On Sicilian Soil!

Hello friends and blog followers. It's been a while, but now we are on Sicilian soil on another adventure and we felt it only right to change the blog title! Sorry to make you sign up again. So it's www.gallisinsicily.blogspot.com

See you there.

Sarah and Rene

x

We may need to change the name of this blog to Gallis return from Costa Rica or Just Gallistravel maybe?

We had a great time, an experience of a lifetime in-fact over the 8 months that we lived there. We are slowly adjusting to not being there still having left over 3 weeks ago now. It's as much of a culture shock coming back to England as it was going to Costa Rica and we have been reminded of why we left England in the first place in some ways. Whilst Costa Rica is not necessarily somewhere that we are going to lay down roots right now, it has been one hell of an unforgettable and wonderful experience.

What did we love - the weather, climate in general, the slower pace, the unpretentiousness of it all, the stunning flora and fauna of the jungle surroundings, the abundance of wildlife and hands on animal care experience that we had, constantly meeting new people and being inspired by their stories and lives, the sounds of nature, the beautiful warm Caribbean ocean, and probably the hammock on the terrace in my case! It's a country of endless stunning natural beauty and we would recommend it to anyone who has an adventurous heart and a passion for nature.

We have been touring around England for over two weeks now, visiting family and friends, celebrating my 40th, and are now packing to head to warmer climes again. We were tremendously happy to find that our home has been immaculately cared for by our students tenants, so with peace of mind we can head off again. Tomorrow we are off to Turkey and are staying in my Dad's house in Kusadasi for most of the rest of the summer. Hopefully we will enjoy playing some music and perhaps practicing our TEFL teaching skills on the locals ready for our teaching jobs in Sicily in the Autumn.

Thanks to all the band who were amazing at Gen's house last night for the big FOUR OH party and all who came and braved the rain and partied with us! Renegade rocked twice during our visit, both great gigs and I am very grateful for their efforts at our birthday party, thanks guys! It's like you have never been apart!

On with the packing now and next time we blog, we will have a Turkish tale to tell!

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.

Baz Jones in Puerto Viejo

Well, it's been a while again. I don't know where the time goes, but generally we have been busy working and sight seeing on our days off. Dad arrived here on Thursday and is staying with us for two weeks in the place that we are house sitting still. We were very excited to see him, and I was mostly excited about the Baked Beans, Branston Pickle and Marmite that he had in his case for me. Oh and some very hot curry powder for Rene the Chef!

So on his first day we took him to lunch in a nice beach cafe, then out in the evening to sample some of the Caribbean flavour of the town. First to our favourite restaurant called Flip Flop where they serve amazing Caribbean curries then on to some bars with live reggae music. We told him that there were some character's here, and most of them were out that night on the dance floor! Poor Dad was shattered from his trip but he lasted the night out in true Jones style!

The next day he wanted to go fishing, so I suggested a short cycle ride to a bay where the water is usually calmer, which turned out to be 10 miles or so away! It's so hot, he sweat a few pounds off on the way and since he hasn't cycled for about 10 years, he was cursing me and wishing that he was having an easy day at work! He loved it really. Well the fishing turned out to be a joke, we caught some leaves, some seaweed and a shell - nothing barely edible and stopped off at the fishmongers on the way home to buy our supper!

The next day we took him to work with us at the animal rescue centre. He did some serious manual labour for a few hours, raking and cleaning, then got to spend some time with the monkeys and sloths which he loved! He got lots of kisses from one of the female monkey's that took a shine to him.

Last night we had a bit of a party, with 4 guitars we sang a whole load of random songs with our neighbours Jana and Tom and their friends over from the States. Tom got a new guitar bought over from the States which was the envy of all of us. An Epiphone Jumbo sunburst, sounded lovely! It put our £50 Eko acoustic travelling guitars to shame!

So, more adventures ahead during Dad's stay which include waterfall walks tomorrow and a three day trip to Panama on Monday! He'll be glad for the rest when he goes home!

Too Long

Well, it's been a while since I blogged because we have had Julia here for three weeks and have been busier than usual.

She is on the plane home right now and has had a great holiday here with us in CR, just what she needed. The weather was glorious the whole time too as rainy season has pretty much ended now, hoorah! Here are some pictures of her at the animal rescue centre - with baby monkey Manila on her head and her favourite smiley sloth - Arrojito. She loved working with the animals as you can imagine! She came to work with us for 6 days out of the three weeks, the rest of the time we enjoyed some sight seeing, beaches, yoga and pilates (!) and some fun social nights out with friends.

My Dad will be joining us next on 23rd February for two weeks. We will be busy showing him around and also taking a three day trip to Panama with him as we need to do another Visa run during his stay. It's almost six months since we have been here, wow how time flies!

Primates Are Our Mates

Another week has gone by and we have worked mostly at the Rescue Centre. We had a heavy week of rain but a beautiful day on the beach yesterday. When the sun is out here it's pretty hot so a couple of hours on the beach is enough to fry even us sun worshippers. Here is a video of one day last week when we were in the monkey cages so you can see what they are really like. (Having trouble with video upload but working on it!) For those of you on facebook you can see it there.

Today Rene has taken a bus to San Jose, the capital city to pick up Julia from the airport tonight. It's technically not that far away but the bus takes 4 - 5 hours because the roads are not exactly great here. Hopefully she will land safe this evening and Rene will bring her down here tomorrow for her three week holiday. We think she will love it here especially when she gets to meet all the animals!

So today I went to work on my own and was in charge of the afternoon in the jungle shift. This entails watching the monkeys play in the tree's until they are tired then they insist on a sleep on the blanket. The ones pictured here are all aged between 3 months and 2 years old, are all orphans and gradually being rehabilitated back into the wild with our daily jungle trips!

Room at the Inn

They just keep on coming, orphaned wild animals that is. A couple of baby sloths have just been bought into the centre due to their mothers being killed by dogs. The one with a stripey face is a three toed sloth and the ligher coloured one is a two toed sloth.

Our job yesterday was to run the creche at the rescue centre. This entailed looking after/feeding these two sloths, four baby possums, two infant monkeys and a 6 week old squirrel. We got a rug out on the grass and sat round them and made sure that they got a bit of sunshine but kept them protected from the hungry hawks that lurked overhead as we fed them.

Our next job was to take the monkeys to the jungle for their 2 hour play on their favourite tree. However, once out of their cages, the wild monkeys caused such a stir again that our rescue monkeys all dispersed in different directions. Have you ever tried chasing a monkey?? Likelyhood is that unless you are Seb Coe, they will win. It was about 80f and after about an hour of trooping back and forth through harsh jungle flora and fauna and having lost half a stone (didn't mind that bit!), we managed to get them all back together by bribing them with bananas, not by speed that's for sure! It's absolutely exhausting work but most enjoyable. The cycle ride home from the centre usually takes us about half an hour but we always stop for a drink on the beach to reflect on our day, and how lucky we really are. Also because we are too exhausted to ride all the way home in one go!!

Rene with one of the older sloths, having a dance!

A Monkey In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush

This beauty on my lap is Coonga. She was a rescue monkey at the Centre but now is wild, well wildish! She is still keen on human cuddles and hand cut fresh fruit and comes down the tree from her now natural habitat to spend time with the humans and rescue monkeys on their daily outing to the jungle. Today she sat on my lap for half an hour. She is very cuddly and we think she is pregnant too!

Every day the 9 rescue monkeys get taken to the Jungle just outside the Centre for their two hour play come rain or shine. There are a couple of older females in the group that are almost ready to go wild, and they are around two and half years old. There is a male howler monkey that sits and waits for them and he is we think the father to be of Coonga's baby as we have seen them being intimate. Anyway this fellow is pictured on the right, with the white balls! He is definately a male. He comes close enough to check us out and all the rescue monkeys playing, but never close enough to humans to touch. We just admire him from afar, whilst he admires all the teenage female monkeys in our troop! The younger monkeys are really scared of him and they all go a bit crazy when he appears, so we have to hold them tight by their tales until they calm down!

Also today, I was looking after a baby squirrel, who's mother got killed by the electricity wires, and he - Leno is now care of the centre until he is old enough to fend for himself. The picture is not that great but he is really tiny.

Oh and today I got bitten by one of the naughty monkeys, on the arm. It's okay though, no permanent damage done, we just have to be a bit careful when they reach that funny age. Same as teenagers really, you never know what to expect!

Days Like These

We are not entirely sure if we are lucky, jammie or blessed, but our house sitting job just got extended today by another 3 - 4 weeks until March! To top that, the sun was out and glorious for the first time in a while. Bikini's on, bikes ready and off we went to explore a bit and see the sea. A beautiful gecko decided to snooze on one of our bike wheels whilst on the beach, and then of course we ended up having lunch and a beer in a lovely cafe opposite the beach.

We are meeting with someone who's in real estate this week who knows somebody who's

looking for housesitters in the spring, and to run their hotel whilst they are away for a few months. That could be interesting. That's the beauty of a trip like this..if you have no plans, anything can happen and it pretty much is. I had a guilty moment whilst sitting at the cafe today, looking at the sea, and I asked Rene if it was bad, that we weren't working and sitting there on a Tuesday afternoon...and he replied 'no' and ordered two more beers!

Lots of people have been asking me what the town is like so I have added a new page to the blog and spent the rest of the day taking pictures of town for you to see. See the Around the town link.

A Day In The Life

So, it's a Sunday, two days after new years eve and we had a lovely day on the beach yesterday, recovering from N.Y.Eve, but today's a bit overcast. What to do??... We decided to head into town to go to get some groceries, and I wanted to go to a cafe which does a book exchange where for about £1.50 you can do a swap and it's a nice cafe too, with part inside/outside gardens.

Whilst we were there we saw the loveliest tiny orange frogs, and a very big sloth climbing along the fence! It's not the sort of thing that you would see when visiting Borders for example! That's very typical here though, it's like we have invaded the space of all these beautiful creatures and something as simple as shopping for a book can involve all sorts of encounters with wildlife!

After that, one of the local bars beckoned us....well it's £1.00 a beer and it's a Sunday, so why not?? We called our neighbours who were kicking about at home and asked them to join us... a few beers later, chats with various passers by, it was nearly dark and we still had to get groceries and cycle home. The bike ride home is only on two roads and about half a kilometre, but they are both very bumpy, potholed roads/tracks and quite challenging in the dark, with no lights, so we got a shifty on.

Back home, I convinced Rene to make some of his famous chips with fish. He's always happy to oblige in that respect and they are heavenly! But first, we had to feed our three stray dogs and two hungry cats awaiting our return on the porch! We wish we could adopt them all permanently but it's not our home and we have no fixed abode, so we will just take care of them for now. The little kitten is a lot better following our vets visits thankfully. Back to work with the monkeys tomorrow, we can't wait to see what developments have taken place with the monkeys courtships in our absense.

New Year and So On..

It's almost time to wish you all a happy new year, so we will do it now before we get distracted by other things. We have been invited to a New Years Eve Party tomorrow night at some neighbours (meaning about 1/4 kilometre deeper up into the jungle) house who plays the drums/bongo's. We will be attempting to fill in with our guitars. We better practice our Reggae rhythms! There is a great party atmosphere in town for New Year, they even have Dj's playing latin and reggae outside the supermarkets, very loudly!

It's been pretty much raining the whole of Christmas week though. We almost packed a beach bag this morning as we saw a glimmer of sun, but by the time we'd brushed our teeth and downed a coffee, the rain had started again. See the video, that's the garden and surroundings of the house that we are sitting. The house on the hill opposite is derelict so no onlookers, just jungle and random wild creatures, adopted pets and us.

We are managing to keep ourselves amused though and our very kind friends keep giving us a lift to do grocery shopping. We are on the lookout for some sort of vehicle ourselves that has more than two wheels and a roof, as grocery shopping on a bicycle in the rain isn't much fun! The price of 2nd hand vehicles here is shocking, and there is a very limited choice. For $4000 you can buy what would cost about £500 at home and is just about ready for scrapping. So if anyone has any import contacts in Central America...good business idea!

Ok Happy New Year to you all, hope that it's a great year ahead for everyone.

Christmas in Costa Rica

In summary....it's been wet!! On Christmas day though the sun shone for a few hours, just long enough fortunately to attend the two outdoor events that we had planned.

First of all, we were the entertainment at the soup kitchen Charity Xmas dinner. We have to admit, we had had a very lovely and late night with our neighbours on Christmas Eve and didn't have much song in us on Christmas day! We managed to pull it out of the bag though, with the help of our neighbour and fellow volunteer Jana providing harmonies and tambourine percussion. We performed a selection of sorts of Christmas carols, including a Spanish one, and some random pop/blues songs during lunch! So the indigenous people of Costa Rica were not only nutritionally nourished but experienced a brief history of British/American pop music on Christmas day. I'm not sure that they would thank us for the latter but the organisers and fellow ex-pat volunteers seemed to be tapping their feet!

Following that, we attended a party in the botanical gardens where we met lots of fellow ex-pats and made some new friends. It's funny, that here the term 'neighbours' takes on a different meaning. Despite being friendly people, we barely knew the people in our street back home, but being in a country that is not ones own, has an effect of making the most unlikely people bond. I guess it's that old tribal instinct in us all, and that there must be something about being in the minority that makes us stick together.

Sad News

Blogs can't all be happy news.

We haven't written for a week or so, due to having received the sad news of Rene's Father passing away on Tuesday just gone - 14th December. The funeral is tomorrow in Romford and very sadly we won't be there to pay our last respects. This is the hard part of living so far away from family.

We are sending our love to all back home, and tomorrow we will be paying our respects in the best way possible that we can from afar.

Bits and Bobs

The term 'bits and bobs' seem to amuse our American colleagues so I use it quite often. Also this post is going to be a bit random!

We have had a lot of rain this week, as it's still rainy season so we've had a few days rained in at home. Nothing to do but read and work on my Spanish studies (very slow going!). Rene is pretty fluent so helps me out a bit, and does most of the talking in public. We don't want you all to think that whilst you are freezing your butts off in blighty, that we are on the beach ... it's still winter here ,although not quite as harsh of course!

We still worked three days though, at the rescue centre http://www.jaguarrescue.com/ for two days where we had the responsibility of the baby monkeys for a few hours. They are both orphans and are crying for their Mums (who died) all the time, so it's quite traumatic for them still. The owner of the rescue centre is their new Mum and they are mostly attached to her. Then one day Rene and I took 9 of the older monkeys into the jungle for them to have their two hour play, and after a while, 7 of them curled up on us/with us on the rug on the grass and went to sleep. It was a bit surreal at the time but very cute. We had cramps in our legs and aching backs after an hour, but dare not move and wake them up! One of the mature females is flirting with a wild male that waits for her most days, so hopefully soon she will stay wild with him. That's the plan anyway, and from what we are told, usually happens when they get to about two and half years old.