Little Undertakings

Hello hippy-dippies, shoppy-doppies, worky-dorkies, happy-snappies and lazy-daisies.

Let me tumble you into an episode with short stories of my lazy life with still so many undertakings. I have to tell myself that this life I'm leading is unique, rare, wanted by many, suited for me, exhilarating and super intense. Instead I sink into the easy state of living day by day and not really appreciating my options and choices. It's a human characteristic to always want to have more, to always try to make things more perfect, to always linger about that one little thing that was not good. He! Don’t tell me that your life is perfect or everything combining, that’s like having no opinion, no discrimination. We need to see those little faults that can be perfected, true. But while your at it, please stay alert for the wonder of everyday life, please say thank you for the luck that was given to you in the subway today, please think about so many other people in other parts of the world, be proud of what you created for yourself, enjoy it and stay enthusiastic with every new approach.
Be aware.

I would like to thank all of you for reading my blog. You are the reason I keep continuing and the remarks of some of you make it even a challenge. I say thank you because writing to you about my previous adventures makes me relive, rethink and appreciate it truly. It makes me amazed myself about how much I and the people around me are able to experience in the short time here. Hell yeah, it makes me aware!

In less than a month we took another trip with the motorcycle, went overnight fishing on a platform, found jobs, had way too many parties, started yoga, worked through hard emotional conflicts, enjoyed a tico rodeo, paid long visits to Dos Brazos and STILL felt lazy………… maybe because we had to much fun and did not anything productive…….

So let me show you some photo’s of all this fun and give a little explanation on the side:

Lets start with the rodeo in La palma, a town one and a half hour away from our house.
We would camp in a friends garden, and his oldes son tagged along. This family, with a Dutch dad and Tica mum, lived in Belguim for many years; so all of them can speak Dutch, soooooo funny.
It was not that busy, and there was not that much to do, but we still entertained ourselfs with the cheap games, beatles in our rise and cold cervesa's.

The arena, pretty shaky and big for here, had a nice amound of people. About 15 guys would ride a bull or horse tonight while many other teased the animals after the ride. If we wanted we could've jumped in too, everybody is welcome........
It was all in Central American timeframes: it would take almost 20 to 30 minutes after each ride to get the next bull ready, we are getting used to this though, you just order another cervesa.

This is back at the house. We have several banana trees and it was time to cut this stack. You cut them when they are green (otherwise the monkeys will get them) and hang them in the house where they will ripen in a few days.

With Semana Santa (Easter) nobody can sell or buy alcohol. So we thought it would be a good idea to give a party this day and supply the place where it's private and possible to drink if desired.
Many people from Dos Brasos came as well and camped in our garden, while Steve and Mariela's garden was full with tents of people from San Jose.

We hung hamocks everywhere and asked the guest to bring a dish and a bottle of alcohol.

The music is playing and you can see how we used banana leaves as plates, mainly so we hade no dishes.

Zeph put a lot of time in BBQ-ing the chicken, a big job.

Another massive fire was lit and burned to the ground. It was a great party, very different from the wedding because we had no obligations. Again I met so many new people and for the first time it was me who went to bed last, at 5am I felt satisfied enough to look for my nest with bear.

It was two days later when I decided to go visit the people in Dos Brazos.
Now, there are several ways to go to Dos Brazos, the easiest one is to take your boyfriends motor and drive there in one hour. But, shame shame, he needs the thing himself. So the second option is to take an early bus from infront of the house, and then a second one from Jimenes to Dos Brazos. But this is a pain in the ass, trust me. So then you have the option of hitch hiking along this same road, or of course walking. You can walk the road, in the hope for a ride, or you can enjoy the beach. Don't go with high tide though, or when the sun is out too much, cause you will perish.
This last option is my favorite, I love the three hour hike along this beach, combing for shells and other treasures. And then I always hitch the last part, wich can still take hours. You get rides from locals in shaky cars, on motor bikes without helmets, on quads with groceries and sometimes, very sometimes from tourist. Most of the time they are too afraight to pick you up. Costa Rica is dangerous you know......... yeah right.

I visited Suzanna and one of the thing we did was a four hour hike to the Bonanza waterfall and the Rio Tigre where I saw my first Coral snake in Costa Rica.

Another good thing happened: I found some work at the local bar called 'Esperanza'.
Martina is the owner (from Germany) and I've worked three Fridays so far. This day is the organic-market from 4:20 on and it's bustling with fresh produce, artesanias and homebaked goods.

Behind me all the liqour and the kitchen.

And here we see some of the crazy-happy costumers:
Chris, Billy, Mariela and Steve

Our biggest adventure this month was a three day motor trip to San Vito.
We started with a lunch at our own local tico market in Jimenez.

Within an hour we had our first obstakle: A broken backbreak on Guillaumes bike.
No worry, he could still drive to the closest machanic with his front brake and it was all fix in two hours.

A good drive and some rain later we found ourselves halfway up the mountain to San Vito. We had to see the view with a Pina colada and when night fell too quick we decided to sleep here.

San Vito is a nice fresh town where we had lunch.

Cruising on the road, indulging in the fact that it's smooth concrete (yes, there can be a pleasure in everything).

We could not go swimming in this river through the valley called Potrero Grande: Crocodiles

Harsh roads conquerd.

The wrong direction can sometimes turn into the best chosen option:

On our second night we found another river with crocodiles, the road passed right above and the sand was lovely soft. We sat two meters away from the campfire because it really already was hot enough without.

With a little of curiosity you go just that one step further, and so you could be blessed by a sprinkle from above.

Ah ja, this road was great too, it was a very good day.

In the town of Boruka where they say there is still the traditional culture, you can see how devil masks (and many other tourist variations) for their 4-day endyears fiesta are crafted; and then you can buy them.

Another curiosity.

In Alaska they would call this: 'On-Top-Of-The-World Hightway'.

And our last casado before returning home.

We also had a fish BBQ on the first of April (this is not a joke),and Steve also didn't joke when he told me that he found a natural hole in his nosebone when he was trying to chase a booger many years ago.

Another party was to celibrate Chris' and Olivers birthdays. The result was a shaving gathering where five guys were undone of their dead hair.
Steve was the main person, cause he had not shaved for two and a half years.

Guillaume went next followed by Billy and Chris. And Zeph? Well..........

Guillaume, Zeph, Steve, Chris and Billy.

And of course we had to see what we could do with all that dead hair.

A Costa Rican tradition is to brake raw eggs on birthday-peoples heads.
Both Chris and Oliver were made sure to know about this.
I wonder what the cleaning lady thought the next morning: a lot of empties (one being a bottle of pure abscense), many smokes, bunches of hair and slimey egg.

Oke, and then the last expeditie: A fishing evening on a platform 400m out in sea:

While the three of us swum the distance, Yanni would not put a leg in the water because of the hammerhead sharks. He peddled our ridiculous amount of cosas dry across.

Relaxing is what you do.

Fishing comes next.

Or taking advocado masks of course.

After a whole evening fishing the boys had caught about 30 Bonito's and 4 Pargo's, for home and a few right then on the BBQ.
It had also been a night with thick, everything forgetting phosphor escence. I still dream about it.

Ok, enough pics and chats, time for more living.
I wish you all a good time and please ...... stay aware.