Back to Costa Rica

After a year away from Costa Rica, we have returned to visit favorite places and some new ones. Pictured here are Hayley and Jack enjoying the beach in Manuel Antonio.

Right now we are back in La Fortuna and enjoying beautiful views of Arenal Volcano. Tomorrow we will drive around the lake to Monteverde.

More Pictures of Manuel Antonio Weekend

Goodbye Faithful Friend, Sammy

Today was a sad day for the Stancil family. Over the weekend, Sammy's health deteriorated to the point that it was necessary to make some tough decisions. Although we all struggled with having to think about putting him down, we all can accept that it was necessary. We will miss him so much. He was a wonderful dog and we will keep him close to our hearts when we speak of all the great times we had together with him. Buen viaje, Sammy! We will miss you!

Manuel Antonio

Finally! We were able to get away for a short weekend beach trip to the beautiful National Park of Manuel Antonio. Hayley, Jack and I traveled with another family that consisted of 3 kids, their mom and cousin, Katie, who happens to also be our fundraiser at the school. Also, Beverly, one of the teachers at the CEC came with us, too! We paid for a van to drive us there and stayed in a cute lodge right next to the park entrance. The trip was about 4 hours long from Monteverde..and worth every second!

The park is beautiful and located on the Pacific side of the country. The park is known for its wildlife and the monkeys that are hanging around in the trees that line the beach. The monkeys that we saw are white faced capuchins and were super fun to watch.

Our driver, Sergio, ended up bringing us a box of snacks about mid-day to keep us from having to leave the mostly deserted beach. That box was filled with all kinds of tropical fruit...which immediately became monkey bait. The rest of the day was consumed with scaring off monkeys who were after our box of bananas.

We had a wonderful weekend and I will try to post many pictures share with you!

Mi Casa Es Su Casa

Those of you out there that are interested in visiting us will enjoy seeing a few pictures of our home. I will try to take more and post them so you can envision yourself here...a day starting with delicious Costa Rican Coffee under the covered porch looking for Mot Mots and Agoutis and maybe even a Toucan...followed by a typical breakfast of Gallo Pinto, fried plantains and fresh fruit....then off you will go to the Monteverde Reserve where a beautiful trek throught the rainforest awaits you...I could go on but you need to come and experience Monteverde for yourself....

We are enjoying more typical rainy season weather these days. The rain falls more often during the day and there are fewer sunny afternoons. The clouds roll in before noon and a mist lingers during the day. Hayley's science teacher made her research the reason why we have the weather pattern that we do and here is a simple explanation:

We get a regular humid tradewind from the Carribbean side of the country and it cools and condenses in our upper elevation causing clouds and rain. Good for the rain forest...bad for your shoes!

The kids have had off all week while I have been toiling away in the office. I am looking forward to spending the weekend with them. Tonight we managed to make some Halloween treats! We made caramel apples, brownies with Halloween colored sprinkles, and carved a pumpkin of sorts. Much to the kids disappointment, Halloween is not celebrated here in Costa Rica. Some families do participate in Dia de Los Muertos, although I haven't met anyone who does. Fortunately, the kids will have some parties to go to and a restaurant is hosting a party for the little kids who want to participate in some games and Halloween fun. There will be no trick or treating this year, however.

Internet works...update now!

Hayley, Jack, a few friends and I took a long horseback ride to this natural waterslide. The kids had a great time sliding into the pool below. Since then, the kids have been taking weekly horseback riding lessons. The teachers include a lady from Germany and a local rope and ride'em type of cowboy. They are learning English and Western style riding and much of the instruction is in Spanish. They were given a clump of clay to take home and the homework is to create a horse sculpture.

Update: We are quite busy now that I am working full time. We have had some communication glitches as the phone line was knocked out a few weeks ago by a tree and recently a power outage caused the external modem to affect the regular phone line. All has been repaired and I thought I would take the opportunity to update the blog. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to post some pictures of the house we have been living in for a month and a half. We are very comfortable here and enjoy this space. On clear days, I enjoy watching the sun set around 5:30 pm under the covered porch.

More soon!

More Parade Pictures

There are some great pictures of the parade and even a video out there for people on Facebook. You can become a fan of the Cloud Forest School and our fundraiser, Katie, keeps a steady stream of information on that site.

Many changes have taken place since our arrival. The quiet and stress free life lasted about a month as I am now the official Interim Director of the Cloud Forest School. Please check out our website: www.cloudforestschool.org I am so happy to be a part of the school and believe that I am lucky to serve the school and our new community.

We would love to arrange a tour for visiting groups as we have a very unique program and campus. If anyone is interested, please contact me via the contact information on the website.

We are also establishing relationships with schools in the States for exchanges and for partnerships.

More pics tomorrow of the parade!

Independence Day Parade

What a glorious day for a parade! The day began at 5am when Hayley met all the other bastoneras at her science teacher's house for hair and make-up preparations. Jack met all the other drummers at a central location where we had a civics ceremony. Then, the long march to town began with drumming and twirling. I have to say that I was very impressed with the results. The school was well represented and the children had wonderful hand -sewn custom made costumes. A job well done by both students and organizers!!

The kids were really tired as the sun was shining and blazing hot. The school even organized a "Green Cross" with young children providing drinks as a refreshment for our marchers. Jack commented that he felt well cared for along the parade route after having been given water and fresh cold pineapple along the way.

Stay tuned for more photos of the parade....