Settled in Altos De Maria

We have settled down for the moment at my friend Kerry's place in Alto De Maria.  It is a big 3 bedroom house on the side of a mountain with all the conveniences of home plus a swimming pool.  It is about 45 minutes from Coronado even though it is only 20 km away.  The road is very twisty and up and down a lot.  The house is in a gated community (24 hour security guards who question everyone in and out) and is smack dab in the middle of the jungle.  Karen and the kids saw a monkey earlier today (I missed it).

We have all seen lots of big ants, spiders of all kinds (including the freak you out big kind), birds and really colourful butterflies.  On the way in Karen saw a tarantula crossing the road.  She screamed into our communication head sets for quite a while and only calmed down a few clicks up the road (not over it, just no longer screaming).  Brandon saw what we think is a travelling spider, which is also very big, and he is just a freaked out as Karen!

The house has not been lived in for quite a few months, so there were lots of spiders and ants all throughout the house.  The worst part was the 100 or so large ants living between the master bed mattress and box springs.  Karen saw a big one go in between the mattress and box spring, so I lifted up the mattress to see and everyone freaked out and bolted.  I got the shop vac and vacuumed up all the bugs I could see. Later the power went out and we really freaked out because we knew that bugs come out in the dark and we had no flashlights except our phones.  The power did come back on eventually, but with only motorbikes to head back to town on wild roads in the dark and without cell phones that worked, we had some pretty tense minutes to say the least!

Later that night as Karen and Brandon went to sleep on the couches (would not go near the bedrooms) and Jada and I braved the jungles (our bedrooms) and headed to very fitful sleeps for all of us.  The morning was bright and sunny and we all felt better, so after a home cooked breakfast, Karen and I headed into Coronado to get our cell phones working and to get groceries and find out about getting the kids' books shipped down here.  It rained pretty hard on us the whole way down and back, but oh well, it is the rainy season.

Karen was going to sleep in the master bedroom last night, but as we were getting ready for bed, A really big spider appeared over our window.  That was it, she was back to the couch! So that takes us to this morning, when we woke up to sunlight and birds chirping (and maybe monkeys howling, not sure).  We made coffee, some breakfast and then had a nice leisurely bath. We decided to brave our fears of going out under the trees (cause spiders can fall on you from above) and take the garbage to the  garbage area at the gate.  It was a 50 minute walk almost straight up the mountain and we were all exhausted when we got there.  Because we were not sure of the bugs, we all wore jeans so we were all sweating profusely all the way up.  We walked back down and were joined by a very nice dog who reminded us of our Petey back home with Karen Hudson.  The dog has been sticking with us and Karen really really really wants to take him in with us.

Supper tonight started as tacos, rice and beans, but because I misread the taco seasoning for taco sauce, it turned into spaghetti, rice and beans.  Still better than going out for supper.  We are now kicking back with some wine and Abuelo rum (really good and really cheap).  Here are some pictures of the area.

TTFN,
Stew.

A nice line of ants climbing a wall at the house. 

 One of the street signs in Altos De Maria showing the sleeping cat mountain in the background.

 The garbage walk

 A happy Karen even after 2 couch nights.

 a termite mound

 Just a cool tree

 A sweaty couple during our walk

 Some flat ground (rare in this community)

A nice pond near the house 

 A place to meet with friends and family

 The view from Altos De Maria

 Some nice stairs in the community

 The sleeping cat mountain 

 This is a small (only 3-4 inches) spider alone our walk

The dog who is so nice and wants to come inside our house.  I don't blame it, I wouldn't want to sleep outside either, but we don't have permission to let him in and are not sure we should.  He has a collar, but no tags.