Pura Vida

"Riches are not from abundance of worldly goods, but from a contented mind." Mohammed

Pura Vida, pure life, is a uniquely Costa Rican expression and it sums up the warm laidback friendly attitude of Ticans. The thought is that we are here for such a short time, be happy and spread happiness because soon you're gone. My wish to continue enjoying a Bahamian style friendly attitude has been granted along with a growing sense of contentment.

How can I not be content in Casa Fuego, house of fire? Our first sunset in the house blazed a warm welcome. Although we may have our elements crossed because we actually spend most of our time in the water since we moved in. Maybe Pura Agua Vida would be a more appropriate expression.

We are always in the water, forever taking a dip to cool off. It stands to reason considering the air temp is in the mid 90's and the water somewhere in the 80's. With such stunning scenery and warm water Greg has "gone pro" with the GoPro. Every sunrise and sunset he hangs out in the surf obsessed with obtaining that perfect tube shot. With no art director breathing down his neck I think he's gone purist and is tormenting himself into capturing the perfect golden lit pipe.

"I still need the camera because it is the only reason anyone is talking to me."

Annie Leibovitz

Of course most of the time Greg gets completely distracted by his nearest and dearest and has his rubber arm twisted to take the same old family shots.

The kids and I are seasoned camera hams and we know if we change the color of our rash guards each session we stand a better chance of getting our hero shots on the boogie boards.

"A child is a beam of sunlight from the Infinite and Eternal,

with possibilities of virtue and vice- but as yet unstained."

Lyman Abbott

“Not everything is a mermaid that dives into the water.”

Russian Proverb

Its a complete trade secret how Greg managed to achieve my unusual underwater ripple effect. Its actually just testament to the delicious food in the restaurants here.

The kids keep getting braver and braver and able to handle bigger and bigger surf. They both just keep popping up like a cork every time they duck under a wave, although sometimes is does end in tears.

“So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself:

who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived

or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?”

Hunter S Thompson

Maybe it's the heat, all the water time or my iodine depletion/lobster deprivation but the kids seem to have even more energy than usual. The simplicity of watching the sun arrive and disappear each day is surely enriching my soul and making me go to bed early. I have to confess that several times the kids come to my bedside to kiss me goodnight. My nightly lullaby is an orchestra of cicadas, frogs and the never ending resonance of wind and ocean. In the emerging light each morning I wake to the warm breezes blowing through my window like billowing silk. I hear the cry of unfamiliar birds, the crash of waves and the low throaty booming of the howler monkeys. There are a couple of troupes that hang out around here.

"Just cause you got the monkey off your back

doesn't mean the circus has left town."

George Carlin

The kids seem to be happy whenever there is a pool and time to play in it. Sometimes while we are hanging out in the water the horses wander into the garden to trim the grass. Having these knight-less white steeds wind up the path from the beach adds to the incredulity of this Avalon.

“Now the great winds shoreward blow,

Now the salt tides seaward flow;

Now the wild white horses play,

Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.”

Matthew Arnold

The house is all upside down with bedrooms on the ground floor and and living room and kitchen upstairs to maximize the view. There are no railings on the balcony to mar the vista and hammocks string across both levels to tempt you into a siesta. The saltillo tile throughout is cool underfoot and breezes waft through every window. These thermals are swirled ever onward by ceiling fans set high in the teak ceiling. I spend a lot of time admiring the teak cieling and the way the geckos turn into my heroes and pick off the insects that make it inside. The garden is crowded with every type of palm and cactus and they play host to huge numbers of small creatures: squirrels, bats, owls, wasps, termites and blue magpie jays. The beach is crowded with hermit crabs and the odd unwanted jellyfish. Although with underwater photography snapping my contours I'm beginning to feel like a jelly fish.

We seem to have come to some sort of balance with the homeschooling. I've definitely been applying a more carrot and stick approach. Okay, so I admit to offering bribes. As I said the other day "we dont have time to learn anything we're too busy getting through all this work". So perhaps I need to have a little attitude adjustment and figure out how to spice it up a little. I guess that is the whole secret to teaching. I moved the classroom downstairs the other day, smugly I imagined it would change things around a little. It sure did, all the papers ended up blowing into the pool.

"Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,

and then the different branches of arithmetic --

Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision."

The Mock Turtle, Alice in Wonderland.

I just don't want it to be this boring experience for them. I really want them to get something from it. There is no way I can pretend it replaces what their formal school so brilliantly delivers but maybe this can suffice enough to allow a different lifestyle. If I can make the online school work our lives suddenly have more options.

"Do not confine your children to your own learning,

for they were born in another time." Chinese Proverb

"Sir, I need to know where I can get some business hammocks?"

Homer Simpson

I love the way the hot wild winds race down the dry grassy canyons and get sucked out to sea with a whistle. A strong blast reminds me of the presiding power of the weather. The longer I am here the more I remember Africa, the way it felt with nature close by and warm winds circling the moon. Night and day, I find myself sitting in the adirondack chairs focused out on the ocean. Don't get me wrong, we do sometimes leave the house, usually in search of food or surf. Our travel paranoia makes us lock up our computers every time we leave the house. Maybe it's a perverse need to not get separated from our technology rather than a true reaction to our surroundings, so we throw all the electronics into a cabinet and wrap it with a steel cable locakable surf strap. It also keeps the kids from too much computer time kind of like a gastric band. It's just a short stroll down to the Playa Negra Hotel where we perfect our pool playing tactics... I mean geometry skills. A couple of the other watering holes have foosball but I'm not sure how I can postively spin that into an educational resource?

I feel a little disloyal to the Abacos these days as my new love of Costa Rica flourishes. Costa Ricans are kind when it comes to my flailing Spanish. They will throw out a line to test your ability, not to trip you up just to see where you're at. If you try to cross the language gap an encouraging smile is given with a patient look, just as my Espanol Professor Nury told me it would be before we left. My only problem is that I am way too eager to leap the communication chasm and I don't quite make it. Time and time again I find myself grasping onto the Spanish side then watch my fingers tips scrape off the edge as I fall flailing back into the abyss of English. Perhaps if I didn't have so damn much to say I'd chill out a little?

Touch wood, so far everyone is healthy (apart from the daily cases of homeschoolitis). This still does not stop me becoming consumed with researching all the remote possible creatures that can be fatal in this new enviroment. I'd like to say it was my EMT training but that's just bogus. I think its human nature and our survival instinct that makes us worry about a rogue snake or poisonous scorpion. The chances of us coming across such rare creatures are so remote, it would actually be an environmental treat to be face to face with a panther. The stats continue to tell us premature death is most likely from a car crash. Maybe traveling makes us feel like we are changing those odds? Still these are the only type of pearly gates I want to see for a while.

"On the day before Sweden abolished the inheritance tax in 2005,

mortality fell by 17%.

Maybe the only thing more powerful than death is taxes."

Jessica Ruvinsky