News from the Jungle

Saludos from the bosque lluvioso (rainforest)!

Tonight I’m sitting in our little tin house (Henry’s house) as we enjoy a nice cooling summer rain shower.  The power has gone out in the neighborhood and we even saw a nearby transformer blow.  Probably a tree fell on a line somewhere on the peninsula and we could be out for a while.  This is the longest we’ve been without power since we’ve been here.  But the candle is burning and the computer battery has a full charge so, this is a wonderful opportunity to share a few of the latest updates.  If only the fan could work to blow away all the flying critters hovering around the candle and the computer screen.  :~)

The jungle, and our lives, have been hopping and buzzing since I last wrote.  Summer is here in full force.  Until today it has been very dry.  That makes the already hideous roads dusty, so the rain is a welcomed visitor.  Rain is what we hear about from EVERYONE who e-mails us from Oregon and Washington.  Hope you’re all drying out by now.

(Photo-a days catch for our neighbors).

Gary’s two day ‘gone fishing’ respite was a welcomed break for him and a fruitful harvest as well.  He caught a 40 lb. Wahoo and a Yellow fin tuna and some Jack tuna.  Our freezer is full and the ceviche is flowing.  (Thanks Ginger for your recipe).  Life is good.   

Our bodega (the concrete storage ‘Palace’) is completed now.   It is absolutely beautiful, secure, and even has a shower on the side with a boot cleaning area (that will double as a dog wash).  It cost us a lot more than we planned but will be here forever and hold everything we’ll ever need or have.  We noticed a few days ago that the termites had discovered the wood in the roof, so that battle has begun already.  Vigilance is the key – and unfortunately requires chemicals and constant monitoring. The bodega is 3.5 meters by 5 meters and, unfortunately, still awaits the ‘stuff’ it was built to hold.  (Photo-Gary & Henry working infront of the 'palace').

Our 20’ container, which left Oregon on December 5^th, arrived in Costa Rica on January 12^th.  After transport, unloading, storing in a warehouse until the whole customs ‘voodoo’ routine is complete, we are hoping to have it delivered on Tuesday the 7^th.  Yep, almost 2 months later.  I hear from others we should be happy it happened so quickly!

Gary and I made the trip to San Jose to be present when they opened up the container for the first time.  So -Doug, Mickey, Joe, and Brad, I am happy to report that everything was just as we/you had packed it.  (Thanks again for your help!)  We were very surprised and thrilled to have that worry eliminated.  We only had to wait for the duties, permits, and fees to be tallied up. It was actually about what we expected, around $1,200 for the load (not counting the shipping and agent costs).  So we’re pleased that adventure is almost over.  Seeing everything unloaded made us really excited about being reunited with what little we actually continue to own.  I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve said, I could really use this or that – but “it’s on the boat.”  We can’t wait to get our kayaks out in the water!!  If anyone out there is thinking about shipping anything to Costa Rica (and I know a few of you are) we’ve got a few tidbits of well-learned advice we might share if we can drink enough wine first.  So, with luck, next Tuesday our neighbors and new friends will be here to unload the ‘treasures’ and tuck them away.  Maybe kind of like our garage sale party in reverse!  (Photo-delivery day crew and everything we now own).

We’re getting more involved everyday with life in our part of the world.  We’re helping to organize a spay/neuter clinic in our area (maybe the first one ever) next Thursday.  A vet from San Jose is coming down to the Osa peninsula and spending 3 days in different spots.  She’s only charging about $14 an animal, cheap for even here. We have at least 10 local animals (mostly from gringos) and hope to encourage more of the locals to participate.  Female animals are a lot more likely to be spayed than the males neutered.  Locals just look at us like we’re crazy to think they would want to neuter their ‘macho’ males.  Like it’d make them turn into Jello and be a total waste of their money.  But we’re trying and getting some response. Attitudes could be changing.  Hey, they’re even selling condoms in the stores here now.  Wow!

Another project is a recycle depot spearheaded by a wonderful group of women called the Women of the Osa or “WOO.”   It’s a group of mostly interested, motivated, change-oriented, conservation-minded women who look for projects they can dig into. I’m stoked to be a part of them now!!  A few months ago, WOO took on Coca Cola in a big way.  They organized a boycott of Coke products because they had decided to switch all their refillable bottles (yes, they still exist) to the ‘evil’ plastic.  This in a community where the dump, and I do mean ‘dump’ has been closed by the Minister of Health. Since there’s no other option for trash disposal right now, and the municipality hasn’t made any effort to plan for a new one, it’s still being used.  Maybe I’ll make the whole trash/waste management/recycle thing a topic of a future journal update.  With photos and all!   But I digress, so back to Coke - Well, the boycott made national headlines and at this time Coke and other distributors have agreed to help with the recycling center AND Coke went back to using the refillables in some of the locations in the Osa.  Apparently they were losing some of their market share to Pepsi, which has been dying to get a stronger foothold into Costa Rica.  Anyway, score one for the little guys and stay tuned for recycling from the jungle updates too.

I haven’t talked much about the various critters we share the jungle with here. The birds are always a treat and each day a joyous collection of citings. The latest new bird is the Turquiose Cotinga.  We haven’t seen that many mammals, but we’re living on the periphery of the forest right now, while they’re found more IN the forest.  It’s the reptiles and the insects that we see the most, whether we like it or not.  For the reptilian and insect-squimish, you may choose to skip this next part.  I’ll understand.  But this is definitely where my animal background and Gary’s outdoor spirit comes in handy.

At the risk of scaring every person who might have ever considered visiting us one day, I cannot in all honesty pretend our part of the world isn’t the home of some of natures’ most well-adapted poisonous/venomous creatures. We have already had our fair share of encounters with things creepy, scaley, venomous and ‘to be avoided’.  We’ve been visited by Alacrans (a large scorpion relative whose sting will make your tongue numb and the sting site hurt like he__ for 4 hours).  They have even dropped right in front of me.  The other evening, after enjoying my night reading hour,  I ‘relocated’ a very noisy cicada (those suckers are huge) from the house to the outdoors only to return to my seat and find a palm-sized brown tarantula climbing down the wall right behind my chair.  He was really cool looking and after thorough investigation, many oohs and aahs, was also relocated the next morning. 

And yes, snakes have made a few appearances as well.  Gary, Henry and Sydney were walking the trail to our beach a couple weeks ago, when the guys saw Syd run right over the top of a large, now-considered ‘resident’ Bushmaster snake (BM) that was lying across the trail.  After Syd had gotten to the other side of the BM (BM sounds less threatening) they started hollering at him to stay where he was (in two languages I understand).  Syd’s in the process of learning some Spanish, but I think this was a bit much for him at that moment.  So he jumped right back over the snake running dutifully back to them.  Luckily the snake was not coiled and had no striking range so his pitiful attempt at going for Sydney was fruitless.  The snake just slithered off, away from all the commotion, probably embarrassed at missing two chances at a dog.  Syd never even saw him. Completely oblivious.  I had so hoped he’d meet a snake in a good learning opportunity, where he could learn to respect their potential.  We have an Irish friend, Mike Boston, who is a true reptile expert, lives in a nearby town, and has happily agreed to come and find the BM and relocate it.  It really is a beautiful snake that doesn’t deserve to die just because it’s hanging out on our trail.  But he’s gotta go!   This will be much appreciated and should make for an interesting journal update in the future.  Needless to say, our trail has gotten wider each year and Henry keeps it raked well for better visibility.  I probably should leave the story of the Fer-de-lance wake-up call for a later time.  (“Sorry to worry you needlessly Dad!).

Just know we’re all accounted for and our learning curve - “The Everest Peak” - has become more of a molehill as we settle in.  Today Gary and Henry planted a small orchard of trees & vines; limes, avocado; almonds, passion fruit, and guanabana.  We already have cashews, pineapples, orange, and coconut palms growing.  That was a satisfying day.

Well, the electric company has arrived and is apparently repairing the transformer.  So we should have electricity soon.  Last week the electric company came out and transferred our power from one old, falling apart pole to a new one.  Whoa, talk about a dangerous job!  No boom trucks, only ladders and ropes.  But they were harnessed to the pole at least.  I have some photos of that too I can send.  But that’s right, my cable for my camera to connect to the computer is “On the Boat.”  Oh well.

Till the jungle drums sound again, we hope you’re safe, warm, and for our NW friends, DRY!

Terri, Gary, and not quite bilingual yet, Sydney!