Where are we??????

When Zach and I realized today that we've only been here for 6 days, we couldn't believe it. The last week has felt like seriously a month, and has been mostly unpleasant, to say the very least.

On Friday, after two full days in San Jose without a car, in a tiny apartment, we realized we were anxious to get our home, enough so that we rented a car (Zach had cashier's checks to buy a car, and we were unable to cash them quickly enough), and drove to Nicoya, hoping to get settled in quickly and start our new life in Costa Rica. We picked up the keys from Jorge who showed us to the farm. Jorge saddled up the horses so all the kids could ride...they were in heaven. Afterwards everyone went skinny dipping in the pool and thought it was so hilarious. The property was gorgeous with so much land, views, and just private and peaceful. Zach and I moved all our belongings from the car into the house, and Zach made a trip to the store for food and some supplies. After dinner, and upon trying to get the kids to bed, we realized none of the beds were made, and all the sheets in the house were moldy and mildewy. Zach and I also spent several hours banging out the mattresses, dirt and debris all over them. We swept the floors and cleaned spiderwebs from the floors and ceilings, around the beds, etc...While Zach went to the store to buy new sheets, towels, pillows, etc, the kids explored the house, and the loft...they loved seeing the lizards on the screen windows until they realized they were inside!!! A hole in the upstairs screen also allowed several wasps to be swarming around inside, from a nearby nest. We had everyone sleep downstairs. After sunset, we realized the bugs were definitely going to be a problem. I was cleaning up after dinner, and with the light on, all the bugs and critters congregated around the light with me. When we tucked everyone in, we had to keep flicking bugs off the bed without any of the kids seeing....or no one would sleep. The ceiling fans were not working (3 out of the 4 and no standing fans available at the store), and this was the only way we were going to keep the bugs away. Luckily the kids fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion. I seriously would've been better off camping outside, at least in a tent. Through all this, Zach and I never said a word, but just kept cheerful faces and attitudes....but both of us were thinking the same thing. I didn't sleep until about 4:30 in the morning, up all night anxious and concerned about this place. I finally slept for about an hour, sweating under a sheet to keep the bugs off my face.... In the morning, I'm sure the look on my face spelled it out, but I still managed to keep it together. Zach noticed that throughout the night, dirt and debris had fallen from the ceiling/roof all over the kids and the new sheets, etc. We sent the kiddos out to swim, and I broke down, admitting that I was NOT going to make it in this place...How am I supposed to create a cozy place for our family and homeschool, etc, with this??? Zach readily agreed, and assured me that if I had not spoken up, he would have within the next day or so. We continued chatting and planning out by the pool. The kids were screaming about a piece of "poop" they found in the pool. They were pretend-trying to catch it and teasing that they would throw it on each other (same little savages as always). I figured it was a leaf, stick, or that really one of them HAD pooped in the pool. But when Tia (or all the kids) finally caught the poop, she saw it was a "slug".....I saw it and immediately knew it was a LEECH~......okay, so packing up the car now! I didn't tell the girls what the slimy poop was until we'd left the house, belongings in tow, not to return...not sure where we were going.

We had a little "prayer meeting"....pleading with all our hearts that we would feel good about any place on the map. We discussed a few coastal towns we had read about online, and headed that direction. On our way out of town, Zach stopped at the mercado to return items we no longer would need, and while we waited for him, the kids had lunch in the car, PB spread (by my finger) on some dry bread, papas (potato chips), and some bananas. No one complained, they must have "felt" the stress in the car. Our first stop about 2 hours later was Playas del Coco, per a recommendation from some locals who said it was not as touristy as Tamarindo....They have a different idea of touristy...there was not a tourist in sight, which quickly made me realize we better request a place that is moderately touristy :)....Coco did not give me a good feeling, but we chatted with a parking guard while the kids played happily on the beach (for the first time), and then drove to the next town that he recommended. Up and over the mountains, the drive into Playa Hermosa was absolutely gorgeous! We checked out the beach area, and it was better than Coco....we drove up and down the streets, looking for places for rent. Down one secluded street, some Ticos were having a pig-pickin, and we got to witness the a good deal of the preparation, entering the scene when they were pouring boiling water over this pig to remove the hair. They were getting ready to "hang" him on the smoking stick when we decided to split. Needless to say, we passed on Hermosa, no matter how beautiful. We decided to press on to Playa Tamarindo, the "very touristy" place, but at this point, thought we'd at least welcome some American faces, and a nice place to stay after driving so far. It was evening by now, and we'd been in the car for about 7 hours. We found the most American place to eat, a brick oven pizza joint that had hammocks the kids could play in while we waited for pizza...I ran across the street for a smoothie, and it was seriously the best food we'd had in what felt like forever.

The sun goes down early all year round in Costa Rica, and right now it's down by about 6:30 latest, so after dinner we desperately started searching for a place to crash for the night. We tried a beautiful resort and asked for a suite with a kitchen, etc, but they were full.....All the other shotty looking hotels were, to our serious disbelief, full also....that, or there was just no one in the office to ask(???). I was driving, and Zach was jumping out in the pouring rain, and in the dark, asking if there was vacancy. After checking out 6 or 7 hotels, kids were bawling, exhausted, and we were all breaking down, we went back to the resort and basically begged them to let us stay in a room with 2 queens and we'd put kids on the floor. They were kind enough to pull in two roll-aways, and three kids slept horizontal on the queen, and everyone slept uninterrupted until late in the morning...we needed it!

Next day, we let the kids take a break in the morning. The resort served an amazing buffet breakfast, and it was so cute to hear all the kids talk about how amazing the food was. A quote from Ethan, "This is the best food I've ever had" We then played at the beach all morning, then swam is the resort pool. Zach worked and looked at houses all morning. He picked us up later and we drove around Tamarindo and the adjacent costal town of Langosta, looked at about 5 houses, but didn't feel good about any (or their locations). We had one last home to view in Playas Grande (I had actually seen this one on Craigslist several months ago). We drove 30 minutes around the estuary (it's a 5 minute boat ride to Grande from Tamarindo, but a half hour drive), and seriously thought we were lost. I wish I could adequately explain the drive, but basically after getting through the small town, we continued toward the coast, through nothing but just crazy jungle on a crazy bumpy dirt road....nothing...kept driving, nothing, miles and miles until we passed another car coming in the opposite direction (our first sign that there was indeed life somewhere along this road). We stopped the car, asked him if he knew "Steve" who was renting a house....Of course he did! So after finding our destination (the house was absolutely gorgeous, brand new...but as I mentioned, in the middle of nowhere, with only one way in and one way out, a long way, and not much human life around), we were done for the night. Fortunately our "friend", whom we had passed on the way in to Playas Grande, was the owner of the one hotel there....a funky little joint that looked like one of those places where people come to do their weird meditating and smoke strange things without anyone knowing....Hotel Bula Bula, if that tells you anything:) We rented two connecting rooms and Zach took the kids for a swim while I scoped out some food, realizing we had all of two choices. We ate at a super authentic Tico place that I drove past three times before I realized it was THE restaurant.....and lucked out, it was seriously delicious....my first real rice, beans and fish experience. Zach and I couldn't resist eating there the next night (while the kids had cereal).

We stayed in Playas Grande for two nights, which was a huge relief not to have to "move" all of our stuff again. I had three huge, disgusting bags of dirty laundry, filled with sweaty clothes, wet swim suits, pee pee undies, and so on. The housekeeper at Bula Bula was kind enough to wash all of our clothes and miraculously got the smell out..... In the morning, I went for a run on the beach. On my way to the access, I was dodging tons of these brightly colored crabs (bright blue, orange, purple)...They were everywhere, many flatted (like frogs in Colorado), from having been hit by a car. Later, the kids and I walked to the beach, a huge, flat, gorgeous beach, that was as empty as the town. We played all morning in the water, and on shore, then swam at the hotel to clean off. We set off in the afternoon for Tamarindo...the night before Zach had checked Craigslist ONE MORE TIME, and we found a house that looked like it could be "it"....The owner had responded quickly to our email, and liked the idea of having tenants long term, rather than weekly..so although we tried not to get hopeful until we were "in"....it was near impossible. Everyone was ready to have a home. This was around the first time I heard any of the kids talk about going home (no doubt Zach and I had both already had the thought), but this particular afternoon when I mentioned that we had to get back in the car, Owen asked, "why"...and when I responded, "So we can look for a home", he came back with, "We already have a home...in Colorado...why don't we just go there." Heartbreak!

So in Tamarindo, we were doing some undercover research on this house. There were renters in the home until the following day, (the day the owner said we could see it), but we didn't feel like we had a day to "waste", if the house wasn't going to work we needed to be looking for something else, so we non-chalantly strolled up the beach, and found the home, and struck up a conversation with the renters, taking peeks inside. We were open with him and let him know our situation, so he showed us around a bit. Needless to say, we were all very anxious for the next day, and we called the owner and asked if we could move in that next night. He was super cool and had his maid come as soon as possible, and got us moved in right around dinner time. I marched right in, started unloading groceries and cooking while he was showing Zach lights, keys, gate, and going over the lease details. It was pretty assumptive, but we are in!

So we've done a complete 180. From third world country authentic experience, with a farm, horses, no a/c, no hot water, to renting a home on the beach...the works! Our first day has been most enjoyable, and we've even met some temporary friends....they go back to New York in two weeks. There is a healthy combination of international folks here in Tamarindo. It is not, by our American standards, touristy, though Tamarindo is known as a more touristy part of Costa Rica. There is plenty of opportunity to practice my little bit of Spanish....many Ticos here who do not speak any English. Today, I was able to describe to a lady working in the pharmacy that I needed ear drops for getting water out after swimming. The farmacia was all of one small wall of shelves, and one locked sliding glass case. I happened to notice all the electrolyte liquids...yikes. So far, so good, for us. In any case, we are happy to be here, settling into our new home....you should've seen how quickly Zach and I unpacked last night:)

We are still considering a post office box, but we do have an actual address now, though it may or may not work well. I don't know yet. I do know the kids would love to get something!!!

Our address is: (just write it as it appears..odd, I know)

Casa Palmas

50 meters North of Hotel Capitan Suizo

Tamarindo, Guanacaste

Santa Cruz, Costa Rica

Hope to hear from you soon...email works best of all!