Happy
Holidays to All
We wish everyone a most happy, healthy and joyful holidays!
La
Maman de Manuel meets the jungle
and the jungle meets La Maman!
Manuel's mother, Regine, visited in early December, and brought
with her a severe case of what is now locally referred to as the
George Bush flu (in reference to the recent flu outbreak in the
US)!
So the first few days basically began in bed, trying to heal a
bad flu, with gallons of lemon grass tea and plenty of sleep.
Regine was so excited when she woke up the 3rd morning feeling
relatively great and ready to go 'explore'. Separately, Manuel
had just gotten rid (smashed
with a cup)
of a balas ant, captured the previous evening in the (open) living
room. We take great pride in not killing living things and try
to teach the value of life to our daughter, but the balas ant
is part of a small group of creatures on the exception list!
Back
to the story...Regine was preparing a light breakfast when all
the sudden she let out a loud OUCH!!!!! She was obviously in a
lot of pain, but appeared to tolerate it. We all thought it was
a small ant bite on her foot and the pain should have gone away
within a few minutes. But the pain got deeper and stronger. Ice
became the only thing that would quell the pain. So, wondering
what had bitten Regine, Manuel got on the floor to see what it
might have been. After living in our house about 6 months now,
we have never had any significant bites while in the house. Amazingly
enough, the evidence was found - though unbelievable that this
was it. When Manuel had smashed the glass on the balas ant some
30 minutes earlier, the back part of the ant got separated and
fell onto the floor. Regine had stepped on the separated and dead
backside of a balas ant!
Balas ants are perhaps one of the most dreaded creatures that
we know of in our environment. There are actually very few insects
or animals that pose any danger to us, except a few snakes, scorpions
and ants - in particular: the Balas Ant. Balas means bullet.
And this is exactly what this ant has been named after: the bite
of the ant feels like a bullet wound - all the way down to the
bone. The pain can and does last at least 4-6 hours! Few people
ever have serious complications, but the word is that the pain
is unbearable. They say it is by far more painful then anything
else that could affect you in the rainforest! The ant is over
1 inch long bites in the same way as a bee or wasp does, with
a needle in it's back end. Most other ants bite from the mouth
area. The balas also has HUGE mandibles used to grab onto the
prey and then bends its torso and injects enough poison under
the skin to probably do serious damage to a small animal. see
picture
If we are to look at the positive side of this situation, Regine
was lucky that the ant was dead. It probably injected a relatively
very small amount of toxin. We had our first hands-on experience
of a balas bite realizing that although painful, it's really not
the end of the world!
At about midday, Regine's foot got much better and we were able
do a little exploring. Maya came along as well - while Emmanuelle
kept very busy showing properties to some potential clients.
At
the end, Regine had a great time and got a good feel (we hope)
for our new lives here in Pura Vida land.
About
that tree
Remember in the last post, we put up a newsflash saying Emmanuelle,
Maya and Christian were stranded at home without power or telephone
due to a downed tree. The road was obstructed and the car could
not drive through. Well the pics are in...
The end result is Nicolas came over the next day with his BIG
chainsaw to clear the road, we got new power lines put up within
48 hours and new telephone lines within 5 days. Not bad considering...where
we are!
A New Sign
Now people can find us. We put up a sign at the entrance road
to our property. CARIBE SUR is painted onto a scene of a waterfall
and rainforest with all sorts of wildlife. The painting was made
by a local Caribbean artist. As a result of this sign, our official
mailing address now becomes: "600 metros al sur de la
entrada del camino de Caribe Sur". We will stick with
our PO box
in Puerto Viejo - which by the way works FINE!
see picture
...and
that other tree
Since
we purchased the property, we have had this basically dead post
- now not far from the house. The bottom of the trunk - there
are no more branches - has been all rotten out and it appears
that the tree is about to fall....perhaps on the house. So we
hired a local tree cutter to come and take it down.
Here, tree cutting is always an experience. You have to get guys
that know what they are doing because you if don't, the tree or
branch could fall in an undesirable area. I have personally seen
someone attempting to save a few bucks by hiring some inexperienced
kid to cut a big branch. Long story short, I sat far away telling
my friends to watch the branch as it was being cut. Sure enough
the branch was cut, and a roof below was crushed. It was a miracle
that noone was hurt - but seemed obvious to me that these folks
were amateurs.
We did it right and the tree fell where it was intended to. However,
the excitement came after the fall. The top of the tree was rotten
and in a big hole lived 15-20 HUGE bats! Most got away after the
fall, but 2-3 got killed during the fall. We see bats here everynight,
but I never imagined they got as big as these! see
picture
Bats! You say...yes, there are lots of bats here....LOTS of bats...but
that is part of the reason we have such few mosquitos. Visitors
are surprised at the apparent lack of mosquitoes and insects.
We have the bats to thank. Most bats that in this region are either
insect or fruit-eating bats.
Maya meets Bill Gates
A
few days ago, Maya said she wanted to 'work' like her father on
the computer. So we opened up a basic paint program, she took
the mouse and within minutes was drawing, typing and painting
all by herself. She quickly figured out most of the functions
and the use of the mouse. It;s quite amazing how young kids pick
up so quickly!
The
G. W. Bush Flu hangs around
Remember Regine's flu that she had when she visited? Well, it
is very likely that Emmanuelle has inherited it - in its many
forms. When Regine left, Emmanuelle had already signs of a cold
/ flu brewing up. Regine, we are hoping that you are feeling better
- and everyone less: be careful! Emmanuelle then went to Miami
for a week and spent most of it in bed. Upon her return, much
the same - although generally feeling better. Several days ago
she began having a sharp pain in her chest - left side. The next
day, it got worse and we had to go to the local 'clinica'
after dinner. The 'clinica' is our local hospital - sort of thirld
world looking, but clean and effective! She was admitted and was
kept overnight. The doctors gave her fluids and all sorts of IV
painkillers, anti-inflammatories, bronchiodilators and penicillin.
She was diagnosed with pleuritis - inflammation of the
skin surrounding the lungs. She is now home and feeling much better
- but taking it easy and recovering.
Also of interest to this story is the cost of medical care. The
cost of our visit to the hospital, overnight stay, emergency medications,
take home medications and follow ups: $20
Weather
Update
Since
our 18 months of living here, we are now in the middle of experiencing
our first 'continuous' bad weather times! It has basically rained
everyday for the past 3 weeks...with the exception of 2-3 beautiful
days. The past 5 days: it has rained almost all day and night
everyday. We have been getting between 2-4 inches of rain per
day. We are now in the process of making our upstairs and office
areas more 'cozy'! The good news is that we are planting like
mad...and things are really growing.
Santa
scheduled to stop by
We
got word that Santa will in fact make a stop by the tropics to
deliver presents to all the nice children that live here. Maya
is very excited and counting down the days. We got a REAL Christmas
tree in San Jose!
HO
HO HO
PURA
VIDA
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