Animales del Mar

We had our first visitors of 2010 arrive last Thursday, just in time for us to be too busy to even pick them up. February has started out crazy as Miah is trying to put the finishing touches on the houses in time for our boss to arrive this week and Leslie is working double time at the school substituting for another teacher this month.

We had a fantastic time with Sarah and Rachel visiting though - packed with adventures in only a few days. The first night they were here, we went north to a beach that is part of the Las Baulas National Park. It is nesting season for the leatherback turtles, but only about 40 come on shore each year now, so it is a treat to see them. We waited about 3 hours as the guides combed the shore for any turtle activity. We were lucky enough that one came ashore so we got to watch it build a nest and lay its eggs. These turtles are huge - the one we saw was about 6 feet long and weighed 600-700 lbs. It was an amazing experience to be less than an arm's length away watching her lay eggs.

The next day Sarah and Rachel had a tour planned at Rincon de la Vieja (Jane/Daniel, remember bubbling mud pits?), but through some miscommunication they missed the tour. Instead a plan was made to go out on a deep sea fishing trip and see if we could catch dinner. The ride to the harbor was spent with six, boisterous Italian guys who couldn't make it to the boat without stopping for beer. None of our language abilities coincided, so we talked to them in Spanish and they spoke to us in Italian and it worked better than expected. Lots of laughter to fill in the gaps. Once on the boat, we quickly realized we were not cut out to be fishermen. Almost every time we would try to reel in a fish, we would get it 3/4 of the way in before losing it. We were able to catch two good size tuna and three mackeral, as well as a bunch of smaller fish that we just threw back. As always it was a beautiful day though and fantastic just to be out on the water.

The next day, we all took the well-loved catamaran tour. We have become experts at the snorkeling area and were finding wildlife for the guide to catch and show everyone. We caught another puffer fish and also saw our first turtle in the water. The best part was the hilarious guides and the 15 other people on the boat with us. Everyone was quick to make friends and it made for an even better day. By the end of the day, we were all making shadow puppets of all sorts on the sails as the sun was setting and no one wanted to leave the boat as it was getting dark.

Sunday we grilled out some of the tuna we caught at the Superbowl/Election party at Zach's house. The Costa Rican presidential election was held that day and the votes were being tallied as we watched the game. The number of Costa Ricans who actually vote puts the US to shame. The first female president was elected, so many of the people we were with were very excited.

Miah leaves for his first university visit next Tuesday. Getting a full tour of the University of Utah, potential advisors and other grad students, and seeing if Salt Lake City would be a good fit for us. It is exciting to begin planning the next stage in our lives.

Go Duke! for anyone watching the UNC/Duke game tonight,
Team Wander

Amiga de Mr. Gobble

Our friends here were so generous to us in raising a turkey for Thanksgiving, and their generosity continued with fulfilling the promise of a portion of Mrs. Oink. Who's Mrs. Oink, you ask? Well, while we were up at the farm of Mr. Gobble (our special Thanksgiving guest), there was cute little adolescent pig romping around at the farm. The farm owner told as that Mrs. Oink was due to become her dinner in a couple of months and offered a piece of her to share. So, lo and behold, 3 months later, sitting in our friends' freezer was one of Mrs. Oink's rear legs.

So, a little bit of internet searching, quite a bit of laughter, 20,000 handwashings, and 5 hours in the oven later... out came this!















The skin and top layer of meat being cut off are used for a Costa Rican delicacy called chicharrones. The rest made fantastic BBQ and I think it's safe to say we have finally optimized our Costa Rican BBQ sauce recipe.


















Another fun adventure last week (after repeating bacon night as told in an earlier post) was the homemade hot tub. We managed to find a hose long enough to siphon water from the kitchen sink down to the back yard and fill a kids' pool with hot water, actually too hot to sit in for awhile. If only we had pictures of the boys trying to get the siphon started...


As for the project, we have been working to find an alternative route to get families into the homes sooner. Our main goal this month is to start finalizing some names. We just met one potential family who have two children and live in a house that floods every year. The university the husband works for is letting them stay in the house, but it could be taken away at any time. When the engineer started talking to the son about the houses we were building, he immediately ran home and took his parents to the worksite. His words to describe the houses were that they were "palaces". He started yelling that they were moving, they were moving into the palaces, so hopefully we can make that dream into a reality.

Hope all is well in the US and that you are still enjoying the snow!
Love,
Team Wander