Ketchup and Mishmosh Illustrated

So this is my first attempt at a video. I took this on Sep 15th in the center of PZ while the families paraded by with thier faroles. It was really beautiful. All of the kids (with help it looked like) made these beautiful boxes, some in the shape of houses, some animals, some abstract, but all with a light inside. For Sep 15th, Independence Day here, they have a big parade and everyone walks around the town square with their faroles. We had a flat tire before we went to town and stopped at a gas station to get it patched. The greasy mechanics were all huddled around this small table making a Spongebob farole. Too funny, they were all discussing what to use and how to do it, it really looked great, but we left before they finished it. The other odd thing is that the faroles are lit with a candle. It was so strange to see really little children proudly holding their paper and cardboard faroles with a lit candle inside and yet there were no burns that I saw. Something you wouldn't see in the states.

After the parade the children from the various towns don traditional costumes and dance on a stage they had set up. I had no idea there were so many people in this area! The dances were spectacular you could tell the kids worked really hard to learn them.

On the homefront, Mario talked to our landlord about the mud problem. I think it was after we got the waterbill lol. It was only about $20 but he feels it is high since he is washing the car like twice a day. So she agreed to go halves on a load of stone. He got it all spread out how he wanted it so now the car comes in relatively clean unless it is pouring. Which it does everyday at 2 and in fact is doing as I type *sigh*. I am patiently waiting for the summer they promise me will be hot and dry. I am so cold lately, whoda thunk it in the tropics! So here is the driveway now:

Note the tire tracks on the right side. After they got done laying the stone Mario felt that it should be compacted and used a half a tank of gas riding back and forth over it. Well I may be exaggerating a tad, but it seemed like he went back and forth for ever.

Here is the bottom part of the drive. We have some stone left up top and Mario tells me he will be leveling the hump and filling them in. They left some extra in case the mud sucked up what they had laid, but it seems like it will be fine so he wants the bottom to look good too. Plus the road is really steep coming in on this side so it is hard to hit the 2 tracks when we come in this way. You can see the portulaca we planted down the center in this pic, it should be beautiful once it fills in. We just got 10 more plants to help it fill in faster! Also Mario divided the purple plants and now they are filling in to be a straight line on both sides of the drive.

Guadelupe asked me to post some pictures of the yard for her brother in the states so here they are (Mario has been VERY busy!):

 This is my attempt at keeping the mountain at bay. We have 2 of these vines and then 3 other kinds that are planted at intervals next to the house. I also put in morning glory seeds. I am hoping all of these flowering vines will grab hold of the dirt and keep it from falling, plus it will look spectacular when they are blooming!

 These are plain old marigolds, but they really match the house. They grow bigger everyday. Mario loaded them up with compost. We also got fertilizer with Guadelupe's help, she is the landlady, and he has fertilized all the palms, purple plants, and the flowering bushes that were here. They look better already!

This is another shot of the big area we planted. We doubled the plants in the hopes it will fill in faster. Mario liked the marigolds so much we filled in the lantana with yellow ones. They really pop on sunny days.

This is another shot of the mountain in the front of the house. The blueish gray palm is a bismark palm and you can see the bougainvillea we planted with the same hope of it climbing up and covering the dirt.

This is the back yard, we put the mesh fence up to keep Diego in. There is no traffic, but I am afraid he would walk in front of the few cars that pass. Also being in front of the coffee farm there is a danger of snakes if he wanders. There are also poisonous toads, but they are almost as big as he is and he is afraid of them.

This is the area up top where the new part of the driveway is. Mario made me this cute garden. He used stones that were scattered all over the place. We put coreopsis seeds that a woman had given me when I was admiring her beautiful garden. The people here are so nice. They are starting to come up so I hope one day when we build our own home I can start more plants from these.

That's all the pics. I am heading home on Friday for my 3 month treck. When you come to Costa Rica you get a 3 month Visa and have to leave the country for 72 hours once it is up. I am going to visit my parents for 11 days in New Jersey. It's with mixed feelings as I will miss my home and life here, and my mom is going into assisted living. I hope to help with the transition for both her and my dad. It's one of the hard things about being here, not being able to help at the drop of a hat; but, I am a phone call away and talk to my dad almost everyday.

My mom's situation has  also caused me to worry what will happen when I get older. In my experience here I see that families care for the older folks. Usually the families are very big so there are many people who can help out. Either someone comes to stay with the elderly person or they move them in to their home. I have no family here and Mario is the same age as me. I have been thinking a lot about what will happen as we age. He has no children here either so he is in the same boat. Luckily we are both healthy and as I found out when I made this move nothing needs to be permanent. We are starting to look at land and we are keeping ease of travel and public transportation in mind as we do. This house is wonderful and we really love it, but it is a far way down from the main road and pretty steep. We don't think we would want to build a house in a similar terrain because it would be hard to make it out if we couldn't drive. 

On a lighter note - my son turned 23 today! Happy Birthday Jake!!!