Border Run to renew the Visa

It took us about 2.5-3 hours at the border. There were hardly any lines going into Nicaragua, but the lines coming into Costa Rica were huge. Talking with the people who work the little booths, they say the best times to cross into Costa Rica are extremely early, so we planned to return to Costa Rica  at 7am. When we hit the border, we had about 25% of the necessary documentation completed. Luckily all of the work was stuff we could do locally and we didn't waste a complete day.

When we came to the initial border crossing, we had our titulo de propriedad, permiso para salir con carro, Marchamo (car registration we just paid) and another exit fee receipt paid to a bank in San Jose. Each of these documents was important in our preparation to leave the country. If we didn't have any of these, we would have had to return to Liberia (about 1 hour from the border) to get the documentation. So we drove past the building where there was a line of people waiting to enter Nicaragua, but no-one was stopping us or telling us what to do. We came to the "border" and the guard asked us to go back and make a copy, in very poor spanish which was almost impossible to understand. So we went back to Costa Rica, through a huge "fumigator" that vehicles coming from Nicaragua pass through to ensure no bugs from Nicaragua get into CR. After asking about 10 different sets of people, I found a little shop that made a copy of the permission to bring the car out of the country. Mission accomplished, We headed back to the border guard. He looked at our documentation for the vehicle, gave us the thumbs up and sent us across the border. About 100 yards later another guard stops us and asks us to see our passports. He asks us where our stamps were since we were departing from CR, we told him we didn't have any, so he turned us around again. We drove back into CR, through the fumigator and parked in the same spot, but this time the owner of the house where we parked comes out and tells us to park there, he will watch our car. I was told to be leary of the people around the border, so I had walked off, but Angie and Alena were somehow roped into staying and talking with the guy. We came to find out that what he was really offering was long term parking if you want to leave your vehicle at the border ($4/day). In the future, it actually might really be a good option. So we parked at the house and went back to the official building and waited in line. 15 minutes later, we were at the front of the line and the women tells me that I need to have a form to fill out for each traveler, basically the same form you get on the airplane as you travel internationally. So we get the forms and start filling them out for the 7 of us. Luckily there was only a few traveling to Nicaragua at the same time as us, so we only waited a few more minutes and got the departure stamps on all of our passports and paid the departure fee (around $25 a person). As we returned to the car, I got more information for the future in case we want to park long term.

We headed back to the border, by now the first guard just waves us through and we make it back to the second guard. We spend another 10 minutes as he checks all of our passports and I engage in small talk about the people who work the border and ask where most of them live (Liberia, about 1 hr
from the border). He stamps his approval and we are into Nicaragua, but first we have to stop at their fumigation station. It is 2 guys who are holding high pressure wands and start spraying the car with some foul smelling mixture. We have to scramble to get the windows up in time to avoid having been sprayed ourselves. They then proceed to have us stop at the "building" (looked like a snow cone trailer in the states) to pay for the fumigation ($3.50). After waiting in that line for 20 minutes, they have more pressing demands (truckers and commercial guys), they send us onto the Nicaragua side. I need to explain the border area a little. It looks like both Costa Rica and Nicaragua don't want to claim the area. It is a dirt expanse where all the travelers traverse on foot or car and neither country has invested to make the area anything other than a fenced in dirt parking lot (about 1/4 of a mile long).

We had completed all of the necessary steps to exit Costa Rica, we were officially nomads, being in limbo is somewhat of a surreal experience. You realize that you have exited CR and if you don't make it into Nicaragua, you have nowhere to go. As we drove up to the Nicaragua side, a guy comes running up to us. I have heard the horror stories of others, so I just shake my finger at him and keep driving, but there are 2 commercial trucks blocking the way. The kid (about 25) comes running up with forms that we are going to need to fill out and so I bite and ask him to help us through the process. Probably the best decision I made all day. I ended up paying him $40 and giving him another $60 for bribes to expedite the process, but he took me through the steps to enter Nicaragua, and without him, We would have spent much more time figuring out the process. His name is Javier and
he told me he can help us in the future if we need him.

Step 1, finding the correct location to go through the next immigration process (he guided right into our parking spot)

Step 2 filling out the correct forms. He brought us the forms we needed to fill out individually and 1 for customs

Step 3 going through the lines. Nicaragua is so funny about how to do this. If you are traveling on foot, there are 2 lines you will need to enter the country. Line one is for some random tariff to get into the country $1 per person. Line two is the actual migration tax ($12 per person). If you are on foot, then I assume you are done, but we had the car, so there are many more steps

Step 4 Getting the car ready to be legal in Nicaragua. This has many sub steps, so here we go:

1. Have the cars documents reviewed, making sure you have Marchamo, permission to leave the country and the drivers licenses and passports of those who will drive the vehicle(20 minute line)
2. Have the inspector validate the vehicle matches the car's documents. This was a really funny experience because you just follow around a guy and there is no line. You are at his mercy, thus the first need for a bribe, so he will bump your priority. Even with the $20 bribe it takes about 4 car inspections and 20 minutes to get through this step.
3. Pay for insurance to drive in Nicaragua ($12 for liability and $5 for vehicle theft, but not exactly sure that means replacement insurance, but more like reporting fees to the police if something happens) This is 2 separate lines in the same building. Because there were fairly few vehicles, this only took about 10 minutes.
4. Back to another inspection by another guy, a big group of us following around another inspector, $20 bribe and 10 minutes later we were done with him. I watched him have another vehicle take out all of their luggage and open it up to validate there wasn't stuff in them (something that the bribe spared us from hassling with).
5.  Last step before heading to the exit check was to have the vehicle inspected by the Police. They are looking for drugs and they literally did thorough searches of other vehicles, but with the help of Javier and Ben Franklin, he just walked over to our car, stamped the sheet and we were done.(10 minutes waiting following him around with other flock of travelers).

Step 5 Exit check. They look at your passport for the correct stamps. They look at your permission to drive for the correct stamps and signatures from step 4 and boom they open the gate and you are out of there.

It was a fascinating experience that I will always remember.

December is here

December may be here, but the weather is anything from frightful.

Last weekend Angie flew home to Greg's wedding, so the kids and I drove south, through Cartago to the mountains. We entered San Gerardo de Dota and noticed the spectacular views. Pictures don't do it justice. We found some fish, this was the monster.

 The fishing was fast, but they were small. Here is something that doesn't happen much. The double!

This weekend we had Thanksgiving in Playa Hermosa (10 minutes south of Jaco). Thanksgiving supper, we sat in a small place called Hermosa vista and ate Nachos and casados for our Thanksgiving feast. It gave me time to reflect and I realize that Thanksgiving is celebrated with food, which definitely plays into the atmosphere, but there is much more to it. The reality is that it celebrates the family, first and foremost.

We enjoyed our experience. It was unique, but it was somewhat bland. It didn't feel like Thanksgiving. It felt like any other day.


We spent black friday on the "black sand". Beautiful beach (playa hermosa). We saw a really cool thing that most don't get to see. A turtle hatch.

The problem is that the hatch happened in the afternoon and it was low tide. As the turtles headed to the ocean, we could see they weren't making it. The distance and the heat of the sand killed most of the turtles. The Costa Rican guy started taking them to the ocean, so the kids followed suit. Problem was they didn't want to let them go. After various reminders, the turtles were finally left to live and die on their own.

After we were all beached out, we headed up to hike to the largest waterfall in Costa Rica. It took much longer than we expected to get there. We had to pass a crew working on the side of the mountain. They were excavating the hill and causing a big rock slide right on the road. The Costa Rican was waving us through, but we could have created diamonds if you stuck coal where the sun don't shine from the pucker. I hit the gas, and we narrowly slipped through the rock slides.

Once we were at the trailhead, Martin informed us that the hike would take around 2 hours. We figured it would be a little too long because it was already 3:00pm (sun sets around 5pm). We did see some cool Macaws. We headed home to our home cooked Thanksgiving feast (chicken, steak, corn, salad).

Next day we spent the early morning at the beach. On my jog, I found a turtle drag where the mother turtle had climbed up and created a nest the night before. You could see the drag trail up the beach. It was also very clear where the nest was. I was very tempted to dig down and see the eggs, but I decided against it.

We headed back to the waterfall around 11am. (Notice the lack of pictures. Angie didn't want to bring her phone. She told us to take pictures in our minds). On the way up the gravel road to the trailhead, at the excavation point like yesterday, there was a bus about the same size as a greyhound. It started to pass the spot and ended up getting stuck. We sat an extra 15 minutes as they tried to figure out what to do. Finally they unloaded all the passengers and the bus was able to make it up.

The hike down to the base of the mountain was uneventful, except the green snake that almost fell onto Alena's head. We swam in the river below the waterfall.  Then we headed up to the waterfall. It was a very treacherous final kilometer with Lucas. There were steep climbs and slippery rocks, but we made it. We sat at the base of the waterfall and literally took a shower from the spray. We didn't get directly below the falls, but if we did it would have knocked you out because of the velocity of the water. We headed back up the trail, still fairly fresh, but by about the halfway point, there was much weeping, waling, and gnashing of teeth. It didn't help that we had planned a late lunch/early dinner, so we hadn't eaten much. By the end, everyone was exhausted. It was a 4 hour ordeal.

Heading back to Jaco, we saw some more guacamayas. We were dying to eat, but as we drove into Jaco, The police turned us around, there was a horse parade. So we went home and literally huddled around a few bags of chips, some refried beans and oreo waffers. It was just like seagulls on the beach. Less than a minute and it was all gone.

Zac and Parker and now regularly getting up on their surfboards. Alena and Aiden even gave it a shot. Both halfway stood up.

Bring on Christmas...The weather outside still won't be frightful!

One month later

Moving is traumatic, it doesn't matter what age you are.

This experience has been quite the range of emotions. I can describe it in a few words, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Here's the ugly....(I am writing this post laying in bed, in a rented home in the canopy of Quepos. )

me. Since getting here, I have gained around 10 pounds. It's annoying, calorie counting, here I come.

The Bad

Kids miss their friends, Angie doesn't have her friends. Don't get me wrong, they have friends here. Just not close friends yet. Obviously it's only been a month and those type of relationships take time to develop. Life is much less rich without your close friends and it's a reality that we live with moving down here.

The Good

Our family is spending an enormous amount of time together. We have been here for 5 weeks now. We have spent a Saturday at La Paz waterfalls

 

We Came to Manuel Antonio (The most visited national park in Costa Rica). We found one artist here who uses the snouts of the marlins for knife blades. We plan on buying one sometime.

We went for a day trip to the beaches of Jaco (Crocodiles)

We have gone to the park after church (Free park day)


We go to the farmers market every Saturday (we found these cool flower pots on our first trip)

We are having a very unique experience here!

The kids are also getting into sports. Zach was able to play a few minutes on the High School basketball team. Parker is playing Soccer for the Junior High. Alena, Aiden and Luke have started private tennis lessons. Zac and Parker took their first guitar lesson, where the teacher taught us the spanish translation to E,F,G on the base string....Mi, Fa, Sol.  They use Do, ray, me, fa, sol, la, si to teach music.

Reflections

Two Years.

It's one of those life moments where I can remember vividly what I was doing, the weather, etc. It's funny how that works.  I usually can't remember to pick up my daughter if Angie asks me to pick her up 20 minutes before I leave work.

I'm not running around sad all the time, but I definitely have times where I see dad. I see a man with dad's gait, or suspenders and a scraggly beard. Sometimes it's just a pair of white sneakers with velcro straps. Whatever the case, it jars loose the sadness and reminds me that he's not around.

The world changed forever 2 years ago today. Maybe not in the eyes of most of earth 7 billion people. It changed.

1:55pm

I remember.


Dad and Mom really loved us. Our family may not have been very verbose about it, but I have realized how they showed it. I'm very thankful for the lessons, because as I make mistakes as a father I just hope that in the end, my kids feel the true feelings that I love them like my parents loved me.  They were not perfect in a lot of ways, but there is no question of their loyalty to us.


I remember.

Go Figure it out

I love the title of the post...Go figure it out. That is what Bart has been preaching for the past couple of months. Never did I think that I would know so little. I have quickly learned there is a lot to learn about almost everything.

You think you speak spanish...until every customer service rep on the phone says, "will you hold for a moment" and then 30 seconds later there is a new rep on the phone speaking English.

You think your family is fairly well behaved...until everyone is staring at you in the cell phone store, where you have been waiting for 2 hours to finalize your service. The only thing that made this bearable was that Luke was so tired he crashed in Angie's arms (after 1:45 of waiting).

You have 8 tasks and they all need to be done right now. The nice thing is that as you prioritize, things take perspective. So note to self... After taking an overnight flight with your family, don't setup a meeting with the lawyers to transfer the car deed while the family is waiting in the car. Inevitably, things come up and the 5 minutes you were promised it would take turn into 30 with no end in sight. The good news is that your family will let you know about it.  Funny side note, Zach comes up and interrupts the meeting with the lawyers to see if they can leave and before he goes back downstairs, asks for a glass of water and proceeds to wait for it, slowly drink it, and then slowly walk down the stairs. So if you need something done quickly, don't send your thirsty teenager.

Details listed below:

It's actually been very great. We've been running around alot.

Day 1. Flight lands at 6:00am. Crazy time getting out of the airport, picking up the car in Heredia and dropping off our 15 suitcases and 14 carry ons. Changing as quick as I can to make a 9am meeting to sign on the car. Stopped at Forum 2 McDonalds. Angie made her first Costa Rican friend, who offered to be her friend. Then off to get our cell phones (Airport's store systems didn't work). That was the experience listed above. We made it out of there around 2pm. Then we started looking for beds. Finished all of that shopping around 7pm.  Got enough food to last the morning. Hit the hay around 11pm.

Day 2. Meet with the kids teachers at Arandu, Finalize bed shopping, Get our PriceSmart (Costco) membership, and then head into work. Worked in the office from 11am - 5:30pm. Interivewed Karin. Began working on the Snap Technology Plan.

Day 3, Went for the morning run, got the morning runs and that ended that. Waited for the internet guy to come and deliver the contract. Angie brought me to work at 10am. Vitaly showed me office space in Forum 1. We went over the basics of the buisness....just realized this is too much detail...

Finalize:

Every night has ended about 11pm with me crashing. I can't sleep enough. The sun rises at 5:30 and there is no sleeping after that.

I never want to see another Walmart...ugh...I'm sure they know us by name and sight...

Gotta love costco, but even the costco food court is 30-60% higher. We spent $36 on dinner and the kids were still hungry.

Ch - Ch -Ch - Changes

Funny how life is. You work for 17 years for one company, in a completely safe environment and then life throws you a curve ball. I had a great thing going at the University. I had a stable job and enjoyed the work environment. I don't think you could have cinched those golden handcuffs any tighter. 

Now, 3.5 months later, I have a new position at a new company. Life is busier than ever, and life decides to throw us another curve ball, Costa Rican style.

We will be heading to Costa Rica this Saturday to find a place to live for the next 9-10 months. Angie has always been the big talker about moving for an experience. Well, now she gets her wish. 

We signed up for the Cottonwood marathon at the beginning of the summer and Saturday is the culmination of that training. Not long after, our lives will change as we catch the red eye (that will be interesting) to make it to church on Sunday morning in Costa Rica.

I am looking forward to this adventure. I think that it has great potential to make a positive impact in our family's lives. This has come with a lot of stress. Angie is struggling with the change and seems to be unhappy lately. There is so much change that it is very easy to understand the challenges it poses.

I plan on keeping the blog each week to document our adventure.

Until then...

2011 Green River Trip

Flows: 3000 CFS (Too high)
Temps: 33-43 (Too Cold)
Dates: 4/22-4/23

We got a late start, 4:00 am Friday morning. Normally, we are into the Ashley National Forest by the time daylight starts to diminish the darkness. This time we are just into Evanston when the shades of violet and dark blue blemish the sky. Turns out that it was perfect. We pulled into McDonalds (gearing up for a long day of fishing) and they just opened the drive through as we sat there. Talk about timing.

We realized as we drove through Ashley National Forest that at temperatures of 27 degrees, we were in for cold days. We arrived at Little hole around 7:50 and hooped and hollered being the first and only vehicle in the parking lot. We had great expectations and were excited to get to our favorite starting point near the bathrooms (about 1.5 miles up river). We made good time walking, but both noticed that we weren't seeing near the fish that we normally see. Fish weren't rising very often. Hardly any fish were visible along the bank. When we got to our spot, there were no fish rising, and the water was so high that we couldn't even wade in to hit our spot. Didn't matter anyway, the fish weren't rising at all. We spent an hour trying to get something out of that hole, but it wasn't in the cards, so we started up the river. The next section was much calmer along the shore, so we started half heartedly throwing in our lines. I hooked one that swam away from me and downstream. I had on the "Gator Gloves" and couldn't get my drag loose in time and POP, the line snapped. We ended up fishing that run of the river for the next 45 minutes. I hooked at least 10 fish, but only landed one. After the river bend, CJ landed a reported 3lb Rainbow that was fat as a football. We fished our way up to Mother-in-law rapids and caught 3-5 more fish on BWOs. The water was so incredibly thick with BWOs that it was hard to find your fly amongst the real things. We would find the occasional fish rising near the shore and tempt it with our flies. It was slow fishing, but we would catch 1 or 2 every hour we fished.
Around 3:30-4pm we started heading back down towards little hole. There were only a few fishermen up where we fished, and we expected the trail back to be covered with fishermen, but it was very sparse. We had plenty of opportunities to fish on the way back. We found some risers and hooked into a couple more, but it was the sore backs and frozen hands that had us back at the car around 6pm. It felt like the earliest departure from the river that we had ever had.
We headed towards FGR to our room and a nice meal, but CJ wanted to "test" his new 4x4. He drove it up a road and about 300 yds in and decided that it was a little too rugged for his liking. He turned back and claimed I was trying to ruin his new truck.