Hey Folks!

We have a letter from Anna reminding us of how warm and magical Costa Rica is in the winter!

Thanks Anna.

Honestly, it does look like a magical place with magical people living on magical beaches.  Birds, tropical flowers, howler monkeys, amazing spearfishing adventures, beautiful sunsets and crocodiles!!  I completely love hearing from Anna and all the adventures she finds  🙂

December January Blog Post:

Time has gone by so fast! December was full of travels and celebrations. I stayed with my parents in the US for a week while Dreutch drove up to Modesto to work. My time home was full of coffee dates, fun Christmas activities, paddleboarding, gingerbread houses and yoga in the park.

When we returned, we experienced our first Costa Rican bull riding festival, had Christmas Eve finger foods, fondue night watching Christmas movies, watched the Nutcracker in downtown San Jose, made traditional Costa Rican tamales, enjoyed caroling and a Christmas tree lighting at the church and watched New Years Eve fireworks! I must say the most exciting event was definitely the festival.

Anna’s video is absolutely nuts…they are just *walking around* with the bull!!

Villarreal, our neighboring town, held their festival in the main square in town, there were kids carnival rids, delicious unhealthy foods and a great bull riding spectacle. It is essentially a cross between between a carnival and a rodeo with one glaring difference. During the bullriding, men and boys from the community run with the bulls after the rider gets bucked off and until the sabaneros (cowboys) rope the bull to let him back into the pen. This creates electric situations where the bull will miss a runner by mere inches as he slides under the fence into the crowd. We took a video the first night and the bull came right at us!

We have done a bit more exploring of Costa Rica over the past few months. On my birthday we went on a tour of the estuary. I saw my first wild crocodiles and spotted some monkeys. This weekend we took a day trip to Rincon de la Vieja (volcano and park) to visit a waterfall and visit the hot springs. We saw a Tucan off in the tree by the road.

A few things that are different here than in the US. To keep the dust down, they cover the dirt roads with sickeningly sweet smelling, sticky, gooey molasses. I will never be able to smell molasses and think fondly of Christmas cookies alone again. Recently the water, the power or the internet will be turned off for a few hours at a time. I cross my fingers that the meat in the freezer doesn’t go bad and the bleach in my load of laundry doesn’t change the color of all my clothes when the power and water go out. Thus far, no problems! On the positive side, it does mean we usually head to the beach, or out to get tacos for lunch when that happens.

All in all, we like our little global village. We have been passing the time after the holidays enjoying being back in the swing of normal life. This mostly consists of work, working out, bike rides, Kids Club, beach volleyball and spending time with friends. Pura Vida!

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