Our third trimester began with another swim meet. The Guanacaste regional meet was held in Santa Cruz, and S and her teammates went to see how they stack up against the other schools. S was the oldest in her age group, 6-8 and cleaned up. Medaling in every race and coming home with some golds and silvers. It was great to see all the hard work pay off. She has improved so much this year, and we've been really impressed with her dedication. A first place finish qualified swimmers for Nationals, but we found out after the meet that her age group would not be competing at nationals. This was a bit of a bummer, but did not take away from her accomplishments.
About a month later, she was invited to swim at nationals on a relay in the age group above, 9-12 year olds. So it looks like we'll be heading to San Jose one more time before summer.
After swimming 4 events, S and her best swimming bud hadn't had enough so they jumped in the warmup pool for some water tag and extra splashing.
One of my favorite things to happen this year, are the organic frisbee throws S and I have on the beach. Especially when it's at sunset. Thankfully she has her mama's backhand.
Another sunset at Pirata with "Our People" Ricki and Malik, Megan and her daughter Ada.
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We were invited by our neighbors and friends Sam and Joe to join them at their favorite all-inclusive resort in Punta Islita to hang out and help care for their son while they ran a continuing education conference for veterinarians. It had plush robes. The girls were convinced this was the life for them the moment they were handed a fancy welcome drink while we checked in.
PI is the furthest south on the Nicoya Peninsula that we made it this year and it was beautiful.
Our room was a little cabana that also had its own private plunge pool and a beautiful view.
The next morning we headed down to the beach club to check out the waves and relax. P made it a point to sit in every chair, hammock, and sun bed available.
Beautiful day at the pool
Joe, Kai, and Cara playing some beach bocce ball
The view from the mountain where the resort was built.
On the way home, we earned another Tiko badge by successfully navigating our car inspection (DEKRA). With a little research beforehand and careful observation as we were in line we were able to highlight Cabra Sucia's strengths (great brakes, good steering, working lights, and all around good looks) while hiding her one weakness (Parker's window can only be rolled up and down by the driver controls)
Noticing that the attendant was meticulously checking the capability of all windows on the cars in front of me, I rolled into the on-deck position with all of our windows down. As he moved to Parker's door to check the window, I carefully watched through the side view mirror to see when his hand reached for the window control. At the same moment I rolled it up from the front. Phew...
Then it was another 10 minutes of requests like turning on blinkers, hitting your brakes, setting your emergency brake, pull forward, pull back...I went into a Tiko trance and somehow got the gist of all of these mumbled instructions. We did it! We'll be back next year with slightly less anticipatory stress.
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La Paz emphasizes out of the classroom experience, and every grade level starting in 4th grade attends an overnight field trip. This year 6th grade went to Monteverde for 3 days and 2 nights while 8th grade traveled to Volcan Tenorio.
After a long day of exploring the cloud forests, our 6th graders enjoyed the sunset while playing at a local school.
Cara saw more impressive wildlife. Sloth in the wild!
Poison dart frog
Volcan Tenorio
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May was our first month without a visitor, but we made up for it in June with two visits. Marisa, Banjo and family were our first visitors, followed by our second Kealing visitor, Charlie Applegate and his wife Gina and two sons.
It was great to catch up with friends. However, this is when it started to feel a little odd that we were still in the grind of a school year, while friends back home were enjoying their summer breaks. Our first stop with the M&B crew was to Grande for some surfing and boogie boarding.
On our last day together, we went to Playa Dantita for hiking, trail running, and swimming at our favorite secluded beach.
Hermit crab wrestling!
These kids are amazing!
Thank you for coming to visit us!
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For our final big road trip of the year, we drove south towards SJO to a small mountain town, Bajo Caliente where our friend Alberto grew up. He and his wife, Audrey, invited us out to spend the weekend camping, hiking, and exploring the area.
I absolutely love the views of the mountains and valleys out to the Golfo de Nicoya as you climb these two lane mountain roads north of San Jose towards Monteverde and the surrounding area.
Most families in the area use 4-wheel ATVs to ge around instead of horses like they did 30 years ago. Now owning a horse is either a sign of wealth or poverty. Everybody comfortably in the middle uses ATVs for practicality.
This picture doesn't do it justice, but we were surrounded by beautiful valleys and mountains. More cows than people and lots and lots of trees.
We hiked to a nearby pasture of a neighbor to check on a baby cow that Audrey was considering buying, and along the way we had to cross this river. (Not pictured) There was a suspension bridge above that we and the locals used to cross the water. We did get to see one brave and confident driver cross the river in their Suzuki Samurai. They were returning from a quick shopping trip, and the mom had to get out with the eggs and walk across the bridge to ensure their safety.
Although there were no hiking trails, the local roads are steep enough and rugged enough to get your heart pumping and really put you out in the middle of nature. One of the highlights was walking up to the piece of land that Alberto and Audrey own at the top of a nearby mountain. After driving up the mountain, we hiked the last 500m because the road was very steep with loose rocks.
Behind those clouds, are valleys and mountains as far as the eye can see. We were only able to catch glimpses this time, but hopefully we'll be back to Casa da Floresta soon to see the whole view. Huge thanks to Audrey and Alberto for sharing their country home with us and making us feel welcome with their awesome family.
Blueberry (Audrey's dairy cow) living the Pura Vida life.
Note: always bring salt for a cow. Blueberry was very disappointed in our offer of an apple.
