Here’s a list of some of the highlights of 2011 for us, in no particular order.

1. Had a new healthy baby girl, Aysia, who was born at home in our bath tub in Costa Rica.
2. Enjoyed visits from my mom, sister’s family, Jen’s parents, and her uncle and cousin.
3. Watched a guy kiss a king cobra on the mouth, then put the snake’s head in his mouth.
4. Moved from Grecia, Costa Rica to Escazu, Costa Rica, to Penang, Malaysia.
5. Enjoyed a fun week in Kauai, Hawaii with my mom, sister, niece, aunt & uncle, cousins, and more.
6. Got robbed in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. Lost 2 Macbook Pros, 3 iPads, camera, binoculars, backpacks, and more. Got one computer back thanks to PreyProject.com.
7. Threw a party in Utah and enjoyed visiting with dozens of family and friends on our way to Malaysia.
8. Drove my car (99 Rav4) through several rivers in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, and almost got stuck.
9. Enrolled the kids in art classes, Chinese class, community choir, day camps, and other fun activities.
10. Donated Emily’s birthday and our Christmas to charity (Emily’s idea).
11. Went to a weekly playgroup in Escazu and made many friends.
12. Played with monkeys at a rescue center who crawled all over us.
13. Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Workweek, wrote about me on his blog.
14. Watched how the indigenous Bribri indians in Costa Rica made chocolate, then we ate some.
15. Got chased and almost attacked by monkeys in national parks in both Costa Rica and Malaysia.
16. Bought my first real estate investment property. Thanks Shaun!
17. Took family yoga and horseback riding classes in Costa Rica.
18. Enjoyed soaking in several hot springs around Costa Rica, always with friends.
19. Lived for 8 months in this beautiful and artsy house in Escazu, Costa Rica.
20. My eight year old daughter learned to love reading, and has become very fast at it.
21. Toured several organic farms and learned about the farming business.
22. Saw two opossum mating noisily on our deck one night.
23. Spent 6 days without Internet in a Costa Rican rainforest with our friends, the Kings.
24. Physically left the Mormon church. (We left emotionally/mentally in July, 2010, but continued attending until March 2011.)
25. Ate delicious Indian food (roti) for breakfast almost every morning in Penang, Malaysia and usually paid less than $6 to feed our whole family.
26. Changed my blog title from Fulness of Life to Pearce on Earth and changed the design.
27. Went to a fish spa and got our feet nibbled on by doctor fish.
28. Got used to driving on the left hand side of the road.
29. Read several interesting books on my iPad and learned a lot from them.
30. Visited Kek Lok Si temple, the largest Buddhist temple complex in Southeast Asia.
31. Saw the most beautiful orchids at the Orchid Festival in Penang Botanic Gardens.
32. Ate the most delicious, unique, and cheapest food we’ve ever had in our lives in Penang, Malaysia.
33. Watched the dragon boat races at a dam in Penang.
34. Went to a jazz festival evening concert at a tropical spice garden in Penang.
35. Continued to grow my online businesses working less than 5 hours per week on average.
36. Hung out with friends at least 2-3 times every week.
37. Explored a huge 7-story shopping mall in Penang.
38. All my kids (except the baby) now know how to ride a bike.
39. Played Mario Kart wii enough that I got bored of it, but not enough to beat my kids. (It came with our Penang house, and they played it a lot.)
40. Went to a Chinese medicine man for a very strange herbal massage treatment.
41. Watched a Lion and Dragon dance parade in Georgetown, Penang.
42. Watched amazing Indian dance performances — such energy!

What did you do in 2011? Any plans for 2012?

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Share and Enjoy

Below, I’ll be sharing some photos and videos highlighting our trip. But first I’d like to talk about what I learned from being without the Internet for almost a week. As much as I tout working only five hours per week (and I usually do), I have to admit that I do some work every day, and I use the Internet a LOT. In addition to being a fun vacation, this trip was also an experiment to see how my business would run without my daily interaction, and how I would handle being away from my business, personal email, online reading and research, and *gasp* Facebook!

It turns out that except for a few temptations the first day, where I resisted the urge to reach for my iPhone and check email, I didn’t miss these things at all! I was able to completely focus my attention on enjoying my time with family and friends, and the beautiful nature that surrounded us. I didn’t bring a book to read, and didn’t touch the iPad I brought, except to put it away in the safe.

Me drinking pipa juice

Before I left, I did let my teams know that I wouldn’t be available for about six days, and that they would be on their own for handling all problems. I also set up an auto responder on my personal email box letting people know not to expect a response right away. I unsubscribed from a number of newsletters and email notifications to keep the inbox volume down.

When I came back, I had 82 messages in my personal inbox and 84 messages in my business inbox. I was able to clear the personal inbox in 90 minutes and the business inbox in about 3 hours. It surprised me how many of the messages were unimportant in the context of a week, where I would have spent more time on them had I checked daily. And because I wasn’t readily available to my teams, they didn’t rely on me and came up with their own ways to solve problems. The result was that no major issues occurred, my businesses continued running smoothly and growing steadily, and my programmers even launched a couple new features while I was gone. I’m starting to think about maybe switching to checking email weekly instead of daily, at least for my business email. It’s less stressful overall. I’ll get more chances to test how this works in the weeks ahead as we travel to Hawaii and move to Malaysia.

Speaking of Malaysia, on the first day of our trip we ate lunch in Dominical, Costa Rica at the Coconut Spice restaurant which specializes in Thai and Malaysian food. I had the Penang Curry and was overcome by the explosion of delicious flavors, which got me even more excited to move to Penang next month. Only, once we’re there, the same dish will cost 10 times less! Oh, I’m so excited for more Malaysian food!

Penang Curry

On the way to Dominical, though, I did get pulled over for going 20km over the speed limit (about 10mph). I didn’t bribe my way out of this one so it’s costing me a whopping $350 for that ticket! Ouch! Not the best way to start a vacation. I’m not sure how locals making less than $1,000/month here can swallow that kind of ticket — it’s really expensive! But maybe that’s the point.

Speeding ticket

Anyway, after we made it to Dominical and had lunch, we stayed at Villas Rio Mar, where we enjoyed their swimming pools and lovely gardens, very clean cabins, and the delicious dinner and breakfast that were included in the price ($120 for all five us).

Kings and Pearces at Villas Rio Mar

The next day we got up early and drove another hour and a half to Sierpe, where we got on a small, crowded boat that would take us to Punta Marenco Lodge on the Osa Peninsula. However, about ten minutes out, the motor quit, and we had to wait about 30 minutes for a rescue boat. After switching boats, we enjoyed our ride through the river, until we came out into the ocean and started crashing against the oncoming waves. I got quite sea sick, and Emily and Marie were terrified when water started coming into the boat. Fortunately, we arrived safely, and I was able to recover without vomiting. But I’m looking forward to not being on a boat again for a long time, if ever.

Getting on the boat at Sierpe

The highlight of the trip was definitely our time at Punta Marenco! We hiked through Corcovado national park and saw all types of animals, including scarlet macaws, toucans, a white hawk, monkeys, basilisks, giant grasshoppers, poison dart frogs, hermit crabs, tapir footprints, and many more. We even saw a whale from the shore!

Large grasshopper

Being a rain forest, the trees were also incredible, and we learned a lot about the animals and foliage we encountered, from how strangler trees shoot down roots to kill other trees, to how leaf cutter ants don’t eat the leaves they cut, but use them to cultivate a giant underground mushroom inside their colony which they then eat.

Strangler and Ficus trees

We also had fun playing on the beach and in the waves, and hiking through the stunning landscapes. We even climbed a steep and wet trail to the top of a waterfall where we played in the refreshing water.

Many beautiful beaches in Osa

Despite it being the rainy season, we had near perfect weather every day of our trip — bright, sunny days with little or no rain in the afternoons — except for the last day, where it poured constantly. That was the day we were supposed to go snorkeling at a nearby island and hopefully see whales and dolphins. But we still had a great time sitting and talking in the lodge, listening to the rain, and relaxing. The kids played in the rain, did crafts, and made up games to play together. Our hosts were wonderful and made us feel like part of the family.

Kids playing in the rain

On the way home, we stopped in Manuel Antonio for lunch at Jefe’s Mexican restaurant, which was excellent. And then we came back home to reality, which I think doesn’t have to be quite so different from this vacation.

Here’s some of the video footage and other pictures from our trip.

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Inbio Parque

Lake at Inbio Parque

Inbio Parque is a large walking park focusing on environmental issues and celebrating biodiversity. They have stations for learning about different animals and insects, plant life, climate change, self-sufficient housing, and more. It’s a fun and educational way to spend a morning or afternoon, and we all enjoyed it. They also have a petting zoo, a maze, and a couple restaurants. It’s quite large. Note: Make sure you ask for the “local” rate. Foreigners are charged almost 10 times as much to enter.

Refugio Herpetologico de Costa Rica Rescue Center

Emily feeding Luna the Squirrel monkey

Emily has been volunteering weekly at a local animal rescue center, and it continues to be the highlight of her week. She loves feeding the monkey, toucans, parrots, and more, and is a big helper with cleaning, too. You can read her thoughts about this on her blog. The rescue center focuses on snakes, but they also have several different types of monkeys, turtles, a couple crocodiles, and lots of birds. If you’re in the Santa Ana/Escazu area, check it out!

Esterillos Oeste

We took a couple day trips with our friends, the Kings, to a lovely beach called Esterillos Oeste that’s about an hour and a half drive from Escazu. We had a great time playing in the waves, sand, tide pools, snacking and talking together, flying kites, and had some great meals afterward in nearby Jacó. While there, we also saw scarlet macaws munching on almonds in the trees right above our heads, and even a whale off in the distance! Here’s a video I made of the trip:

Horseback Riding Lessons

Marie's first horseback riding lesson

As a family, we’ve been taking a weekly yoga class, which we’ve enjoyed. Our yoga teacher also teaches horseback riding lessons on her beautiful property. We’ve had two lessons so far, and it’s been fun to learn how to ride a horse.

Cooking Birthday Party

Kids rolling dough at party

One of the girls’ friends, Addie, had a Costa Rican Cooking birthday party where the kids learned how to make pizza, cupcakes, cookies, and tortillas. The kids had a lot of fun making the food, and enjoyed eating it as well, and playing games while the food was cooking. Everyone had a good time.

Cartago Churches and Craft Brewery

One day, after a great sushi lunch with our friends, the Kings, we went with them to Cartago, about 45 minutes east of San José. There, we saw ruins of an abandoned church in the center of town. The gardens inside were lovely, although we couldn’t enter, but we enjoyed dozens of squawking parrots in the trees.

Ruins in Cartago, Costa Rica

We also visited a beautiful old church unlike any other I’ve seen in Costa Rica, the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles, built in 1639, but later restored after an earthquake. It was very elaborate, and the people inside were crawling on their knees up to the altar. Each year, two million Costa Ricans choose to make a 22 kilmeter pilgrimage to this church, many of them doing so on their hands and knees.

Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles

Inside Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles

After that, we toured the only craft brew in Central America and learned how beer is made, then had a fun dinner together at a nearby restaurant, where I sang karaoke, and the kids danced.

Kids snacking on barley at brewery

Costa Rica Children’s Museum in San José

Costa Rica Children's Museum

Wow. The Museo de los Niños here is not only HUGE, but also well done, and I regret not going sooner. We had so much fun and learned a lot, too. The building used to be a women’s prison, and each jail cell has now been converted into a room focused on a different theme, from how the human body works, to outer space, to how airplanes fly (including the ability to go inside a real cockpit), to ancient Egypt and the science of light, and so many more! Most of the exhibits are interactive and it’s a lot of fun for kids and adults. And don’t forget to visit the slanted house (casa inclinada).

Space Exploration Room

Girls wearing traditional masks

Kids dancing on "T.V."

Bowling with friends

One morning we went bowling with some friends. We’ve actually been bowling twice in Costa Rica. There is a small bowling alley in San José, but a new one, Bol Cariari, just opened up near Cariari Mall in Heredia that is much larger and also has some beautiful views from the windows. We had a lot of fun playing, and Amie gave the kids a nice lesson on the physics of friction and momentum.

Bowling at Bol Cariari

Playing with Aysia

Okay, so this isn’t necessarily a Costa Rican activity, but we love playing with our baby, and we spend a lot of time doing it. She smiles often now, laughs occasionally, and is getting closer to being able to crawl. She makes really sweet noises and Emily and Marie enjoy playing with her, and trying to get her to smile and interact with them.

Aysia smiling

Also check out this cute video of Aysia smiling and laughing.

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Puerto Viejo, Limon

Making chocolate

The first place we visited together was Puerto Viejo, a small beach town on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. We had never been there before, but we absolutely loved it! The drive was lovely as well – lush and green the whole way (4 hours from San Jose), despite it being the dry season. The weather was warm and humid (just how I like it), and the food was some of the best I’ve had in Costa Rica. We especially enjoyed the Chile Rojo restaurant, where we had some incredible sushi and a coconut crusted sea bass in banana salsa that just melted in your mouth – mmmm!!

Around Puerto Viejo, we toured a sloth sanctuary where we learned all about sloths, got to pet some, and took a canoe ride down a river to spot some wildlife. We encountered monkeys in the trees, some cool crabs, bats, and of course, birds. Later, we toured an indigenous chocolate farm, where we learned how the Bribri Indians used to make chocolate for medicinal purposes. Interestingly, they never really used it for candy until the white man came along. Of course we bought some chocolate and ate it as well.

Marie with squirrel

We also visited the Jaguar Rescue Center, which, despite not housing any jaguars, was very cool. We saw and learned about many different kinds of animals. The kids got to have a squirrel ride on their shoulder as they walked, and they got to hold a red eyed tree frog, too! But the best part, in my opinion was when we got to enter a cage of about 10 howler monkeys, and play with them. They climbed all over us, held our hands, and were very sweet. Fortunately, no one in our group got urinated on, although there was a close call.

Of course we visited the beach while in Puerto Viejo. I especially enjoyed Playa Cocles, which had very clear, warm water and soft sand, with no rocks, and hardly any debris. Just a perfect little beach. We rented a bodyboard and enjoyed the waves until the sun set.

Baldi Hot Springs, La Fortuna

Arenal Volcano

After spending a night at home in Escazu to recover from the long drive, we headed out to Baldi Hot Springs Resort in La Fortuna. We’d been to La Fortuna before, and have stayed at Los Lagos Resort twice, but we love the area and the beautiful Arenal volcano. We also heard that Baldi hot springs was one of the best in the area, so we decided to check it out. It was a really nice place, with fantastic views of the volcano from the rooms. It had over 20 pools of various temperatures to enjoy, and three slides (although two of them were closed for repairs).

Just about every town in Costa Rica has a Canopy Tour (zip line) and if you come to Costa Rica, it’s something you’ll probably want to try. We really enjoyed the one at Selvatura park in Monteverde, but we’d heard some good things about Arenal Mundo Aventura in La Fortuna, which has a zip-line right in front of the La Fortuna waterfall. Since Jen is pregnant, she couldn’t go, and the girls didn’t bring their close-toed shoes, so Don & Michelle (my wife’s parents) went zip-lining together, while Jen and I got a massage at the resort, and the kids watched tv in the hotel room. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon.

Tamarindo

Sunset waves Tamarindo

From Arenal, we drove around the lake and onto the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. This is a drier part of the country with much less green. We’ve been to a few of the beach towns in the area before, but not Tamarindo, which is one of the most popular ones. We stayed in a nice vacation rental there, just a block from the beach, with its own private pool. We went surfing, relaxed in the sun, played in the pool, and ate at some nice restaurants.

The best part, of course, was just being with Don & Michelle, having great conversations, seeing them interact with the kids, and enjoy our vacation together. I’m glad they had a good time, despite continually getting creamed in foosball and pool. :)

I’m also glad we discovered that some of the best vacation spots in Costa Rica were still available for us to explore. It’s easy for me to start feeling again like I’ve already seen it all, but I’m sure if I look harder, I will uncover some other hidden gems. Or perhaps we could do some repeats. I’m really looking forward to the next time I can get back to Puerto Viejo for more of the best sushi I’ve ever had in my life!

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Hills in Grecia

And as for the views, we found a great house in Escazú with its own fantastic views of the city. But this time we’ll only be 5 minutes from the town instead of 15. It’s a charming older house owned by a sweet European couple who’ve remodeled and decorated it with driftwood and their own unique artwork. It even has a pool and a pool table! We love it, and I’m sure we’ll be happy there.

The main reason for the move was to be closer to a good private hospital during the months surrounding our new baby’s birth, just in case we need it. But we’re also excited to be closer to so many fantastic restaurants with international cuisine, larger stores like Pricesmart/Costco, like-minded people, as well as fun and educational activities and classes. We’ll be less than an hour away from the beach, too.

Escazu house night view

Escazú is an upscale suburb of Costa Rica’s capital, San José, and has seen a huge influx of foreigners in recent years. It’s also one of the most expensive areas to live in Costa Rica, so we were lucky to find an excellent deal on the house we’re renting ($1200/month), especially since it’s on a street with some large multi-million dollar homes (including Mel Gibson’s). We plan to stay there for at least 8 months (that’s the minimum on our lease), and then possibly head out to an Asian country such as Japan for the next phase of our adventure.

One of our main reasons for choosing to move to Costa Rica was so we could all learn Spanish. I’m pleased to report that the girls are becoming more and more comfortable with the language. They’re no longer afraid to speak Spanish to people, and are therefore seeing some great improvement in their abilities. We’re hoping by the end of the year, they’ll have the language down really well. I’m also pleased at the level my Spanish has grown to. It’s certainly not perfect, but I can usually get my point across without halting too much, and can understand the other person well.

Well, goodbye Grecia. Maybe we’ll come back for a visit now and again. Here are some pictures of the new place, mixed in with some pictures of our current place in Grecia for comparison – the captions will spell the difference.

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Share and Enjoy

Like me, my mom works on-line, so she was able to come down for a 3-week stay, even though she had to work a little while she was here. The last week, my sister Ashley’s family joined us, including my awesome brother-in-law, Justin, and their 6-year old daughter, Kennedy. We had a blast! The little cousins loved playing together, too, except for the occasional (I mean, constant) fights over who’s “first” and what’s “fair”.

Most of all, it was just fun to be all together, and have time to talk and play. Our friendships and love for each other grew and deepened, and we’re really looking forward to the next time we can be “all together”.

My mom and sister are covering the trip in detail on their own blogs, but here’s a quick list of some of the fun things we did:

• Relaxed in our house, listening to music controlled by my iPhone (thanks for bringing down the Airport Express, Mom!)
• Watched the incredible display of New Year’s fireworks over the entire central valley
• Visited the nearby towns of Sarchi (hand-painted ox carts) and Zarcero (topiary), and also Montezuma (hippies) in Guanacaste
• Played Rory’s Story cubes (a game where you make up stories based on images on dice)
• Went to Doña Ana beach with some local friends
• Drove through four rivers in Guanacaste
• Visited Zoo Ave in La Garita
• Stayed in some lovely hotels in Playa Tambor, Playa Carillo, La Fortuna, and Manuel Antonio
• Visited La Paz Waterfall Gardens
• Zip-lined through the mossy trees and fog at Selvatura Park in Monteverde Cloud forest, and swung on the Tarzan swing
• Visited the fruit market in Grecia
• Saw (and almost got attacked by) Monkeys in Manuel Antonio National Park
• Bodyboarded and played at the beach
• Taught my brother-in-law how to play foosball. I even let him win me once. :)
• Had some amazing food made by Jen, our friends, and some wonderful restaurants
• Swam in the Los Chorros Waterfall
• Listened to dozens of Beatle’s songs as we drove, as well as other music
• Ate at Café Delicias numerous times
• Drove around lake Arenal and swam in hot springs at Los Lagos resort
• Took the ferry from Puntarenas to Guanacaste
• Watched Tangled 3D in Spanish, and The Incredible Mr. Limpett
• Had some friends over for visits and meals
• Saw sloths, monkeys, iguanas, scarlet macaws, blue-crowned mot mot’s, and more, in the wild

What a fun time we had! I’m so glad they took the time to come visit. Here are some pictures and video (not all taken by me) of our time together.

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Gifts

Jen and I aren’t really getting gifts for each other – we have all we need. Although she saw a few dresses she wanted in Guatemala which we bought, and I ordered a new router and set of walkie talkies for my mom to bring down when she comes next week, since our old ones are dead or dying. So we feel quite satisfied.

As for the girls, in addition to a new dress each in Guatemala, we also got them each a bike, which they’ve both been asking for. Hopefully they’ll be able to learn how to balance on them soon. They also got a little stuffed animal puppy they wanted. And that’s about it, except for a few additional gifts Grandma may bring down. (We’re so excited to see her!!!)

Santa Claus and Baby Jesus

Christmas plant

Marie (5) has already pretty much figured out that Santa Claus is a myth, but Emily (7) seems to want to hold onto the belief a little longer. We’ll see how she feels about that on Christmas morning, since there aren’t really any big surprise gifts. Actually, Santa Claus doesn’t visit kids in Costa Rica, anyway. It’s baby Jesus who comes to deliver the gifts – an interesting twist to the Christmas story. Although, I don’t get how that would work if he grew up and died and everything – how could he still be a baby? Oh well.

For a Christmas tree, we used one of the large potted plants from our patio, and have hung some ornaments on it that the kids decorated with their friends from the package that my mom sent. It looks pretty cute, in a pathetic sort of way. But it works for us. We also decided to go ahead and get a Pricesmart (Costco) membership, and bought a little decoration of a snowman and a tree, and some nice smelling candles to place next to some red lilies from our garden so our place would look (and smell) a little more festive.

What a Year!

Christmas decor

Usually when I send out Christmas cards, I include a letter summarizing our lives during the past year. It’s a good chance to reminisce about what what we’ve accomplished, how we’ve grown, and how our lives have changed. As I look back on 2010, I can hardly begin to understand the incredible opportunities we’ve had. I knew that moving to Costa Rica would be a great learning experience. But I didn’t realize that it would have an effect on almost every aspect of my life.

In just another couple weeks, we’ll have our one year anniversary of moving to Costa Rica. And what a fantastic year it’s been for our family! We’ve made some very dear friends, become conversationally fluent in Spanish (the kids are almost there), and have enjoyed wonderful weather and food almost all year. We’ve also had the chance to visit several other countries nearby, learn more about ancient civilizations and cultures, focus on our family, our spirituality, and improving ourselves, and have even discovered that we’re pregnant with our third child, which is going to have an even bigger affect on us next year, I’m sure!

I have no idea what the future holds for us. I used to have plans about what I wanted to accomplish in life, and had firm short and long-term goals. And I still hold to some ideals of what I might like, but I’m less attached to them now, and am more willing to just let things unfold naturally and go with the flow. I’m confident that my life will continue moving in the right direction for me, if I don’t force things too much, and just follow my joy. As I try to live with love and give more of myself, my joy will increase, I’ll be able to do more good, and I will continue to have a “Fulness of Life”.

Merry Christmas, everybody! I love you!

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Yes, Canada and Spain are lovely, but they’re also more expensive, and not our favorite climate. Ecuador is much more affordable, and parts of it are very beautiful, but it has security issues, and we don’t like drinking bottled water all the time. If we ever do want to get residency in Ecuador, though, all we have to do is put $25,000 in a CD (earning 7-9% interest, by the way), and we’re instant permanent residents! And after that, we could become citizens if we want to stay for 2-3 more years. Maybe sometime down the road…

Having a Baby in Costa Rica

Our garden

After looking at all our options, we decided to stay in Costa Rica, and have our baby here! As an additional bonus, once the baby is born and is a Costa Rican citizen (as well as a U.S. citizen), we will then be related to a Costa Rican, allowing us to apply for permanent residency as well, so we will no longer have to leave the country every 90 days if we choose to stay here. We could have applied for residency anyway, as long as we can prove a certain income level, and live in the country 6 months every year. But now we won’t need to worry about either of those requirements, and will only need to visit Costa Rica once a year for 72 hours to keep our residency status. This will give us more of the freedom to travel that we’re looking for, as well as the freedom to stay if we choose.

So the next question is, where in Costa Rica will we have the baby? Based on our last two deliveries, which were extremely fast, it makes the most sense to have the baby in our house, so we don’t risk having it in the car on the way to the hospital. Plus, after watching the documentary, The Business of Being Born, we realized that a natural home birth with a midwife is what we want anyway. But we do want to be close to a hospital just in case, even though we don’t plan on using it. Unfortunately, the best private hospitals are in San José (Costa Rica’s largest city), so we will probably be spending at least the month of June in either Escazú, Santa Ana, or Ciudad Colon, all of which are nicer areas of San José, less than 20 minutes from the hospital. Unfortunately, they’re also very expensive areas.

Uvita and Ojochal

Making friends in the pool

Recently, we’ve also thought it would be nice to live closer to the beach, even if just from March-May. We took a short trip down to the Uvita/Ojochal area of Costa Rica (4 hour drive), on the southern pacific side, thinking it would be a good place to settle for a while, maybe in a house with a nice ocean and jungle view, and a swimming pool. And while it was a beautiful area, it’s just too remote, and wasn’t as built up as we had imagined. Sure, there is a grocery store or two, and several restaurants, but the roads around the town are all dirt roads, and full of rocks and holes, which we know we would get tired of, especially during late pregnancy. And the towns just lacked a nice community feel, being a little bit too spread out without much of a town center.

Considering Jacó

As we traveled back home, we realized how much we have always liked the town of Jacó and the surrounding area, ever since we visited Jacó for our first time last August. We talked with a few people who are going to keep us posted on some good rentals as they come available. There are some nice little communities near Jacó, whether we’re looking for a little condo with a community pool and a bilingual private school within walking distance, or a private villa overlooking the ocean, there are plenty of options in Jacó. It’s also just an hour away from San José, and is central to most everything in Costa Rica, so would probably be a good place to call home. But we’ll have to see where we end up, since we tend to change our minds quite frequently these days.

We also visited a doctor in San Ramon this week, got an ultrasound, and found that the official due date of our baby is June 17, 2011. We’re excited for this change, and probably have no idea how much this will affect our lives. The kids are also excited to have a new baby brother or sister.

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Share and Enjoy

balcony

Last night, after a long 2 days of travel, we cleaned and re-organized the house, then stayed up late to watch one of my favorite old movies on my laptop, “The Three Amigos” – a very silly but entertaining show. This morning I got up around 7:30am, a full two hours before anyone else, and enjoyed a lovely morning, reading quietly on our balcony which overlooks the garden and views of the valley below. It was so relaxing. I also did my morning exercises, tai chi, and meditation there, like I used to. It felt great. I then made a list of some things I’d like to do today. Writing on my blog wasn’t one of them, but I suddenly got the urge, so here I am.

During the past few months, the list of books I want to read has continued to grow and I plan to dedicate a lot more time to reading in the months ahead, and hope to post some reviews here as well. I’ve really missed my morning reading time while we’ve been traveling. In fact, I’ve missed a lot of things.

Back to homeschool

Traveling to South America and the United States for the past two and a half months has been a wonderful and rewarding experience in so many ways. We were able to see and experience new and excited places, meet wonderful people, learn about several cultures, both ancient and modern, try new foods, give of ourselves, and receive so much more. But I think we’ve all decided that we went at too fast a pace for too long. We were flying to new destinations every week! Staying constantly in hotels (except in Utah), eating mainly at restaurants, trying to fill our days with interesting activities. We didn’t necessarily feel rushed, and sometimes even took full days to recuperate. We also feel like we got to see and do everything we wanted to. But after a while, I found myself missing the routine of productive living. I wanted to get back to working on my book and composing music, to evenings at home with my family, and to home cooked meals.

Praying mantis

That isn’t to say that I don’t love travel – I absolutely do! But I think I prefer the type of travel where I just get a one way ticket and live there until I feel like leaving. In a week or two, you can get a nice whirlwind tour of a place, and a good overall feel, but you don’t really get to immerse yourself in the culture or the language, get to know the people, and really be changed as much by the experience, to the same degree as when you stay longer, and with the intent to make it more permanent. We’ll still probably take a few shorter trips here and there (like with visa runs), but generally, I think we’d like to spend more time in a place before moving on.

A lot of people have asked me what my favorite place was in all of the areas we recently traveled to (Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Nicaragua, Florida, and Utah). I love each of them for different reasons, but if I had to pick a place to live, it would definitely be Costa Rica, where I am right now. I’m a sucker for warm and green, and so far I haven’t found any place with as perfect temperatures, and as green and lush as Costa Rica, not to mention the relaxed people, affordable quality health care, and low cost of living. Sure, it’s got its problems, but every place does. That said, we like change, and we certainly won’t be here forever. But for now, it’s the place we want to be.

Share and Enjoy

Share and Enjoy

Some are dangerous, like the cute little fuzzy caterpillar, where simply touching it can cause swelling, numbness, fever, and more. Or the cane toads that can shoot out poison strong enough to kill a dog (if it gets in the blood stream). Others are just cute like the squirrels and the hummingbirds. My favorite are the cool green lizards with blue tails, who got a little too carried away in their mating dance (see what I mean in the video below).

Click any picture below to see it larger.

Share and Enjoy

Share and Enjoy