Holy Week - Semana Santa

Our second trimester wrapped up with an exciting day at the beach for Beach Olympics! Each student, K through 12th grade, was divided into teams representing countries from around the world to compete in 9 different events on the beach, ranging from long jump, to soccer, to dragon tails tag, to volleyball. Mike represented team Germany, and came up with by far the best team cheer, "Bratwurst, Berlin, we are going to win!" 

S represented team Venezuela. Pic by Laurel de Sol Photography. 

C: I was Team Nicaragua, and P was Team Belgium, who ended up winning the whole Beach Olympics. My team lost every event, except the only one that mattered, which involved beating Mike's team in 2 on 2 teacher tug of war. 

School photos! Parker and Sybil have grown so much this year. Parker has since lost her first two teeth!

We revisited Catarata Llano de Cortez to celebrate our friend Ricki's bday. Ricki and Megan (pictured above) are our biggest supports here in Guana from morning and afternoon car rides to babysitting to joining us on weekend adventures. We are so lucky to have them as friends.

Anna and Sarah, friends and World Games teammates of ours in 2013, were our first Frisbee Friend visitors! It was great catching up with them and the current frisbee scene. 

On their last night in town, we finally visited our first rodeo/fiestas tipicas to watch some of our La Paz students compete in barrel racing. We left after the barrel racing, to spare the bull riders from being cursed by our girls at the treatment of the bulls.  

For our second trimester break, we planned a 10 day road trip to explore more of Costa Rica and Panama. 

Stop 1: Dominical with Cara's cousin Rob and Delores

Stop 2: Cartago with our coworkers Deybel and Gerado

Stop 3: Puerto Viejo - The Caribbean coast of Costa Rica

Stop 4: Bocas Del Toro Islands, Panama

Stop 5: Volcan Arenal

We joined Rob and Delores in their friends home up the mountain from Playa Dominical. It was an amazing open air jungle home. So many amazing animal and insect noises at night and a beautiful view of the ocean from the second deck.

Open air kitchen. We were wondering if there are many places in the U.S. that you could design a home this way. The house is designed for you to spend most of your time outside and only retreat inside to sleep. Amazingly, there were hardly any bugs and we didn't even need to use the bug nets suspended from the ceiling. It only took a harrowing drive up a 4 x 4 road to get there!

The view from the second deck. There were three hammocks that the girls enjoyed.

On our first day in Dominical we went surfing together, and on day two we went to a nature reserve hoping to catch sight of some animals, and we found plenty! The most impressive was an 6-7 foot black and yellow bird snake climbing the tree just in front of us.

Rob and Delores, who we visited back during the summer of 2021, are our most adventurous relatives. They love all things outdoors and it was great catching up with them.

Later that day we went to Catarata Nauyaca. It was the most impressive waterfall in CR that we've been to so far. 

These pictures don't do it justice, but there was a deep pool for swimming and jumping into as well as huge boulders and fun splash pools downriver to let the girls lead the exploring.

Our next stop was in the mountains near Cartago at Deybel's brother's house. He has been building this geodesic home overlooking a valley for 3 years with a plan to rent it out on AirBnb. Because we were above 7,000ft we experienced our first naturally chilly night in CR. It felt amazing. Gerado and Deybel both work at La Paz with us and graciously invited us to join them in Cartago. For the next two days they were our tour guides, chef, and language teachers. Besides learning about Cartago, they gave us a crash course in Costa Rican music, culture, and slang. Lots of laughs and great food. Hopefully we will have many more hangouts and travel adventures together in the future.

P: "We went to Volcan Irazú. It is a volcano that is active."

The crater of Volcan Irazú, which normally has an aquamarine lake at the bottom but was dried up. 

The highlight of Cartago was the Irazu Volcano National Park - Prusia sector. This is a forested area on the slopes of Volcan Irazu with an amazing diversity of trees. The eucalyptus and pine trees stood out the most to us.

A steep 2 mile hike up to a ridge brought us to this amazing stand of Ponderosa Pines, one of Cara's favorite trees in the world which always reminds us of some special camping trips in the NM/Colorado mountains. To motivate everyone in our group to keep hiking we sang one of our favorite lines from a  song by Proyecto Uno  "No pare, sigue sigue!", which means "don't stop, go go!" 

Cartago was beautiful. We will surely visit this area again.

The beautiful agricultural hillsides of Cartago. This was the view from our AirBnb.

S: "I made a replica of the Empire State Building from James and the Giant Peach."

We made it to the Caribbean! Puerto Viejo, the last beachtown in CR before reaching the Panama border is known for it's Afro-Caribbean culture. The food is slightly spicer and incorporates more coconut. The waves are typically gentler and more aquamarine. Unfortunately, we visited while a storm system settled over the area so we only stole glimpses of the dazzling clear and blue water. The girls love a good piece of driftwood to play on and is always a catalyst for make believe. 

Crossing the bridge at Sixaola into Panama! This is our second border crossing on foot and compared to Nicaragua this was Pan Comido (a piece of cake) <---- slang I learned from Gerado! We grabbed a shuttle in Panama to drive us the 30 minutes to the water taxi docks and then another 20 minutes by boat and we arrived to Bocas Del Toro before noon.

Water taxis, the only way to get to Boca del Toro islands. 

Our AirBnb was tucked back in a quiet neighborhood in Bocas Town. 

Sybil and especially Parker immediately adopted to local stray cat. The kitty was super kind and allowed Parker to bring her into the hammock with her for a snuggle. By the end of our stay the cat was sneaking in to our cabaña to try and get more Parker love.

Even though I have a less than stellar past record with scooters (wrecked in Switzerland, flipped over backwards in Thailand with Cara on the back cushioning my fall) Cara trusted me to rent these badass scooters to tour the island and visit Starfish Beach. S, knowing I have proven myself unsteady on two wheels when I'm not using my legs to power my movement, decided to ride with me because Cara did not have her driver's license and was therefore breaking the law and "riding dirty". S, the rule follower that she is, would rather put her life at risk than risk being associated with her delinquent mom while she gets a ticket from a Panamanian police officer. Because it was a drizzly day, the owner of scooters assured us the police were not likely to be out on patrol.  So we were off!

We had a great time, no wrecks and no tickets.

P: We went to Playa Estrellas, or Starfish Beach. There were some starfishes, and they were so big! 

Finger ⭐

The girls wanted to feed our newly adopted cat, so we went for a walk in the rain to pick up a can of tuna. Because of an earlier mistake purchase right after we moved here, we knew exactly which type of tuna to buy, which would be indistinguishable from cat food. 

Lots of these cute houses were built over the water on stilts. The water was very calm on the side of the island facing the mainland.

Heading out on our boat tour to explore the area. We would snorkel (lots of great coral), visit a national park, and see dolphins and starfish.

S only lasted a few minutes in the sea this time because there was sea lice (jellyfish babies). There was a ton of amazing coral, but alas the clouds muted all of the colors. Maybe we'll be back to try and experience this area again with better weather.

Living our best Panama life. Accidentally leaving my glasses in the car back in CR gave me the perfect excuse to buy these amazing tourist sunglasses. When I put them on, I instantly become my alter ego, "Gringo Guy!"

Gringo Guy enjoying National Park Bastimentos - Reserva Zapatillas. The girls were super brave and wanted to swim out to the little islands in the background. It wasn't a far swim but the water was choppy and you never know what sea life is going to swim by. All the years of adventuring are paying off because the girls have been more willing to say yes to adventure and different experiences.

A rare family pic at Reserva Zapatillas

The clouds parted just long enough to give us a taste of the amazing colors of the water.

Crossing the border back in CR the next day was once again "pan comido", and we decided to stop in Fortuna to enjoy a soak in the hot springs to break up the 9 hour drive back to Guanacaste. We elected for a smaller and much cheaper option this time instead of Baldi. Not the same experience, but still a great way to wash off the road and end our trip.

We returned home with a few days to finish cleaning and packing up our condo to move a few doors down. Let trimester III begin!

Staying Wet During the Dry Season

 

As February sped into March, the full extent of the dry season became evident. March and April are, according to todos, the hottest and driest months in Guanacaste. The palette shifts from blue and green to blue and brown, the vegetation shrivels, and forest fires dot the hillsides. It's a crucial time to be in and around water. 

 To everyone's surprise, especially hers, S signed up for a 500 meter open water swim competition near Samara. The swimmers were taken by boat to a nearby island and had to swim back to shore. She saw 3 large stingrays, which motivated her to swim faster in case their shark friends were also out there. 

La Paz Tiburones! There were about 100-150 people in the competition in all, and it felt like a marathon or trail race environment with all ages and spectators cheering all the participants on. 

Our days are full of school, after school activities, unpacking from school, grading or lesson planning for school, packing for school. It's still a manageable level of stress, but it's nice to take advantage of the downtime in our middle school hammocks. Here, Mike is relaxing with Oreo or Tuxedo (Depending on which student you ask), our Tenorio stray cat. He's mostly chill, but will swipe at you if he's had enough of the pre-teen/teenager attention.

On the 100th day of school, P and the other Miravalles students dressed as old grannies and grandpas.

P had her first field trip to the nearby tide pools at Brasilito for their "Tierra y Mar" (land and sea) unit. After, she had a swim and fancy lunch at Gracia. We love that she is getting these learning experiences outside of the school at such a young age.

Megan treated the girls to ice cream after school while I snuck off to Colorado, giving Mike a solid half hour to catch his breath and walk the nearby beach.

 I got permission from my amazing administrators in September to take a couple of days off to go to Colorado for one of my favorite weekends of the year: our annual ski trip to Beaver Creek. I was nervous about the time and expense of getting to Colorado in such a short time frame, but it was worth every penny and minute to get to see, talk with, ski with, hike with, and laugh with my besties. 

The girls and Mike joined Audrey and Alberto in Matambú for a guided hike to a waterfall and also to learn about indigenous cultures of the region. The hosts were very impressed the girls ate and tried all of their traditional foods. All those years of forced vegetarian has taught them to never pass up a meat based soup when offered, even if it is unlike anything they've ever had in the past. Win!

This vine is colloquially known as escalera de mono, "monkey ladder"

The next weekend we headed out of town for our first trip to San Jose. Mike rode the bus with S and the rest of the swim team. They were so excited to stop at the huge mall to go shopping. The highlight was renting PowerWheels and seeing the kids race each other up and down the walkways. 

Parker, riding backpack with S, is her closest friend on the team. They always share a lane and do such a great job supporting each other and pushing each other to improve.

The Tiburones travelled to Humboldt Colegio to compete against a few other club teams from the area. There were lots of strong swimmers. Coach Diego has been working hard to build the program at La Paz and does a great job with all of the kids, from 2nd grade up to Juniors in high school.

Tiburones warming up.

Coach Diego is kind enough to let Mike train with the team when we bring in S for practice on Tuesday mornings. I swim at the same time Thursday mornings. We hosted a masters swim meet and because Mike was 1 of 3 men in his age group, he cleaned up, medaling in almost all of his events! 

We'ev really enjoyed the training, and La Paz's outside pool is such an amazing space and environment to exercise. The added benefit is that each practice is a mini spanish lesson interpreting Diego's instructions and direction.

First Tico haircut! Mike hasn't changed a bit in his adventurous spirit surrounding his hair, so he asked the barber to give him the same haircut he gave the 4 year old little boy before him, but to add "una linea o algo genial..." He nailed it!

As part of their unit learning about rivers, S’s 3rd grade class went to Poza Los Coyotes for their field trip to swim and tube down the very blue and very cold waters of their natural pools.

We had some very special visitors in March: my brother, his wife, and our niece K! Our Spring breaks didn't line up, so unfortunately we had school during the days, but our girls played a day of hookie to hang out and it was really nice to get the cousins together. 

The girls spent a lot of time in the complex pool, parallel reading, playing games, and going to the many beaches. P said, "It was really fun playing Spot-it and Sushi Go with K!" 

According to S, "K and I were playing animals in the waves, and then we played Taxi and rode on the waves. It was fun to play in the waves together."

Cousins in the sand at Playa Flamingo. I loved spending time with K and getting to know her more as she grows up. She is a curious, funny, and loving kid and we’re excited to spend more time with her and family during our summer break in July. 

We definitely miss family and friends the most, so we are so grateful when people come down to visit.