Monkeys and Spiders and Scorpions, Oh My

As we're slowly settling into a routine, there are a few adjustments that have taken some getting used to.  First off, we have a maid and a gardener that Chanelle employs Monday through Friday.  It took a while for me to relinquish my love of certain household chores, mainly dishes and laundry, but I've quickly realized that vacation time is valuable and can be filled with things like crosswords and surf and cooking and blogging.  Plus, it allows us to give extra work to a local family who seems more than happy to be helping us out.  Felix Mora is the gardener who constantly refers to himself in the third person and who is also, madly in love with Lea.  He asked if he could have one of Lea's puppies and was more than disappointed to find out that she no puedes tener hijos.   Felix is married to Juanita, our maid.  Two days ago, while Juanita was cleaning our kitchen, she found a scorpion in the box containing the dogs food.  Luckily, nothing happened and she removed it from our casita but warned us that if the dogs ingest one, they could die.  Poor Chanelle lost her two pound teacup chihuahua puppy not two weeks ago to a scorpion sting, which leads me into the other part of our adjustment.  The tropics.  As I was properly warned before arriving, this country has everything in the bug/reptile/bird/mammal department that you could possibly imagine.  Not only is Chanelle finding scorpions in her house daily, yesterday she came across a tarantula underneath her dog's towel.  This, compounded with the story of her house guest seeing a boa wrestling a bird at the end of the driveway in the middle of the night, and her dog Junior coming home with a face full of porcupine quills, has appropriately risen my guard.  Ian and I are both covered in mosquito bites and frequently remind each other that itching is not acceptable.  Howler monkeys are something new and different for everyone, including the dogs.  A seemingly large family congregated in a nearby canopy two night ago, and did their howler thing all morning long.  Last night, the dogs went nuts over a herd of cows that made their way into the yard.  After much barking, Ian went outside and threw rocks at them.  It seemed to solve the problem and sleep was finally had.

We've met some great people already.  Yesterday morning, a guy named Jason who helps run Chanelle's hostel, gave us a ride down to 2-4+ Panga Drops.  The paddle out was tough for me but, I eventually made it, then spent the next hour scratching for the horizon as the walled sets came plowing through.  The lineup was friendly though, and I got a second to talk to Panga's keeper, Jack.  After he jokingly noted that it was my time for a wave, I thought it would be in my best interest to balls up, get inside and catch a little one before I gained the quick reputation of crowding a lineup at my new home break.  Within a couple of minutes, I caught a fun little left and called it a session.  Baby steps.  Ian got a ton of great waves and is super stoked on the spot which is great because hopefully it means we'll be surfing there together more.

We were able to go see the house again and get a better idea of a timeline.  It sounds like we still have at least six weeks to go because the windows have just been made in Granada and need about a month to dry.  They were putting in the plumbing while we were there, and we were pleasantly surprised to see a septic tank.  The structure itself is looking amazing.  It sounds like the appliances are going to run us around two thousand bucks.  The refrigerator and stove can both run off propane and the solar panels are included in the cost of the house.  They're still experimenting with how much power the panels can store and there is still talk of a wind turbine going into the neighborhood.  All in all, we can't wait to call it home.    

Ian found a 4x4 Isuzu on craigslist today for $2500 and is going to check it out with Roger in the next couple of days.  Roger is a consultant for La Vista and was born and raised in Nicaragua and according to Ian, speaks better English than most Americans.  He has a reliable mechanic in Rivas and is willing to help Ian out with the process.  We had a serious conversation about a vehicle today and decided that if we want to start a business, transportation will be essential.  Money is the main issue and between the cost of appliances in the new house, food and the pending vehicle, we'd be cutting it pretty close by the time we leave in October.  Nothing is set in stone and I will always be plagued with concerns over money but only because it's been a personal issue of my own in the past.  Ian however, always takes the positive perspective which is why I love him so much, and will always make me believe that he's the Bodhisattva in this relationship.  

So, I'll slap up a couple more photos.  It sounds like we may have some visitors in the near future.  Our friends Kevin and Brett are interested in buying down here and we're excited at the prospect of having neighbors we already know.

The three pictures above, are photos from Clint's casita that is just about ready for move-in.  We like what he did with the shower and are considering copying it for our own bathroom.  These are local stones that he found on the beach.  I think it goes nicely with the natural elements of the wooden house.

Lea's hole.

View from the balcony of our rental casita.  There are some pretty awesome sunsets here.

More pics of our own casita, coming soon.  Pics are taking a while to load ....