Skip and Sarapiquí
One of our oldest mutual friends, Selah Hobbie, or Skip, was planning on coming down to Costa Rica to film bats for a documentary he's making. He graciously invited us, 2 kids in tow, to meet up with him at Sarapiquí, north of San Jose. We excitedly rented a place, and then followed as the floods inundated Costa Rica. Up until a few days before the trip we weren't sure we would be able to go, but luckily the roads were clear and we headed on the 6 hour drive after school.
Our rental house in Sarapiquí was gorgeous, a mostly outdoor house (except for the bedrooms) set in the rainforest very close to the raging Sarapiquí River. The person who built it was clearly a talented woodworker and artist, because every square meter involved some cool wood carving or artistic touch.
The place we met Skip at the first day was called Pierella Ecological Garden. We were there to tag along while they filmed the world's cutest bat, the Honduran White Bat.
Honduran White Bats. Photo by Merlin Tuttle (citation below). More on him below.
These ingenious little fluff balls roost under Heliconia leaves by cutting along both sides of the midrib, forming a tent to avoid the rain and provide protection from predators. They are more rare in Costa Rica now, so it was an honor to get to see them up close with the guides leading the camera crew. We even got to cameo as a family of awestruck tourists (so, playing our authentic selves) in Skip's film.
Mating Red Eyed Tree Frogs! One of the other benefits of tagging along with Skip's big crew is that at any point there were a handful of people not needed for whatever they were working on at the moment, so we got to sneak away with specialists and experts at different times. Julio, the kind and incredibly knowledgable fixer of the group, is also an expert naturalist and walked us around the ecological garden to show us all kinds of fun and fascinating things.
Pierella Ecological Garden is partly (or mainly?) a butterfly breeding operation, and they supply many of the butterfly museums in the U.S. with their butterflies, so we got to spend some time in their butterfly enclosures.
Mas mariposas!
It was very brave and kind of Skip to invite the girls to his shoot considering the long hours, slow and meticulous work, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of high end cameras everywhere you turn, but the girls were enthusiastic, patient, and active listeners.
Later that evening, we met up with Skip and his crew at Reserva Biológico Tirimbina, a lodge and biological reserve that some locals created together (including some of the local guides that were in Skip's crew!).
The bat scientists had set up some bat nets to catch bats. Here Julio is gently untangling a bat that was caught up in the net. S wanted to know how the bats don't notice and avoid the nets with their echolocation, and they said the nets are made with very special thin material that they don't pick up on. The nets capture the bats in a stretchy pocket-like fold. Skip said they need to move the nets every night because the bats catch onto them and learn where they are to avoid them.
After they caught a bat, they would bring it into a flight tent to film with fancy slow motion cameras. Skip and the crew spent a lot of time trying to find the right flowers and plants for each bat that they caught. One of the bat scientists told us that there are over 100 native bat species in Costa Rica, so when they caught a bat, even the scientists didn't know exactly what species it was just based on a quick observation. Instead, they would know that it was a nectar bat (leaf-nosed bat), or a fruit eating bat, etc. based on their characteristics.
There is a species of flowering plants, called Macuna, that are perfectly adapted to nectar bats. When a nectar bat feeds on it the flower releases a poof of pollen onto the bat's butt! Skip was looking to capture this money shot on film, but while we were there they didn't manage to find any flowers that hadn't already released their pollen (only happens one time per flower). Later he said they stayed there 3 more days looking for a flower that would work for the shot!
Above is a previous still photograph of that process, made by Merlin Tuttle (citation below), one of the world experts on bats and the star of Skip's film. He lives in Austin and founded Bat Conservation International, and later founded Merlin Tuttle's Bat Conservation (which he still runs today), both organizations dedicated to the education and conservation of bats. In the 90s Tuttle was largely responsible for saving the Mexican Free-Tailed Bats underneath the new Congress Bridge in Austin when there was a fear-mongering campaign against them. Besides seeing and getting to hang with Skip, the most awesome part of this trip was hanging out with and observing people who are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about a shared vision. Everyone there was an expert at something, brought together by a shared purpose to educate and conserve.
The next morning, we went over to eat breakfast with Skip and his crew at the beautiful mountaintop home that they rented in nearby Virgin, just over the hill from our AirBnB.
Mike and I have known Skip since around 2002, when we met on the UT ultimate team. We were besties when he went on his first documentary film project to film the inaugural Texas 4000 bike ride from Austin to Alaska (which our friend Lorig was riding). We traveled with him in a cramped 2 door car to tournaments in Seattle, accompanied him and his fancy camera as we swam with Manta Rays in Australia together, and celebrated with him in Austin after he won an Emmy for his work. Throughout the years, he kindly and regularly came in to guest lecture in my Parks & Rec classes about his career capturing beauty and wonder for the sake of conservation. He is an absolute gem of a person and we're so lucky we got to see him in action.
La Paz (our school)
Our sporadic weekend adventures are so fun, and a big part of the reason we moved here was to experience as much of the country as we could. But our daily lives are a routine of school, school, and more school.
Our daily kit. Mike and I can wear whatever we want, but the girls wear a uniform everyday. The rare "Dress down day" is the only exception, when kids pay $1, usually to the student government or towards a community event.
Tuckered girls on the drive home from school.
The girls have both been swimming a lot, Sybil 5 times a week and Parker 3. This was Parker's first swim meet against a rival school, CRIA. She was pretty nervous, but we kept telling her that as long as she swam as fast as she could when she was in the pool, she would be great. Day of, we unload off the bus and the coach, who only speaks Spanish, told the kids to get in and swim a few warm-up laps. Before I could clarify, Parker jumps in and swims her warm-up laps as fast as she possibly could, passing kids twice her age and definitely hitting her PR. After her 2nd lap, as she came to the end of the pool absolutely exhausted, I ran over and explained the concept of a warm-up.
Our secondary principal, Liz, is a wonderful person and incredibly supportive boss. Parker runs into school most days to go say hi to Liz (and raid her toy box), and Liz gets Parker's energy and light in a way few do. After school the last week of Trimester 1, we went to happy hour at a place on the beach and Liz and Parker were having a moment. "We had fun at the beach with Ms. Liz." - Parker
To mark the end of Trimester 1 and the holidays, La Paz threw a very fun staff holiday party at a big event center between the Tempisque and Cabo Velas campuses. There was a live band, drinks and a buffet with lots of meat, and prizes (I won a beach umbrella in a staff raffle! woohoo!). Above is a photo of our middle school casa, Tenorio. We love our team and are so fortunate to work with such fun, kind, and talented educators.
La Paz has recently completed a massive project of building a brand new gym for the school and community. Every Tuesday night, a crew of La Paz dads gets together for about 2 hours of pickup basketball. This has been a great way to meet people in an active setting. Recently, one of our closest neighboring cities, Nicoya, challenged our team to a game. It was a blast! We had refs and a small crowd. It felt like middle school all over again.
We hosted the first game, and then they invited us to their gym (pictured above) for a rematch. We had another great game, but the highlight was getting in a road trip with my teammates/friends and celebrating with a few beers and Chifrijo after the game.
Nicaragua
Our first weekend after the end of the first trimester we hit the road north for a border run and to get a taste of Nicaragua. Although we have about 50 days remaining on our180 day tourist visa, we needed to leave the country so that we wouldn't have to try and squeeze this in during our 2nd trimester. After a 6 hour+ border crossing experience, I'm so glad we did not put this off.
Our plan was to drive our car to the border and then hop in with our friend Megan for our second road trip adventure together! There is a family near the border that will hold your car in their yard for a few dollars a day, which is super convenient since there are quite a few steps to even be allowed to drive a car into Nicaragua from CR. Megan thankfully did the research and followed all the steps beforehand. So many stamps were needed, and not a lot of communication was given either verbally or with clear signs. It will be a lot easier the next time we go.
One big lesson learned. If you have an AirBnB reserved just choose a well known hotel to tell the border agent when they ask where you are going to stay. Because there are no exact addresses, our agent gave us a hard time and acted as if he was not going to let us in to the country even though we could show him our AirBnB reservation and also the pin on the map of the house. This led to a few stressful minutes, but eventually he relented and let us enter. Megan on the other hand went right in, which was lesson #2, a lot of these border crossings are contingent on the agent you get. If they are having a bad day, they have the power to take it out on you. Just stay calm and smile.
The picture above is on our way back into Costa Rica at the end of the weekend. Our return trip through was much smoother. We were in line waiting to cross a few minutes before they opened at 6am, and we made it through both countries in about an hour. The beautiful rainbow over Nicaragua was a great signal that we should return, and we hope to for a more extensive adventure next time!
Our AirBnB, The Perch, was an amazing house near the top of one of the mountains overlooking Playa Maderas near San Juan del Sur. The listing warned that you needed a 4WD vehicle to access the house, and they were not kidding! It was steep and rocky and at times both steep and rocky. Navigating this road up to the house after dark was a very stressful/adrenaline inducing way to end the day. But as you can see in the photo above, the view in the morning was well worth it!
The architecture of several of the AirBnB houses we've rented have had interesting outdoor floorplans in which the living spaces: living room, kitchen, huge patios are open to the outdoors and the bedrooms and bathrooms are the only enclosed rooms. It's so nice having the comforts of a home, a nice coach or comfy chair, and still be able to enjoy the jungle around you.
Sybil and I read a few chapters of Harry Potter #3 in the morning. She has been relentless about reading the series. We've held out long enough. Hopefully, she'll reread them later on her own as a teenager to really appreciate all the teenage angst of these young wizards.
Cruising the streets of San Juan Del Sur. This is the nearest coastal town in Nicaragua. It happened to be a religious festival for Maria. There were long lines of kids waiting to receive goodies and people were randomly setting off fireworks.
A Nicaraguan landfill, burning, totally open, and right next to a watershed less than a mile from the beach.
After relaxing the morning away at the house, we headed down the mountain to Playa Maderas. We rented beach chairs and an umbrella and enjoyed this amazing beach. The waves were perfect, there was a long shallow entrance for lots of wave jumping opportunities, and the water was nice and cool. Off to the north there really interesting lava rock formations and good beach exploring.
Playa Maderas, Nicaragua
San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua
We decided to rent a place in town the next night so that we could get up early and arrive to the border before it opened. I went full tourist mode! No one thought this guy was returning back to his home country of Costa Rica. The cliché tourist vibes kept going when I ended up doubled up under an overpass in Liberia (near the biggest airport for tourists to the region) barfing due to a poor decision regarding street food in Nicaragua.
Because we made it back through the border so efficiently, we had a few hours to explore before NanaCC and Opa's flight arrived. Earlier in the rainy season we tried exploring one of the closest waterfalls to us, Catarata Llanos De Cortéz, but it was closed.
It reminded us a lot of Hamilton Pools back in Austin.
24 years!
For our 24th anniversary together on December 1st (blog throwback! See recap of our origin story here, featuring the now blog famous Skip Hobbie), some very awesome coworkers and friends offered to watch Sybil and Parker while Mike and I had OUR FIRST DATE IN 4 MONTHS!
We went on a hike up the tallest mountain we could access, in the Mar Vista development behind our school.
Then we got lunch at Gracia, a nearby restaurant with a pool and an amazing view. On our date, we each shared what we're proud of and loving, what's been challenging, and ways we want to keep growing going forward (M: more surfing, C: more Spanish).
For Thanksgiving, we went to Playa Grande to catch the tail end of the sunset. Apparently the sunsets in the dry season are only going to get better and better. While the adjusting continues, we're both feeling very thankful to be where we are, doing what we're doing, living how we're living.
Citations: (couldn't figure out how to purchase the images on Tuttle's website, but our donation to his organization hopefully more than covered it)
