Buenos Aires Costa Rica

Today we went to Buenos Aires and I saw some of the most incredible mountain views. Mary I miss you and your camera because these pictures don't do it justice!

Every trip here involves crossing a rickety bridge. Here is today's:

Buenos Aires is where Mario's older kids grew up. Here is their elementary school:

We stopped to see Buenos Aires' balls, I know they need a better name, even the town is called Balls, but it is really interesting. Here is a snippet from Wikipedia about the balls:

The stone spheres (or stone balls) of Costa Rica are an assortment of over three hundred petrospheres in Costa Rica, located on the Diquis Delta and on Isla del Caño. Known locally as Las Bolas, they are also called The Diquis Spheres. These are the best-known stone sculptures of the Isthmo-Colombian area.

The stones are believed to have been carved between 200 BC and 1500 AD.

Numerous myths surround the stones, such as they came from Atlantis, or that they were made as such by nature. Some local legends state that the native inhabitants had access to a potion able to soften the rock. Another claims that at the center of each sphere is a single coffee bean.

It has been claimed that the spheres are perfect, or very near perfect in roundness, although some spheres are known to vary by 5 centimetres (2.0 in) in diameter. Also the stones have been damaged and eroded over the years, and so is impossible to know exactly their original shape

Also from http://web.ku.edu/~hoopes/balls/intro.htm :

The stone balls of Costa Rica have been the object of pseudoscientific speculations since the publication of Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods in 1971. More recently, they have gained renewed attention as the result of books such as Atlantis in America: Navigators of the Ancient World, by Ivar Zapp and George Erikson (Adventures Unlimited Press, 1998), and The Atlantis Blueprint: Unlocking the Ancient Mysteries of a Long-Lost Civilization, by Colin Wilson and Rand Flem-Ath (Delacorte Press, 2001). These authors have been featured on television, radio, magazines, and web pages, where they do an incredible disservice to the public by misrepresenting themselves and the state of actual knowledge about these objects.

Although some of these authors are often represented as having "discovered" these objects, the fact is that they have been known to scientists since they first came to light during agricultural activities by the United Fruit Company in 1940. Archaeological investigation of the stone balls began shortly thereafter, with the first scholarly publication about them appearing in 1943. They are hardly a new discovery, nor are they especially mysterious. In fact, archaeological excavations undertaken at sites with stone balls in the 1950s found them to be associated with pottery and other materials typical of the Pre-Columbian cultures of southern Costa Rica. Whatever "mystery" exists has more to do with loss of information due to the destruction of the balls and their archaeological contexts than lost continents, ancient astronauts, or transoceanic voyages.
Hundreds of stone balls have been documented in Costa Rica, ranging in size from a few centimeters to over two meters in diameter. Almost all of them are made of granodiorite, a hard, igneous stone. These objects are not natural in origin, unlike the stone balls in Jalisco, Mexico that were described in a 1965 National Geographic article. Rather, they are monolithic sculptures made by human hands.
The balls have been endangered since the moment of their discovery. Many have been destroyed, dynamited by treasure hunters or cracked and broken by agricultural activities. At the time of a major study undertaken in the 1950s, fifty balls were recorded as being in situ. Today, only a handful are known to be in their original locations

Whatever the official explanation is Mario tells me there were 3 of these balls at the school in Las Bolas but someone stole one (I have no idea how). They were moved here but he doesn't know from where. They are really impressive.

Mario is 6'2" tall. These are really big balls!

Rethinking the city life ...

When we decided to move to Costa Rica I came to see if I thought I could live here. I loved everything about Costa Rica except the area where Mario had his house. It is very close to the city of San Isidro del General and I prefer country living. I like the thought of a house perched on a mountain with spectacular views and no one around for miles. Of course I thought I may never be able to afford that since the prices here are skyrocketing since it is the new Florida and everyone seems to want to retire here, but still, it was my dream. Now that we have been here over a month I am rethinking this "dream". I am really starting to love our little shack, and Costa Rican city life isn't exactly New York. This is my view from the yard:

The fence we put up is barely visible, but the wooden thing in the center of the picture is the gate. The building is Mario's parents garage. To the left is the bird feeder that we made together from a plate and chain. The birds won't come near it so far, but Mario tells me it's because they are full since the woods in the back are filled with bananas. This doesn't feel too much like city life, except the neighbors are really close. The other night I needed to use the servicios (bathroom) in the middle of the night. Our bathroom is sort of outside since it is in the pila (sink) room which is open except for the grates on the walls. When I opened the door I saw a huge rat-like tail on the boards over the bathroom door. I started screaming for Mario (understand it was late at night and he was sleeping), I was yelling rata, rata, so of course he came running out in his underwear. I had slammed the door and was holding it shut with all my might since you know about the man-eating killer rats here in Costa Rica. (Well it IS a jungle so who knows what they are capable of). Mario goes into the pila room armed with the fly swatter, and starts to laugh. He says that is not a rat it is a zorro. A chicken eating zorro. So he proceeds to push it towards the back door with the fly swatter. Again I am peeking through an inch crack in the back door trying to see what a chicken eating zorro looks like, but I never actually saw anything but the tail. The zorro leaves, Mario patiently waits for me to pee since I am petrified that this chicken eating zorro may convert to human flesh and we go back to bed. As we lay down he says, you know they are kind of cool these zorros, they carry their babies in a pouch like a kangaroo. An opposum? that was an opposum??? Yup. Hardly the jungle monster I had thought, none-the-less not something I want to meet on my midnight bathroom run. So yeah, maybe I am not cut out for green acres, maybe the city is a better place for me. Do they have man-eating rats in the country???

Here's some more views of my city life:

 This is our patch of corn that Mario's mom planted on the only spot of soil in the yard with no stones. We didn't have the heart to pull it up so I planted coreopsis in between the stalks so at least we will have some flowers there too. I just put in a mamon chino plant that produces tasty big grape size balls of fruit. I thought it was a bush, but the neighbor's bush towers over our house. I am hoping if I keep topping it off it will stay a reasonable height.

Here is the coconut palm behind Mario's parent's garage. It makes a great rustling sound when the breeze blows.

We have a favorite restaurant here, thanks mom some things never will change, I still hate to cook. This is the view from our table, when the sun shines on the mountain you can almost see the people it is so clear!

This is the fruit of the cocoa tree in our yard. Yes cocoa, the chocolate tree. You crack open the fruit and there are white milky covered seeds inside that you can pop out and suck on. This one wasn't quite ripe so it tasted like sweet tarts, I liked it so much we may never have a ripe one! You can put the seeds out to dry and then grind them up to make cocoa powder which of course is the basis of chocolate. Mario made me put the seeds in the burn pile since he says if the touch the earth they will root and we will have more chocolate trees than we can handle. I don't think he has any idea how much chocolate I can handle, but I put the seeds in the burn pile anyway!

One last treat from Andy and Fran from Boomers Offshore:

http://www.vimeo.com/11954396

It's almost 7 am here (yes it's Sunday - damn roosters!) and I have to get ready because we are going to the country today. We are heading to Buenes Aires to see where Mario grew up and visit his family. Hope I don't run into any man-eating rats!! 

My very 1st earthquake!! Ok well tremor

There was an earthquake in San Jose or Quepos today. We felt it here but it was more of a tremor. Being from Jersey (or Pa) I had never felt one before. Very odd! I thought the laundry was off balance but then remembered we live on a slab and the house is half concrete so the washer won't shake it! I looked up and everything was moving. Mario saw my face and laughed, he's been through worse quakes then this little tremor. Diego slept through it. It was a 6.2 at the epicenter, but I heard there is no damage there. Thank goodness!

It's raining, it's pouring ...

Just WOW I never knew it could rain so hard! The soil here is incredible! There is a stretch of it between the house and car port that filled up and over flowed onto the walk way. in 10 minutes the water was gone. Hope the mums drank some of it. We had lightning and thunder but only lost power once. I am running the laptop on batteries because I am worried about it frying, grounded has a strange meaning here - nothing is. I think the plants look greener now. This morning was incredibly sunny, I even watered the fushia sine it was wilting then drop ... drop ... buckets! So fast! The garden is coming along. The portulaca are beautiful, unfortunately Diego finds them comfortable too so I hope they stay nice. Everything you put in the ground here grows like crazy. I am going to have one kick ass yard! Unfortunately we came home last night to find one of the papaya trees had fallen over. Of course it wasn't the one we want to take down since the roots are under the bathroom. It was the other one that looked so cool in the yard. I got to watch Mario hack it up with the machete. Sometimes I just can't believe this is my life now. Who the heck has a machete in Pa? They sell them in the supermarkets and hardware stores here. I want a little one, but we are afraid I will cut my leg off lol. The thunder was frightening, very loud. I think it has passed now so I am going to plug in the work computer and get back to it.

I am working and car woes

Yes, I am working. Good thing cause we are spending way too fast. I think we are winding down now with the exception of the car. Nice car, a little dipute cause Mario bought it without me while we were in the states and it is a standard so I can't drive it. He says he did it on purpose because I take the dog with me. Worked out badly for him though since now he has to come with me on every shopping spree! He is painting my office since it looks like I can work from here now that I have the data card. The speed is decent and I set up a small network so I can talk on the phone from 1 computer while working on the other. The work laptop doesn't support skye which is working way better than the magic jack was.

So anyway the car... the way it works here is different than in Pa, the license plate stays with the car, so many times people don't transfer the title when they buy the car. So now we own this car, but it turns out that the tiltle is held by someone 4 owners ago. Luckily Mario happens to know the guy, unluckily he moved 6 hours away and needs to sign the title over. Mario found a lawyer who will take the signature by fax and do the paperwork, but we are stuck with the car until it all goes through which may take a month. Great. The car does well on short trips but whenever we go a distance the top blows off of the coolant tank and rusty water spews all over. Our Dominical trip was a bit harrowing because the car did like 2 miles an hour climbing the mountains and seemed like it was going to die before we reached the tops. I was praying for all I was worth cause I was afraid a big truck would come barreling up behind us on a curve and run us over. When we finally got close to home the car started to overheat and just when we got to our road it redlined and we pulled over and waited the half hour for it to cool down. Mario added water and said no problem and drove it home. It worked fine for a few more weeks and then the other day popped the top again. We took it to the "mechanic" at the end of our drive who replaced the radiator cap and said that it is fixed. I don't believe him though so I get scared everytime we go out.

The other gem of a surprise was that there is this little switch, like a toggle, in the dash. It works the engine fan. The first day we had the car we didn't know that so we over heated at the bank. Mario and his dad pondered a while trying to figure out what was wrong and then his brother came over and knew about the switch. Everytime we went out it was my job to remember to turn the fan on and off, cause if you forget to turn it off the battery dies. The "mechanic" bypassed the switch and now the fan works off the key. I don't understand why this is not how it is supposed to work, but Mario is happy not having to remember the switch.

Mario and his dad fixing the car our first day here

Woo Hooo we are tiled!

After an icredible amount of red dust we are tiled, painted, and furnished! What a difference!
 Here's before:


















and now:

The red dust came from the grout and it was everywhere! Seeing the results made the project well worth it! Cost -  about $400 wow.

Rest in peace Uncle Tony - You will be missed. Take care of yourself Dad, I love you.

Old houses are old houses no matter what country you are in

The bathroom is tiled and ready to use, wooo hooo! Except I wanted less than cold water. Mario started hooking up the ducha, or suicide shower again and I asked him which was the hot wire, he answered they are both white. Wrong answer! I knew one of the wires had to be hot and so began this morning's "discussion". He stormed out to his parents house and returned with an electrician. Thank God since he had the wires reversed! Thanks Dad for teaching me that you don't play with electricity especially in the water. The electrician fixed the ducha and we asked him to look at the stove. I have been having nightmares of a fire since the stove doesn't heat well, which to me means bad wiring. So now I am sitting in the living room as Mario and the electrician rewire the connection from the street to the breaker box. Seems they didn't use the correct gauge wires whent they did it the first time. Hopefully this fixes the problem. Kinda cool having a simple house though. It's a straight run  from the edge of the house to the breakers so it is not too much of a problem to fix.

The bathroom came out beautifully, I will put up pics when everything is back in place and I have showered. We put in a fence over the weekend so now Diego has a place to be without being tied up. I can also start to garden! I constructed the composter out of 2 of the plastic totes that we have, thanks to Andy and Fran (boomers offshore) for showing the idea in the first place! I am also making a greenhouse of sorts from another so that I can start seeds without the dog, chickens, and birds abusing them. Pics to follow as always lol. I suck at taking pics!

It's a beautiful day so I am off to garden!