2-7 May, 2001

We called Simonessa in the morning to apologize for not showing up for yoga, invite them over for dinner and give them our number. We spent the day enjoying our space, signing a rental contract, doing laundry and rearranging furniture. We had a blast.

Dinner with Simonessa was, of course, fun. Simón loved the chocolate chip cookies that Bb had made that day. They got a kick out of learning that just about every American girl learns how to make this exact recipe -- it's the same here on Hershy's (Nestlé wasn't available, although the Nestlé brand is very popular in Central America) bag of chips as it is at home on the Nestlé's.

The next few days went by in a slow pattern of running errands for household goods, setting up internet access at home, buying food, enjoying lots of cooking (we haven't eaten out once since we got the place), reading and walking around Escazú. One afternoon, Vanessa and Bb went shopping for wax to make candles. The craft stores here are neat, but nothing like in the U.S.

Vanessa said there was a place not too far away that has everything for making crafts. Boy was I excited. I immediately pictured a Michael's store. For those of you not familiar with Michael's, it's a chain of craft stores that really do sell everything: dried flowers, candle wax, beads, patterns, needle point materials, quilting tools, vases, supplies to make costumes, wood crafts, models, styrofoam geometric shapes. You get the point. Any crafty project you want to tackle, Michael's has it.

Since Costa Rica has so much American influence in corporate food chains: Tony Roma's, McDonald's (of course), Taco Bell, T.G.I.Friday's to name a few, I figured that would overlap into other American style retail stores. Not so.

We got off the bus (about a seven minute ride from home) and walked into a little shop on the side of the road with baskets hanging all over and roll up garage-style doors. " This isn't it yet, but they have good baskets here," Vanessa reassured me. She must have seen the quick look of realization on my face.

The place was nearly next door, and although it did have a bevy of crafty supplies -- dried flowers, paints, ceramics, wax -- it was a long cry from an everything store.

For the first time since I left the states, I was really sorry I couldn't show someone what our ridiculous wealth and consumerism-driven society can produce. I truly longed to show Vanessa (a native Costa Rican) a Michael's. Show her what a craft store that actually has everything looks like. It was a good feeling, tinged with sadness. I often feel these days that many people living in the States don't realize what they've got. (I didn't.) And it makes me sad, not because I think they are arrogant or spoiled for not knowing, but because they miss out on simple joys. Every time I do laundry (and I don't have a dryer) I am amazed at how great a tool the washing machine is. How wonderful it is to put the clothes in, go do something else and come back to clean clothes. This makes me a little giddy every time I do a load. I think the common 50-hour-a-week-job-holding American doesn't get this little pleasure for lack of realizing what a luxury it really is.

Man, she'd dig a Michael's. So would I.

Vanessa finally came over to make the candles for which we had bought wax last week. We had a great time and even though Vanny went home, Bb continued to make candles for the rest of the evening and the next day. She only stopped because she used all the wax. Sorry Vanny!

About this time, Bb started feeling a wee bit under the weather, making us decline a dinner invitation to Simonessa's. Too bad, as we really wanted to see them.

Saturday brought another Cachivache (rummage sale), this time just at the bottom of our hill at the school. We walked down around 8 a.m. to find that there were only about six tables set up -- Bb figured it'd be the whole parking lot. As the guard opened the gate, people literally ran full speed across the blacktop to the tables. Bb burst out laughing. Talk about bargain hunters!

Cachivache actually means "junk" and that's just what people were selling. All we found were three books and a pair of lounging pants for about 30 cents for Jocelyn. One of the books was Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild" about the young man, Chris McCandless, who, back in spring of '92, wandered into the Alaskan wilderness to live off the land and died. If you haven't read it, do. It's great writing by Krakauer and a compelling story in itself, which illicited anger, sorrow, disgust and sadness from its followers at the time, and also from Steve and Bb when they read it.

It is an adventure story of epic proportions and aroused some feelings in us about the nature of travel, self discovery and beginnings and endings. On that note, we thank you all for your support, constant reading, and love. We will post updates to this site continually, but not as frequently. Sandcruiser is resting for a while. In that time we will find work, enjoy our apartment and our lives. And plan our next adventure.

The following are all pictures of the sunset or twilight taken from just outside our front door:

A tour of the new apartment:

Our messy desk with books (a couple) we carried 18,000 Km.	Beebee blending ingredients for a new soup recipe.	Looking at the apt. from our bedroom doorway.	The kitchen area as seen from the kitchen table.

Steve, across the street from home, gathering fallen flowers and fresh grass for the candles.	Sandy in her spot, the house and grounds from the gate at the driveway entrance.	Steve in his favorite reading chair getting enthralled in "Baghdad Without a Map."	Beebee got so tired waiting for Steve to get off the computer, she fell asleep.	This is where we hang the clothes out to dry; just outside our front window.

We sit on our hill and do some things but nill
sew, bead and compute, our life's not a thrill.
But suffice it to say
we eat everyday
fresh fruit from the market,
fresh greens from there too.

In the mornings our sky is a bright brilliant blue,
but thunder and lightening is always our cue
to bring in the laundry
and close the front door
sit back down at the desk
and compute some more.

We're job hunting
webmastering
tasks galore
but let's not give the impression
we don't step out the door.

To the city we bus it
to stroll and to sit.
But to our little town,
the hill just goes down
so we walk, it's a kick.

The way back is a climb
and bus fumes we mind,
but we stop and we look
for we might just find
the creature who lives in that crook…

or behind one of those walls
around all the houses
the big and the tall.
Unless you are poor
(you live next door)
to that palatial estate,
but you've not so much
as a single gate.

These things we find strange,
poor to rich
the whole range,
side by side
markets thrive
and mechanics abide

We've not a thing to bemoan
once we're back in our home,
for we play, work and read
and are sewing a seed
for a new place to roam.

Inventive fish sculpture out of automotive leaf springs downtown.		Pigeon lovers in the central square downtown.		The Teatro Nacional National Theatre in the central square.
The church in Escazú. We hear the bells from home.		Our street (It's a long one; goes all the way down the hill.)		More of our street.
The farmer and his flower field next door to us.		This little man walks down the street everyday with a shoulder-load of sugar cane.		The empty field that's part of our yard.

	A toad we saved today, puffing himself up to look too big to eat.		Bb's newest creation. A pillow case. It's the same dark gray of the ties on back.

28 May - 3 June, 2001

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEEBEE! The days go by here in a lovely blur of sunrises, sunny mornings, rainy afternoons, trips downtown and the farmer's market on Saturday. We schedule time on the computer, as both our current career choices necessitate word processing, Homesite or internet. One of us is always left in the gulch while the other won't get off the desk chair to go to the bathroom for fear of losing the computer.

Steve's best friend, (mejor amigo), Keith, is coming to visit on Wednesday and is bringing Beebee's computer. Thank goodness! Besides just his pack mule capabilities, we are incredibly excited to see him. We plan on touring around the country with him, so we should have some good stories and pics for you all.

Beebee turned 28 on Wednesday, the 30th, and Steve did a fantastic job of making her feel like a princess.

Steve slept in with me til late (7:30!) and then he made me poached eggs (my fave) on toast with bacon. Then I got to open cards from my mom and dad and my best guy friend besides Steve, Greg. Then I got to put on a new dress (new to me; we got it at the rummage sale in monteverde early this month) and we took the bus downtown. We walked around the market (lots of good smells, interesting people and pretty flowers: dried and live). Steve wanted to buy me a bunch of dried herbs and such, but I realized that I enjoy the huge stalls full of all that, more than I would enjoy owning just a few, so we just looked and smelled. Then we got caught in the afternoon rain (silly us, we didn't bring umbrellas. It'll be the last time we forget!), waited under the bank "porch", ran from awning to awning along the sidewalk and finally ducked into a bar/eatery and had a beer while watching _other_ people get wet.

The rain lightened up just as we finished our beer and we dashed for the bus stop. The ride home took forever (it seemed) but I napped a little, until we got home. We ran inside, from the street where the bus dropped us off, and got pretty wet; came inside and took hot, hot showers.

Of course, since it was a birthday, (more specifically, Beebee's birthday) there had to be a cake. So we made chocolate cake together, put it in the oven and took a nap. The oven wasn't working right, so the cake took about two hours to bake, but no matter. We grabbed it out of the oven on our dash out the door to pick up simon and Vanessa and catch the 6:45 showing of "Traffic". A good, but disturbing movie. Steve and I were excited to see familiar scenes of San Diego. If you've seen the movie, the park scene where Mrs. Ayala (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is sitting when her son gets picked up, is right across Mission Bay from our apartment in Mission Beach. We used to run and Rollerblade on the path right past that very playground. And that really is what the border crossing looks like.

When we came out of the theatre, the rain had stopped and we drove across town, to have a drink and some food. Vanessa knew of a place which turned out to be just what I wanted: full but not crowded, music, but not too loud, and very good appetizers. We were sitting there waiting to order (or so i thought!) when the lights kind of flickered and then most of them went off over the little table area where we were, then from out of the kitchen comes this drink in a fancy glass with sparklers doing their sparkly thing. I was sure impressed and wondered who the recipient of that treat was. Well, it was me! Somehow Simon and Vanessa managed to order this without me knowing. I have no clue how. I was with them the whole time. Well, I love (and expect!) attention on my bday. I was tickled pink! And Vanessa tells me that I am supposed to save the sparklers and whenever I have a wish, they are my magic wands. Well after that excitement, we had three tapas (appetizers) that were all new to me and Steve: a cornmeal and cheese type "pancake"; something akin to stuffing, but made of a potato like tuber instead of bread; and my favorite: fried yucca (manioc): Much like thick-cut french fries, but with more texture and less oily. We were all winding down a bit after our food and drink, so we came back here to have cake and ice cream. We showed Simonessa pics of our family and our trip. By one in the morning, we were all sleepy-eyed and well, my birthday was over. So Steve took Simonessa home and I went happily to bed.

4-6 June, 2001

HI! We're still here. Sorry about the lag, we'll try to be better about updating. Since Bb's birthday, Steve's gotten more work as a web designer and three or four assignments as a photographer. Beebee has been busy writing articles for the local gringo paper, The Tico Times and COLORS Magazine (the publications for which Steve was taking photos). Also beebeecrafts.com is really taking off! Much to Bb's serious delight. Thanks to all of you who ordered something! I've got new items up there, so check it out.

Life here in Costa Rica is awfully good. We're making plans for our trip back to the States in August, having fun with our friends and making some new ones. Today and tomorrow we must try to import Sandy, so we can leave her here while we're stateside. Doesn't sound like much fun, but Bb has sucessfully convinced Steve that it's his job.

This is a regular sized aguacate (avocado).	Sunset at the ol' homestead. Taken from our lawn.	Marimba man at the weekend farmer's market.	The great beginnings of a tiresome scrabble game.	Steve patiently waiting to snap a flighty sparrow's picture.