Since it was Sunday and all that, Ken (good friend and fellow off-road vehicle enthusiast) came by to convince us to do something fun. After very little thought we decided to head on over to Playa Conchal. The beach is about 40 minutes away and absolutely beautiful. And there are a few stretches of loose sand that you have to drive over to get to the place we were headed, so it sorta counts as an offroad trip, well... not really, but at least it contains a brief portion where 4wd is useful, and sometimes necessary.
But I digress. The real reason we liked the idea of going there is the sheer beauty of the place and the fact that it has nice clear water and snorkeling and is a fine place to play with the new waterproof housing for our camera (by the way, visit www.thegrowcerystore.com. Good people).
So to the beach we went after loading up, meeting up, loading up some more, etc etc

Ken and Tirin	(fore)Bb, Kira, Tirin, Sawyer, Kreek, Scratch, Yurlani, Elias, (back)David, Chris, Jen, Volker, Tinika	Kreek

The day was spectacular, the kids were fun to play with, the water couldn't have been more comfortable. Due to some wind it was a little turbid and choppy, so snorkeling wasn't all that great, but we took a couple of pictures anyway. Fun day, fabulous place.

Here we see Steve getting a little artistic and trying out the macro capabilities of the camera and housing. Bb and Jen did some mermaid impressions too. Takes a touch of photoshop to restore colors, but the pictures come out pretty well.

Labels: beach, Costa Rica, photo, tamarindo

We've got some friends in town, which is always fun. Jen and David came down from San Francisco to visit and vacation for a week. Their pal Chris met up with them here. So the five of us have been hanging out. Unfortunately, on their second night here they had their backpack stolen- containing all the important stuff- so that was a pretty rough and awful night. If we haven't said it enough yet: Thieves stink. Scum of the earth.

After getting up late on Saturday and making a bunch more phone calls to help them cancel cards and whatnot, we all finally motivated to head down to the beach. It was a little cloudy, but around here that can actually mean a better beach day as it isn't quite as hot.
Of course, since we were headed to the beach anyway, Steve just had to try out his, um..., OUR new toy. Yessiree folks, thanks to the fantastic generosity of the folks at www.thegrowcerystore.com we now have our waterproof camera housing! Very cool. So far we haven't done anything worthy with it besides try it out... but keep your eyes peeled for many more aquatic images around here. They can't be much worse than Steve's first attempt at taking a picture while body surfing -->

Giving up on the body surfing and the camera for a bit, Steve paddled out into an angry sea to catch a wave or two while Jocelyn and Chris played Set (a card game introduced to us by our good friends Donn and Nora) After a few hours of intense laying-on-beach therapy, Jen and David seemed to be enjoying their vacation again, which made us happy.

Labels: beach, photo

Feeling a little out of touch with US politics, Steve checked out the Department of Homeland Security web page for the first time today. Other similarly themed websites can be found here and here.
There are also more than a few websites that address the political and security changes made in the USA in the last few years. Hermes-Press.com makes some comparisons between modern US politics and those found in Germany in the Thirties. These posters reference Homeland Security's role in our society. The Homeland Security Institute contains several essays on current event topics and terrorism in general.
Finally, this site contains a long list of news items in a reverse chronological order. It has numerous links to what they claim are "opinions of the Arab street" as well as links to some of the horrors that are being faced by members of the military and civilians in the Middle East.
Interesting stuff. While I'm trying pretty hard to avoid infusing this with my own opinions, I am curious to hear other's opinions, so please feel free to leave a comment. If you aren't into commenting, no worries, poke through the links above if you like, or come back later to read more about surfing, landcruisers, our dog and the rest of the regularly scheduled program.

And speaking of our regularly scheduled program: We are now taking advantage of the puppy's need to pee at 4:30a.m. every day. As dawn um... dawned... we drove our landcruiser down to the beach for an early morning session. Frequent sets of chest high waves (with some overhead sets) for over two hours with a total of seven surfers in the water made for a nice, exhausting workout. Breakfast at Gil's place (amazingly delicious burritos) didn't do much to perk us up, but it did fill us up. Eating too much after early morning exercise is just the sort of thing to make one want to sit in front of their computer and read a bunch of rhetoric online....

Labels: beach, blog, food, news, surf

Got up at 5 this morning to take Caly out- she's getting better at holding it (a fact about which you probably don't really care at all but is paramount amongst our concerns these days). The fabulous morning light inspired Steve to take some photos, but instead we went surfing.
The surfing was mediocre: small sets, mostly closing out. We had some fun anyway and worked up an appetite. By 7:30 we were back home and frying up eggs. Mmmmm, eggs. Hard to find a better way to start the day than seeing a lovely sunrise, catching some waves all alone, then eating well. Life is good here in paradise. Mornings like this are a good reminder.

Labels: dog, food, surf

We consider ourselves environmentalists. Really. We take it pretty seriously most of the time. This guy, on the other hand, is taking it really seriously. 61 years old and he's going to swim 35 miles through jellyfish infested waters to help draw awareness to the plight of the worlds reefs and oceans.
So go check out the site and spend a little time thinking of ways that you can help, even if it is just a little bit. Every little bit helps.

Labels: news

Thursday sure was a long day!
Started out great, we took a long bike ride down the beach in beautiful sunshine and a strong, dry breeze. Living here in Paradise we get a little jaded about 'beautiful days', after all, most of our days are darn nice. But Thursday... was exceptional even by local standards.

Wow! One of those days that just foolin' around on a bicycle makes you want to shout out with joy at how fantastic it is to be alive. Great morning!

Unfortunately, the afternoon was lousy. Poor little Calypso, who has learned to charge up the stairs to our place, and sorta work her way down, took a shortcut and fell off the side of the stairs. We were both standing at the bottom when it happened and I can't begin to describe the horror we felt watching our sweet little puppy scramble to hold on for a brief instant before falling 12 feet to the ground below.After sitting with her for a few minutes, we gingerly took her upstairs where Steve got on the phone to the vet. He assured us that as long as she was playful and alert, we needn't worry too much, especially if she took a little food and water, but to call him if she started acting funny. So for a few hours we sat on the floor, watching for absolutely anything out of the ordinary. Seeing as how she is only seven weeks old, just about everything she does is unusual. She walks funny, rolls around on the ground a lot, falls over when playing, flops down and goes to sleep at the drop of a hat, etc etc. The real challenge was trying to figure out if any of the above was any *more* funny than normal. We were miserable- which only served to make Caly act a little odd, as she couldn't seem to figure out why the two of us were watching over her so closely.

Finally, with visions of invisible life-threatening internal bleeding dancing in our heads, we decided to take her in to the vet- if for no other reason than to put our own minds at ease. After poking and prodding and stretching and listening and looking... the vet diagnosed Calypso as being fine. Just fine. The relief in the room was palpable.
While we were there, we got her toenails clipped.

Long day for us, long day for the puppy. Needless to say, she won't be going downstairs solo for a little while, and we sure are glad that there is a shaggy lawn below the stairs instead of gravel or concrete.

Labels: beach, dog

About 15 minutes ago, Burt Rutan and his team launched the world's first privately funded spaceship. Amazing. This is the sort of thing that we love to hear about- all over the world there are people dreaming of going places that everyone told them they shouldn't/couldn't go...

Labels: news

We were just sitting here, looking forward to Jocelyn's "Killer Shrimp" dinner tonight with our friends Tony and Laurel and thinking about where to get said shrimp. See, we live on the ocean- fresh seafood abounds- paradoxically there is no Seafood Store in town. Go figure! The fundamental reasons seems to be that A) tourists don't cook; and B) the same guys who sell to restaurants and would sell to a seafood store also drive around in their trucks with big coolers in the back and sell seafood to anyone at all who is interested, at virtually the same price. So in the end, locals probably wouldn't buy at a store all that much unless they can't find what they want fresh off of a truck.
The problem however, is that the trucks are, by their very nature, unpredictable in terms of time/date and also supply.
So, as I started to say above, we were talking about where to go to find some fresh shrimp for a yummy dinner tonight and just then, wouldnchaknowit, a guy we've never met before pulls up out in the street and shouts up to Bb "Camarones Jumbo?", asking her if she would like to buy shrimp.
Never ones to look good fortune in the mouth (or is it "never question a gift horse?") Steve hopped down to check out what turned out to be beautiful, very fresh, cleaned shrimp. We bought 1.5 kilos for 4,500 colones. Put in "we can't use a decent measuring system like the rest of the world does" terms- that works out to about 3.3 pounds. Total cost to us? $10.32 Not bad for huge fresh-caught shrimp! And we didn't even have to leave the house.
Yum!

Ever thought about making your own turboprop ultralight?This guy did it. Only that wasn't good enough, so now he's making a Fanjet Ultralight. For those that like to tinker, this sight is a must see.

Got in some good surfing, finally. Ok, maybe not good. Definately not
great. But it was surfing, and that's something. Word on the street is
that we've got swell coming on either friday or monday. Either way, we
are looking forward to it!

Labels: surf

Go help Save Endangered Wild Places. It only takes a few minutes to do something that might help offset all the lousy things that all of us do to the environment every day. It may not change the world, but then again, it may.

Labels: news

Sunday! Day of rest and all that.
Ours started out a little different than usual as we took a mini road trip up the coast. The biggest motivator was that we had use of a rental 4Runner for a few hours in the morning and thought we would take advantage. We've reduced Sandy to necessary adventures only right now because it seems Steve punctured the radiator last week when he went sloggin around south of here. It still holds water pretty well, but just pretty well. We don't trust the local mechanic to do a good job of soldering it, and the guy in Santa Cruz couldn't fix it when we went there, so we'll have to go up to Liberia next week. Oh, the joys of car maintenance and repair in Costa Rica.
We didn't go far on our little Sunday outing, but did stop off and check out some beautiful property with nice views, including some great ocean views when there aren't clouds in the way. Only $250K for nearly 50 acres! Wow.
The 4Runner, incidentally, drives great. Not a big motor under the hood, but Steve is getting more and more convinced that for an SUV there really isn't a better motor than a turbo-diesel. Great mileage (we averaged a bit over 30mpg- most of that driving slowly on bad dirt roads with frequent braking and acceleration), good low-end torque, and enough pep when you need it on account of the turbo kicking in. The whole package was surprisingly quiet as well. The US government and auto industry are really cheating people by making it so difficult to get a turbo-diesel motor, especially in light of the fact that it is remarkably easy to get SUV's that get 12-15 mpg. Just plain stupid.
Finished the afternoon off by arguing with the puppy over her crate training. Ugh. We seem to be making progress, but it comes as no surprise that she really prefers to hang out at our feet, not in her crate. If she could just learn to let us know more than 10 seconds before she pees, there would be no problem!
In the evening Steve took her over to play with her parents and two siblings, that seemed to tire her out sufficiently that she slept quietly in her crate while we enjoyed a nice barbecue meal (Rudy's Bar-BQ Sause, good stuff) and a ferocious but short-lived storm.

Labels: dog

The archive links on the left are working now. They weren't before.
Working, that is. Not on the left. They've always been on the left.
Right down there below the picture of us and the links to our other
sites. Which also work. Just in case you were worried.

Labels: news

As requested: Puppy Pictures! Even a video. We'll try not to post new photos every day (this isn't really supposed to be Our New Puppy blog) but she is probably the single largest time sink we have right now. Here is a shortcut to the video -->

Labels: dog

I enjoyed reading this, hope you enjoy it too.Surf Guru. Since we aren't surfing enough ourselves right now (the rains have been filling the bay with runoff, yucky) it is nice to read surfing-related fiction.

Labels: surf, weather

tempest rages new
water falls deafeningly
wind makes moist indoors

HAIKU. Fun.

Labels: tamarindo, weather

Just found out that it wasn't just our imagination that May was a tad
rainy--- reports say that we had nearly twice the 'normal' amount of
rain for the month of May. Yet it only rained about one week. When all
was said and done, it appears that we had a little over an inch per day
for the week Kate was here. That's more than half the
annual precipitation for San Diego county. One of the
local golf courses reports that in one day they had nearly three
inches of rain!

Labels: news, tamarindo, weather

While chatting about a great new listing of his (Joya de Lagarto) Steve's buddy Mike suggested that we road trip down to check it out. So we did. After a quick stop to stock up on some sodas, fruit juice and cookies, Steve, Mike, Sawyer (Mike's 3.5 yr old son) and Casey (spelling?) headed down the muddy road looking for a little adventure, some real estate information, and maybe even some surf.
We found all of the above, but by the time we managed to wrap up the important business aspects of the trip, the wind had shifted onshore, so we just sat and watched some house-sized waves come mackin into the beach. Wow. Big day. I would say "Gee, to bad about the wind" but in reality, had the wind been offshore, I probably would have been too frightened to paddle out anyway. I like surfing. I may even love surfing. But drowning.... I'm pretty sure that's something I would rather avoid!
So after watching waves in Lagarto for a bit, we headed down one muddy road/trail after another and ended up on one of Bb's favorite beaches anywhere (playa frijolar) where we threw sand in the estuary (having a 3.5 yr old along adds flavor) and generally enjoyed a beautiful day.

Pretty blue church along the road on the way south	State of Mind: driving through mud to go to the store is a drag, driving through mud to go to the beach is fun	Sawyer and Mike striking a pose by Joya de Lagarto

Labels: 4wd, Costa Rica, day trip, landcruiser, mud, photo, surf

	the journal is updated
View from one of the lots in Joya de Lagarto		Did you take your cruiser out to play today?

Labels: day trip, landcruiser, mud, real estate

We had a great time in Rincon last week with Kate. The sun was a welcome change from all the dreary rain here in Tamarindo, and it always fun to jump into Sandy and go somewhere new. The drive up only took about two hours. In a rental car it would either take longer (if you pretend you care about the car) or less (if you don't mind flirting with chance of a breakdown from rutted roads). After a quick spin around the area to get acquainted, we picked up a hitch-hiker on our way back to the lodge. We never really understood his name (sounded German, he said it was French) and we suspect that we didn't quite communicate effectively with him. The conversation went something like this: "Sure, we'll give you a ride, but we are only going back down to the first lodge" "Ok, good, good, I'll go anywhere." Three minutes later: "Well, here we are." "Is this all you are going?" "Yup. You are welcome to ride with us into the entrance if you like." "No. I'll get out here."

We think he said "thanks" but aren't sure. Funny guy.

After a great lunch, we decided to hike up to the hot springs which were "an hour away" according to the waiter. It may have been karmic revenge from the French/German short-term hitcher, or it may have been another failure to communicate, but whatever it was, the hot springs definately were not a one-hour hike away. Granted, we stopped a few times to admire towering trees and spider monkeys, but the three of us are pretty fit hikers and after nearly two hours we were notably not sitting in steamy hot water. Since the sun was going down we gave up and turned around for the lodge. Thinking we would save some time, and not thinking about the copious amounts of rainfall in the last few days, we took route marked on the map as the wider, less hilly path. Wider and less hilly translated to knee-deep mud for much (if not most) of that trail.
After another two hours or so of slogging through the mud, we made it back to our bungalow in good shape, albeit a tad pooped and plenty covered in mud.
A great meal did wonders for our moral and we made plans to head off on a horseback ride the next day- Bb and Kate overcoming their aversion to horses in light of a much stronger aversion to more hiking through the sticky mud. (to be continued)
Here is a link to some pictures.

Labels: Costa Rica, photo, travel, vacation, weather