Sandke Family In Costa Rica

We have had a busy couple of weeks since getting back from Manuel Antonio. Emma and Clare have visited the dentist as well as the orthodontist and we are embarking of braces for Clare. Emma has been in the chair for the removal of some teeth in hopes that her teeth will follow a natural path towards alignment. Our orthodontist is quite well regarded professionally and we are confident in his approach. The value of dental care here is hard to overstate. Tami and Bill did not escape “The Chair” either.

Emma had a field trip last week to Banco Nacional where one of her classmates fathers is a director. Dad attended as well. We met the jefe grande and the class really enjoyed visiting the vault, the 19^th floor helicopter pad as well as sitting around the ornate board rooms.

Clare is preparing for the performance of the Fifth Grade play, “The Emperor’s New Cloth.” She is starring as Milk Lady (by special arrangements with SAG and AFTRA!) Clare also competed her Space Camp preparation project and presented before a group of parents. We are getting all set to send her off June 28^th for a week in Huntsville Alabama for an exciting week with NASA. She is part of a group 22 Lincoln students who earned an invitation to attend with good grades and behavior.

We are so proud of both of our girls who showed flexibility and resiliency through our relocation.

Tami left this morning for her last business trip to Coronado. Her coming week is booked full of appointments with existing and new clients interested in some face to face time. While not looking forward to the journey, she understands the importance of the being on site for her clients.

With the end in sight for our adventure, I thought I would ask the girls to sum up their thoughts so far. When told of our impending trip, Clare remembers being “freaked out.” In her words: “I really wanted to stay home because of my friends. I would miss my teacher , family and pet fish. I did not even know Costa Rica existed.“ “When I got here, I thought it was pretty cool because of all the trees and animals. The people are nice.”

“Lincoln school is good. I like that it is challenging. I thought is was very big and I love small schools. I like my clubs, my favorite was journalism. I like that there was so much to do. Lunch is longer and I liked the cafeteria. I also liked the playground, gym and track.”

“Now that I am getting ready to leave, I will miss waking down to the river on our property and playing with Chester the dog. I really can’t wait to play with my friends and see my family back home.”

Emma remembers not knowing anything about Costa Rica but thinking it would be a fun adventure.

In her words: “ I was pretty scared about moving to a new school and about speaking Spanish.”

“Costa Rica is a beautiful place… all the trees and mountains.”

“I thought my new school was SO BIG! I like most of the people in my class especially Amy, Maria Marta and Daniella. The Cafeteria was my favorite. You can buy lunch. My Coronado school does not have one of those.” “I can’t wait to see my friends back home. I feel sad that I have to move away from my friends here.”

Adds Clare: “When I get Coronado I am just going to run to see my friends!” Emma is really looking forward to seeing her friends too.

There are many “must see” sights here in Costa Rica. Some we have yet to get to but many, now that we have been here for 4 months, are already in the log book. One that we had missed was Manuel Antonio National Park. That was rectified this weekend with a family road trip in our Trusty Terios!

We departed Friday morning, early, letting the kids miss their half-day of school and made quick time through the city and on toward the coast. The trip was advertised as 3.5 hours on our GPS but road construction in several spots coupled with single lane bridges at several locations added time to our drive. We arrived at Tulemar Bungalows and Villas around 2:30 and checked into our room. The rooms are set up as detached bungalows and we were not far from the pool and restaurant. Quite large, we had a full kitchen, two queens beds in the bedroom and a single day bed in the living room.

We headed to the pool first thing. In a twist on the old Fred Astaire number, we spent the afternoon “Swimmin’ in the Rain.” After all, this is the rainy season but if you ask at any hotel worker, they will call it Green Season. This is no joke. It will rain during the day, usually late afternoon and it will rain hard. Dinner was at the hotel which had fine food and super service. I had to order the “bagon” wrapped chicken to learn what “bagon” was and sure enough it tasted just like bacon!

The next morning was an early start as we wanted to get to the park as early as possible. After our included breakfast and a fun show put on by the hotel’s resident monkeys, we headed down the road for the short trip to the park. Upon arriving it was necessary to run a gauntlet of boisterous, official looking guys imploring you to park in their area. Like barkers in the old days of the circus, these guys use whistles, official looking badges and shoulder wear to fool you into spending more to park further away and use unofficial guides.

We were fortunate to meet Mario in the park’s main parking lot and with gentle persuasion and no nonsense negotiation skills he became our guide. We could not have done any better Mario was great, especially with the kids. Upon entering the park you are warned about the poisonous trees that are prevalent, especially near the park entrance. Also, there is a sign warning about swimming near the mouth of the nearby river as you could be eaten by a crocodile!

In the first 100 yards, we saw bats, an interesting rodent creature and a two-toed sloth! Later we walked beautiful beaches. The place is a photographer’s dream as everywhere I turned, there was another perfect place for pictures. Past the second beach we came to a pair of three-toed sloths high above the trail but unlike others we had seen, these two were active. It is quite rare to see these “Chewbacca” look-a-likes doing anything but lounging in a tree. Later along the same trail we saw three of the four monkey species that are endemic to Costa Rica, Squirrel, Howler and Capuchin. The Squirrel monkeys were specially active jumping from tree to tree like circus acrobats. They put on quite a show. We also found, with Mario’s, help two interesting species of frog. The park in indeed a must see for anyone visiting the country and though it is an almost 4 hour drive from San Jose, it is very much worth the effort.

Following our tour, we re-entered the park and went for a swim at Playa Espadilla Sur, one of the beautiful beaches within the park boundaries. It is very calm with warm water and small waves and is a true slice of heaven. The girls had a great time. We kept our backpacks guarded as we were warned about theft by both humans and monkeys! We departed the beach and headed back to the park entrance for a little shopping and some lunch. Giovanni was our chef at a beach side collection of picnic tables, lean-to tarp, coolers and a grill that makes up his “Soda el Mango” restaurant.

Back at the hotel we headed straight down to the private beach on the Tulemar property and grabbed some kayaks for a paddle across the bay to a near-by beach. Both Emma and Clare took singles while Tami and I doubled up. We swam at this beach for a while before the gathering grey of the afternoon rains compelled us to head back. Once back at Tulemar, the girls grabbed boogie boards and used them for some fun in the waves. Both had a great time while mom and dad had a blended beverage.

We completed our beach fun and headed back up the hill. The girls asked to walk on their own and that was going fine till a horse fly decided to take a bite out of Clare’s shin! Her only defense was a strawberry smoothie which proved enough to scare away the sky creature. We repaired to the pool where preparations were underway for a wedding reception in the adjacent restaurant. We felt a little underdressed but the servers ensured up that the pool was indeed open and that we were welcome. We were also treated that night to a fantastic sunset.

We went back to the room for a fall back and regroup maneuver. This was necessary after our very full day. Dinner was more like a grazing and snacking affair over several hours until we finally decided, just as the rain started, to venture out into the neighborhood. There are several dozen hotels in the area as well as the usual collection of eateries and taverns of all shapes and sizes. We selected El Avion as our stop. This is a bar and restaurant built around an unusual centerpiece- a defunct C-123 cargo plane once used by Oliver North‘s secret “FedEx” operation. His planes operated from a clandestine airfield on privately owned land in north west Costa Rica. This particular aircraft was the sister ship to the one crashed by Eugene Hassenfus ushering in the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration. It had been abandoned in San Jose and after being purchased for $3000, it was taken apart to ship by road to Manual Antonio.

We returned to the hotel only to have the peace and quiet of the jungle shattered by the serene notes of “We are Family” and the thumping beat of dance music from the wedding party. This racket lasted till 10 PM and seemed very out of place in the Costa Rican rainforest!

The following morning we swam, headed into town for a little shopping then departed for home. Our route this time took us through downtown Jaco, a rapidly developing beach community with high rises, bars and restaurants. You get the feeling that in about 5 years, when the bridges and highway from San Jose are done this place will have gone from an active beach town like Ensenada in the 80’s to a Cabo San Lucas sister-city! There is money literally pouring into Jaco.

Our trip home was easy and we were home for dinner. Our car, a Daihatsu Terios, has proven itself again! We are paying the equivalent of $4.60 per gallon for gas here (the price is set by the government) but our car gets 30 mpg! And if you can believe it, we can go almost 9 hours on one tank of gas!

I was browsing the National Geographic map recently and came upon an interesting destination just a few kilometers from our Concepcion home. It is called Refugio Cerro Dantas and it turned out to be a wonderful overnight adventure for our family as well as an interesting introduction to another unique area of Costa Rica.  The Refugio is located directly north of the town of San Rafael at the end of a well worn trail in the middle of the forest. With much of CR rain forest, this cloud forest features quite different flora and fauna than we had so far experienced. But more on that later.

You may have heard the expression “getting there is half the fun.” In this case it really applies. Journey by car over a semi-passable “road” to the house just past the house with the sign that says “Se vende queso.” You can park inside the black gate of the small house where the owner will keep your car safe overnight for 2500 Colones (about $5.00). Then you walk about 700 meters over a hard packed road that is slightly uphill till you get to the sign pointing left that says “Refugio Cerro Dantas.”   From there, it is a 2.2 KM down hill hike over what might be considered a road somewhere on the planet. This rutted and rocky trail, once a main route for coffee on its way to the Limon port, winds down through forest canopy over three bridges in very sad states of repair to a small pedestrian hanging bridge and then on the refuge compound. Like a navigational beacon to a lost sailor, the red metal roofs of the camp appear through the trees. We have arrived!

The kids were great on the hike in and we were met at the trail head by Michael and Jessica who live on site and served quite ably as our hosts. A young married couple in their first year at the Refugio, Michael handles camp maintenance and serves as the hiking guide. Jessica is a fantastic cook in the rustic kitchen preparing wonderful meals. Jessica charged ahead to be sure lunch was ready for our arrival and Michael stayed with us pointing out interesting orchid varieties as well as troublesome plants we would want to avoid touching. He also showed us the safest paths over the bridges being slowly eaten by the hungry forest gods.  Camp proved to be very beautifully landscaped with a large clearing populated by pretty flowering plants as well as the prolific Mora berry plant. The wood slatted paths were edged in railings that had plants growing on the fence posts. This design element mimicked the fantastic array of Stag Horn ferns hanging from many of the trees at this 2300 meter elevation.

Anxious to see our surroundings, Michael led us on a short hike before lunch. Donning our rubber boots, we trekked west from camp into quickly rising terrain. We stopped at a small clearing to admire a brook that flowed past while Michael described the options for our later hike. We could take a one hour vertical trail from here to a large reservoir where we were sure to spot the elusive Quetzal bird or take another path east from camp to a really cool waterfall. We elected to avoid the difficult vertical climb to avoid problems not only for the kids but for Tami who on different occasions had broken each of her ankles.

After a filling pasta lunch we “booted up” again and left camp. The path to the water fall turned out to be quite an exciting hike with some near vertical drops where the exposed tree roots became stair steps on the way down and climbing hand holds on the way back up. The fruits of our labor proved to be a beautiful 60 foot water fall into a small cavern that opened at the east end to a gently flowing stream. The mist and the enclosing forest canopy provided one of the most beautiful sights we have enjoyed so far during our Costa Rican stay. I remarked to Tami that I felt if one wanted to see the “real” Costa Rica, this was a “must see” location.  The girls ate up the climbing and hiking in a way I did not expect. Both were sure footed and confident requiring only minimal assistance from Michael. Often following a difficult portion of the trail, the girls would scamper ahead as Tami and I carefully plotted our safe traverse of the mud, rock and roots. As parents, we could not have been prouder.

We sat out a late afternoon rainstorm playing cards and dominoes and plotted out sleeping arrangements. The room we had, one of six in the bunkhouse, featured three sets of bunk beds. We were warned that it would be cold so we each grabbed extra blankets from the unused beds. We even doubled up mattresses on two of our bunks to make up for the discomfort of thin bedding coupled with metal slatted bed frames. Night fell and following another comforting creation from Jessica, we repaired to our bunks for the night.   Evening in the forest is quite full of sounds and the “Cancion del Bosque” at Cerro Dantas is surely a highlight of the stay. Insects and birds sounded off as fire fly beetles dotted the ground and trees in the Refugio clearing. Clouds obscured the stars but the glow of the San Jose city lights could be clearly seen. Dominating a hill top south of us was a beacon in the night, an ICE cell tower. The occasional sound of trucks from the Limon road interrupt the frogs and crickets. Civilization was just not all that far away.

Morning begins very early with a 5 AM escape from the warm blankets to observe the local birds voracious visit with the late departing butterflies who spent the night perched on the sole light pole in the center of camp. Several butterflies escape into the dawn light but others become prey for the Yellow Thighed Finch and the Candelitas. By 6 or so, the sun is above the trees, the feeding frenzy has ended and it is warming up.   An early hike on the trail called Expedition was begun after we again “booted up.” Michael led us to the northwest side of the clearing and into the jungle trail where we spotted more beautiful and rare orchids as well as lots of interesting ferns and palms. Several small streams were crossed with glowing green moss covering the stones rounded by years of aquatic erosion.

The trail is quite steep in some areas and becomes a narrow ledge in others but in these areas, ropes have been tied securely to anchoring trees to enable safe passage. These proved to be just challenging enough for my daughters to make them the most fun and exciting parts of the hike for them. Michael gave the girls each a beautiful heliconia cut right from the jungle with his machete. We spotted several sets of fresh Tapir tracks and even got the scent of the “Dantas Caca” but these shy creatures, able to sense a human at 1500 meters, proved elusive.

We returned to camp after just under two hours where Jessica had a great breakfast ready to recharge our batteries for the hike out. We ate and packed up allowing some time for our food to settle and then departed for the uphill hike home. Michael joined us for the jaunt. Though it had rained the night before, the morning sun had quickly dried out the trail quite a bit and it was easily passable. We shared the trail with a group of mountain bikers. Even the uphill nature of the hike was not daunting. At the head of the trail, Michael bid us farewell and began packing up a charcoal grill that he was lugging back to the refuge. Wow!

We have actually been home this week and spent a great weekend together here in San Jose. No traveling, no hotels and no planes. Well, the plane thing is not correct as I did some flying on Monday but at least we are hanging in the hood for a bit.

Last week started with a Tuesday return to school for the girls and a return to managing our business for Tami and me. Both Clare and Emma brought home great report cards and are doing well in school. We and they love their teachers and we are very happy with the Lincoln School.

Emma had a soccer game on Friday and Lincoln played to a 0-1 loss against arch rivals International Christian School. ICS played a couple of girls that had to be older than the grade 2-5 age class. In fact, Lincoln finished the game with 2 players on the bench from injuries. No matter, the girls had a great time and I think Emma is doing great though she is one of the youngest on the team. We have also made several friends through the team.

Friday night we went to a bingo fundraiser for the school. This was not your grand mothers bingo. It was a family event held at the Country Club for about 700 people. Prizes were flights, big screen TVs, I pods and other great electronics. Grand prize was an Aspen vacation including airfare. We might have won a prize but we would not have know it as we had a hard time keeping up with the all Spanish commentary! It was great practice for all our 40’s, 50’s 60’s and 70’s Spanish numbers!

There was commotion and excitement through out the evening and oh boy, do the CR families know how to have a good time! Calling the game was what had to be a professional bingo MC who I think doubles as a soccer commentator. My ears rang with the sound of BIIINNGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO for several hours after the event. Us Americans could take a cue from this fun family fundraiser.

Our Saturday was a lazy one. The girls got a dose of American television with a bunch kid shows in English on Saturday morning. We did the big family breakfast thing and that was nice as we had not done that in awhile. Swimming at the club and then steaks on the grill rounded out a great day.

Sunday we drove downtown to The Church of the Good Shepherd. This is a local Episcopal church that gives an 8:30 AM mass in English. We enjoyed the service though the “fire and brimstone” sermon was a little bigger than we are used to. We met some wonderful parishioners and even ran into some one whose house we had initially looked at to rent. I guess you are becoming a local when you begin running into people you know around town like at the market or a new church.

Following church, we enjoyed a short walk around a couple of blocks of downtown. I must admit we have been avoiding the downtown scene due to the stories of crime and traffic. Town was full of families strolling and the Sunday AM traffic scene was easy and our trusty GPS got us around the one way streets well. It even had the streets that have been recently made pedestrian-only walk ways. This was particularly helpful at there are lots of these.

San Jose currently is hosting the Cow Parade, which, if you don’t know is the painted cows done by local artists and sponsored by businesses. Sales of the these life size, painted cows generates money for charity. These cows are placed all over the central down town area and it was fun for us to check some of them out. We found the locals to be friendly and helpful. There were lots of parents with kids doing the Cow thing and across from the church, there was a lot of activity at the National Theater. It is on the same square as the Grand Costa Rican hotel which is an old school, formal hotel in the center of town. Many heads of state have visited there.

After our adventures downtown, we headed out to Santa Ana where Margarita Bernardi, a Brown family friend from Holtville, lives. She returned to CR following the death of her husband several years ago. We did make a pit stop at Bagelmans which is a Starbucks kind of place in Escazu, where all things gringo are, with good bagels, food and coffee. Margarita has a great house in a compound owned by her sister and brother in law.

On the grounds are several parrots, lots of peacocks and a beautiful Macaw. There are a couple of apartments there too and Margarita has a nice group of friends there. We visited for a good bit and met the “Lorro Loco”- the crazy parrot. Lunch was at a nice little Italian place not far from Margarita’s house and we had Pops ice cream for dessert. Pops, a local ice cream chain, has become one of our important stops around town and we are lucky to find it in some of the better markets.

This week started with a regular school day though Clare stayed home with a cough. I went flying at the request of CAVU, the environmental group. Using photography and video, CAVU is documenting the burning of vast swathes of forest in order to clear land for farming, in this case, pineapples. Not only is the smoke and pollution offensive but the deforestation coupled with the fact that some of this clearing is in a national park had gotten the attention some folks. Al Gore would be appalled!

The bigger challenge is motivating the government to stop this practice and at least keep the land owners recognizing the boundaries of the reserve. We did our shooting in the Cano Negro area, not far from the Nicaraguan border. On the way, I got some shots of both Arenal and Poas volcanoes. Please check out these photo albums.

It is nice to be around for a while and settled. We are now past the mid-point of our time here and are quite happy with our grove. We have a diverse group of friends and the girls are getting more and more independent every day. Tami and the girls are plotting our next adventure but we look forward to spending a good chunk of time at home in Coronado first!