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Published: January 6th 2006
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Hard at Work
Ari end Eliana pitched in to help milk the cows and make the cheese. They really loved pitching in and doing all the farm chores -- milking the cows, feeding the chickens, collecting the eggs, and washing the horses. Ever wonder what is out past where the road ends? Well, that is where we spent Christmas weekend. If you look on a map of Costa Rica, in the northern part of the country near Nicaragua from the middle of country out to the Caribbean there is a big area that has no roads. This area is called Las Llanuras or the plains. As the name implies, it is relatively flat and a high water table makes any low spots swampy. It is banana, pineapple and cow country.
It took us about 4 hours to get there - 2 hours to get 90% of the distance (along the main roads that run NW-SE along the northern side of the central range of mountains) to Puerto Viejo de Saripiqui, and then 2 hours to go about 15 miles along a rocky, rutted dirt road up to within a few miles of the Nicaraguan border. Yes, only 15 miles - we could have ridden our bikes faster. We left early, early Friday morning (we’re talking up with the jet-jagged rooster) so we could enjoy the day at the farm. Fortunately the kids slept for the first half of the trip, time-wise.
The farm is owned by Magda, a lady that lives just down the road from Maria and is the main community contact and homestay host for Asis guests. As you can imagine since she invited a family of complete strangers to come stay at her farm for Christmas, she is an incredibly nice, generous person. With us at the farm were her husband who lives at the farm, 6 of their 8 sons (ages 19 - 33), 1 daughter (17), 3 of their friends, Nicole and Elizabeth (the 2 American high school girls from Asis who were staying with Magda), Buck and Alvaro.
To be honest, as we were driving along the dirt road and going past some ramshackle places, I worried about what we were getting ourselves into. Yes, sure we were there to experience different cultures and so on, but I wasn’t sure how the kids would handle 3 days in a place like that - dirt floors, outhouses, etc. (of course, I would be fine). Well, not to worry, the farmhouse was very nice - far from luxurious, but more than nice enough. It was two stories on a little rise overlooking their dairy farm. The
Riding the Range
Ellie loved riding the horse -- the faster, the better. Here we are on Regalo de Dios. house was not very big - downstairs was a kitchen, eating area/living room and bathroom (no hot water). Upstairs were 3 bedrooms connected by an open-air hallway/landing with a little sitting area in the middle. That’s right, only 3 bedrooms for all of us. It actually worked out fine. In typical Tico hospitality, the gringos got the places of honor - we got a bedroom (with a couple of old mattresses on the floor), Nicole and Elizabeth got a bedroom with Magda’s daughter and her friend and, of course, Magda and her husband got the third room. Everyone else camped out on the floors or in the back of a big truck.
We had a great time - we rode horses everyday, we helped milk the cows, feed the chickens, gather the chickens’ eggs, and more. Ellie couldn’t get enough of riding the horses. She now has her birthday party planned - a Barbie sleepover with a pony (well, the pony doesn’t sleep over). There was almost enough peeing and pooping by the animals so that Ari didn’t laugh every time he saw it. Almost. (There was one unfortunate incident when a cow pooped while Ellie was milking it
Farm house
This is the rustic ranch where we spent Christmas along with Magda and her family. and she got a little splattered, but she wasn’t much fazed by it.) Ari played cards and soccer with all the guys. The girls doted on Ellie. It was quite an unforgettable weekend. (For Christmas, there wasn’t much ado - a nice family dinner on Saturday night, a secret-Santa-style exchange of presents among the family and some fireworks, which were mainly loud bangs.)
Magda’s family is great - I hate to make a television allusion, but I definitely felt like we were in a Bonanza episode (or at least what my vague recollection of Bonanza is). There we were with a big family of grown up sons with a tight family bond, never arguing, never needing to be told what to do, who all pitch-in to run the family farm. I could just imagine them jumping on horses and galloping down the lane to stop the cattle rustlers or the nefarious attempt by the governor to grab the prime real estate where the train is going to pass (whoops, wrong western).
One thing that was interesting to me was that although everyone was very fastidious about washing their hands before eating and making sure they didn’t use their
Magda and Family
Here is Magda and her wonderful family. own utensils in the common dishes, there was no concern about leaving the food out overnight then just heating it up and eating it. We went along with it (the kids didn’t even notice) and ended up none the worse for it. The water was safe to drink -- unlike other countries in the area, even out here in the boondocks, the house had electricity and drinkable water.
After the farm it was back to Asis for a few days - we decided to make it only for a few days rather than the whole week. We felt the kids had had enough Spanish lessons (and they heartily agreed) and we were eager to move into our own apartment. We were hoping to be able to go see the volcano and soak in the hot springs around it while we were at Asis, but the clouds didn’t cooperate. Other than the first day we were there, the volcano was always covered in clouds making it not worthwhile to go. Alvaro did know of some hot springs closer by so we did venture there one evening - and it turned out to be an adventure.
We arrived at the
Vaqueros (Cowboys)
Ari and Alvaro heading out to ride on the range -- unfortunately, Ari was a little too small to ride a horse by himself. Maybe next year. hot springs place a little before 6:00 - just as it was getting dark. Alvaro took us late in the day because he said that usually it is very hot at the hot springs so it is better to go after the sun goes down. Also after dark it is more likely to be able to see the lava flowing out of the volcano. Well, since these hot springs were not near the volcano, they had a little different schedule. They were just closing as we arrived. Alvaro sweet-talked his way in and we had the place to ourselves. Well, since this place usually closes by 6:00, they hadn’t invested in lights. So we went swimming in the warm pools (they were only warm, not hot since it had just rained) and had a picnic dinner by starlight and the 1 flashlight we were able to dig up. The kids loved it - I don’t know if this is true of all kids, or we are just lucky, but when things don’t go as planned, it doesn’t seem to phase them. I guess we have tried to instill in them the motto “No matter where you go, there you are.”
Hanging Out
Here are the girls hanging out at the farm. This is the living room/dining room area looking through to the kitchen. From left Nicole, Elizabeth, Ceilia and Zinnia (spellings may not be right). Magda is in the hammock. (Duh! But then we explain that if something doesn’t go right, you can either sulk and complain - which does no good - or you can just make the best of it. So far, many things haven’t gone as planned, but we’ve made the best of it.)
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eli
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hospitality
Another great report or a memorable adventure. When I look at the size of the house in the photo above and then the number of people your hosts invited to stay over, I marvel at the sense of hospitality these folks demonstrate -- hard to imagine anyone here (suburbia, USA) with that generous an outlook.