On the Road with Cow Parents

As many of you already know, our house was broken into on Friday night. The robbers -- one of them apparently very skinny -- bent back one of the metal bars that covers our windows (and most windows here), cut through the screen, and climbed through the open (our bad!) window. Then proceeded to take our laptop computers, iPods, a point and shoot camera, a Flip Camera and the kids' backpacks. The last was actually a delight because the backpacks contained...the kids' homework! Better even than "the dog ate it."

Well we are all fine and that is what matters. And, mentally, we are all fine. Nobody seems to feel threatened and none of us seem to feel alienated from the broader community, which sometimes happens. So, that's good. I would say, in fact, that the robbery has not impacted our happiness level here at all. Pura vida, baby!

Here's a little thing that happened today that almost certainly did not happen where you are dear North American reader...I was driving to Nicoya (big town about an hour from here), when about 100 cattle appeared around a curve in the road running full steam at me. I was plowing along at a 30 mph, a pretty good speed for Nosara's dirt roads and hit the brakes before I hit the bovine....

(the "..." represents a pause in the writing while I ran to the door to chase our racoon family away from the dining porch table...")

...the brakes worked and I slowed to 5 mph or so. The cows knew their road rules and moved to the right. I did the same and we spent a minute or so passing each other.  Some were absolutely massive and I was quite sure I would see them again when Nosara has its biggest annual rodeo in January.

As I reached the end of the herd, I came upon what seemed the biggest bull of all, staring straight at me. This one bellowed an incredible, guttural "Mooaoaoaoa" ("Moo" just wouldn't capture it.") Then the bovine beast turned away from me and I saw that I was udderly wrong--it was a cow, not a bull. And, the object of her bellowing? Her darling calf who was bringing up the absolute rear of the herd and appeared to me only as Mama dashed off to round her up. The calf, with mottled brown hair, stepped up the pace and, as the two passed me, I waved to the mom--parent to parent--to acknowledge her good work and the common task we share.

Next post: Tara graduates from the Yoga Institute--Congratulations!

PS Sorry for the lack of photos...none to include given the loss of computers....

Thanksgiving in Arenal

Last week found Baker, Riley, Tae and I with some free days on our hands and Tara immersed in her nine-hours-a-day of Yoga. So, off we headed to Arenal--Costa Rica's most visited volcano, a enormous cone that is still active.

The highlight of that trip is well-captured in this video--Waterfall Rappelling! (for some reason, blogger.com today does not want me to upload a video directly to the site...so you'll have to link to youtube to see it.) And here is a slideshow of the same event.

My kids amaze me! The first drop on this rappel was 165 feet and, despite some initial trepidation, they bombed right down it. They are awesome!

We had other adventures to and from Arenal--including a flat tire, a nearly overheated car--did you know that a hot radiator cap can blow a good 10 feet into the air when unscrewed?), and struggles maintaining 30 mph going uphill. But those just added to the fun.

Oh, and here is some video of Baker surfing, again on youtube: