Mouse Saves Family from Invader Bug Attack

I was ashamed. I couldn’t speak of my family’s problem. I was ashamed our home and all living things in it had been overtaken by fleas. My pets were in agony. Their soft bellies were bitten, bloody, and scabbed. The scratched constantly, and so did I. The fleas thought my husband’s midsection a delicacy; my ankles a treat.

Buddhists believe in the sacredness of every living creature including fleas, leeches, and mosquitoes. I try to live in harmony with the insects that appear on my walls and floors. Since we live with our doors open year around, Continue reading »

Welcome to Costa Rica

Here is an sad but interesting tale. It is a story of a mother and daughter refused entry to Costa Rica.

One of the companies I own deals with tourists coming to visit Costa Rica. This often involves having one of my people meet them at the airport. This is normally no big deal. We give them detailed instructions and nearly always, we are able to hook up without issue.

So it was odd that we sent a rep to the Liberia airport to meet a woman traveling with her 14 year old daughter. Often our customers are also being met by a tour company, so in this case, our rep met them and they both waited for the arrival of our mutual clients. After waiting an hour, it was clear they were not coming, so the tour agent and our rep left the airport.

Continue reading »

We Rock in the Jungle

Addison has discovered rock and roll. Coco got a CD from a birthday party of some oldies. Addison does not like to eat food with me, he prefers the good stuff, the mother’s milk. But, he’s also started a nasty habit of biting down. And, as one would imagine, this hurts.

To divert his attention from me, we turn on the rock and roll. Addison sits in front of the CD player and wiggles his hands in the air, claps, and scoots. Today, he figured how to turn up the volume.

So, Elvis and the Beach Boys live on – right on into the jungle.

Like Caterpillars?

Occasionally, I get submissions from folks and if I think they would be of interest to my readers, I blog them.

This was submitted to me complete with a great photo by Ronna von Knorring, a transplant from Kansas who blogs here.

As a fair number of my readers seem to be very curious about the creepie crawlies who live here (no, I am NOT talking about those guys hanging around the bars in Jaco), I thought I’d publish her submission! Enjoy!

Continue reading »

More Questions from Readers

I need to apologize. I have not been able to Post here nearly as often as I would like. I am just buried in work, and sadly, income still must proceed pleasure… even in Costa Rica. The main site, The Real Costa Rica, is now up to about 25,000 new visitors each month, and between that and the Guestbook, I am just getting buried in emails as well. So once again, here are some of my replies to those emails.

Continue reading »

That’s What It’s All About

It’s not raining at my house. Thus…it is hot!

Everywhere I go, there is rain. And, I love the rain! But, we still have the winds, which are incredibly annoying, and constipated rain clouds that hover over the house in the afternoon.

As I drove home the other day, each town I went through was being soaked in rain. It was gorgeous and smelled like life starting all fresh and shiny and new. I could see our neighborhood ahead, and sure enough, Continue reading »