Muy lluvioso!

Thursday, June 29

So far this has been a fairly un-eventful week, as I’ve been very busy with our course at the Institute finishing up our projects prior to the end of our 1^st “mini-semester” on Friday. Everything looks pretty good, and all the students (and I) are getting ready for a week off. Mostly it has been rainy (lluvioso). The weather pattern this time of year is fairly unpredicatble, but usually it is clear in the mornings, clouds over near mid-day, rains through early-mid-afternoon, and clears again near sunset. This week (when the car is in the shop and I have a 45 minute walk to the Institute), it has rained the past 3 mornings. And not just a drizzle, but a hard, driving downpour. No fun for walking. Thank god for Goretex. Beyond the rain, the only “unusual” thing was the discovery of our first scorpion in our new house. It was bound to happen sometime, and while cleaning up after dinner on Tuesday, a little one showed up perched on my kitchen window sill. I tried to capture him in a coffee mug, but only succeeded in knocking him off his perch into the small space behind the kitchen counter-top. In about 15 minutes he showed back up on the edge of the sink, where I decided a better tool was needed. I decicded I needed something that leaves a bit more buffer between me and the business end of the scorpion than a coffee cup. Eventually I settled on a pair of needle-nose pliers, and I grabbed him as gently as possible and tossed him out into the yard. No sign of him since, so we’ll see how often we run into these guys… I don't mind them hunting flies on the window sill, but I definitely don't want them lurking in my shoes & other stuff!

Over the next week, I’m planning on traveling on an exploratory trip to Nicaragua. One of the students from Maryland (Dan Pugh) who is older (the same age as me actually) is coming along for the adventure, and we see what we can see. I’ve heard great things about Granada, the oldest “colonial” city in the western hemisphere (some cities like Mexico City or Cuzco in Peru are older, but they have roots in the indigenous cultures prior to the arrival of the Spanish). The Nicaraguan coast also sounds very nice, and much less developed that in costa rica, so I also plan to visit the beach for a few days of basic relaxation. I pick up my car from the shop at the dealer on Saturday morning, so I have my fingers crossed that all the repair work will have taken care of the various problems, particularly the engine.

Everything looked simple for traveling to Nicaragua until I mentioned the idea in passing to some of the Institute staff. They of course looked surprised and responded, “Oh, so you already have your ‘Permiso’ for the car?” My blank look pretty much summed up my response. Apparently, one is required to have a document called a “Permiso Salida del Pais” which translates to “permission to exit the country” and acts as sort of an exit visa for your car. Oddly enough, this is one of those things that the guidebooks simply don’t address. It is universally assumed that if you are going to Nicaragua from Costa Rica, you will be doing so by bus or private tour group. Apparently no one writes tourism guidebooks with the Tico audience in mind, and they are the only ones who might actually own their own cars and drive over. Just as frustrating, there is NO mention of the document or how to get one anywhere on-line, even on the website of the Costa Rican government agency that issues the documents (the Registro Nacional). After about a day and a half of querying individuals here at the institute, web bulletin boards, and phone calls to the Registro Nacional, I was able to find out where and how to get the documents for the car. Unfortunately, I can’t get them ‘til Monday, so I guess I just have to wait until then. At least this trip, I seem to be short-circuiting the “language tax” before the embarrassing stage! In the meantime, I’m planning to explore the ferry from Putarenas and spend a day in Playa Naranjo on the Nicoya peninsula. I’ve heard good things from others who have visited, and the more places I can inspect before dragging Norma and Niall on a wild goose chase, the better.

Well, that’s about all for this somewhat short week, but I should have lots of stories next week from my adventures in Nicaragua. With luck they will be interesting, but not so interesting as to cause excessive cringing or outright belly laughs. Well see…

Toucans & traveling

Sunday, June 25

Yesterday’s trip to San Jose to drop my car for repairs proved to be a typical Costa Rican adventure. Nothing nearly as perilous as it may sound in the brochure, but still well worth the admission fee ;-) My drive into San Jose was pleasantly uneventful. The car, even with its various issues, behaved admirably, and at times, almost too well. This was most evident when I was trying to explain to the manager of the car dealership (in my slow and broken Spanish) how the driver-side window had been broken (the day before, it had come completely off its cradle in the door, to the point where I could lift and move it around freely with my hands!). When I tried to demonstrate this, the crazy thing worked like nothing had happened. The door lock, which had locked me out of the driver’s side earlier in the week (forcing me to climb over the center console for a day), worked splendidly too. At least the turn signal was completely off (after it had worked to a degree on the drive down—I only needed to manually get the signal to flash by turning the signal on and off by hand with the signal switch. And the engine, while it ran well enough to get me to san jose, still crank at least a half a quart of oil on the trip, so with luck, they’ll take my request to overhall the rings, etc, seriously. Even Costa Rican traffic was pretty mild, and the drivers on the Pan-American highway almost sedate (this is really saying something—Tico road manners make New York, Boston, or even Rome look pretty tame). This was pretty important, as I really didn’t need the distraction while trying to find the auto place (more on Tico wayfinding later…)

After successfully dropping off the car, I took a taxi into downtown San Jose to do some shopping. San Jose, for a city that is remarkably short on tourism appeal, sure does have a lot of business trying to cater to tourism! Still, mixed in are a wide array of retail shops, restaurants, hotels, banks, offices, public buildings, and service businesses that one would expect of any national capitol. Much of the city unfortunately reminds me of the seamier parts of Los Angeles or San Francisco. It is a tight, compact grid of streets (based on the same Spanish colonial pattern as LA & SF), with lots of 1 and 2 story buildings that all look to be 50-80 years old, and badly in need of at least a paint job, or more often, major renovation. The businesses often seem to be thriving, but there is little quality reinvestment in the physical appearance of the buildings. Here and there is an older architectural gem in Spanish colonial style, plus a few more recent public buildings in the beaux arts fashion from the early 20^th century. In the commercial center one finds many newer 4-8 story office buildings, in typically bland international style. They truly could be anywhere in the world.

At least in the old grid of downtown San Jose, it is remarkably easy to get around and know where you are! In the surrounding suburbs, with their streets designed more by happenstance and topography than any overarching plan, it is almost impossible for a newcomer to navigate. There are no street names, no street numbers, and no physical addresses that most of the world would recognize. Everything is referred to by approximate distance from “known” landmarks (they are unfortunately only known to those who have lived there long enough to build the massive cognitive map required to begin linking places together spatially!) The place where my auto dealer is located actually goes by the following address: “near the five corners of Tibas (the name of the suburb), to the north side of the Catholic Church.” When one checks a map, Tibas covers about 10 square kilometers, and there are dozens of Catholic Churches, and at least three intersections that one could arguably say, “well, it has 5 corners…” If not for the detailed directions provided to me by my car broker, I may never have found the spot!

In San Jose, I had a long list of things to try to find, but only a limited amount of space to put them (just my small day pack- which already had my raincoat, umbrella, car tools, etc. in it.). So I went for the smaller stuff. First, I found the mother lode of balsawood, which should keep Niall in airplane building materials at least through the first couple of months here. Then I found some coffee mugs for $.50 each, and lastly, some wine glasses—Bohemian crystal no less! Seems there’s a certain amount of symmetry that I should come all the way to Costa Rica to buy Czech glassware. That pretty well filled my bag, so it was off to the bus station.

As this was my first time on the public bus I wasn’t certain just what to expect, but for less than $4.00, I didn’t expect much. As we boarded the bus, and the sky literally opened up in torrential rain, I mostly hoped for a roof that didn’t leak. Well, almost; I only got dripped on every now an then, such as when the bus lurched hard to the right, I got a few drips from a hole in the roof, but otherwise I at least stayed dry. Comfortable is another question. I think the airlines have been researching seating capacity in Costa Rica. 5 hours in my seat left me with near permanent cramps in both buns, and knees locked at 90 degrees. It probably didn’t help that because it was raining so hard, no one opened any windows, so it about 110F the whole way. I’m not sure we would have been much wetter with the windows open! And now I have all week to look forward to my return trip to pick up the car- sigh...

Fortunately, just as the bus was finishing the climb up the mountain, the rain finally let up, and completely stopped as we pulled into Santa Elena. I walked the 15 minutes uphill to our house, and felt very thankful for remembering my flashlight. When the clouds are blocking the moon & stars here, it is REALLY dark. As I reached the house it occurred to me, “Oh no, I left my keys with the car…” Then I remembered I had left a spare hidden outside for just such an emergency. After pulling out the spare, I then discovered that the duplicate key I had made to the back door didn’t actually open the lock. Just great. *&^%^&!! I then punched the door, which responded by swinging open. Just great again-- I’m in the house, but I’ve been relying on a lock this crummy for three weeks! Oh well. That I can fix ;-)

Today I woke to discover that I wasn’t the only one breaking and entering yesterday. Apparently, the Marvin’s horses got loose from their pasture, and then managed to break through the rope gate to our yard. They then proceeded to raid my garden, eating the top off every single corn stalk, nibbled the leaves off almost every green bean plant, and generally trampled everything else. So I spent a couple hours weeding and repairing things as best I could this morning. At least the lettuce and cilantro weren’t big enough to bother with, and everything else had yet to come up.

This finally brings me to the “wildlife shot of the week.” This morning as I was eating breakfast, our regular flock of Toucans stopped by and I managed to get my camera set up and caught the fellow you see above. These are really beautiful birds, and quite large too (about a foot long, plus the beak!). And talk about colorful—I bet you thought the Toucan on the Fruit Loops box was an exaggeration didn’t you? If anything, I‘d say the opposite! Well, that’s all I have time for now, more later this week…

Howwwwler monkey

Friday, June 23

Well, this morning is my 47^th birthday, and while I don’t feel that old, I sure don’t like the sound of being “47.” Somehow being 46 and “mid-forties” felt a lot less than 47 and leaning toward “late-forties!” Then again, this may have something to do with having my peaceful sleep interrupted rather inconsiderately by a howler monkey this morning at 4:55am, just as the sky started to get light. I’ve heard them regularly in the distance from our house in the past, but today, he decided to set up shop within 100 meters of my bedroom window. For those of you who have not experienced a howler monkey’s vocalizations at close range, let’s just say they have unquestionably earned the designation “HOWLER” monkey! While the call of the howler doesn’t quite have the same quality that every parent recognizes in a screaming child (you know the one, where your stomach lurches and your brain immediately flashes, “Is that MY kid?”), it is several times as loud, and sounds much more threatening, sort of along the lines of the T-rex in Jurassic Park… Needless to say, it’s a rather jarring wake-up call!

The other bit of nature for the week is the little lizard above. I'm not sure what type he is, but for the second time one has wandered into the house (they come in under the door) looking for insects to eat. Not that I've got a lot of bugs in the house, but I think they bugs I do have are in places that the lizards find easy to cath them, like window sills. Unfortunately, the lizards (at least the kind with the long toe nails) then get stuck when they hit a slippery surface. This one got caught in the kitchen sink and couldn't get a grip on the stainless steel. So I helped him out!

At the Institute, the week has been rather busy, mostly with my student’s work. We have a presentation to our clients later this morning, and they have been in a nocturnal frenzy to finish their work. There must be something unique in the brain chemistry of 19-25 year-olds that compels college students to work primarily between the hours of 8:00pm and 5:00am, then sort of stumble through the daylight hours in a near zombie state. Nothing can convince them that more sleep would allow them to focus and be much more efficient during daylight, thus giving them plenty of time to sleep. We’ll see how it all goes today. For the most part, everything looks OK!

Tomorrow is my big adventure down the mountain to drop the car for its engine work. If all goes well, they will do a pretty complete overhaul, completely replacing the piston rings in each cylinder. I have my fingers crossed. At least whatever they do is free—it is all under warrantee right now. I’m mostly just hoping they actually DO the work, and don’t try to fake it by adding some “miracle” additive that masks the symptoms (poor compression & lack of power, as exhaust gasses blow by the piston rings into the crank-case on the power stroke, and lots of oil burning as it blows by the worn-out piston rings into the combustion chamber on the opposite stroke) for a month or two. After I drop of the car at the dealer, I’ve got about 3-4 hours to shop in downtown San Jose for whatever I can carry to the bus station. There are a bunch of things I need for the house that are hard to find in Monteverde, or should be MUCH cheaper in San Jose. We’ll see… Then I get to try the Public Bus back to Monteverde. I’ve never taken the public bus, as I’ve typically been a bit worried about its reliability, but I’m in no hurry tomorrow, so it seems like time to try it. Besides, the whole trip costs only $5.00 (compared with $30.00 for the private bus service), so it’s hard to beat. It will also be a good time to work on my Spanish, as there will likely be no one speaking English anywhere.

That’s it for now—more later in the weekend…

a LONG walk in the woods

Sunday, June 18

This weekend, in honor of our guests from Maryland, our course coordinator Anibal (from the Institute) offered to take us on an overnight hike to his family’s old finca (farm) in the now abandoned town of San Gerardo. San Gerardo “was” a small, remote farming community on the Caribbean slope of the Tilaron Mountain range, about 10 kilometers from where we live in Santa Elena, on the Pacific side of the continental divide. San Gerardo is located in the Arenal National Park and the Bosque Eterno de Los Ninos (Children’s Eternal Rain Forest), and the lands were purchased from most of the residents as part of the Arenal Dam & Reservior project in the 1970’s. A few private land-holdings still exist, but they receive no services (like schools, water, health services, etc.) because the government declared the area “protected” from development. Anibal’s family maintains a few pastures and is allowed to remove timber from their land if it falls naturally, plus they use a fairly rustic structure as sort of a “cabin” in the rainforest, just like half of Syracuse owns a place in the Adirondacks or the Tughill. The big attractions of the hike were to visit a place that is totally removed from the “tourist” frequented trails of Monteverde, to see several remote waterfalls, to see new wildlife, and hopefully (if the clouds part for awhile) to see the Arenal volcano, about 12-15 kilometers farther to the east.

The toll for the trip—it's a good long walk. the walk begins with about 7-8 km downhill early Saturday morning carrying food, sleeping bags, and dry clothes, and then know that there’s 7-8km of steep uphill for the way back! Between students, faculty, and Anibal’s various friends and family, about a dozen of us struck out on foot in the mist from the Santa Elena Reserve visitor’s center at 7:00am. The trail, almost a rough road, suitable for 4-wheelers or trail-bikes, switchbacks down the mountain through dense cloud forest. Birds, which are abundant everywhere in Monteverde, were even more so along the trail. By the end of our day, I’d counted eleven new species of birds I’d never even seen before!

We arrived at the finca by about 9:00am, and after a short rest, headed out into the forest to find the waterfalls. Waterfalls are quite abundant in the Monteverde area. With the mountainous geology being fairly young, the terrain is naturally well suited; add 2.5 meters of rainfall per year and you have a perfect recipe. Almost every stream, creek, or small river drops of a waterfall every kilometer of so, and some are quite spectacular, dropping 10, 20, sometimes even 30 meters or more. The waterfall we set out to see was on a branch of the Rio Negro, one of the rivers feeding Lake Arenal to our east. We hiked in about a kilometer or two, following rough trails and occasionally bush-whacking our way through jungle reminiscent of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with a machete. Anibal and his cousin Jorge (a local guide) only got lost once on the way to the main waterfall, finding a second, smaller one that they had forgotten. After 30 minutes of searching for the “right” trail we were back off through the jungle, first on a barely discernable track, then up the streambed with no trail at all! About ½ kilometer up the final stream, we reached a series of beautiful waterfalls, ranging from small trickles to great torrents running through narrow gaps in the rocks. Each ranged from 5 to perhaps 15 meters (50’) high. The final waterfall, and the largest, could only be reached by climbing a sheer cliff about 8 meters high. I hear my brother and his family of rock climbers snickering, and this wouldn’t have been too bad, were it not for the 100+ years of moss, lichen, and algae growing on everything! Fortunately, Anibal brought a rope (we all vaguely wondered why we might need that when we started out), and everyone was able to scramble up after he had scouted the route up and secured the rope at the top. Of course coming down was even more fun!

At the top, under the splash and the spray, a gorgeous waterfall plunged into a deep pool, and all the young and foolish members of the group went for a swim in the +/-65F water. I was chilly and wet enough without immersing myself deliberately! We ate a damp picnic lunch at the waterfall as the day's rain began to fall, and then headed back to the finca to dry out and rest before anyone turned hypothermic.

As my guests the Sullivans were planning to leave the next day, they decided to hike back out to civilization that afternoon, and after inspecting the sleeping arrangements (sleeping bags on rough wood floors), I decided that wasn’t such a bad idea  After waiting the worst of the daily downpour (have I mentioned it rains even MORE on the Caribbean slope?), we said our farewells to the group at about 3:00pm, and Jack, Maggie, Jorge and I headed back up the mountain in the rain. So… we’ve already walked 12 or 14 kilometers on the day, and now we’ve got 6-8 more to go, all uphill, with about 400 meters of elevation change. Uhg. Fortunately, about a third of the way up, the rain stopped, and the clouds and mist actually began to clear. About half way, we were greated with a fantastic view to the east over Lake Arenal to Arenal Volcano. While we admired the view, and let our hearts and lungs adjust to something approaching a normal rate, we were treated with a small eruption of Arenal! First, I should note that an eruption on Arenal is not a particularly big deal- it has been erupting pretty much continuously since 1968, with a little burp of lava or steam almost every day. But it was still pretty cool to see the thing actually spurt out a nice cloud of smoke seemingly just for us!

The rest of the way up was mostly uneventful, and I spent a lot of time staring at the ground several feet in front of my feet looking for good footing on the slick clay of the trail. When you’re focused on such a small area of view, you often miss a lot going on around you, but this time I was remarkably fortunate, at least if you’re into bugs. In the middle of the trail, just about where I was planning to step, was a VERY large tarantula wasp, just finishing up its principal task in life. It had just stung and paralyzed a young red-kneed tarantula (see picture!), and was proceeding to drag the immobile spider off to a safe location to lay its eggs on it. In a wonderfully macabre bit of ecological dependency, the wasps must find a tarantula in order to provide a host for their young larva. The tarantulas and the wasps are therefore mortal enemies, and any encounter is a fight to the death, and in this case, the wasp won. If all goes well for the wasp like this time, the wasp carefully disables the spider during their fight, and only paralyzes it. It then lays its eggs on the still living body, and when they hatch, the wasp’s larva get to eat the nice fresh spider alive. Pretty gruesome, but highly effective as a survival strategy! After getting our first-hand natural history lesson, we slogged the rest of the way up the mountain to our car, exhausted, but very satisfied, particularly the old guys (yes, I’m one of those now!). Maggie, in inimitable 17 year old style, managed to make Jack and I feel both old and young at the same time, as she limped in behind us complaining about “old” soccer injuries, but then bounced back as fresh as a daisy an hour later for dinner. Needless to say, we all slept well last night!

Today was a bit of a catch-up day, as Jack and Maggie headed for the hot springs at Arenal and then down to the beach later this week. I spent the day cleaning up and washing laundry, as well as planting a few more seeds in the garden. I guess that’s about it for this week, as I watch the sunset over the Gulf of Nicoya from my perch high above Santa Elena! Hasta luego... Scott

A typical week on the mountain

Friday – 16 June

It has been another busy week in Monteverde. My students and their projects are progressing well, and they all seem content in their work. Even the group I’ve helped the most, who are trying to design a handicapped-accessible trail at the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve are managing to keep optimistic. Considering the amount of bushwhacking through dense jungle they’ve taken on, that’s pretty good. The big consideration for accessibility is maintaining a gentle slope, and in the terrain around here that’s not easy! So we’ve been carefully measuring the grades along various trail alignments with a laser level, stadia rod, and tape measures to verify that we can keep the ramping sections under a certain maximum slope… this gets particularly challenging in a downpour, which we experienced twice this week! The work does have it's rewards too-- we all got a great look for the first time at the birder's local holy grail right along our trail, a beautiful male Quetzal in brilliant green, white, and red plumage, complete with it's two foot long tail. Pretty cool!

My other trial for the week has been the car. While it continues to run “pretty well,” at least on the surface, I managed to get a local mechanic to give it a thorough check to be sure that it will hold up over the next year. While he gave much of the car a clean bill of health (particularly some of those things you just don’t want to go wrong like brakes), it appears the engine needs new rings, which is pretty major. Fortunately, the engine and other major components of the care are under warrantee! So Russ, my car purchase broker, has helped arrange for all the repairs with the dealer, and all I need to do is drive it down and drop it off for a week in San Jose, and they’ll now (supposedly) fix all the stuff they probably should have done before I bought it. Once again, I’ve got my fingers crossed that this will all work out well!

On the home front, all goes well. We had our first house-guests this week, Jack Sullivan and his 17 year old daughter, Maggie. Jack chairs the landscape architecture program at Maryland, and this was his first time down to Monteverde. He was on more of an exploratory visit, to see how everything works, as opposed to a longer “teaching” stay like the rest of us involved with the course (in particular because of his administrative role in the LA department at Maryland). Jack arrived without any problems on Wednesday, and settled into our “guest suite” very happily, with Maggie upstairs in one of the bunk beds. He and Maggie then frequently sat in on various aspects of our studio work on Thursday and Friday, as well as doing a LOT of walking around town taking in Monteverde. We finished up the academic portion of the week Friday afternoon with a lecture from Jack on "Green Roofs and Roof Gardens," followed by a big dinner at Sophia’s (our favorite local restaurant) on Friday night, which many of the students enjoyed as the first meal in 3 weeks that did NOT feature rice and beans as the primary component. They all still seem to love rice and beans, but I think they’ve begun to loose their novelty at this stage!

A weekend in paradise...

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Well, weekends in Monteverde, once one is settled, are not so different from those at home. Lot’s of chores to do! Yesterday, I successfully navigated my second major purchase in Costa Rica, this time without a guide or interpreter. I bought a new washer and dryer for our house, and then purchased all the plumbing and electrical supplies to hook them up. Happily, I can say all went very well. My Spanish is definitely improving with regular use. I still get the “doe in the headlights” look on a regular basis when I get to a point where I completely loose track of a conversation, but usually, if the person I’m speaking with speaks carefully, I follow pretty well. The salesman, Carlos got a kick out of some of my Spanglish, but in general, I had no problems with this purchase. The guys at the hardware store (ferreteria) seem mildly amused too, or at least fairly tolerant of a gringo like me buying ones-ies and twos-ies of things that I suspect are usually bought in bulk (try buying one meter of 12mm (1/2”) PVC pipe at home sometime and see if that doesn’t raise eyebrows) . It’s also not too different from the first time buying stuff at Buyea’s in Caz, when all the clerks there are trying to place who you are (as in what house did you buy) based on what stuff are buying to fix things! In general, gringos just don’t buy hardware around here. Gringos are pretty much exclusively tourists, and those few gringos that do live here (with the exception of the original Quakers) are not typically the “do-it-yourself” types.

For the washer, I elected for the traditional north American single drum (as opposed to the more common local two drum models—one for washing, the second for spinning), top-loading style (an LG), and the dryer is a big front loading Whirlpool just like at home. With as muddy and damp as things get around here in the rainy season (Monteverde averages 2.5 METERS of rain each year), we decided being able to wash, and particularly to dry, at home is a necessary luxury. The alternative, to use a local lavanderia (there are no self-serve Laundromats), means everything is a drop-off service, and they charge by the piece—muy caro! Over a year’s time, we estimate the washer and dryer will both pay for themselves easily.

To install each unit, I got to put in new electrical outlets where Marvin had not quite finished things. Our washing room is semi-outdoors in sort of a breezeway at the back of the house, located under the up-stairs bath. For the washer, I only needed to wire in a new receptacle, as Marvin had already pulled the wires to a well placed junction box. For the dryer, it looked as though he had considered doing the same, but not quite finished the thought… so I needed to pull wires through some conduit in the wall, and then connect to the 220volt circuit feeding the hot water heater. Fortunately, Marvin oversized this circuit, so both water heater and dryer will even run simultaneously without tripping the circuit breaker. Esta bien!

The final task in setting everything up to wash was to add another hose-bib (faucet) to the sink in the washroom. This required cutting a new “tee” into the existing pipe and extending a new PVC line about 18” to a new faucet to attach the washing machine’s water supply. Fortunately, I’ve done plenty of plumbing at home, so this was pretty easy. As it turns out, I brought all the right basic tools. The only thing I’ve purchased here has been a hammer, and I would have brought that, but I didn’t have room for the dead weight! After a couple hours getting everything wired up, I ran my first test load of laundry and … voila! It worked! Unfortunately, as it seems is clockwork lately, just as I finished my chores, it started to rain. The pattern lately is to have an early mist at dawn, which burns off to beautiful sunny blue skies by 7:00 or so. This holds pretty well ‘til about 11:00, when the clouds begin to roll in; by noon, the rain begins, varying in intensity throughout the afternoon. As I noted, great weather for getting wet & muddy!

Today, with fresh clothes, etc., Marvin met me after breakfast so that I could get a good start on re-dirtying some clothes. Well, that wasn’t the main point, but we got plenty dirty! The object of the morning was to plant our garden. Just above the house, is an old sugar cane field of about 2-3 acres. Marvin has pulled the sugar cane (caña de azúcar) from about a 1/3 of the field and we now have a fantastic garden started. Today we weeded & fertilized what he already had planted (corn, squash, beans, potatoes, & some herbs), and then we added more beans, cilantro, and lettuce. I’m told much will be ready to begin harvesting in a month! Stuff grows here like crazy.

The soil is a wonderful, rich, dark sandy loam. No rock, no clay… it’s heaven compared to the soil in our garden at home in Caz. Later this afternoon I’m stopping in to town to see if I can find a few more things to plant, like basil, tomatoes, and peppers. Marvin also showed me many of the other plants and trees in the garden area, many of which are edible. Lots if different citrus, figs, and a tree called a “cas” that has a very nice edible fruit that is both sweet and tart. Marvin has also planted many native forest trees which he is slowing planting in the pastures of his family’s farm

After finishing in the garden, I went for a long 4-5 km walk up our hill toward the continental divide. I saw lots of birds, & heard a couple of howler monkeys not too far off. I had a good look at beautiful toucan (with the fluorescent yellow bill, just like on the fruit-loops box), as he came within a few meters of me, but unfortunately he took off before I could get a photo. Today I timed my outdoor activities perfectly, and arrived home with about 5 minutes to spare before the afternoon rain began. Which leads here... Time to put this puppy on line! (please note, this is why the dates don't match. I finally posted everything today, but I'll try to keep up weekly from now on!)

We have wheels!

Thursday, June 8^th

Well, the car arrived as promised, and so far, so good. It’s got a few issues (some minor electrical problems—the turn signals are quirky), and I needed to replace the battery, but everything else is running fine. It takes some time to get used to driving a diesel, and it is built on a chassis that is essentially a small truck, so it doesn’t exactly turn on a dime, but it goes almost anyplace, regardless of road condition.

The last few days marked the first major rain storm of the rainy season. We got between 10 and 15cm over 5 days, with Tuesday night including thunder, lightning, and wind blowing everything sideways. I had water coming in under the front door of the house, so the first design flaw in the building has emerged. I spoke with Marvin (our landlord), and we agreed that a low threshold at the doorway and some caulk at the base of the one section of wood frame wall should fix the problem. He’s getting the materials to fix it as soon as he can… unfortunately, there are no thresholds available here in Monteverde, so he needs to wait until he can go down the mountain to a larger town with better building supply stores.

I’m now deep into the various projects with my students here at the institute. They’re a good group- 7 LA’s from U. Maryland, a planner from Illinois, another from Cleveland State, and 2 architects from SUNY Buffalo. We’re working on several projects for the local public high school, including preliminary designs for a new library that will also be the local public library. After that we’re looking at some road improvements (sidewalks & planting) and an accessible trail at one of the local nature reserves. Enough to keep us busy through June…

The next big news is, last night we got our internet hooked up in the house! It seems to be a local version of ADSL, and while I haven’t pinged one of the connection speed measuring sites, it seems pretty fast.

Aqui en Monteverde!

Monteverde, Costa Rica

Sunday, June 4^th; it’s raining again. But then, this is a cloud forest, and clouds and rain kind of go hand-in-hand. I’m now three days in Monteverde, and things are beginning to fall into place for the year. And I suppose it’s time to start putting things down on paper, or burned onto plastic discs as the case might be. The year is beginning with many unknowns, but this is perhaps more of what I’ve hoped for in a sabbatical year than I might have gotten with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed. As each of my proposals for traditional “academic” sources of funding has fallen through, I’m now in a position where I have no choice but to reinvent myself, which is really more of what a sabbatical is supposed to be. Things at the university at home have definitely gotten a bit routine, and this year is supposed to provide an opportunity to find renewal.

For the next 10 weeks, I’ll be on pretty familiar ground, teaching 11 students in landscape architecture, architecture, and planning about sustainable design in our “Sustainable Futures” course at the Monteverde Institute. After that, I’ll have 40 weeks to see what rocks I can turn over and find whatever interesting things I can to make this more than a unfunded academic’s vacation in the cloud forest. There is certainly no shortage of need for design & planning work here, and as a volunteer, I’m sure my skills will be in high demand. As a paid professional, we’ll see… It’s been a long time since I’ve actively tried to be a designer for hire, but the prospect is kind of exciting. And while I’m a bit uncertain as to some of the more practical aspects of design practice here in Costa Rica, I’m also not the same designer I was 20 years ago when I last plied my trade full time. I actually feel like I know what I’m doing now, and perhaps more importantly, why I should do something a particular way in a particular situation. Teaching is good for that; you learn to question more than the mechanics your students’ use-- you need to probe their underlying reasoning and rationale in each aspect of their designs.

Well, enough of my philosophical ramblings for being here, at least for now. So… what’s life like here? Pretty ordinary in many respects really, but still very different from a day at home in New York. Living alone has something to do with this, as Norma & Niall won’t join me for another 5 weeks. The first few days have been a whirlwind of getting things settled in… flying down with 200lbs of gear, buying a car (more on that later), moving into our rental house & furnishing things (it’s partly furnished, but there are always plenty of things that need buying, getting finances set up, etc.) When everything’s unsettled, even the most mundane things can be frustrating, like finding an ATM that our bank card works on. This year, for the first time, a new local ATM actually WORKS! (after our trip down in March, when we flunked being good travelers and didn’t find a single ATM that worked with our new bank cards, this was a major concern). In the past day or so though, I’ve settled into the beginnings of a routine. Up at 5:30 or 6:00, breakfast and coffee (LOTS of coffee here) with the binoculars, then out and about by 7:00. Prime time to enjoy the wildlife, etc. This morning it was a group of Toucans in the trees uphill from the house. Most days, I’m then off to the Institute (about 3 miles away), where class starts at 8:00. We run studio until 5:00pm, then it’s back home for dinner. It’s dark by 6:00pm, and with no TV, one tends to hit the hay pretty early. It’s usually lights out by 9:00.

Getting around right now means lots of walking, as our car won’t be ready for a couple more days. It’s the victim of the more notorious side of Latin America’s love for bureaucracy. An appointment could not be arranged for a safety inspection during the two days after I purchased the car in San Jose on the day after my arrival, so it had to be put off until this coming week. Consequently, I’m on foot until at least Tuesday. Even then, I’m not holding my breath until the car is here and the keys are in my hands.

Buying a car here makes for an interesting exercise in patience, faith, and immersive Spanish language practice. To begin, cars in Costa Rica are generally MUCH more expensive than in the US, largely because of an outrageous duty charged on all imported cars (which is pretty much all cars!). Combine this with a common Tico knack for mechanical ingenuity that borders on McGyver-like cleverness, and the result is a thriving used car market, as everyone is determined to wring every potential kilometer out of every car once it’s here. Unfortunately, while this makes for lots of choices, not all the used cars out there are what they are made up to be. There is a huge problem with newly imported used cars from the US, many of them insurance company “totals” with odometers backed-up and major mechanical problems band-aided for sale or cosmetically disguised. For a green gringo seeking a car, this can be a bit daunting. Fortunately, I stumbled onto a service provided by an entrepreneurial American and his Tico wife- Russell and Katya Martin. Russ is a web-based marketing consultant, and has lived in Costa Rica for over a decade, and Katya is a native from the San Jose area. Together, they have put together a website marketing selected used car dealers who have met their expectations for integrity and customer service. For a small fee, Katya spent the day driving me from one dealer to another, checking out various cars, test driving, and eventually helping to make a deal. She even patiently assisted with putting my name, address, phone number, and passport number on the back of dozens of travelers checks at the bank! In the end, we’ve become the proud owners of a ’94 Hyundai “Galloper,” a very popular 4x4 SUV here in Costa Rica. In Monteverde, I swear, every third or fourth car on the road, including most of the local taxis, is a Galloper. This seemed like a good sign to me, so even though Hyundai has never imported them to the US, I immediately liked them. They seem to be fairly reliable, and I’m told they are relatively easily worked on and parts are inexpensive. We’ll let you know in a few months if this proves true or not… The one we’ve got was recently imported used from Korea. The idea of buying a used Korean car may be lost on some, but the logic goes something like this- Korea is a small country with good roads, ergo, cars driven there get light duty, with low yearly mileage. That’s theory anyway- another thing we’ll verify a few months down the road!