December 31: Paradise in Panama

Oh, my word!!!!!!!!!!!  Today was a glorious way to end the year.  Based on today's blog post title do you think we spent the day sipping piña coladas at some fancy 5 star tropical resort??  Nope!  But we are livin' large my friends.  Livin' large.  I said that numerous times today to the family as I was soaking it all in.

Praise #1:  After we arrived at our hotel at 5am local time, we headed to bed for a few hours and woke up in time to enjoy the wonderful spread of the breakfast buffet that ends at 10am.  It's included so we definitely didn't want to miss it!  Nathan was thrilled there was someone making personalized omelletes.  And there were grapes!!!!!  We've only had them once in 6 months because they're so expensive in Quepos.  Livin' large my friends, livin' large.

Praise #2:  A Panamanian friend of a friend (¡gracias Guille!) suggested this hotel for us and it's fantastic for the price.  It's way fancier than what I expected.  And there's so much space!!!  The living area is bigger than ours in Quepos AND it comes with huge windows that offer wonderful 8th floor views of this cosmopolitan city.  Livin' large my friends, livin' large.

Praise #3:  Despite the fact that there's a number of wonderful things to see and do in Panama City we were all so wiped out from our travels that we decided to just explore the neighborhood a bit with the main goal of finding a grocery store (we have a kitchenette too).  We passed numerous street vendors selling souvenirs and artisan crafts.  The girls each brought a bracelet from this Kuna woman.

We browsed some souvenir shops and then.....drum roll....entered our Panamanian paradise:  El Rey (The King) grocery store. Now, we're not talking just any grocery store.  We are talking a huge air conditioned store with wide aisles and huge selections of - gulp -  American brand items!!!  We haven't been in a store like this in six months.  So many things we haven't seen in half a year or we've seen them but we don't buy them because they're just way too expensive (2-5 times more than back home).  But the prices here in Panama are like the ones at Meijer back home and not nearly as expensive as Quepos. 
We (and I mean all of us!) we're giddy as could be like we were kids in a candy shop with unlimited funds.  It actually got rather annoying because down every single aisle the kids would come running up one after another, 'Look, they have Arizona ice tea!  Hey, they have Kraft Easy Mac!  Oh, mom, they have Quaker Oatmeal squares!'  It was sooooo exciting and fun but it was input overload listening to all their requests!  After a really l o n g time at what seemed like a 5 star exciting tourist destination, we finally left the store stocked with some basic groceries for meals and some special treats for everyone.  We laughed out loud when back at the hotel, the kids uttered amazingly delightful oooohing and aaaahing sounds as they licked pudding pack containers clean and munched on green grapes and crunchy chocolate Quaker bites.  Who knew a trip to a grocery store could produce such immense pleasure?!  We will never look at an ordinary grocery run to Meijer's the same again.  Livin' large, my friends.  Livin' large.

 Praise #4:  Swimming outdoors on December 31!  After afternoon rest time (we were all wiped out still and not thinking straight), the girls wanted to swim (Nathan kept on sleeping) so we headed down to the pool...had the whole place to themselves for about an hour and then a little before 6pm a large group of Dutch 20 something gals came down to celebrate with champagne and a dip in the pool to celebrate New Year's Eve in the Netherlands.

Livin' large, my friends.  Livin' large.

View from the pool of one of our hotel's three towers.

While a made-for-you breakfast, a spacious seating area, a grocery store and a swimming pool have helped us feel like we're 'livin' large' today, we know there's even something greater:

As this year draws to a close, receive My Peace.  

This is still your deepest need, and I, your Prince of Peace, 

 long to pour Myself into your neediness. 

My abundance and your emptiness are a perfect match. 

 I designed you to have no sufficiency of your own.  

I created you as a jar of clay,  set apart for sacred use. 

 I want you to be filled with My very Being, 

permeated through and through with Peace.

-Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young

As 2012 draws to a close, we wish all of you our sincerest thanks for following along with us through our trials, challenges, joys and journeys these last six months.  Thank you for your continued prayers, encouragement and financial gifts.  We pray that you would join us in trying to LIVE LARGE in HIS PEACE in 2013.  We love you all!

December 30: Panama Bound

Hard to believe another 90 days have passed.  Time to exit the country to renew visas.  This time since we're on summer break we can stay longer than the 72 hour minimum stay.  Here's what today (and tomorrow!) looked like:

1:10pm - family prayer

1:15pm - one of our regular taxi drivers, Johnny, drove us 15 minutes to a nearby town where we needed to wait outside in the Pollo Campero (Costa Rican version of KFC) parking lot for our bus.  We followed the 'rule' of being there at 1:30pm even though we knew there was no chance that a bus leaving San José could arrive any sooner than 3:00.  The 90 minute wait was actually pretty enjoyable because we met a Venezuelan couple who were also waiting for the bus bound for Panama.  The seven of us had a good time getting to know each other

3:00pm - got on the bus

3:30-5pm - endured a very inappropriate-for-kids rated R movie filled with violence and LOTS of swearing that blared loudly from numerous small screens throughout the bus.  Thankfully, we could distract the kids for most of it through books, Sudokus and crossword puzzles.

6:30pm - arrived at the Panama border.  We figured out that Sophia's age matches the number of countries she's been to.....7!  Not sure we can keep up that pace :)

Our time at the border went smoothly but it was definitely a  'Central American' experience.  There were three steps:
first, we had to wait in line to get our passports stamped out of Costa Rica.
second, we walked through the 'neutral zone' between both countries and waited in line (behind two other busloads of passengers) to get our passports stamped for entering Panama
third, and the most comical (in a really scary-from-a-security-standpoint kind of way) step was being led into one room with all the passengers of our bus and all our luggage for inspection.  Of course, in typical Central American fashion, there was only one employee there for our entire bus.  The employee, however, appeared to be a sweet, old, gentle 70ish year old woman who began reading off all our names like we were in a classroom and we each needed to respond that we were there.  At that point, I leaned over to Nathan and trying hard not to laugh out loud whispered, "this is sooooo Central America".  No body scans, nothing computerized, no luggage scanners.....just one by one we needed to put all our bags and luggage on a table and she would sort of finger through it a little and smile.  At one point I saw her sort of squeeze a small bag of another passenger, she looked at him, he responded 't-shirts' in Spanish and she shook her head giving him permission to leave without any inspection.  At that moment, I wondered why drug dealers go to such drastic measures to move drugs across borders.  Not sure what all got through last night because it was definitely not what you'd call a very 'secure' border crossing.  However, we were thankful there were no delays or long searches and we were on our way again

8:00pm - boarded the bus and slept off and on

midnight - stopped for a 20 minute bathroom and snack break at a cafe

The girls midnight snacks of choice:  scrambled eggs and french fries

12:20am - slept off and on, waking up every now and then due to sore neck and muscles, cold (AC was freezing!), and three different bus stops where other passengers got off

4:05am (5:05am local time):  arrived safely at the large bus terminal in Panama City, took a touristy picture with the Christmas tree and made a deal with the first taxi driver we saw to take us to our hotel.  Said a prayer of thanks for the safety of our day's travels.  Thanks to those of you who prayed!!

December 28: Praises and Requests

P r a i s e s:
1.  We've really enjoyed the down time we've had these last few days.  Except for our first 10 days before school started in July, we really haven't had much time to rest and relax at home. We've played lots of games, made a couple of trips to the animal shelter which the kids love and Nathan and Angelina have played soccer most afternoons at the community field.

2.  Our washing machine has been working this week!!  This is a huge praise because it has been really annoying the last couple of months because it would get stuck on each stage of the cycle so we would have to check 4-5 times on every load to see if the dial needed to be moved.  Now all of a sudden this week it has worked normally again.

3.  We are very thankful that all of us have been healthy.  George is having some minimal skin irritation (itchiness) but not nearly as bad as before.


R e q u e s t s:
1.  Please pray for George's dad, William, who is in the hospital with congestive heart failure in Alberta, Canada.

2.  Please pray for safety and good health as we travel to Panama on Sunday to renew our visas (we have to leave the country every 3 months to do this).  Our 12 hour bus ride is scheduled to arrive in Panama City at 3:00am which is not ideal so please pray that we'll be able to taxi safely to the hotel we have arranged (recommended by a Panamanian friend of a friend which is another praise). 
Pray too that our home will stay secure while we are gone.

3.  Please pray that as we enter our second half of our time here in Quepos that we'd feel a greater sense of community.  It is hard not to compare this experience to our year in Morelia, Mexico in '03-'04 where we felt strongly connected and supported in three communities: 1) the girls and staff at the Victory Center where we volunteered, 2) our church community that warmly received us and consistently invited us to church functions and family gatherings and celebrations and 3) our neighborhood where we had daily interactions and occasional social gatherings with neighbors.  Except for the one American missionary family who have been a huge support, we have felt little sense of community here.  It means the five of us spend a LOT of time together which is a blessing for sure, but it can also lead to some frustrations and interactions that are less than ideal.

December 25: A memorable Christmas

Well, today was quite memorable although not because anything extraordinary happened.  More because it was just so different than a typical Christmas day back home.

Although we don't have a tree this year or many of our favorite Christmas goodies, we did make a batch of Christmas cookies earlier this month:

and our house came adorned with outdoor Christmas lights which we've enjoyed:

While we've enjoyed cookies and lights, we have missed other favorite holiday treats (almond bars, Canadian-influenced Nanaimo bars, and Grandma's caramel corn and Chex nibble mix,) so today we didn't want to skip our typical Christmas breakfast:  monkey bread (or sticky buns) and scrambled eggs.  There's no refrigerated biscuit dough here which makes it a super easy recipe but we were up for the challenge and decided to make it from scratch.  I found a monkey bread recipe online which had great reviews and all the kids eagerly helped:

Chef Nathan prepared the scrambled eggs while the monkey bread baked and filled the house with a wonderful aroma.  We pulled it out of the oven and oooohed and aaahed over how delicious it looked.  We were so excited!!!!....and then we took our first bites.  A huge disappointment - it was horrible!  Very weird consistency (more like cake than dough/bread) and the taste was just plain gross.  We have no idea how it turned out so bad when it seemed like it would be so good but even the neighborhood cat that always comes by for food wouldn't eat it. 

So, with our stomachs a little disappointed, we packed up for the beach since we figured we might as well do something we normally don't get to do on Christmas day.  We found out a LOT of other families spend Christmas at the beach - it was the busiest we have ever seen it and the local busses were packed.

Nathan has become an expert boogie boarder this year and always makes it look super easy....unfortunately when one of his parents tried it today the board broke :(

 

The kitchen saga continues....
Since we only snacked at the beach and skipped lunch we were all very hungry for dinner.  I had all the veggies chopped, the shrimp cleaned and the rice and water mixed in the pot.  The plan was to make the very typical arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) dish (see recipe here) but with shrimp instead so it would be a little more special for Christmas.  I turned on the gas burner.  Nothing.  Tried another one.  Nothing.  Tried to light the oven.  Nothing.  Seriously?  To have an empty gas tank at 5:05pm on Christmas Day is not good timing.

Plan B this morning?  Toast.  Plan B this evening?  Take out chicken from Chicken Bros which is less than a 2 minute walk out our front gate and thankfully an open business because most everything else was closed.

I have a feeling the first Christmas evening wasn't all perfect, comforting and thoroughly enjoyable either.  In the grand scheme of things, we still have plenty of things to be thankful for and celebrate even though we had a couple of annoyances today.  Praying you can still focus on the Presence of Immanuel whether your day was fully delightful, challenging or disappointing.

Sending our love to all of you!  We miss you and love you and continue to praise God for the many ways you are supporting us:

December 24: Let every heart prepare Him room

I bet most, if not all, of you could sing the first verse of this well known Christmas carol.  If you're like me you may find yourself singing the carols of the season and letting them get you in the 'mood' for the holidays yet not really thinking about the familiar lyrics. 

As mentioned in an earlier post, this Christmas is very different for us.  The lack of parties and gatherings and presents have given us more time to reflect on the real reason to celebrate: the incarnation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We've had more time to think about and reflect on the lyrics we otherwise just sing out of tradition:

JOY TO THE WORLD

THE LORD IS COME

LET EARTH RECEIVE HER KING

LET EVERY HEART PREPARE HIM ROOM

AND HEAVEN AND NATURE SING

AND HEAVEN AND NATURE SING

AND HEAVEN AND HEAVEN AND NATURE SING

When singing 'Joy to the World' this year I was struck by the line in bold:  Let every heart prepare Him room.  It is our family's prayer for you this Christmas that your heart would be filled with the presence of Immanuel, because He indeed is 'God with us' and may your heart shine with His glory.

December 23: Christmas at Church

Our church hosted a special Christmas celebration today after the morning service that included singing Christmas carols, feasting on a delicious potluck buffet and each child receiving a gift.

We enjoyed the opportunity to join others in celebrating Christ's birth, knowing we have no other gatherings planned this week.  We anticipate a quiet few days with the five of us.

This festive group led us in a few Christmas carols

The kids and youth got to line up for food first.  An American restaurant owner donated three turkeys to accompany mashed potatoes, black beans, rice and many traditional salads and 'picadillos' (combinations of meat and finely chopped potatoes or chayote)

Adults were asked to bring a gift or two for children and then the kids were all organized according to age (below).  Of course some gifts didn't quite match the recipient's wish list.... perhaps some 10 year old girls would love a Barbie, but Angelina not so much.  She said she'd rather have been in the boys' line where there was a chance to get something sporty or a remote control car.  I guess we can consider it a teachable moment on how to accept gifts graciously :)

 

December 22: Breakfast in Bed

It was hard not to feel homesick today as we knew we were missing out on my family's Christmas party.  However, we had a big reason to celebrate as well:  George and I celebrate 17 years of marriage today and to help us celebrate our anniversary the kids served us breakfast in bed.  It was a wonderful way to start the day!

After taking our orders from their homemade menus, the kids went to work.  Check out the fresh flowers on the table from George :)

We laughed when Nathan came in to deliver George's egg & cheese toast sandwiches but then stopped and turned around.  He came back with the towel over his arm....such fancy service!!

I opted for toast with peanut butter and banana and pineapple/yogurt/granola.

 We spent the rest of the day settling back home, doing laundry and finishing unpacking.  Instead of a Christmas party with extended family, we spent tonight at home enjoying one of our favorite meals (Thai shrimp), watching a movie together and stopping for a dessert break:  chocolate chip bar/brownie and ice cream sundaes (Thank you, Joan, for bringing the chocolate chips!!)

December 20: Back home again

We seemed to find every narrow, winding back road of Costa Rica today so we got home about three hours later than what we thought.  However, we are very grateful for the wonderful week we've had on the road and that the $5 patch job on the flat tire made it OK all the way back to Quepos. 

The slower roads allowed us to see some beautiful countryside and lots of cattle grazing.

 

Zarcero and Sarchí are two small picturesque towns we passed through:

Zarcero's main plaza is very unique: it's lined with huge topiary bushes

No surprise :).....The girls were much more interested in the dog in Sarchi's plaza than with the touristy ox cart and pretty cathedral

An hour from Quepos in the town of Jacó, the kids were THRILLED to be able to have their first Pizza Hut pizza in nearly 6 months.  It was a great way to end a great week.

December 19: Fun and relaxation

Although we had to go into town (La Fortuna) to get the tire fixed and do laundry, we spent most of the day at our hotel enjoying the pools and thermal hot springs. The setting of our hotel is beautiful as it's at the foot of the Arenal volcano and the hotel grounds are filled with gorgeous tropical vegetation.

Click here for today's slideshow.

December 18: Planned and unplanned adventure

This morning started out great as we enjoyed a really interesting and educational farm tour in Monteverde that taught us about the processing of sugar cane, coffee and chocolate.  We all loved it, especially because there were samples of everything too!


Oh, and there was some unplanned adventure today.  After lunch we drove 3.5 hours to the Arenal volcano area but on the way we had a flat tire.  We were not in a populated area at all, but thankfully our rental car had a spare which George was able to put on.  We got to our hotel near Arenal without any other major delay.  However, we did have to slow down for cattle crossing the road at one point and also for a bunch of pizotes (in raccoon family) that were on the road.

We give thanks to God for overall smooth travels this week.  The flat tire reminded us how many things can go wrong when traveling so we are very thankful it was not anything more serious.

Click here for today's slide show.

December 17: Monteverde Cloud Forest

Today we spent hours exploring and hiking through Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.  The beauty and serenity of our surroundings was stunning. The highlight was seeing the rare resplendent quetzal bird (we saw both a male and female).  We were able to have great views through our guide's binoculars and telescope but they weren't close enough to get decent pictures on our camera.  Here's a picture from the internet of what the male quetzal looks like:

Famous for its really long feathers and bright red chest, the male that we saw was similar to this one.  The female isn't quite as colorful and it doesn't have the long feathers.

December 16: Moving on to Monteverde

We enjoyed the sun, pool and beach of Playa Grande as long as possible this morning before we had to check out and drive on to our next destination:  Monteverde, which is in the northwest part of the country.  The temperature changed nearly 30 degrees in our four hour drive.....car thermometer read 95 degrees when we left the coast and as we neared the higher elevation of Monteverde it had dropped to 67.  We added some more layers when we arrived at our cabin which thankfully has hot water showers and cozy blankets.

George and I escaped for a 15 minute walk on the beach while the kids enjoyed their last few minutes in the pool.

 

The drive to Monteverde included some narrow and winding roads that offered beautiful vistas of the countryside.

December 15: From the Beach to the Farm

Yesterday and today have been absolutely delightful here at the beach in Playa Grande.  We are shocked that such a gorgeous beach has so few people.  We're told that Tamarindo, just to the south of us is very Americanized with lots more development and tourists (and also a lot more lights which is one of the reasons that has contributed to the great decline in sea turtles here).  We haven't had any desire to go check it out since we are loving the laid back and quiet atmosphere of Playa Grande.

We are staying in a very basic apartment with a tiny kitchenette, no hot water and a couple of beds and bunks.  Nathan described it well today when he said it's a '3 star hotel in a 5 star location'.  Three stars is generous but he's right on about the location being ranked so high...we could easily stay here longer!

Yesterday we spent the day between the hotel pool and beach.  Today, we spent most of the day doing the same except for a wonderful two hour morning adventure:  seeing a 200 acre local farm in action.

Click here for another slideshow :) (too hard to pick just a few pics so this way I can include 30)

December 13: Majestic macaws and a nesting leatherback

Now that we've finished the semester, we decided to travel for a week before hotels up their prices for holiday rates.

Majestic Scarlet Macaws
We rented a car (!!!) and drove five hours to Playa Grande, a beach on the Nicoya Peninsula.  When we stopped for a lunch break we were awed by our day's first of three extraordinary displays of God's grandeur:  beautiful scarlet macaws.  The only other time we've seen them was our first day in Costa Rica back in July when we were traveling from San José to Quepos.

These pictures of the macaws in the trees don't do justice at all but hopefully you can at least see how brightly colored they are and being able to watch them fly around was an amazing treat.

On the beach
Our hotel, Las Tortugas (The Turtles) Hotel, is located right on the beach.  It's known as a great surfing beach so we enjoyed watching the surfers and a beautiful sunset on a relatively quiet beach.

Angelina and Nathan played soccer at sunset

Grandeur II: A beautiful night for a walk along the shore

 A leatherback nesting
One of our family's dreams for the year was being able to watch a sea turtle lay eggs on the beach.  George and I saw this during our year in Mexico but the kids have never had this incredible experience...until tonight!  After dinner, we rested from 7:30 - 10:30pm and then walked down to the entrance to Las Baulas National Marine Park, located next to our hotel.  After registration, a park ranger gave an educational presentation about sea turtles.  We learned that three different kinds come to Playa Grande to lay their eggs:  Olive Ridley, Green or Black turtles and the Leatherback turtle (the largest).  Unfortunately, the sea turtle population has declined at alarming rates so there are many programs and parks that are trying to protect them and educate people about these incredible creatures.  It's amazing that even though they migrate as far south as the Galapagos Islands the females always come back to the same beach that they were born on!

Although it is currently nesting season here in Playa Grande it's never guaranteed that there will be one every night.  However, when we were in the presentation, another park ranger interrupted to say we needed to head out to the beach because there was a leatherback turtle!!!

So, around 11:30pm we headed out onto the darkened beach.  With the Milky Way spread out above us, shooting stars streaking the sky and the effervescent ocean waves soothing us, we walked in anticipation and excitement for what we'd get to see.  The huge leatherback (over five feet long) used its flippers to dig a big hole in the sand, then deposited 61 eggs, and covered up the hole with different 'mounds' of sand to confuse predators.  It was an amazing experience to watch this huge creature display God's grandeur in a way that has happened at this beach for thousands of years but is rare today.  It is definitely a memorable experience!

We were not allowed to take any pictures but here's a picture from the web to give you an idea of the size of a leatherback:

    Click here for photo credit