Panama

Bridge at Sixaola

We went on an adventure to Panama, a trip timed around the expiration of our 90 day tourist visa. By being out of Costa Rica for 3 days, we could renew our visa for another stint and see another Central American country. We drove for about 4 hours to get to Sixaola, the border town in Costa Rica, parked our car in a lot, checked out of CR border patrol, and ambled our way precariously carrying our bags and the baby across the famous bridge between the countries going over the Sixaola River. The gaps in the bridge were large enough in some parts for small children to go through, making us hold our breath to the other side. Fortunately, we and our stuff made it. Then, after we found out about an hour's jump in the time, we grabbed a taxi van that whizzed us to Almirante in just the nick of time to catch a water taxi, ie., skiff holding 30 people, to Isla Colon, where the town of Bocas del Toro is. The 30 minute skiff ride felt a little uneasy, without a lifejacket for the baby, lots of wave action, and impending darkness, but we made it to Bocas all in one piece.

Bocas is obviously a tourist oriented place, and unfortunately, it was rainy the whole time we were there, so we didn't venture out too far. We did go up to a beach that is known for all of its colorful starfish but it was too stormy, so we had lunch, kids played on the hammocks for a while, and we returned. Overall, during our very short stint in Panama, it seemed like there was more poverty, judging by the housing and children hustling work for money. Interestingly, there has been such an American influence that you can only get American dollars out of the ATMs and was the only currency used, except for coins in Panamanian balboas.
We were told at border patrol in CR that when we returned we'd have to show a return ticket out of CR but after a lot of worrying about not having that in our possession, they didn't ask to see anything of the sort when we came back into the country.

When we were in Panama about to cross the bridge back into Costa Rica, we saw an airplane flying over banana fields on the CR side, spraying what we presume was insecticide over vast areas. And, as were driving, we went through a silent group of hundreds of farm workers walking on the road together, perhaps returning to the bananas after lunch. We wondered about the effect that the spraying was having on their health and had once heard about an international lawsuit against one of the big banana producers due to the illnesses that the insectides were producing in worker. It appeared that Dole and Chiquita own vast amounts of land in this part of the country.

An ice cream cone with a Zena cherry on top

Girl selling yuca from Almirante. We paid her $1 to take a picture.

Around Home

View from our deck

Our resident "torre alba" (white tower) volcano

Asa and Eva at the soda

A friend Asa found after lunch at nearby restaurant

Saucer sized hibiscus

Eva and Rebeca's coffee yield from some coffee bushes on our property

Tim singing with children at school. "I'm gonna jump down, turn around, pick a sack o' coffee" is a class favorite.

Halloween

It's been a good while since I posted anything to our blog, so in an effort to catch up I'll go back to Halloween.....Yes, Halloween is celebrated here, not throughout CR but on the local agricultural research campus of CATIE, where expatriot Americans are in plenitude, and now even busloads of Tico kidsfrom Turrialba come to participate. All the kids and some of the adults were impressively costumed. Our base camp was Rachelle and Fabrice's house, where we ate fajitas and gabbed. We took Eva, the morpho butterfly, trick or treating to a few houses, but it was raining cats and dogs, so our motivation quickly dwindled to continue beyond a few neighboring houses. Asa, the mummy, on the other hand, joined the big kids in a whirlwind tour of a huge stretch of the campus. By the time he got back, his toilet paper bandages had dissolved and he was drenched but jolly with a bucket full of damp candy.

The Morpho and the Mummy

Festooned Friends (Note ketchup and mustard duo)



Soggy mummy with candy loot



Making Tamales

Christmas Eve day included much excitement. Jay and Erica and their kids had arrived late the day before, it rained hard the night before, and we awoke to a little landslide of mud from the dirt hill behind the house. Fortunately, the dogs we were caring for were not hurt. Unfortunately, our gardener, Alberto, had to spend most of the holiday cleaning up the mess.

Then, it was off to make tamales at Rebeca's house. There is much ado around tamale making in Costa Rica. Tico tamales are not like Mexican tamales. The basic filling includes corn mush mixed with mashed potatoes, then a small piece of pork or chicken is added with a slice of red pepper and one of carrot, then a sprinkle of peas. Some people put anchovies or raisins in theirs but this is considered a tamale on the fringe. All of this is wrapped up in a carefully processed banana leaf, smoked or dipped in boiling water to soften, and tied into neat little packets of two.Then the tamale packets are put into boiling water to cook for several hours. Ticos like to eat tamale with coffee in the afternoon It is a long process and an important tradition around Christmas. Rebeca invited us to partake in this event at her house on Christmas Eve.

My brother, Jay, and his family had just arrived in Turrialba and were able to join us for a bit of tamale making between diagnosing a tenacious skin rash and doing last minute Christmas shopping. We got to Rebeca's house a little late but set in right away with the process of making the masa. She had already bought the pork and had the carrots and peas ready for insertion. Then it was a matter of assembling all of this, learning the art of wrapping and tying these little presents in banana leaves. They are tied in a pack of two and that pack is called a "piñon". After the tamales boiled for a couple of hours on Rebeca and Roy's big wood stove, we all partook in eating the first ones with a cup of strong coffee. This is how many Ticos eat their tamales. We were so honored to have spent the day in Rebeca's home, and we had tamales in our freezer until May!

Landslide on Christmas Eve

Making the "masa" for tamales

Tamales wrapped in banana leaves and ready for boiling

Roy, Rebeca, and some of our crew at tamales production central

Zena looking at "Pi Pi"

Zachary and Asa tucked in watching Spanish TV

Festival de las Luces

The Festival of the Lights is an annual tradition in Turrialba during December. This is the dreariest month in Turrialba with lots of rain, fog, and chill and for the night of the festival there was a constant drizzle. All during the day of the parade, parents from our school helped create a fairy woodland scene on a float with the school name, all lit up with tiny lights. I put in a few hours stapling burlap to a magic tree trunk and skiriting the float with paper greenery but several other moms spent much more time than I preparing the float. They really wanted it to be a success because apparently the year before, the truck on which they rode, stopped and couldn't start again right in front of the mayor's stand at town center. It was very embarrassing. This year it was a success, and all the paper objects held up amazingly well in the drippy weather. The kids sang Christmas songs that Tim had taught them, although it was hard to hear their little voices over the giant generator and loud music of a huge truck float right ahead of us.

A funny little story...I bought a little nativity scene for our kids, and more than anyone, Zena, loved sticking her face right into the scene and declaring all the four-footed animals in the manger as "dog-dog". Then, she would pick up the tiny ceramic Baby Jesus and carry him around in her fist. The morning I was to take off to help with the school float, Baby Jesus was last seen being toted around by her, and then he disappeared and everyone was looking for him high and low but to no avail. Meanwhile I had nursed her and off I went to float making. About two hours after helping with the float, I noticed a hard lump protruding from inside my bra, and when I dug around a little, who should I find but Baby Jesus! I had a good laugh and so did everyone else at home when I told them what happened.