Wow. It has been a while.

Now we all know how that goes. First you are excited. You write your blogs because everything is new and fantastic.
Then you enter the real "Dry Period". Life stops for a moment and you think: "Okay, have done that, have seen that. What now"?
Next, you put yourself out there again. At the end, one didn't come to Costa Rica to not do anything. Well, let me tell you...a loooooot happened in the past 4 weeks.
4 weeks in a lifetime doesn't seem like anything. 4 weeks in 9 weeks is a whole lot. Here are a few reasons why I did not get around to write another blog entry sooner:

1. Moved into a house in Grecia (40 min from San Jose)
2. Seth came for a visit for 1 week
3. Lots of thinking and traveling while Seth was here with this big question to answer in 1 week: will we go back to San Francisco or stay in Costa Rica
4. Looking for a school for Max
5. Looking for a Daycare for Sasha
6. Looking for housing
7. Bank accounts, Lawyers, Business License and what else...ahhhhh
8. Sickness & Emergency Rooms!!! Sasha and I got our fair portion. Sasha for a longer time with very high fever
9. School and Daycare started already
10. Networking, networking and networking
11. Moved again. Into another house in Brasil da Mora up in the hills (close to Max's school and Sasha's daycare)
12. And so much more...

Do I miss San Francisco? No

Do I miss Seth? OHHHHH YES

Do I miss family & friends? Of course

Would I wanna change anything? Yes. Seth being here and we finally could start our life. 

Well nobody said, it will be easy traveling with two children by yourself, trying to establish a new life in a foreign country with a foreign system and a foreign language. But I would do the exact same thing again. This is just to darn rewarding. What we have seen, lived through and had fun, one can only imagine unless you just go for it. At the end what is there to loose? 

The place you come from you know. The place you go to, is your dream. The place you run from, you don't want anyway. The place you'll discover, will always stay in your heart as something unusual and exotic. You can always go back but you will never know what you might miss out on, if you stay. 

Of course there are different types of people and I guess the one I count myself to, is the one, who is craving the constant change even-though I like stability. How do these two go together/ I don't know or I'm not sure. The stability seems to be a small piece inside of me, I have to build over time and long years with different types of experience. It feels dense. Like a rock. 

The change always seems airy and uncertain. With a lot of holes filled with air. Two completely different consistencies but at the end they weigh the same.  

The more the holes are being filled , the more gets shifted over to the side of stability. Depending on what kind of a new "project" the change entails, it is might take years until the "airy ball of change" has been shifted to the side of stability and guess what happens then? Yes. A new "Project" needs to start again. 

Alright. Enough blabla. I just wanted to share my thoughts today and of course a few photographs of the past weeks will follow!

A few Images from our past days in Monteverde & Guanacaste

Here you will find a bunch of pictures from our first 15 days. Everything until now was a beautiful experience. Un sueno ;-)

The weather seems a lot overcast which actually helps to keep some heat away. When the sun comes out it just burns on your skin. So overcast is very welcome.

Overlooking the Cloudforest. Canopy level. From here it just goes down, down, down 

So beautiful

Playa Avellana at Lola's cafe. Directly at the Beach

After playing in the sand she had a HUGE Sand-Diaper-Rash. Poor Paulinchen

I can NOT complain! Beer and Chicken Salad

Playa Grande (Guanacaste)

Photo by Max (Playa Grande)

Monteverde - Detail

Best Western close to Tamarindo Beach

No comment 

Playa Grande

Rustic Lodge in Monteverde. We stayed here for a couple of nights. Very nice! 

Banana Tree Flower

Flower

The TWO

Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve - Waterfall

Us on our Hike through the Forest

Max called it the "Golden Gate Bridge". Hanging Bridge overlooking the Cloudforest. Canopy level.

Wo ist Max?

Everywhere (Sorry about the bad pic quality)

15 days in Costa Rica

Time runs. Yet we have seen a lot already. After leaving Escazu on Day 6, going up to Monteverde, we had a few very beautiful days in the Cloud Forest. Relaxing and with a very almost 3 hour hike through the Forest.
From Waterfall to tropical rain and a nice hanging bridge which allowed us to be in the canopy area of the cloud forest overlooking the top of the trees. Endless beautiful orchids, birds and vines. Only Tarzan was missing...
The rain keeps up well. Mostly in the afternoon and early evening although unpredictable. Mostly the rain is very welcome to either cool down a bit in the Guancaste area or to just listen to it and chill in the Central Valley area.

The combination of the roofs in Costa Rica and the really heavy rain makes you believe you'll spend the night in a tent. But you wake up to lots of different, beautiful animal sounds.

Our beach time was clearly incredible. The beaches are gorgeous and the water is warm. We visited Playa Grande (north of Tamarindo) and it was completely empty until we found out that a young surfer (15) got killed through a shark attack a couple of days earlier.
Tamarindo is VERY VERY touristy town and the prices are as steep as we know them from the US in a touristy spot. We only went into town once and found a very sweet Pizza place but the rest was just annoying.
On the way to Tamarindo is a cute little Cafe called "Cafe Cafe". Free internet, books, some games and good coffee.
Mosquitos are present in those warmer, humid areas. I ended up with over 70 mosquito bites in 2 days. Max followed with 40 and Sasha ZERO. Wonder why...
The roads are all very good here. Crazy drivers and dogs walking on the streets you'll find everywhere though. Buses don't even break anymore for dogs. One got killed in front of our eyes. Driven over by a bus. So sad. The bus didn't stop to pull the dog to the side.

We found ourselves getting tired of packing and unpacking and staying in Hotels. So I went online and tried to find us an apartment which we could use as our base and travel out as wanted or needed but at least we would have a temporary home. And yes, I got sooo lucky.
We are now renting a 3br house ($550/month) in Grecia (40 min outside of San Jose) in Central Valley from a german-dutch couple with kids of their own from today on. One is Sasha's age (7 month). We have everything we could ask for. Hammock, swing, washing machine, a garden, a patio, a blender and a beautiful view. And the best is a sweet Lady, which comes and helps me with kids 2-3 times a week and we learn a bit Spanish as she doesn't speak any english.
This I call luxury ;-)

Photos will follow. I need to get my stuff arranged in the house and find my cables back.

Hasta luego!

Pig Beach Time at Playa Avellana, Costa Rica

More entries to come but this was one of Max's favorite! Enjoy ;-) Sorry for the quality of the movie.
We met this big pig at the beach today and was taking a bath while stealing food including our lunch box. Her name is Lola.

Day 6 Santa Elena, Monteverde

These two are one big world for me!!!

There always will be similarities between animals and humans

High above on our way to Monteverde Cloud forest

Due to its high altitude – some 4,662 ft (1,440 m) above sea level – Monteverde is privileged to receive a steady supply of clouds and the life-giving moisture that they contain. This moisture, often in the form of fog, catches on the branches of the tallest trees and drips down to the other organisms below. This helps to support a complex and far-reaching ecosystem, one that harbors over 100 species of mammals, 400 species of birds, tens of thousands of insect species, and over 2,500 varieties of plants, 420 of which are orchids alone.

4 hours later, coming in from San Jose through different weather conditions of sun, heavy, heavy rain, thick fog, clouds, humidity, cooler regions and 18 km of dirt road, smaller one way bridges and big holes filled with water, we arrived finally in Santa Elena, this unbelievable beautiful and surreal place. We drove about 140 km from which were 22 km windy but easy roads, 18km dirt road and pretty steep in between and 100 km of "Highway". The Panamerica Highway is for the most part a two lane street (one lane for each direction) and occasionally you have the chance to by-bass trucks and tourist buses.  The average speed is 60 km/h (approx. 40 mph). Sasha was sleeping for the first 1.5 hours and then Max managed to take care of her for another hour. THANK YOU MAX!. 

Street is paved, interrupted with small, wooden bridges (no crocodiles yet)

For the other 1.5 hours (towards the end) she was sitting on my lap while Max was figuring out the gears (he did a great job here too), driving up these 40 km to Santa Elena. I think she will be soon a racer. She managed to honk without being asked and was trying to copy Max shifting gears. Just with her little feet instead of hands. We were lucky as we could not go faster than 15 - 20 km/h anyway. So we three had it under control and Max was the happiest dude on earth. Shifting gears. Wow!!! 
Of course Sasha has been throwing up when we arrived (big puddles in a cafe) and Max sat longer than his anyway usual long stay on the toilet. 

I was super happy that I believed all these write ups to actually rent an SUV for Monteverde!

It would be really hard to make it without one. 


As a treat we stopped at a cafe which had excellent cappuccinos and a big Brownie for Max.

Sitting in a cafe as tropical as it can get ;-)

Mmmmhh

He left this little crumble for me. Isn't he sweet!?!?!

Later at night we walked into downtown Santa Elena to find out that this must be one of the most touristy spots  in Costa Rica. English, German, Swiss and in between Spanish. Anyway, we managed to order our dinner in Spanish in a Treehouse Restaurant! Our first big Treehouse! Picture will follow. Sasha fell asleep in my arms and we had a nice walk home listening to all the different animals coming out at night. Will see what awaits us here. It is definitely not one of the cheapest places. The cappuccino and a Brownie where $4,80 and for dinner we shared a Quesadilla with Pollo for $12!!! Tourists have money I guess.

Day 4/5 Last Day Escazu

I can't believe how fast those few days went by already. Tomorrow morning we will be heading back to the car rental place to exchange our regular car for a small 4x4 as we will be driving a little bit (or a lot?) off road. Costa Rica has only  20% of all their streets paved and the rest is...well we are about to find out from tomorrow on. FUN FUN FUN

We had a super nice weekend where we actually went on two kids adventures. Yesterday we went to an old prison which they converted into a Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose. We paid a small entrance fee. Children were $1,20 and Adults $2,20 (how much is our Discovery Museum in San Francisco?). Well this one was very decent. We spent a lot of hours in there while it was pouring outside. Max's most favourite part was the Grocery Store where they get to go around and purchase food (plastic). Everything was on Children level. Shopping Cart, Shelves and portions ;-)

Patricia and her daughter went with us both days and we still got lost a little bit. I'm glad it is not happening to just foreigners.

Today was actually even better. We traveled to Santo Domingo (15min from Escazu) to go and visit Costa Rica's flora and fauna in small. Max got a little glimpse of what is actually expecting us. It was really nice! The jungle must be just one amazing piece of nature next to all the animals and beautiful flowers.
Here the entrance fee shocked me as Patricia (local resident) payed only $7 and I ended up paying $23 for adults and $13 for Max. The price difference is quiet shocking. I don't know if I would have paid the amount if I would have known beforehand. But Max had lots of fun and it was nice to spend one last day with our lovely little host family.

Prison time

Max and Isabella

We still know this guy ;-)

Pineapples - mmmmhh

Max the Tour Guide

Happy in the Rainforest

Have you heard about the moving tree?

Iguana & Max

Tobacco Plant

This is it for today. More to come from our next stations. But I can only say it again: What a beautiful country. The people are just really friendly. Men and Women alike.

Day 3 San Jose

I should mention again, that I'm trying to take it very slow having the kids with me. My plans are flexible and I mostly have a late start due to either nap times of Sasha, Max taking his time or just me being not quiet ready to conquer the outside world too early in the morning.
I found myself leaving the B&B around noon and returning around 4pm, when the rain mostly sets in. By then I'm anyway tired due to different reasons and it is very nice to return to your temporary home especially if it is that welcoming.

Our host Patricia with Sasha

On our way to San Jose, which is only around 7 km away, we, of course, got lost again. After driving lots of kilometers without any signs into the wrong direction, I ended up in a Dead End Street. The kilometers of driving showed me lots of different sides of Costa Rica. I still don't know where I went and how I got out but I certainly haven't seen this kind of life before. It is the first time for me being in a Latin American country and I knew that Costa Rica will have different faces but it is different to actually face them.
What impressed me the most were the abundant number of crazy motorcycle drivers without helmets managing the pot holes better than me with a car. The honking of any kind of vehicles starts a millisecond after the light turns green. I don't worry about it anymore as I either start driving anyway or they find a crazy way around you. I'm waiting for this one stunt where somebody actually jumps over my car ;-)
Another, rather choking, thing were the amount of young females being pregnant. You won't see really any couples on the street in those poor areas. You see women being by themselves as well as men doing their thing. Lots of babies and young children being carried around by their Mamas. I feel stupid having this big, american Bob Stroller in the back of my car which would look like a small car to them. I do not even bother bringing it out and use my Baby Bjorn instead.
They do have condoms here but I guess they don't use them. The average age of a pregnant woman is 18. Damn. That was the case in East Germany. Lots of young, single mums too.
 Lots of trash was surrounding the areas and people were stepping over it as it would be just part of their day. Of course, I did not dare to leave the car until I found myself magically put back to the big stadium, I knew from the other day when I got lost. And now I knew where to go from there. I think, I have a little fairy watching over my shoulder and I was greatful to whatever luck brought me back to the known Stadium. All Max said: "Not again Mama. Why are we lost again?". Easy question to answer. THERE ARE NO SIGNS HERE ;-)

The rest of the afternoon was much easier and actually really pleasant. San Jose is not a beautiful town by all means. It's interesting as an American would put it which actually means (and I'm only repeating what I've learned): I'm not sure if I like it or not.
Anyway, we had a good time. We found a public parking for 900 colones per hour (pretty expensive) which is almost $2 but it was guarded and safe to leave the car there. We started walking through Avenida Central which is the main shopping street. It's for a big part a car free zone which is being filled by lots of Costa Ricans and maybe a few tourists. If you are a shoe lover, you certainly have the chance to find one, two or three pairs. Max wanted a pair of Flip Flops which we got for $3 and I got myself a pair of Sandles for $22. Definitely cheaper than US.


After shopping we went over to the Teatro Nacional which is a beautiful old Theatre from 1890 which got distroyed once in 1964 when the Volcano Irazu errupted and covered the whole city with its ash and Lava. The old buildings of the city are still beautiful but the newer ones do destroy the picture of San Jose unfortunately.

Teatro Nacional from 1890

Cafe inside of Teatro Nacional. Beautiful.

As a relaxing part, we went to the Grand Hotel across from the Theatre to have a coffee and a Pizza for Max. How relaxing. I guess a little bit of luxury in between calms the spoiled heart of mine and the coffee and Pizza were good!

Max at the Grand Hotel Cafe

Green Coffee Beans

Red Coffee Beans

Grand Hotel Cafe

We did manage to get a prepaid Phone card. All you need is either an unlocked phone from the US or you buy the cheapest one for $50. You need your passport and a address where you stay. You can buy any amount you'd like. The prepaid card lets you make and receive calls from the US.

Movitech next to the Grand Hotel has prepaid cards

On our way back we board bread and 3 Avocados for dinner. Our dinner price was almost 1000 colones = $2 for two people. Nice and yummy ;-)

Yummy. 3 Avocados for $1. Organic!

The nice afternoon was followed by a heavy down pour which Max used to dance in the garden of our B&B and a Glass of wine for me. Sasha was happy with some cereal and carrots.

My little carrier for Sashi

Max loved this flower

It is getting better every day. On Tuesday we will stay at the following place in Santa Elena/ Monteverde for our Cloud Forest experience: http://www.monteverderusticlodge.com/ ($55 including breakfast and tax).






P.S. Photographer: Max Frisbee