WE MADE IT TO COSTA RICA!

Well, I'm gonna give this blog-thing a go-- but with my self-discipline & consistency, posts may be bi-monthly only -- & that isn't very much for a 6-week trip! Anyway, we made it to Costa Rica at 2:00 PM CST on Wednesday, 7/14 (no daylight savings here). We got moved in to our casita in the mountains, and it is heaven on earth! Our wonderful landlady, Vera, met us at the airport in San Jose & has been so kind as to transport us to town each day. She is a true delight! She is a native Brazilian, so her Spanish seems to be a mixture of Spanglish, Costa Rican Spanish & Portuguese She lives in the 'big casa' (Villa Vera), and we are in the guest casita in the back. We are waiting for it to warm up enough to swim in her pool! At night it goes down to about 58 degrees and up to about 73 in the daytime-- what better reason to be OUT of San Antonio, Texas, in July and August?? It has been cloudy and intermittent rainy the past 2 days, but we don't let it stop us. We've already tagged all the bakeries in town -- thanks to Jim! Today was a great day-- found the local ferria (farmers' market) and got all sorts of fresh fruit & veggies. Also made some new ex-pat friends-- a young couple from Colorado with their 2 children-- a 2 YO boy (reminds us of Anson) and a 3 week old daughter! So the baby is a Tica (a local) because she was born here. They were very enjoyable, and they took us to a gringo cafe (run by & frequented by Americans) whose owners would know the friends we were looking for. We had met this couple from Kingwood in Nov. when we were here but only knew their first names & had lost their email address. Luckily, the owner did know them and said they come in just about daily to the restaurant. And sure enough, in an hour or so, here came Lynne and Ray & we reconnected & had old home week! Lots of fun...
Tomorrow we'll stay close by & do some hiking in the jungle around our casita! Hope to see some toucans and monkies soon. We even found an English-speaking Baptist church we will attend on Sunday! -- networking is the name of the game! Till another day-- adios loved ones; we miss you!