensable gentleman with a warm smile and engaging manner who served as our translator, initial tour guide, man about town, and general genie-to-get-things-done person. I know enough Spanish to get into a conversation and get myself in trouble at which time I'd usually panic and look around frantically calling, "Pietro!" He bailed me out. Daily. It was a good thing too, I could have packed Mark a tee-shirt proclaiming "No Habla Espanol" and saved him a lot of angst. We are all working on learning Spanish, ... read more