Up And Over

Ever since arriving here in Quebradas I have had my eyes on the mountain ridges to the east.

Today I  finally did some exploring up there. Starr and our friend Julianne walked with me to the Nature Reserve gate and left me there.  I took off to explore the jungle trail system by myself.

The top of the ridge is at an elevation of about 5000 feet.  I committed to reaching the top on a steep muddy trail through the tangled jungle, crossing down the other side, and returning around the mountain on dirt roads.

As I began my walk, the sky was cloudy and the air was heavy with tropical humidity.  I began to sweat profusely as I swatted at mosquitoes and lurched up the slippery mud and rock trail. 

I heard parrots and monkeys in the jungle canopy but didn't see a single one.  An hour later, leaning on my bamboo walking pole, I reached the overlook at the top.

Charming miniature towns and buildings lay fanned out below me in the Valle del General. The massive cloud-topped Talamanca mountain range spread to the north.

The mid-day sun came out.  Meanwhile the clouds that would become today's tropical rainstorm began to flow over the coast range in my direction.

A large blue and white fork-tailed bird glided along the ridge next to me. What is it? Beautiful it is.

I found the steep slippery trail heading down the other side and began descending through coffee and banana plantations.

When I reached the Miravalles road, I stopped into a small store to get something to drink. 

"What do you have for 370 colones?" I asked. The clerk grinned and handed me a small bottle of orange juice. I gave him all the cash I had.

I started home on the road that contoured around the mountain back to Quebradas. I was hot and tired but felt gratified inside. 

It's a good thing to have an adventure like this. My ties to Costa Rica became a little stronger today.

Come along with me?

Starr and Julianne and the road up the hill.

Costa Rican horses are trained to march in a high-stepping choppy gait. I'll learn the name someday.
A "Tope" is a parade event where a couple thousand of these horses parade all over town.

Meeting Jesus who works at the reserve, and fixes the road.

Me.

Looking up towards the Nature Reserve.

I like a lot of things. Bougainvillea is one of them.

Cows make contour ruts in the pasture.

Follow this stream and you will arrive at the center of the jungle.

Cars and people wade the stream.

Turns out Jesus has a small farm he wants to sell. Imagine that.
(It seems as though all of Costa Rica is for sale - at a price.)

Uhh... I'll get back to you. I forgot the name. It's a red flower.

This is the right way.

The "Queen of the Night" has hallucinogenic properties.

A nice photo.

Julianne loves nature. A lot.

Starr felt kind of funny when she woke up.

That there's some jungle.

There are two seasons; rainy and dry.
Something is always dying and something else is always flowering.

Black and white jungle shot.
The texture of the canopy is palpable.

San Isidro to the south around the ridge.

Quebradas valley.

How you know when you're at the top.

North to the Talamanca Range. I love that word.

Coffee berries.

Costa Rica's Big Three. Coffee, bananas, and tourism.

Shade grown coffee using banana inter-planting.

I've never seen a roof like that.

I shared my downward path with this school boy.

A flawed green block wall.

School boys in Miravalles. I told them I like their town. They smiled.

The Artistic Cabina

We are enjoying a couple months of sedentary country life here in Quebradas - feeling quite sweet and comfy. No more daily bus trips! 

We're just a half hour bus ride up the river valley from the southern Costa Rica regional hub of San Isidro, which the locals call Perez Zeledon, or Perez (or even just PZ) for short.

Our weekly agenda includes socializing, farmer's market, local excursions, property shopping, dinking around in the organic garden, and walks up into the hills surrounding us.

Click here to see the YouTube video of our home, the "Artistic Cabina".  This place works out just fine for now.

Sorry it took so long to get this video put together.

I struggled for a week trying to make a more professional video, but finally gave in and just used jerky old Windows Movie Maker. The problem is that my new Nikon photograph camera takes movie footage in the .mov format, which is impossible to edit directly on a PC, especially a small laptop.

Anyways, more videos to come.

Dats a Frog & Dats a Bug

We are sharing our space with many creatures, from ants to monkeys. Almost always the experience is wonderful.

Starr spotted the green frog as she returned from the vegetable garden. The brown frog found our bathtub boulder to his liking for several days.

The giant flying cockroach came into the kitchen last night. He was actually quite tame and happy to pose for photographs until we showed him out.

Dats a bath tub, dats a boulder.

Went To Get Some Eggs

We finally moved into the "Artistic Cabina" up in Quebradas outside of San Isidro. Another great Craigslist connection. I gotta take that Craig out for a beer some day, he's changed our lives more than once.

Only a half hour bus ride out of the "big" town, we can feel the slower pace of country life out here. The crystal clear river tumbles by, the hummingbirds sip from the heliconia, the parrots make a ruckus. Really peaceful. (yawn)

It's hard for us to adjust to the peace and quiet after leaving the bustling town below.  We hung out there for 7 days and stayed in 3 different hotels.

We're also having to adjust to the "artistic" aspect of our new home. We've never lived inside a work of art before and it doesn't feel like we belong in the picture yet. But it's really cool, and I'm sure we'll be posting some photos soon.

For me, part of adjusting to a new place always seems to involve going out for a walk. As a bonus, we needed some eggs, so that gave me a destination.

The tiny town of Quebradas has several little grocery stores about half a kilometer down the hill. So I strapped on my sandals and brought the camera along.

Have a quick look at our new neighborhood.

You walk up the driveway past the grapefruit tree to the gate.

Looking right, it's all uphill to the higher mountains.
Nearby Mt. Chirripo is the highest point in CR.

Looking left is the road downhill to Quebradas, with homes and small farms  along the way.

The road is bordered by high hedges.
Plants do well here with plenty of water and sun as well as nice black soil.

I bet an American lives here.
He's probably a Republican. Note the high fence and lawn.

When the clothes line is full just drape it over the hedge.

Uhh...I don't know either.

Looks like a neighbor is developing quality seeds for use in Central America.

This area is littered with large rounded boulders.
Some have ancient indigenous petroglyphs carved into them.

This is a more recent petroglyph.
Quebradas Natural Reserve is nearby and environmental consciousness is high-ish.

This little girl let me take a picture of her doggie.

Moms walk their children home from the school bus stop.
The umbrellas are for rain and for sun shades.

Bimbo is the Wonder Bread of Latin America.

Claro and Movistar are the two main cell phone competitors.
Coke has it made in the shade.

The federal government decided to put up some signs about petroglyphs.

You don't see as much razor wire up here.
I think this is the only one I saw.

Just a jumble of roadside greenery?
Nope, it's a food forest, with avocados, mangos, oranges, limes, and bananas.

Home sweet home. This is a "Tico" home.

This recycle station is for the elementary kids to use. It was empty today.

That's our bus. It runs to town every hour and costs 35 cents.

I found my eggs at Mini Super.
I left my heart in San Francisco.

There's been an elementary school here for 76 years.

Old style.  I bet this place has been here a while.

A more artistic way to keep people off your land.

Garbage bags accumulate in the raised cage for weekly pickup.
For dumping, they drive it 100 Km up the coast to Puntarenas.

No matter how small, people like to name their Finca and put up a sign.

On Google Earth you'll see a dozen pictures of this rock.
There is a strong energy vibration running through it.

Can't tell what is being grown here.
Farmer's Market is Thursday so we can find out.

Turn right through our gate and walk down into our jungle paradise.

The " Artistic Cabina" is our place for the next month at least.

Hi honey, I'm home!

Organic eggs. Mission accomplished.