180 Days To Paradise

As this month ends, we start marking off the 180 days left before we can see our....................."Sunset Through The Trees"

The photo was taken at Playa Flamingo, Costa Rica on our first visit.......strange how a beautiful sunset can make our imaginations explode with wild ideas of life in paradise........I do believe that is what happened to us! 

This weeks blog is left to reflecting on family and friends as time quickly passes and the begining of our new journey is in reach.................our greatest hope is that our family and friends will be no strangers to Zancudo. 
Pura Vida

Knock Knock!

Anxiety Attack........we don't have a front door to lock on our home in Zancudo!

Hummmm, why are we worried about a front door when the monkeys can swing right through the second floor loft area over the kitchen and out over the dining area........we just have to remember not to leave fruit out.   Our house is very much open by design, with the two bedrooms and the kitchen having had teak doors that were taken since the house has been vacant for two years.  

What to do?  No Lowes, No HomeDepot.......not even an Ace Hardware!  Take a look at this........

Just south of Zancudo on a dirt road heading towards Pavones is an amazing woodworker using native hardwoods and creating furniture and doors.   In Zancudo, we too have a woodworker that will be making three teak doors for our home.........and we decided, "Who needs a frontdoor"!   We are looking forward to designing our furniture and having the woodworking craftsmen build it from the beautiful hardwoods of Costa Rica. 

No pine 2x4's here, those are termite appetizers. Pura Vida

Got Milk?

On Feburary 1, 2010, we were sitting outside a panderia (bakery) in San Vito and the milk delivery man pulled up in front of us.............

How much fresher can it get and no recycling of milk bottles.  There are many days we reflect back on the day the picture was taken.......a simpler way of life!  We are looking forward to our milk delivery man in Zancudo, only he delivers fresh milk on a quad.

Well......Cha-ching......the cash is rolling in from the sale of our fine collectables in our weekly yard sale........I wouldn't say rolling maybe trickling is the descriptive adjective to use......Hey, every penny helps.......with no furniture, or household items to start our life in Zancudo I am glad we had the 3 Chip-n-dip sets to sell.  Who every thought downsizing could be this time consuming and difficult........but we are getting there.

We hear through the jungle vine that the little rainy season has started in Zancudo......we just learned there is a little rainy season (May and June) and with it comes some large swarms of mosquitos since the little rainy season doesn't do the job of drowning the larvae like the rainy season does......pack another bottle of "OFF".   The more we learn of what our life in Zancudo will be like........ probably scares you more then us! 

I will end this weeks Blog with a quote from a 20 year resident of Zancudo......."If it ain't hot and there aren't bugs......YOU'RE not in paradise"

Zancudo History Lesson

We have heard the tales from long ago....the sounds of....Squealing and Grunting!  What could make such a noise in paradise?

The Golfito port area was developed by the United Fruit Company in the late 1930s and bananas were the number 1 fruit.  The Golfito port area lay just north across the Rio Coto river from Zancudo.  It has been said that Zancudo's beaches were often strewn with excess bananas that washed down the Rio Coto river.  What to do with all those bananas.....PIGS.....they'll eat anything!

So, Zancudo was just one big pig pen where farms were able to thrive using the leftover bananas.  Then, Gringos....that would be people like us, started moving to Zancudo in the 1980's and when Gringos moved in......well, you know how it goes!   That pig pen has got to go somewhere else.  Pigs running wild remain in Zancudo's colorful oral history.

Sherry and Cj spent another week developing a "NEW" list of things to take and wondering how will we handle the rain......all 9 feet of it.  The reason being, we haven't seen a drop of rain here at the farm and our friends in Zancudo are reporting a heavy start to the "WET" season.  There are only 2 seasons in Costa Rica.......Wet and Dry.  The one great thing about the wet season is very few mosquitos Why you ask?...........  They all drown! The larvae can't develop because of the exuberence of the water! Yea for us. After all Zancudo in Spanish means mosquito. Little did we know, but it's not a deal breaker.

Ending this weeks blog with a picture of Heliconia, it grows all through Costa Rica. We plan to have a lot of it in our jungle yard.