Ocho

Wow, posting this is timing to real-time but 12 months back...

So we were on our way to paying for Lot #14, and were working with Rob to lay in the groundwork. Alazan had hired the electrical contractor to run electricity throughout the project. We were curious as all get out what Pietro would come up with; and so we planned our trip for Labor Day week of 2007. By this point our friends at Casa Bellarita were on their way to reframing the old Canyon House into the very nice B&B it is.

When we arrived on Sept 1, 2007 we did not find Steve, and were unable to recall or easily pull up the phone number there. We were still inexperienced enough to not understand that finding people is by phone (when the phone system works) and having their number is essential. Jim did have the CasaBellaRita reservation form with travel paperwork, but there was no phone number on it. All we had was Jim's work laptop computer. Great, if only we had internet.

Oh my, this was really interesting... One of the many many cab drivers took us to an internet cafe several blocks away in San Jose. All at high speed on impossibly narrow barrio type streets; clearly not in a place where tourists typically go. As we went, the sky opened up with an INCREDIBLE thunder storm! And so as we pulled up in front of the cafe, the driver and Jim went through the downpour into the cafe, where Jim hooked up his computer, got the phone number, gave it to the cab driver who phoned Steve. During all this intense thunder, rain and lightning, every car alarm in the area was being set off by the thunder ricocheting off the buildings. What noise!

Somehow we mixed up arrival time and so by the time we got back to the airport, paid our cab fare, Steve was there waiting for us. Oh my, through the whole experience we ran the gammut of emotion - from "Oh man, what the heck are we thinkin about!?" - to - "We could never go to an unfamiliar city in the US, and be treated so well by a cab driver - what a blessing to be here!".

Anyway, we arrived as Casa Bellarita, tired from travel and ready to relax! Jim connected into work to make sure all was well, handle some project work, and otherwise just stayed connected. And we relaxed. On that Monday morning (Labor Day in the US); we met with Pietro to see his concept drawings of each of the first three homes proposed for Alazan. We were rather blown away by the design, which is beautiful.

The next day we rode with Rob cross country for the first time to Parrita (recall we took a bus to Arenal). Rob and Kent had purchased their Kia Diesel 4wd four door work truck. And loaded with Rob's and our travel gear, and our combined weight, we had a fairly nice drive to the coast. This trip really helped set our love for our new country. What a stunning place!

We arrived in Manuel Antonio where we stayed in the now familiar La Plantacion (regrettably, now closed). And once again, headed to Alazan to see the progress on the new roadway/driveways; and the beginning of telephone poles going in.

Oh the MUD! Rainy season was moving along rather well, and so we enjoyed all sorts of mud as we walked around. On these included photos, you can see some of the extended roadway which is a fairly typical Alazan view. Some of our roadways are getting pavement, and I imagine over time, it will be entirely paved. But for now, this is a good representation of what the roadways were like in late Summer (US season) 2007.

You can see Rob and Jim walking back uphill towards Rob/Kent and Callie/John driveways. The final photo is Alvarro laying bloque zecate driveway on Lot#14 section (the end of the road). We included this photo specifically in part to prove there really can be sun during rainy season, but mostly because unbeknownst to us, just over his shoulder is the location of the casita under construction a year later. At the time we had no vision we might build something in this spot. All vision at the time was towards building off the end of the drive. It will be interesting what exactly we do put in there... Pietro's design is beautiful, but no place for a theatre. We're not sure how we would bridge that desire. For certain, this won't get built in the short run.

While we were at Alazan seeing the driveway paving, and learning how to properly use a machete with a quick in-service course from Alvarro, and of course frolicking in the waterfall for the first time (much more on the next trip from which this final photo was actually taken; all along we kept returning to Pietro's design and what we liked/didn't like. So at the end of the week we returned via Sansa to San Jose, and visited Luz and Pietro to cover our first set of changes we would desire.

And so we returned back to Wisconsin - all excited about the evolution of our project. We were excited about building, but at this point not committed to it. We decided to spend a few weeks pondering while Luz and Pietro continued the conceptual work.

To be continued....

Ricardo y Jeeeem

Siete....

The Spring of 2007 seemed to come fast - even though everyone else thought it was slow. We began thinking of concepts of a house. What did we want, what was optional. We disagreed... But this was a great time to work through all this as it was the second house the two of us built - and we had worked through several remodelling projects so we were conditioned to find solutions. And we did.



In early June of 2007 Jim and Dick traveled back to Costa Rica to meet with Rob and to determine, we hoped, where we would place the roadway getting from the existing road to each of our lots (Rob, Calle, D&J and Fred). We did manage to enjoy some of the Costa Rican sea shore and you can tell from this photo, we suffered...


It was during this trip we met Rob's handsome brother Fred. We trudged through the jungle, machette's in hand figuring out a path. We agreed upon a building site for our house. Rob did same conceptually for his and his sisters house so that we could consider the roadway. We made some marks, and came up with what we thought was a path. It was a successful trip!

With our potential building pad identified, we took some pictures, made some notations, and headed back to Wisconsin to motorcycle and enjoy the short northern Summer.

July took Jim back. Gerardo and crew had cleared some brush, and we once again reconsidered the roadway. We found that our original thinking was spot on. The bad news is that it encroached on Kent and Rob's lot more than any of us would have liked, but we had to follow the contour the mountain gave us. It was on this trip Jim met Rob's mate Kent for the first time. In this picture the fellow in the blue shirt is Kent. The space in front of him is our big house intended building site. At the time, we did not have a concept of building a smaller casa, much less building one first. In this picture, if you went just beyond the trees in the distance, you would be in the waterfall. So the big house was intended to be as close as possible to that.

Also during this trip, Jim hired Pietro Stagno (architect) to create a house plan for us. Rob and Kent had hired him for their casa, and Rob's sister Calle (and John) were planning same for their casa. All in all a rather heady trip! All of this set the stage for building - and the roadway was not even in yet to our lots!!! In the end, we do have a nice house plan from Pietro, but the cost to build it now exceeded significantly our ability to build it.

As we review the photo's from between early June to early July, it is obvious how much cloudier it is in Costa Rica in July. And that was certainly the case! I should mention that it was in the time between the June and July trips that we formally entered our reservation and put our deposit on lot #14. Because of that, we had our first glimmer of "owning" land in Costa Rica - and began to feel that connection of owning in a foreign country and being part of the larger world beyond the USA. It is a good feeling!


From this point forward, we were definitely on a path to our project.

Thank you for reading this far!


to be continued....