What are we doing in Costa Rica?

Today is our first full day in our jungle home. As I write this, day is slipping into dusk. It’s amazing how much you can feel and hear the cycle of the day. The temperature, humidity, the movement of the air, and the animal songs all change according to the hour. At dawn the air is cooler and drier. By 10:30, your shirt starts to stick to your skin. Right now the dimming light and the breeze make for a kind of dreamy tranquility.

Today was a work day, so I set myself up in my office on the second floor. I have a floor under my feet and a roof over my head, but otherwise I am outside. Pretty different, and pretty cool. I even got some things done. I had a phone conference with my project manager in Austin and my client in Atlanta. Except that Skype disconnected me twice while I was on the call, you wouldn’t have known I was in the jungle.

Speaking of Skype, our fancy phone did not survive the trip to San José. I have no idea why, but the base station just refuses to get online. It worked perfectly back home. This is a huge drag because it means we can’t receive calls unless one of us is sitting in front of the computer, logged in to Skype. The damn thing wasn’t cheap either.

Let me tell you a little about our house. This is just like camping, but with flush toilets and high speed internet. On each of two floors we have a bathroom and a bedroom that can be considered indoors. Each floor also has a covered porch that triples as living room, dining room, and kitchen. The house was beautifully built by our host, with rich local hardwoods and painted tile throughout.

We are happy, but we still need to get into a routine. The morning is easy: wake up to the birds, then make coffee! After that it gets tricky. What we decide to do invariably depends on which of our children is crying and how much. They get tired and then all bets are off. I intended to go into town today and rent a bicycle, but Graham needed some time away from Dean, so he and Elizabeth went upstairs, and Dean and I toddled around down here.

Tomorrow: bicycle or bust!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 6:46 pm and is filed under Bird House, Puerto Viejo.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.