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

Remember when this whole site was about travel? The good old days...
At least I can promise no more politics for a while, I voted. I'm done. From here on out I'm avoiding the news about the candidates: it can't affect my vote, just my blood pressure. Ok, one last comment- please go vote. Please.

On to software!! (whoo, hoo, the fun never stops around here).

I've been fiddling with Google Sketchup 6 recently and I'm having a blast. It is like a video game, but actually serves a purpose. Ok, if it were a game it wouldn't probably sell very well.

Here are some snaps from a model I've made of our house. This was a learning project for me, and took about 12 hours of "work". Much of that was taking and confirming measurements, then forgetting them, then taking them again. Tip: draw a very rough sketch on paper and write your measurements there. Tip #2: decide how you are going to handle door openings, then be consistent (I choose to measure to the inner edge of the jamb, if I decide to actually model the jambs later, I'll have to make some changes). Tip #3: Use a mouse, not your laptop touch pad. It goes much faster with a mouse and the added scroll-wheel makes life a whole lot easier.

You can click (on mouse or scroll pad) here and here for two slightly different perspectives.

If you've got Sketchup installed, you can actually load this skp file and take a look around our house. If you haven't installed Sketchup yet, you can get it for free at http://sketchup.google.com.

Obviously, I've got a long ways to go before this is done. My next challenge is to build the staircase to the upstairs area, and remember to keep the 2nd floor in it's own layer so that I can still see/make changes to the downstairs. I'd also like to figure out how to apply textures to surfaces such that I can import a photo to apply as texture. Among various other things I need to learn still.

I sure hope that the rains let up soon so I can go surf.

Labels: news, software, weather

I haven't downloaded the other pictures from our Atlanta vacation, but clearly the most important part of our journey was enjoying the marriage of Katie and Brad. You couldn't have asked for a better day w/regards to weather. It was a perfect day to hang out by the lake. Both Katie and Brad looked great and were full of smiles, which is always a pleasure to see. I wasn't feeling very much the photographer, but took some shots. If you want good pictures, it is probably worth talking to Katie or Michael Pisarri (the photog) as he got some wonderful images of the day.

Jocelyn actually likes to iron clothes, who am I to argue?	View from the wedding party house, where we were lucky enough to snag a bed.	Retreivers at the lake. Happy retrievers.
Hugs for the bride ("Careful with the hair!")	then off to the dock to stay out of the way	Pisarri did the photography
Beautiful girls, beautiful setting, beautiful weather...	Kissing the Bride	Great setting
Steve and Vanessa	Sweetest wedding cake- very non-traditional (and delicious)	Jocelyn being beautiful
The dock was an idyllic place to sip wine and watch the sunset	First Dance	What fun!
Brad played some music	Coming home	Carrying Katie across the threshold

Labels: atlanta, photo, weather, wedding

For Orchid enthusiasts out there, this may not be impressive. Apparently these are very easy to grow, so I take no particular credit for having gotten them to bloom, but hey are darn pretty and I'm happy to see that they are happy, so I figured I may as well share. Also interesting: there are some ants that have been hanging out on the closed buds for the last few days. At first I worried that they might attack/eat/maim the blossom, but it seems that they aren't doing anything of the sort. They might be stealing nectar, which is fine with me, I suppose. Another theory is that perhaps they are "milking" aphids for a sugary substance that aphids produce. The thing is, I don't see any aphids, and aphids usually don't hang out on flowers, but rather on the sepals or stems of plants. So I'm at a loss. If you know more than I do about ants and orchids, please do enlighten us.

As a side note: if you like gardening, Costa Rica is your kind of place. A little bit of work, a little bit of attention, and POW! stuff grows gangbusters. It is even easier as you work your way up in elevation a little bit as the dry season is less dry, the wet is less wet, and the temperatures are more constantly in the high 70s. IF you are lucky (I consider us lucky) you might even have a little iguana decide to take up residence in your compost pile. I imagine that if (s)he is capable of complex thoughts, (s)he thinks of it more like "If you are lucky, you'll have a human come dump snacks on your sun-mound every day or two". Either way, so far we both seem to be enjoying the relationship.

Of course, there is no surf up in them thar hills, which has been a deal-killer for me, so far.
Speaking of surf, the minimal rain the last two days has allowed the bays to clean out some and I had a great session this morning. Only four of us in the water, nice sets of just slightly overhead.

A little sunshine in the swimming pool makes any day a little bit better.

Labels: garden, photo, surf, weather

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

As of now, there are 14 major rivers in Guanacaste that have flooded their banks. That's an awful lot of rivers for a province that is only 10,140 km2 (3,915 square miles- about half the size of the San Francisco Bay Area).

Spanish speakers can read more at La Nacion. But the short version is: Gustav soaked us down, Hanna is overwhelming us a little. We should be thankful we aren't suffering the way that they are in Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, etc... but we sure are getting a lot of rain!

Labels: news, 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

I added a nifty new feature to Sandcruiser. At the bottom of the page you can now find a moon-phase box. It should self-adjust to your time zone, but I think it always shows a North-American moon (which isn't quite right for us, but close enough). Enjoy.

Labels: weather

We found a beautiful flower growing onto a neighbor's trash receptacle and figured it was bound to be chopped anyway (the local trash collector isn't what you would call a gentle fellow) so we pulled some cuttings. So far they seem to be doing well in a bottle of water on the kitchen table (one is over a week old, sprouting roots, the others just a day old). I was pretty sure it is a Passiflora (passion fruit) but checked online anyway and am pleased to discover that it appears to be Passiflora 'Pura Vida' a hybrid of P. amethyst and P. racemosa. Fun. We are hoping to cover an ugly pergola with it. Time will tell if it flourishes. The website I found predicts that this vine can grow up to 40ft. And some others suggest that P. racemosa can become an invasive pest in some areas. We'll have to keep an eye on it. Google turns up a bunch of sites on Passiflora, if you are interested. I like www.passiflora.info among others.

We also clipped a little bit off of a vine near Langosta- purple flowers that could be any of a number of Passiflora hybrids or species. It was growing well there, let's hope it does well here also.

Speaking of flourishing- our jalapeno seedlings appear to have been ravished by something. I suspect leaf cutter ants, but it could have been an iguana. Either way, we had 10 or so, now we have two :(
The good news: we can plant more seeds.

We also moved a pot-full of Vetiver grass that was suffering from bound roots. It is amazing how quickly the roots on that grass get constricted in even a large pot. In less than six months, two little plugs turned into a huge stand and made a root ball the size of a basketball (albeit a slightly deflated basketball). We broke up the stand, harvested the roots (they smell wonderful) and replanted. They are now planted in front of our wall, on the street. Trying to create a little more shade and some shelter for critters (dragonflies like to perch on this stuff) instead of just bare gravel and concrete wall. The pot? It will be become the new home for our Passiflora (we hope!). That should keep it from taking over the entire garden.

August weather has been oddly fabulous. We both feel that in years past it was wetter and less.... perfect. But the temps have been very pleasant and breezy weather has prevailed with evening rain storms that don't seem to last more than few hours. It sure makes it easy to stretch morning coffee out as long as we can!

Labels: Costa Rica, garden, 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

I saw a satellite photo of California yesterday, it was apocolyptic.
Let's hope that they get things under control.

Got up early today (5:30) and went down for a surf (Steve) and run (Jocelyn & Caly). It is a
beautiful morning!! The air temperature felt cool, the water was a nearly perfect 80 degrees with a
light breeze blowing. Decent waves, felt great to be out in the water surfing for the first time in
over a week. Jocelyn had a great run on the deserted beach. Caly is Caly: any time at the beach is
time well spent in her book. I'd like to think she enjoys it more on pretty days than other days,
but truth be told I suspect that she is pretty close to maximum joy-capacity every time her toes hit
the sand.

We've both (us humans) been fighting a vicious head and chest cold. Mine seems just about gone,
Jocelyn is a day or three behind me, but improving rapidly. I'm feeling lucky that I've got a
fairly un-scheduled Sunday to spend around the yard and pool. It really is heart-breakingly
beautiful out there right now.

And since my coffee is done, I'm going to fill a cup and head out to read my new "Medicinal Plants
of Costa Rica" book and watch some birds.

Labels: california, garden, weather

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

More yard photography. Gardening in Costa Rica is more of a fight against invasion by your own plants than it is a struggle to keep things alive. The end result is that we feel like we don't have many resources online nor in print for tips and tricks for the tropical gardener. On the plus side, half of the time (or more) if we want a given plant, we can find it growing wild and just dig it up and stick it in the ground. If it doesn't grow wild nearby, often we can just cut some off of someone elses ornamental, stick it in the ground, and stand back. So it is a mixed bag. We are having fun with it, and it is labor that keeps on giving back as the yard gets prettier and prettier with each effort on our part.

Ok, sometimes we screw up, or prune too much, or let stuff go too long, then prune and it looks haggard- we aren't particularly *good* at this yet, just enthusiastic.

Locally called Avecilla. This is the prettiest coloration we've seen. We've got a stand of it by the front stairs now.	The Ylang ylang tree is sorta hiding behind the palm cluster. Small now, but only a month after transplanting it is looking healthy, we have big hopes for it.	We planted these Plumeria branches with the hopes that they'll bloom for us on the porch outside our bedroom. Eventually the porch will be covered (time and money permitting) by a roof, at which point we'll have to find somewhere else to put the plumeria. Assuming it takes. Local wisdom says to plant plumeria cuttings in the dry season as they don't like wet feet when they are freshly planted.
more pretty avecilla filling up empty space by the guest room door	This little iguana spends most of his time sitting on/around the compost pile. Not sure if he is dining on kitchen scraps, soldier fly larva, or both. He (she?) has gotten fairly tame and doesn't run away when I go out to add scraps.	Our baby banana trees. These are purported to be "manzana" banana trees. Which means "apple" in Spanish. I'm not sure what that is going to mean for the fruit that comes off of them, but I was told it would be delicious, which is fine with me.
Our vetiver champion. This was a plug about the diameter of a soup can and only knee-high tall just a few months ago	Lemongrass. It was even more pitiful looking last month, but seems to be coming back, we hope.

Labels: Costa Rica, garden, photo, weather

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

I don't have any pictures yet, but a good friend hosted a great bonfire dinner last night out in the hills near town. Living so close to the beach it is easy to forget the beauty of the local hill areas. We enjoyed a cooling breeze and tried to pick constellations out of about a bazillion stars. It was actually tough to see the "main" ones for all of the little ones that you can't usually see.

And speaking of celestial bodies... found a new product out there that I really wish we had owned during our trip down to Costa Rica. SPOT is a GPS unit and satellite transmitter that can allow you to provide real-time location transmission. In essence, it reports your position on a Google Map about every 10 minutes. It also has a 911 feature that purports to contact local authorities and search & rescue folks that you are need of assistance, also sending them your exact location. Finally, you can hit a button every now and then, if you like, to email to your pre-arranged contacts a little "Hey, I'm ok" message.

I think that if we could have used on of these on our trip, our families would have slept a little better. We might have taken some comfort in having it along for the ride as well.

On a totally different note: I was trimming some palm fronds this morning (a constant battle here.... too many dang palm trees in our yard) and a snake fell out of the tree onto my arm. Startling. It was about the diameter of a pencil and maybe two feet long. Olive brown on top, lighter underneath. Pretty little thing. It wasted no time in slithering right back up into the palms, pausing briefly to look around only after it was well off of me. I imagine that I startled the snake at least as much as it startled me, but since snakes don't type (no fingers) you're only likely to get my side of the story.

Labels: garden, travel, weather

Sunday was a good day. No. A really good day. Not sure why it wasn't "great" day, but we like to leave room for potential improvement.

Got up pretty early but fairly lazy. Ate some delicious chocolate cupcakes (courtesy of Bakery de Jocelyn) with our coffee, then got surprisingly little done on a variety of projects around the house. We'll spare you photos of the shelving, it isn't much to look at.

Steve reveled in the fact that our local hardware store is now sort of open on Sundays. The whole store isn't really open, and you've gotta ask staff to let you in to the limited areas that are "open", but this is still a monumental achievement for the DIY on the weekend crowd as now one can forget a part on Saturday and still have a chance of finishing the project on Sunday. Good stuff.

Caly spent the afternoon snoozing in the sunlight. It's good to be the dog.


Anyway, and on to good parts, Steve stopped off at the grocery where he was inspired to make a delicious clam and bacon pasta dish (*recipe below). His enthusiasm inspired Jocelyn to set a lovely late-afternoon ocean/sunset view table, where we savored our food and wine with a nearly-perfect gentle afternoon breeze and temps in the low 80s. Pretty darn nice!

Looking to share the pleasure, we invited some friends over and the six of us had some more wine and chatted until it became dinner time. Since one of the guests came with some bbq ingredients, we fired up the grill and made a gourmet meal with grilled chicken, a grilled veggie medley including green beans, squash, eggplant, onions, and chayote (a local veggie that's tasty on the bbq), and a russsian potato and beet salad.

We stayed up a little late, perhaps, and drank maybe a smidgeon too much, but everyone had a great time and, in the end, it was a good Sunday.

*Clam and Bacon Pasta for Two*
(sorry the measurements are vague, you'll have to experiment)

• about 100grams of bacon (maybe 5 slices?)
• 1 can chopped clams in natural juice (the little can, 6 oz?)
• spaghetti noodles
• 1 organic green/red bell pepper (mine was half & half, which was perfect) diced to about pea size.
• 5 cloves garlic, crushed and diced
• 2oz olive oil
• 1 pat of butter
• 1 dried red peppers (the little crinkly ones w/ seeds)
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 large sprig fresh parsley, minced

1. Cook the bacon until crispy but NOT too hard. Remove and reserve.
2. Drain clams, reserve juice.
3. Start cooking your noodles.
4. In medium cast iron pan, sautee clams and crushed/diced garlic w/ dried peppers in olive oil
5. as garlic starts to brown, add diced peppers, dried parsley, and dried basil. I probably used more like 1.5 tsp of basil.
6. add butter
7. saute roughly 2 minutes, then add enough clam juice to barely cover the other ingredients (about 2 oz).
8. lower heat, simmer, don't let the peppers get mushy.
9. Your noodles are probably done by now. I like 'em al dente.

Pile the noodles on each plate, then put the clam mixture in the center of the noodles. Sprinkle the bacon and fresh parsley over the top of everything.

Serve with warm baguette or ciabatta, fresh parmesan and cracked pepper on the side.

We also did a simple little salad of fresh tomatoes (diced) with capers and sliced green olives that we marinated in balsamic vinegar for about half an hour and drizzled with virgin olive oil. Yummy.

Labels: weather

We awoke this morning to about 100 green parakeets jabbering away in the tree directly in front of our bedroom window, to the east were some glowing pink clouds as the sun broke over the lush green mountains, to the west, the ocean was placid and bright blue. Nice way to start the day!

Labels: weather

Holy Kershmoly!

Lots and lots of rain these last two weeks. Remarkable amounts, really. Most of us are climbing the walls out of boredom right now. Many of the local businesses close for October anyway, but combined with the heavy precipitation and the near-complete lack of waves, its a drag.


Nothing beats fixing a road while it is still flooding, I'm sure. These poor guys broke an embankment on one of the biggest drainage ditches in town, flooding their worksite in the process.

Since Jocelyn is up in Atlanta on business right now, and since the Tamarindo real estate market is at it's typical seasonal low, I'm especially bored. Couple that with the fact that I've got this great new 80 series landcruiser sitting in the very wet, uncovered parking, and I'm not only bored but frustrated with my inability to enjoy a new project.

Ah, well. At least I can slog through the sodden streets and snap a few shots of how the rain is ruining other people's day as well. Not much consolation. For those of you who haven't been to Tamarindo- these last two pics are about 6 ft of water in what is supposed to be the nascent foundation of a new building. I suspect they may suffer some construction delays while they work this one out.

Labels: weather

Here's another great surf photo by our pal Michael Pisarri.


He took it on our Ollies trip back in December '06. Fun times.

Labels: Costa Rica, photo, surf, weather

We found out that there would be no power on Thursday, so we decided to go to Avellanas for the day. Just to make life interesting, we decided to take the "back road", which is an easy (albeit bumpy) ride in the dry season. It took us a little over three hours to travel to Playa Avellanas. That's only about 3 miles away along the beach, and about a 20 minute drive on the main road. Totally worth it.

Note: one of the many benefits of getting muddy with good friends who just so happen to be professional photographers is that you end up with better-than-average pictures for the site. For more of Michael's work, check out MichaelPisarri.com.

When Costa Rican maps define roads as "seasonal", that probably means that there isn't a road there in the wet season. We've taken this road hundreds of times in the dry months, and thought we would see just how bad it is this time of year. It's pretty bad.

The day's first casualty was Steve's flip flop.	Having fun in the muck. Note the front tire: completely encased in clay	We spent a lot of time facing in a direction other than the one we were moving- back tires stuck in a rut, spinning, front tires pulling us along the trail	"Sure... we can make it through this!"
Notice the size of the ruts in relation to the dog (she's about 50lbs, by the way, not tall, but not tiny)	Winching through the first soft patch		The girls ran ahead to scout out routes.
The ultimate offroad vehicles. They would have made it through the road without incident, but no A/C nor stereo either	Not just muddy, but the occasional fallen tree added some variety	Knowing that the water and muddy riverbank would be a challenge, we decided to set up the winch before we got into trouble this time. Caly was very helpful	Neither of the large trees in the foreground was any help to getting up the bank. Michael did the walking while Steve pays out more line
The river was easy, but we only made it a few feet up the bank, which appears to be made entirely of slimy, grimy, claylike muck	This may not look very deep, but it is	Winching uphill through sloppy mud. The ruts were about 30 inches deep when we were done	Made it to the top of the bank, spinning wheels and pushing piles of mud. Finally got a little bit of traction and drove out from here
Michael the winch monster	Mike and Bb scouting out a "difficult" section ahead, this little puddle in front didn't look like much (note where the stick is located on the right).	Oops. I guess the puddle was deeper than it looked! (again, note the stick on the left this time)
"C'mon Guys! Let's get that winch line hooked up and running!" This water eventually pooched my EDIC relay, which is an expensive part. Fortunately there was no permanent damage.	Here's another angle. This stuck had what I like to call a high pucker-factor. Not exactly a relaxing position.	After that last puddle, we took the scouting a little more seriously	Sitting under a swaying coconut palm, relaxing with good friends after the run
Good food. Good friends (who thought we were a little crazy to take the back road in August).	Nothing like a dip in the ocean to get the mud off	beach. stick. Happy Dog.

Photo Credits: Michael Pisarri and Steve Broyles

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

Had a great time driving an almost-impassable road this weekend. More pictures coming soon, I promise. Unfortunately, a very important part on the cruiser (the EDIC system) spent a lot of time underwater so I had to take it apart and fix it. Fortunately, the cruiser was perfectly driveable without this very important system... it just wouldn't turn off, which is rather important. Got it fixed, all is well. If you have any interest in some pictures... follow this link.

Labels: landcruiser, mud, photo, weather

Business took me back to Santa Cruz again yesterday (Monday), which would have been mildly inconvenient except for the fact that we've had rain of almost-biblical proportions all weekend. The last estimate I had heard was somewhere between three and five inches in three days. Regardless, it was a LOT of rain. The upside is that rain is good, it recharges aquifers. The downside is that too much rain is bad, it makes rivers flood their banks, washes out roads, gets backhoes stuck... and generally makes your day less pleasant if you've got to be out and about.

Note that this bridge is under construction, and the river is about seven feet deep in this photo. That's about 20 minutes of extra driving just to get to the other side.	Here I am rolling through about 6 inches of water on the highway.	But just when I thought I was having a bad day...
At least the clouds made for pretty green fields with misty mountains	Two more backhoes come to rescue the first	These are all the people stopping along the highway to watch the floundering backhoe

By the time I drove by a couple of hours later, the buried backhoe had made a lot of progress towards being free, the other two backhoes seemed to have avoided getting themselves stuck, and I was too tired/lazy to take more photos. Right after I passed the scene, the rain hit with a vengeance, I won't be surprised if I see one or more backhoes stuck there when I drive by tomorrow!

Labels: Costa Rica, landcruiser, mud, weather

While we haven't written up a full report on all the fun we had in NYC, we have edited some of the pictures. You can see them here. Great trip, but the highest temp we felt in NYC was 43 degrees. And that was only fleeting. Most of the time it was in the low 30's. The good thing about our intolerance of the cold is that we sought refuge in all manner of fun little shops, stores, bars and museums. And we went ice skating. Fun.

Labels: photo, travel, vacation, weather

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

Living in Costa Rica isn't only about great weather, great waves, great views, great people....
Too often it is about not quite getting things done because you run into an obstacle and/or not being able to finish a project because you can't get a part.

Yesterday I finally finished several car-related projects in a row! What a great feeling!

It all started when I finally got fed up with some minor brake problems, so I pulled into a bay at my local mechanic's shop and asked if I could borrow it for a few hours.... "Sure" he said, "No problem" (ok, the rough equivalent in Spanish, but let's not be picky).

So I jacked up the cruiser (with his big 'ol floorjack) and pulled the rear wheels to check on why the brakes were dragging. A rock had (believe it or not) lodged itself in between the little adjustment wheel and the edge of the spring plate, which had apparently made it advance too far. Odd. Cleaned it up. As I was replacing the drum, I thought:
"Hey, I'm staring at the shock, and I've got 4 new ones right here...."

So I replaced all four shock with brand new Old Man Emu shocks that I had brought down from the states two weeks ago. Stoked!

While down there I saw the ebrake cable mount had lost its bolts, rummaged through the mechanic's "extra bolts" bin and found 2 that fit. Added them in. One less rattle!

Then, since I was there anyway, and the parts store is right there, I figured I'd do a flush and fill on the radiator. Ok, the radiator is about 3 weeks old... so it didn't much need cleaning, but when I did the replacement, I was in my steep driveway and didn't take the time to drain the block. So I grabbed his coolant basin, popped the engine block plug, and watched a bunch of not-too-clean water come out. Followed up with draining the radiator too. Then ran fresh water through till it came out clean.

Bopped over to the auto parts shop, bought coolant, refilled everything and buttoned it all up. While I was at the parts store, I noticed that they had batteries on sale. Mine has been fading (doesn't start well when the engine and battery are hot) and it is at least 3 years old, probably more like 6. So I figured, I'd go ahead and buy a new battery here and stop waiting for my next trip to Liberia (the "city") where it is probably a bit cheaper. They tested the old one just out of habit, mostly, and confirmed it was quite dead. Popped a new N70 in and hooked the wires up. While putting it in, I had the bright idea to run over to the hardware store (across the street) and begged a scrap of roof insulation.... sorta like bubble wrap with mylar on one side. Used that to fashion a crude blanket around half of the battery to shield it from engine heat, but hopefully allow good airflow to keep the battery cool.

Finally, I fixed a broken bolt that holds the center support for the grill... just drilled it and replaced with a burly metal-screw (can't buy an EZ out here... I tried). A tad ghetto-fab, but good enough.

Thanked the mechanic profusely for loaning me some shade and a concrete floor (vs. my VERY tropical-sun bathed gravel driveway with a steep slope) and was ready to be on my way. I asked him what I could pay him for the space and he dismissed it with a wave of his hand.... then asked "What are you doing with your old OME shocks?"

"They are all yours, amigo. Enjoy."

The only downside to the day was that when I happily drove through town to go surfing, I (like a dummy) locked my door key inside the car. Or, more specifically, inside my Tuffy console, which is a very safe place, and for which I had the key around my neck. Just for some reason I didn't stop the think that I would need the DOOR KEY in order to get to the Tuffy console... whoops!

First time I've ever locked the key inside the cruiser. :( Fortunately, I live in a small enough town that there were several friends in the surf and one drove me home to get Jocelyn's keys.

Sure feels good to take care of a bunch of little annoyances! Even better when you realize that around here, the norm is for projects to take twice as long as you expect, not half. I've got to go work at the mechanic's more often.... no interruptions, access to random bolts/nuts, floor jack, and hardware store and autoparts store right there.

Labels: landcruiser, weather

Never realized how healthyGarbanzo Beans are... and delicious.

In addition to bean research, we've been working hard and gearing up for a trip to visit family in the USA next month. Brian and Carrie got a dog, so now Caly isn't the cutest puppy in the pack anymore, but she has a canine playmate, so it seems to balance out.

Weather has been fantastic but abnormally buggy. Ok, some of the days have been hotter than heck and muggy AND buggy, but mostly the weather has been great.

Labels: food, weather

When I typed yesterday that it was raining a lot here, the rain must have taken offence and, in typical "you think that was rain?" retaliation it POURED all night long. Starting at about the time we started making a really delicious meal to go with the utterly fantastic bottle of UNTI wine that my father brought down for us a few months ago. Delicious! The food came out great too- simple pasta and red sauce with lots of fresh basil, shredded chicken, and herbs.

Of course, as we were preparing the meal, we lost power. Beebee slogged off through the deep mud (the street is pretty mushy these days) and came back with a sack full of candles so we enjoyed the rest of our evening by candlelight. Even after the power came back on (it hardly ever stays off for more than an hour or two) we decided to keep the candlelit atmosphere. It was so pretty and relaxing that I crashed out on the couch (what a lazy bum!).

The rain poured down relentlessly all night, with occasional bursts of lighting and thunder that scared the wits out of poor Caly. Or she has finally gotten smart enough to pretend to be scared such that we let her sleep on the bed.

And my jar experiment from yesterday? Useless. The jar was overflowing when I checked on it this morning at 6:30. When it got to the top, I have no idea. But I feel comfortable saying that we got at least six inches of rain last night. And it is still raining now...

Labels: weather

We really skipped over our trip to California, so here's a bit about all the fun things we did.

Monday September 5:

With the time change up there in the states, we actually got to fly straight through to California from CR without having to spend the night in Atlanta. This was a first for us, and we loved it, although it made for a very late/early arrival at SFO around midnight or one a.m. But, ever faithful friend that he is, Soop (aka Brian) was there to pick us up and shuttle us back to his place in Menlo Park.

We managed to stay up long enough to have a celebratory (albeit very short) drink from the bottle of Nicaraguan rum we’d brought him (Nicaragua has some of the best rum we’ve ever tasted) before falling into the most comfortable futon I’ve ever slept on.

Next morning found us up pretty early and ready for Pete’s coffee and a bagel. Bagels, while technically speaking they exist in CR, they really don’t. And BB has a penchant for bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. It was a lovely early September morning in Northern California: sunny and a bit cool in the shade, with that crisp, not-quite-fall air that Cali gets at the end of her long summers. We ate our breakfast on an outdoor patio and I think I drove everyone crazy with my big smile and continuous praise of what a glorious day it was. People have asked where one goes to vacation when one lives in paradise: Northern California in September/October. There is nothing like it in all the world, I am sure of it.

The boys (Steve and Soopy) were hatching plans to go camping, or stay in Palo Alto, or some of both, while I had to get ready for my whirlwind trip south. I had a business meeting in LA on Thursday, and would drive down on Wednesday to San Diego to have dinner and spend the night with one of my best friends, Axel. In order to do this, we had to go pick up the Explorer that Steve’s dad had kindly loaned to us for our stay in California and had even more kindly brought up to Steve’s sister’s house in Newark for us. (Newark is just across the San Mateo Bridge from Palo Alto, on the east side of the peninsula and only about a twenty-minute drive from where we were staying with Soop.)

Soop took us over to Newark where we chatted briefly with Steve's sister and mom and said hello to his niece and nephew. It was great to see them, but we had to be on our way to a lunch meeting. After lunch I sorted through all of the clothes that his mom had brought to us. Since we would be attending a wedding in the mountains (very cold to us!), I had my trip to LA, Steve would be camping in said mountains (even colder to him!), and then we would be doing business and social activities all over the Bay Area, we’d asked Bonnie to dig through our stored clothing for some clothes that were appropriate for cold weather, weddings, etc. This took up the entire back of the Explorer and we needed to sort through what I was taking with me and what Steve needed to stay warm while I was in sunny San Diego. The plan was for us to meet back up in Bear Valley when we met up with the rest of Steve’s immediate family for his cousin’s wedding.

Next day, I was up very early at about 5:00 a.m. to start my drive to San Diego. It was a lovely and uneventful drive (then again, I was on the 5, and how eventfull can that possibly be) and I arrived in San Diego around 1:00 p.m. I had a couple of hours before Axel was off work (he’s a fabulous teacher) so I went shopping! I needed a dress for both weddings, possibly shoes as well and a warm coat. I ran some other errands; the drug store and a pet store for toys for Caly.

I found Axel at home around 4:00 or so and it was such a glorious day, we decided to walk the 15 or so blocks down Mission Blvd. to the beach and then stroll on the beach. (This is the same beach where Steve and I lived way back in 1997/98.) We had a couple of margaritas and wonderful conversation at Lahina’s, then headed back to his house where we got cleaned up and then strolled out to an enchanting little hidden-garden restaurant just down the street from his apartment. We kept up the talking all through what became about a two-hour dinner (we hadn’t seen each other in nigh on three years) and then on through the dip in the hot tub and on into the wee hours of the morning, when we both decided we’d be really unhappy all the next day (that day) if we didn’t go to bed. We woke after about four hours of sleep (you’ll notice a sleep-deprevation theme throughout the entire California/Savannah trip that we don’t make up for until we get back to CR!) and I headed out to the car to get some paperwork I needed to prepare for my appointment later that day in LA.

Well! I knew we’d had a few drinks the night before, but I also knew that I hadn’t moved the car. The other thing I knew was that as Axel and I carried my most valuable things (and my new clothes!) up to his apartment, I actually said to the man, “Do I need to take everything in?” And then, stupidly, “No one can actually get a car stolen in the same town twice.” Ha. And so it was that I stood in Axel’s apartment around 7:00 a.m. with him leaving apologetically for work, calling the San Diego police to report a stolen car. For the second time in my life.

Needless to say, the morning went much differently than I had anticipated. But having no other choice but to muddle on through, I made the necessary calls, rented myself a car, drove on up to LA, and had my meeting. I then called up my friend George, we went for some amazing sushi in Newport and then I greedily and thanfully crashed out around 10:00 p.m. at his place. We were both up early and off to breakfast so I could get rolling back up California and into Bear Valley by nightfall.

The drive back up was just as good as the one down. But instead of heading to Bear Valley, Steve and Soop convinced me to come camp with them. And what a great decision that was! We met up at a cute little wine bar in Murphy's where we all had a nice glass of pinot noir and then set off for the camping. We started pretty late, but had a gourmet time of it with brie, chocolate, wine and pasta a la Brian. This definitely was not the roughing-it camping that I’ve seen Brian do, and I was thankful for that. We had a great time- drinking our wine, keeping warm (even Brian was cold enough to put on a hat) and eating the chocolate the boys bought to keep me happy.

Next day was wedding day, so we got out of there early and back into Bear Valley in time to meet up with the family for lunch. It was fun to see everyone again and we chatted with various family members until it was time to start getting ready.

The ceremony was atop a bluff, at the very edge of what must have been a few-thousand-foot drop into the canyon. It was truly a breathtaking spot. Robyn was fabulously beautiful, Ryan dashing in his kilt and the bagpipes a perfect accompaniment. The ceremony was short and very very sweet, including a ring for Robyn’s young son as part of the threesome made that day. There are lots of pictures, and I urge you to take a look, if not just for the sheer beauty of those mountains.