Baby Sloth!

I ran into this guy a few days ago carrying around a baby sloth. Something happened to its mother so now the guy takes care of it and carries it around everywhere he goes. He even let me pet it.

Not nearly as cute as a baby sloth is another friend that I met this week, Mr. Scorpion. They really just look prehistoric. This photo was taken right before I squashed him. I know one guy that was stung by on a few weeks ago. All he said was that it was worse than a bee sting.

San Luis Waterfall

Today Jack and Jason took off on an excursion to a nearby waterfall. The waterfall is located about 10 km from our house down some pretty steep roads.

The waterfall is truly awesome and since the water cascades off so many different surfaces, the air is always misty. To get to the actual pool of the waterfall, Jack and I had to hike about 45 minutes up the pretty river.

At the bottom of the waterfall is a fantastic swimming hole. Its about 5 feet deep but the water is incredibly cold. It took a little getting used to but we both went swimming. Jack's favorite thing about it was putting on his goggles and swimming under the waterfall looking up at the white water.
To reach the waterfall we had to cross several small streams. At one point I got this really cool picture of the Ninja Turtle.

Another busy week in Monteverde!

The biggest surprise about our life in Monteverde is how absolutely busy we are. Above you can see a picture of my Spanish Class. From l to r are Cristina (she is from Madrid, she's our next door neighbor and she's the class instructor). Ryan (from San Diego and is married to Hayley's English teacher at the Cloud Forest School), Liz (she's a parent of three children at the Cloud Forest School and is from Baltimore), Joe (he's a dairy farmer from Rhode Island and has a daughter that attends the Monteverde Quaker School), Fran (from Colorado Springs and has one son at the Creativa), me, and Ann (also from Colorado Springs and has two daughters at the Creativa). We had Spanish class each day this week from 0900-1200. We had a lot of fun and all improved our Spanish conversational skills.

Clearly the most entertaining part of the week of classes occurred after the class was completed on Friday. The end of the class coincided with the start of Family Day at the Creativa. So as soon as class was over, we all jumped into the Ninga Turtle, ran around town picking up a couple of other parents and tried to make it up the incridibly steep hill to the school. I had a record 7 adults packed into the Turtle and we had to stalled the engine 3 times trying to get up the hill before deciding to take an alternative route that wasn't so steep. At any rate it reminded me a lot of some stunts that I tried to pull with a bunch of high school kids in the back of my 1978 Dodge Truck that I had when I first turned 16 and got my license. Here's a photo of everyone piling out of the Turtle after we finally reached the summit of the mountain and the gates of the school.

Family Day at school was a great treat. To the right is a picture of Jack's classroom at the Creativa. It was a nice time to meet all of the kids' friends, their families and their teachers. Below are pictures of Jack's homeroom teacher Erica (from the US) and his Spanish teacher Isaura (from Costa Rica).

Both Jack and Hayley, as expected, are picking up Spanish with greater ease than their father. They constantly correct my grammar.

Also during the week we continued our Salsa and Merengue dancing lessons at the Rio Shanti on Wednesday night. We are all getting a little better on that front as well. The class is taught by a British guy named Nick St. Clair and he, too, is a parent of students at the Creativa. This week there was excellent participation. Probably about 30 people showed up ranging in age from infant to 80's. Unfortunately, we didn't remember to take the camera so no pics.

In the spirit of completely breaking out of our shells (as if Salsa dancing isn't far enough), Hayley and Jack (and a ton of other Monteverde kids) take a kids yoga class every Thursday afternoon taught by Heidi ( a fourth grade teacher at the Creativa). Pictured to the right are Hayley and Jack demonstrating what they learn during class. Hayley is doing "Sun Salutations" and Jack is in near perfect "Downward Dog". Did I mention that I have taken a census and I am the only Republican in this entire town! I am the President, Treasurer and Secretary of the Monteverde Young Republicans.

September 15th is coming up. That is Central American Independence day. Every student at the Creativa is somehow involved in the celebration. Jack will be a drummer in the band during the parade. Hayley and several of her friends will be marching and dancing as Bastoneras (dancing baton twirlers). Here she is practicing her bastonera routine with her friend Isabel.

By Friday afternoon, the pace of the week finally slowed down a little. Hayley and Jack had friends over for a little decompression time, Costa Rican style. That is to say that they climbed trees to get to the blueberries (Maria berries). They had a contest to see who could get the darkest tongue. Pictured above are Hayley, Nimsi and Isabel with purplish tongues. In the middle is the first runner up, Jack's friend Josue and at the bottom is the overall winner of the purple tongue contest, Jack.

Sloth!

Last night as we were driving home from my birthday dinner, we happened to see a van parked on the side of the road with a guy shining a flashlight into the trees. We poked our heads out the window and saw that it was a sloth in the tree. We quickly parked the car at our house and ran down the road to see if he was still hanging around. We knew that the sloth doesn't move that fast, but believe it or not, when it has a flashlight shining on him, he is pretty motivated to get away! The locals have hung a rope across the road to keep a continuous path for the sloth to cross the road safely. He was hanging out right near that rope. Our landlord said that they cared for an injured sloth in their home. One day he disappeared so he must have recovered!

We had been looking for sloths since our arrival. I am certain that there are plenty hanging around but only visible to the trained eye. We can add the sloth to the varied wildlife that we have seen so far: howler monkey, toucan, coatimundi, agouti, respendant quetzal, and the morpho butterfly among others. Monkeys will often be making a racket in the morning and we can hear them in the trees nearby. We sure have enjoyed spotting these creatures!

Weekend Movies at Paseo de Stella

In Monteverde the weekend essentially begins on Friday about 1230 when the kids get out of school. For the most part, weekends are just lazy time. On Saturday mornings virtually everyone that lives in the area shows up at the school gymnasium for the Feria, or Farmer's Market. I get a cup of Ceviche (cold fish soup) and Cindy buys lots of locally grown fruits and vegetables. Cindy has fallen in love with hydroponic lettuce. This week we also were directed to a lady that lives on a farm that makes homemade peanut butter with no additives or preservatives. And here's the kicker, she has two grandson's living with her for the year and previously they've been living in Tanzania. So I got to have a nice conversation with them about Tanzania and what its like to live there. They are 11 and 9. Two white kids that can speak Swahili. How cool is that?
I've continued to work on fixing up and performing the required maintenance on the Ninja Turtle as it is apparent that there wasn't much maintenance performed by the previous owner. So far I've purchased a new battery, 4 quarts of oil, one headlight, a hydraulic jack and paid for one flat tire to be repaired. Last night I also had my very first experience changing a tire on a rocky dirt road in the middle of a rain storm (the rocky dirt road becomes a muddy ditch). It wasn't fun and I finished the job soaking wet and covered in mud. Living in Monteverde is a little like being back on the sailboat in some ways. If its broken, you've got to fix it. And sometimes fixing it means fixing it at the mercy of bad weather. But some other good news is that yesterday Cindy and I went for a ride even further out into the country to meet a farmer that has a 1974 Land Rover that doesn't run. He is trying to sell the car and might be willing to scrap it for parts. So if something catastrophic happens, I will likely have lots of spare parts right in town that I could get hold of. At any rate, the Ninja Turtle is a big hit with all of the kids and has even illicited a thumbs up and a "Muy bueno coche!" from some adults.
The Ninja Turtle has quickly become the Creativa kids' taxi. Today I had six kids in there for a ride over to Stella's for the Saturday afternoon movie. The movie theater only operates two times per week. It is a movie that normally would appeal to adults on Friday night and a kids movie on Saturday afternoon. In the photo above, the kids are piling out of the Ninja Turtle to watch "Kung Fu Panda".

Off to the Cloud Forest School (Centro de Educacion Creativa)

Here are some pictures of Hayley and Jack just before their first day of school on Monday, August 3rd. The biodiesel bus picks them up right at the base of our driveway off the main road. Everyone rides the bus to school, even the teachers. Notice that they are decked out in their rain gear.....you never go anywhere around here for long without your rain jacket and we've already started to feel a little naked when we're not wearing or carrying them. Hayley and Jack also take two pair of shoes to school, one for outside and one for inside (or they can just wear their socks inside).

Jack's teacher is named Erica and she's young, pretty and very nice. Hayley has several teachers and they are all very nice. Hayley likes them all. All their teachers are from the US with the exception of each of their Spanish teachers, who are local instructors from Monteverde. Hayley is also taking an American History class with two other US students taught by one of the students' father, who is a teacher back in the US taking a year off.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, Monteverde is a pretty cerebral town. There is always some sort of class or instruction going on. Art classes, dancing classes, cooking classes, language classes, lectures on biology and lectures on Central American political topics are regularly offered. In fact, the Stancil family has broken out of its shell a little bit and have started taking Salsa and Merengue dancing lessons on Wednesday nights. Cindy is by far the most advanced in our class. This is owed in part to her tap dancing childhood.

La Tortuga Ninja (The Ninja Turtle)

Here are some pics of the super cool Land Rover Series III that I bought. I had to go the whole distance across the country to get just the one that I wanted. It was cheaper than others I had looked at because it needed a little work, namely a new battery. Maybe also some new glow plugs, tires, windows, door handles and maybe a new engine. But I love it just the same. We are already being indentified as the family with the green Land Rover.

Cindy drove the turtle for the first time this morning and she did really well on the very rough roads around Monteverde. The best thing about the old Land Rovers is that they have no frills that could cause problems or require repairs in this pretty harsh environment. Not only does the car not have power windows, it doesn't even have mechanical windows. You just slide the windows open when you want a little fresh mountain air. One of the seats in the back needed some repair and it has been sent down to Puntarenas and will probably be back to us by tomorrow.

Hello from Monteverde, Costa Rica

Hello from Monteverde, Costa Rica! The Stancil's have arrived and moved into our new town. Everyone here is very nice and everyone has been really helpful in getting us aquainted with our new surroundings.

Our house is a little bit more rustic than we had hoped but it is certainly safe, dry and liveable. We've now been in town for almost two weeks and we're really starting to fall into a routine. Hayley and Jack are at school each day. The biodiesel bus picks them up at 0720 and drops them off around 3:15 PM. Cindy spends all day preparing meals and aquiring foodstuffs from local vendors. Jason doesn't do much of anything except lay around in the hammock and play Jack and Hayley's Nintendo DS. Just kidding.

So here is a picture of Hayley in our Cocina (kitchen). The biggest challenge of living in Monteverde is keeping insects out of the house. It is a losing battle most of the time. The house is not well sealed up and most of the day the temperature outside is perfect and you wish to keep the doors wide open. There are approximately 30,000 species of insects in Costa Rica and they are still discovering more. We've found probably hundreds of different species just in our kitchen. But we are overcoming this challenge with some chemistry by just spraying down all openings with a type of fumigant. It seems to be improving the situation.

The big surprise of our stay so far here in Monteverde is just how busy we stay all the time. Simple tasks normally take a little longer here than back home. And a great portion of each day is spent just walking from one place to another. Jason is taking a Spanish Class. We're all taking Salsa and ChaCha dancing lessons. Cindy is going to be volunteering at the school.

The kids seem to like their school pretty well. We'll share pictures of their school experiences soon. Unfortunately we just haven't taken our camera up there yet. The campus is very large and very green. When the clouds clear, the children have beautiful views all the way down to the Pacific.

Sorry it took us so long to make our first post and we promise to update it more frequently.

Here is a picture of Jack with our cat that we inherited with our house. We call the cat "Haynie". The cat lives in our laundry room and has open access and egress at all hours. We've never really liked cats all that much but this one is tough to resist.

So here is a picture of our house. Locals call it the Casa de Isa Mora, Masogista de Monteverde. Our address is in literal translation, "the house 200 meters east of the Cascade Discotech." We like to call it the "Choza de Amor" or the Love Shack.