Random pictures, random thoughts

Hacienda Pinilla, 15 th green again. Golf is very demanding in this heat, demanding for a beginner (i.e. me) and even more demanding with 3 boys. Our family golf rounds have been miles from fun: somebody is always grumpy, not wanting to play, fighting who gets to drive the golf cart. Maybe one day...
Tuomas on Risto's patineta. Risto enjoys skateboarding with the teenagers. Once I was there with him and talked for a couple of hours to children more of his age who were watching the skateboarders. There was Juan, Dylan, Mariano, Adriana, Alexander and me with my dictionary! But I learned a lot during those couple of hours and not just Spanish.
Yeah, a palm tree. Looks wonderful, doesn't it. I should post pictures about not so nice sceneries, too.
Jaakko made me a card on my nameday. I wrote first what he wanted to say and then he copied it. One spelling mistake and one word written half-way right to left.
A mango tree at the skate park. The children threw rocks to get their hands on the raw fruit and then gnawed on the hard fruit. I managed to ask it they didn't get a stomach ache for eating that, but apparently the taste (which could be recognized as a mango, but .... raw, extremely raw) was so good in their opinion that a minor ache didn't bother them.
Lizard hiding behind the cacti at the golf course. They are beautiful creatures.
I cropped the awful looking trash cage on a pole from the left and just wanted to show you this colourful house. Vibrant colours!
Coco Beach Skate Park in all its glory.

A waterfall less than an hours drive from home. The water was a bit chilly.
But Tuomas said that the water trickling down next to the main waterfall was very warm.

Sabanero at Santa Cruz fiesta. Unfortunately the caballo was too fast and his nose was cut off.
There were marimba players almost at every corner. Wonderful music!

What a rhythm he got out of his "cheese grater"!
We had lunch at the local tortilla factory. Best casado we've had in Costa Rica!

La cocina.
Ok, so where's the induction stove?
Carne.
Looked like it was more normal for kids to ride a horse than a bike.
Hacienda Pinilla golf course, 11th green. Risto's first birdie!!!!
15th green. The sun was setting and we couldn't play further.

Animals

Risto is not afraid of holding these creatures.
A huge grasshopper on our window sill. It was over 20 cm long.
Howler monkey mother and baby at the waterfall.
Dead snake in San José.
Tarantula (?) just outside the house. We had one in our bedroom, too, but kindly escorted it out helped with a coating of raid and a looooong stick.

Pictures around Christmas 2010

Luckily they have a football field in Playa Hermosa! Tuomas loves football, but he ended up with a nose bleed the first time we were there. Playing too hard!
Our friends above our entrance door. Lovely bats.

The skeletons of the construction business. And these are not the only unfinished houses in the neighborhood.
Tuomas at Borinquen Resort enjoying a hot water pool.
Risto doing the mudtreatment the proper way, i.e. letting the mud dry before washing it away.
Happy boys with DH's Christmas present!

Christmas pictures

Christmas was understandably very different from what we are used to. But it wasn't too bad. The only decoration we had was a paper star I made.We had red snapper for dinner and Piña Coladas, of course. Before sun set we hurried to the roof terrace (the sun goes down pretty quickly!) and had our picture taken. The Pacific Ocean is right behind those trees, less than 1 km away. Later on in the dry season the leaves are gone and we can honestly say that we have an ocean view!

View to the neighbor's yard.

Playa Hermosa at sunset. During the day the sand gets so hot that it burns your feet.