A big bridge for little Rio Blanco - Part 1

Once upon a time, there was a big storm: tree limbs and branches fell into the rushing rivers. The river that feeds Martin's trout ponds (and the river that divides us from the road going down to Copey) became a torrent. The high winds blew debris around and big logs jammed into the steel bridge, destroying it. That was six years ago.

After the bridge was rendered unsafe to use, the community was forced to drive through the river to get to the other side. When we first moved here, that's exactly what we did. It's a small river (almost considered a creek) and crossing it was (usually) not an issue. About a year after we arrived, the men folk in the community decided to build a bridge with large concrete water pipes and dirt. That's what we've been crossing over all this time. Over time, the dirt has packed down evenly and works perfectly: we've all gotten used to it. From this vantage point, it simply looks like a continuation of the road.

The community has been petitioning for a new bridge since the last one was damaged. In Costa Rica, the way it works is that the high-traffic roads with damaged bridges get priority and our little village keeps getting bumped to the bottom of the list because other more important bridges need repair.... until last November when we were told the budget for our bridge had been approved. What great news! They were scheduled to start sometime in February. It's now June. Costa Rica, baby!

But this isn't going to be just any bridge. They are building a massive bridge; it's even going to have a pedestrian lane! No more walking over the horizontal tree trunk! Check out the size of these i-beams! They're about 4 ft high.

This is where the bridge will go. More or less. The building on the right-hand side is Martin's restaurant.

And this picture was taken from the other side... the road on the right-hand side, going up the hill, is the road to our place... our driveway is about 50 metres on the left. That land directly in front with the trees... that's all part of our property.

There's really not much to see yet, but I'll be taking pictures of the progress and sharing it here. Stay tuned for more updates.

This week, Kevin, Martin and Jairo spent several days clearing part of the pasture, cutting down trees and bushes. Once everything is tidy, they'll be sowing grass seed for the bulls. The area is directly above the hatchery, and the sun now shines through, which is great for the plants in our greenhouse. It's always nice when one job serves two purposes.

Oh, and probably the best news of all... we went into San Jose on Thursday and bought ourselves a new mattress! There's nothing worse than a bad night's sleep... and nothing better than a good one. It felt a little like Christmas.