August
in a Flash
September 1 - Our
apologies for the obvious delay in posting updates on Life in
Punta Uva. As laid back as life may appear on the outside or in
many of the pictures posted, it is in fact very busy here! We
are slowly progressing towards establishing certain routines everyday
and often find ourselves asking "Where did the day go?"
We typically wake up around 7 a.m. and going to sleep between
10 and 11 p.m. (Although this pattern has been slowly receding
to the daylight cycle of 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.). Our days are filled
with few activities that somehow stretch out to take up a whole
day - and fast! At 8, Emmanuelle takes Maya to school (see below)
and Manuel goes down to the Internet Cafe which is about 500 yards
from the house. Maya gets out of school at 11 a.m. and often comes
to join us at the finca (farm in Spanish) - unless she goes to
play with some of her new friends. Depending on the weather, we
might work on the farm, meet with our architect, go to the beach
or perhaps stay at home and enjoy the sometimes countless hours
of heavy downpours (yes!! it rains here!!). At the end of the
day, we come back home and shower ourselves of the layers of mud
accumulated back at the farm, eat dinner, do homework with Maya
and finally relax an hour or two (listening to the rain!!).
Nice
Weather on the Way OK, so now your thinking...'hmmm,
Costa Rica, tropics, rainforest and several references above about
the rain? It MUST rain a lot down there!!' Well the truth is that
it does! But not quite as much as it seems! We do live in a true
rainforest in the tropics and we have seen a LOT of rain these
past 2 months. We had 29 inches of rain in August. Even though
during the rainy season it rains a lot, it usually is MOSTLY at
night, soon after sunset. Just a few nights ago, it rained over
3 inches in 1 hour - and this is very common. During the daytime,
there are few days that do not have at least 4-6 hours of sunshine.
The
word here is that contrary to the rest of the country, we do not
have defined rainy / dry seasons. There weather is consistently
good in September, October, February, March and April. December,
June and July tend to be rainy and November, January and August
are transitional periods. Today was the first day of September
and indeed the weather was magnificent. No rain - dry air - flat
crystal clear ocean and deep blue skies!!! They say it's consistently
like this for the next 2 months. If your planning on coming to
visit us - now is a good time!
Maya
at School A
few weeks ago, Maya started school! She goes from 8 a.m. to 11
a.m. and sincerely enjoys it. She now just about knows how to
read and write most of her ABCs and 1 to 10. She can also write
MAYA, PAPA, MAMAN. She is particularly good with the A!
It
is a new private school with two other students (for now)- one
4 and the other 4.5 years old. The teacher is a very nice woman
from northern California who has lived here a few years. We chose
this school for now now because it is in English - with an introduction
into Spanish. The students have about 30 minutes of homework every
night which we help her with.
Maya
has made made several new friends here - in particular her schoolmate
Rosa (see pic)
Tooth
Infection: Extraction / Bladder Infection: Pipas This
past week was one where we put to test our local medical system!
Manuel had a wisdom tooth infection and Emmanuelle a bladder infection.
The
toothache got progressively worse over three days until which
- even with borrowed painkillers and lots of acetaminophen I could
no longer tolerate it - I was prepared to take the next bus to
San Jose or even a plane to the States to get rid of the pain
- or whatever was causing it. But much to my surprise, there IS
a dentist in town!! A scarry thought - I thought to myself - but
worth a try - at least for a diagnosis.
The
town dentist examined my mouth and explained to me that my upper
right wisdom tooth was affecting pressure on the other teeth and
thus causing problems. The surest way to fix the problem was to
extract the tooth. But the inflammation had to go down and I need
to be on a steady dose of antibiotic - in order to minimize further
infection from the extraction. So he gave me some antibiotics
for a few days, some pain killers and asked me to come back in
2 days for the extraction. At the same time, he looked at Emmanuelle's
teeth and Maya's as well. Total cost of visit and medications:
$10
Though
I was nervous for the extraction, it actually went quite well.
After what seemed like a 2 minute injection of anesthesia into
my gums, the process took no more than 1 minute. Just a blade
and a big pair of teeth pliers and wham (there was also a crunch!?!)-
it was out! Total cost of procedure and medications: $60
The
pain is now all gone, and I must say - I think we've got a great
dentist here!
Emmanuelle's
bladder infection happened concurrently to Manuel's tooth infection.
We were both not feeling well at the same time. Maya was well...and
took good care of us. Emmanuelle cured her infection with Noni
and the pipas. Noni is a local 'miracle fruit' that everyone is
drinking down here. The pipas are nothing more than coconut milk
drank directly from the coconut. Apparently, coconut milk is very
good to help clear these kinds of infections. As we continue to
pursue the art of the machete, we can now open our own coconuts
with just a few whacks! Each time we see pipas on the trees, we
open them up and drink the milk!
Road and Bridge Update Well
the local saying "Here in Costa Rica, everything takes time"
could not be any truer. A fine example of that is the road. The
biggest obstacle has been the weather. We have had one of the
rainiest wet seasons in the past 15 years - and road building
does not go well with rain! The good news is that the road is
all cut out, the water evacuation ditches are dug and functioning
and the bridge has been placed over the creek. We still have to
finish building the support walls (12 feet high by 20 ft wide)
and place the gravel on the road. In order for the gravel trucks
to climb the hills, the road must be DRY - at least 4-5 days without
any significant rain. We are just now entering this period and
hope to begin the process as early as this week.
The
bridge has been a long and painful process. So far, we have poured
over 200 bags of concrete mix - each weighing over 100 lbs and
laid over 300 blocks of concrete block. All this was done in tough
conditions: thick, slippery mud up to our thighs that grab on
to your boots and won't release them, the constant menacing by
the feared 'Ballas' ants - with a venom as strong as many snakes,
losing our tools in the mud and never finding them again, slipping
down a slope of mud with a 50kg bag of mix and so on. The hardest
part was getting all the materials to the creek. Since there is
no driveable road yet, everything had to be carried by an ATV
quad cycle - yes..many trips!
House
Plans Progressing Almost
done! We've been meeting with Nicolas, our architect, almost daily
to discuss and review house plans. If all goes according to schedule,
we should have the plans ready to post sometime within the next
10 days. Basically, we have come up with a 2 floor house, approximately
1700 square feet (~170 sq m), which although not huge, is large
relative to local standards and the type of living here. The second
floor will have Maya's and our bedrooms, a nice bathroom and a
descent terrace, overlooking the view. Downstairs will be an office
with A/C (to protect the electronics from the killer humidity),
kitchen, utility room and large open living / dining area overlooking
the gardens and ocean. Except for the office and utility room,
the entire house will be VERY open and very tall. This is to maximize
the natural cooling system from the breezes coming up from the
hills below. The first floor is 12 ft (4m) tall and the second
floor slightly more, with a tall roof extending 30 feet (10 m)
up.The ground floor will be constructed principally from cement
/ concrete and the second from wood. Nicolas has been able to
find us some of the last true rainforest exotic hardwoods for
the house. Even here in Costa Rica, they are becoming very expensive
and hard to find! (Rainforest protection!!). If all goes well,
we are expected to 'break ground' end of September.
