Author: beilman4

Ray had a big basketball game this week where the students played the teachers so Mark had a chance to show off his basketball skills!  Although they were not keeping score, I think that the adults may have won (Mark gave 100% and almost died in the process!)  They hope to play again in the future.  Mark said that is some of the most fun he has had down here!

Samara Beach:

To celebrate the end of Mark’s science teaching experience and having a 3-day weekend, we decided to take an overnight trip to Samara Beach.  Samara is a town about 2 hours south of us on the Pacific Coast.  Being that we are in the rainy season, we knew we were taking a gamble with the weather.  It was rainy, but we made the best of our stay.  Keep in mind that rain here is warm so the boys were still able to go in the ocean and pool (when it wasn’t downpouring).  We were also able to view the Brewer’s Game which was a plus. As you can see, Sport’s Bars exist here as well-note Aaron Rodger’s on the sign below!

Our hotel in Samara was directly on the beach and had individual “bungalows” to stay in.  The whole place was beautiful and relatively inexpensive at about $75 a night which included a free “typical” breakfast; toast, fruit, beans, rice, orange juice, coffee and eggs.  Pretty filling!

Other interesting notes:

• Apparently smoking is still encouraged in the boys’ school!  Note the little cigaretter holder that is on top of the toilet paper holder in the boy’s bathroom 🙂 Too funny!
• Horses tend to run wild around our town (along with dogs).  Note the horses that we encountered on the dirt road on our drive in to school!
  

  

   

• Costa Ricans refer to themselves as “Ticos” for men and boys, and “Ticas” for women and girls.  Here is the reason why this came about: “Ticos have the tendency of turning words into diminutives and sometimes add the diminutive tico at the end of words. Something small, chiquito, becomes chiquitico. A man is chiquitico and that woman is chiquitica.”  

Until next week, Pura Vida!

Janet, Mark, Ray and John

We have been asked what our “address” in Costa Rica is; well, we really don’t have one!  Technically, this is what it is: “one mile south of the Huacas intersection, across from Scott Furniture, Huacas, Guanacaste”.  There are no numbers here and rarely any street signs.  We do not receive mail here, and when I went to the post office to get a P.O. Box, they said they were all full. We decided to have people directly mail items to the post office in our name and go in occasionally and ask if there is any mail for us.  Joe and Shelby had to send us a small package that contained a TI-84 Calculator that Ray needed for his Algebra class (the school didn’t tell us he would be advanced to Algebra until the school year started).  While they were at it they also included some things we forgot at home like fishing lures, sunglasses, etc.  The package weighed about 4 pounds and cost them $60 to send to us.  After a few days I went to the local post office to see if it had arrived.  They told me that the package was intercepted and sent to a different city almost 3 hours away to go through another “customs” process!  Apparently this is a random process.  I finally took the time last Monday to go and get it (if they have to hold it longer than 30 days they get rid of it).  I brought our trusted friend and local, Edgar, with me just in case I should run into any problems (not to mention the fact I would not want to break down on the side of the road by myself in the middle of a foreign country).  Once we arrived at the customs office (after 3 hours of driving) it took another 2 1/2 hours to get our package with only about 10 people in line before us!  Fortunately everything was still in the package (they have to open it right there in front of you and go through all of the contents) and we were only charged a “tax” of $10.  The people in front of us had ordered a small part for their golf cart that cost them $270 and they were taxed an additional $135!  Yikes.

One thing that made our trip a bit longer is the continued strikes.  Unfortunately the government and the unions here cannot agree upon how to fix their financial problems and deficits.

John’s first soccer game:

John has not has his first official soccer game with his own team yet, but was asked to play a game with the older 6th and 7th grade team.  They played a local school and the game was considered a “JV” game.  He ended up playing 7th and 8th graders, and although he was small, he did a good job keeping up with the big kids.  They lost 7-0, but played a tough game.  In reality, Ray and his 8th grade teammates should have been playing this team, but they were moved up to the Varsity team.  We’ll see how John’s younger team does when playing against their own age.

Flooding:

We are in the rainy season and have finally felt it!  It has rained nearly every day for the past week and then on Thursday evening it started to rain and continued to downpour throughout the evening.  We believe that the rain exceeded 12 inches as we had a plastic pitcher outside that was overflowing by morning.  The rain washed out some roads and bridges and downed some large trees.  Due to these events, school was canceled.  Kind of like a “snow day” in Costa Rica!  One issue is that the boys’ school is located down a long dirt road and the bridge to the school was washed out.  Mark was ecstatic as he got a day off of teaching; I was a bit bummed because I had a sub job lined up and was looking forward to it.  We have been told that the rainy season last year was ten times worse with occurances like this happening daily, including mudslides.

We made a visit to the beach in the evening after all of the rain had stopped just to check it out!

Other interesting notes:

• There is an illegal activity here where people try to steal the wood from the protected Cocobolo tree.  This wood is illegally harvested and turned into furniture for top dollar.  Our friends had “visitors” last week who cut down their largest Cocobolo tree in hopes to steal it off of their land.  They were called in the middle of the night by someone who lives on the property (the grandfather purchased about 1000 acres of land 20+ years ago) and called the police.  They stayed the night protecting the tree (below).  They are waiting for the people to return for the tree in hopes of catching them and arresting them.  Otherwise, the case will go to court and the judge will have to grant the owners the right to be able to take this tree off of the property and use it at their discretion.
• The other night our landlord had us over to his house which is about 1 mile from where we live.  It is unreal!  He lives on the top of a large hill/mountain that overlooks the town, ocean, and surrounding areas.  It is like he (and his wife and dog!) live in the clouds.  We had to drive a winding dirt road almost a half mile up to get there.  It is like something you would see on House Hunters International; the picture doesn’t do it justice (and yes, that is an infinity pool looking over the edge)!  We told him we would be happy to dog-sit if they ever have to leave town 🙂

Until next week, Pura Vida!

Janet, Mark, Ray and John

So, after I wrote our blog last week, we went to a nice little secluded beach (one of our favorites), and we ended up having all of our things stolen off of the beach!  It was completely our fault as we left our things unattended as we strolled down the beach.  As we were walking a Costa Rican man started motioning to us and pointing in the direction we had been sitting. Apparently two “chicos” came out of the bushes and grabbed our basket of towels, sunscreen, goggles, etc. that also included my purse and brand new camera.  We ran towards the road where they went to try to find them (also thinking that they were younger boys because the man said, “chicos”).  They ended up ditching the basket of items and taking the purse and camera.  Unfortunately, my purse had my phone, our car keys, house keys, 2 credit cards, my driver’s license, and more.  We were locked out of our car with no one to call and no idea what to do.  We continued to look for these “chicos” and talked to the man who saw them on the beach.  After hearing his description of one being “tall with big muscles” we figured out they were likely “men” instead of boys. We also looked more closely at our car and discovered that there were markings on the outside rim of some of the windows that looked as though a crowbar of sorts was used to try to pry open the windows to break in.  God bless the 1996 RAV4 for holding up as they were unable to get in!

Shortly after some local men who were fishing nearby came up and helped us call the police (yes, it is still “911” here!).  Funny enough, the locals told us they usually never go to this beach because there is too much theft!   The police showed up about 45 minutes later just as it started to downpour.  Of course, neither officer spoke English, so I did my best to communicate what happened.  Luckily we had another set of keys at home and the officers were able to drive the boys and I home to get them.  Mark stayed with the car because we feared that these men would return once we left and get into our car because they had the keys now.  There is no way Mark could leave that unattended with our passports and his wallet inside (we have since learned to NOT keep our passports with us, but rather just a copy of them in case they are needed for identification).  We returned with the extra set of keys and the police encouraged us to file a report down at the station.  I’m not sure what they will do, but we’ll see.  We certainly learned a tough lesson and are much wiser for it now!

*Note: we are sharing a phone right now so if you need to reach either one of us we are on WhatsApp with Mark’s phone number: 262-949-7437.

Here is the beach we will not be visiting again for awhile!

More teaching…

Mark is keeping busy as he continues his long-term teaching job and working diligently to refresh his memory on Chemistry and Physics.  He will be done with this job on October 15th when a new science teacher arrives to officially fill the position (apparently, she is a returning teacher who worked at the school a couple of years ago).  He is enjoying working with the high school kids and learning how to work with the 6th graders!  It has been a challenge.  We do our best to help him get set up in the morning and ready for the day.

 

Just when I think there will be a “lull” in the substitute teaching jobs, I was asked to cover for a secondary teacher who will be out 4 days next week.  It seems that this teacher has to return to the states as her bank accounts have a “lock” on them and she needs to figure out what is going on-poor family!  And they have to travel back with 3 young boys.

I’m sure that many of you are curious as to what we get paid here to sub.  First, teacher pay is very low, even at a private school that charges a high tuition.  We have heard teachers make about $1,800 a month.  The sub pay is $35 a day (there are no taxes taken out of this)-in Wisconsin it is about $110 a day now (with taxes taken from this).  As a long-term sub who is lesson planning, correcting papers, etc. they are paying Mark $60 a day.  It is definitely money that we can use!

First game…

Ray had his first official soccer game!  His school played a local soccer team that was not affiliated with a school, but rather, was a group of boys who were some of the “best of the best” in the area.  They were extremely out-matched, but it was a great experience.  Ray’s team consists of players from 8th grade to 12th grade.  As we drove to the field and saw the opposing team, Ray’s first comment was, “wow, they all look like they have beards”.  Ha!  Ray played tough and did his best so that’s all we can ask for!  We even got to see a rainbow during the game and John got to be the ball boy.

 

Other events…

• John finally got his first haircut and as he says, “it was cheap and good!”.  John liked that he used a lot of gel and the guy tried to give him a mohawk!

 

• So, I decided to look into getting the car washed professionally as we do not have a vacuum and our car has been full of sand for quite some time.  I was jumping for joy after I got the car “washed”, which really means “detailed” here, and it only cost me 5,000 Colones (or about $9).  They powerwashed, vacuumed, scrubbed, cleaned the tires, etc for an hour and the car looks like new!
  

  Until next week, Pura Vida!

  Janet, Mark, Ray, and John

• 

Sports Begin:

After school sports started last week and the boys are loving it.  Ray is involved in both soccer and basketball and John is involved in soccer.  The nice thing for Ray is that he is able to play with high school kids so he is definitely learning a lot.  Hopefully they will have some games against other schools soon.  The difficult part about sports after school is that it is so HOT (usually 90 plus degrees-plus, there is a lot of humidity right now).  The coaches make sure to take a lot of water breaks, but it is definitely a challenging factor for the boys.

Subbing:

Last week I was asked to sub for an English teacher who had a 3-day planned absence.  Of course, I jumped at the chance!  I was able to teach 7th, 9th and 11th grades-fortunately for Ray, not having to teach him and his peers! I got to revisit 3 classics-“To Kill a Mockingbird”, “The Catcher in the Rye”, and “The Great Gatsby”.  The students were great and I hope to have a chance to go back again.  Having said that, the same day I took my sub job, Mark was asked if he could cover for a science teacher they “let go” that day and will likely be working at the school for the next 3 weeks.  Funny enough, we were placed in classrooms right next to each other!  He loves the idea of subbing, but is just a bit concerned with the subject matter-Chemistry, Physics, and 6th grade Life Science.  He needs to study up these next three weeks!  The pictures below show what it looks like right outside Mark’s classroom door.

 

Home Sweet Home:

We love our home here!  It is definitely small, but I think we have already learned that we do not need a lot of space and a lot of “stuff” in our lives in order to be happy.  Although the boys struggle (at times) to share a small room and sleep in the same bed, things are going better than expected.  Mark and I love our bedroom as this is the first king size bed we have ever had!

 

 

Other interesting notes:

• The boys actually LIKE having uniforms!  As a parent, I have to say that uniforms make life SO much easier.  I wish we had them more in our public schools in the states!  The picture below shows that we are ready for the week; pretty simple.

• Manta Rays actually jump out of the water-kind of like a flying fish.  They come in to the shallow areas of the ocean and seem to enjoy swimming among the waves and current as much as humans do (they don’t have a stinger and can’t hurt you).  It was hard to capture a picture of them as they are so quick, but I have found an image that is pretty accurate.

• Of course, Costa Rica has McDonalds (and Burger King, and Subway, and Taco Bell!).  We went to Liberia, which is an hour away, to run some errands and treated the boys to their favorite meals.
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  Until next week, Pura Vida!

  Ray, John, Janet, and Mark (from the gates outside our house)

  

The start to our week was a bit rough as Ray had a high fever which we thought was brought on by over-exposure to the sun.  After 3 days of the up and down fever and body aches and pains, we brought him to the doctor who told us he had strep throat!  Of course, there was no sign of a sore throat until the morning we brought him in.  We are glad it was not some rare tropical fever that we feared!  He missed three days of school so he is working hard to catch up on assignments and homework.

The week culminated in the celebration of Independence Day at the boys’ school.  It was a big production!  The boys had an assembly from 10:30-12:00 that all parents were invited to attend.  Following that, families could purchase an authentic Costa Rican lunch-arroz con pollo (rice with chicken), frijoles (beans), tamales, etc-and then the games started. Since it was about 90 degrees outside (and even hotter in the un-airconditioned gym) Mark and I decided not to stay for those events!

 

*Note: Costa Rica gained its independence from Spain on September 15, 1821; this was the same time that all of Central America gained its independence from Spain.

 

The assembly ended with these large mask creatures running around the gymnasium chasing the students.  It was pretty much a free-for-all for about 15 minutes; hilarious!  (see video)

Playa Negra:

Following the events on Thursday, the boys had the day off of school on Friday.  We decided to head to Playa Negra to stay in the hotel that Ray’s friend’s family owns.  We got a “hut” for the family to stay in, and the boys ended up having a sleepover with two of the boys in a hut of their own.  Pretty nice to know the owners!

 

 

It’s an animal’s dream in Costa Rica.  There are so many dogs running around the beaches and towns, and frolicking in the ocean waves.  Some have owners, some are just stray; I’m not sure that it really matters.  Either way, we always joke that we have never seen an unhappy dog in this country!

Strikes:

Costa Rica is currently in a time of strikes on the part of public workers and those who are fighting for tax-reform.  For a fairly peaceful country, things have been less “pura vida” than normal.  Most of the protests are taking place in the bigger cities, mainly San Jose, although we are seeing some fallout here on the coast.  People are concerned that we will run out of gasoline and the long lines for the gas stations started yesterday (see picture).  Some places even ran out of gas.  We’ll see if the coming week brings any peace to the situation.

More information can be found here:  https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/costa-rica-shaken-rare-unruly-unrest-labor-strike-57835957

Other interesting notes:

• Cheese is hard to come by in Costa Rica (and is very expensive), but look what we found!  Yep, that’s from Wisconsin!
  
• We are currently in the “low” season here.  The tourism is minimal and many places close for the next two months-September and October.  The “high” season begins in December and runs until about March.  That is also the same time as the “dry” season.  We have been told that it gets busy!
• September is part of the rainy season, although the rain comes and goes.  When it comes, it can hit fast and hard!  This sky darkened in about 2 minutes and then the downpour came.  

Until next week, Pura Vida!

Janet, Mark, Ray, and John

Costa Rica’s Independence Day is September 15 and it is a huge deal!  The boys’ school has been preparing for the big day by having door decoration contests, having the students learn Costa Rican songs and dances, and having the school taken over with Costa Rican flags and colors .  This Thursday there will be activities at the school to celebrate the occasion (starting at 10:30 a.m. until the end of the day!), and then the boys do not have school on Friday.  As parents we have been involved in creating door decorations for both of the boys’ homerooms; John’s class won the decoration for the elementary school!

Yes, that is Mark helping with John’s bulletin board!

Dressed like a “Tico” minus the jeans that he should be wearing to make the outfit complete!

Visiting the “big” city of Santa Cruz:

Santa Cruz is a small city that is about 45 mintues from our house that happens to have a number of stores including a department store!  It is so difficult to find things that we need here in Costa Rica, but this is one area where we can seem to find some odds and ends.  First off, nothing is really brand name; or at least brand names that we are familiar with.  You can find shoe stores that have some Nike and Adidas items, but you will be paying top dollar for them.   There are also many “knockoff” brands that look like Nike, Adidas, Converse, and Timberland for a fraction of the cost.  And, just like in the U.S., they already have Christmas decorations out!!

In addition, the boys found a small Pizza Hut in Santa Cruz so they got to enjoy their favorite breadsticks and cinnamon sticks!

More animals…

We woke up about 2 weeks ago to find our pool covered with about a thousand frog’s eggs.  We did our best to scoop them out and throw them over the edge of the pool so we did not start a frog colony.  A week or so ago we found four little tadpoles in that same area and are now trying to raise them (John’s idea).  Apparently they like lettuce and cucumbers!

Also, Ray’s pet iguana “Papi” has been found eating my flowers so I am not really happy with him! 

Other items to note:

• Ray’s favorite fruit here is a mamon chino.  They are odd looking to say the least!  They taste a bit like a grape and have a seed in the middle.  You can currently buy a bag of these for 1,000 colones (or about $1.80).
  

  

  
•  One of John’s favorite things to eat is still french fries.  Fortunately, he can get them for 400 colones (about 75 cents) at the local Pollolandia.  Yes, that essentially means “Chickenland”!
• Mark and I have made it a point to see the ocean every day that we are living in Costa Rica.  So, we are on about 35 plus days in a row now!  Since we are living an essentially “retired” lifestyle right now, we drop the boys off at school in the morning and then walk about 2 miles or so on one of the local beaches.  It is definitely a nice way to start the day! The following are some pictures of the different places we walk.
  

  

  
• Other than that, go Packers!  We can even watch the games here in Costa Rica 🙂

Pura Vida,

The Beilmans

This week was John’s turn to go on his field trip on the “Marlin del Rey” catamaran. Mark was supposed to go with him as a chaperone, but ended up getting a bad head cold with body aches, etc. so he was unable to go. John was bummed, but then I could go! -Janet

It was really fun. We went to an island and we could snokel and swim to the beach, but we had to have a noodle with us (a floating noodle). I like all of the free 7up. We saw a small shark’s head washed up on the beach. It took 45 minutes to sail out to the beach. We also got to jump off the boat and do flips and cannonballs. -John

First birthday party…

Ray got an invite to his friend Julian’s birthday party which was last Sunday. Because it was about 45 minutes away, the whole family was invited to stay. Julian’s family owns a hotel and restaurant on a beach in Playa Negra. Julian’s father built the “huts” for the hotel with his father over 25 years ago. It is a beautiful location and a surfing hotspot. At some point we will definitely return to stay overnight.

John was also able to try surfing! He got a pretty good start and is learning how to balance himself on the board. This board looks big, but was best for a “beginner” as it is made of foam and it won’t hurt as much when you fall.

Sunsets…

Obviously, sunsets on the Pacific are lovely. We find ourselves racing to the coast to catch them. Keep in mind, the sunsets here occur about 5:50 p.m. so it is definitely earlier than we are used to! It seems that people literally stop in the middle of the road to catch a glimpse. We were lucky to catch a few beauties in the last week.

*Look for the heads of people farther out in this picture. They are fishermen that wade in the water up to their necks to cast out their lines to catch fish. It seems to prove to be a successful method!

Other interesting notes:

• Of course, Walmart exists in Costa Rica! Our closest Walmart is an hour away, and we find that we have to make the trip there every week or so just to get things we need. Note that a case of water costs 4,500 Colones or nearly $9.00! Walmart here has much less than what we have in the U.S., but has appliances like refrigerators, washers and dryers, etc.

• The term, “Pura Vida” or “the pure life” is used as a greeting in Costa Rica. My friend and coworker Michelle Lopez (who is married to a Costa Rican) sent me this:
• 

• Anything goes on the roads in Costa Rica! You can pass whenever you want, park wherever you want, and drive pretty much as fast as you want. Police seem to stop people randomly; it has nothing to do with how you are driving. It takes some getting used to!

Until next week-Pura Vida!

This week Mark decided it was time to buy a fishing pole and try his luck at fishing in the Pacific.  After a few unsuccessful tries (where he claimed there were no fish in this ocean) he finally caught his first fish today!  We are not sure exactly what it is (maybe a Needle fish?), but it gave Mark a good fight.  Big teeth too!  Unfortunately, it did not look like a type of fish you would want to eat.

More fishing opportunities…

 

 

Ray’s first field trip!

Ray had his first field trip on Wednesday which was going with his 8th grade class on a sailboat excusion for the morning.  It sounds like he had a blast!  The kids were able to swim, snokel, hang out, have a free lunch and drinks (including virgin pina coladas)!  They also got to see the dolphins which would swim right next to the boat.  In addition, they were allowed to swim from the sailboat to a secluded beach which was about 200 feet away.  They let the kids swim there alone as long as they had a little swimming “noodle” with them.  Unbelievable!  I can’t even imagine kids in U.S. schools having this much freedom.  John gets to take this same trip next Wednesday and Mark gets to go along for free as a parent chaperone (they had room for 12 chaperones!).  Needless to say, they are both looking forward to it.

 

Our medical clinic…

Of course, both of the boys have already had to go to the doctor-and both for the same thing!  After swimming so much, John tends to get an ear infection or “swimmer’s ear” (apparently Ray does now too).  Of course, I forgot his ear drops at home.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a nice clinic about 5 minutes from our house.  It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (good!) and has “normal” business hours from 8:00-5:00 seven days a week.  If you come within the normal business hours you pay $50 for the visit.  Any “follow up” visit for the same ailment/issue is free after that.  We still have our health care insurance from the states through the end of the month, but I am not sure if they will reimburse us or not.  Even if they don’t,  we are pretty pleased with the minimal cost and the medication was also very reasonable ($40 for 3 different scripts).  Our biggest concern is going back to the U.S. in the summer and not having health insurance while there (about 2 months).  How sad is that? Right before we came here Ray had to go to Urgent Care; WITH insurance that cost us $75 copay just to get in the door!

 

Other interesting things to note…

• Costa Rica uses Colones for their monetary system.  $1.00 is roughly 500 colones, so everything is listed in the thousands.  For example, a meal costs 2,500 Colones or about $5.
• The sun rises at 5:30 every morning and sets by 6:00 p.m. every evening.  So, it gets dark EARLY.  This never changes throughout the year.
• People even sell food out of the backs of their cars (although this is frowned upon by the police!) This woman pictured below is quite popular!

Until next week, hasta luego!

Janet, Mark, Ray and John

 

The boys started school on Monday, yet already had a day off due to Mother’s Day (August 15) which is a national holiday here!  It was nice to ease into things with a 4 day week.  Both boys have a “translator” for their classes which are taught in Spanish-Art, Music, P.E., and Swimming.  Kind of cute.

At the end of the first week we attended a “Welcome Back Bash” that was sponsored by the school and PTO.  It was at a beautiful restaurant that has a swimming pool, playground, and zipline.  It was pretty nice to say the least!

Our “new” car

After renting a car for the first 3 days of our stay, we decided we needed to purchase a car ASAP.  Fortunately Edgar, the local man who brought us home from the airport (and our landlord set us up with), found us a couple of potential cars to buy.  We found a 1996 RAV4 with 183,000 miles (with lots of new amenities like tires) for $6,000.  Apparently this is a good deal down here!   Mind you, in the United States, this car is likely worth around $2,000.  We are hoping that she retains her value and we can resell her when we leave!

Our dog, Soca

For those of you unaware, our dog Soca is staying with my principal, Rebecca Zahn, and her family.  We are so blessed that they were willing to watch her for this year that we are gone and it sounds like she is having as much fun as we are! She is truly being spoiled and hear that she apparently has her own pool!

We are afraid that she may not want to leave!

Other experiences…

Ray’s first Costa Rican haircut!  One thing cheaper than in the U.S.-less than $6.

Our first “feria” hosted on Friday nights in our town.  Food, fun, lots of goodies for sale, and free dogs!

More beaches and hunting for shells…

And wonderful food! (The plate shown is a “casado” and a local favorite-beans, rice, salad, plantains, and a meat.  This one was about $8.00, but can run as low as $5.00)

Our big adventure for the week is starting the school year!  On Friday we had an open house where the kids got to meet some of their teachers and see their classrooms.  John got to bring in all of his school supplies (that include swim goggles and a swim cap) which made the first day much easier.  Both boys have to take Spanish class, which is good, and will likely start at a “beginner” level.  Ray is trying to test to a higher level to push himself a bit more.  Otherwise, much of the curriculum is similar to what they would have in the states.

Note: Ray is wearing the standard school uniform; John got off the hook the first day because he had PE class and was able to wear his PE clothes all day (which are still school issued, but more casual)!

Pictures below are from the Open House when the boys were still able to wear their own style of clothing.

The reward for a successful first day was a trip to the beach after school.  

In addition to getting ready for school, we have also tried to add some of our personal touches to our house by visiting the local plant nursery.  From the outside you would have no idea that such a beautiful place exists within a broken down building/space.  Also, plants are one thing down here that seems to be cheaper than in the U.S.-everything else costs much more.  (except maybe fresh fruit!)

And more trips to the local beaches!