Tirimbina and More Fun w/ Nature

Hello - We hope that everyone is well and enjoying the winter. I read that this winter has seen the most snow cover in the US since the 1960's. I must admit that it is hard to think that it is ever cold anywhere. Wisconsin is going to be a rough adjustment for sure. We are just getting over a pretty nasty illness. It knocked us out for about a week. But I am happy to report that we are both feeling much better.

We have had a few more adventures to report on. We went to La Tirimbina last week. It is a nature preserve and so cool. We hiked all around the park, and spent sometime trying to get un-lost.

We learned that when the sign says "Warning- Do Not Enter Without Guide" There is probably a good reason for that. The trail was washed out on more than a few parts of the trail and sometimes the trail didn't even appear to be a real trail. Always a good time. Always. In our endless journeying we did find and see some cool stuff. Mostly this is because Almira has almost Super Hero Like vision. She can spot the most random and hard to see animals and plants.

For example. Play find the frog. In this picture there is a frog hidden in the leaves. Can you find it? Almira did. Really her vision is pretty amazing. Oh the things you learn while living in the middle of nowhere in Costa Rica.

Also a Cocoa Plant that was growing on one of trees we saw while we were lost on our hike. It looks pretty unreal. It is hard to believe that things grow like that.

On the way in we got to cross this insanely long suspension bridge. It was so high and very shaky. This picture does not really show how long the bridge is. Something to see in person for sure. Any takers?

This was my favorite part of the hike. The strangest prehistoric looking bug. It was so strange looking. Every time I think that I have seen all of the strange things that I will see on this trip another crazy bug shows up. I did not intend to say "strange" so many times. Oops!

We love you all! Drop us a line sometime and let us know how you are doing and fill us in what is going with you.

The Great Almond Tree Chronicles

Hello! Happy Valentine's Day! We hope that everyone is doing great out there so far from the equator. We are loving our time here in the CR. Yesterday we went on a hike to go see the official favorite tree of Costa Rica 2007. Yes they really do have that award here. This tree the Gran El Almendero or Great Mountain Almond Tree is huge and over 600 years old! I do not think that the pictures fully communicate the sheer size of this tree. (Almira wanted me to mention that I chose this photo- I like the blurry- looks very candid.)

It seems to have its own ecosystem, complete with huge cave like holes filled with bats. This part was bigger than I am- no fat jokes please. Just to give you an idea. (The picture to the right)

The hike was great and of course is right near where we work/live. So it was a nice little morning hike with our crew from work. It was rainy fun at its best. Here is a picture of all of the hippies that work at the center. They are Ticas(Costa Ricans), Indian, Hungarian, and good old Americans. It is funny how true the stereotypes are. We are of course the exceptions to most of these (I do however own several pairs of Birkenstocks and Almira and I love the Grateful Dead).

Maybe this shot gives a better view of the giant tree but not really. Truly a site to behold. Come visit and we will take you here....any takers?

We also had a family of howler monkeys move in- permantley- next to our office. They are definitely appropriately named. Those suckers can howl! These guys are around all of the time and we never get tired of watching them.

And of course... the random animal/bug/flower picture of the week... Yurtle the turtle. This little guy was hanging out right in our path during our Almendero Hike.

Until next time...We love and miss you all! Please post your comments we read and sure do love them.

Bugs, Lizards, and Bats Oh My...

Hello everyone. We hope that you are doing well and missing us. Things here in Sarapiqui are great! We are loving the nature and helping the people. We have only been here a few weeks and already seeing the rewards. (Notice: No bugs were harmed in the making of this blog)

One afternoon we happened upon the coolest Leaf Bug. It doesnt look real does it? I was so intrigued with this bug. I took a ton of photos and even played with it a bit. Then...

I got a bit hungry so I decided to take a bite. And no it did not taste like chicken.

This was a find of Almira´s. A very odd and hairy catipillar. This thing was beyond strange. It did not like being distrubed, but we couldn´t help but take a picture or two.

This little guy, lets call him Mr. Bojangles, was just hanging out near our office. He loved Almira, and let her take many pictures up close. Mr. Bojangles did not like me however and took off when I got close.

This grinning fellow is a fruit bat we saw on our nightly walk back to our house. Menacing looking isnt he. Here is a factoid: There are over 154 different types of bats in Costa Rica. Carleigh still want to come visit? They only eat the bugs and some eat fruit. With all of the bugs here we love bats!

And here we are downing a virgin Piña Colada. One of our English students works at an organic pineapple farm, and she made these for us fresh and from scratch. Oh, buddy was it good! People really are that nice, and all of the time. This place is like living in Alice and Wonderland. You never know what is going to happen next but you know that it will be strange and funny. At this rate I would not be totally shocked to meet an iguana wearing a top hat.

We love you all. Please leave comments- we love ém!

Until next time....

Near Electrocution and Other Stories

This is our fun little yard. We live behind the super mercado! It is about the size of an average garage in the states but it does have Kern´s juice and Canada Dry Ginger Ale so it really is super to us.

Things have been good. We are really feeling local of late. When we go into town (Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui) we recognize people and chat with them on the street. Pretty cool.


This is our usual yummy dinner of beans. Made with our very own hot plate. This was sort of rare thing for us to eat. We usually have some sort of sandwich filled with local produce, avocados, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and cheese. Always a good time for dinner at our place.

We came home one night and saw the biggest toad I have ever seen. It was bigger than my foot! We thought it was pretty funny.

This is a flower from a tree right next to where we eat lunch. It was huge! The flowers here look unreal.

This is a picture of one of the many Birds of Paradise plants in our front yard. They are like weeds here.

This is Almira (isnt she adorable?) standing next to our ¨ducha¨ shower. Notice the random wires sticking out of the top? This is how they heat the water here. No water tank just coils that instantly heat the water. That sounds about right doesnt it? Anyway ours broke for about a week- it would short out on us and then once we would turn off the water the coils would activate and give our place a free steam bath. Thankfully we have a new one now. It works great and we are thankful not to have gotten a jolt.

All and all things are great! We are going to be in a local Costa Rican magazine this month- for our English classes. Should be pretty cool! We love you all! Please write we love the comments and the emails! Keep them coming!!!

Love you, Kyle and Almira

A Day in the Life of...

Hey folks! Sorry, the camera's power died...so these are the only pics we've got. Kyle: eating a cucumber and sitting on the "lazy chair" in front of our neon orange house (most people really do just sit outside their houses in plastic or wicker chairs and do nothing). Then there is the creepy picture of the giant grasshopper held by an astonished Almira (we found this live specimen just outside our classroom)...that is all for now. We'll power up the camera for more fun pics to come! Stay tuned for our next blog "Near Electrocution"...sounds promising doesn't it? Love and miss you all!

Long Awaited Fotos

This is us at 4am in the Atlanta airport Sunday morning. Man were we tired...as you can tell.

The view from our Hostel our first night in San Jose.

View from the Center in Sarapiqui

Almira in our office at the Center

Part of our daily walk to work

More of the same.

Awesome tree frog

Once we finally made it to Sarapiqui and the Center they had prepared an amazing chocolate cake for Almira.

Our lovely kitchen-complete with hot plate!

Estamos Aqui en El Centro!!!

Hi everyone!

We made it here to the Center yesterday! It was a blast getting here. Sunday morning we flew out bright and early (we got up at 3:45a) and then headed to San Jose, Costa Rica. We had a seamless flight. It was so low key that I have some real concerns about homeland security. No one really checked our passports or itinerary- like we were told they would. Fun stuff.

We then got picked up by the hostel we stayed at. The driver took us all around San Jose and laid down the history for us. It was really interesting. Really it was. Once we got to the hostel we spent the rest of the day looking for something to eat. We were starving! We walked and walked and unlike just about everywhere else in the world most stores are actually closed on Sunday- just like Chik-fil-A. The only places that were open were American fast food joints. We ended up going to Burger King and having the best Whoopers we have ever eaten.

The hostel we stayed at was way too nice to be a hostel. Awesome and clean queen sized bed- the best!

The next morning we took a taxi to the bus depot where the assistant program director met us- Paula. She was so nice and helped us buy our tickets and get our stuff on the bus. Funny story... While on the bus Almira got hit in the head with a used candy wrapper that was thrown out of the front window of the bus and then sucked back in and landed in her hair. Yuck! It was funny afterwards anyway.

We finally got to Sarapiqui and took our final taxi to the Center. We met all of the wonderful people and had one of the best lunches ever. It being Almira´s Birthday, I had arranged to have a cake for Almira. Man was it the richest chocolate cake ever! So good! (pics to come)

We got to our new home. It is tiny house behind the local grocery. It is much nicer than we anticipated. We have luke warm water and everything (no one has anything more than frigid). We were also excited to see that we could get Ginger Ale. All and all a great place. We still however are living in the middle of nowhere, but we love it. We are still getting settled and acclimated to low keyness of this place. The people are awesome and the land is so beautiful. Costa Rica and a hot wife who could ask for anything more?

We hope everyone is well. We will post pics tomorrow. We have to convert them to smaller files. The internet here is akin to dial-up. A transition indeed. Until next time.

¡Pura Vida!