Morales' Devotional

We enjoyed an intimate little devotional gathering this morning at Maribel and Marco Morales' place. During the breakfast break we celebrated Charlotte's 14th birthday. Here she is getting a greeting from her dad on the phone (cousin Gerald in the background):

Then opening her presents...her cousins, Chantal on the left and Ferisdani on the right.Little Chantal (4) is a real light. She's memorized Baha'i prayers since she could first speak, and says them with such a spirit they she can melt a sad heart in a second!

Visit with the Seals

This is such a rare event--The Seals family are back home in Costa Rica! We haven't seen Jimmy in about three years.
(Earlier on the blog David, Gianni, Vahid and Darrin and I made a trip from Miami to Nashville to see them and at that time Jimmy, Josh and Sutherland were in Hawaii on a music tour so we only got to visit Ruby, Carmen and Andrea--see May 13th post.) Anyway, they are all here now!

Here's a shot of Jimmy, Sahba, Juliet, Ruby, Julie and I in their kitchen dining area. (They are remodelling the house completely so there's spackle all over the walls.)

After coffee we went out to their great back porch and filled in on years of adventures from everybody. (Josh showed up and joined us. Suth and Andrea were apparently sleeping in today...) Now we're making plans to take them up to the Waterfall Gardens soon. Jimmy and Ruby haven't seen the place yet. We'll post that when it happens...

Day Trip With The Lady

Yesterday I had a home inspection in Tilaran, near the Arenal Lake. It's beautiful country and a very lovely drive via our special Hammock Bridge route (see previous posts). Accompanying me was Jonia Dulie, my exotic and lovely companion for nearly 30 years. Normally she'd be in school, but now she's a retired lady so I had someone to talk to all the way.

Below is a photo I snapped of Tim and Michele who are standing on a property they are interested in buying. In the background is the 20 mile long, Lake Arenal. This is a pretty spectacular place! (As it turned out, the keys to the house I was to inspect were not available, so we talked about what modifications -I noted from the outside- were needed and had a nice afternoon together with this couple, whom we've known from previous visits they made to CR.)

On the way to the town of Tronadora ("place of thunder", called so because of the nearness to the very active Arenal Volcano) we passed these amazing, and huge, wind generators. There are miles of them in the distance and they are producing megawatts of electricity for Costa Rica's National Electric Company.
Then, after climbing back up into the mountains toward home, we watched this sunset unfolding over the Pacific--the end of a very nice day together...

Sunday's Devotional Gathering

We've been out of circulation for a couple of weeks with the Pyburn-Marder visits, but yesteday was Doña Blanca's day for our devotional get-together. We were delighted to have some new visitors this time--Athena Raven (from the U.S., who has move to Puriscal), her three girls and her mom, Lake, who was visiting CR for a month or so. Also, Julie Coull, who's been in touch with us while she and her husband are buying a house here.
All the gang in front of Doña Blanca's house in Palmichal de Acosta (a beautiful place way up in the mountains above where we live): L to R rear is Marco, Lake (we called her "Lago"), Julie, Alan, Blanca and don Apolinar. Front is Jessica, her sister, Ashley, Veronica, her sister, Viviana
Ashley Raven with her grandma, Lago, and Julie Coull pigging out on Blanca's home-made tamales--Yummm!
Lago and Julie were going over Marco's pilgrimage photo album together:
Part of the table gang (Athena doesn't like her picture taken):

Here's the show girl, Veronica, Blanca's daughter. (She and I chat in English on MSN from her work at a travel agency. She's trying to get English down and needs the practice.)
Little Riley, the true show girl of the family. Ain't she gorgeous! She was wearing a new dress which her Grandma brought down for her. (We captured her mom's lovely hand at least...)

Bumpa with Sasha, Day

I had a delightful time on a bright and crisp morning today with Sasha who wanted to check out the garden. She loves to walk on her own and investigate all the plants and flowers.
We found this unusual green bug on the picnic table and Sasha was watching it for a long time until it finally flew away.
Then she found Sassy-Kitty and followed her all around the porch. Finally Sassy jumped on the table to sort of get away, but it was so sunny and warm that she flopped down there. Sasha pursued and pulled her tail, so Sassy batted at her gently. (The three fruits are giant, tart, lemons from our tree!)
Then, back indoors, she met up with David, who was talking with her daddy, and they had a "conversation".Aria is so great with Sasha's education...always teaching her new stuff. And Sasha is such a quick learner! Aria says, "where's your hat" and this is the reply:

Last Day with the Pyburns :-(

Here's a little clip of Sasha and Aria in conversation. When she's well rested she's at her communicative best. This is the first time I heard her call me "Bumpa". We're going to miss her and all the family so much! (But will be in Albuquerque visiting them, and Lisa and Eddy too, in a few months.)

Beautiful Gift!

Our dear friends, Kathy and Barry Marder, whom we've been showing on the blog and who just left for home in Florida a few days ago, left us a very unexpected gift: the most beautiful wood placemats! The kids presented them to us this morning. Barry and Kathy, thank you so very much for such a thoughtful and lovely gift!

(We wont' have any trouble placing guests' plates on these beauties...people are always dropping by. So now we can show them off. These are ooohhs and ahhs for sure!)

Tiquicia Restaurant

Last night was effectively the last evening we had to go out on the town with David and Gianni while the Pyburns are here. They leave tomorrow! So we decided on the restaurant overlooking a spectacular Meseta Central area. "Tiquicia"(meaning the essence of "Tico", or Costa Rican) life. Indeed it was. The typical food was the best, plus they included an evening of folk dancers as well. Here's the gang at our table. (Julie and I were commenting that this past two weeks we've gone to more restaurants than in all our years here!)

As always, Sasha was the center of attraction. She's so smart! Aria askes, "where's the cow", and Sasha points to it and goes "Mooo"! (She's only ONE, remember!)
Then Aria says, "show us the pensive baby", and Sasha puts her hand to her chin! She's truly astonishing!Here are some of the Tico dancers who did a few numbers for us after dinner:
Then the dancers rounded up some visitors to hit the floor. Here's cooperative Gianni with a very young fellow:
All the while Gramma is checking out the scenes with Sasha in arms...

Croc Snacks

This is what we were watching at the Tarcoles "Crocodile Bridge":

Monkey Shenanigans

Here's a little video taken just outside our hotel, La Posada , near the Manuel Antonio National Park:

Birthday Dinner

December 17th was James' 27 birthday, so we celebrated with a dinner at Sale & Pepe Italian restaurant. (We tried going to the famous Tiquicia restaurant which has a spectacular view of the city below, especially at night, but it was closed. Maybe we'll get up there before they leave.)
Our great friend, Richard Hicks (striped shirt) joined us. Poor fellow was all by his lonesome because wife, Brenda, was in the States taking care of the grand children. He's on his way there now...
Aria with lil' Sasha (who was even more the center of attention than her daddy on his BD!).
David and Gianni bringing more light to the table...

More on the Waterfall trip

Here's a short video on the Marder/Pyburn adventure to La Paz Waterfalls last week:

A day at Manuel Antonio Beach

A long drive after the crocodile bridge we finally arrived in Manuel Antonio and checked into an amazing place: La Posada, which is owned by a home inspection client of mine, Mike Auvil. He's done a lot of work on this place over the past couple of years and it's now at the top of the list for favorite places to stay at the beach. The place is just a few minutes walk from the beach, is bordered by the National Park, has a large, two-storey house (where we stayed) and four little cottages, plus a swimming pool. Mike treats everyone like family, so we really felt at home.

Here's one of the few remaining giant trees in the area, with our gang in front:
Here's some shots of the upper floor where we stayed.
And Mike brought his parakeet over for Sasha to enjoy. (Interestingly, note the leather rocker. This is a chair which was designed by a Peace Corps fellow whom I met in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras, in the late 60's--Harry Van Oudenallen (now an Architectural professor at U. of Wisconsin). He was trying to help out some local carpenters to have something lucrative for the tourist market in that little town. Now you can find it all around Central America.)Barry and Kathy Marder in the dining area below our apartment.
A whole band of Spider Monkeys showed up to frolic around the patio while we were there.
Well, we did actually go to the beach. You've seen pictures of beaches and this one is typically gorgeous, so I'm posting shots of important people instead. Here's a lovely pink beach bunny I spotted there:After the beach, and naps in the cozy apartment, we walked downtown to get an early dinner.
This very friendly Lab showed up under our table. Sasha was not sure that he was so welcome.

Heading to Manuel Antonio Beach on the Pacific

We love to take the rural road to the Coast. (I showed a video of crossing the hammock bridge at the end of this road on a previous post.) This trip, we went in two cars with the Marders & Pyburns mixed between the two. Here's one of many "strangler fig" trees whose roots have completely enclosed the poor host tree. They are so beautiful in their complexity, but so deadly to the host.
The electric company was putting in light posts for new electrical service to this area along the route. Here they are cleaning up some large branches they cut which were obstructing the cable's pathway.
Aria here showing Sasha the Tarcoles river bridge which is famous for the huge crocodiles which reside just below it. (The tourist businesses at the end of the bridge insure that the crocs stay here by tossing them chunks of meat and chickens.)
Here's one of these big dudes. When someone tossed some chunks of meat down below about 5 huge crocs went after it like fleeing horses. These guys are fast!

Coffee and Cards

On the road up toward the Irazu volcano we like to stop at an unusual restaurant. This place is famous for its being covered from head to toe with people's business cards. There are so many that they are practically obstructing the view (which is pretty spectacular from so high up).

What we really like about this place is the coffee and some special items on the menu. Almost everybody ordered tortillas with cheese. These are plate-sized corn tortillas with a delicious white cheese mixed into the batter. Here we all are, getting ready for the breakfast snack:
Gramma always in her favorite position--next to Sasha with a book in her hand. Sasha completely amazes everybody with her stunning (for one year old) understanding of practically everything you tell her (and in English or Spanish!). Daddy James will say, where's so and so (person or thing) and she'll point or look that way. Then he'll say, "where's Sasha" and we all totally melt when she pats her own chest!
Here's some of the gang pigging out...
And the Proud Parents, more lovey-dovey than ever!
Kathy and James with some of the zillions of cards in the background
This lil' dude will melt you away as well as Sasha. Javidy takes a fancy to pretty girls much older that he, we hear. He can knock a waitress dead in her tracks with a smiley "hola!".