For all of you adventurous chefs out there.....

....an amazing new dessert that you should try to make. We have been performing "scientific experiments¨ here to find the best Tres Leches in Guanacaste and here it is. If you are brave enough to try to make it, let us know how it turns out.

Tres Leches (Three Milks)

Ingredients:
6 Separated Eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour

1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz. of whipping cream
1tsp. vanilla
2 capfulls of guaro (or white rum will work fine)

1/2 cup sugar
scant 1/4 cup water
3 egg whites

Using a mixer, beat the 6 egg whites until they form medium peaks. Slowly add the yolks while continuing to beat. Slowly add 3/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla (still beating). Once everything is thoroughly mixed, fold in 1 cup flour a bit at a time. Pour in a greased 9x13 baking dish and bake at 350degrees for about 20 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean. When the cake is finished, poke about 100 holes in the top of it to allow the milk mixture to penetrate. Also separate the edge of the cake from the dish.

In a blender, combine the three milks, vanilla, and liquor. Slowly pour mixture over the entire cake, allowing it to soak through to the bottom. Place in the fridge until cool.

In a small saucepan, combine water and 1/2 cup sugar and heat until mixture becomes thick. Beat the 3 egg whites until stiff peaks form. Slowly pour the sugar mixture into the whites while mixing then spread over the top of the cake.

Enjoy!! Stays well in the fridge (although the icing begins to deflate).
In the name of science,
Team Wander

A New Hobby

We had a nice, relaxing Semana Santa (Holy Week) here in Costa Rica. We did have to suffer through that terrible NCAA Tournament National Championship Game, but otherwise we had a few days to spend time with friends and get hooked on a new hobby....golf. Yes, you may laugh (we are hilarious to watch at this point), but it is a blast.

Back at work we met with a new engineer who is now going to be in charge of our first project. He seemed great and is able to get all the approvals we need in the next two weeks. If all goes as planned we may get to begin building in early June. Just in the nick of time too, because the president of Costa Rica will be here in the middle of June to see the progress of the project. We´ve learned a ton over the past few months though, and we should be able to acquire the next set of permits quicker, although we will always have to battle the pura vida mindset.

Over the weekend we went back to try golf some more, but halfway through playing we got a message that we needed to go on a horseback ride with our boss (meetings are a little different around here!). Sounds like a great idea if you´re prepared, unfortunately we were not, and riding in a skirt is not recommended. We were able to get to the top of the mountain just before sunset though and caught a beautiful view before trying to ride back in the dark.

Sorry this post is late being published, but next update we´ll catch you up on our adventures with our first guests here in Costa Rica.

Love to all,
Team Wander

Nicaragua

Home early.... if one thing can chase us out of a country quickly, it´s bad food. Unfortunately Nicaragua could not compare to the cuisine of Costa Rica (or any other country we´ve been to for that matter) and we decided we were just as happy coming back early.

We caught the bus to Managua, Nicaragua on the side of the road in Liberia, Costa Rica. We were told we had about five hours of driving, and an undisclosed amount of time to wait at the border. We were exactly at our 90 day limit here in Costa Rica, but thankfully the border guards did not seem to care at all. It was absolute chaos once we crossed into Nicaragua and had to go through customs. The bus driver took everyone´s passport and so we sat there waiting outside the bus for an hour while he went to get them all stamped. Meanwhile, everyone around us was selling food, hammocks, illegal movies or changing money. Then everyone scrambled to get their bags from under the bus and take them over to another mass of people who supposedly check them and send you back. The entire process was a joke, and seemed to take the maximum amount of time possible. A couple hours later we were back on the road and headed to Managua.

As soon as we arrived, everyone began telling us how dangerous the city was and to be careful. We walked around for awhile and as it got dark figured that we were safest just to watch a movie at the nearby mall. However, the movies now showing in the theater in Nicaragua are the same ones we were watching as Redbox rentals last summer. It was still worth the $3 of entertainment and was the coldest we have been since arriving in Central America. The next morning we decided to head south to Granada, since everything we´ve seen and heard is that it´s a gorgeous city. As the bus pulled into town, it reminded us so much of Peru. The city center is full of old churches and convents and the city is situated on Lake Nicaragua (which is so big it looks more like an ocean and even has sharks).

While walking around the city, we happened to run into another American couple we had met on the bus ride to Nicaragua. We joined them for the rest of the day and cooked a great dinner at their hostel with some of the other guests. This was the best meal we had in Nicaragua. The next day we took a bus to Masaya to see the huge markets there and a nearby volcano. Volcán Masaya was amazing because it is still active and gas was rising from the crater as we looked over the edge. It feels as if you have left Earth and have been dropped on some remote planet. Our plan was to hike back down the mountain and flag down a bus heading to Granada. However, the park officials offered us a ride back to the main road and it was all down hill from there. Another couple also waiting for the bus managed to flag down a truck and we all climbed in the back. About half an hour later, we figured out that they were not headed to Granada at all so we hopped out and waited for another bus to pass. This bus could take us to a town that had a road leading to Granada, so once we got off we tried hitchiking again. It took longer to find a ride this time, but finally another truck full of ladders in the back stopped and the four of us managed to squeeze in around them and finally make it back to Granada. Just in time too, we were able to catch tip-off for the Final Four Games. The outcome of the games was definitely not what we were hoping for, but we were able to drown our sorrows in $1 mojitos and beers.

The next day we were going to head to another nearby volcano to hike, but we were awokened at 5:30 to church bells, drums, gunshots, and a parade going through the streets. Samana Santa (Holy Week) had begun and everyone was up early to begin the celebration. We had been teetering on the edge of coming home and the promise of a week of 5:30 am wake up calls was enough for us to call an end to our time in Nicaraga, and catch an 8am bus back to Costa Rica. Eight hours later we managed to make it back to our apartment, thankful to be back. We will certainly give Nicaragua another chance in three months, but for now it is nice to know that Costa Rica is starting to feel more like home.

Eat lots of Cadburry Cream Eggs for us,
Team Wander

Moving Day!

To ease any worried minds at home, we now have a new place to live that is much more secure. The complex where our office is also has about 20 apartments and houses for the employees of Hacienda Pinilla, so we are moving to one of the apartments. It is a definite step back towards life in the US from our simple life in 27 de Abril, so we have mixed thoughts about moving, but overall the pros far surpass than cons. The place is much smaller, but super nice. We´ll be back to a world of kitchen appliances, washing machines, and TV. Most of our friends live nearby and we don´t have to make the 20km trek on a dirt road to and from work each day. It is amazing to be able to pack and move all our belongings in an afternoon, a testament to reducing the amount of "stuff" that accumulates as you live in one place. This week is hectic with visitors from the US, moving, and heading to Nicaragua for a new visa on Thursday, but hopefully when we return after Easter we will have time to write more.

We hope all of you have a wonderful Easter!
Team Wander

The mother of all blog posts

So, it would be safe to say that the past week has been exciting. Not necessarily exciting in a good way, but exciting nonetheless. Last Thursday night, Miah got invited out to play futbol-cinco with some of our Tico friends (and Zack). After the sweaty, hard-fought tie, we all decided a pit stop at the local bull-riding festival was in order. We stayed there most of the night and didn't make it home till about midnight, at which point we set about our typical going to bed tasks... toothbrushing and the like. It wasn't until Leslie walked in to the bedroom and said "Miah, come take a look at this" that we knew something was amiss.

There was glass strewn all over our bedroom floor and the curtains for the window were flapping about wildly even though the window was closed. Immediately, we walked through the house only to discover (much to our dismay) that the guitar, the laptop, and both of our IPods were gone. We began cleaning up the glass in shocked silence, waiting for our emotions to kick in to what had just happened. We both felt an overwhelming sadness, not anger and not fear, and spent the next few hours talking and re-evaluating the world around us, since sleep was not going to find us anytime soon. The next morning we went to the office to talk to our boss and then into Santa Cruz to talk to the judicial office to open an investigation. Thankfully the lawyer who works for our organization was a great help to us and walked us through a process that we would have never known exisited otherwise. This was especially helpful because everytime we went to the local police office, it was closed, and therefore not much help at all.

We spent the remainder of the day around the house, in sort of a weird mood that we couldn't break. All our entertainment had been taken, so we read and read and read (which also continued for the rest of the weekend). That night, two investigators showed up and questioned Miah about what happened for a second time. Then they began CSI 27 de Abril, dusting for fingerprints and conducting a full search around our house. The rest of the weekend was uneventful (although we did get to watch some of the basketball tournament, extremely happy to see college sports again).

Monday morning we finally got a new pane of glass to fix the window and two members of the Foundation's construction crew started welding metal bars for our doors and windows. A friend in town came by to tell us that he found out who the thief was and to return the IPod speakers that had been stolen. He suggested we go talk to the thief in person and see if we could get him to return the stuff without police involvement.

The suspect's house was not 100 meters down the street from us, but when we got there, only his parents were around. We began the toughest Spanish conversation we've had yet, explaining the situation and that his son's name had been given to us. They did not even question what we said and offered that we could wait until he returned, so wait we did.....for two awkward hours we sat at the thief's house with his parents glancing over at us every so often and the mother trying to be hospitable by giving us each an orange. When he finally arrived, we showed him the speakers and said we were told he was the one selling the stolen items. He quickly got defensive and kept demanding to know who had told us. We said if we could just get our stuff back, the issue would end there, but he refused to cooperate. So we contacted the police again, and are just hoping that they act quick enough to recover our things.

Apparently he is having trouble selling the items, because everyone in our town and the neighboring town know that they are ours. It is extremely frustrating because our stuff seems so close, but there is nothing else we can personally do to get it back. It is very encouraging that so many people have been willing to help us though, and their kindness just reinforces our belief that we are doing the right thing by helping the people here. We'll keep you posted as to what happens, and hopefully this story will have a happy ending.

Love,
Team Wander

Trabajadores

We had a very rewarding, but very tough week last week with 20 high school students here from Atlanta to help volunteer. They were hoping to build houses, but since there are no permits yet and the only Habitat project in the area just finished, we had them help in some of the local communities. We painted three schools and repaired houses that had suffered severe damage from the floods last fall. The kids got a quick introduction into the dry heat of Costa Rica and the rock hard soil when they were trying to build a ditch for the water and electric lines to the houses.

The schools we worked in were 1st – 6th grade, typically with one teacher for all the students. In some of the more remote towns, we were told that only 1-2 students will graduate high school from a class of 30 and many of them just stop school after 6th grade. The schools looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in a decade, so it took a lot of scrubbing before we could even begin painting inside and out. We were quite a spectacle to the children, and they loved running over to say hello or any other word they knew in English (usually 'I love you') and run away again giggling. Best of all though, the volunteers had each brought an extra suitcase of stuff to give away, and we got to hand out gifts to each of the students. You should have seen the children’s eyes when we told them that they could each pick a toy from the piles we had at the front of the room. Stuffed animals, jump ropes, hats, balls, books…they were thrilled. We even sang songs with the children and tried playing a few games.

We also got the Costa Rican high school students that are in the Foundation’s Scholarship program to join us for a couple days. It was great for them to interact with American students and practice their English. Some of them may even being going to the same colleges next year in Georgia so they could get some great advice for what to expect. This week, we are working in the same locations to finish up the last details with two other guys. No rest for the weary, but it is great to be doing some construction work again.

Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick’s Day last night!

Team Wander

Trabajadores, Agua y Perritos

Ok, here´s a testament to our dedication to writing in the blog. In order to get to the internet tonight, we had to break into our office since we don´t have a key. Picture Miah lifting Leslie above his head to slide into a tiny window above the shower in the office bathroom. Besides a few scrapes and bruises, our recon mission was successful and here we are. It´s been quite a week here, since we´ve been hosting a volunteer group from the US. We´ll provide a full account of that next week though when we return to the office.

Great news, we can finally take hot showers. This is definitely one of the blessings of home that we always took for granted. After $150, a few days of work, and a very Tico style of running wires out the bathroom window (it looks awesome leslie, hush), across the house, and into the breaker box, our shower head now runs a current through the water to heat it instantaneously. As soon as we got the shower head installed, however, our water was shut off for four days becuase the bill is apparently delivered to a neighboring house that no one lives in and so it wasn´t paid for the last two months. It is all taken care of now though, and we return to having water during the week, except from 6 to 8 in the evenings, and only in the mornings on the weekend. As we continue farther into the dry season, the two rivers in our town have dried up and the soil is hard as a rock. It is interesting to only have two seasons, dry and wet, and never need a weather report.

We almost became dog owners once again this week. A tiny puppy found its way to our front porch and was so adorable we could not turn her away. After giving her dinner and a few pets, she permanently attached herself to us. Wherever we would go, she would follow, and if she couldn´t be directly in contact with us, she would crawl into our shoes, a purse or backpack, or just curl up on our socks so she could feel close. It was absolutely adorable. Unfortunately she had fleas, so she had to sleep outside. She whined the entire night, only to stop from exhaustion for short breaks, before starting up again. Needless to say, we didn´t get much sleep, but as soon as we opened the door in the morning she was happy as could be. After work the next day, however, she was gone, which is a blessing and a curse. We would not make very good owners here, since we work so far from home and are not around enough, but it was so happy to have a dog again.

Well hopefully you are all watching the Wolfpack play as we write this... we have to be satisfied with ESPN updates since we can´t watch the ACC tournament here. We miss you all (and college sports as well).

Team Wander