June...week 3

Sunday May 16th, 2010
Enjoying the peace
All day at the casa
We knew Dan would be home sometime today. So, we took our last hours alone and delighted in our new life here at the casa.
Dan arrives home
8:30pm on the casa porch
We had already started a movie and I was sleepy. Kevin heard Dan out in his locker and went out to talk to him. He spoke of how strong the LSD was here in Central America and of his adventure tripping alone in the jungle. He wandered away alone but in earshot of the rave and had an incredible time. This was good to hear, because tomorrow there was work to be done around the casa and we needed Dan’s help.

Monday May 17th, 2010
Dan lazes around & I build a shower surround
All day at the Casa
We woke, had breakfast and got right to it. There were plenty of leaves to be raked and I wanted to close in the outdoor shower by the house. Dan had other ideas. He was ‘hung over’ from the rave and tired from lack of sleep. He got up late and wasn’t feeling well, tired mostly. While eating lunch, his Mom called. It was a short but sweet conversation. After that, he showered and hung out in the hammock, on the porch, for the rest of the day.
I, on the other hand, was motivated to build a surround at the outdoor shower. There were no limbs or branches cut to make the posts. So, I disassembled the make-shift grill area in the campground. No one was using it and was an eye-sore. The posts were a little thicker than I needed but, I built away, anyway. I had fun doing it, even though it was quite the little undertaking.  Much to my dismay, in all the tools left behind, there was no staple gun. I had to nail in tacks to hold the plastic onto the posts. It was harder than it would seem, but I got the Job done.

Kevin raked and burned leaves. I actually got Dan to help with the lighting of the fires with Kevin. That was all he did and went back to the hammock.
Needless to say, this pissed off Kevin. Dan was suppose to be here to help and wasn’t. I to put him at ease by saying it was because of his wild weekend and that Dan would be back to normal tomorrow. Kevin never said a word to Dan, but complained to me that Dan was just not a worker.
In conversation, I let Dan know that he was a nice guy, but one to do physical labor? No. We all just laughed it off and Dan told us things like, he took the first part of the military entrance exam and not the 2nd. He also announced that he had to go back to the states because his family was moving from New York to Florida. He had told us when Ben and Lori were still here about the move but, never mentioned leaving. We knew his 90 days was drawing near and he had to have his passport stamped soon. So, the trip wasn’t much of a surprise. He mentioned that he would be leaving within a week or so and be back in 2 weeks. No problem. We knew we had a lunch date with Gypsy the next day. We asked Dan if he could stick around the Casa and hold down the fort, as we had no idea how long we would be. He said sure no problem.
We all went off to bed that night, after dinner and conversation on the porch.

Tuesday May 18th, 2010
Dan sneaks away
6:00 am at the cabina
Kevin woke early this morning, as he usually does. He went out to change the water from public to the eco tank and found Dan packing to leave. Usually, Dan doesn’t wake till around 10am. To see him up so early surprised Kevin. He went in and talked to him and Dan announced he was leaving for town and if he could get a ticket home today he was going, if not he’d be back. Dan never came back.
When I woke and Kevin told me I was more disappointed than surprised. After all, Ben had warned that at any moment Dan could be gone. I was hoping Dan would at least stay long enough to give living with us a shot and long enough for us to settle in. Kevin thought maybe it was all the acid he did over the weekend that caused Dan’s leaving. We don’t know. Since that day we haven’t heard from Dan.
Lunch in town with Gypsy
Noon in Downtown Quepos
Well, we decided to go meet Gypsy and not leave the casa unmanned. We had done it just a few days before and Kevin was still unsure. So, he walked to the commune to talk with Andy. He told him about Dan and asked if he would hang out on the porch while we went to town. Andy obliged us and we met Gypsy right on time at the designated spot.
We told her we wanted to have lunch somewhere ‘local’. After all, you can only eat so much Chicken on the Run. She took us to a Cuban restaurant. The owners were Cuban by way of Tampa, Florida. We had some yummy fried plantains as an appetizer. Kevin ordered his first hamburgesa in Costa Rica and I chose the nachos. Gypsy had a casado and probably made the best choice. Kevin wasn’t thrilled with the Costa Rican version of the hamburger but my nachos were fine sans cheese as cheese was expensive in Quepos. I was hoping for a Cuban sandwich but there were none on the menu. The owner explained that it was because the price of pork here was outrageous. It seemed most meats were expensive here.
After lunch Gypsy took us to pay the electric and phone bill which totaled 180 dollars. The Whitefield’s left us 130. So, Kevin had to go next door to withdraw the money out of his bank account because they didn’t take credit cards. This had him pissed off because he uses his bank account monies to pay his bills. Now his account would be short. We let Gypsy know how they stiffed us and that we would get another outrageous bill the following month because of their being in the house for 2 weeks during the next billing cycle. All she could say way, ‘Just let them know, Im sure
they will send you the money.” Wow, Gypsy really had no idea of their financial situation, or how they were constantly on the make.
Then off to ICE, the electric/phone/internet company to find out about getting a wireless card for my laptop. The clerk explained we needed to buy a data card and gave Gypsy a list of people in town who might have them. The wait in ICE was longer that expected. Kevin was getting antsy after his bill pay experience, but managed enough patience for us to find the right store and put my name on the waiting list for one. They were to be in by the 15th of next month.
Back at the Casa
4pm on the casa porch
We had no idea what time it was when we returned. Andy was still on the porch writing on his laptop. We had left before 11 am and it was now 4pm. It felt like Gypsy ran us all over town and I couldn’t even imagine how to find the computer store again. We were tired and thankful of Andy’s help and invited him to stay for dinner, in thanks.
I whipped up a quick meal and we enjoyed dinner on the porch. We decided that almost 6 hours being gone was way too long. We had even discussed our situation with Gypsy, earlier, over lunch. She advised us not to lock the shutters on the house that face the street. She said it would be too obvious that we were gone. Also, that 4 hours was tops to be away from the house unattended. We all concurred with what she said .
The disappointment that Dan was gone set in. I  felt as though I would be the one always at the house while Kevin went to town. This bummed me out and I let Kevin know. He totally understood and we vowed that we wouldn’t be gone more than 3 hours or so if and when we went to town without anyone to watch the house.

Wednesday May 19th, 2010
Glen & Brit don’t arrive
Do Nothing day
All day at the Casa
After our big day in town we decided to take a break. A  lot has gone on in the past week, since the Whitefield’s left the casa and Costa Rica. We were drained. I looked at the calendar on the refrigerator and noticed that today was the day Glen and Britney were suppose to come and visit. They had booked their reservations through the website even before we arrived, knowing that we were taking over. It was Britney’s birthday and they were taking a surf trip. One of their stops was to stay with us. We had known they contacted Lori to change the date, but Lori could remember when they changed it to. Without the internet, it was hard to keep in touch with people because phone calls were so expensive. We couldn’t wait to get that damn data card and internet but, the 15th didn’t seem that far off.

Thursday May 20th, 2010
Lunch with Gypsy and her Roatan friends
12:00  noon Quepos
Today we made our way to town, to meet Gypsy and her friends from Roatan, for lunch. At the casa, we had told Gypsy that we really loved Roatan, about the cruise and our thoughts of moving there. She mentioned she had some friends in town from Roatan and she would try to arrange lunch. So, we were to meet them at the Mira Olas restaurant in the Best Western. It was on the 3rd floor and had great views.
When we got there we didn’t see Gypsy. As we were ordering our Pilsen’s, she rounded the corner. She showed us to the table and introduced us to her friends. Alex and Kelly, from Roatan, by way of New York. The biggest piece of information we got form them was that Roataon was much less expensive than Costa Rica with its American prices with 1/3 of the average income. We also came to realize that we could make this ‘international house sitting’ thing a real job. One of the first questions Kelly asked me was if we house sat professionally or something like that. Taken back by the question, I answered no. Later, Kevin pointed out that yes we do. For example, Rebecca’s home and he was right. I was more caught up in the ‘out of the country’ aspect of the question. Once we get the internet, damn it, we could open so many doors! We took Alex’s card and Kelly’s name, to add her on Facebook We said our good byes and rushed home. Today Pixie was in the house alone while we went to town. The dreaded unmanned casa.
Earthquake hits
5:00pm at the Casa
I was in the bedroom, Kevin and Andy on the front porch. Standing at the corner of the bed, I felt the ground move under my feet. Then heard some clanging in the kitchen. It was the strangest sensation I had ever experienced. Then, I realized it was an earthquake. I ran outside to where Kevin and Andy stood dumbfounded. Kevin exclaiming how he thought the roof was gonna come down. We all were amazed, none having felt an earthquake before.
We came to find out that the earthquake hit Quepos at a 5.2 on the richter scale. This was the biggest earthquake to hit the area in years. At that point we all were wondering what the next year had in store for us.

Friday May 21st, 2010
Rearranging the bedroom
9am in the casa bedroom
Kevin and Andy had gone to town. Kevin had said that he wasn’t sleeping well in the full size bed in the casa. This I thought was at least a queen, since Lori told me to bring some sheets of that size. I had to agree that the full size bed was just a bit too small for us. Nana’s queen did the job, but this wasn’t Nana’s bed.
In the corner of the bedroom sat a twin size mattress with its frame stood up on its side to house a few boxes and such left behind by Ben and Lori, a make-shift closet. Because of our sleeping dilemma, I decided to take the frame and mattress down. Luckily the two bed frames were the same height. So, I stood them side by side to make a bigger than king sized bed. I stuffed the space where the frames met with blankets, for comfort and slid all of the boxes left behind under the beds.
When he came come, Kevin was surprised and happy to see a bed that we might actually get some sleep in.
Andy busts up his elbow
2:30pm at the beach out front
Kevin and Andy decided to go in the water. Kevin to surf and Andy to swim and body surf. I stayed behind, doing whatever chores and cooking needed to be done. While on the porch, Andy came back not looking so happy. He was holding his arm and explained what had happened. While trying to body surf, the wave doubled up on him and threw him to the shallow bottom. His elbow is what hit the hardest. Not sure if he broke it, he grabbed some things and went home.
That evening, he came by to tell us he took the bus to the hospital. They checked it out, said it wasn’t broken and gave him some pain killers. At least it wasn’t broken, but he was still in a lot of pain. My toe was still killing me. So, I knew it would be a few weeks before that elbow would feel any better.

Saturday May 22nd, 2010
More of the same chores, chores, chores
All day at the casa
Not much happened today. Kind of peaceful being in the groove of doing the household chores…raking and burning leaves, laundry, sweeping and cooking. Life at its simplest.

Sunday May 23rd, 2010
Kevin finds the “ultimate” surf spot
10am near the Quepos pier
This morning, after a day of chores and chilling, Kevin was itching to surf. The waves out front hadn’t been that great. Kevin swore it was much like being in St. Augustine. The waves had the same mushy, crumbly feel to them. Although more powerful, being the Pacific.
So, he decided to walk the beach and see of he could find a better break. South of us you can sometimes see people surfing and decided to check it out. He came back around the same time Andy arrived. He was stoked and wanted to surf the waves by the Quepos pier. So, he and Andy went off. Andy and his elbow were only going to watch.
When they returned Kevin was so happy talking of his ultimate surf spot here on Cocal. I was happy for him, just disappointed the walk was so far. It would be fun to try and get some pictures of him surfing soon.
Mike shows up a la Tico Time
1:30pm on the Casa porch
Not long after the guys got back from their surf expedition, Mike the baker showed up. Andy had mentioned that Mike may stop by the night before and bring some things from the bakery. He never showed. When he popped up on the porch, I was left with an uneasy feeling. People showing up unannounced made me weary.
We greeted Mike and exchanged pleasantries. My neck was bothering me so I just laid in the hammock with my head on the porch rail. It was strangely comfortable and took the pressure off my neck. Mike offered beers I declined, Kevin accepted. No sooner was a beer finished and Mike was asleep in the other hammock.
Andy had things to do so went back to his place. Kevin and I went inside to lay down. After a while, we heard Mike get up, drink another beer and leave. My take on this guy was that he wasn’t someone I wanted to hang out with. Something about him just wasn’t right.