Day Trippin'

With our friend Susan visiting over the the last week, we have been 'Day Trippin', 'Here, there and everywhere'!

We took a long bike ride to the see the furthest and best beaches on her first day and did some snorkeling at Punta Uva and Aricife. The sea was a bit rougher than usual but we still saw a lot of coral and marine life. We took it easy on the ride as even though we are keen cyclists, Susan is finding the heat hard so we dropped our normal pace to the 'Costa Rican' pace. Everyone cycle's here as a means from A to B and there's no lycra or aero dynamic bike wear in sight! So even though we are keen bikers together back home, it was an eye opener for her to see that cycling takes on a different meaning here!

We took a trip to the nearby village of Bribri and followed the waterfall trail and found that the steeper you go, the scarier it gets, but if you have the stomach for heights, the view is certainly worth it. We swam in ice cool waterfall pools at the top and half way up and watching the local families enjoying it too was great.

Yesterday we went to the animal rescue centre and even though we are no longer volunteers, we sneaked in the staff entrance early before the crowds of tourists arrived and had some time with the animals. Susan was a bit wary of being in the cage with the monkeys to start with but I managed to persuade her to come in and she held one of the younger quiet ones Becky.

Despite not having been for a few weeks, Rene and I were pleased to find that they still recognised us and we were inundated with monkey cuddles. I forgot my hat and within seconds they had restyled my hair! The three mature females love Rene, all men in-fact and are very territorial towards men around women, so one was literally trying to bite me when I got near Rene! The cheek of her, he is my man!

A new addition to the centre is the beautiful baby fawn. the story goes that the farmer shot the mother deer and then found the foal and bought it in. I find that a bit strange as if you have a hard enough heart to kill a deer, then why would really care about the foal?! Never the less, she is in safe hands now and being cared for and hopefully will be reintegrated back into the forest when she is old enough to fend for herself.
We have two weeks left here now and it's feels strange to think about leaving. We still don't have jobs for the summer but are pursuing a number of options.... you've got to put it out there and just see what comes back! We will tell you when we know!

Sicily Here We Come

Hi all, following on from our previous post about applying for jobs Teaching English in Europe, we have finally had some good news! We got a job offer from a school in Ankara, Turkey, but turned it down, pinning our hopes instead on a preliminary chat we'd had online with a school in Sicily who seemed interested in employing us. Small town/island life would be our ideal rather than a big city like Ankara despite the fact that the pay was better in Turkey!

It's not all about money though and after waiting a few weeks for a skype interview with the school in Sicily on Sunday, we got offered jobs! We don't start until October 1st but plan to go a month early so that I can immerse myself in Italian....wine, food and the language of course, and get to know the island a bit. Rene doesn't need to work on the language so will just work on the food and wine bit!! We will be living and working in a town called Giarre, it's looks very quant and historic on the internet and we've already checked out the eateries there online!

Now we just have to find some work teaching English at a summer school, and this week I have applied to about 10 different places in Spain and Italy and now we are just waiting to see what comes back. So we have three more weeks here in CR and our very good friend Susan is flying out today to join us for the remainder of our time here. We have retired from our voluntary positions at the animal rescue centre as we have done a hard 5 months slog there and it's back breaking work. We will be visiting over the next few weeks as tourists though and taking lots of pictures of our friends there, both human an animal.

Recently we had a gig at a local restaurant - we called ourselves Fused Blues and mostly did blues and soul covers. Our good friends Jana and Tom came with their new puppy who danced the night away and video filmed most of it! All our friends from the rescue centre turned up too and we had a great night. My hands were bleeding at the end of the night, I'm not quite as hardy a musician as Rene. He sang and played his heart out as usual and was brilliant!

On a philasophical note, giving up everything, changing our life like we did, was the scariest thing we have ever done, and of course at the time there are always nagging doubts in your mind wondering if it's the right thing. Now though we can honestly say that it worth all the worry and the fear because we've realised that the possibilites are endless and our journey is full of new and wonderful experiences, places, people and excitement that we would never have found had we not had the confidence to close old doors. Off to the beach now, it's too hot not to swim!

Lucky Puppy

Unfortunately this country is over run with unwanted dogs. They stroll the streets and beaches day and night looking for food and obviously are left un-neutered and have unwanted puppies. It's really sad to see them all so hungry. Just two days ago, our neighbours and good friends Jana and Tom heard some crying just outside their house. When they went to see what it was, they found a tiny puppy, probably no more than 6 weeks old, hungry and lost.

Fortunately for this puppy (named Lucky we think!), she was found by good, dog loving people who have given her a home and also an older brother and sister in the form of their other dogs which are beautiful huskies! The huskies are not so sure what to make of the puppy, but the puppy seems happy to make friends with them. I'm sure they will all be good friends by the end of the week!

So the last two days have been puppy-tastic, we took her to the beach and she's attented two of our parties and been quite happy to snooze on us whilst we are singing and playing the guitar! We are all so smitten and can't take our eyes off her!

Renegade Set To Rock Again!

So, some decisions have been made over the last week or so. Since I am 40 this June (oh no), I thought that I would rather be at home to share it with family and friends so we will be arriving back in England on 27th May for a few weeks. We are having a 40th party jointly with Genny at her house in Prestwood, Bucks on 11th June and what better band to dance the night away with?! Renegade of course! The band have all kindly agreed to reform briefly for our two week visit back to England and will also include a gig at The Lord Nelson on Poole Quay on 8th June as a warm up! Hope to see you there. Following that we are looking to fly back out mid June to start work as TEFL teachers, teaching English...but where? Well, we have yet to find that out ourselves! We have lots of applications out there and some skype interviews lined up, so hope to have a clearer idea soon! Italy is on the top of our list right now as a work/live destination for obvious reasons! Costa Rica has been great to us, but the time has come for another change and to put our careers back on track, or rather start a new career! So we have about 5 more weeks to soak up the sun, continue working with the animal rescue project and spend time with good friends that we have made here.

Back From a Tour

We just arrived back from a tour to a few other places in CR. We went to Arenal initially where we visited an active volcano set on the side of the beautiful lake Arenal and we stayed in a town just outside called La Fortuna.

During our trip we went on a tour of suspension bridges that criss crossed rivers and rainforest to the side of the volcano revealing some spectacular nature finds and view points along the way. We took a guide who was amazing at finding poisonous frogs, snakes and spiders and birds on route. The walk took about two hours or so and after that we had a visit to a hot springs spa lined up to sooth our aching feet. The spa consisted of 16 thermal pools all set at different temperatures. It was amazing, and thrown in for the price of £25 dollars each was a 3 course buffet. Okay so the beers were $6 each but there you go. Definately worth a trip.

Four of our friends that we studied the TEFL with have taken teaching jobs in one of the countries big cities - Heredia, so we headed there next to visit them and to see what city life is like. As far as cities go, it wasn't bad, but the climate was considerably cooler than we are used to on the coast and we hear that crime is on the up. Great to see them though and hear their stories about teaching.

We are back now in our Caribbean town and enjoying a relaxing Sunday with a trip to meet friends in our favourite carib eaterie this evening.

The Galli's Appear on Spanish Television!

A few months ago a Spanish Television Channel came over and made a short film about the Animal Rescue Center. We happen to be in it, so look closely when the owner Encar goes into the Monkey Cage, Rene is in blue on the right with about 6 monkeys on his head and I am in green hat and t-shirt ahead! It's pretty interesting, albeit in Spanish as it shows you around the centre where we work, the beach and a bit of the town. Watch it if only for the visual and if you understand Spanish, then bigger bonus!! Sandro the male owner is Italian and speaks Spanish with an Italian accent, interesting!

Click on this link then .... http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/espanoles-en-el-mundo/espanoles-en-el-mundo-costa-rica-encar/1052451/

The Latest Addition

Been a long time, been a long time… a Led Zep song spring to mind! Well, we had a pretty busy two weeks with Dad and I think he went home a stone lighter after the heat due to the activities and the manual labour that he did whilst he was here! Since then we have moved house to a temporary stop for 5 weeks or so whilst the home owners of our house sit have returned. It’s in the same town, a bit nearer to work so it's only a 15 minute cycle home in 80 degrees Fahrenheit after a day’s labour as opposed to 30! It makes all the difference! Dangerously though, it's nearer to all the restaurants in town, too tempting!

So we are enjoying spending time with the animals still and I know that a lot of you are interested in the animal rescue so here’s the latest. This little monkey was found on the beach, about 8, maybe 9 weeks old alone, crying for it’s mother and was bought into the rescue centre. It’s mother was nowhere to be found sadly. It was very weak for a few days and we weren’t sure if it was going to make it but the owners of the centre nursed it back to health and when it was strong enough, they confidently named him Afro. Afro grew in strength considerably and soon started to show the older monkeys who was the boss! Shortly after the vet arrived and announced that she was in-fact a girl, henceforth came the prompt name change to Cocoa.

Cocoa, whilst very confident amongst the troop in general, made a beeline for the Cuka one of the oldest females in the group and fortunately Cuka showed maternal instincts towards her. They are pretty inseparable now which is wonderful. This is not common as the howlers are not necessarily maternal. There are two other young ones that are only a little older but neither of them have bonded with any particular older female in the troop. I guess Cocoa is just lucky. She likes to ride on Cuka’s back and when they go to the jungle for their daily outing, she scales the heights of the highest trees on her new Mum’s back. Hopefully she will be climbing up them on her own one day.