Seidy and I met with a gentleman by the name of Arthur this morning. Arthur reached out to Seidy through the Copey Learning Center a couple of months ago and I had taken on the correspondence with him. He was planning a trip to Costa Rica with two of his friends: they were primarily coming down to go deep-sea fishing. Arthur wanted to meet someone from the Copey Learning Center to have a look at the community and see if there would be an opportunity for him to volunteer in some capacity or another. Seidy and I were delighted to grant him this meeting.... it's not often someone will specifically take time out of their hectic travelling schedule to detour and come to a sleepy town like Copey. Arthur hired a taxi driver to drive them down from San Jose. They arrived just after 10 am. Seidy and I met Arthur and his two friends, Bob and Randy. We chatted for about a half hour or so, Arthur telling us his intentions and we explained the center's goals. Arthur used to be the president of the Kiwanis, an international organization that focuses on fundraising for children's causes. His connection may come in very handy. We said our goodbyes and invited Arthur to keep us posted should he decide he would like to get involved in some way as a volunteer.
Before they left, I invited them to come see Hush Valley Lodge. Since the taxi driver's van was not 4x4, they all piled into our SUV (including the taxi driver, Carlos). I introduced them to Kevin and we gave them a short tour of our property. They all seemed impressed with the property and said they'd like to come back and stay in the guesthouse. Word of mouth is key in this business, so it's nice that they said they would spread the word. Even Carlos, who had never been in the Dota mountains, thought it would be a great place for honeymooners. He said he had guests coming to visit, but would need to accommodate eight people. Maybe next year, if we do well, we'll build another guesthouse. He also gave us his card and said he would be happy to drive any of our guests from the airport to Copey. He's a great contact to have because he speaks a little English and his van is spotless. All this positive feedback continues to encourage us. We're feeling optimistic about the future. I drove them all back to Copey and they got back into the taxi van for their long journey back to San Jose. It was lovely to meet Arthur, Bob, Randy and Carlos, too. Hope to see them all again someday.
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Kevin and I went to Santa Maria tonight to another fair, but this time there was a fantastic band playing. They are called Sonámbulo (PsychoTropical)... a latin version of Kool and The Gang. Lots of different influences. Great music! We met our friend, Catalina, there. We also met up with Ádriana and Roberto. After the concert, we all went to eat some pizza together. Adriana and Roberto had never met Catalina, so it was nice to introduce them. Catalina's husband, Gogi, joined us at the restaurant just in time for the pizza. The conversation was half English and half Spanish and somehow we all got the gist. What a great evening!
Today, I spent the whole morning with Seidy and her niece, Gloria. We talked about the logistics of the volunteer teachers arriving in two weeks. We brainstormed ideas on getting the community involved in their own social development. Lots of great ideas were shared and many good projects could get started quickly. It's all very exciting. Then Seidy mentioned that she, her husband and Gloria were going to go to a coffee fair (in Spanish it's called la 'feria del café') in Friales, a little town about an hour away. She invited Kevin and I to come along. We accepted the kind invitation and met them in El Empalme and followed them to Friales. There were all kinds of stalls with food, coffee, arts and crafts, coffee liqueurs (which we sampled and bought a botttle). There was also an orchestra... and folkloric dancers. Here they are showing off their moves. It was very windy and quite chilly, so we had to keep moving. Then we stumbled upon this outdoor oven, alight with a raging fire... are you kidding me? How did they do it? This is the question of the year. We noticed there is no chimney. Seidy asked on our behalf what the secret is and the young many replied in Spanish: 'you put wood in it and light it.' Nice and simple, I see. Perhaps we should remove our chimney? Seidy said there are two people in Copey who know how to use this type of oven, so she will ask one of them to help us get ours started. I would love it if ours would work! After about an hour or so, Kevin and I had had enough, we were cold and we had to get back to feed the fish and put our Bettys to bed. We said goodbye to Seidy, Dani and Gloria and headed back home. On our way home, we saw four separate rainbows. They're everywhere! And so beautiful. Martín had been working on clearing the ATV trail up in our pasture all last week. Today, he took us up there to see what he accomplished. The trail is a little over half a kilometer and it was completely overgrown. We didn't even know there was a trail up there until he told us about it. We can't believe how much work (chopping by hand with a machete) he did. Nacho helped, too. It's a great trail! It's wide enough to ride the ATV (quad)... or walk up. Eventually, we'll add some benches so people can rest and listen to the birds. Martín is a great guide, too, he showed us where the tapir (danta) walk across the path... and the goats (apparently we have wild mountain goats on our property... very cool!) and then, we saw puma droppings. The chances of actually seeing one are unlikely: they are stealthy and are more afraid of us than we are of it. We hiked up first thing this morning and we were gone about an hour, maybe a little longer. On the way down, Martín took us down a different trail, which has not been cleared yet. Martín will be clearing it next. Martín made us both walking sticks and I was very grateful for mine, especially when coming down. The slope is rather vertical in some places and with the thick brush, each step felt precarious, but my lovely walking stick helped my balance. Kevin and I were completely exhausted afterwards. We were pretty much done for the rest of the day. I sat outside on one of our Muskoka chairs and fell asleep. My butt is feeling the workout, too! Who needs a gym? :) As I was sowing my dill seeds in a ceramic container just outside our kitchen, I noticed this Katydid (an insect that looks remarkably like a leaf). I watched it for a few long minutes: I found it so fascinating. Usually, these insects camouflage themselves on bushes so they can blend in with their environment. I don't know what this little guy was up to, because he stood out like a sore thumb on the terracotta background. I left it alone, it wasn't bothering anyone. You know you're a farmer when you're driving along and you notice horse or cow manure, but all you see are gold nuggets... and you curse yourself because you've forgotten to bring your shovel and bucket AGAIN! This has happened on several occasions over the last few weeks. This morning, I decided to take the ATV with the trailer up to our pasture and go prospecting for Paloma's 'nuggets'. I was shovelling for an hour or so and what a claim it was! Once the trailer was full, I brought it back down and Kevin helped me dump it in the compost concrete container. I spent the morning in the garden, transplanting my leek from the greenhouse to one of the garden beds. Then, I called Cindy and Larry, whom we haven't seen in a couple of months and asked if they'd be home this afternoon. They said yes, so I took Mum to Santa Maria for a visit. We had a lovely cup of coffee and chatted for 3 hours. If we had been in Canada, it would have taken a dozen emails to finally land on a date 3-months in the future to accommodate all our schedules. I love that we can pop over without all that fuss and planning. It was getting late so we said our goodbyes and drove back home. I decided to make soup and pizza for dinner. The soup would aptly be called 'garden vegetable' soup as it was a combination of broccoli, potato, carrot and onion with a bit of jalapeno cheese blended in my VitaMix. Then I made this pizza. The tomato from our garden tasted amazing... I can't describe it, but it actually tasted like a real tomato! So flavourful. I added some red pepper, some seasonings and tangy cheese given to us by Adriana and Roberto. Next time I might be inclined to add some ground beef or chicken, but to be honest, it was pretty darn yummy just as it was. I wanted to introduce my Mum to Andriana and Roberto, so we drove to their house today. I needed to discuss with Roberto the best possible options for Mum and I to travel to Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean side. Roberto told me that we could take a bus from Santa Maria to San Jose and then from San Jose to Puerto Viejo. After quite a bit of chatting, I mentioned that we would be leaving on Friday, January 25. Roberto quickly suggested that he could drive us to San Jose since he was going there anyway. We gratefully accepted. It will cost us $10 each from San Jose to Puerto Viejo, which is approximately 70 kilometers. Although it's a relatively short distance (on paper), it actually takes about 4 hours to get there because of the poor road conditions. Mum and I had contemplated driving down, but have decided that taking the bus would be an interesting way to travel, and since it's so inexpensive, all the better. We've booked a room at Hotel Pura Vida across from the beach. And we'll be having lunch with Rocío, one of Catalina's friends, which we met at her birthday party when Paul was here. It should be a nice little trip. I've heard so much about the Caribbean side: the food is much spicier and the whole vibe is very different. I can't wait to experience it. Unfortunately, Kevin will have to stay home and take care of the fish, our Bettys and of course, Frankie. Maybe next time, we can go together... but I'm really looking forward to going with my Mum.
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