Advertisement
Published: November 29th 2005
Edit Blog Post
Field of Dreams
The path through the field to the river and waterfalls. Wow, what a busy few weeks! Plenty of guests, plenty of friends and plenty of Turkey!! Finally, after being here for several months, I decided one afternoon to take a walk down to the Barranca River which runs near my property. There is another river (I think it is a different river but I’m not sure) up above me but the hike is more difficult.
The dogs decided they would follow me, which was nice actually, as they kept up with me, and most importantly, stayed out of the water. It was a nice downhill hike perhaps a half mile first through some sugar cane fields and then to the river banks. Walking through the sugar cane field on my way to the river made me feel like the baseball players in “Field of Dreams,” walking into that dense field to something mysterious inside.
I was immediately struck by the difference between my immediate surroundings at Angel Valley Farm (www.AngelValleyFarmBandB.com) and the river area, just a short distance away. Once I got to the river bank and found the two waterfalls there among the dense canopy of the rainforest, I was amazed by the cacophony of sounds and the
lack of light. It was intense! I thought how lucky I was to have such a neat river with waterfalls right near my property.
I saw various multicolored birds, witnessed rodents of various unknown specifics making their way through the many rocks that lay across the swallow part of the river bed, and heard the noises of all kinds of animals, most of them hidden in the dense thicket or high above in the trees. The river was deep in some parts, particularly where the waterfall spilled out and in other areas became a pretty fast moving river, almost good enough for whitewater rafting.
Reina and Osita definitely enjoyed the hike but being still puppies, are not quite ready for swimming lessons and only got dangerously close the water. Osita actually stuck one her paws in the river but immediately retreated. I guess the water was too cold for her!
The climb up the hill back to my house was a bit more grueling than going down but I’ll definitely be back again soon, as I’m sure each time I’ll discover something new about the wide, long river.
“Turkey Day” a la Costa Rica!
Thanksgiving
One of the waterfalls
Looks like a great swimming hole! was a great time here! It certainly felt a bit odd initially as this was my first Thanksgiving living in a warm climate in my entire life (I guess Christmas will feel even odder)! It was a great multicultural, multigenerational experience however. A guest list that initially started at 19, ended up at 26 guests, including two of my good friends from Washington, DC. The others were mostly neighbors and some of my new friends.
I must admit I was a bit nervous, as one, I had never hosted such a big party that involved real food, and two, I prayed I bought the right turkeys and they would come out alright. Well, lucky for me, my neighbor MaryEllen cooked two of the three small birds we bought and while I cooked the third bird with the help of my friend Russell, we didn’t even it use it as we had way too much turkey and other food.
The morning of Thanksgiving when Fernando, Mary Ellen’s husband, came up to take two of he turkeys for Mary Ellen to cook, I immediately got a call from Mary Ellen after Fernando returned home, nothing that first, the Turkeys were
pre-cooked and smoked (I did noticed they looked a little dark in the supermarket). Second, she said they were past their date of expiration! As it turned out, they were not expired (though they were dead, that I can assure you) thankfully!
All and all, everyone had a great time. We ended up with a quite a few side dishes including a squash soup and a corn chowder, mashed potatoes, rice and beans of course, a few other Costa Rican staples, cranberry sauce, homemade bread, fresh fruit, apple pie, a birthday cake for one of our neighbors, and my favorite, dolmades (stuffed grape leaves).
After Thanksgiving dinner, several of us settled in at “Mi Rancho” bar/restaurant across the street for an evening of karaoke. What a great time!
Oh, my Trooper!
My Izusu Trooper continues to take a beating and remains ill. I guess it got quite the workout coming back from Nicaragua. I had to have the entire gear box replaced which my bilingual mechanic did quickly, however, it still doesn’t switch gears well and has almost zero power in any gear going up hills—not a good thing in my neighborhood! So, it’s back at
the shop and hopefully another new gear box will fix the problem. Stay tuned!
Work finally coming to an end…
It looks like most of the renovations on the B&B are about over with today’s fixing of several windows that were missing window panes or the window mechanism was not closing properly, making the house a little cold at night. Tonight it feels warm inside! It was a long haul for sure getting things done, but a great payoff—a place we can call our own and a very comfortable and inviting place for our guests.
The weather is finally breaking and I truly hope the rainy season is coming to an end. Today was warm (high 70s/low 80s) and bright and sunny—definitely why I moved to Costa Rica!! I hope you’ll all visit us soon!
More soon!
Pura Vida!
Andrew
Andrew4CR@gmail.com
http://www.AngelValleyFarmBandB.com
Advertisement
Tot: 0.101s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 5; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0755s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb