Last day in Bolivia (30-31/3/2007)

We returned from Peru early Wednesday (29th) morning to find we'd just missed the start of more blockades in Cochabamba, this time all public transport was stopped. We said goodbye to everyone onThursday, visiting the Orphanage. We had a nice last meal with the Timmer family, appreciating all their care and work in having us. This photo is infront of 'the Hacienda', the guesthouse where we stayed, and the two girls with us, Ayla and Julia who we really enjoyed spending time with.

We then flew to Santa Cruz, another part of Bolivia, to visit a great project working with street children. We only spent a day there and then left early Saturday morning for Ecuador.

Reed Islands, Peru (27/3/2007)

We took another coach to Peru, and had some interesting incidents at the border with our friends’ visas. After holding the coach up for about an hour we set off and arrived in Peru. The part we visited, Puno, looked pretty similar to Bolivia, they had a different mode of transportation though. These taxi bikes were everywhere and were good fun, a cheap and easy way of getting around.

We went to visit the ‘Reed Islands’ of Lake Titicaca which were amazing. Everything was made of reeds, including the actual floor that we were walking on. People still live there, but now mainly for tourism. It is listed in the ‘things to see before you die’ book, and was definitely worth seeing.

Lake Titicaca (25/3/2007)

We had an amazing opportunity to go on a short trip to Peru. Our friends had to get their visas stamped so we gladly accompanied them. We took a coach during night for 8 hours to La Paz, which is the capital of Bolivia. It is also the highest capital in the world set in the mountains, it was very beautiful. Like the rest of Bolivia the road systems are crazy and we saw some more blockades.

We then took another coach to Lake Titicaca which is a huge lake, part of it is in Peru and half in Bolivia. Part of the coach journey involved a boat ride across the lake. It was a long journey so we were so glad when we arrived.

We spent a couple of nights first on the Bolivia side in a back-packers type hotel, it was really nice but freezing as it’s so high up. It is apparently the highest navigable lake in the world. The scenery was stunning wherever we were on the lake, but especially when we went to visit the ‘Isla del Sol’. The combination of mountains surrounding water while standing on a beautiful little Island was amazing. There were also lots of lamas and donkeys, and the local people had leant how to make a good wage off the tourists by posing for photos and then holding out their hands.

Happy Mother's Day! (18/3/2007)

We want to send a message to our lovely mums to say Happy Mother's Day. We´re sorry we can´t be with you and hope you enjoy the your day. Thank you for being the best mums in the world and for all you do for us. Thank you for the love and support you always give us, we are truly blessed to have mums like you. We miss you and love you very much xx

Taking the children to the park (15/3/2007)

We had a nice time taking the youngest children from the orphanage to the park while the older ones were at school. It was incredible seeing how excited they were, Ariel (about 4 years old) in particular talking to us none stop on the journey. We were already finding it pretty hard to understand what he was talking about when we kept hearing random words like ´singing dragon' and ´racoon´ and it finally dawned on us that he was telling us a story. The other children who came were Normando and Alberto who are about 2 and Maria who is about 1. They have to guess their ages as they are mostly abandoned children, with no birth certificate etc. We really enjoy being with them-they are so beautiful and it´s good pratise for our Spanish. It took all of our energy (all 10 of us) to watch them on the playground, there is certainly no 'health and safety´here and the kids are so adventurous (Josiah Coleman would fit right in).

In the afternoon we helped with what is called a 'bread run' which is a project in the community of people who live on a rubbish dump. We took nice warm bread and bananas and gave them out to the people who live there. They have small brick houses about the size of one room, where a family of about 6 live. We also gave out shampoo of which the people seemed really grateful. It´s a very difficult experience, and really affects you to see the people hunting through the rubbish to find valuable items which they sell. To Timothy´s delight football is popular everywhere it seems in Latin America, so we played a game with the young people before we left.

Trip to the Jungle (9-12/3/2007)

We set out for a 4 day trip to visit the 3rd Orphanage which is in a jungle region called Chapare. First we we're to pick up a team arriving at Santa Cruz airport from Chichago. This would normally take around 6-7 hours in a car. We we're in a bus and after 45minutes of driving we we're told the road was closed so we had to turn around and use the old road to Santa Cruz. So our journey took around 17 hours and we finally arrived at a nice hotel that we spent Saturday night at. The journey had some incredible scenery as the road followed a river for along time. There has been alot of flooding in Bolivia and has been one of the worst years for landslides which we saw alot of on our journey.

Trying to stay awake, we spent Saturday afternoon in Santa Cruz city for lunch and then afterwards we went quad biking. It was quad biking as it should be, you could basically go any where, including a river which Helen managed to lead us nicely into only to find we couldn't get out. The bike sunk and after some funny attempts with some local boys to help us out, we abandoned it and caught a round back on their quad bikes which we're probably the smallest things with engines I'd sat on, in fact I lay on him and Helen sat on me.
After picking up the team Sunday morning, we headed for the jungle,about 3-4 hours away. On the way we visited a monkey sanctuary which we have to say we didn't enjoy a great deal as these filthy little things kept jumping and crawling all over you, trying to rob your camera and money. The 3rd orphanage stopped being built due to the rain but the flooding had now gone down and so we could help start again. We visited the Church who is supporting it and also the builder with his family, Sunday night was spent at a hostel 40 minutes away. Monday morning we started work by hauling cut planks of wood from the jungle to use for building.

The team had also brought alot of clothes for the kids, so a meeting was arranged with all the kids in the village to come that afternoon. Unfortunatly our time was cut short at the jungle as Mike had heard rumours our route home was closed. So we left pretty quickly and headed back where we found a long line of trucks lining the main road.

(A tricky 3point turn for our driver)

After a bit of discussion Mike came back with the news that our road back was closed. After a further bit of investigation Mike came back with two options. We can either go back to Santa Cruz and back on the old road (which was also rumoured to now be closed) a total of around 24 hours of driving or we can take a taxi up to near where the road is closed, walk 300 metres across the closed part then catch another taxi to Cochabamba. It was decided that 300 metres was easy enough with our luggage so the guys from America repacked their bags with essentials and left the rest on the bus (which would hopefully return to Cochabamba the next day). We squeezed into 2 taxis and drove around 40 minutes, 20 of which was lined with trucks by the side of the road. The taxis stopped where they couldn't go any further and there we got out, keen to see what the problem was.

Well as we've come to realise in Bolivia, nothing is easy. We soon found our little walk was actually a little longer than quoted, in fact 300 metres became 3000 (3km). We finally reached where the problem which was an enormous land/mudslide. It was like half the mountain had given way. It was an incredible sight everything was gone in it's path. Bulldozers and trucks had been working the night previous to create the road again but still had a few days more. We then were told we had to walk around where the work is, up the mountain a little, through the landslide and down the other side. After acres of mud, awesome scenery, alot of rain and drenched luggage we arrived on the other side where the road appeared back again. It wasn't too far until we reached where we finally caught our taxi to Cochabamba ( a 2 hr drive). It was an unforgetable experience and something we may never see again.

La Cancha (13/3/2007)

While the group was with us we went to 'La Cancha' which means 'the field', and is the largest outdoor market in the world. It really is a cultural experience and I (Helen) love it because there´s loads of absolute bargains! You could buy a whole outfit for about 8 pounds. You can literally buy anything there, from wellies to lama fetus´s (which apparently bring you good luck if you bury one in the foundation of your house). The smells are very interesting, especially when you walk past wheelbarrows overflowing with raw meat.

Back at Orpahange Israel (5/3/2007)

A group came from America for the week and we spent a little time with them. Back at the 2nd Orphanage we did a little more painting outside and the team did a puppet show in Spanish for the kids in a nearby school.

'The Cristo' (4/3/2007)

Overlooking the city of Cochabamba is the worlds largest statue of it's kind (33metres). We we're able to climb inside and Emily (Mikes 10 year old daughter) pointed out that we took photos out of Jesus' armpit. The view over the city was amazing.

Furniture moving at Orphanage 2 (1/3/2007)

We'd already been to Orpahange 2 quite a few times. It's around a 30 minute drive, in an area of Cochabamba called 'Israel', so the orphanage is called Israel also. It's only just been finished and there are no children in it at the moment. The house parents have moved in and are getting it ready, we also had been helping clean and paint. Mike ordered some furniture for the bedrooms which were pretty big. In fact they we're the biggest wardrobes I think i'd ever seen. They we're delivered before we arrived and left down stairs. Mikes hope was to move them upstairs. After alot of dents and chipped paint it looked like these things weren't going up any stairs (they're also made from solid pine which didn't help the equation) Mike the optimist felt that the stair railings we're the problem, so 15 minutes later around came the local welder who before you know it had hack-sawed the entire metal bannister off. Another attempt, another pile of plaster, and still 3 wardrobes sitting in the lounge. Now a new solution arose, of which we'd joked on earlier....they'd definatly fit through the windows. But let's clarify, by that we mean, they'd definatly fit if we remove the whole window frame. This was no problem though, as our welder was apparently quite an experienced window remover. 45minutes later and out comes the back bedroom window. Mike backed his truck up, we hoisted the cupboard on and in went the first cupboard. Now there was some talk about the other 2 cupboards and how they'd fit into the other bedrooms. All we'd do, is bring them up the same way, slide them through the bedroom door, around a tiny U-bend, across the L-shaped corridor and into the bedroom. It was generally felt that this was all good. Anyhow up came the next cupboard and into the opposite bedroom, no problem. Before we hoisted up the 3rd, we tested whether it would fit using the 2nd wardrobe. More chipped paint and scratched walls and not really. By this stage it wasn't too much of a surprise when, 40 minutes later, out came the front bedroom window.

Anyhow, it's good to know that all 3 bedrooms have wardrobes in and to have experienced furniture removal the Bolivian way. During which, we also learn't how to carry a baby on the back like the ladies here.

1st Orphanage (27/2/2007)

We visited the first orphanage, which is close to where we are staying. There´'s 8 children living there, 6 of whom are orphans. Permanent house parents live there and have 2 of their own kids. The children are very sweet and love to play games with us. It's great to see them smile, they love to see their own photo. Mike shared with us the stories of how each child came, hearing them makes you realise what a good opportunity these kids will have in life, by living here.

We've been a number of times and try to get to the orphanage as often as we can, we also help with the maintanace there.

Main plaza (25/2/2007)

We travel around most days in buses like this. They are called 'Truphies' and are every where. You always pay a flat rate of 1.50 Bolvianos (about 10pence) no matter how long the journey is. The buildings are in the main plaza of Cochabamba which shares it´s name with Helens dads birthday (14th September). It´s about the nicest place around.

Baptism (25/2/2007)

Julie, one of the girls staying with us at the guesthouse, decided to get baptised this Sunday which was good, along with 4 other Bolivians.

La Prado Carnival (24/2/2007)

We´re nearing the end of the rainy season here and so they have a big carnival to celebrate. It had apparently been going on all week. They pray and do some crazy dances to ask God(s) to stop the rain.

We soon found out that it was also a time for alot of water action. During the week you would often find a water-bomb fly your way from a car as you walk down the street.

We went to the last day of the carnival where people line the streets and watch a mass of parades, dances, music etc. Similar to the one we went to in San Jose. We brought some seats and found we made a very good choice by going on the second row back. It was a constant water fight, with people attacking the other side of the street non stop. We felt very sorry for the performers who just got pelted from every angle, all part of the fun though. There was also alot of spray foam for sale which was a favourite with kids in front of us, who occasionally got bored and sprayed the ´blancos´. After a fair few hours of this we went for lunch where unfortunatly one of the girls, Ayla, got her purse stolen, and a guy tryed take my wallet at the same time. Probably not a bad experience as it made us a little more aware of the old pick-pockets.

We left the carnival early, which mean´t walking for about 30 metres infront of about 500 kids, loaded with foam and water. Apat from all the water, it was a great experience of the culture with some great dances and costumes.

Digging a hole (23/2/2007)

After a little tour of our area in Cochabamba, we soon realised that it´s quite different to Costa Rica, it´s much poorer in comparison. Our first task of the day was digging a hole to fix a broken water tank in Mikes house. A few of his kids got typhoid from the water as it leaked into their well.

The Timmers adopted Gracie when she was 2days old and shes now 3. She travels everywhere with Mike and the teams that come. As you can see, she likes to help, although prefered filling the hole back in.

Arrive in Bolivia (22/2/2007)

We arrived in Bolivia at midnight, into La Paz airport. We had to wait around 6 hours for our flight to Cochabamba and so tried to sleep in the airport. Didn´t quite happen as the seats were really uncomfortable and it was freezing cold. La Paz is around 13,000ft up, it´s the highest capital and airport in the world.

After some interesting Spanish we brought our tickets to Cochabamba around 5 in the morning. The flight was only 30 minutes and we were picked up by Mike Timmer and his adopted daughter called Gracie. He has a great family with 6 daughters and his wife Bonnie. We´ll be working with them while we´re here.

Mike was unable to arrange for us to stay with a Bolivian family so we are at a guesthouse with two other girls, Julie (New Zealand) and Ayla (America).

Volcano Arenal and Waterfall (17/2/2007)

This was the view from our Hotel. Seeing the Volcano so close was amazing, we we´re quite lucky to see it as apparently it´s often clouded over. It errupts around every 7minutes but unless it´s very active you only see the lava at nighttime. Aswell as seeing that at the hotsprings, Helen and I woke up at 4:30am on the morning to see the lava again. Our eyes were on the blurry side so we think we got another sighting although Helen feels she was just looking at a flickering star.

The waterfall was another fantastic sight. You can swim at the bottom. The waterfall is 150ft tall so trying to swim under it is impossible. You get close but just get pushed back. We really enjoyed the weekend with the best sights we´ve seen so far in Costa Rica.

Canopy Tour and Hot Springs (16/2/2007)

(Picture of Helen and Stef above) Today was the first day of a weekend trip to an active Volcano called Arenal. We went with another work team from Pennsylvania. On the way we saw some great scenery and stopped off at a Canopy tour place (zip line). This was great fun as the zip lines got gradually longer and higher. The last apparently being the longest in the world , although lets face it, most places would probably claim that. It was 1/2 a mile long and took us about a minute to descend.

The views were amazing from high up, you could see the volcano and green mountains, as you descended into trees and what not.

Helen had a few funny episodes where she didn´t quite make the length of the line. One time she had too be rescued by the instructor which was amusing. We had lunch and continued on to our Hotel. In the evening we went to some hot springs which were so nice. Each pool had a different temperature, some too hot to stay in. We also got a glimpse of some lava down the side of the Volcano which you only really see at night time.

Valentines Dinner (14/2/2007)

Helen and I helped serve at a Valentines dinner for a work-group. We eat often with the groups when they're here and we get cooked for by a Costa Rican chef called Marlin, pictured here getting a Valentines present from us.

Trip to a Cabin in the Mountains (10/2/2007)

Two families on the campus own a cabin on the other side of San Jose in the mountains. We took a day trip up there with the McQuerys. Travelling right through San Jose was interesting and then the steep climb to get to the Cabin along some gravel roads. On the way up we got to see some fantastic views of the city and the valleys behind.

We had lunch up there, and then I was then taught how to play baseball with the two boys Jordan(9) and Justin (5) and Helen played with Joshua (6months). After a while we swapped to a true sport - football. It was good spending time with the family we stayed with when we first arrived.

A lesson by the pool (1/2/2007)

We had our lesson by the pool today. The summer has really started here which is all good.

A Procession in San Isidro (28/1/2007)

On the way to Church we had to make a few detours as the roads in San Isidro we're closed off due to a procession taking place that afternoon from the local Catholic Church. They we're starting to place flowers down in the road for the route of the procession. They're quite common here, but we struggled to find out what this one was for.

We walked down into town that afternoon before it started and looked around at all the designs. They seemed to use coloured wood shavings aswell, which we're occasionally being sprayed with water to stop the wind blowing them away and also to keep the flowers fresh. In one part there were 4 rows of half-cut oranges stretching the whole length of the road.

The procession was at 4:00 and started from the Church, where everyone followed on behind. Quite an amusing band played some morbid music followed by a few jigs.
It took around an hour and then after people started to clear away
the flowers which everyone had just walked on.

Running of the Bulls (27/1/2007)

We had a very Spanish experience on Saturday night, in our town (San Isidro) there was another fiesta (very little seems to warrant a party around these parts, and we think they were celebrating another Saint, although you can never be to sure.)

They had a carnival and some bombetas and also the 'running with the bulls'. We went into a round audatorium type building which was specially made for the evening, making construction a little dubious. We sat around for a time, watching a load of lads play football in the middle of the arena, until they announced that a 'toro blanco' was coming, a white bull. At this the football was put away and they paid some attention to the big door which was being opened. Straight away the bull flew out charging at anyone around. The men all climbed the side of the arena when it came their way. There seemed to be about 5 people who knew what they we're doing with this animal, the rest we're just local people who wanted a go at trying to get charged. It turned out that most just skirted around the edge whilst there was a few crazy men who kept grabbing the tale and getting swung around. Good fun to watch, unfortunatly it was quite dark so the photos didn't come out that well.

Another very amusing thing that kept happening inbetween each bull coming out (there was around 5 or 6). Was someone would get a peice of newspaper and put in the back pocket of a persons jeans without them knowing. They would then proceed to light it and the person would only realise when there was a burning sensation or the screams from the crowd were loud enough. You can see from the first picture (click on left) a guy lighting someone in a red T-shirt and then the other photo (on right) him realising. It's a definite must for next years bonfire night back home.

A little less wisdom (23/1/2007)

Well in case you we're wondering, thats my wisdom tooth sitting there on the table. That bad boy had been causing me a few issues for about a week and so I decided to have it out. After hearing a few stories about dentists in these parts, I was pleasantly surprised when he whipped my tooth out in under 30 seconds (after a local anesthetic of course). No pain now which is all good.

The Spanish word for a wisdom tooth is 'muela del juicio', which is slightly different and quite amusing. Translated, I've lost my tooth of 'justice, judgement and discernment'. And so I've asked Helen if I start making rash decisions or strange accusations about people, could she please let me know.

Waterfall gardens (19/1/2007)

We visited a waterfall garden called La Paz, which we think means 'peace'. On the campus there are often 'work teams' which come mainly from America. They help with the building and development of the campus and also sometimes come as part of something called 'Fusion'. Fusion is where a youth group from one Church here in Costa Rica joins up with a youth group abroad and they visit each other. There is a group leaving here for Chicago (USA) next week.

When these teams come they spend a day visiting places around here so we went with them to 'La Paz' and also a Coffee plantation.

This team (photo) wasn't part of the Fusion programme, they were a group of men from a Church in America who have come before. I managed to help a bit with breaking up and removing some concrete pavements (or 'sidewalks' as they call them). They did so much work considering they were only here for a week. Helen and I ate quite often with them and also we spent some evenings doing Bible study with them which is part of their time here. They we're a real nice group and Helen and I, if possible, would like to visit them in America on our way home. (They live around 5 hrs from the Shirleys, near Chicago).

The waterfall gardens were quality. Alot to see and so we've tryed to chose a few from our collection of photos. There was a butterfly farm in the gardens and you could watch as butterflies emerge from their cacoons ready to fly. Pictured here with us is Brian and Stef who have become really good friends. They stay on the campus and are returning to America in June for Stef to finish her medical training.

(In case you don't know, you can click on the photos to enlarge them.)

Graduation day! (12/1/2007)

Well apparently we are now no longer beginners in Spanish, we are starting intermediate level on Monday. I'll be quick to add here that this is all according to Ana. According to us, lets just say we don't entirely agree on what you would safely say is an intermediate level. If it's walking into a fast food shop, ordering something your really looking forward too, only to find you get two of the vegetarian option, then we've reached intermediate status.

Ana said we must have a graduation ceremony for this acheivement. At first we thought it was a joke, but she was deadly serious. And so we we're to invite everyone on the campus to come, obviously not by just asking them, that would be far too easy. We had to make invitations in a language I can only describe as the Spanish equivalent of the New King James version of the Bible. So after we'd made cards asking people to 'grace us with their presence', she also insisted we made a speech. As in a speech.



In the end it wasn't that bad, in fact the graduation ceremony was a good time. We cooked 'arroz con pollo' (rice with chicken) and had some nice cookies made by Karen and her family here on the campus, also Ana let us read our speech instead of recite it. Helen and I received a nice certificate and we thanked everyone for making us feel so welcome and how nice Costa Rica is. I also thanked Ana for introducing us to 'verbos iregulares' (irregular verbs). If you've ever studied a language then you'll know just how unneccesary these things are.















Actually Helen and I are starting to understand conversations a bit better now, but are still struggling to speak ourselves.
Everyone here says there's no short cut to learning a language, it just takes time, and we can certainly see why. We're still enjoying life here on the campus and have made some great friends.

National Museum trip (11/1/2007)

Went to San Jose today to meet our Spanish teacher Ana who wanted to take us around the National Museum (photo left: view of San Jose from the Museum). Quite interesting, all about the Spanish conquerers and how Costa Rica became what it is today. At the back of the Museum there's a garden which has all sorts of butterflys in . Ana thought it was a 'Lindissimo' opportunity for a photo of us both. All good, except we found that Anas photographic skills weren't quite up to scratch. (see below)Afterwards we had lunch at KFC in the city centre and chatted for along time about how she would like to visit England one day.

Happy new year ! (1-10/1/2007)

We hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. This picture was taken from the balcony of the new house we're staying in for the month of January. The family who live here (McQuereys) have gone back to America so we're house sitting.

Over Christmas and New Year we had a very relaxing time. We we're hoping to go away on the 26th for a 3-4days to the coast but it's high high season at that time. It would have been very busy and expensive so we're hoping to go at the beginning of Febuary. So we went out on a few days to the nearby towns but alot of it we stayed on the campus, did alot of reading, going through the Spanish we'd done and spending time with the people on the campus. We had a nice meal with Donald and Erika, it was called Casada, which translated means 'marriage'. The reason they call it that is because you have a variety of things on the plate, so it's a marriage of different flavours, something like that. Very nice. We spent alot of time talking (trying too) about England. We find most people here would love to visit England but it's just so expensive. They couldn't believe that to rent an apartment would cost minimum of around $800 a month. Here it's nearer $200-300. In a few years, Donald and Erika are hoping to spend some time in Africa working with a Church there so at the moment they're learning English. Their little daughter, Nasaret, contiunes to make us laugh. She hasn't really grasped the concept that we dont' speak her language very well, and moreso that we haven't got a hope of understanding her if she keeps her current level of 'words per second' up. By the way , for those of you who don't know, you can click on the photos to make them bigger.

A walk and a snake (26-31/12/2006)

We've had quite a relaxing week here since Christmas. On boxing day we both went for a walk with 'Mandy' the dog. Taking dogs for a walk is quite interesting here as every house seems to have one. After alot of barking and close encounters with little scrawny animals we headed up the side of the hill/mountain we're staying on. It was ridicously steep and so half way up Timothy decided that he needed a little help from Mandy, she wasn't that interested though.

The weather here has been nice and so we've spent a bit more time around the pool. The pool was also our first meeting with a snake which one of Donalds kids found swimming about. He thought it was dangerous at first, but afterwards we found out it was a snake called 'false coral'. Donalds children (Isaac and Nasaret) wanted a photo with it, and I too, took a very relaxed pose for the camera.

Merry Christmas - Feliz Navidad (25-12-2006)

Merry Christmas from us (and the dog). Just thought we'd post a few photos on quickly before we leave to spend the day with an English family who are staying here for a few weeks. Last night was good fun with a big Costa Rican family spending about 3 hrs watching them open presents, all good. Helen made some sweet biscuits which went down a treat, the usual "Que Linda, Que Lindissima! (how beautiful how bigger than beautiful) was said a fair few times. We'll put some more photos on soon.

Thankyou so much for the presents and cards mum and dad(s), it was real nice opening them this morning. Absoultly loving the sticky toffee Christmas pudding and cashew nuts. Also a big thankyou to Geoff and Beth for sending us some top draw presents. They all made the day more Christmas-like for sure Hope you all have a great Christmas at the big Cox gathering, (Helens on the phone to you right now in fact). Hope you all have a good Christmas day at the Coleman/Lawrie household with those classic games. I've froze some flour this morning so we'll see how that old chestnut goes down in Costa Rica.

Loads of love Timothy and Helen xx

Also a very Merry Christmas to all our friends at home. Have a quality evening. One big congratulations to Tiva and Sari, thats superb (nice work mate). We'll try and phone tonight, but might not be possible. Loads of love xx

Here are some photos we've added later. This was the group of people we spent Christmas day with. An english family, an Australian couple, two Americans and Woody,Sue and Corie Rowland who have been in Latin America for nearly 30 years and head up the work here. (As you can sort of see the frozen flour game went down a treat.)

Timothys Birthday (20-12-2006)

Well for the first time in my life I had my birthday in the summer. This was the view from the window of where we have Spanish lessons.

Helen made me some cheeky pancakes for breakfast and she brought me the Costa Rican football shirt for my birthday. Nice. I also opened a fair few cards from people so thankyou very much. We then had our Spanish lesson in the morning followed by a nice 'almorzar' (lunch) cooked by Ana. The photo sort of shows Brian and Stef, a great couple who are staying here on the campus at the moment. There house is a nice little cabin which they've kindly let us use a few times. We'll be staying there over Christmas as they've gone back to America for a few weeks. Brians does alot of work in overseeing the building projects around the campus and Stef is currently taking a gap year from her medical training.

After lunch Helen had arranged a surprise for me by inviting a load of people on the campus to appear from a little side room in Brian and Stefs place. Unfortunatly we forgot to take any photos of everyone but we did get one of the cake Helen and Stef made. It was superb. Stef and Brian also made 'custard icecream' would you believe, after Helens tip off that I'm quite into custard. I never knew such a substance could be made, it was all good.

The day didn't stop there. Football in Costa Rica is big. Unfortunatly it's a bit like the Scottish league where only two teams ever seem to win anything. 'Surprissa' and 'La Liga' are the two big teams and they met again in the National final (FA cup equivalent). The first leg happened to be on my birthday so we got tickets to go and see it in San Jose. It was quality. Quality experience, less than quality football. Apparently all the good players go to Europe. The score was 2-0, we'll be watching the 2nd leg on a big screen here on Saturday. The stadium was a bit different to english ones. From the outside, all good, but underneath the stands was like the bullring indoor market. You could get food, clothes, kitchen goods, underware, tupperware, holidays....the funniest stand we saw added a whole new dimension to the true football fan. It was a stand which sold purple coffins (the colour of the team) embedded with the clubs logo. They like their football here.

A little bit of Salsa (17-12-2006)

We stayed at Anas house after the festival and she whipped up a nice breakfast. She calls her house a hotel, "not 5star" she says "but it's friendly". Ana's daughter Sophia wanted to teach us some salsa. So she put on a few tunes on her computer and we danced away in the living room. Helen apparently has got the right movement, I however need to work on my hip action. The good news is though that everyone shes taught from England has got good rhythm. I won't let the team down.

Festival de la luz - Festival of lights (16-12-06)

We we're invited by our Spanish teacher Ana to go to a famous festival in Costa Rica called 'Festival de la Luz' in San Jose. We went with her whole family which was quite amusing. We took our first bus ride on our own to the capital from San Isidro. The buses look superb.

The festival starts at around 3 but people get there around mid morning to get a good seat. They close off the main road in San Jose and people line the streets. Ana's family went fully comitted which we like and bought chairs. cool box, pillows and even the mattress from one of their kids bedroom. The festival is basically a parade and mainly consists of bands and people dressed up traditionally. There we're certainly quite a few strange entries into the parade. The masked witches being one, followed by Cadburys chocolate, which was all good.

By the time it got dark (around 6) we'd never seen so many people on a single street before. Unfortunatly the camera struggles to show it but it was crazy. We we're glad to get there as early as we did. At 6 the greatly anticipated 'bombetas' (fireworks) were to start. Obviously they didn't start at 6. like most of the carnival is was run with what we've come to know as Tico Time (Costa Rican time) which is all good. The name certainly didn't disapoint, they seem not to bother to much about pretty looking fireworks but rather the most enormous explosions they can get hold of. (Brought me back to the 5th November in the bridge carpark). After that it was back to

more parading and it finished around 10:30. We we're staying at Ana's house in San Jose.

Christmas Party (11/12/06)

Today we had our Christmas party. There was about 30 or so people and they seemed to all like the Tamales we made the day before. It was a good time to practice our Spanish, although the main phrase we seem to use was 'Despacio, mas despacio por favor' (Slowly, more slowly please) We played a gift exchange game, where everyone brings a present for someone else and you pick at random from under the tree. As you can see Helen and I felt slightly denied.

Tamales Day! (10/12/2006)

In England we have Christmas pudding, mince pies and turkey. Well in Costa Rica a traditional Christmas food is called 'Tamales'. Well today (Sunday) we had the priviledge of making these with our Tico friends (Tico= Costa Rican person). On the campus there are a Costa Rican family: Donald and Erika and their two children Isaac and Nasaret. They maintain the campus, Donald is a carpenter and Erika is a cleaner. We made the Tamales with them, and Erika's Mama, on the campus grounds.
First of all you take a load of banana leaves and heat them up on a fire until they are soft and malleable. Then you cut them into squares, and clean them so their ready to put the food in. You put maiz dough in first, then put meat and various vegetables on top. Then you wrap it all up and tie it with a piece of string. They're bolied for about an hour then their ready to eat. Que Rico! (how tasty). We were making them for the Christmas party that we had the following day. We'd like to think we could produce such food back in England, but feel there is a slight lack of Bannana leaves lying around.

Our town and Market day (9/12/2006)

Costa Rica is coming to the end of it's winter (invierno) and going into it's summer (verano). There are basically 2 seasons here, the wet and dry season (winter/summer). At the moment it makes for some unsettled weather so rainbows are common place. It's still quite warm here although it's alot hotter the further down the valley you go. San Isidro is higher up so it tends to stay cooler. This is a photo of the centre of the town, most have Catholic Churches and a grass area.







We stayed with a lady called Lori on Friday night and helped decorate her house for Christmas which was nice. We now feel a little more 'Christmas-like' although the closest we've come to a mince pie is a Chicken pasty. We woke up early on Saturday to go to a special Market called a 'Feria'. Most towns seem to have them, we went to a particularly big one. It basically sells every type of fruit and veg we've ever seen and is good fun going around. It's also good fun trying out our Spanish as they seemed to speak a completly different language there. We're told they speak alot of slang, so our elegantly polished responses we're quite amusing. For instance we asked how much a 'un medio kilo de zanahorias' were (half kilo of carrots) and the reply was a very swift 'un rojo' which means 'a red'. We found that thats the colour of one of the notes here. Suppose it's like the markets back in England though.

Hola from Costa Rica (28/11/06 - 7/12/06)

Hola! from Costa Rica. Eventually we've got this blog up and running and hopefully we can keep it updated. We are staying on the campus of International Teams just outside the capital of San Jose. 'San' by the way means 'Saint', practically all the towns in Latin America seem to start with this. San Jose is Saint Joseph, nearby is San Pablo (St.Paul) and we're staying in 'San Isidro'. At a wild stab we're thinking this probably means Saint Ian (although we can't be sure).
As you can see we're surrounded by beautiful mountains. For nearly our whole time here, there are clouds that cover the mountain tops which look amazing.






The campus grounds are really nice with loads of different plants, trees and wildlife. We have al ot of fruit trees like lemon, orange, lime and bannana trees,which we can pick off and eat or cook with. The grounds also has a cheeky little football pitch, a volley ball net and swimming pool, although no one seems to go in it because it's so cold. There are also a load of dogs which roam around, mainly for security, which follow you when you go places which we've got used to now. We've stayed in various places since being here and are all good.

Our Spanish teacher Ana is fantastico. She doesn't speak English much which actually really helps us to learn quicker. She is very motherly and funny. We are doing 3 hrs a day with her and then studying for another 3 - 4 in the afternoon. She is very keen to give us Cultural experience aswell as language so we've already made Costa Ricas typical dish known as 'Gallo Pinto' which is bascially rice, beans, vegtables with a fried omlette (a breakfast favourite apparently). She wants to take us to the musuem this week and has invited us to a big fiesta (party) next weekend in San Jose. She's also asked if we want to spend Christmas with her family. The main celebration is Christmas eve here. We try to speak as much Spanish as we can around the campus, but because most of the people here are American it tends to end up in English.

Christmas Dinner

To celebrate Helen and Timothy's departure, and to give them a Christmas dinner with us, Gordon and Julia gave us the full works!

Tim and Helen, we hope you have time to record some of your activities on this blog, and some photographs. We are missing you already and you've only been gone a day.

We all love you loads,

The Coleman and Cox families