Broken Hearted We Crawl Back to the Barrio

Here we stand 

all broken hearted. 

Tried to buy it

but mission aborted.

Yep, we loved it, and we suspect it loved us too - all 19 acres of it.  It didn't matter that it was all planted in coffee and that farmers are losing their shirts - and farms - because of declining coffee prices.  So what?!  

And when we realized there were 26,000 coffee plants on the property, we weren't daunted - too much.

We could always rip out most of the diseased coffee and create an awesome landscape of tropical fruit trees, bamboo and medicinal plants, right?  We could enjoy the awesome territorial view of the entire valley, streams, springs, slightly hilly slope, above-the-heat elevation.  Sure we could.  And we were ready to do exactly that.  So we made an offer on the finca - - only the second property we've made an offer on, though the 46th property we've toured.

We thought this was IT: our own Finca DincaDoozie.

But - we're sorry to say -  we walked away empty handed. 

Why?  Silly seller wanted his money before Christmas.  Not gonna happen - obviously.  The whole Costa Rican government shuts down for 2 weeks at Christmas-time. 

But we clearly learned a lot in the process.  We learned that Costa Rican lawyers often say they will handle something - and then fail to do so. Time to get another lawyer.

We learned how to call bullshit and walk out - still without a farm AND without losing a cent.

These are excellent lessons!

A meter long iguana stopped by our house to say hi the other day.  
Notice how fat he is.  The locals say they are quite tasty.

Total monster pose. Rawrrrr!  
Not poisonous, don't bite, and so prehistoric.

Dude, you been working out?

Is this not a cool picture?  
These claws are meant for climbing and that's just what they'll do.

A face only a mother could love.  I must be a mother.

A Blue-Crowned Motmot sitting in our suburban backyard guava tree.

Just to prove we are still visiting properties.
This one is a 47 hectare finca with jungle, pasture,
and of course sugar cane.

Roger planted some beans on a hill between the sugar cane
and the jungle.  He teaches Phys Ed at the high school, 
and has a finca for sale, like everyone else in CR.

A good shot of the sugar cane field.  Pretty sweet.

Sugar cane flowers against a blue CR sky.  
It looks different when they begin burning it before and after harvest.

Larry & Cindy are building their home on this ocean-view "plantel".

Larry is reviewing some construction details with Trevor.
Trevor is a cutting edge builder that we are auditioning to build our home as well.  
Expats tend to dress pretty casual.

Meet our design & build team. 
Michael (left) has designed over 3,000 custom homes, mostly in Canada.
Trevor has made a business of fixing the construction mistakes of CR builders.

Another lizard story. Bozo here came racing 
through our living room into the bedroom one day.  
He was disappointed to find he couldn't leave through the window.

He relaxed completely as soon as he was picked up.  
Starr set him free in the backyard.

Meet Mad Max. This character put on an ultra-animated MANIC demo for us
-- for 2 hours while we visited his property. Then he demanded we decide whether we wanted to buy the land - that same day.  Cute guy.

Max showed us a lot of brochures he had printed up about his property.
He thinks his property is the cat's meow.  We don't.

Max explains the basics of coffee growing and how his abandoned, has-been 
coffee finca with several diseases can be rehabbed - all 26,000 coffee bushes.
Starr's not buying it.

The 100 year-old cabin on Max's property was built on rock stilts:
Great for keeping it out of the wet dirt and preventing termites and rot. 

Unusual for a wood home to remain standing for so long in the tropics.  Termites normally make quick work of wood - but also, it depends on the TYPE of wood.

These are classic Tico colors.

Throw down a mattress and call it home.

The water is from a pure spring just up the hill in the jungle behind.

Steven explains why this is the place for us.  He's not really an expat; 
he's Dutch-Indonesian that's lived in Costa Rica most of his adult life.
His accent is unique.

Max's shack-on-a-hill.

The view from Max's shack-on-a-hill at 4000 feet:
the entire Valle de El General.  Get it?

Neighbor Guillermo spent 20 years working as a landscape contractor in Connecticut.
He is farming organic bananas and coffee.

Starr always keeps her GPS at hand, so when we get home 
we can check where the heck we were on Google Earth.

Friends Neidy & Franklin drove us up for a 2nd visit.

Max's workers had begun harvesting the 15 acres of coffee.

A view north across Guillermo's property to the Talamanca range.

Ahhh! The air!  The view!

Emotionally this is a difficult property to walk away from. Even though we know the whole country is still for sale.  

Our next step is to buy a truck, so we can better figure out which little parcel of it we want to try to buy.

This week we head over to a friend's home to babysit 5 dogs while he takes off for a few days.  

Happy Holidays or not, our responsibilities just don't stop.  Merry Christmas to ALL, wherever you call home!!

Tranquilo

Here in the Costa Rican Southern Zone, we are approaching the end of the rainy season (known here as winter) and the start of the rain-free season (Central American summer). Yes, we have seen a LOT of rain in Costa Rica. 

But like everyone told us, even during the rainy season, most mornings are cool, clear and beautiful, often followed by afternoon  deluges. We acclimated to the cycle just fine, even enjoying some downtime in the afternoon.

In a couple of weeks the bright tropical sun will beat down on our tin roof ALL afternoon. We're not sure we're looking forward to that.

I find it harder to think of blog topics these days, and perhaps that is because our lives have become attuned to our sedentary routine. Living in one place like we're doing these days is not at all like traveling, when everyday meant a new experience, a new adventure. But then again, when I look through our recent photo files I'm reminded that we still continue to cover a lot of ground. 

Upon our return from the US, we moved into a clean little house in a typical suburban Tico neighborhood. There is a little corner store, frequent bus service, and excellent internet - all things that the San Vito tree farm lacked. 

We're living really close to neighbors now - which exposes us to the many charming and not-so-charming quirks of modern Tico culture (such as the way many of them treat their dogs).

On the action-packed side of life, even though we haven't found a home site, we've begun designing our next home and will have our first meeting with an architect and builder soon. Bass Ackward?

Most weeks we manage to tromp all over 3 to 6 properties, telling ourselves we're getting a better notion of what we want. That's really just a slim attempt at justifying all the effort.

One of our side trips marched us into a bamboo nursery & construction company. Then serendipity introduced us to a new friend who builds bamboo furniture, and hooches. A hooch is a 100% bamboo "house on a pole". Same guy knows how to raise Emus. How could we get bored?

So yes, life is very interesting, even if we have "settled down". 

And for that we are very thankful.

I just really like this gal.

Pretty much the extent of our kitchen.

This variety of bamboo comes out of the ground at 4 to 6 inches in diameter,
and can grow more than a foot a day.

Some beautiful black bamboo timbers. Cured and treated with boric acid 
to prevent termite infestation - ready for construction.

Bamboo is a graceful renewable resource that matures in 5 years, not 50 
- and when harvested, sprouts up again from the roots.   
Talk about efficient!

Diana at BambuTico loves to share her bamboo knowledge.

Chicago's O-Hare airport.
One of the 8 airports we traversed on our US trip.

Checking out a well-stocked fruit stand in San Jose, 
the capital of Costa Rica.

Back to touring properties. This one had several streams ...

... and a lot of elevation gain to reach the upper pasture.
The finca is about 3/4 mile from one end to the other.

Jhonny's dog enjoyed his day in the bosque.

The land needs more trees. Pasture tends to slide into the river.

Want to meet people? Ride the buses!

On Marcos' finca. He lovingly cares for his cattle, chopping "camaroon" 
for their evening meal.  He's trying to sell his farm in order to
pay for cancer surgery.  Ouch.

Marcos's bull watched us siliently for 3 hours. Spooky.

Hanging out in the barn during the mid day rain.
Being able to chew the fat in Spanish opens so many doors.

Inspecting another hillside with Wedel, our trusted real estate guide.

The mighty Rio de El General floods, so even the most 
charming riverside plot cannot be considered.  
Yet another lovely piece of land we walked away from.

Neighbor's dog spends his days on a 6 foot chain,
and climbs to safety on a junk pile when the yard floods.
Really tough to watch how Ticos treat their dogs.

Carving the Thanksgiving Guanabana.

Guanabanas can weigh over 25 lbs.
They taste like a tart fruit custard.

Serious Yum.

Seguimos adelante, como siempre, buscando aventura y amistad.

And we go forward as always, looking for adventure and friendship.

And even a little fun.   <<< click it !!