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Published: January 30th 2012
Casa Marbella
Home until July....Hola! It's day three here in Costa Rica and we are pretty much settled in. Here's an update for you all:
Saturday was a long (15 hour) day of car and airplane travel. The kids held up really great and the first 5 hours of the 6 hour van ride from San Jose to the coast was really relaxing and scenic. It was nice to unwind and, since none of us had working cell phones, we were able to just unplug, relax and take in the scenery.
The last hour of the ride was filled with the usual steady stream of "
how much longer?" which was understandable since we'd been travelling all day and everyone was hungry and tired. The ride into Playa Grande is on a bumpy dirt road and it was pitch black. The town of Playa Grande is contained within
Las Baulas National Park , which, in turn, contains the largest salt-water estuary in Central America. The park was created
after residential development had already started, in an effort to protect the nesting grounds of the leather back turtles. There are maybe a couple of hundred houses here and a few 2 story hotels. Since the park was created,
Rodeo Riders
Guanacaste is cowboy country and there are lots of rodeos. We hope to catch one while we are here. it is pretty much impossible to get a building permit here so it's nice and quiet. In a recent census conducted in the lowest of the low season (October) there were only 60 people living in this area. It's so rainy at that time of year that no tourists come and most of the residents leave for a month or two.
Our house backs onto the estuary and the last part of the drive reminded me of a certain Scooby Doo episode where they are investigating a mystery in a scary mangrove swamp. Between the dark, the fatigue and hunger, and the mangrove trees with hanging vines, Ella was getting a bit freaked out and had a bit of a meltdown at dinner. "I..sob.. want.. sob... to go home." Still, we found out that The Great Waltini's restaurant next to our house has got great food and friendly staff. This is also where we will be catching the water taxi into Tamarindo when needed. After a fitful sleep at the
Hotel Bula Bula we met the owner of Casa Marbella on Sunday morning and checked into the house. We were blown away and it far exceeded our expectations. The entire day
Playa Grande Beach
Our first visit to our local beach. Some of the best surfing in the world. we kept asking ourselves if this was really happening? How did we end up in this awesome place, in this beautiful country, for five + months? It was easy to forget the 13 months of planning and simpy get caught up in the wonder if the experience and surroundings.
We spent Sunday doing a major grocery shop (Steve, the owner, is super nice and drove us into Tamarindo for our "stocking up the kitchen" shop). Shopping here is pretty much the same as shopping at home with the exception that you can get your booze in the same store as your groceries. They carry a good variety of items: some more expensive than at home and some less expensive. In the end, our bill was $600. So overall, not a cheap place to shop but this was the biggest purchase we'll make in the entire trip - we filled three shopping carts!
Later that day we took a walk around the neighbourhood, checking out the nature trail along the bank of the estuary, the beach, the location of local restaurants and a group of howler monkeys who were in a tree across the street from our house. They
School
Charlie and Ella getting a school tour from the owner, Estefania. would howl everytime a vehicle went by. They are pretty small monkeys but they
make a HUGE sound which can be really scary if you don't know the source. They are also known to pee on people from the tree tops if you irratate them and walk too close!
Then, a swim in the pool, BBQ dinner and early to bed. Ella was (not surprisingly) freaked out to be in a room separated from us by an exterior walk-way. To get to our bedroom you have to walk outside and this short distance seemed like a long, scary gap between her and us. So after trying a "facetime" video connection between our rooms (using iPad and iPhone) Cher finally gave in a slept in Ella's room. Hopefully she'll get comfortable in her new room soon enough.
It's Monday now and we just dropped the kids off for their first day of school which was
very cool.
The Home School Beach Academy (HSBA) is like something out of a movie. It's a relatively new school that is accredited by the State of Washington. It's a hybrid of a self-paced/homeschool model that has classrooms and teachers that guide the students through core concepts and self-study using Washington
Ella
Pretty girl, pretty flowers. State curriculum. Like many things in Costa Rica, the school is full of contrasts: the buildings are very rustic, made of recyled bamboo with plastic roofs, open to the outside elements, while the academic standards are very high, with recent graduates having gone on to M.I.T. and Princeton. The founder and principal is an energetic Costa Rican named Estefania. Ella immediately took to her and what we thought might be a really rough first morning was absolutely a breeze.
After a brief tour, Ella was led off to meet her classmates and Charlie was taken to the highschool group by a cute blonde who was designated as his personal guide. I think he's in good hands and Estafania clearly knows how to get a highschool boy comfortable with his first day of school in a foreign country. :- )
Although the kids will get transportation to and from school in a van with other kids from our area, this morning we had to find our own way in. This came in the form of former Florida resident "Jake" (we didn't get his last name and it really didn't matter). Jake had some great stories of working
The highschool classrooms.
Made from recylced materials and open to the outside elements. on commercial salmon boats in Alaska, including a near distastrous incident where the night-watch person fell asleep (after drinking) and ran them their boat into a reef. They had to be rescued by the coast guard and thankfully, no one was hurt.
We're off to Tamarindo today to get SIM cards for our phones and grab some lunch. I'm looking forward to hearing about the kids first day at school!
Ciao,
Dan
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Ted Sidlauskas
non-member comment
Looks beautiful, I can't believe how busy you guys are already! This is a great window into another world. Looking forward to seeing and reading more of your adventures.