Yesterday and today has been the big "saying goodbye" - days. I've been to work and had my last day there and it was pretty sad knowing I am not gonna work with all my collegues again. They have all been so nice to me and I am gonna miss you guys.
And there has been a lot of goodbyes among my friends as well. Time flies and my journey is getting close. Only 3 more days !!!

EEEEEK! That means I have to figure out how I'm gonna fit all my stuff in the suitcase. That is still a mystery to me.

Apart from that. Good news. My voice is back !. Almost. I am drinking a lot of tea made of grated ginger, dark honey and vitamin C. It definatly does it for my voice. I am not feeling 100% well, but hope I'll be ok by monday. Closing up. Looking so fwd for SUN and summer.

Have it dudes! hehe.

Weee. Only 2 more days and I'm off.
Still a lot to pack. But getting there. I have had the big excluding day today. Taking all out of the suitcases and excluding everything I can't bring. Haha. I've packed 40 tops/t-shirts. But must narrow it down to 20 (eeek).

I've had friends stopping by all day, so the work on my home page is going slower than I had planned. But, not to worry. I posted the wonderful new page today "about me" with the short version of "my life up until now".

Today I'm off to a party so I wont get that much done today either :) But at least I'll have fun with friends :)
I am a little stressed out about not being finished with all the packing yet but hey. gotta get adjusted to the new timezone anyway so why not start early.

You'll hear from me later :)

Annie was my favorite musical movie when I was a child. Therefore, no better opening line for the day before the day.
I am almost well again and that feels wonderful :) Still have som arrands to run but my suitcases are all done. I actually think I have 3 kgs to go - wow. (Not that its gonna be any easier dragging 60 kgs around in New York anyway).

Party yesterday was good. Really good.
I'm getting ready and it feels good. I've had a lot of phonecalls and visits. And of course I've cleaned up the apartment and fixed all that had to be fixed. Now the only thing that's left is to get a good nights sleep :)
I'm off at 7:30am. Weee. :D
Oh I'm soo looking fwd for SUN and summer. :) It's gonna be wonderful ! +30C. OOOOOhhh.
(I know - this is kinda mean !!! hehe)
C YA all and have a great day

Well. Then I'm safe and sound in the big apple. Long and up to boring flight but at least we got to watch 3 movies. (Devil wears Prada, Jack Frost and Jingle all the way). We even got decent food and free beverages.

I managed in to the apple with all of my luggage and my friend, Alexis, picked me up at Penn station, NY. We went back to his flat, said hi to his room mates and left luggage there :). Then headed out again. We went to The Warner Center and had dinner, then he had to work for two hours and I pretty much strolled up and down Broadway.
When he got back we went to check out the huge christmas tree at Trafalgar square before we went home. Sooo looking fwd for a good nights sleep though. Been a long day.

It is a beautiful sunny day with +30C (+90F) and I have been to the bank today and now internet and since weather prognoses are not at all that good for tomorrow I think Im gonna check out the world outside this internet cafe for the rest of this day :).

Wee.. Man it was so good to finally get here. Yesterday was ONE LONG DAY. Got up at 6am and got picked up by Super Shuttle airport express at 7:10. Nice. They pick you up at your house and drive you to the airport. Fantastic !.
At the airport I found a really nice lady from Peru and amazingly enough it shows that we are seated next to each other on the plane. We had a good chat before splitting in Houston, TX. Man that is one big airport. Impressive.

The flight to Costa Rica was nice but very chilly and I am so glad for the vest I bought in NY. I would have frozen blue on the plane if it were not for that one.
When we got here it was soo warm and good. Mami, Papi and Natasha picked me up and we drove home to have dinner. It was so good to see them all again. I unpacked and put all nice and tidy and got a good nights sleep before waking up WAY to early this morning. (4:30).

I spent the day with my family and saying hi to everyone. It is just so wonderful to be back home.
Have a nice one all.

This morning was a little cloudy but sun has been shining all day :) It has been a good +30C today as well. Really good. Feels fantastic.

Yesterday I went to the swimmingpool at Hotel El Sitio. Nice swimmingpool, surrounded by tropical scenery and high trees.I had a long chat with a nice lady from California, US, as well.
In the afternoon I had dinner with a friend of mine, Manuel. I went to bed real early. At 10 o clock.

Well. Noone can underestimate a good nights sleep. hehe. A good 17 hours sleep. I was soo tired. I do feel a lot better now. Going to conquest the world better. hehe. I am just gonna get rid of my cold first.

It is really wonderful to be here and just smell the fruits from the garden. We have Papayas, Lime, Bananas, Mangos and several other fruits. They do have a kind of religous celebration where they fire up gunshots or small bombs every 3 hours. 2 shots a time. hehe. strange. Liberia (my city) has changed a lot. There is som much more traffic and so many more tourists. I dont concider myself tourist though since visiting the family and my friends. It seems the weekend is all set up for me and I have plans both friday night and saturday. Many of them has called me or shown up at my house to meet me. That is so nice of them. I am very exited to be here as well :)

Today we have about +30C and sun. All the weather channels are predicting heavy rain (they have for a couple of days) but none to be seen. Sun from cloudfree heaven and mild winds. This is the windy season. Nice cause the winds keep the temperature very nice.

In my house we are Mami, Papi, my brother Federico, The maid and me.
Roxana, one of my sisters are living close and has been by with the baby (1 month old Luis Andres) several times already. Natasha, Roxanas oldest daughter, has spent 3 days with us. She thinks it is very fun to have "aunt Maria" visiting from Norway. She is especially fond of the milk chocolates i brought her.
Mami works within real estate and is busy for the most of the day. Papi has a lot to do as well and Federico is off for most of the week to the beaches where he works as a fisherman.
The maid has just been with the family for 2 days. It feels kinda strange to watch someone beeing payed to work when you sit and watch. She is really nice though. She is from Nicaragua and has 2 kids at home.

The household also has 6 dogs and 3 cats. 2 of the dogs are chihuahuas and they were given to my family for free. What a difference from home where they cost more than a USD $1000. I have met 2 of the dogs, Rambo and Manchis, when I was here 3 years ago. I think the cats like me. But Rambo is jealous and does not like me petting any other animal than him. hehe.

I also opened up a bank account today. I felt like a popstar signing autographs. So many papers to sign. Hehe. But people here are very nice and helpful so that is fun.

The morning started off a bit cloudy but very hot. During a couple of hours we had fantastic sun and good +28C. Really nice day. During the day we had a couple of rainfalls of no longer than 1 minutes each.We have 12h 16m of daylight today.

At 2 pm Natasha & I went downtown Liberia (about 10 minutes walk from my house) to view a horse parade to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate conception. This is a week-long celebration with a lot of fireworks and horse parades and of course the religios content. Natasha was thrilled. It is obvious that she loves horses and was very dissapointed when we thought we came too late because Mami told us it would begin at Noon. So we had some food and did some shopping and suddenly it was 2pm and the horse parade was still on.

At 6pm we had a party at Martha & Renes house. It was a Rotary fund raising party for poor and elderly people. It was really nice. Their huge garden was decorated with christmas lights in every trees and tables set out everywhere. Almost a good 70 people showed up and there was live music so people could dance.
We stayed there until 11pm and then the young ones left to party in the city. We met up with a couple of my brothers friends and it was really cool because I actually met some of my friends as well. Oscar Mario, Sayoll, to be mentioned. He was out with his wife. It was a lot of fun meeting them. We returned to the house at 5am.

It was partly cloudy today but still about +27C. Nice and hot. No complaints.

After getting home at 5am in the morning I spent most of the day sleeping. My family recieved the news of a cousins death so they have been helping out and spending a lot of time with my dads brother.

My brothers girlfriend is going home today and we are pretty much going back to normal again.
Spent the evening downtown Liberia at the internet cafe.

All cloudy today. 12h 16m of visible light. +28C. There was some rain in the morning but that passed early.

I went downtown to run some errands and after lunch I have pretty much been relaxing, reading my book: "Countdown" by Iris Johansen. She is one of my favorite writers. She mostly writes crime novels but she also has some other books that are really fetching. :)

As I were reading and the dogs were struggeling to get my attention and beeing petted - Suddenly out of nowhere - the sound of bells.
And like we have at home... There comes the ice-cream man - although not in a car, but on a bicycle coming towards our house. Our made, Johana and I ended up buying an ice cream cone for each of us. Yummy.

For dinner I went out with Angelica, one of my best friends from school, we chatted for hours and had bocas at bar/restaurant Julia in Barrio San Roque.

Weather report: +30C, sunny and a few clouds. Really nice day.

Today started off with me coming with Angelica to her work at escuela Curubande. It is a very poor school in a poor town and she works as a pre-school teatcher there. The kids were soo cute. We went through the morning prayers and some playing before she handed out the invitations to their graduation. Tomorrow the kids has been invited to a party arranged in Liberia by another school. I offered to pay for their passages since that small amount is 2 beers at home and the amount for them is big.

After school, when the kids went home, Angelica and I went to Rincon de la vieja National park.

The story of how the volcano got its name is as follows.
There is a charming legend that explains the origin of the name Rincon de la Vieja. The native princess, Curabanda, fell in love with Mixcoac, chief of a neighboring enemy tribe. When her father, Curabande, learned of the affair, he captured Mixcoac and threw him into the crater of the volcano. Curabanda went to live on the side of the volcano and gave birth to a child. To allow the child to be with his father, she threw him into the volcano too.
For the rest of her life, Curabanda lived near the crater and became a powerful healer. The people referred to her home as "Rincon de le Vieja," meaning "the nook where the Old One lives."

We got into a jungle trail in the national park and watched beautiful scenery as well as gorgeous morpheus butterflies and small lizards.

On our way back we stopped to watch hieroglyphs carved into the rocks of a river. Really nice and they looked so ancient. And what a shame that they are not better preserved.

Beautiful day. Nice climate and sunny. +30C and no wind.

I got up at 6 and had breakfast, helped mami wrap 27 christmas gifts for poor kids that are recieving help from the Rotary club. At 9:30 I wandered off, stopped by the nearest internetcafe to check e-mail and then went off to Hotel El Sitio. I stayed there swimming and reading for a couple of hours. Got a little sunburn and went home to sleep a couple of hours.
At the evening news they sent a big coverage about the national football team - La Seleccion - that had been at Hotel El Sitio at the same time I was there. I saw some of the guys but luckily not the news team. Its gonna take a couple of weeks of walking in the sun before I am interested in ending up on the news in only a bikini again.
I watched movies and wrapped christmas gifts before going to bed. HOOOOOT.

Today is another beautiful day, A little too hot. 12h 16m of visible light today. Its a good +28C out today but it feels sooo much hotter. Someone told me that it would be windy season now and we have hardly no wind at all. They have predicted that we should have lots of wind next week so lets hope for that. :) Need too cool down a little hehe.. 5 more minutes in this heat and you can find me in the fridge :)

I went to meet Janelle at her house today. Janelle now has 2 gorgeous kids: Fabrizio and Carolina. Carolina is only 2 years old but she has managed to overflow her kindergarden with water. She is a really funny child that runs around and seems to enjoy life a lot. Fabri seems a bit more serious but that might be very good. I am impressed by his intentions of starting to save for his car (the kid is only 5) already. Every week he puts off some of his money for saving.

I have also been running arrands today as well. Some shopping, we needed Papaya. Or.... I will not lie. I needed more papaya. I have already eaten 2 huge papayas since I got here and man are they good. hehe.. I also have Gallo Pinto and eggs each day for breakfast. The best part of it all is that the maid has it all ready for when the others get up and wants to eat. :)
I like her. We spend a lot of time chatting.

Last night it rained tremendous amounts of water and the sound of wather against the roof is soo calming. It was perfect temperatures for sleeping. In the morning we had some clouds but +31C and the sun came out during the day. It turned out to bee a really good day.

In the morning I had my breakfast at 6:15. Still keep waking up at 6am. Wish I could sleep until 7 at least. I did some laundry and read my book while Mami and Johana were decorating the christmas tree. At 9am I took off to the nearest Internet cafe to check if my salary got in and YES - GOD heard my prayers and I got a christmas bonus from work and went directly to the first travel agency I found. I spent like 2 hours there checking prices to find out what to do when here. I am definately going to Panama to visit Aida, Jeniffer and Yessenia. But still have to confirm the dates. I will try to go to Nicaragua as well... My only problem is I need someone to go there with. I am also checking out the possibilities for trips around the country. They will come up with a feedback on when there will be other groups I can tag along with. Lets just see what they find out. When I was done at the travel agency I got my nails done. Full manicure and pedicure - including painting and peeling and you name it. God it felt delicious !!!!
That took another hour and a half and by the time i was done with that I stopped by Palí (grocery store) to pick up some stuff to send home.
The afternoon I spent in the house chatting with Johana and Mami, visiting Karina and Diegos house and had a good chat with them. Karina was in Nicaragua but at least the mom, dad and Diego was around. And I got Pablitos number as well so I can get a hold of him :)

At 8pm my brother and I went to LIB with some of his friends. They wanted to see the soccer game "Alajuelense - Perez Zeledon" on big screen and it was quite fun. After the match the place had entertainment. - young ladies that danced - do not mistake for them to be strippers. They kept their clothes on all the time. We had good beer and the place got pretty packed after a while. When I got home I had an encounter with nature. The dogs were playing with a HUGE hairy spider. nice. haha.

Another fantastic day. +32C and no skies. Perfect for a field excurtion.

Mami, Papi & I have been too the Finca today. It took us more than 30 minutes to drive the 14 km that it takes to get there. Wow. Hehe.. The roads to get there felt more like a rollercoaster at an amusement park than a road. Really fun. hehe.
When we arrived at the farm lot we went to feed the cows first, then Papi went off to find the horses that he had not seen for a week. Mami and I went to check the fruit trees and almost no fruits at all. But - the achiote tree had fruits and we picked a bag of achiote so that mami can make achiote paste for me to take home :) We walked around with big wooden sticks to stirr in the grass with to find snakes before snakes found us. They have a lot of poisonous snakes in these areas - rattlers, fer de lance etc. - but luckily we saw none !!!!. (Just in case you should ever get bitten by a snake - try this link).
We did see a lot of butterflies, huge ants, lizards and grasshoppers. We did gather some plantains from the farm before we went home as well. They were all green and small but they taste good when mature so that is good. We also found a branch with orchids on that we took home.
We got home in good time for lunch. Fish. The whole kitchen smelled of fried fish but at least it tasted delicious.

After lunch I spent a couple of hours updating you guys and one of my friends that found out I was here stopped by as well. :)

Festival de la luz
All the family sat down in front of the TV and watched the spectacular Festival de la Luz parade. The name means The light festival. It is a week long festival of lights that is marked by lighting displays and concerts and fireworks after dark in the park.
There is also a show competition where there are competitors from all of central america and even Canada was represented. There are bands playing and doing drills and they have huge decorated cars with dancers and mythical figures.

+30C and sunny. No skies at all almost all day. Ok, maybe some few skies but nothing to talk about. We have 12h 16m of visible light today. Some wind but not much.

My brother promised to take me to the beach this weekend but that did not result since the car broke down. So another friend of mine, Pablo Caesar, said I could go with him. That did not result either but. Two of Mamis friends rescued my day and took me to beautiful Playa Panama and "Conde del mar Resort" where we had lunch. While the ladies had a long chat after lunch I spent the time swimming and walking on the beach. Water temperatures are definately around +27C. Deilicious. Around me small and big fish were jumping. Ok. a little further out. hehe. I brought my swimming glasses and kept looking at the smaller fish that was close to shore. I also did a long stroll by the beach, where the local kids I passed did everything they could to get my attention to take their pictures. hehe. Cute kids. They all think I am a gringa (north american for those who did not understand) and yelling to me in the few english words they can HELLO! HOW YOU DO?

After the beach I got kidnapped to a party. My friends saw me on my way home and did not even let me go home to take a shower, change clothes get fixed up for the night. hehe. :) The party was mighty good. Good beer, good music and I got to dance a lot :) weee. It was a really nice party "Fiestas Patronales Barrio Los Angeles". I got home by 11:30pm and Mami was waiting up for me to let me in. Of course, since I had not been home since mid-day I had not brought my keys with me. Mami was watching a movie and I sat down to watch it with her. I also gave her a reflexologic massage on her feet before I got myself to bed :) (and yes, i did shower first).

Another beautiful sunny day. There were some clouds over the volcano that comes with the winds from the atlantic. But we had sun, sun and +30C again. The night temperatures are about +25C for those of you who wonder.

Angelica picked me up at 6:45am and we went to pick up baguettes, water and cookies before taking off to her work at Curubande pre-school. We thought the kids of Europe and made pigs out of bottles, you take a bottle and paint it with glue, cover it with toilet paper for a couple of layers and then you let it dry. Put on ears - egg carton and the snout - the top of the bottle. Then paint and put on eyes and tail.
Angelicas boss took us hiking in Rincon de la vieja national park. But there was one obstacle. The national park was closed - always closed on mondays. No problem. hehe. We hiked off into a different trail on the farmland next to the national park and when no-one (read the guards) could see us, we took the jungle trail (eh... not known to anyone and not visible) into the park and after 15 minutes we got in on the park trail.

With no-one in the park but us we had a fantastic day by ourself and got to see a lot of fantastic nature. I have no idea of how many species of butterflies we saw, but Costa Rica hosts 1/5 of the butterfly population of the world. The beautiful Blue Morpho, a lot of yellow and orange ones. Even green butterflies. We also saw Agoutis, Iguanas and a lot of smaller lizards. This one posed willingly, not thinking any one of us would hurt it. After the photo shoot he ran up into a tree and disappeared. We also saw a lot of wonderful birds. The sound of rainforest is wonderful. It is amazing. Anyone should be able to experience it.

At Rincon de la vieja national park there is a lot of hot springs; boiling mud and or boiling water. You can see them throughout the national park with fences around them to protect stupid tourists that wants to take pictures on the close run. There is always someone that has to go closer and fall into them. All the hot springs holds temperatures of at least +75 to +106C degrees. The boiling water pots smell of sulfur and witness that this is a definately active volcano. It was fun to watch the mud being thrown almost 2 meters up in the air. The sound and smell of the volcano is amazing, but at least it does not rumble like Volcan Arenal that has lava flowing out almost every day of the year.

During the afternoon I was so tired I slept for hours and with the day almost over I checked e-mails and updated blog before going to bed. Enjoy and take care folks.

Today has been mostly cloudy but some sun has shown up inbetween all the clouds. Pretty nice actually. The sun burns hard around mid day. Although we had clouds, the temperatures stay around +30C. And finally it is windy !

At the travel agency
Today I bought my ticket to go to Panama. I will be going Jan. 3. I am looking great fwd to that. First i will be going to Panama City to stay there with Yessenia for a couple of days before moving on to Chitre to see Aida Elena. Ill stay there a week before moving further towards David and then heading towards San Jose the weekend of the 14th. I also got this tourist tour for thursday to Palo Verde national park. That will be wonderful. Concidering I have spent 4 hours at the travel agency already and gotten those 2 trips clared out - I am impressed. hehe.

At El ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad)
I also got my cell phone today. Hehe.. Yes I got the phone. BUT there is a big but, To open a line in Costa Rica there are so many troubles. I waited in line for 2 hours and then Papi had to sign a paper to open a line in his name. But then The electricity company had made an error and opened up a line for someone else in his name and they had not payed. So I have to wait till they clare that up before I get my line. So much trouble for so little - but soon friends. I will get my phone line.

Nice weather, sun, +30C and some wind.

I actually finally managed to get my cell phone. I wasted a full day that I could have spent in the sun. Well. hehe. probably for the best. I stayed home in the morning waiting for Mami to accompany me at el ICE. I watched a movie, relaxed and slept a little.
I spent the afternoon at el ICE. I actually had to wait 2 hours to even be attended. NICE.
Mami ran arrands while i waited. We got to open a line in her name but they were out of GSM lines. They still have the old system, but the coverage is not as good :)
I was happy and finally, finally got that problem taken care of.

In the afternoon I went with a friend to see the soccer final (La Liga de Alajuela vs Saprissa). I got home early since very tired :)

Nice weather, sunny (old news), +30C and some wind. Beautiful weather for a boat trip.

Today I have spent the day in Palo Verde National Park.
About Palo Verde
The area is comprised of both deciduous and evergreen tropical dry forest, brackish and fresh water wetlands, mangrove swamps, and the tidal estuarine ecosystem of the lower Tempisque River. This area provides an important wintering ground to migrant North American waterfowl.
The Palo Verde National Park of Costa Rica protects forested areas as well as an extensive marshland between the Tempisque and Bebedero rivers of Guanacaste. Palo Verde National Park is a diverse patchwork of habitats located in the heart of the Tempisque basin near the mouth of the Rio Tempisque River.

It has been a wonderful boat trip on El Bebedero River. We saw american Crocodiles (in CR we have crocodiles in the west and aligators in the east - no caimans), iguanas, bats, lots and lots of different herons and other bird species. We also saw both howler monkeys and cappuchin monkeys (whiteface).
One of the crocodiles even has a name: Tyson - after Mike Tyson. He is a fared croc since he 2 yeas ago had an 11 year old kid for dinner.
After a day in the sun I have really worked on my tan - I think I got a small sun burn on one of my knees. I must have not remembered to put on sun block there.

Read more about Palo Verde in these links:

http://www.ots.ac.cr/en/paloverde/
http://costa-rica-guide.com/parks/pl_vrde.htm
http://www.costaricamap.com/ing/bioppalo.html

Pictures will come later.

Today I started my day off by going to Canas witch is a city about 45 minutes from Liberia. I went to see Dona Xinnia that just came back from Norway 6 months ago, where she spent 3 years working as the embassador of Costa Rica in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. When arriving Canas I was greeted by her, her daughter Silvia, Laureano, David and German (grand children). Xinnia and Celia took me on a round-trip with Davida and Laureano. A round-trip all over the northern part of the country. It was a marvellous day with sun, rain, wind and more sun.
From Canas we went to Upala in the Alajuela province and stopped by a friend of Celia from when she studied in Russia.

From Upala we went toward Guatuso and on the way, in a place called Catira, we found this gorgeous garden with trees shaped like different figures like dinosaurs, kids, spiders etc. We entered the garden to enjoy the wonderful figures and the owner toured us around. A really nice man that had made all the figures himself - with a little help from the son.
Suddenly Dona Xinnia spots a huge tree with huge mandarines from witch she wonders if he could give us some. Of course.. We dont need them. If you want them you can take as many as you wants :) Then he sends his son up into the tree :)
Honestly I could not care less about the mandarines hehe.. I wanted to ask if he would give me his son instead. He was gorgeous. Nicest smile around.

From their place we continued to Guatuso where we had lunch. Real nice meal witch we all enjoyed a lot. The Guatuso area inhabits a lot of indians.

From Guatuso we went to Fortuna de San Carlos. A city that in the last 7 years has changed incredibly. I am amazed by the changes. I know I have been there before but I did not recognize the city at all.
Fortuna is a city located close to the world famous Arenal volcano. Arenal is one of the 7 most active volcanoes in the world. Just by the few hours we spent in Fortuna and driving around the volcano to come to Lago Arenal (witch is an artificial lake) the volcano has about 5 minor erruptions. You can hear the rumbling and see the lava running down the hill side at night. In daylight the lava looks more like rocks running down the mountains with huge steam clouds to show them. It is an absolutely marvelous sight. The rivers close around smells of sulfur.
We tried entering a lava trail but some guides that were close adviced us not to enter to far since it was getting dark and all the snakes and animals would get out from hiding to hunt.
We will leave it for another day.

In Fortuna I also got to buy some souvenir pictures that I found. By the time we got away from Arenal it was darkening and it started to rain. When it rains - it poors ... etc and it rained until we got to the Guanacaste province again.

When we got to Canas we were all very tired and I was trying to get the bus home to Liberia but I did not have any luck on that one. Around Miramar, Puntarenas, there was a huge car accident that closed ALL traffic in both directions. Celia decided to drive me home witch I will be forever thankful for. :) It was a wonderful day and I fell asleep almost as soon as my head landed on my pillow.

Nice weather, sun, +30C and some wind.

We had decided to go to the beach but waited for Federico to get the car fixed. It has been bad for about a week. Well. At noon we had lunch and then set for the beach. We got about a km before the car broke down. It made strange noises and we headed for the "taller" to get it fixed again. Some part had fallen off that were not possible to get a hold of in the whole city of Liberia. We gave up and went to the swimming pool at Hotel El Sitio instead. We stayed there until the sun dissappeared and went home. I went to bed really early.

Sunny and no skies. Very warm. Over 30C today - again.

I woke up with a bad cold and cough. Again. I have spent most of the morning in bed but I managed to take a small trip downtown to update my webpage and meet a couple of my friends. We sat to have a few papaya drinks and a sandwich at "Las Tinajas" (very popular cafe - restaurant by the central park).

We had a family dinner with in-laws and uncles and aunts and some friends at 8pm. Delicious food. Lomo and Pork leg with a lot of wonderful belongings. Good drinking and a lot of fun. Roxanas housband, Jorge, practiced his english with his sisters housband. The problem was that he did not know any english. The gringo looked at me with HELP in his eyes and everyone laughed at Jorge. hehe. Poor thing. But it was so much fun.

Read more about Costa Rican Christmas traditions.

+30, sunny and warm. Little wind.
This morning I woke up and did my laundry, slept a little, watched a movie and waited for Federico and Yehudy to wake up and get finished to get going to the beach. They lasted and lasted but finally we set off. We picked up Veronica, a friend of Federico, and Johan and his daughter Madeline (7) and set off.

We picked up beer and soft drinks, cookies and ICE and cups. Its really necessary to have ice for the drinks or the beverage reaches boiling point soon hehe. The road to get there was really really bumpy. I must admit I am not a great fan of driving and drinking but I do use my seatbelt. Arriving at the beach Madeline and I spent most of the time we were there in the water. The water must be at least +25/+28C. Great day for swimming. We tried to jump the waves and teach M to swim properly and to float. At least she managed to float by herself by the end of the day. We walked along the beach and had a couple of drinks before watching the gorgeous sunset. Along with the sunset we were attacked by the mosquitos and decided to retreat.

When getting home I had to rush to get my shower and dress for party. Its Angelicas 28th birthday today and she had invited me to her birthdayparty at 7pm. Obviously i did not manage to be there at 7 since we got home at 7 but I was there before 7:30pm witch I am impressed by. :)
They served a gorgeous pork leg dinner and chocolate birthday cake and we had a nice party with Angelicas mom and boyfriend, Alberto, and one more of her best friends, Libia. It was really nice to be able to participate especially since 13 years ago when I was living here I was also invited to her birhtday but could not participate. Thanks and happy birthday Angelica !.

Sunny, +30C. Windy. Hehehe. One can say many things about the weather in Norway. But stable it is not. Here in contrary.. It seems very stable and ME LIKE.
Today all my day was spendt just by hanging around downtown Liberia. I started the morning by the daily routines like having breakfast, washing clothes and stuff like that. Then I took off downtown and did some shopping before I found a tattoo store and decided to get my seahorse (on the ankle) some color. So, now guys, my seahorse is orange/brown and surrounded by some bubbles. About same size as ever. The bad thing is that I now have a 1 week curfue to go swimming at the beach or in a pool. Just safety precautions so it wont get infected.

For lunch I headed for Las Tinajas and had a "Casado" with chicken. A casado is a typical lunsch with rice, beans, meat, chease and maduro (fried cooking banana) with natural juice made of Papaya to accessorize. Alexis, one of my friends here stopped by and kept me company until he had to go to work. After that I wrote about 20 postcards. I still need a couple of adresses but they will get sent soon. Then headed home for dinner and went out with Manuel, Kerry (his girlfriend) and Enrique for the night.

Another wonderful day :) +30C Sunny and wind.
Today at 1:30pm I got picked up by Dona Xinnia and German and we drove off to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz has been nominated to the most folkloric city in Costa Rica. We went there for a Prayer seremony honoring Santo Cristo de Esquipulas. This is one of the saints that is worshiped largely amongst indigenous Indians, some coming from far afield, eagerly await the moment where they may share a second or two face to face with the Black Christ. Reasons behind the colour of the statue are multiple. No one accredits the fact that it may be the balsam wood which the statue is made of. Nonetheless, there is no end to how many followers the figure has won over the years.

Santa Cruz is located about an hour from Liberia in the Nicoya peninsula. We walked around to get to know the place before going to the "Rezo" (the prayer seremony) at 6pm. They had Marimbas (typical music instrument), Clowns chasing the people and food that they shared amongst all the ones that had showed up to pay respect to the saint. We were served a typical indian drink "chichime" made of fermented corn. It tasted "not too bad" Incredible enough but I was not too impressed. It was way to sweet, but after the tradition the indians used this drink to get drunk whenever they had a party before the licor came.

Dona Xinnia, German, Laureano and Julio drove me home when it was over and I have had an amazing day ! Thanks again.

+30C and sunny with rare precense of skies. Windy but great.
Yesterday I headed downtown about 9 am. My brother and his girlfriend were preparing the car for a day at the beach. I told them that due to my tattoo I would not go with them since i still have to stay out of the water and sun for another 7 days (well at least for another 4). I went to the internet cafe and updated my page, did some chatting and headed for the travel agency. Stayed there a few minutes since they could not give me the information I wanted before jan 2 and headed for the bank. After the bank I went to get my nails done and during the session my mom called to say my brother were looking for me since they were going to stay over at the beach and that I had to go with him, Yehudy and Diana.

So. Well. Off we went. Hehe. I am so hard to ask about going to the beach.
It was a long bumpy, dusty and windy trip (It gets that way from driving with an open car) but finally we got to Playa Potrero where Federico has his apartment at "Villagio flor di Pacifico" and got installed there.
We had picked up food and beverages on the way here and headed straight for the swimming pool until dark hit us. Then we went to get some dinner. Playa Potrero is a small fishing village with a lot of nice hotels and condos.

Federico, Yehudy and Diana went to Tamarindo to party that night but Ive still got a cold and stayed home.

In the morning of course I woke up way earlier than the others since I also went to bed way earlier than them. I went hiking at the beach (Playa Potrero and Playa la Penca) for a couple of hours before going back to the apartment. Diana had just gotten out of bed and we went to the swimming pool together to work on our tan. Around mid day we picked up Federico and Yehudy and went to a beach restaurant to have breakfast. After the resturant visit we went back to the pool and we all jumped in the jacuzzi and during the afternoon we managed to make 6 new friends from Heredia (another province in Costa Rica). We had a small party in the jacuzzi until the italians found out they wanted in as well and security told us we should not drink in the pool. It had been a nice party but it was time to go back to Liberia. It is Roxanas housband, Jorges, birthday today so we rushed from one party to another and met up with the family there. Even some of our cousins from San Jose, Jessica and Paola, had shown up.
It was a nice party with barbeque, Karaoke and Pinatas.

Nighty nighty :)

No clouds today. But heaps of wind. Wonderful. It makes the +32 feel a little colder. Hehe. Not much though.
Started off the day washing clothes before heading out to run some arrands. I have bought some clothing so i can get some hand made new pants and shorts.

I met up with Manuel at 11am and we went to Tinajas to chat and have some refreshments.
At noon Gustavo joined in and we had a real fun afternoon. We decided to go to the beach at night, but we finally ended up staying in Liberia.
I went out with Manuel, his girlfriend and Enrique, "el mudo", that is actually Jorges (roxanas housband) brother/cousin (not that I know what that will be exactly) so he is family. hehe. Family here is very complicated. I have no idea how many brothers and sisters nor mami nor papi has. that is bad. I should get that information on a paper so I will remember for later. And everybody is somebodys cousin. Nice though. We went to a bar called el Chaparro and later to hang outside Kuru, the disco. hehe.

Hey friends. Today is the last day of 2006 and It has been a strange year. It has been filled with work and work and work but also travels. I have been able to go to Gran Canaria (islas canarias), London (England), Kiel (Germany) and my big trip to Costa Rica that has been like GOD-sent. I have managed to meet many friends this year that I have not seen for very many years like on my way to CR I met Alexis in New York, Mariann in London and if I calculate since last october I got to meet Dionne (my Canadian sister), Meghan (One of my good friends from my Costa Rica stay in 1993) and Jennifer (another of my friends from Costa Rica stay in 1993). It has been a somewhat hard year. I have been tired and exhausted due to amounts of work during the start of the work and It has been a year where I have found out who are my real friends and who are not. It has been filled with joy and sad feelings and decisions. To all my friends at Astrup Fearnleys: Thanks for all good memories:) It has been a pleasure working with and for you.
It has been a very interesting year and I am really looking foreward to 2007 and for it has in mind for me. I am very exited about getting a new job and starting a new path in life.

As for this christmas it has been a very strange holiday vacation considering I am very far away and we have had a lot of family stuff going on at home.
One of my aunts is getting a divorce and my grandmother was sick from before I left Norway to come here. Then she became worse and worse and they all gathered together and my father got sick so he could not stay with her. My baby sister Linda spent some time at the hospital being sick and then my aunt got sick as well. Then Grandma Johanne died on christmas eve. My grandmother was a very dedicated woman, to religion and to her family and It feels kind of like the destiny that she died on christmas eve. She will be missed.
Luckily my moms family has had no big problems. I think they have been all good :)

As for myself, I got sick 2 weeks before travelling and I have pretty much stayed more or less reduced since then. Coughing and if its not sinusitis or bronquitis, then it is an eye infection or throath infection. At least they know I am not faking. hehe.. Like the sayiong. When you are sick during the hollidays you are really sick. hehe. I just hope It stops soon.

Anther thing here is that since everyone is always so wonderfully nice and happy and the sun and temperature is around 30 and happy music is playing from every corner it is very easy to forget that a distant place called Norway exists. It is easy to be a part of the flow. A flow I just love and being relaxed and enjoing life like I do here is rare I do there. I am having a great time friends ! I am enjoing life and hoping to get tickets to the Ricky Martin concert in febuary.

Apart from that.
To all my family, friends and dear ones:

I wish you a very very good and happy new year in 2007 and I send you all my best regards and hugs and kisses !! I love you all !

Same wonderful weather as It has been for the last 3 weeks. Sun with +32C and some wind. The day started off with me being able to sleep 4 hours longer than normal. !!! wow.
When I did wake up I looked like I was originally chinese since due to an eye infection the skin around my eyes were swollen. It looked kinda funny actually hehe..

I spent the morning updating the web page and writing home. We had a very nice family dinner in the evening and mami and I spent the night wathcing movies. At midnight we went out to watch the fireworks that in comparison with Norway just lasted for 20 minutes. At home it sounds like a warzone for hours. :)
It was a nice and kozy evening even though I was kinda moody beeing far away from home :)