haley+gabe

courtney W. Top quality human.

fasih hitchiking back when there was snow in california

Welp… It has been a while since I posted and many things have happened, mostly good. Most days we wake up and look out the window to check the weather and surf. After that we usually head downstairs for breakfast which is always bread and cheese and turkey slices and coffee and sometimes juice and most recently we’ve been adding a fried egg to the mix. After that we usually say ‘Welp, what should we do today?’ Some days we feel ambitious and decide to get on a bus and explore some of the Rio sights. That’s what happened yesterday when we ventured on very slow buses up to the cute neighborhood of Santa Teresa. We walked around and ate sandwiches and delicious ice cream before heading back down and riding our favorite orange Itau bikes to Copacabana where I jumped in the water and then we caught a couple more buses home.

red kite flying above everything

ring ring.. out of the way slow runners please.

christo sees the light

fasih, i thought these cool wine bottle plates could be your next project.

confident climbers

Most days we also check in with our good friends Earl and Samantha to see what they are up to.  One day they said, ‘come meet us and we’ll go to Pao de Acucar’. That turned out to be a great idea and lots of fun was had by all. We saw little monkeys and sat in the shade and everything went great.

on top of the sugar bread

looking west from pao de acucar

Some days don’t go nearly as smoothly. On Tuesday we rode the bus to try to get to Santa Teresa, but then it started to pour rain, so we went to a movie which was good and depressing. On those days we usually don’t take many or any pictures.

Other fun moments were:

a sunset to rival Popoyo sunsets

gigantic botanic palms

haley in the cachuera in Parque Tijuca

everybody gets ice cream after they see the doctor

beach day in prainha

Sorry for the long posting.. just trying to catch up a bit. Hope everyone is doing well.

happy birthday dad. we love you

Happy Birthday Dad.  You are the best.   We miss you a lot and are celebrating your life hard today.  Our first week in Rio has been fun. It has been great to see our friends Earl and Samantha in a new place. They have really helped us get started in a new country with a new language and took us to our first Capoeira Roda which was amazing.  Sam was the best one there.

barra beach shoot

As expected, our living situation is very different from our previous one. We are on the 24th floor of a condo building in Barra da Tijuca, looking out over the water and many more condo buildings.

our view on a windy day. see the kites?

We are slowly adjusting to this new lifestyle – so different from Costa Rican farm life in Atenas. I bought a surfboard two days ago and have been surfing 3 times already though the water is pretty chilly with no wetsuit. Yesterday we went to the largest mall on the continent and visited at least 5 of the 500+ stores. Haley got a real live Brazilian bikini (which she may or may not be brave enough to wear) and we also got a portuguese dictionary to help us along with our portuguese.

3 things here. me with my new prancha da surf, the movie star hiding from the camera, our building (furthest one you can see)

Other notes:

We have a maid, Valeria, who is very nice.  Not sure Portuguese tutoring is in her job description but she’s being a really good sport, and laughing at us a lot.  She cooks breakfast and lunch, makes our bed, irons our clothes and more.  It’s been a little tough to get used to and feel comfortable having some wait on you like that.  Especially when we are already guests in the house.

It has been cloudy for the last 2 days (ever since we got our beach umbrella).

We are doing lots of portuguese lessons every day and they are really helping us.  We highly recommend Rosetta Stone.  Valeria congratulated Haley on her first full sentence yesterday.  Pretty good since when we arrived 5 days ago literally all we could say was obrigado (thank you) and tudo bem (all is well).

Restaurants on the beach where we live are very expensive. Entrees cost $25-50 normally.  Actually everything where we live is really expensive. But that is life in Rio.

The fruit is delicious and there are lots of farmer’s markets around.

Overall, we are living it up and trying to live as those in Rio do.  Brazil is treating us very well so far.

Welp, we’re on the move via air from Central to South America. This morning we were guessing that it will be a big change to go from a quiet farm house at the end of a dirt road, to Rio, where I am guessing you hear a lot less crickets and roosters and a lot more music and cars and other city things. We had a great time in Atenas, where the weather is nice, the views are great (today on our run we were looking out 30 miles down the hill to the Pacific) and things can be pretty simple. We had fun living with chickens and horses and cows too. Now we are on our way to Rio via Lima where we will head straight for a condo on the beach supplied by one of Haley’s dear friends.  After that we’ll find our good friends Earl and Samantha and figure out how to say a few things in Portuguese and try to settle in to a different kind of pura vida.

Other Notes:

On New Year’s eve we saw one of the best sunsets ever from high atop a pueblo called Estanquillo.  After that we attempted and miraculously succeeded to cook floured chicken and green beans from a Julia Childs cookbook. It was very good. marinate chicken in olive oil lemon juice herbs and salt, cover in flour, cook in olive oil in thin strips plus boil and fry green beans with breadcrumbs. yummmmmm.

haley taking in the last sun of 2011

at the pool at the finca in Barrio Jesus, Atenas

We got to swim lots in this beautiful pool.

There were some mean bugs called bichos that you don’t see and bite hard. They got us good.

We enjoyed taking care of a sweet cat and eating fresh chicken eggs and feeding cows and patting horses. One night I lost a chicken, but we found it in the morning.

We ate more of my Uncle and Aunt’s great cooking.

We got to see our good friends the Cohans one more time in San Jose for a funny Italian lunch.

proof that cooking was done.

For the first time in a long time I was without Haley for xmas.  It was also the first time that I can remember surfing at sunrise on xmas morning and again in the afternoon.  Lucky for me our good family friends the Cohans invited me to their beautiful beach rental in Esterillos Este. The house was amazing and it was great to see the whole family minus Ophe having fun in the pool and pacific. One neat thing about the beach was that the sun rose and set over the ocean, which I had never seen.  I also had lots of fun surfing with Donovan.

ho ho ho

mostly happy family

rise

set

Today, I made way too much gallo pinto, hung up the hammock very high above the ground to maximize the view (currently enjoying), did some laundry and now I am writing the blog. A very productive day by my standards. Nap time?

No nap it turned out.. but i did get to go for a very nice sunset run.

looking west

miss you jake. also i think you should wear that costume every Halloween from now on.

I’m sitting out on the balcony at our newest residence looking over a beautiful valley with San Jose in the distance and the weather here in Atenas is finally living up to it’s reputation as ‘la mejor clima del mundo’. The sun is out making it warm enough to swim in our pool, which I did 1 hour ago, and there is a slight breeze so sitting here on the balcony is also very pleasant.

blog writing view

We spent the last 10 days staying at my Uncle’s house and being wonderfully spoiled with espresso in the morning ready when we woke up, top notch meals, insider tips on all of the best places in and around Atenas and much more. We also got visas and tickets to Brazil and will probably be getting our tickets from Buenos Aires to Bangkok today too. So if anyone wants to meet us.. the plan is to be in Brazil in January and February, Argentina in March and April and South East Asia starting May 6th.

I'm guessing we were the only ones in Costa Rica to have eggs florentine with smoked salmon on this particular Sunday morning..

We are now moved into our new huge pad with pool in another part of Atenas, where we’ll be until we leave Costa Rica on January 3rd. Haley is in Phoenix for the week doing some work things and getting to see her family. I’m going to go out to the beach tomorrow and spend Christmas with my good friend Olin and family and hopefully get some good surf around Playa Hermosa.

Other notes:

We are both healed from our minor illnesses and feeling healthy.

I went for a walk today and ended up in a field with 4 horses. When they saw me they all came trotting toward me. I was a little scared that they did not like me in their field, but when they got to me they just came gently over and said hi. I must have looked like someone with horse food because they kept following me around as I was leaving.

Friendly horse.

Our neighbors here are very nice. They gave me some tamales to heat up for lunch, which were delicious and they keep asking if I need anything.

We have all the fresh eggs we can eat here and lots of early rising roosters to go along with them.

We are taking care of a cat here who sleeps in the sink.

Isn't there a website where they make up captions for cat pictures? Any suggestions?