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:
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!!
No comments:
Post a Comment