We've been enjoying a sudden stop to the rainy season: the last 10 days have been sun sun sun, and not just a little hot as the accumulated moisture in the ground has been making 2 o'clock feel a little like a sauna.

The sunsets have been unbelievable, however, and there have been some nice breezy days.

Yesterday we got a typical November dousing of rain- pretty heavy, not very long duration. Great for all of our plants and a nice indication that the trees and fields will stay green for another week or two.

Also great as I've been procrastinating on the very important job of fixing up our irrigation system at the house. It was never done well, and the last five months of neglect haven't made it any better. If it didn't rain this week I was going to be forced into getting the drip system working at least well enough to keep stuff alive until I could fix it right. Now I can put it off for another week or two, *then* deal with the emergency that I will have ignored. Sort of like the Republican approach to fixing the economy...

Jocelyn seems to be winning her war with the bouganvillia. Her take-no-prisoners pruning approach was the subject of much debate between us, but I've got to concede that the areas in which she has been most aggressive are now the areas that look the best and are probably just about ready to explode in beautiful flowers (which is the only reason to keep that pernicious weed around the yard).

Last weekend we planted four plumeria trees around the yard- they are small now but two are in flower and we can't wait for "someday" when they grow up. We've also got four healthy-looking papaya trees that are coming along, though still a long ways from bearing fruit. I put two Jatropha trees in the ground as well, they are putting out new leaves and appear to be "happy". Our two volunteer tomato plants continue to grow and put out plenty of foliage, but so far no flowers thus no real hopes of fruit (yet!). We've been fertilizing them lackadaisically and with compost, now we are looking at getting some organic fertilizer more directly suited to making plump tomatoes come off of our plant! We take some consolation in that A) these are volunteer plants anyway and we didn't prep the soil at all and B) next year the soil will be much better for whatever we plant there.

As the dry season takes over, we are hoping that the two little tomatoes start cranking out some flowers. If not, ok, we'll just try again!

On the topic of soil- in case you care- I've been dismayed to learn that most of the "soil" in our back yard is really, incredibly, seriously, HORRIBLE. It looks like about two-four inches of mostly-clay is on top of about two or three feet of construction debris/rubble. While digging out a small hole for one of the trees I planted last weekend, most of what I pulled out was broken cinder block and 1-inch sized gravel. Good drainage, at least. But not much there to foster life. At some not-too-distant point we plan to build up some decking/planter beds. Instead of trying to amend the junk that is in the ground, we are planning to pile good soil on top, and plant our plants there. The preponderance of construction waste in the "dirt" helps explain why a large section of our front yard is about 8" sunken compared to the retention wall around it. I imagine that there is no small amount of form-work wood down there, rotting away, and also plenty of void spaces where the dirt is slowly but surely filling in. I only hope that our swimming pool is sitting on slightly more solid ground and that we don't awaken one morning to a new "water feature" spilling out of the front wall of our property.

The surf has been decent, got out twice last week and I'm really noticing the effects of a couple of months or rain. I refer not only to the sand bar being all messed up at my favorite break, but also to the dramatic reduction in paddling strength that I'm feeling out there! Between a long Sunday of gardening and a solid morning of surfing, my body was feeling pretty sore. In a good way.

Louie is back from the body shop! Hurray! And he passed his road test with flying colors. I had to replace one tire because it was worn too thin- the replacement that I got at a used tire shop was overpriced at $20, but got me through the inspection. If I don't sell him soon, I'll probably have to spring for two new tires anyway. Fact is, local "wisdom" has really rubbed off on me on this one and I'm stretching the life of the tires on the that truck to their utmost limit. It's pretty ugly. For the record: Louie is for sale, asking $11,000, 1988 hj60 Landcruiser (6-cyl diesel motor) well-built, well maintained.

Labels: Costa Rica, garden, landcruiser, surf, tamarindo, weather

I'm back! Jocelyn is still in Atlanta, doing some jewelry shows and trying to keep a positive attitude despite all the dire economic predictions that we are hearing.

Lots to tell.... but no time to do it right now. Stay tuned.

Labels: atlanta, tamarindo

The rains have finally paused. Not stopped, I'm sure. It rained cats n dogs last night, for example, but most of yesterday was flawlessly beautiful (though a tad warm from the humidity) and today is looking equally lovely so far. With a little luck, things can dry out some- the house and cars and dog are all taking on a musty smell, so some breeze and sunshine are much appreciated.

The rain with occasional little bits of sun seems much appreciated by one of our aloe plants as well, it is blooming with what promises to be a really pretty flower.

Back to cars: I'm excited to report that I've finally fixed one of the things that bugged me the most about my 80 series Landcruiser. The "gas" pedal has always had a very stiff and unresponsive feel to it. You've got to really push it to get any sort of get up and go out of the Cruiser. Well, I've got real doubts about the way that the injection pump is tuned, I suspect that the installers of the diesel did a "good enough" job instead of making sure that all of the cool bells n whistles work correctly. So while looking online for some info on how to adjust a particular feature (the Auto Cold Start Device, ACSD), I noticed that there is a spring attached to my IP that isn't stock. It looks almost stock. So I removed the spring and noticed... "Hey, this armature works much better now." Sure enough- the spring was pulling on the AC idle-up arm and due to leverage and friction, that meant an awful lot of extra work from in the driver's seat. The truck feels like a new animal. I've got to relearn to drive it as now I'm burning rubber every time I accelerate. I love it.

I've still got the 2nd most-annoying feature of the truck to contend with-- the windows have really bad hard-water stains on the outside. I've tried a variety of cleansers, yesterday I even tried a little muriatic acid. No good. Still has water spots. I think that the next step is to soak some paper towel in muriatic acid and let it sit there for a while. All window-cleaning tips are welcome at this point.

Labels: garden, landcruiser, tamarindo, weather

There are good ways and bad ways to start the day.
To be roused from slumber by the aroma of freshly brewed coffee being delivered by your beautiful wife: Good way to start the day.

Bolting up from your pillow to the sound of a loud crash/thud from downstairs: Not so good.
Walking downstairs to see a pile of moldy, sodden drywall at the foot of the stairs, and a gaping hole in the ceiling with water steadily emptying from it: Bad. Trust me on this one.

The only thing that made it not-quite-awful was that it was not-quite-surprising. Last week we noticed a pretty serious drip coming from the ceiling. Since then we've been waiting for a break in the deluge to get outside, on the roof, to figure out from where the darn leak is coming. But the rain has been nothing if not persistent. The odd thing is that the roof that fell in is on the 1st floor. There isn't any roof directly above it at all. Which is somewhat worrisome as it makes us think that the water is getting in on the 2nd floor, then seeping between the concrete wall and the stucco, to arrive at the first floor. Somewhere down the line we can look forward to either more damage or some mold issues. Yippee.

But all this rain seems to have an upside as well! A few months back we saved some plumeria that someone else had thrown away by the side of the road. With all this fresh water, the clippings seem to have rooted very well and one has already blossomed! There is another plant that is trying to bloom as well. I guess that this is part of the the old "silver lining" for which we should be on the lookout.

Labels: garden, tamarindo, weather

While we don't suffer hurricanes, storms like Gustav drop a lot of rain on us. We've had unusually heavy precipitation for the last three or four days. It is pretty at times, but as the ground gets soggier, things start flooding, and it gets to be not-that-fun.

We are looking forward to some more sunshine soon, in the mean time we've got some movies and plan to spend the weekend indoors.

Labels: Costa Rica, tamarindo, weather

The weather today is absolutely wonderful. At about 6:15 I was sipping coffee outside, enjoying the multitude of trees out in "our view" that were swaying gently in the morning breeze with low-angle sunlight flashing a million shades of green. I snapped a photo, it doesn't do it justice.
On top of the trees I enjoyed watching several groups of white egrets flying, a flock of parakeets, some vultures, a hawk, some annoying grackles squabbling over something, and a variety of little yellow birds here and there. An industrious squirrel ran around on the nearest tree while a green iguana basked by the pool.
The breeze was unusually fresh for this time of year, the air temperature was around 75, which feels cool to us (daytime highs are in the 90s right now) and it was easy to remember why we put up with all of the little hassles involved with living in a 3rd world country.
Oh, and here is a photo of our seedling nasturtiums and seedling jalapeno plants. We've got grand expectations of these little sprouts.

Labels: garden, tamarindo, weather

Steve is now a great big muckety muck. Of sorts. But not really.
I'm now on the Board of Directors for the Asociacion Pro Mejoras de Tamarindo. Roughly translated, that is the board for improving Tamarindo. An almost completely volunteer organization that was founded 10 or 12 years ago to provide continuous beach cleanup, the APMT is now involved in several very important programs and acts as a de-facto local government.

APMT helps organize the lifeguards, was largely responsible for paving the main road in Tamarindo, continues to clean the beaches (with much help from the local Surfrider Chapter), and paid the rent at the police station for the last six months. Incidentally, the municipality is now committed to paying the police station's rent, which is fantastic as Tamarindo now has one of the best police stations/presences in the country.

And speaking of police, I was very pleased to learn yesterday that in 2007 the number of reported "incidents" was nearly 180. In the first six months of 2008, there have been only 10 "incidents" reported. That is a tremendous decrease and almost certainly the most important factor has been getting our police station organized and drawing attention from the local municipality. Please do keep in mind that there is no way that we have had only 10 "incidents" in the last six months. That's a little ludicrous. The good news is that the number of reported incidents has dropped, from that we can infer that the number of actual crimes has also dropped, or at the very least the severity of the crimes is far less (people invariably report more serious theft so that they can later file insurance claims, for example).

So now I'm involved in trying to help make Tamarindo a better place, in an official sense. I hope to be posting all manner of information in the near future about the vast strides that we've taken. Because no politically-oriented news would be complete without a request for money, I'll include my request here:

If you spend time in Tamarindo and/or have investments here, please consider donating something to the APMT. The Banco Nacional account is 200-02-145-000762-7, the ID#: 3-101-150173, the SINPE #: 151145200200007624

The BAC- San Jose account is:
id: 3-002-150173, Account: 907345920, SINPE: 102000009073459205

If there is a particular cause that you consider most important, make a note of it with your deposit and all of the money will be dedicated specifically to that cause. Examples include: Beach Cleanup, Green Zone Maintenance, Police & Security, Roads and Walkways, Lifeguards, etc.

Labels: tamarindo, travel

Well, since Steve is blogging so much, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. Actually, it just occurred to me that he was brilliant (this has occurred to me before, but not in accordance with this particular action) to post his six-day-tour reply. We get lots and lots of emails asking us for information, and we both often offer it up before people even ask. But low and behold, there is now the mighty blog, where we can put it online for everyone who cares (and doesn't) to see! (And really, for us to reference when we get asked again.)

Here's what I said about day-trips from Tamarindo, slightly modified to make more sense for the general public. These are specifically places that are all under an hour from Tam., making it an easy and enjoyable trip, while leaving you suitcases at your hotel.

1. Avellanas - about 20 minutes south of Tamarindo, there's a great restaurant called Lola's. Eat there, sit there, drink there.

2. Playa Grande - about 20 minutes north of Tamarindo. You can drive there, but you can also just cross Tamarindo's northern estuary - this is most easily done during low tide if you're on foot. If you're with board, it's a just a short paddle depending on tide.

3. Playa Langosta - The surfing is good by the rivermouth and just to the north and south of it. The beach is good at low tide for laying out, but surfing is better at mid-high tide. Low tide also opens up a very large, shallow, estuary where the water is often crystal clear and warmer. Especially beautiful early in the morning when it is empty. So, um, don't go there early in the morning or it won't be empty for us. Just kidding. Mostly.

4. Playa Negra - for advanced surfers only, but beautiful and a different looking beach than the others. Darker sand, more rocks, but you can lay out. It's just south of Avellanas.

5. Playa Junquillal - about 45 minutes south of Tamarindo. Decent surf, cute little town, couple of beach bars on the sand. Good laying out. Just a nice place to visit that's different from Tam.

6. Playa Conchal - Beautiful white sand beach, totally different from the other beaches mentioned above. Decent snorkeling, great swimming, laying out, picnicing, etc. Better to go during the weekdays, the place is PACKED on the weekends with locals and tourists alike.

7. Marbella - Further away than the rest, just over an hour on sometimes-dicey roads. But frequently deserted and very pretty. The "sand" here is pea-gravel on one beach and dark, sort of dirty, sand on the other beach.

8. Playa Hermosa - We would argue that the name is a bit of a misnomer. Playa Hermosa is about an hour's drive north from here, by Playa Coco. It isn't particularly beautiful with very organic-rich sand and water that tends to be tepid and greenish. The immobility of the water means no waves at all, which can be good for kids or anyone who is not confident in their water skills. There are some nice places to eat/drink there. Coco is a good spot to take off for Witch's Rock or to go diving.

Labels: beach, day trip, tamarindo

While it is certainly common for us to throw out some travel advice, I found it interesting that I got two requests for information in as many days. If not interesting, at least mildly notable to me. Ok, maybe not even that. But I'm trying to journal a little more often and I already took the time to type up a response regarding Guanacaste weather, so I thought I'd take advantage of it to fill some space. there, I admit it!

Here's my off the cuff guide to seasons in Tamarindo.

October is soaking wet, rains nearly every day. The occasional breaks are wonderful, but I wouldn't book a trip here during October unless you can sincerely attest to enjoying mud and damp clothes.

November is a great month to come down, usually. Temps aren't so high, things are very very green and as the month goes on, the rain gets less and less likely. Tamarindo is an excellent Thanksgiving destination.

By December, it is only raining once/week. Xmas is mayhem. Tradition in Costa Rica dictates that everyone go to the beach from December 22 through the end of the year. Madness. Don't come unless you like crowds at the beach. Now... on the other hand, you'll find mountain destinations to be fairly deserted, and the weather is usually excellent.

January is another very popular time to come. Right when North America is getting cold, it is getting sunnier and drier here. The winds do start to pick up in January, which is really refreshing and beautiful.
Jan/Feb/Mar is considered "high season" rates are a tad higher.
Feb... fantastic. Stuff is drying out just a little bit, turning brown, but some of the BIG trees are blooming. It is beautiful and amazing. Wind tends to be more reliable but that means that it is getting a little dustier.
March. The winds are in full tilt. Great for surfing. Great for laying by the pool with brilliant sun and a fresh breeze. Not as great for laying on the beach (your towel can literally fly away) but especially in the morning, the weather is wonderful. Also monkeys are starting to inch closer to towns so that they can munch on tasty garden shrubs instead of dry trees.
April... uh, oh, where did the wind go? Sometime around April/May the wind shuts off, the temps spike up to 100 and the humidity starts climbing. Things are generally dry and dusty. I quite like this time of year, but nobody can claim it is the most comfortable nor the most picturesque. If you don't have somewhere with AC at night, you are going to be sweaty.
May, the rains usually start. This year we had a solid week of rain at the end of May. If the rains don't start, it is stupefyingly hot and humid. Even with the rain, it is one of the least comfortable months here w/regards to temperature.
June is usually pretty nice- you'll get some rain, but also fantastic sunsets and everything is green again. The temps are usually dropping. At night, those of us who live here start donning long sleeves, maybe even a sweatshirt. Most visitors won't feel that need. Daytime temps are still hot and muggy.
July- if you are very lucky, you'll nail July during what we call "veranillo" which is "little summer". Veranillo lasts about a week. The rain stops cold. Everything is fresh, clean, in full leaf, and the weather is absolutely .... perfect. If you hit it wrong, well, it's going to be light rain with occasional thunderstorms. Not too muddy, not usually too buggy, but definitely 50/50 chance in any given hour of having sun or rain.
August. More like 40% sun/ 60% rain. Getting muddier. Still excellent sunsets.
September. 20/80? No, not that bad. But it can rain for four days straight. It has happened.
Then October again. Most likely going to rain on any given day. The sunny days are marvelous, but mostly in contrast to the rain. Buggiest time of the year (or rather, most mozzies.) And when I say rain, I mean... there are days in which we exceed the annual rainfall of San Diego county. A couple of feet per week is normal for October. I mean RAIN.

Now the disclaimer: all of the above is specific to Tamarindo. If you are in San Jose, or the Carib coast, then the weather is different. October is supposed to be a GREAT time of year in Cahuita (east coast).

The least-popular tourist months here are October and May. Either June or September comes next.

Highest "month" is Dec 15 through January 15.

Further disclaimer: In recent years, the "normal" weather patterns have gotten more blurry. Far more blurry. It rained really late/early this year. Last October the rain was relatively mild at times and we never got a solid veranillo, but rather two or three times when we all looked up and said "I guess this is veranillo?!?"

Labels: Costa Rica, tamarindo, vacation, weather

I just spent some time putting together thoughts re: a six day travel-intense trip to Costa Rica. The author specifically wanted to see Samara, Nosara and Montezuma as well as Rincon and Monteverde. He asked about a rental car vs. public transportation.

Here are some of my thoughts on that trip, for everyone to enjoy. Please keep in mind that these are just quick thoughts dashed out and that I reserve the right to rethink them without further notice.

As an aside: Do keep in mind that driving in Costa Rica takes more time/effort than in the States. 50 miles here isn't a quick jaunt. It'll take two hours or more. Four hours of driving here isn't just a morning drive, it is about as much driving as you are going to want to do in any given day.

With that in mind and without further qualification, here is my response:

A decent 4wd car will run you about $75/day, taxes, insurance, included. A very small one can be had for slightly less. A Prado or 4runner (very nice) will cost around $100/day.

Sounds like you are thinking of spending 6 days here, so call it $450.

Taxi/shuttle/bus trips are often per-person and frequently over $25 for longer distance. So call it $300 for 6 transfers.

I'd pay the extra $ for the convenience of being under my own power and schedule.
If you where here for two weeks.... then I would suggest using public/taxi transport as it would save you a bundle and the time you spend organizing your trips wouldn't take away so much from enjoying your destination(s).

The roads in July will be rough, but not impassable.

If you are flying into Liberia, You could drive straight to Nosara on your first day, and get there with plenty of time for sunset.

From there, Samara is a very short drive (half hour? 1 hour? depends on roads, locals will tell you if the beach route is doable).

Samara to Montezuma is an moderate drive. 3 hours or so? I think.

From Montezuma to Monteverde isn't all that short. I've never tried it, but I would leave really early in the morning to do that one. It shouldn't take more than 4 or 5 hours, total. Six if you stop for lunch (not a bad idea).

I've never driven Monteverde to Rincon but imagine it'll take 4 or 5 hours. Rincon is about 2 hours from the Liberia airport.

If Samara has rental car agencies (I think that they do) you could land & take a shuttle/taxi to Samara. Then get your car the next day and set out on your trip. End up in Samara, drop off the car, and take a shuttle to the airport the next morning.

I think you could basically do the same using Nosara as your point of entry/departure. Not entirely sure about rentals down there.

Another alternative is to use Tamarindo as a jumping-off point. Shuttle from the airport to here is $40 for the two of you ($18/person plus tip. Includes cold water and/or cold beer). Spend the night on the 5th in Tamarindo. Get up early and see Nosara on the 6th. See Samara on the 7th. Montezuma on the 8th. On the 9th Monteverde, leaving late(ish) to arrive Tamarindo for sunset on the 10th. Catch shuttle on the 11th to airport ($40). this same plan works for Samara or Nosara, but I don't know shuttle info for either of those, nor car rental. If you choose Tamarindo, email me (steve [at] bbcostarica [dot] com) and I'll help you get a rental car and a nice place to spend the night(s).

This plan cuts out Rincon de la Vieja, but makes for fairly reasonable drives on the rest of the days. A 4 hour drive here takes a lot more toll on you than a 4 hour drive down the interstate in the USA.

You could do that plan in reverse, perfectly well, which would give you beach, mountain, beach beach beach. Whatever you do, definitely plan to get up very early in Monteverde to do a tour of the cloud forest. I think that the first tour leaves at 7am. That's the one you want. Less chance of heavy rain, more chance of animals, less crowded. Buy your ticket the night before at the gate to the cloud forest preserve. Get a guide. They are excellent and informative. Afternoon in Monteverde is a nice time to visit the butterfly garden if it isn't raining. If raining, go to a cafe and enjoy excellent coffee and some relaxation.

FWIW: you could spend 2 nights in either Samara or Nosara and just do a daytrip to the other town. It really isn't far and sometimes it is nice to drive around without all of your stuff because:

Whatever you do. Don't leave your bags in the rental car, unattended. Whenever your bags are in the car, it is the same as if they are sitting on the hood of the car. Seriously. Many of the thieves here have keys to the rental car fleets. It sucks, but it is true.

One option to mitigate the potential problem is to pack stuff in a hard-side case (pelican is excellent, but heavy) and then padlock the case closed with a chain/cable through the seat of the car. The thieves are usually grab n go, not going to take a long time to steal your stuff.... but a much better way is to not leave your gear in the car. Which makes daytrips a good alternative as you can leave your car and hit five or six beaches without worry.

Labels: 4wd, Costa Rica, tamarindo, vacation

One of the best parts of working in Costa Rican real estate is that I get to go hike/horseback ride some stunningly beautiful properties. Spending the day out in the sun, looking at farms and development parcels hardly even seems like works sometimes.

This one has amazing ocean views, and looks down into a big green valley. Green even at the very end of the dry season... absolutely emerald during the wet.

An excellent development property, measuring about 250 acres (100 Ha) and priced to sell.

Also a fun horseback ride, and a great hike (though hot at noon) up to a view spot that takes your breath away.

Labels: tamarindo, weather

GREAT news for Tamarindo (and the local environment): We now have a bi-monthly recycling program. It doesn't have all the convenience of what most North Americans are accustomed to doing, but it isn't all the tough to gather stuff for two weeks at a time, then drop it off. I'm sure they'll be working kinks out of the system for a while as well. But it is exciting that we can recycle now and should help keep our landfills from overfilling. More personally, it means that I no longer have to save my used batteries up for months and months then tote them up to the states to recycle them. Used batteries are full of all manner of nasty chemicals- please don't throw them in the garbage. Nuff outta me, it's a beautiful day, I'm going to go check out a great property we just got listed-- 7.5Ha with Ocean views at a really low price. If you or anyone you know is interested in doing a small, green development project in Costa Rica, send them my way!

Labels: Costa Rica, garbage, tamarindo

We would love to hold onto the land we bought here forever and ever, it is a beautiful little space on which someone could build a great house. But since we just bought a house, we are realizing that there are other places we could spend the money (like on the house!) than in holding onto our little chunk of Tamarindo residential land.

If you are in the market, or know anyone who is, please drop a line to steve@bbcostarica.com

The lot is jsut under 500m2 (1/8th acre), has a beautiful guanacaste tree on it, as well as another pretty tree. Each is on the edge of the lot, so no interference for building. The back of the lot is about 10ft higher than the front, and has a glimpse of the ocean. A 2nd floor or even 3rd floor patio would have a great view of the ocean and the north end of the bay (or rather, the land that defines the bay). Asking price is $165K but there is a commission included there so we would certainly negotiate for a direct sale, and possibly offer financing on a significant portion of the purchase price.

Labels: tamarindo

Yeah!
After two weeks of working her tail off at a trade show in Miami, as well as some work in ATL, Jocelyn is back and happy to be here.

Needless to say, Steve is also very happy for her return.

We enjoyed a beautiful evening, with an unusually large-looking sliver of moon, then had some food and relaxed around the house. Happy to be a family of three again (if you count the dog, which we do, sorta). Speaking of the dog, the little princess that she is has decided that she really prefers to sit on a towel by the pool instead of the concrete. Probably more comfy for her, but her muddy paws play havoc with our pool towels.

Welcome Home! (note the 70's era Bell phone, our little retro touch to the otherwise very contemporary house)

Labels: photo, tamarindo, travel

So we bought a house!
That's why we haven't been writing much. We've been busy moving and trying to get things looking the way we want them. So far we are really excited about the new place, not just because it is really great to have a place of one's own, but because the house itself has a great feel to it and we are really happy there.

We'll get some pictures of the real thing up, soon, but for now I'll just post up some of the pictures that were published in Costa Rica's architectural magazine "Su Casa". We didn't move far, by the way, just next door to where we were living before, but it still feels like a pretty big step for us.

Labels: photo, tamarindo

On account of having found a sub-$500 flight from San Jose, California, Mom and Dad Broyles decided to make a last-minute visit. Turned out to be great timing for Steve and Jocelyn as we both had work that could be shoe-horned into a few hours here and there instead of spending all day at the offices. So the 'rents got some qt to relax by the pool and do some reading, we got to work and play with people we love, and the four of us visited the beaches, did some offshore fishing with Captain Ali and his friendly crew, ate well at home and in some local restaurants (most notable was Laguna del Cocodrillo, where owner Ben and Dylan hosted us with excellent food, wine and friendly style), and generally enjoyed each others' company. The following photos are a small sampling of the many that we all took.

fresh snapper for lunch, great start to the vacation	shopping for veggies at the local market	sunset cocktails in Langosta	Waiting for the fish to bite
Huge pod of porpoises! There must have been over 100 of them.	Dad's Tuna	Steve's Tuna	Mom got one too!
More porpoises jumping along in our path	Jocelyn's Tuna. Such beautiful fish. *Almost* makes you not want to eat 'em. Almost.	Non-sequiter flower. Think of it as a palate cleanser.	Out for a morning walk in Langosta estuary
Lots of water in the estuary, not very deep	parked at Playa Conchal	one of the area's prettiest, most swim-friendly beaches	more pretty Conchal beach
A local fisherman fought for what seemed a long time, pretty to watch in the setting sun. The fish got away.	Beautiful women out to dine at Laguna del Cocodrillo. Wonderful dinner!	Late night dog tricks to entertain our nephew (12MB file)

Labels: day trip, food, photo, tamarindo, travel

Got up at 5:30 this morning to grab my buddy Brian and go surf Avellanas. We've been working really hard and needed a little time to blow of some steam, but had a busy day planned, so we headed down early.

Along the way, we decided to go "the back way", as it is more fun and scenic. Okay, truth is, Steve decided and Brian quietly accepted with minor reservations. See, "the back way" is a low-quality dirt road that is under construction. It has been raining. A+B=Mud but... we're in a lifted cruiser with mud-terrain tires, a rear locking differential and a good driver behind the wheel... a little mud? No worries!

Right. No worries. No forward progress, either. It probably would have been a good idea to engage 4wd prior to entering the wallow.

I did at least try to winch out, despite the total lack of nearby trees/stumps/rocks upon which to winch. But I haven't finished the winch install (lacking just one cable) and the jumper cable field repair just wasn't cutting it-- they kept grounding out on.... everything. Of course it didn't help any that the solenoids were entirely under water (as was most of the winch). And when I say "water", I mean "mud".

Brian's sweet wife Carrie came to bail us out. Amazing that something so difficult with one vehicle is suddenly made easy with two vehicles.

Adding insult to injury, we ended up surfing in Langosta instead of Avellanas, at low tide, when Langy just doesn't work very well. So we had pretty lousy surfing but at least we washed the layer of filth off and got a little time in the water.

The rest of the morning didn't go a lot better- the power cut off at 11:00 am. Right after we had an hour or so of meetings (which benefit from AC, but otherwise don't require power). So as soon as the meetings cleared out, there wasn't anything to do as the internet and printer and all that stuff was off. Talk about a grumpy office...

A breezy seaside lunch with great new clients improved the day greatly. A deal that has been headed sideways for a few days also looks to be back on track, which also makes us happy. So in the end, another day in paradise (with minor hiccups).

Labels: 4wd, landcruiser, mud, photo, tamarindo, weather

Holy Cow!
It rained. Just now. Not sure if it is still falling, but this is exceptionally early for us... two years ago the first rain was on Jocelyn's birthday, that's the end of May. April 4th?!?!
It'll be interesting to see if this is a strange fluke or if the weather patterns here really have gone berserk. On the plus side, if rain does become more common early in the year, it could be a huge boon for the development industry as people could rely more on rainwater catchment for their water needs (and use less water in the yard) which could help limit some of the stresses that local communities are experiencing with regards to water provision.

Labels: tamarindo, weather

For any of you TV watchers out there, if you happened to be tuned in to ABC's October Road last night, you saw one of Jocelyn's most popular necklaces on the lovely Laura Prepon who plays Hannah Daniels on the show. Very exciting times. We hope to instill in Laura and her stylist a very high level of devotion to my designs.

Speaking of devotion to my jewelry, if you find yourself near a Nordstrom and needing one of my necklaces like a TV star, you're in luck. jocelynbroyles is now being carried by select Nordstrom department stores across the US.

But enough about me. Oh, wait, the sole pupose of this blog is to tell you about us. Alright then. Steve continues to do well with his business and just moved BBA into a larger space, giving both Bs their very own offices. The As still share the space out front, but it's a bigger, nicer, better-painted space. They also now have a lovely conference room and inner lobby for literature, dogs, un-raised signage, that sort of thing.

And low and behold, the 20th (yes, I meant 20th) century has come to BBA as well, with the installation of a phone system. For those of you who have visited or live here, you understand the all-encompassing range of issues that a system implies: coordination with perhaps more than one governmentally-run utility company; more than one phone; more than one phone line; electricity. Getting all these things together in the same building, with people who know how to install (much less use) the system, while the electricity is on and the phone lines working to test the system, is no easy feat. But BBA pulled through with flying colors and now has a phone system that almost works. You can't actually leave voice mail at the moment if no one answers, but that's really just picking nits, isn't it?

We've mostly been working as of late -- you don't get phone systems, and famous people don't wear your jewelry, and Nordstrom doesn't buy it, if you just sit around looking at the ocean view from a friend's patio, playing with your dog, selling your Sandy for parts or relocating scorpions with young on their backs. But that's just what we did, and look what we accomplished in the meantime!

Did I mention famous people, phone systems and Nordstrom yet?

Labels: jewelry, landcruiser, photo, real estate, sunset, tamarindo

So our close friend, Soop, asked me to do a Day In The Life photo essay. I think that's a great idea. Unfortunately, today it would have looked an awful lot like this lame-o picture since mostly I've been staring at my computer screen. Some adventure, huh? To be fair- it wouldn't look at all like that picture, because that picture actually looks like I'm doing something almost fun (this journal) vs. the truth being that I spent most of the day working with my agents and assistant to get our work website updated. It still needs some work, but is getting there.
Well, I did go to the store to buy some food for lunch, so here you go, try to contain your excitement.

The local grocery store parking lot. Note the Non-USA Landcruiser 2door Prado. More like a mini-4runner than a cruiser, but very nice little 4x4s.	The bridge to Olga's	Our entrance, note snazzy new paint. I'd rather the landlord fixed the Moat (see below)	Big new commercial center next door to the office
Olga's. Our local coffeeing hole.	The huge, stagnant puddle out front, we affectionately call it "the *cking Moat"	View to the right of the office	My daily parking space, unless someone else takes it, which at least 50% of the time

And, of course, the very exciting.... store. Well, it was more exciting to me, because I was hungry.
The good news in all of this is that while I didn't have my camera in hand, I did go to the beach with the mutts and enjoy a spectacular sunset and throw the stick around, which made them happy. Hopefully I tired them out enough that we'll all get a little peace and quiet this evening while I watch a movie at home.
In the famous words of Porky: dbytby dbytby dbytby That's All Folks!

Labels: photo, tamarindo

Even though we are slackers on the photograph front these days.... absolutely failing to share the beauty of both Tamarindo, Costa Rica and also The Bay Area, California... well, at least our friends take a minute to post images. That's something. And a good thing at that, because unless you are looking at jewelry or Tamarindo Real Estate, we have a terrible track record of not putting up any photos at all these days. Pitiful, really. But we intend to get better, honestly, we do. Of course, good intentions and a quarter will buy you 25 cents worth of candy, right?
Raining hard here today, by the way, absolutely pouring. Of course our Landcruiser is waiting for new bolts so that I can finish installing the radiator. One of the joys of doing your own auto repair in Tamarindo is that occasionally you have the pleasure of discovering that somewhere along the way somebody else has replaced the factory bolts with shorter ones... which didn't matter when they re-used the worn-down-to-wafer-thin bushings, but once you replace the bushings with radiator-saving new rubber... well, you end up with bolts that are too short. So you can either mount the radiator sans-bushings (and look forward to resplitting the top tank in the not-too-distant future) or you can wait a day or two until you get new bolts *sent* from an hour away (because the hardware store only sells SAE bolts, no metric).
In brief: get very wet on bicycle or drive Landcruiser hoping not to break very expensive radiator when you hit a water-filled crater in the road.
But Costa Rican land costs less than coastal California and we don't have rush hour traffic and the surf is 80+ degrees and I get to see parrots and monkeys just about every day. Gotta keep things in perspective.

Labels: Costa Rica, jewelry, photo, real estate, sunset, tamarindo

The weather is just fabulous right now- windy and hot, but not too hot. Bb's allergies are acting up a little bit from the dust, but otherwise it is perfect.
The only downside is that the surf is horrible. A few miles south they tell us it is head-high, here we are lucky to see it past 2ft. Lousy. But the dusty skies make for pretty sunsets, so at least we've got that going for us. Which is nice.
Ever wondered what the inside of the steering column of a landcruiser looks like with the ignition cylinder removed? Yeah, well, just in case, here is a picture. Whoo-boy. Exciting stuff, no? Steve doesn't think so either, but since he spent an hour looking at ignition lock cylinders today trying to fix one, he thought he would go ahead and share it, juuuuust in case someone else gives a darn. And if you liked that picture, you'll enjoy this one too. That's a steering column with ignition cylinder on a diesel cruiser. Boy, the fun never stops around here.
Unless you are Caly. She's not having much fun. We pushed off getting her spayed just a tad too long and now she is in heat. Which, for those of you who have never had a dog in heat, is really really not fun. Not for her, not for us. We can't take her out for walks or beach time without having at least a couple of dogs following along. So far they've kept their distance with some persuasion from Steve (by "persuasion" we really mean chucking sticks and rocks at them to keep them at bay. Haven't had to actually beat up on one yet... but close) Being "mean" to strange dogs stinks. Having them put the moves on Caly is even worse. In the end, we just can't let her romp and play outside like normal.
So that's life right now. Still planning to backfill for our trip to the states, but not tonight.

Labels: dog, landcruiser, photo, tamarindo, weather

It may not seem like big news to some, but Tamarindo is really growing up. We've got pizza delivery now. I never would have said "Wow, a luxury I'm really going to miss in Central America is delivered pizza." But I do, or rather, did, as now we've got it. Babylon Pizza folks. Takes about a half-hour to show up, costs about $8 for a large with "everything" on it. Tastes great. Hard to go wrong. Unless you are very picky about ingredients, then it is really easy to go wrong- they've only got a few to choose from. No pepperoni either, just spicy salami, which is almost, but definately not quite, the same.

Labels: food, tamarindo

Since Steve is still fighting off what has become his worst head cold in years, and thus hasn't been surfing, we've taken to morning walks on the beach with Caly. Not only does it give us a little exercise, but absolutly whoops the puppy and she ends up sleeping for the next four to five hours, which allows us to actually get some stuff done around the house or get some work done. A win for all concerned. Of course, Caly still gets plenty of attention from us, but at least now *we* get to decide when, which is a nice luxury.

When we hit the shore yesterday, Caly was so excited she could hardly walk. Even the most frozen stoic has to feel just a little warmth at the sight of a cute little puppy whose backside is wiggling twice the width of her entire body with every step. Makes walking her on a leash next to impossible, but it sure is cute. What started out as excitement turned into disappointment for us as we realized that the tide was so high that there wasn't any beach to walk on!

We followed a little path through the trees to get to a wider section of beach, figuring that while it was likely to more crowded in front of the big hotel, at least there would be beach upon which to walk and play. The reason the beach is wider there is because there is an estuary that meets up with the sea and has dumped a bunch of sand. What we hadn't anticipated was the idea that the estuary itself, while very full, was slow-moving enough that Caly could actually play in the water without us worried about big waves crashing on her. She LOVED it. After watching her yip and snap at the wavelets (still chest-high to her) we finally went in ourselves and persuaded her to swim about five feet out to us. After two or three times she sat on the beach and howled at us... but eventually relented and jumped into the water again.

While we were excited to take her back to the beach this morning, we opted instead to run out to our lot and put some plants in the ground. We started them months ago on the patio and they were starting to outgrow their pots. So we loaded up the 40, dug some banana sprouts out of a neighboring vacant lot, and headed over to play gardeners. We were a little shocked to discover just how much the weeds have grown in the last month. WOW. Next time we'll remember the machete! After clearing out some space with much shovel-whacking and little grace, we planted everything that we had. Sure looked like a lot more on our patio than it does in the ground! Caly was, of course, very helpful. In the "You didn't really want that planted there did you? How about I dig it up and you try again?" sense of the word helpful. But after putting some broken cinderblock chunks around the basil garden, she seemed to understand that maybe we actually *did* want those to stay planted there. Not a pretty solution, but living downhere, sometimes, you just have to be glad to have a solution at all.

Labels: beach, dog, garden, tamarindo

Other than selling real estate, making jewelry, and surfing, most of what we do is play with the dog. Chances are we won't be posting a lot of pictures of the the first two activities- each has its own website (see the sidebar on the left). Surfing, we hope to post pics soon- the problem so far is that when the surf is big, we are nervous about takign the camera out. Not so much for the camera's sake (the housing is fantastic! thanks Growcery Store) but paddling out through big waves with a solid acrylic box attached to my neck or wrist seems like a great way to hurt me or my surfboard. Still figuring out how to make that work.

So for today the pics are all about the puppy. On the left she is playing with Donny and Christi's dog, Louie. Note that Louie's head is about the same size as Calypso. That fact notwithstanding she figured out that if she waited under the table long enough, Louie would investigate, and she could play with him on a more level playing field. On the right, Steve loads up to take Caly over to play at a friend's house. She didn't like the bike basket too much on the first try, but now she seems to be appreciating the advantages it holds over running alongside the bike.

Labels: dog, photo, surf, tamarindo

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

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

Yup. Rained today. Again.
So it was a slow and moist day around the Sandcruiser pad. On the plus side, rainy weather here makes for beautiful sunsets, which is nice.

Last night, on the other hand, was a blast! Ken and Kira were nice
enough to host a little gathering in celebration of Bb's birthday. We
enjoyed spending time with friends, great weather, and cooking up a
storm (as usual!)- the fare included bbq chicken, baked & stuffed
chicken, delicious cole slaw, green salad w/homemade cinammon dressing
(sounds funny, tastes great!), tuna steaks, bbq pineapple, fresh mango
avocado salsa and some delicious snacks and starters. It wasn't the
biggest broo-ha-ha that we've thrown for Bb's birthday, but it was
probably the most civilized. I guess we're getting older.

Labels: food, tamarindo, weather

Our close friend Kate came down to visit. She's been here for nearly 10 days and about all we've had to show her so far is lots and lots of rain. We are pretty bummed out about the torrential downpour's timing, but she has been a real trouper, not a word of complaint.

Labels: photo, tamarindo, vacation, weather

Since it has been a year since we've updated our site, we've decided to take this opportunity to make updating a little easier for ourselves. Not sure how this is going to work, but feeling like it can't be any worse than just leaving the site alone completely!

We are still trying to figure out how to get our pictures up and looking good, but for the time being we are just going to plug on ahead and see what we can accomplish.

Starting with today. Rain. That is about all we have to say about today. It started raining at about 6am. Hasn't stopped for more than an hour since. Been like this since last Monday. The roads are quickly transforming into pothole-studded pudding while the onshore winds blow out what would otherwise be some nice storm-generated swell. Mostly we've been sitting around at home grousing about the lousy weather.

And poor Kate! She came to visit for nearly two weeks and so far has gotten about five hours of sunny weather. While we've all enjoyed some game playing and book reading, this is really getting old. Hopefully tomorrow we'll go somewhere interesting and do something wonderful to help make her vacation a little less... boring.

Labels: photo, sunset, tamarindo, weather