Blogging again...

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Well here we are in the middle of March, and I must admit, I’ve been a terrible blogger this year. I suppose this is partly a good thing, as clearly both Norma and I are more than busy enough to keep us from blogging as much as we did back in August or September. Part of this is the weather, as we are in the middle of the dry season, and the weather is more like southern California than the Coast Rica I’ve typically experienced when teaching here in June or July (and one never leaves the house without a raincoat!). Since we’ve returned to CR in early January, it has rained twice, with little accumulation either time. It is still green here at the top of the mountain, as we do get a cloudy mist most nights and early mornings, but it is just enough to keep the trees and other plants from going brown. Lower down the mountain, and particularly to the north of here, it is desert brown. All the trees actually drop their leaves, not unlike the trees do in winter where we live in New York. It is almost surreal when driving through a landscape that is clearly heavily forested, dead brown, and the temperature is 95F!

Along with my typical work at the Institute, Norma and I are continuing to walk as much as we can, though that has slowed the last couple of weeks as Norma managed to break a toe (she stubbed it on one of our beds!). That’s almost healed now, but it has slowed us down for a while. Before that, we had our long visit with my folks, which was a lot of fun. They flew in from Riverside (CA), and spent a week here in Monteverde, and then we traveled for a week during Niall’s “winter” break week off school. Here in Monteverde, they did the usual things like visiting the orchid garden and the butterfly garden and such, as well as hiking with a guide in the Monteverde Reserve. There we had the good luck to see not only a sloth and howler monkeys, but a fantastic sighting of 6 quetzals, with the 3 males performing their courtship display (they fly around in circles and up a down chortling like a chicken!) We had a great trip, visiting Arenal Volcano (where we had fairly clear viewing on two nights of lava flowing down the mountain), then we spent three nights in a small inn at Rincon de La Vieja National Park, where we hiked to see fumeroles and mudpots very similar to Yellowstone in the US. We also took a wonderful horseback ride to a waterfall that left all of us hot, exhausted, sore, and very satisfied ;-) The waterfall was one of those pictured in all the tourist brochures, dropping about 40meters from the top of a cliff into a deeply shaded canyon with a beautiful deep jade green pool of water beneath. We all went swimming in the cool water, and jumped from a ledge on the cliff about 5 meters above the water, and had a great time cooling off. Even so, it was a pretty strenuous day, as most of us hadn’t been on a horse for at least 30 years, and it was 50 years for my mom & dad. For a while I thought both my parents were going walk a little funny for the rest of their lives, but eventually they recovered enough to enjoy our last couple of days at the beach in Playa Hermosa. There we did lots of poolside resting & reading, as well as some snorkeling along the reefs near our hotel, and plenty of walking on the beach and playing in the waves.

The most exciting part of the trip was on one of our hikes in Rincon de La Vieja park. We were all spread along a narrow trial running though thick but fairly dry forest, and Norma was last in our group about 20 meters behind the rest of us. We all heard her scream, and then come running up to us, where we found she had been “attacked” by a crazy ground squirrel. It had come running up to her and jumped onto her leg and held on as she frantically shook it off. It then scampered back into the woods like nothing had happened… Luckily, she had not been bitten but we were still concerned about the potential of Rabies, and we spent a significant amount of time (including a visit to a doctor in Liberia) over the next several days ruling that possibility out. Never a dull moment from the fearless wandering Shannon family ;-)

Since the big trip, we have been very busy with various projects. I’m working on several design projects that are nearing construction, so I’ve been doing a lot of field measuring, and drawing little details, and figuring out how to build things that would mean one short trip to Home Depot or a lumber yard in the US to buy a $2.00 metal bracket, but here means going to three small hardware stores, then trying to explain with poor Spanish and lots of little cartoons what I’m trying to find (and which never exists here), and then ending up at a local welding shop getting something custom made. Even so, it still costs only $2.00 (except for the 4 hours of running around on my part!).

Our other big event recently was helping out with the annual fundraiser at Niall’s School. In the past, they have held a sort of “walk-a-thon,” but this year it was decided to try running a 10K running race instead. Both Norma and I have been involved from the initial organizing this year, so we helped with all sorts of things, from designing the t-shirts and entry forms, to helping figure out logistics and race routes, to brainstorming peripheral fundraising venues for the race day. Last Saturday we ran the race—the Carrera Creative (named for the Centro de Educacion Creativa) and all went very well. One of the teachers at the School, Kevin Spradlin did a great job with the actual race logistics, and the event made a fair bit of money for here in Costa Rica (over US$2000). We spent much of the day with our blender making frappucinos, and contributed over $75 just from that! I also drove volunteers all over the course, distributing water and other goodies, as well as acting as the sag wagon for slow folks. Even though 10K isn’t very far (just 6.25 miles), the course was VERY challenging (it crossed the continental divide twice!) and had well over 1500’ of elevation change on rough and rocky dirt roads. It was really more akin to a cross-country race than a road race;-) In the end, it was a lot of fun, and a great fundraiser for a good cause.

If you'd like to see more photos and a first person account by someone who ran the race check out this link: http://sanjose.cafeabroad.com/Content/View/News/381.html

Our next big trip comes up in a couple of weeks when Niall next gets his week off of school for “Semana Santa” (Easter Week). We’re planning to head back to Nicaragua for our final “visacation” to renew our tourist visas for the last 90 days here in Costa Rica. With luck, I’ll find the time to tell you about that soon! Hasta luego ;-)