The last week of our stay was filled with saying goodbye to friends and finishing up the school year. We went to our favorite restaurant, Punto Tranquilo, and said goodbye to Juan Carlos. We will be seeing Juan Carlos in Wisconsin when his VISA comes through and he is able to come to the U.S. to be with his wife, Ingrid, in Madison. We also said goodbye to some of our teacher friends and were able to have a last dinner together at one of our favorite Sodas. In addition, we were able to be a part of our friend and coworker’s grand opening of his restaurant, Amigos. It was a busy, bittersweet last week!

8th Grade Graduation:

The school did not have a formal graduation for the 8th graders, and we were fortunate that one of the parents put together a nice gathering for the 8th graders to celebrate. Ray was able to hang with all of his classmates at one of the local restaurants that is right on the beach. All of the families were also invited and it was a blast. It was great that Ray was able to properly say goodbye to all of his friends. I hope he will be able to keep in touch with them.

Leaving Costa Rica:

After selling our car we rented a large van for our last three days in the country. We needed a vehicle this size in order to carry the 4 of us, 1 teacher, 11 suitcases and 5 backpacks to the airport on our final morning. We arrived in Liberia on Saturday for our 1:00 flight and ended up waiting 7 hours in the airport before we were told that our flight was canceled. It turned out that almost all of the flights were canceled that day as there was a sinkhole in the runway. We heard that there were issues and kept being told that our flight would be leaving (much later, but still leaving), however, we believe that they were waiting to cancel flights as if they canceled them all at once, immigration could not handle all of us flowing out of the airport. Keep in mind, we had to collect all of our luggage before heading to a hotel for the night and then had to head back the next morning for a 10:00 flight to do it all again! It was a long couple of days so we were very happy when we landed in Chicago!

Our last time on Costa Rican soil!

Returning home:

We have been home for a couple of weeks now and are starting to settle in. Fortunately, our house was standing when we returned so we were very pleased about that! We have been busy unpacking, mowing, bringing things out of storage, cleaning, dirt-biking, and seeing friends and family. The boys have also both already had tryouts for Select Soccer and have been able to see some friends. We also got Soca back! I know it was hard for her to say goodbye to her surrogate family, but I know she will see them again in the future.

Today we had our first opportunity to see the lake since our return. We miss the ocean, but it’s nice to be home on Geneva Lake!

Until our next big trip, Pura Vida!

The Beilmans

The countdown is on and we are busy squeezing everything we need to do and need to see in these last few days!  John just had his follow-up visit to the doctor to check on the progress of his broken toe (it’s the third toe on his left foot).  I have to say that, although the toe does not look good (in my opinion), the doctor said it is on the mend.  He has to wear his boot for 2 more weeks and then he should be good to go again.  We will miss our little clinic down here and all of the wonderful doctors (not to mention the reasonable cost!).

In addition to this, we have made sure that both of the boys have had the opportunity to get their “Tico haircuts” one last time and have visited our neighbors at the “Juice Cafe” that they own in Tamarindo.

Last Assembly:

The boys had their last school assembly which, of course, was lovely, but long and hot!  We were proud parents as both boys walked away with awards.  Ray was recognized for playing both soccer and volleyball, but was given the “Leadership Award” for Basketball!  He also received high honors for his academics.  John received the “Student of the Month” Award for the primary school, likely due to the fact that he has worked hard to pick up the trash that he finds laying around the school which has earned him many “green tickets” to enter a drawing to win this award.  In addition, to our surprise, John won the Most Valuable Player on his soccer team.  He was recognized for this honor out of all of the 4th, 5th and 6th graders on his team.  Being that he has not even been able to play soccer these last 3 weeks we were even more surprised!

New Tattoos:

Mark and I have wanted to commemorate our time here in Costa Rica with tattoos and we finally decided to get it done (nothing like waiting until the last minute)! There are a couple nice tattoo places in Tamarindo (no, not some back alley!) and we went with the one where one of the teachers at the boys’ school just got a tattoo.  Since her tattoo looked great and she held them in such high regard, we trusted that we were going with professionals.  Mark had wanted to get the initials “CR” on his arm-obviously for Costa Rica-so after a family discussion and many drawings, Mark decided on the design that I created.  He got his tattoo last Friday, and I went on Saturday with the entire family.  Since I was there and ready to go, I decided to get two tattoos-both boys were able to hold my hand throughout the process!  The coordinates are for my favorite beach down here, Playa Conchal.

Other Interesting Notes:

• Traffic jams in Costa Rica are no joke!  This one took us a bit of time to get out of tonight 🙂

• Soca has made many new friends over the past 10 months.  Apparently, she loves cats! (No, she will not be getting her own)
  

  

 

Until next week (from the U.S.), Pura Vida!

The Beilmans

Last weekend we went to visit our friends who own the hotel/huts at Playa Negra and left with another broken toe! This is the same beach that Ray broke his two toes at while playing soccer. John happened to be running barefoot on the beach in the pitch black and tripped over a big rock (running barefoot on the beach in the dark is not a good idea). We did not realize that his toe was broken until the next day; we thought he was just going to lose a toenail. Once we saw how swollen the toe was we took him straight to the clinic. While Ray just got his X-Rays back saying that his toes are mending and he is almost in the clear, John was hearing that he has to wrap his toe and wear a boot for the next 4 weeks. Lovely! Thank goodness there is not a social services here or they may suspect that we abuse our children!

Becoming more Tico:

Mark is on a quest to find all of his favorite “Tico” things to take home with us. He has had his machete for quite some time, but needed to get a sheath to cover it. We went to an outdoor market in Liberia (which we have told is actually Nicaraguan) and Mark asked about a sheath. Since they had nothing that would fit the machete exactly, they had to take the knife for a couple of days and custom make it. He is so happy with how it turned out! It is 100% leather, custom made and cost less than $30. He can’t wait to use it back home!

In addition, Mark has wanted a proper Tico “sombrero” and found one perfect for him!

Rain, Rain and more Rain:

Last week we got our first real rain in the last 6 months! It was a downpour. John was at soccer practice and all of the boys took advantage of the good time! Since then it has rained nearly every other day which is good because we really need the water. Things are finally looking green again!

Other Interesting Notes:

• School pictures cost a fortune here as does the yearbook ($45) so we will not be purchasing the boys’ individual pictures. Here is the best they will get (little rectangles and all!)
  

  
• The school has bananas growing out back-we love this!
• Raymond’s classmate and friend, Veronica, had an accident last week while playing in a soccer game. She was hit directly in the forehead by a soccer ball. While we were getting Ray’s x-rays at the clinic she came in with her father-still walking, barely, but seemingly alert. We came to find out she was taken by ambulance to Liberia and, after being admitted, was transferred to another hospital. Mark and I helped out by subbing for her mother, a 3rd grade teacher, as the family sought medical help. Veronica was left without her memory and weakness on the left side of her body. She knows her parents, but not their names. She cannot remember how to read or write. At this point, a week and a half later, she is slowing regaining her memories. The family saw a neurologist in the capital city who ran more tests. Her brain is fine, but has swelling, and the doctors are confident she will regain her memories within the next month. Every day brings something new. Ray made Veronica her favorite cookie bars (that only he makes with my grandma’s special frosting) and she remembered them and his name! The doctor has also told her she has to return to school and should think of this as “exercising” her brain and her memories; she cannot just sit at home and hope for things to get better. Tomorrow will be her first half day back. It’s been a very upsetting and terrifying week hearing of all of this, but we continue to hope and pray that every day Veronica will get better.
  

  
  
  

  Until next week, Pura Vida!

  The Beilmans

  

We only have about 5 weeks until we leave this country and we are starting to mentally (and physically) prepare for the trip home. First on our list is selling our beautiful 1996 RAV4! We would love to have this car in Wisconsin, but we think it would fall apart the instant it turns cold out (nor could we really get it here as we would have to drive it through Central America and Mexico thereby risking our lives in the process of getting the car home)! We have a potential buyer, so we are crossing our fingers all will go through. And for those individuals who enjoy going retro, the car still has a cassette tape deck!

We have also started to say goodbye to friends. John’s close pal, Godi, is leaving tomorrow to return to Iceland. Godi will be returning to the school here next year, but without John around, I think it will be tough for him. We are already looking into the cost of tickets to go to Iceland!

We are also doing our best to enjoy all of our favorite places/restaurants in these next few weeks. Here are some of the local places we love!

Things we miss:

Since we are heading home soon, we have been discussing the things we miss most in the U.S. Here are the top 5 things each one of us misses (this is above and beyond missing friends, family and Soca!):

• Mark: Guanajuato tacos and burritos, my garage, having a yard, good drivers and roads, South Shore pizza
• Ray: Piggly Wiggly donuts, South Shore, dirtbiking, the cooler weather, my records
• John: Culvers, riding motorcycles, good ice cream, my own yard, Tana’s Restaurant (pancakes and french fries)
• Janet: Target/TJ Maxx, cheap groceries, having more than one car, good wine at reasonable prices, a steady income
  

  

  

  

  

Visiting crocodiles in their “natural habitat”:

During our spring break trip around the country we were able to visit the “Crocodile Bridge” where you can view crocodiles in their “natural habitat”. This entails parking, getting out of your car, and walking on an overpass bridge to view the crocodiles below. It’s very interesting as there are MANY crocodiles in this small location (I think the boys counted about 17). The most dangerous part though is surviving the cars and trucks as they are whizzing by on the bridge!

And we saw this on Facebook shortly after our visit-nice! (Notice this man does not look Costa Rican; Ticos are smarter than this!)

Other interesting notes:

• Thank you to our wonderful friends Maxine and Angie for cleaning up the huge branches in our yard. These ladies have big hearts and muscles! 🙂
  

  

  
• It turns out John is a runner! He signed up last minute to do a “fun family run” at the school and won first in both the “kid” division and then the “family” division (he ran in the uniform and all)! The races were about a half kilometer and kilometer. He is hoping to join track in his future.
• Ray has taken up reading! His 8th grade English teacher has exposed him to some of the great literary classics. This year alone he has read Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, 1984, The Hobbit, The Pearl, The Red Pony, Flowers for Algernon and many more! (That’s him reading in a tree at the beach-breaking his toes has also led to more time to read!)

Until next week, Pura Vida! The Beilmans

Monteverde:

Before we could enjoy the stunning cloud forest we trekked up sides of mountains and valleys at 4000 feet above sea level. While baking in our car and feeling hazy I became antsy and was eager to stretch my legs in the clouds. Tranquility certainly consumed me everywhere. It wasn’t until I reached the forest itself where I was truly awed at the colossal but silent trees. Everything seemed tangled and tied together as a form of unity. I was walking in an unheard of place that was much different from what I had known. We were in the middle of a National Geographic column.

 

San Jose:

It was more than a struggle driving to and fro any place in San Jose. Although the drive was rough, the museums were intriguing. We walked the halls of the museum of gold and jade, but my favorite was the Natural Science Museum. They had a grand hall filled with all sorts of shells, butterflies and other insects. Unfortunately, we were the only ones there and it seemed they did not receive much attention from tourists or schools.

 

Jaco Beach:

Broken Toes :

While venturing at a friends house, he and I started playing soccer with some older guys. We were a couple points into the game when one of their heels was forced in between two of my toes. I had to quit because of the pain and the next day I got it examined and they said both toes were broke near the growth plate. I now have to bandage them and wear a boot. The doctors also said I should be out of sportsfor 8 weeks.

This past week we had the opportunity to see some friends from Wisconsin, Maxine and Ethan Welsh. Ethan is a close friend of John’s and requested that his gift for his 10th birthday be a trip to Costa Rica (pretty special! Hmm, I wonder why he picked Costa Rica?). Fortunately our calendar was open and we were able to spend a couple days hosting Maxine and Ethan at our house and then head with them to an all-inclusive condo/hotel about an hour north of where we live. We were BUSY!

 

John got to leave school early to make the airport run to pick up our guests-it was a happy reunion! (He also missed a couple more days of school as we were not on spring break yet)

The boys enjoyed spending some quality time at our house in our pool.  I think Ethan was in the pool before 7 each morning and then again right before bed!

 

Beaches, beaches and more beaches:

Since Guanacaste is known for its beautiful beaches we made sure to bring Maxine and Ethan to as many as possible-that would be 8 total beaches in the 7 days that they were here! The boys were able to boogie board, skim board, and run the beaches. I think they enjoyed skim boarding the best and Ethan became quite good at it in the short time he was here!

 

Catamaran Tour, Hotel and Waterfalls

We also made sure to take Maxine and Ethan on a catamaran tour where we discovered another family there from Elkhorn (note the green Elkhorn Basketball shirt)! Such a small world! The catamaran was a blast and we were able see a beautiful sunset as well.

 

After 3 days at our house we traveled up to Ethan and Maxine’s condo and toured some more beaches, swam in pools, visited waterfalls, and ate huge amounts of food at the all-inclusive buffet.  We had a wonderful (and exhausting) time and appreciate Maxine and Ethan including us!  The beaches we visited up north here were Playa Hermosa, Playas del Coco, and Playa Panama (but not in Panama!)

 

We made so many memories this past week.  I hope that John and Ethan both appreciate what an unbelievable experience they had together!

Other interesting notes:

• The banks here in CR are very formal.  There is a guard that opens the door for you to enter the bank, you have to take a number and take a seat, and there are no hats allowed (you can wear one, but backwards on your head so they can see your face).
• Apparently Ticos love Old Milwaukee beer!  Maxine loved seeing this 🙂 Incidentally, this picture was taken at Walmart!
• Ticos believe in buying “refills” of items and many things come in plastic pouches with the refill.  This includes hand soaps, dish soaps, windex and other household cleaners, etc.  Not a bad idea!
• Dogs are everywhere in Costa Rica.  Many are stray and many seem like strays but have collars.  Who knows?  Ethan found it hard to resist them.  Fortunately he could not take one home on the plane. 
  

  

  Until next week, Pura Vida!

It is dry, dry, dry here and with the lack of rain come fires.  There have been a number of fires up in the hills and mountains here and last week they started heading towards the boys’ school. Mark and I were both subbing (on a Wednesday) and the smoke and ashes blew down the hill and made breathing outdoors extremely difficult.  All after school activities were canceled as were classes for the next two days.  Fortunately, the firemen worked all night to build a barrier between the fire and the school.  As you can see, it was close!  That makes four days off of school this year; two for flooding and two for fires.  Not quite as many days off as Wisconsin, but close!  The boys will have to make up one day of school as three days were already built in for emergencies (not called “snow days” here!).

With all of the dry land comes dry, arid soccer fields.  Playing on these fields is a challenge with all of the dust and dirt.  You can see the damage on John more than Ray!

Primary  Duathlon:

John had an opportunity to participate in a Duathlon at school-a content with 2 laps of swimming and one large lap of running around the school.  He came from behind to win the duathlon for the 4th grade boys.  He was pretty proud!

Other interesting notes:

• Badger pride is alive and well in Costa Rica!  This big “W” is actually part of the Westin, but it looks like it represents Wisconsin to us!
• Since John couldn’t make snow angels here, he opted for a sand angel!
• We found Soca’s long-lost brother here in Central America!  This cutie has way too much fur for the tropical climate, but seemed to be enjoying himself. He’s bilingual too!
  

  
  
  

  Until next week Pura Vida! The Beilmans

  

All around Costa Rica local towns are hosting their annual “Fiesta Civica” which includes the local rodeo.  Our closest town of Brasilito (about a 10 minute drive away) recently hosted their event and we were able to catch a rodeo as a family (no running from the bulls for Mark this time!).  Everything takes place after sunset with a parade, fireworks, food and beer, and the rodeo.

 

Always interesting is the fact that so many people put their lives in harm’s way just to ride a bull-or run from one.  Of course, there is a spot specifically set up from the ring directly to the ambulance for those in need. 

Rincon de La Vieja:

One of the closest volcanos and national parks near our house is Rincon de La Vieja.  Since the boys had school off on Thursday and Friday, we decided to take a short trip there.  Although you can’t get up close to see the crater of the volcano as it is still considered “active”, you can see the boiling mud pots and steam coming up from the earth.  It’s very interesting and very smelly with all of the sulfer that comes up with the steam.  It reminded me of the boiling swamps you would see in Star Wars or The Princess Bride!

 

We lucked out finding a hotel near the volcano that was situated on a river where we could swim and relax in hot tubs/hot springs overlooking the river.  They also had a pool and hanging bridge; the boys were daring enough to walk the bridge, I was NOT (note the sign with the “Capacity 5”)!

 

 

Other interesting notes:

• Ray and John had the opportunity to play soccer together on the same team last weekend!  The JV team needed extra players so Ray moved down from Varsity to help them out during the game, and John moved up from his younger team.  It was fun to watch!
• One of Mark’s new favorite fruits-apparently it is a mango, but I’m not sure how.  It is VERY sour and you eat it with lime and salt.
• Who doesn’t love uniforms?  Especially on this little guy.  The boys’ school has classes for 3-year olds.  We plan on taking this guy home with us!  I’m pretty sure his mom won’t mind as they already have two older boys…

• Until next week, Pura Vida!  The Beilmans

Both boys have been active in soccer again (since the start of second semester) and they are both busy and tired out! John is on 2 different soccer teams-one at school and one that is a combination of kids from the schools around the area that practices on Saturday mornings.  Ray is on a soccer team at school, but tried out for the local “Tsunami Azul” team shown below.  He made the U17 team and is the only English speaker.  He enjoys it and the level of play is high, but the language barrier has been a frustration for him.  We have reminded him that each practice will get easier.  We have also been told that there will be another assistant coach who speaks English starting soon. Ray’s first official game was this past weekend, but unfortunately he was unable to play since he needs an International Playing Card that has still not arrived.  We hope he will be able to play next weekend!

 

Mechanics:

We decided it was time to bite the bullet and get our car fixed. We did not really have any advice on who to go to, so we went with a place we found on Facebook and we got lucky!  Amazingly, purchasing a new headlight, new fender, and new trim piece for the car only cost us about $135 and the mechanic charged us only $125 to get the job done (new paint and all!).  We were pretty pleased with that and might have a couple more things done to the car now as well (like get our passenger window fixed that does not open).  We dropped the car off, had the parts ordered and delivered, all of the work done, and the car was ready for us to pick up 48 hours later!  They even sent us pictures of the progress as they were working on it!

 

 

More Field Trips:

John was able to go on a day-long field trip with his Spanish class to Adventure Park an outdoor, open concept “zoo” outside of Liberia (about an hour from our house).  The class is studying animals and this trip perfectly suited what they were learning.  Of course, John managed to get bit by an ostrich while feeding him a carrot.  Even though he got a minor injury,  John still said this trip was even more fun than ziplining!

 

 

 

Other interesting notes:

• We found another snake at our house.  Fortunately, this one was not poisonous; still a challenge to get rid of them!

 

• They have fireworks in Costa Rica!  We purchased these over the New Year and are just starting to use them.  Some were much bigger and powerful than we expected.  Since it is so dry out now we have decided to wait until it rains again to use the rest!

Until next week, Pura Vida!

The Beilmans

Ray and John had another grade level team-building field trip (like when they went on the catamaran first semester) where they got to go ziplining.  Mark and I are happy that we did not have to go with as it looked quite daunting!  John was pretty scared when he started the day and had a parent help him through the first course. By the end he was going on the zipline upside down!

 

Car accident:

Mark took a trip to Liberia to run some errands while I was working and the boys were in school.  He ended up in a Costa Rican car accident when a car in front of him decided to come to a dead stop in the middle of the road going 55 miles per hour to stop and chat with a friend.  The car was two cars in front of Mark, but caused a chain reaction where Mark had to slam on his breaks, but hit the car in front of him; a 1996 RAV4 can’t stop the quickest.  Fortunately he hit an American so they were able to communicate.  The man also spoke Spanish and gave the Ticos in front of him an earful as they were the ones who came to an abrupt stop.  They just shrugged their shoulders and left the scene (their car was not hit or damaged) and Mark was able to settle up with the American without calling the police (he just happened to have cash on him which was a plus).  I think we got off cheap considering we do not have insurance.  Now we have to look into fixing the damage on the front end of our car.  You can see that Mark did a little fixing on his own-it’s a bit better!

 

Scorpians:

For some reason we have had a rise in the number of scorpians in our house.  Ray had an incident the other night (at 10:30 at night!) where a scopian fell out of one of our air conditioning units when he turned it on.  He and the scorpian had a battle, but Ray won! As his note below states, “Please don’t freak out, this scorpian is DEAD!” Two nights before this I woke up in the middle of the night with something crawling on my arm.  I grabbed it and threw it onto the floor and got stung in the process.  I assumed that it must be a scorpian and had Mark search until he found it.  I was correct and Mark was able to kill it.  It was a larger scorpian-probably about 2 1/2 inches, so the sting did not hurt more than a bee sting would.  We have been told that the smaller scorpians have a much more potent sting.  Needless to say, it was not easy to go back to sleep!

Other interesting notes:

• John introduced us to the “rainbow tree”-properly called the Rainbow Eucalypus.  You can see how it gets its name! https://news.co.cr/rainbow-eucalyptus-one-of-costa-ricas-hidden-gems/30260/

 

• We have been keeping up with the weather in Wisconsin and cannot believe the difference between our current location and home.  Note the temperature comparisons from last week-more than 100 degrees apart! 
  

  

Until next week, Pura Vida!

The Beilmans