I just edited this, sorry I was a couple of weeks behind. I will post tomorrow explaining to all why I have sold. Thank you all for your interest and kind words. Matt [View Full Entry]

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In Costa Rica, there is no debate about when schools in Costa Rica take their "spring break." Everyone is off for Semana Santa - the week before Easter Sunday. So, with the boys off school and some friends from Minnesota (Dave, Naomi, Nicole, Abby, and Allison) down for their kids' spring break, we decided to do some traveling. Our first stop was Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui. This is located in the north central part of the country, about 2 hours drive from San Jose. The town itself used to be a major inland port for the banana and coffee trade - [View Full Entry]

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Hi Folks This is just a quick line or two to let you know that we arrived in Herredia on Wednesday, 19 March at about 9PM safe and sound with El Enano in tow. Haven´t been able to post anything until now because the entire country seems to shut down during Easter Week. Everything that is except for the grocery stores. It was really strange walking around the streets of Herredia on Thursday morning with no traffic, no pedestrians, every store shuttered and closed. So today was the first day of class at IPED. It was great to see Zeita, David, [View Full Entry]

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We made it! Got up at 4:30 in the dark and all to drive to the San Franciso Airport in order to be in time for a 9AM departure for Phoeniz. From Phoenix after a 2 hour layover on to San Jose, CR. I was having fun with El Enano in the Phoenix Airport and on the airplane. Six hours. ¡AY Caramba! The in flight movie was Million Dollar Baby. We´ve seen that one, so we tried to sleep. Had two newborns and parents in the seats next to us. One couple and baby were Ticos going back home to show [View Full Entry]

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Hey, well its been 2 weeks now and I'm just finishing up my trip in Costa Rica. It´s been great so far, went straight to Bocas Del Toro on the caribbean side of Panama from San Jose. Met some german surfers at the bus station who were heading to Bocas too so I stayed with them for 4 nights at this awesome hostel right on the water on Caranero island in Bocas. The waves started to pick up after a few days and got some really good rides at a beach break off of one of the islands. Still pretty rusty [View Full Entry]

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People often have a hard time understanding that there are basic items that one cannot obtain in Costa Rica. With all that is said about it's modernity, there are countless things that people take for granted living in the US that are not even a part of daily life down here. I am not talking about HDTV or High-Speed internet, (while neither of those are that easy to come by in CR) I am talking about basic necessities of life. There are certain items that our family brings down for us since we cannot get them here, such as nicer baby [View Full Entry]

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We spent a few days searching for a car. Kilon and I were undecided on the exact model etc. We were told to NEVER trust the odometer. Look for paint and body work to be an indication the car had been involved in a wreck (from witnessing the driving I’d say a good portion have been involved in an accident). We were originally looking at Honda CRVs and Toyota RAV4s. The CRV and RAV4 were too low to the ground for our purposes. After looking at 20+ cars we decided on the 2005 Toyota Prado Land Cruiser (2 door). We based [View Full Entry]

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So after traveling around as much of the country as we could stand for a month (mid-November to mid-December) while toting our two high-maintenance pieces of luggage, we settled back in Heredia. We chose Heredia primarily for the cooler temperatures (about 70 degrees in the morning and almost always sunny, rising in the afternoon to the mid-80’s , then cooling again with the afternoon rain) and the proximity to San Jose, schools, and other services. Our first weeks back in Heredia were surreal. While looking for a home to rent, we stayed in a little apartment with an open-air kitchen [View Full Entry]

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So I'm here and I already love it however it is a lot different than I thought it would be because I forgot that this is a 3rd world country. When I arrived at the airport I was happy to see that everything was in English and Spanish but that pretty much stopped there. Our hotel is right in the middle of a semi-busy street in Heredia and I will put up pictures soon to show you. The rooms are pretty small but good enough. It's really nice because all of us are on the same floor right next to [View Full Entry]

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After living for 2 weeks with power outages lasting from 2-5 hours a day there was sufficient rain in near the dams to allow the hydroelectric plants to start producing again. The power outages are over! It's amazing that even though it was only a couple of hours per day, it impacts you life in so many ways! This week they were working on the lines up the mountain, so not only is Costa Rica's power back on line and running at 100%, we should not be affected by even the worst weather! Thank G-d for small miracles :) [View Full Entry]

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