Beilman's Trip to Costa Rica

The boys returned to school on January 8th and we are thankful that we are all back into a routine! I have been subbing quite a bit, and both Mark and I have picked up tutoring jobs. Mark is tutoring two different 6th grade boys in math, and I am tutoring three different high school girls in Geometry and Algebra 1. The only unfortunate part about tutoring is that our hours are limited to before or after school. Right now our boys have no after school activities or sports (they will begin the week of January 28) so they just have to hang out after school while we work. It is well worth it though for the $ that we are paid! Both boys are anxious for sports to start up again.

Last weekend we had to make our 2nd border run to Nicaragua to renew our 90-day tourist Visa. We decided to give it a go with no other “help” from our local Costa Rican friend Edgar or other individuals who wait at the border in hopes of being “employed” to aid in the border transitions. We went with another family who was due to renew their Visas and plowed through it together! All was successful and we managed to leave Costa Rica, enter Nicaragua, leave Nicaragua, and enter Costa Rica in about 90 minutes. The entire process costs about $24 a person (so just a little under $100 for our family). Mind you, some Nicaraguans were trying to charge an additional $20 per passport to help guide tourists in this process; quite a lucrative business!

• The men picked up some liquor in the duty free shop (Gala).
• John and his friend, Cole hung out in the lines waiting to cross the border.
• The parking lot in Nicaragua was lovely 😁!
• This is me making a desperate phone call to my mother to save us in Nicaragua! 🙂

Santa Cruz Rodeo

Santa Cruz (one of the largest cities near us) hosts a week-long celebration that includes daily rodeo events. Mark and his teacher friends took a trip there last night to be part of the festivities and see some of the bull riders. Little did Mark know he would be running WITH the bulls! As he stated, “I found out if the tickets to get in the grand stand are sold out, you can just go in the ring for free!”. I think that is the last time he will be running with the bulls. As Mark said, “It’s pretty serious stuff and it was scary. I was RUNNING!”

Other interesting notes:

• It turns out that the manager at one of our favorite restaurants just got married to a woman from Madison, Wisconsin who happens to be a teacher at LaFollette High School where Mark and I graduated from! We found this out in time to meet her when she came down for the wedding (they got married on Christmas) and have plans to get together when we return to Wisconsin. The goal is to have her husband, Juan Carlos, move to Madison in about a year once his Visa is ready. We are worried about how he will handle the snow and cold (he has never left Costa Rica)!
• Johnny got lucky the other day and found 20,000 Colones in the ocean-this is about $35! He took us out to dinner the next night 🙂

Until Next Week, Pura Vida!

The Beilmans

After Nana and Papa left we had a few “down” days to recover from their visit, celebrate Christmas, and then get ready for the Arkin’s trip down. Although it was difficult for us to get into the Christmas spirit in shorts and swimming suits, we were able to find a nice bilingual church service on Christmas Eve that helped! It was slightly different sitting in an open air church with the pastor shooing stray dogs away with the wind blowing and the potential that the church may burn down with the hand held candles we all had during “Silent Night”, but it seemed like a “Costa Rican” Christmas in every way!

The beach on Christmas Eve.

The Arkins Visit:

Ray and John-

Having our relatives visit was a refreshing lifestyle that wore us out in the end. It was surprising that we enjoyed showing them the ropes and the normalities of Costa Rica. Also having kids our age around made it easier to relate to. Their trip was sadly during everyone elses trips to Costa Rica which made traffic terrible and beaches crowded, but there was still room for fun. Much to my surprise they embraced the Tico way. While visiting beaches they would be totally relaxed. Will, our 12 year old cousin, took to the waves on our boogie boards and rode gnarly waves. Lila, our 8 year old cousin, embraced Costa Rica by shooing frogs off our balcony and making shell mobiles. All in all a great time hanging our with our relatives.

Zafira Catamaran tour:

The “big” trip that we took with Shelby, Joe, Will and Lila was a 4-hour sunset catamaran cruise on the Zafira Catamaran. I would highly suggest taking a tour like this to anyone touring the area! We all had a chance to eat, drink, snorkle, and dive off of the catamaran while meeting many locals, tourists, and Canadians! Our trip ended with the Canadians singing their national anthem (with gusto) with a following of “America the Beautiful”. How Costa Rican! A fun time was had by all including Mark who somehow became the bartender at the end of the evening!

John’s 10th Birthday:

Amidst all of the excitement, we were able to celebrate John’s 10th birthday! It was nice to celebrate with some family here and John got some cool surfing things as well as a ukelele. He will be attempting to learn to play the ukelele and then trying to hit people up for cash while playing on the beach. Wish him luck! (We also went to a restaurant called “Eat At Joe’s” in honor of John’s birthday and having Uncle Joe with us).

Until next week, Pura Vida!

The Beilmans and Arkins

Catamaran Tour

Ray –

This week we survived the visit of our loving grandparents. It was rough with all the hugs, but we (John and I) knew this was going to be the last time they will see us in the next 5 months. To share our love for the land we took them aboard a catamaran. While waiting for others to come along, surprisingly, no one else came, which left a quiet trip just for our pleasure. A ride of an hour and a quarter brought us to a remote beach, the same beach as our class went to. To John and my surprise, Nana snorkeled! She agreed without hesitating while Papa looked at her like she was crazy. John, being the scared baby he is, rode to the beach on a kayak. Below is a photo of John sipping a cold one before he sets out for the water.

 

John:

I liked seeing Nana and Papa and visiting their condo because we could play tennis and ping-pong at their place.  I liked swimming in their pool and going down to their beach.  There were over 100 stairs to walk down to get there!  I also liked that they gave me one present a day for my birthday because they won’t be here for my real birthday.  My favorite gift was my UV flashlight that I can use to see scorpians at night!

 

Mission: Visit as many beaches as possible in 10 days

We visited a number of beaches with Nana and Papa-most that fell within a 30 minute radius.  I think my parents enjoyed themselves, but overall I think the temperatures were a bit too high! We visited Playa Portrero (my parents condo overlooked this harbor), Playa Flamingo, Playa Brasilito, Playa Conchal, Playa Grande and Playa Negra (a 45 min. drive).  Otherwise, we just enjoyed being together and spending as much time relaxing as possible!

 

 

School visit:

In addition, Nana and Papa got to visit the boys’ school and meet a number of their teachers.  I think they appreciated having a chance to talk to some of the teachers and get the feel of an “international” school.  Fortunately, the school is very open to people visiting so we didn’t have to make any special arrangements.  I told my dad that they have a part-time counseling position if he is interested! (Ray had exams so he only had a half day of classes which is why he is out of his uniform in this picture!)

Until next week, Pura Vida!

 

 

The last two weeks have been full of work, sporting events and preparing for the holidays.  I have been working the past month for the boys’ school administering a reading assessment one-on-one to all K-5th grade students; this is over 180 kids!  It’s been fun as I have been able to meet all of the students at the primary level and gotten to know all of the teachers.  It’s like I have been a part of the staff!  Needless to say, I am ready for a bit of a break.  I am thankful for Mark who is still subbing occasionally, and also holding down the household by running to the grocery store, doing laundry, keeping our car running and house clean.

During this time we have also had another “House Event” at school that I was able to be a part of.  The boys and their “Toucans” won the event for the month!

 

Sports:

The boys continue to be actively involved in their sports; John now joining a “local” soccer team in which he will be able to play soccer on the weekends.  It is definitely a step up from his school team.

 

Christmas Celebrations:

It has been quite a challenge to get into the Christmas spirit while living in 90 degree weather.  Our hearts and minds cannot adjust to the thought of Christmas without snow!  Apparently, Ticos have no trouble getting in the mood though!  This past week we were busy collecting Christmas gifts for a local association that helps needy families as well as having the annual Christmas concert.  I can honestly say that we have never experienced sweating through a winter concert, so this was a first!

 

Other interesting notes:

• Ray was selected for the Student of the Month award for the middle school.  We are very proud of him and his ability to adjust to his new school!
• The winds of December have arrived and, at times, it seems to feel like fall.  Look at all of the leaves! 
  

  
• Our howler monkey have returned for a bit-they are always a site to watch! 
  

  

   Until next week, Pura Vida!

  

Because the boys go to an American International School they have Thanksgiving off like the rest of the U.S. population! We decided to use this extended weekend to go visit one of Costa Rica’s most popular attractions, the Arenal Volcano. Arenal is the largest volcano in Costa Rica and is still active. You cannot get near the top of the volcano, but you can visit the national park and hike through the rain forest to look out points to see the volcano ($15 for adults and $5 for kids). It was a lot of fun, and a lot of walking (2 1/2 hours)! Fortunately, Arenal is about three and a half hours inland from our house, so the temperature is lower than what we are used to. The mornings were much cooler, around 68 to 70 degrees with the temperature rising to about 80 degrees. Since we were shaded in the forest for most of the walk it was pretty pleasant.  Recently here near the coast, we have been experiencing 90 degree weather, so it was a nice break. (note: of course it is always nicer and cooler near the ocean!)

 

La Fortuna Waterfall:

In addition to the Arenal Volcano, we visited La Fortuna Waterfall which are one of the largest (and most popular) waterfalls in the country.  This is a short 15-20 minute drive from Arenal.  The catch is that you have to walk 500 steps down to get to the waterfall-which means you have to walk 500 steps up again!  It was well worth the visit and the walk, even though our calves are still feeling the burn from all of the stairs.  John and Ray tried running up them, which John said he “regrets doing”!  One other note, the water was COLD.  Like Lake Superior/great lakes cold.  I couldn’t go in past my knees (as my lower legs became numb), but the boys seemed to enjoy themselves!

 

 

 

With volcanos, come hot springs!  There are many hot springs in the Arenal area, but we stuck with one that we found we could visit for free.  It was like a hot-tub river-you can see the steam rising off of the water.  Many people were just laying around soaking in the water (probably staying most of the day!); we just had a quick visit.

 

There are MANY fancy hotels and spas to stay at while visiting Arenal; we chose to go a more affordable route through Airbnb and had our our little room with access to a pool, jacuzzi (the first one we have seen in all of our travels), and live roosters.

 

Llanos de Cortes Waterfalls:

Another popular, but less known destination, is Llanos de Cortes Waterfall, which we were able to stop at on our way home from Arenal (about 1 hour and 20 min from our house).  These waterfalls are equally as beautiful as La Fortuna Waterfall, with a lot less steps!  Although the area surrounding the falls is not huge, there is ample room to pack a picnic lunch and hang out on the beach and rocks while enjoying the waterfall.  There was even live music-the local guys tried to teach Mark how to play their wooden xylophone, but Mark was not having it!

 

Other interesting notes:

• The drive to Arenal Volcano winds around Lake Arenal (the largest lake in Costa Rica) which at times felt very much like driving through the Alps in Europe.  It’s no wonder we saw this resort on the way!
• And we encountered MANY German tourists; Mark was brushing up on his German so he could talk to a few people (or at least say, “Good morning”!)
• Arenal National Park had a slew of these little guys-they are white-nosed coati.  They came in droves crossing our path while we were walking!

Until next week, Pura Vida!

(from Playa Flamingo)

The week ended with Ray and Mark taking a trip to San Jose for a big school sporting event that lasted from Friday morning to Saturday evening.  Ray got the day off of school and went with nearly 40 other school athletes ranging from 7th grade to 12th grade.  They represented our students who play basketball, soccer, and volleyball.  Mark has been volunteering as the boys’ assistant basketball coach (or assistant TO the Basketball Coach!) so he went as an additional chaperone.  Ray played in a basketball game and a soccer match; unfortunately they lost both, but it was a great experience at some schools with NICE facilities!

Ray and his basketball coach are twinning!  Mr. Ramsey is also Ray’s U.S. History teacher.  This picture was taken after a long night in the hotel with limited sleep-both look tired!

The kids also had a chance to go to the mall-we have not seen a mall for 4 months now.  It was huge!  It had three floors with 3 food courts.  The kids had dinner and lunch here.  The only set-back was that it was VERY expensive.  A t-shirt at Converse set Ray back $32, which would have likely been more like $20 in the states.

Hanging out with Mom…

Because Mark and Ray were gone, John and I got to spend some time together.  We spent a nice sunset at the beach on Friday night and then walked down to Playa Conchal, one of Costa Rica’s most famous beaches, on Saturday.

John and I also got to do some grocery shopping and made a visit our new Maxi Pali store.  Maxi Pali is a division of Walmart that is in Central America (and maybe more countries?).  By Costa Rican standards, it is pretty nice and has quite a bit of things we need!

Other interesting notes:

• This is one way we communicate here!  We use WhatsApp to text and call friends for free (as long as we have WiFi), and if not, we use Kolbi.  Kolbi is a card that you insert in your phone and you put money on the card to call and text locally and internationally.  We have spent approximately $80 on phone use since we have been here-quite a deal! Other than that, we pay about $50 a month to have WiFi in our house.
• We keep finding more “friends” at our house!   This scorpian got himself trapped in a plastic pitcher we had outdoors.  After we took a picture, John freed him. A scorpian sting from these scorpians here will not kill you; it feels like a really bad bee sting.  This one pictured is about 2 inches long.

Until next week, Pura Vida!

The Beilmans

Mark was in the U.S. for the past week seeing family and taking care of “business”-mainly getting our house ready for the winter.  Unfortunately, it was rainy and cold for most of his visit and his time home ended in snow. Maybe this was a good thing though as he didn’t feel bad leaving and coming back to 90 degree weather!

Most of our week was quite busy when Mark was gone as I got called in to sub almost the entire week for a 3rd grade class due to an “emergency”.  The boys also had sports games throughout the week.  Johh’s team had a nice win and one of the local coaches (of the opposing team) asked him if he would consider playing with them.  Quite a compliment!  We’ll see…it would definitely help his Spanish as no one on that team speaks English!

And it is HOT here!  Playing sports after school is getting to be more of a challenge; I think the boys are getting used to the hot temps though.

Other fun notes:

• John has found his future vehicle!  Take a look at this van-fully loaded and ready to go-sleeping compartments included.  And note where the van is from-Minnesota!

• John may have a future career in crafts with seashells.  Note the handmade mobile he made for us!
• Ray is busy finding more creatures at the beach.  Not sure exactly what this is, but he is a fast digger!
• Relaxing after a long week…rough life!

Until next week, Pura Vida!

This week was Halloween and the boys’ school spared no expense on going all out for the festivities!  Although Halloween is not celebrated in Costa Rica, it IS celebrated in the U.S. (and Canada); since the boys attend an “American” International School they choose to celebrate Halloween.  The Parents Association puts on a huge night as a fundraiser the Friday before Halloween.  This event includes students at the school as well as any other children from the community who want to trick-or-treat, play Halloween games, or enter the Haunted House.  Ray worked the haunted house, which he said you couldn’t pay him to do again (keep in mind he was in a coffin for an hour in a humid 90 plus degree space with strobe lights!).  The school also has a door decorating contest and the parents go overboard on these decorations as well.  Below you can see the “It” clown on a 4th grade classroom door!

That’s John on the left and Ray dressed up as his favorite teacher!

Hiking nearby:

Since we have had the opportunity to sub quite a bit at the school, we have had the chance to get to know some of the teachers.  Two of them showed us a top secret hiking path behind the school that includes a waterfall.  We took one trip with the teachers and then ventured off on our own one day to climb to the top of the mountain to overlook the town and ocean.  Although many parts of this area remind us of northern Wisconsin, it is clear that we are in a different environment when we see all of the vines and cactus plants!

Red Tide:

Costa Rica is experiencing “red tide” right now.  Red tide is a bloom of algae that makes the beaches and coastline smell like rotten fish (or worse!).  It is disgusting and makes it very difficult to visit the beach, walk on the beach, and swim.  Here is Wikepedia’s definition of red tide: “Red tide is a common name for a worldwide phenomenon known as an algae bloom when it is caused by species of dinoflagellates and other algae. The upwelling of nutrients from the sea floor from massive storms is most likely the cause of these events.”  We have been experiencing this phenomenon for a little over a week and hope that it will end soon.  Some days are better than others; some beaches are better than others.  Because of this red tide, we decided to drive the 1 kilometer to the waterpark down the road, Parque La Boya, to see what they had to offer.  For $7 a person it was pretty fun!

Other interesting notes:

• Grocery stores here sell more than just food.  Check out the machete that Mark was able to purchase for less than $6!
• What are you going to do when your ball goes in the school pool?  I guess you have to go get it (according to John!).  I think this was planned…
  

  

Until next week, Pura Vida!

The Beilmans

We had a very busy week with Ray’s 14th birthday, which included a “Sport’s Day” at the school. Initially this day was scheduled for a week ago, but with all of the rain and flooding, was canceled. Lucky for Ray it was rescheduled for his birthday which means he only had classes for about a half day! Both Ray and John played in games during the day; John played soccer and Ray played in both a JV and then a Varsity basketball game. John’s team lost their game 2-1, but both of Ray’s teams won by only a basket-very exciting! Ray scored 13 points in the Varsity game which included the winning basket!

Later we were able to go out to celebrate Ray’s birthday at one of his favorite pizza restaurants. Our waiter brought him a nice dessert (we RARELY have chocolate here). Ray also got his old-school Sony tape walkman and Beastie Boys shirt that he wanted!

Crossing the Border to Nicaragua

Since we only have a 90 day tourist Visa, we have to leave Costa Rica every 90 days in order to return with a new “stamp” that says we can stay here for another 90 days (again, as tourists). This is fairly common practice for people living in this area; there are many companies that will provide this transportation to and from the border, but it costs about $45 a person. We decided to try it on our own.

Here is John’s take on the day:

This morning we left at 8:15 and drove to Liberia and picked up our friend Edgar to show us the directions to Nicaragua. We started going up and saw a lot of trucks near the border. It was 2 hours away from our house. Edgar said those trucks have to stay there to get checked there by border control and it would take maybe up to two weeks. We got to the border and got out of the car to walk across the border. We had to have people look at our passports and get stamps and pay them money. We got to Nicaragua and it was a whole different place. There were lots of people selling things. We met another guy, George, who helped us go around the border of Nicaragua. We had to pay more money and get more stamps. It took an hour or so to get all of the stamps done. So, we pretty much had to leave Costa Rica, to go to Nicaragua, to go right back to Costa Rica!

Other interesting notes:

• Medicine here is sold by the pill. At grocery stores you can find SOME medications that are sold in a small dose in a box, but for the most part medicine is sold at a pharmacy by the pill and pharmacies are found everywhere. Ibuprofen (which you cannot find at a grocery store or Walmart) costs about 35-40 cents a pill, although the pills are a dose that includes 2 pills in one.
• Even Margaritaville has infiltrated our little area! Margaritville purchased one of our local hotels/restaurants on the beach and has been working the past two months to revamp the facility and open in December when the busy season starts.
• Below is a view of the boys’ school. We forget how beautiful the surrounding area is-this aerial view really captures it!

Until next week, Pura Vida!

Mark and I have continued subbing quite a bit which is nice as it has allowed us to be a part of the school and to get to know the students, teachers and other parents (as Mark states, we are the “power couple” of the subbing world!)  It also helps us keep tabs on both Ray and John!  I was able to sub for John’s 4th grade class last week which was a lot of fun.  John has a range of students in his classroom that hail from all parts of the globe including Canada, Iceland, France, Costa Rica, Israel, and the U.S. (lots of Texans!)  The students in his room are very kind and well behaved; even with the distractions of parents being in the hall hanging up Halloween door decorations!  Check out the lovely “body bag” that is outside of John’s classroom door.  The joke of the day was that it was Ms. Becky their 4th grade teacher (which is why I had to sub for the day)!

House Event:

One aspect of the boys’ school that we have enjoyed is the fact that the school builds a “community” with their students K-12 by having 4 “houses” represented in the school.  These “houses”compete in school-wide events every month and get “points” for their teams.  Great pride is taken in trying to win these events!  Siblings are put into the same house and Ray and John are part of the “Toucan” house; the other houses are the Scorpians, Sharks, and Jaguars.  All of the students are given a house shirt to wear on the day of the events; you can see that the Toucans are red.

Most of the time the Primary students and Secondary students run their house events at separate times, but their combined “points” still add together for their house.  This past week Ray had his House Event which included all sorts of interesting relay races.    Another bonus is that students get out of their 1st period class in order to participate in the event.  Mark and I were both subbing last week when this event took place which is why we were able to get so many pictures!

Farmers Market/Feria:

There are a few “ferias” or Farmers Markets in the area that we enjoy going to to support the local businesses.  At these markets you can find organic foods and drinks, coffee, breads, handmade jewelry, soaps, spices, art, and fish. There is always a lot of fruit, but the vegetables in the area are quite limited (and expensive).  We cannot get good corn, carrots, broccoli, or califlower; the soil here is just not right for farming these types of vegetables (at least in this area of the country).  We have had corn, but it is pretty much what we would consider “feed corn” in Wisconsin-not good.

Other interesting notes:

• Ray found this huge sand dollar on Tamarindo Beach.  We found out the World Record for the largest sand dollar is 14.8 cm at the smallest point to 16 cm at the largest. This one is 12.5 cm, but still pretty big!
  

  
• Ray and John have had the opportunity to scimmage against each other in soccer (or on the same team with mixed ages).  They seem to enjoy it, although Ray is quite bossy!  I love that they are able to play shirts and skins in October!
  

  

• Until next week, Pura Vida!

• Janet, Mark, Ray and John