Day Seven - Costa Rica

This morning we took it easy, and I spent most of the morning either dozing or reading my book in bed. Alan was up with the kids (who always get up at around 6am these days!) and was working on our Rainforest Encounters blog. We don’t have an internet connection here yet, and hopefully it will be set up next week. For now we write all emails and blog posts on a word document, then when we get connected either via an internet café or our neighbour, upload what we’ve already written. Makes it a bit easier when the girls are waiting patiently (or not!) for us to finish!

A big rain storm came through this afternoon, and we could literally see it coming. We have a wide view of the rainforest out the front of our house, and we could hear the large drops pelting the rainforest canopy before they had reached us. When it rains in Costa Rica, it really rains! Tayen and Saige were both happy to have a bit of a rain shower when it died down a little bit. I don’t think they’ll get sick of this past time in a hurry!

Alan had his first night out collecting with Tristan, and travelled up to a local back-packers/volunteer station known as Bolita. It is about 20 minutes walk from our place through dense rainforest, but with Alan travelling slowly looking for bugs along the way, it can take a few hours there and back. The back-packer station is basically a wooden hut on stilts with no electricity, and back-packers from around the world can stay for as long as they want, supposedly volunteering at the organic fruit farm that is no more than about 10 random fruit trees scattered through the rainforest.

After the walk up there, Alan was awarded with his first glimpse of a Terciopello, the Spanish word for the Fer-de-lance viper. Unfortunately he left his camera battery at home, so the photo here is of a snake he saw a few days later. This snake is one of the most venomous here, with bites causing massive tissue damage that can result in the loss of a limb. It also causes massive internal haemorrhaging with bleeds that can fill the abdominal cavity and can cause you to bleed to death. So needless to say, we all have been very wary when it comes to walking anywhere at night, and making sure all pathways, lawns and garden areas are clear during the day to make playtime safe for the girls! We are probably being a bit obsessive about it at the moment while it is all so new to us, and I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough that these snakes are not lurking under every bush!

A young Terciopello

Day Six - Costa Rica

For a weekend, we were up pretty early. 6am will become the norm I think, as the girls tend go to bed very early here and so wake up early as well. We have breakfast on the porch, which is very nice, and this will become the norm too!

While we are out there, Alan uses the binoculars to see if he can spot anything interesting. And he does – an iguana sitting in a large pandanus tree watching us eat brekkie! He is barely visible without the binoculars, even though the tree is only 10 metres from our house, He is very well camouflaged.

We head into Puerto Jimenez early to beat the heat of the day. We find a restaurant with free wi-fi, and sit and have ice coffees while the girls drink watermelon juice. Our internet connection isn’t great here, and we don’t get to email everyone back home very often. Our weekly shop at the large supermarket doesn’t take long, and we’re back home before lunch. The trip to Pto. Jimenez takes around 20 minutes.

The main street of Puerto Jimenez

 After lunch, I take the opportunity to take some photos of the house we are calling home for the next 4 months, the property and surrounding forest. It is so beautiful here! There is a storm coming and it’s hot and humid, so the girls strip off to dance in the rain!

Tayen and Saige having fun in the rain!

The afternoon is fairly quiet, and I’m trying to learn a bit of Spanish to help me communicate with the locals. I learnt a few words before leaving Australia (thanks to Dora and my iphone!) and here at the house Tristan has left a phrase book and some flash cards. Hopefully by the end of our time here we will be able to speak and understand some Spanish!

Alan goes out collecting bugs as soon as it gets dark. He’s been very cautious due to all the tales we’ve heard about the vipers here in Costa Rica. They are deadly venomous, and can be quite hard to see. There is the Fer-de-lance which is terrestrial and frequents paths adjacent to water ways at night. During the day it hides in undergrowth. Then there is the Eyelash viper who is arboreal, and will hunt through the trees and branches at night, and sit very still somewhere in a tree during the day. So while we are out collecting bugs, whether at night or during the day, we always need to be checking our every step, and also checking the branches above our heads. So far we’ve been a bit nervous about the dangers, but I’m sure that once we get used to it, we’ll feel much better about it all.

Day Five - Costa Rica

Late yesterday we were told that our house had a major water leak from the underground pipes, and that there would be some guys from the village over to fix it. The Guest house on the property also had a water leak, so both would need to be looked at. So we were all up early to have our showers in time for the water to be switched off for the maintenance.

Tayen and Saige usually have baths in Australia, and our house here doesn’t have one, or even a sink big enough to bath them. So getting them used to showers will be a big thing. Although they were having swimming lessons back in Australia, neither of them likes water in their face, so shower time has been fun (not!) the last couple of days. Hopefully they will get used to it soon! At least we have hot water, where as most houses in the village don’t.

I have time in the morning to unpack our suitcases and sort out all our clothes. Another great thing about this house is that it has its own laundry, so we can wash all our clothes right here without going to the Laundromat in Pto. Jimenez., or hand wash everything. We have been told that the people of Dos Brazos live as much of Costa Rica did 20 years ago. They ride horses everywhere (though a lots have motorcycles as well) hand wash all their clothes, and a generally a very close knit community.

We have inherited a dog. Apparently he is one of the many dogs from Dos Brazos who’s owners don’t feed him, and he has been hanging around Tristan’s house the last month or so eating Tristan’s scrap food. Tristan didn’t mind him hanging around as he is a good guard dog, and will bark if anyone comes into the property. So now that Tristan’s house is our house, we have a dog! His name is Raoul, but Alan started calling him Boof-rie and so that’s what Tayen and Saige call him. I have no idea what kind a dog he his, but he’s a bit bigger than what the girls are used to. He seems nice enough, but he smells pretty bad! Even a bath doesn’t cure his predicament we’re told.

Our inherited dog, Boofrie

Using the toilet in Costa Rica is a little different than in Australia. For one, they have a lot more water in them, and the bowl is shaped differently and is a little longer than the Aussie dunny. The Spanish word for toilets (bathroom) is ‘baño’ (ban-yo), and every toilet has a bin next to it, no matter if you are in a public toilet, in a restaurant or in your own home. The plumbing system is not great in Costa Rica, and neither is the sewerage system. Toilet paper cannot be flushed down the loo as it would block the pipes and create havoc in the sewerage tanks. So, instead you must put your used toilet paper in the bin next to the toilet. When you are so used to flushing it, this is quite difficult to remember at times, and I’m glad that the pipes didn’t get blocked the few times I’ve forgotten. Tayen keeps reminding me, but she forgets sometimes too, so hopefully we don’t start having toilet issues as well as water pipe problems! It’s fair enough in your own toilet at home, but I must admit, it’s a bit of a turn off in public loos.

We went up to Steve’s research centre, Ventanas en Corcovado, to have a tour of the facilities and to use his internet connection! The research centre began construction 5 years ago, and was set up to offer good facilities to research teams that would come to Costa Rica’s Corcovado National Park. It offers a large open plan facility with kitchen and bathroom facilities, and with rooms for guests to stay in. Steve also farms tropical butterflies, and ships pupae to the USA for use in zoos and museums.

The road between our house and Steve's house

Alan on the computer in Steve's rancho

Saige can sleep anywhere, even on a concrete floor!

Tayen entertained herself on my iphone

Alan headed out for his nightly collecting trip along the road out the front of our house. It is mostly surrounded by dense forest, with the Rio Tigre running along one side. He had a good night, finding the first snake we’ve seen since we’ve been in Costa Rica – Sibon nebulatus that feeds on snails. He also found a tarantula living in the bank about 50 meters from our house, but didn’t catch it this time. Tayen caught a large black dung beetle that had stripes on its back, and then we caught another one for Saige. There was also a large gecko that was kind enough to bite me when Alan handed it to me. And Alan also saw what he thinks was a Tayra living up a tree in the back yard. Tayra’s are in the weasel family. Unfortunately, it was gone before he could get a photo of it.

Alan with our first snake of the trip!

A large gecko biting my hand!

Day Four - Costa Rica

Alan woke me up early this morning to go out and look at our front yard – the wild rainforests of the Osa Peninsula. Although I was a little grumpy to be woken so early, I soon got over it when I saw the beauty of our new habitat. We sat on the front porch watching the birds coming and going from the forest, and we were captivated by around 5 Toucans flying in the distance. We invested in a pair of binoculars before we left, and already they have been well worth it. There was so much activity with humming birds hovering from flower to flower and flycatchers flitting from tree to tree. It was a lovely was to start the day.

We headed into Puerto Jimenez early to organise a mobile phone and internet for our house. Dos Brazos doesn’t have the best reception, and apparently at our house there are two places on the front porch that have the best signal. We may have to invest in a special aerial to boost the reception a bit. Costa Rican SIM cards wouldn’t work in our Aussie phones, so we had to purchase a new phone with the SIM. Also, the USB internet connector was out of stock, so we won’t get that until next Thursday. In the meantime we’ll have to either use internet cafes or go to Steve’s place. Steve lives next door, about 400m away. While in town we also looked at the space that we’ve leased for the filming studio, along with the ‘animal room’, a place where we can keep the animal collection before they are required on set.

A little glimpse of Puerto Jimenez

We did a few other things while in Pto. Jimenez like visit the super market, and pet shop and swap our empty gas bottles for full ones. Then it’s back home for a lazy afternoon.

Alan chillin' in the hammock

Alan ended up sleeping for around 2 hours – he’s been suffering a little from jet lag. I was able to read and finish my book, while keeping an eye on the girls who were playing on the front porch. We’ve been drilling it into them about not wandering off into the gardens on their own, as there could be venomous snakes around. Although Tayen can parrot this information back to us, she doesn’t think about it when she’s outside playing, so we need to keep an eye on them at all times. We are very glad now that we are not in the original house, as the lack of external walls would have been a problem with keeping the kids inside. We have yet to see a viper, but the locals here tell us that they are quite common, and Tristan who usually lives in our house, says that he sees one at least every 10 days. So it will be soon when we encounter one.

Tayen and Saige enjoying some watermelon

I’m sitting out on our porch at the moment watching the lightening make it look like daylight. Tayen and Saige are beside me and Saige is a little scared of the thunder. Tayen tells her that its ok, it just the clouds crashing into each other! We have storms coming through almost every afternoon. We are all tired this evening, so I think it will be an early night for all.

Day Three - Costa Rica

We went in to the medical centre first thing in the morning to sort Alan out. He’d had another bad night and woke up thinking things had gotten worse.  So in he went, hoping that they would be well equipped and able to understand the issue. As it turned out one of the female doctors spoke English. He came back out relieved and with a prescription for some anti-inflammatory tablets.

We continued our journey to Dos Brazos (two branches, where two branches of the Rio Tigre meet) and along the way we were astounded by the amount of palm oil plantations we passed. They were everywhere, for long stretches of road. There were men in the plantations using machetes at the tops of poles to chop down the fruits that produce the oil. Some palms were so tall we wondered how they managed to get the fruit off the trees. Alan and I got to talking about the clearing of rainforests to plant oil palms, and we realised that Australia too was once covered in dense bush, but how the last hundred years or so we have cleared it to farm cattle and sheep, and for other agriculture, totally destroying our natural environment. The Ticos are at the point that we were a hundred years ago, where they are finding that producing palm oil is making a profit and benefiting their country, and I could understand why they are doing it. If only they could find a way to make such a profit out of their natural habitats, the rainforests, to prevent the clearing of such a beautiful country.

The roads we were travelling were straight and long, and it wasn’t long before we began to see some wildlife on the road. I was driving when we came up on a bright green lizard, probably an iguana. Unfortunately I couldn’t stop as there were two cars right behind me, and I’m hoping that the lizard didn’t become road kill.

The road leading to Puerto Jimenez (pronounced He-man-ez) is very interesting, to say the least. In some places, the potholes are so large you could loose a small dog in them. Needless to say, it was slow going, and the road was also quite narrow in places, with steep drop offs on one side, so it was a bit scary as well.

It was approaching lunch time and we decided to pass the turn off to Dos Brazos and drive into Puerto Jimenez to get some lunch and supplies for our stay. Puerto Jimenez is a small town that is bustling with activity. As is the custom in Costa Rica, the locals on foot have right of way on the roads (as do the dogs) and it is the drivers responsibility to move around them. So there was a bit of manoeuvring to navigate the streets, and we found a surprisingly large supermarket for a small town. Some quick thinking on our feet was required, as we didn’t know what was waiting for us in terms of supplies in Dos Brazos, so we grabbed some basic food items and were on our way. This included Alan managing to get some chicken from the in-store butcher, and working out that we needed to get all our fruit and veg price ticketed before going to the cash register. That done, we made a quick lunch of Vegemite sandwiches (we had brought the Vegemite from home) and headed to Dos Brazos.

We had heard just before we left Australia that our accommodations had been changed. The house we were going to stay in, while beautiful, was not practical for children, especially with highly venomous snakes around. So the decision was made for us to move us into the house next door, which was being lived in by the caretaker of our original house. Tristan was kind enough to offer to move to his girlfriend’s house so we could use his house. We had been sent photos of Tristans house, and it looked just as lovely as the original, with some added security (ie. walls!) that would help keep the kids in and the snakes out.

Our Costa Rican house in the jungle!

We weren't exactly sure of where this house was, and although we had been in contact with Steve yesterday we didn't get directions to his house either. So we drove through the little community of Dos Brazos and headed down a small track that was only fit for a 4WD (thankfully we had one) and ended up outside a little house at the end of the road. Alan needed some coaxing to get out and ask for directions, and low and behold, he had found our house! No one was home however, and as we were about to turn the car around, Steve comes walking up behind us. We had passed his house about 100 metres back and he’d followed us on foot. He had the keys to our house, so he showed us through, telling us that Tristan would be over soon to give us the grand tour.

The view from our house

The guest house, for anyone who wants to come and visit!

The house that we will call home for the next 4 months has 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, living and dining room, and a porch out the front that opens to the manicured gardens, then the wild rainforest beyond. The Rio Tigre (Tigre River) is just past our front gate, and the sound of it rushing past mixes in with the symphony of music made by all the rainforest wildlife. We have frogs, katydids, crickets and bats all joining in the chorus. It is very peaceful at night (once the girls have gone to bed!) There are no sounds of other humans anywhere, and it is bliss!

Alan has his first night of exploring the gardens. He comes back to the house within minutes with the largest frog I have ever seen – it is a Smoky Jungle frog, and it’s as big as Alan’s head. Well, not quite but it was close! He also found the numerous other frogs and countless spiders and insects. You can read all about it in our Rainforest Encounters Blog.

Alan showing Saige and Tayen the Smoky Jungle Frog

Day Two - Costa Rica

We all had a restless nights sleep. Both Saige and Alan have a bit of jet lag, (mainly because they are the ones that are napping during the day!!) and Alan is also having trouble sleeping because he is a little worried about some pain he has in his groin area. He had a vasectomy 3 weeks ago, and 2 days before we were due to leave for Costa Rica, Saige kicked him (accidentally) in the groin and he has been in pain ever since. This is the kind of worry that keeps him up at night!

In the morning, Saige was sick and groggy, and threw up at the breakfast table (after eating a bowl of cereal and a banana) She was much better after that, and didn’t repeat her performance for the rest of the day. So we packed up all our belongings, thanks the staff at Hotel Brilla Sol and we were on our way back into San Jose.

We were fully prepared for our correct exits this time as we had timed how long it had taken us to get home yesterday. Unfortunately, it was peak hour in San Jose, so traffic was at a standstill and our timings went out the window. Luckily we could see the Migration department from the freeway, so we roughly knew where to exit. Turns out I jumped the gun and told Alan to exit too quickly, as I didn’t want to miss it this time, but we were able to find the correct way fairly easily. We got to the migration department at around 9:30am and we had plenty of time to get our visas. Or so we thought.

Once at the visa desk we were redirected to Porta 3 from a non-English speaking woman. Through this door we tried to talk to the lady at the desk, but couldn’t convey what we needed. Thankfully there was a security guard who could speak English, so he kindly translated for us. The lady at the desk told us straight out that an extension of our tourist visa was impossible, and that nothing could be done. The security guard knew better, and took us back to the visa desk where he explained that we needed an ‘Estancia’ visa to be able to work in Costa Rica. The lady at the desk finally agreed that it could be done, so we were taken to yet another department. Our supporting documents from the production company, which were in Spanish were taken and read, and through another English speaking Tico (Costa Rican man) who translated, we were told that our documents were not official, as they had been signed without a witness. To make them official, we had to go across town to the Department of Foreign affairs to see Paula who we had been in contact with while still in Australia. So instead of driving, we wisely decided to take a taxi. The taxi from hell. As well as showing us how he could swerve, break, accelerate and honk, the driver also threw in a tour of the city. Despite his speed, he still managed to take twice as long and charge us twice the fee as the taxi we took back. Though we did get to see a lot of down town San Jose; a cramped, busy and very ramshackle area with lots of corrugated iron, punctuated with wire and steel bars. Although we hadn’t read that crime was a huge issue in Costa Rica, it appears that everyone is trying to keep someone else out.

Once we got to the department of Foreign Affairs, we waited to see Paula and when we finally did, she told us the she couldn’t make the documents official as they had already been signed. They would need to go to the Costa Rican Consulate in Singapore (since the Costa Rican consulate in Australia had just closed down) and be verified, then go to the Australian consulate, then to Costa Rica! It was going to be a very complicated process, and she offered us the alternative of leaving the county for a day, or even just winging it (since it was only going to be 3 weeks over our 3 month visa) and we should be fine. So we decided that we would have to go to Panama for a day or two – what a bummer!!

But again, we had wasted half a day with no result! We got a taxi back to the migration department (where our car was) and got started on our trip to Osa.

We were very prepared for our 8 hour trip – no food or water in the car save some muesli bars we’d kept from the Qantas flight. Once we were well clear of San Jose we stopped for supplies at a small grocery store on the side of the road.  We had a few nervous moments attempting to cross between the trucks thundering past, but managed to get what we needed including some leche (milk) for the girls.  

After a few hours of travel we decided it would be best to find a place to stay for the night, and make the rest of the journey on the unpredictable roads the following day. We stopped at a small town called Quepos on the west coast, and checked into the Best Western Hotel. Here we were able to use their free wi-fi to contact family via skype and let them know where we were and that we were all ok.

Day One - Costa Rica

What a day! We woke up this morning grumpy and tired, and struggled to get the girls out of bed. We had arrived in Costa Rica after more almost 48 hours of travelling, and we were pretty exhausted. We finally made it to breakfast with 10 minutes before it finished. We had Kellogg’s Cornflakes and fruit. We had a short walk around our hotel, Brilla Sol (Bright Sun) looking for bugs. The first we saw was a butterfly with see-through wings, then some tent spiders, a wasp, jumping spider and spiky orb-weaving spiders. At this point we couldn’t identify anything correctly, as we didn’t have any wildlife books with us. We also found some leaf cutter ants trailing across the path.

We got onto the hotel computers to send quick emails to our families telling them we had arrived safely, and to update Facebook (of course!!)

After breakfast our rental car was dropped off to us. The down side – it’s a manual car, and with driving on the right side of the road, it was a bit of a struggle for Alan to navigate the streets. Every time he got in a panic he would grab for the gears only to find the door handle and the window controls. On the upside, every time we were in trouble we already had the windows down ready to ask for directions.  

Our left-hand-drive manual car, which we have to drive on the right side of the road!

 We needed to go to the migration department to get visas for our 4 month stay. However, no one seemed to know the address! Addresses in Costa Rica are a little different to Australia. For example, few streets have names except for the major roads like highways and freeways. So addresses are generally directions in relation to other places. Our hotel’s address is 5km west of the airport. That’s it. No turn left here or veer right there. And the road isn’t direct, as there are quite a few turns from the airport! So when we were looking for the migration department, we didn’t have a clue! The map we had was vague at best, and didn’t show all the roads we needed to go on. So after strapping the girls in their car seats, we ventured out to the streets. The Lonely Planet guide says that driving in Costa Rica is for those with nerves of steel; ours were like highly strung steel guitar strings! Still we managed to make it onto the main road, and work out roughly where we were. After driving into down town San Jose, we realised we’d missed our turn, so we painstakingly made our way back again. Needless to say there was plenty of shouting in the car, mainly by me who was trying to direct Alan who was driving. Almost by mistake we found ourselves in the general area of the migration dept, only to miss our turn again and head off down a one way road. My directing wasn’t very good, but I blame the map and lack of street names! (We’ll ignore the fact that I regularly confuse left and right). We managed to turn around again, and after many more wrong turns, found ourselves at the back of the migration department. There was no way in at the back, and after asking some security guards who didn’t speak English, we found out we needed to drive right around the block to the front. Hooray, we had found it, after about an hour of driving!

The map we used to get to the Migration department. Our destination (circled in red) looks easy enough, but it wasn’t so. Note the lack of street names.

We walked through the barrage of people at the entrance, asking us if we wanted them to take a photo of our family or buy a protective cover for our passports. At the information desk, we found that no one spoke English. We conveyed that we were after an ‘Estancia’ visa and handed over our letters (written in Spanish thankfully!) The woman at the desk handed us a pamphlet in Spanish, and told us we need to go to “beesas”. I said “Gracias”, and headed to the big map of the various departments, with Alan saying “What the !@#%? Do you know what she said?!” Of course I didn’t, and at this point I wanted to cry and scream all at the same time. We then find the Visa department, and go up to the window only to semi-translate that the office is open from 8am to 12:30pm. It was 12:55. We missed it by 25 minutes of wrong turns in the traffic!! Our only option now was to try to find our way back to our hotel, and who knows where that is at this point! We found the highway, and then found ourselves veering to the right when we should have been going left. We needed some lunch anyway, so we stopped at Burger King, as it was the only place we could find that had a menu we could translate! The kids had a play at the playground, while Alan and I argued about the exchange rate of the Costa Rican colones (lunch cost us over 12,000 colones – roughly about $25 dollars) And we used the free wi-fi to find our way roughly back to the hotel. After even more wrong turns, we finally made it back – Hallelujah! Now we get to look forward to doing it all again very early tomorrow morning, as we need to get our visas before we make the 8 hour journey to Dos Brazos on the Osa Peninsula. From our experience today, it may take us 12 hours!! 

Outside Hotel Brilla Sol after dinner, with the pretty fairy lights that the girls loved