Vahid's arrival in Costa Rica

David's singing partner, Vahid Ndobe (who's from Cameroon), arrived yesterday for a long-awaited visit. He arrived late and awakened to a glorious CR morning. Later we all took off for our favorite tourist spot, La Paz, and had a great day there. Here they're standing in front of one of the five waterfalls (there are water spots on the lense from the light drizzle):David and Vahid went all the way down the last stairs to the lowermost falls (near the bridge which fell into the river some years ago--see the remains below the new one):
Vahid was delighted with the typical hand-painted Costa Rican oxcart and the two spotted oxen nearby (in the far left corner). He has his hand on the yoke:All of us at the large wooden table in the hand-hewn "campesino" house which is designed for the tourists to get the feel of the way life was lived in years past in Costa Rica:On the porch, just outside the house is a rice-husking pestle which was the principal way that rice was treated in the early campesino life here. Vahid got a kick out of the aparatus:Here's a view of a couple of mating tree "frongs" (my spelling for em--if you ever see one on the move it's frong, frong, frong). In the usual order the male's on top, and she's one big mama! The guide mentioned that they stay that way for a week! One nevah knows, do one?And this lil' dude is a poison dart frong. Super cute (but one of the larger types):In another area are the snake exhibits. Here's what, I think, is called a Lora (green tree snake). The fellow is about 6 ft long, but so skinny, and super fast:The gang in front of the lighted artificial tree which holds up the roof of the lower dining building:Vahid in front of a work-in-progress piece of art on a concrete wall. The owner of the La Paz Waterfalls (Lee Banks, a young entrepreneur from Miami who founded this place five or so years ago) comes up with so many such creative ideas and has local artists develop them. Isn't this a great idea to improve on an otherwise plain old blank wall? This is the upper dining area where one can really pig out on the best of Costa Rica's typical food:The following video clip was taken from the same deck where we had lunch. The view of the cloud forest across the valley (where the waterfalls are) is pretty spectacular.

Tuesday morning walks with Alan

Our resident Baha'i Octogenarian, Alan Pringle, enjoys any company he can get these days, so we made an agreement that we'll take walks together every Tuesday morning. The plan is for the two of us to have time to chat about all the events in our lives during the past week, as well as to get some good excercise and to visit friends in town. Last week we stopped by to visit our German friend, Gunter, who has lived in Costa Rica almost the same number of years as I (32!--Alan's been here way longer). Gunter lives alone and has been taking care of an amazing, almost city-block sized property, and house, for practically all the years he's been here. The property belongs to a German friend of his who lives full-time in South America somewhere. Anyway, we've arranged to meet with him every week on our rounds around town. The following picture is of the three of us old fogies sitting around on his porch.


Then, this week Alan, Julie and I attended a great cultural event which is one of the first in our new cultural plaza in town. They've converted the old market place into an open salon which is perfect for outdoor concerts, dramatic presentations and dance. This particular one was a typical Costa Rican folk dance group (various groups were represented--some coming from as far away as Cartago and Escazu). Check it out by clicking on the link below: (It takes awhile to load--wait for that before hitting "play".)
Video of Costa Rican Folk Dancers

New Devotional Approach

After the booming success of our commemoration of the Birth of the Bab, using the new media projector (see previous post), Jose Angel and Dona Lou asked me to bring the laptop and projector to their home for today's devotional gathering. They wanted to invite some family members from Escazu as well as the next-door neighbors, to share prayers together and to see some of the Power Point programs I've been collecting from friends around the world on themes of unity, peace and education.

Unfortunately, I don't have a wide-angle lense on my camera, so I've taken two pictures of the large gathering at their home this morning. There were a number of new guests, and the spirit was very high. We've made some new friends, and hopefully they will be attending another large event we have planned on November 12 (the Birth of Baha'u'llah celebration with international foods being prepared for a noontime gathering at our house).

The photos below are of our post media show and devotional period breakfast together.

Local Talent

Here's our resident artist, Dorian Morales. He has a terrific creative talent and is always drawing or making nice things. Here's his "backpack" made out of a chunk of bambu! It has little compartment for his pens and papers and such (see closeup below)

More on food goodies

I decided to spice up my bland diet a little with some home-made houmos (or Hummus), that terrific stuff we pig out on in Israel. Mixing some garbanzas, home-grown lemon, tahini, garlic and a little olive oil, I made a quart of this stuff that'll really spice up my tortillas and whole wheat toadst. Check it out: (If you come to visit I'll be happy to share some...)

MythBuster

Having read a number of posts about the corrosiveness of Coca Cola on your stomach or on your car bumper, I decided to test it out on my car's battery poles which were getting corroded. With a cup of coke and an old toothbrush I started brushing away on the copper terminals. Man, in seconds they started shining like new! That stuff works even better than bicarbonate of soda! Check it out:

Organic Farmer's Market

Today was the second trip with Jenny to San Jose's Farmer's Market, and this time I remembered to take some photos. I was introduced to a number of interesting people who are friends of Jenny's, one of whom is an expert on sprouting seeds. I'm going to start experimenting with this soon.
Check out these greens and carrots!
These are the best bell peppers!
I was trying to figure out what these things were. Turns out they're called "Tequisques" which, apparently, are like a cross between a yam and a potato. They are used in soups especially. Gianni says she loves em, so I'm going to stick one in the garden and see what happens (and eat the others!):

Rainbone

We left very early this morning to go again to the Organic Farmer's market, and here was the view of a partial rainbow over the valley below our house. This is the first time I've seen one in the West.

Birth of the Bab Celebration

This year we had a very special commemoration of the anniversary of the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, the Bab. All around the world this date is being celebrated, and our home was filled with Baha'is and neighboring friends interested in learning more about the Faith. The first photo below is of our guest violinist, Melisa, who is the next-door neighbor of Jose Angel and Lourdes (our pilgrimage companions mentioned early in the blog). We were delighted when her parents and younger brother showed up as well. They all showed interest in the Faith and we hope they will continue to join us.
Here's our famous resident musician, Mike Robles, who's delighted to have some accompaniment by David McKinney, our resident son! The small fellow in the background is an amazing young man for his steadfastness, "Nachillo". He's been a Baha'i since he was a much littler boy and independently shows up for almost everything Baha'i. (Costa Rican males are notoriously unwilling to help out in the kitchen, but this little fellow surprised us all by doing up all the evening's dishes, unasked!) The other young man on the right is Heydar, who came down from the Carribean side of the country to join us.
Below is Gerald, the oldest of the Morales family boys, speaking with Alan Pringle, and the lady on the right is Shida Arfai next to her husband, Parviz. They are Baha'is visiting CR from Houston with their two children for a week or so.
Julie having an animated conversation with Jose Angel:
Egitan Robles having an animated conversation with Melisa:
Some of the crowd after a wonderful presentation of one of Tahireh's lovely poems written in praise of the Bab. Tahireh was the first women suffragette-martyr who's statement to her executioner (who strangled her with her own handkerchief) was: "You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women."
(Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 75)
Julie and Gianni put together this Power Point presentation with the poem set to music and including emotionally charged pictures. I think everyone was transfixed by it.
Gianni and Naseem Arfai chatting in the kitchen:
Shida, Parviz and Naisohn Arfai speaking with Julie:
This is Jorge & Edith--parents of the violinist, Melisa-- with her little brother, Sebastian:

More on Ruben Dario and Jenny Rodriquez' house

Here's an update on the previous post where I mentioned our neighbor's house which had been photographed for a fancy magazine. This is a shot of Ruben on his front porch. One of the white doggies on the walkway was rescued by him from a raging fire next door some months ago. Ruben ran into the scorching hot area where the dog was tied up and received some serious burns on his left arm, which has some permanent scars, and his face, which has healed up well.

The design of the house includes a passageway between the the living and sleeping area which they have made like a bridge with windows. You can see the view of the valley below through them. Our house is much further down the mountain, but you can get an idea of our surroundings.
Here's Jenny with Julie in one of the downstairs bedrooms.Another bedroom downstairs. Jenny wants to rent this, and another similar one, out as a "bed and breakfast" facility.
Ruben, (a painter--see one of his works on the wall) is offering everybody some delicious pineapple. We are becoming quite fond of these recently new neighbors. They still don't have a public electric supply yet, but Jenny was telling one of her B&B visitors that it will be arriving soon and the visitor said that she preferred not having it! What a tranquil atmosphere!

Day at the Organic Farmer's Market

Yesterday, Saturday, we made our first trip to San Jose's Organic Farmer's Market (having heard about it after a recent visit with Ruben and Jenny--who's house pics I'll be posting soon). One has to leave at about 5:30 am to get there before all the good stuff is gone!

We filled a huge sack with carrots, tomatoes, red cabbage and all sorts of green goodies. See a few of them after Julie finished washing them for the fridge below. (Note the tray on the oven with some wheat berry sprouts. I'm trying to find out how to do this sort of sprouting in a more efficient way. If anybody knows how, lemme know!) :
We'll be make more trips to this great market again, so I'll get some photos of it later.

More on life in the Tropigs

We always wonder how this guy keeps gettin in the bathroom. (We still don't know, but it must be through the door....since I stuck him in the sink to take a photo.) Yesterday one--seemingly the same one--of these giant cochroaches (called a Wood Roach) was on the window frame near the shower stall. I trapped him in a glass and carried him clear across the property to release him in the wild near the river.
Today he (?) was back again! I'm going to have to use a colored marker to see if it's the same one... Anyway, they are kinda big, but we don't worry about such stuff. They live here too.One time Julie reached over in the semi-dark to pick up what seemed like a mango pit on the floor. Nope, a wood roach!

Then too, we have many agreeable creatures here! The bird below was scanned in from Alan Pringle's collection of snapshots. I swear it's the same kind of bird I just saw in our avocado tree (but my photo wasn't clear at all.) If anybody knows what it is, please let me know. It doesn't appear in our CR birdbook. (Note: Tony Schmitz identified it as a Cotinga)

Saved from dying of gastric boredom!

And all this time I never knew that our very own cleaning lady and neighbor, Adelia, is a master at the old-style tortilla making! She prepares the corn, pats it into almost perfectly round and same-sized tortillas and fries them up (no oils, grease or butter, which would violate the rules of this diet) to perfection! A little Haas avocado on top and I'm in heaven. Check em out!:

One nevah knows, do one?

Every day when I walk out the front door I see this guy enjoying his hunting spot between the hanging plants. This is a typical garden spider from around here.
The turkey measures about 3 plus inches from spiderleg to spiderleg! There are a number of them around the yard. (You can zoom in on the photo for better detail. Noting that he's short one front leg. Can't tell you why that is. Maybe a bird got it.)
It's such a surprise to run into such a web when one is walking, for instance, between two trees (and not paying attention!)...the strength of the web is amazing! You practically bounce off the thing! (Not to mention wondering afterwards where that huge spider IS! To date I haven't gotten one in my hair...)

The following is a shot of the best juice! My new Vegan diet "requires" me to drink a bunch of glasses of this juiced extract of carrots/apples every day. What a pleasure; the combination is fabulous! (The Champion juicer is great to extract pure, pulp-less juice, which apparently makes the fruit/veggie combo simple to digest. The pulp goes in the compost.)

Neighborly visit

Tonight we were finally able to visit our great neighbors who've built a pretty spectacular house up on the hill above our place. I had gone up there previously at the invitation of Ruben Dario (has the same name as the poet, but is an artist-painter), and Jenny Rodriquez, who is a psychologist, but this is the first time for Julie.

Here's a shot of Julie and Ruben inside the house. We arrived just at dusk and they hadn't cranked up the generator for the lights yet...they're hoping to get an electric hookup from the company sometime soon. Ruben was showing us a magazine which had some great photos of their house in it.
I'll try to take more shots of this place during the daytime next week. We went up to their place to watch a special video (on casette player at their place since we only have a DVD player now). The video was something that they thought we ought to see called: "Cancer Doesn't Scare Me Anymore" by Dr. Lorraine Day. (A very interesting and informative tape which I would recommend anyone to see. It confirmed all the things I have found to be true--basically, that boosting the body's immune system through diet, excercise, consuming water, eliminating all forms of stress, sleeping well and turning to God, is the best way to do that.)

Next Saturday we'll be caravaning with them (at dawn) to a special farmer's market in San Jose where they often go to pick up great organically-grown produce.

Happy Birthday, Gianni!

Today is the actual day that Gianni celebrates her BD. (We all surprised her last Sunday to celebrate it because that was the only day we could get all the fambly together easily.)
This is the only shot I have of all the work the kids have been doing at Gianni's family's house in Alajuela. (She mentioned on David and Gianni blog about the work they have all been doing over there.) So, she has a lot on her platter these days! Good thing we took Sunday to celebrate!

Happy Anniversary Dee & Gee -Felicidades!

Today is David and Gianni's second wedding anniversary!

It's a joy having you guys right next door!

More on the BD party...

Here's the Marimba band... Jose, on the right, lives just up the hill from our house and has been playing guitar since he was 5 years old. He made the marimba.
Here are Gianni's cousins, sister, aunt and friend Silvia:
Here's Gianni with Roy and Silvia who are fond friends who live just down the hill from us.
Gianni's aunt Erica, Gianni, Mari (those eyes!), with Javid Solan in the background.

And David and Roy were the Bar-B-Qer's: