Monday, December 8, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
I'm not quite sure where to begin because a picture,
above, is worth at least 100 words. So... we were
driving down the road on our way home from the
beach and all of a sudden the car seemed to...um...
lose a WHEEL?! Yeah, well, the kids looked out the window
and there the wheel (and part of the axle) was, bouncing
down the highway.
Luckily, we were all fine. Artie stopped the car. We found
the wheel in a nearby ditch and a really nice Touristo
van driver stopped to help us. He called the police and
a tow truck and we were actually back on the road in
about an hour.
The police were very helpful and happy that there was not
an "accident" so they didn't need to do any paperwork.
The tow truck driver put the car on his flatbed with everyone
in the car expect Artie and me. We rode in the cab to a town
about 10 minutes away. Everyone except Artie piled into a
taxi and rode for about 1 1/2 hours to get home. Artie stayed with
the car and took it to the garage back in Santa Elena.
We were very lucky that it was not serious. No one was hurt
and the car needed some work, but it wasn't even too bad.
The cost: Taxi home- $60. Tow truck ride for the car- $160.
Cost of a new axle- $200. Total repair costs including labor
and the axle- $600.
Pretty amazing.
The mechanic washed the car, inside and out too, a bonus!
Artie rolling the wheel back to the car.
The police, our helpful Touristo driver and some
of us...
The car up on the flatbed, full of people!
We took a vacation over Thanksgiving and drove
to Playa Grande, north of Tamarindo, on the
pacific coast. It was a four hour drive and worth
every minute!
This is a beautiful beach- long, wide, clean and
pretty mellow. It's quite popular with surfers at
high tide. We were happy no matter what the tide
was doing!
We drove there with our friend Ellen and her two
daughters, Shelby and Leah. We met our friends from
San Jose, David and Olga and their boys Max and Alex.
The main reason we picked this beach was that we
had a chance to see Leatherback sea turtles nesting
here. This is one of the few places where they come.
The season had just started so we knew we might
have a chance to see them!
The females come up on shore during the night, at high tide.
They come up to a high spot on the beach and dig a
very large, deep hole. They lay about 75-100 eggs and then
cover the hole up and go back to the sea. The process
takes about 1 1/2 hours.
To watch the turtles nesting we started out at the
park visitors' center at midnight on Friday night, Nov. 28.
There are volunteers who patrol the beach looking for
turtles coming up on the beach. That night we waited
until about 4 a.m. and then headed home, no turtles.
The next night we were lucky and at about 2:30 we headed
out onto the beach. It had been a little overcast and drizzly
and there was no moonlight that night. It was hard to walk
along the beach in the sand. The only lights that were used
were flashlights covered with red cellophane. It was a very
special experience to watch this huge, gentle animal.
For more information go to this link!
http://www.leatherback.org/ldc/pg/aboutturtles.htm
Here's a view to the north.
Waiting for a wave...
Oren and Leah enjoying the surf.
Oren and Ethan were invited to their
friend Gabe's 8th birthday party. He lives
on the farm where Benito (see cheesemaking)
lives. Benito made this amazing swing a few
years ago and we all took turns on it.
This is Gabe's mom, Heather, taking a turn!
Here's Benito.
Here's the birthday boy, Gabe!
Here's me! It was fun...
Here's Gabe and Heather with his really
delicious birthday cake...yum!
The farmer's cheese also went into a press.
It will come out in a rectangular block.
The press will drain out some of the excess
liquid.
The goat cheese went into a press. It was
dumped into some cheesecloth and then
put into a cylindrical container.
Above, is the fresh goat cheese. We took a walk
over to Benito's garden and picked fresh herbs.
We chopped them in a mini food processor and
added them to the cheese, blending it by hand.
We churned butter using a blender in a bowl,
nothing too exotic. Then we pressed it and drained
out all of the excess water. It was interesting to
see how much water came out even after the butter
had turned into a solid.
Benito gave a class on cheese making which was really fun.
We spent a morning making ricotta, herbed goat cheese,
farmer's cheese and yogurt. We also churned some butter.
In the photo above, Benito is draining the ricotta.
The Ricotta is separating into curds and whey.
This happens fairly easily (and it is pretty FOOL proof)
when you add apple cider vinegar to the milk as it is
heated to a certain temperature.
Benito took a block of farmer's cheese out of the
press. This is a very basic and popular cheese.
It's the "American" cheese of Costa Rica. It's mild
and although it has a specific texture which is a
little hard to get used to it is great on pizza and in
a grilled cheese sandwich!
Here we are about to begin the class!
Benito keeps about 4 cows and about a dozen
goats on the farm.
Ethan snapped a pic of the gang just before they left
for the airport.
Adios!
A beautiful sunset to finish a really great day!
While we were zipping along the cables at Selvatura
one of the guides spotted a very RARE male
quetzal. These birds are sort of the official symbol
of the cloud forest and seeing a male is on any serious
bird watchers list of "must sees".
Thursday, December 4, 2008
We set out for Selvatura on Monday morning to do the zip lines.
It was a pretty nice day and we had a blast!
Stef was the first to be launched off the platform.
That's Hope sitting down to reduce the possibility
of being able to run at full speed in the opposite
direction of the cable.
I think this was the "before" picture but it could
just as well be the "after".
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)