Life Is Life Even In Paradise

Well things seem to be getting back to normal or as normal as normal can be here in the jungle .  With the gringo population at the rainy season all time low.........and I now know why the gringo population leaves during the rainy season.........remember that 5 gallon rain gauge I mentioned in a previous blog ?  It don ' t work NOW when it rains.........so , Yo went to the ferreteria and got the 25 gallon rain gauge so I only have to empty it twice during the rain to get an accurate account of the amount of rain that has fallen .   Still , mornings are usually very sunny and we have as yet to see the rains lasting more than through the evening...........have been informed not to get to comfortable since we are apparently having a slow and dry start to the rainy season............Can Anyone Say Rehab In Espanol ?  Enough......on with the blog .

Mi esposa made it back to Golfito 2 weeks ago today , by bus , with goodies from the states......Peanut Butter.....all natural of course .  How delicious.......and yes we can buy peanut butter here but at over $ 5  for Skippy and it is not even the big jar .  Did have to splurge at the border a month ago and buy Sweet Pickle Relish......it only set me back $ 3 for a 16 ounce bottle.......oh , but how wonderful it tastes  in tuna salad and potato salad .  Sometimes it is just the little things that make you smile .

So , on the ride back from Golfito we came upon the paving crew........and yes we are very very happy to see them working away on making our trips to and from Golfito less bone crunching and I got a picture of the concrete paving process here in remote southwestern Costa Rica

Yes, those are bags of concrete 

Believe it or not they are busting bags of concrete on to a graded packed gravel road to create a base for the asphalt...........first 6 miles are done on the road to Conte from the turn off of the Golfito to Rio Claro road with 20 more miles to go...........please hurry because  the really bad road lay just in front of that trailer full of bags of concrete .

Mi esposa purchased a bag of mamones for 1000 colones from a road side stand and as soon as we got back to our casa it was time to dig in

Sweet Like Grapes

Before Sherry  left for the states we got a dog that had been rescued and fostered for the past year..........we thought it would be nice to have a dog that would bark when someone came into the yard , keep the monkeys at bay and run off any iguanas that tried to eat my papayas........well 2 out of 3 ain ' t bad...........NO BARK , sooner  lick you to death than to bark at you.......but what a sweetie

MeerKa

She loves the beach..........since there was now a dog in the picture why not a furious feline

Willow

Look out Geckos your days are numbered cause we got one bad ass Gecko hunting cat .  Matter of fact , since Willow took up residency there has been a few Geckos that have packed up and moved on . 

I did stay busy while mi esposa was away.......working on her vivero ( greenhouse ) using bamboo from our stand of bamboo on our property with the help of our friend Chupiro teaching me the techniques of building with bamboo and lashing the bamboo together

Vivero de Sherry

For now we  have started several basil plants , culantro ( being the broad leaf variety ) coleus and a variety of other small plants........looking forward to alot more plants in the vivero in the DRY season as the green netting is primarily used to filter sunlight and does not keep out the RAIN .

Life here for me goes from one extreme to the other ............ when the days are good ....... they are awesome ......... and when the days are not so good ......... DAMN ...........it can be rough .......... and a vodka or 3 just doesn ' t help .......... it is LIFE and LIFE in our paradise is just life with alot more color

Toucan

I walked out the front door to pick up the 3 empty coconuts the monkeys had twisted off the coconut palm the night before and in flys the Toucan ............sad story as he was taken from his nest to be sold and a friend here on the beach rescued him and hand raised him until all his feathers came in...........he is not afraid of people and does not know how to forage for himself ........... So sad and yet so BEAUTIFUL

But mi esposa will tell you this is also .......... So BEAUTIFUL

Que ???????

Bigger than a bread machine and makes life so much easier ...........Lavadora , Si .  Sherrys  first Costa Rican Washing Machine .......... Will tell you bigger is not always BETTER ........this little Samsung Lavadora can take care of 15 pounds of jungle grime with just a Hummmmmm and when it is all done........it plays a little jungle jingle . 

The reason for  our journey here was to learn to live a different life in a different culture , a dream to survive somewhere so unfamilar and different from the life we lived in the United States .  There is NO EASY BUTTON HERE so we just   

take a walk on the beach to sort it all out and then Smile

as we celebrate our 9 th month here in Zancudo , Costa Rica ............... Life is Good , Pura Vida