Steve: Caballos y Cucarachas

Steve:  

Nothing as exciting as the last post to report, but plenty of fun things have happened this week that are worth the telling.  First and foremost, the chilluns' started school.  They were hurting for contact with other kids and they weren’t getting enough practice with Spanish, so we decided to bite the bullet and enroll them in a private one-room schoolhouse with eight (soon to be nine) local children ranging in age from six to twelve.  It is a first and second grade curriculum, and hence super-easy for our kids, but that is good, because it is taught in Spanish.  This way they don’t need to be struggling with the content while they are struggling with the foreign language.  It does mean that they still have to do their home-schooling before and after going to school each day, but that is a small price to pay for happier kids in general.  The original plan was to send Chloe only a few days a week as she has a lot of curriculum to get through with me, but she cannot be convinced to stay home.  Too much fun, or simply not wanting to miss out, I guess.  The school goes from 7:30 to 3:00 every day, but the “Ticos” learn English, math, and ethics! (which are taught in English) first thing in the morning.  So our kids skip that part and show up at 10:30 when instruction (all done in Spanish) in science, social studies, music, art and Spanish itself happens.  I am hoping to get at least one of the kids to reflect on this experience in a blog post but so far they’ll have none of it.

Josh thinks it's a bit bright on the beach.

Sunday we had quite an adventure on horseback.  It was about a three-hour ride, first along the beach, then up and through a river, until we reached a pretty sweet waterfall.  We chilled in the pristine river pools for a while (where I lost my second pair of sunglasses in as many weeks when Josh ambushed me in the waterfall), and then we trotted (well, the horses did, we just bounced) back home.  The included pictures and video will help document (Hey!, no skipping ahead!) the experience.  We all loved the waterfall pool and Carol and I, at least, very much appreciated the gorgeous jungle scenery on the ride to and from.  So in the end, we are all very happy to have had the experience.  But with your curmudgeon of an author there is always the downside, isn’t there?  Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint!  Horses are fun, I’ll admit, but they are simply not for me.  The incessant bouncing was tremendously tough on my bad back, and I have no idea how cowBOYS handle the constant pounding they take on that part of their anatomy that cowGIRLS don’t have.  Not to mention the diaper-rash one gets from the constant friction with the saddle.  Perhaps regular riding forces one’s body to adapt, but I’d be fine with never getting in another saddle again.  All four of us have very sore keisters at the moment, which is tough since our only means of long-distance travel is via bicycle.  And for me, a massage is definitely in my near future, as my back pain is almost completely debilitating.  But hey, nobody fell off and needed to be rescued by Aquaman this time!

Yup, it's a jungle out here!

How about a second picture of a horse's ass?

And a third?  No, seriously, has anyone seen my shades?

J-Dawg is first to scale the falls!

We are always happiest when wet!

If you can't see a video above this line (but but below the photo of our family in the waterfall), then you are probably reading the blog on a device that can't handle the videos.  Sadly, they don't bother to tell you that, so you wouldn't even know there was a video there.  On my i-Pad, it leaves a big blank space and nothing more.  If you want to see the video, you'll need an actual computer to see it.  Sorry.  We are working on a way to convert the video to a format that is readable by i-devices.  You probably missed some video on earlier posts too for the same reason.  The other problem, is some people are getting e-mails when we post, and others aren't (working on that too).  But the e-mail never seems to contain the videos even if you are using a computer.  That is easy to fix.  Just click on the title of the blog or on "Thiesfamilyadventure" in the e-mail and it will take you to the webpage.

Carol and I have started a tradition of walking the beach every evening at sunset.  The pinks and oranges were brilliant above the ocean and the forested hills on that first day that we tried it, but we didn’t bring our camera.  No problem there, though, since we’d have many more nights to photograph the skies.  Every night since then, however, has been a total bust in terms of any beautiful color in the sky, so no photos yet.  On the way home last night I got punched in the eye by an extremely stupid bug.  It got caught in my eye, and once I finally got it out about five minutes later, it had decided to pee acid in my eye or something because sixteen hours later I was still in a lot of pain.  My eye was oozing puss and it was time to finally partake of the excellent health care that Costa Rica provides.  I got a numbing solution put in, had my eye cleaned out via swab and then via about a gallon of saline wash.  I was quickly diagnosed with an eye-infection and one injection in the buttocks, a few pills and some cortisone eye drops later, I should be good as new in a few days.  Carol was forced to watch the whole thing except for the injection (which is the only part she may have enjoyed).  You’ll have to ask her how she felt about watching my eyelids get inverted and my eyeball get de-goopified.  If you don’t remember to ask for the detailed version, suffice it say she was a tad grossed-out.  The infection still hurts quite a bit as I write this, so I don’t know if I believe that I’ll be all better in just a few days, but we shall have to see.  Yes, pun, most definitely intended.

The doctor visit was both super quick and super professional.  Both doctor and nurse were super friendly, and both the visit and the drugs were super cheap.  So, yes, I would have to agree that health care in Costa Rica is nothing short of … you got it …  super.  The downside, other than the pain and the puss, is that I’m not allowed in the ocean for a few days, and I’m not allowed to drink any alcohol either as it will affect the effectiveness of the medicine (or effect the affectiveness, one can’t be sure).  So what the heck am I supposed to do in Samara?  Beers and beach are what it’s all about down here, right?  Just kidding, I’d say I got off pretty easy considering the horrifying implications I was imagining before I saw the doctor.  I was picturing having to take a day-long bus ride to a specialist in San Jose and a regimen of treatment that involved losing half my liver and perhaps a kidney.  You tend to worry a lot more about your health when you are without it.

This morning has also brought in the fumigation company.  We had to clear out this morning as they sprayed to deal with our growing cucaracha problem.  We were at the doctor’s office for much of the time in any case.  Now that we are back, our very lovely cleaning lady is doing all of the dishes so we can eat off of them again, while I stand outside on the patio or in the kitchen smashing all of the half dead roaches as they stagger around.  For some reason the chemicals make them come out into the open more.  We knew there were a lot, but not this many!  And big suckers!  A couple were close to two inches long!  So as bad a morning as it was for me, it was surely a bit worse for the cockroaches.

We’re still trying to figure out the next few legs of our trip.  Well, mostly Carol is doing that.  I listen to her thoughts and respond with a lot of “sounds good to me’s”.  That is about the extent of my involvement.  We are going to be visited by Carol’s sister and her husband, by my mother and her husband, and by Mark and Michelle and their kids all within the span of about three weeks in January.  So that will be a far cry from the isolation of September and October.  Plus we’ll be cruising all over the country at that point rather than simply putting down roots as we’ve done thus far.  So if you have read this far, but are starting to lose interest in the blog, fear not.  It should get more interesting starting mid-November.  Thank you for your patience.  I said that with a “wink” that you didn’t see.  But rest assured I felt it.  Ow.  No more winking or blinking or opening or closing my eyes in any fashion for a few days.  ¡Pura vida!

Hasta luego,

Esteban