Week 1 - Don't run over the iguanas

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We'll it hasn't been quite a full week that I've been in Costa Rica, but so much has happened already I'd better get some of this documented or my blog posts are going to turn into novels. Our travels were for the most part uneventful. We tried out Spirit Airlines because the tickets were such a good deal. I would say we made a good choice, but for others considering flying with them (because they will almost always show up as the cheapest option if you've selected a route they fly) just a few little words of caution. First, the price you see is not the real price of your flight. It is the price before you pay for things like seat assignments and luggage. For us, the flights were still cheaper even after paying for some extras but definitely you should check the price of the flight on their site to get a clear idea of the actual cost. Next, their cheap flights sure must be popular because their main airport, Ft. Lauderdale, was super crowded. There were barely any places to sit while we waited for our connecting flight. Also finding a place to charge a cell phone was impossible. Just sayin. And there was really no place to eat - just a few food stands with very limited menus. But to save over $500 on flights - these things seem minor. No lost luggage, no major delays, and their flight crews were nice.

So, we arrived last Tuesday in the afternoon and were told that our house "wasn't quite ready" and that all of the stores were closed for New Years so we wouldn't be able to get food. So my brother in law/realtor said we'd be bunking with them that night. No problem really, we were all tired and could wait a day to get moved. We did go that day to see the house though and my first impression left me feeling a bit overwhelmed. The house was dirty, the yard was kind of a mess and the pool was full of leaves and dirt. The amount of work needing to be done felt huge, especially since I was tired from traveling, but I could see that we'd picked a good place despite it all so we dumped off our luggage, grabbed our overnight things and left. Back at our relatives house our daughter had a bit of a meltdown. I was pretty sure she was mostly tired, rather than truly upset, so I sat with her talking about all of the great things we were about to do and pleaded with her to get some rest so that she could cope with things better. I'll admit here, giving the pep talk was hard in light of everthing I was feeling myself (sort of "oh my gosh what did I just do?!?") but a good night's rest did the trick for us. The next day my husband and I decided that we'd do whatever it took to get into the house and spend the night there in an effort to begin establishing a home base for us. We ended up driving all around looking at cars with my brother in law and his mechanic - and ended up finding a car but I'll get to that later. We were exhaused at end of the day, and accomplished little more that having the house cleaned, bought groceries and moved a mattress in but we did spend the first night there. The kids had to share a room because we were still one bed short, and we didn't even unpack, but we slept there. Mission accomplished!

The next few days were a blur but we did finally get another matress so the kids now have their own rooms. (With an awesomely huge jack and jill style bathroom in between!) The landscaper/pool person came so our pool and yard are now looking great. Our relatives let us borrow some nice outdoor furniture for our patio so we can sit and enjoy our view, along with a bunch of kitchen items and two comfy rocking chairs that the kids really like. Yesterday we ventured into Escazu ( a suburb of San Jose) to try out a Costa Rica Wal-Mart and were able to pick up a few more house hold items and almost all of the kids' school supplies. I'm not a huge Wal Mart fan, but trying to get a bunch of odds and ends for the house was proving super time consuming because in Atenas there isn't a big store that sells everthing. There are lots of shops that sell various things and finding what you want is like embarking on a scavenger hunt - with no clues. Wal-Mart was out of some weird things, like twin size sheets and pillows, but we did find almost all of the things on our list. Plus, we got to drive on the sort-of new Route 27, which I vote as being a much nicer drive than taking the old highway between Atenas and San Jose, so the trip wasn't too bad either.

The last little event to report was that we got to attend a birthday party today for my husband's, cousin's child Jose Mariano. In addition to looking forward to seeing lots of cousins we hadn't seen in a few years, we were excited to take the kids to an event where there'd be lots of other kids to try and chat with. Our daughter made some great attempts to make friends, but reported back that the kids mostly just kept trying to speak louder and slower in an attempt to help her understand - a technique tried in many languages without a history of much success. She participated in some games and had a lot of fun. Our son was more of an observer but did make attempts to be social so all in all it was a good day.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and get access to my money and buy a car! Yes, when we looked the other day we did find a vehicle we liked. The mechanic kept trying to pick things based on what would re-sell best and be economical to drive. We kept saying we wanted something reliable that could go anywhere. As luck would have it, his uncle just bought a new truck and was looking to sell his 2000 Isuzu Trooper with 4-wheel drive and a manual transmission. And it was in our price range - woo hoo! We wanted to buy it right away, but we needed a lawyer to do the title transfer and they were all holiday last week. So tomorrow is our day - fingers crossed that things go smoothly! I'll let you know how it goes.

Well, some might be wondering if I was ever going to address the title of this post. To keep you reading, I saved my explaination for last - clever huh? I mentioned not running over any iguanas because seriously, why would you want to? But really, seeing one in the road just down the hill from my house was my first big reminder of what a different and amazing place I'm in. So it felt appropriate to introduce you to all of our big changes with this title. I could also mention making coffee with the cloth filter that hangs from a wooden frame, and the washing machine that requires me to manually rinse all of the clothes, but those seemed like lame titles. And I could get a coffee maker and washing machine like what I'm used to in the States, I just choose not to. (Actually, I'll be upgrading the washing machine, but whatever.) The iguanas are here to stay though, and it looks like we are too so we're going to have to learn to live with each other.



I promise photos soon - just too tired to get them together tonight. Hasta luego!

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