December 2007

Last year we arrived in Coco about mid-January and we came by car. This year we traveled by plane and arrived the last week of November. Everything went as planned. The only exciting part was our packaging our two dogs into kennels and handing them over to Delta Airlines for their travel as 4th class passengers (in the cargo hold); they seemed to have no problems with the trip (Ginette, however, required sedation, the kind that comes in a martini glass!!!)

The weather has been so mild! The temperature seldom gets over 90F (32C)and it drops to 68F (20C)at night. No air-conditioning is required, the windows are always open. We had a few little rain showers. During the month we added two ceiling fans the living-dining room to make sure the air is always moving.

Our big tropical garden was almost complete last year. This month we had to replace a lot of plants and reinstall the watering system. All is lush now. We have only to attend to the constant weeding; if you add a little water to the abundant sunshine here then everything (including the weeds) grows quickly. The attached photo shows Salvador and his crew installing plants.

For Christmas gifts, Ginette and I made cookies, lots of cookies, sugar and butter cookies with candied ginger on top. Christmas here is not too big an affair. But many Costa Ricans come from San Jose to spend the holidays at the shore so there are lots of folks in town. We went to Mass Christmas Eve in the local Catholic church with some of our Tico friends. And on Christmas Day we attended an Episcopal Mass in a local restaurant/bar run by some new gringo friends. Lots of ex pats attended and we had a great pot luck brunch after Mass. A fine group of people, all so laid back.

Some of our Costa Rican friends invited us for a post-Christmas neighborhood supper in the middle of the road not far from our home. Nice dinner, someone had a guitar and a good tenor voice for traditional Spanish songs. The teenage girls played pop Latin music. Gifts were exchanged. Beautiful people! The photo at the right shows Esteban and his sister Kelly during a visit to our house.


Last night we had friends over for dinner. The sword fish and rice and beans were almost ready; we were having a before dinner glass of wine when the electric power died. Lanterns were lit. Then the water died! So, we finished the wine by lantern light and then went outside to look at the stars. Here the stars are always pretty bright but last night with the whole town in darkness, the sky was full of bright diamonds. Being part of this rural life on the Pacific coast makes us all stand in awe of so many great things including the small kindnesses of the people here. Love it! Pura vida!