A day of rest and some catching up on chores

At the beginning of the week we welcomed Capt. Rick and Renee from Ohio. They stayed for two nights to relax after a hectic trip in Costa Rica. While they were here, Capt. Rick (Captain in the coast guard) fished for their dinner and here he is with his catch...

(You can read his guestbook comment here)

Once Capt. Rick and Renee left, we took the opportunity to get some yard work done: watering the grass and plants around the guesthouse, weeding, and general clean-up. We try not to bother our guests with that kind of stuff to provide the most serene experience possible. However, the guesthouse has been booked solid since before Christmas, so there's been little time to maintain the grounds. It felt good to catch up.

Then on Thursday, Kevin and I decided to take a break, hop on the ATV (quad) and go for a ride. There's a road between Copey and Santa Maria that leads to a coffee plantation and apparently a German community. After three and a half years, we finally decided to check it out. Considering how close it is, it's hard to believe we haven't yet explored the area.

The road is very rough, fit for an ATV or a horse. I'm not sure how they drive any trucks up the steep, rocky terrain. It seems completely impossible. And to think some of our guests feel our road is scary. They ain't seen nothing.

It was fun to get off the property and discover something new. We didn't find any particular community, there were houses sprinkled here and there, but no village per se. In these parts, a village consists of a school, a soccer field and a church at the very least. And we saw none of those.

From this perspective, it seems like the road is flat; however, we're driving down at quite a steep angle. I had to dig my feet into the foot rest and engage my core to keep my balance and to prevent me from sliding right into Kevin. Riding an ATV is quite a workout, but a lot more fun. We're always dead tired when we get home.

The tiered coffee fields looked impressive. We saw tiny coffee plants that one would think are too small to produce fruit, but they were full of small red berries.

This is the view of Santa Maria in the distance from the top of the mountain.

On the way back down, we stopped on a bridge to admire this lovely, clean river. And then we headed home. It was a lovely little journey.

On Friday, we spent the afternoon getting new tires installed on our SUV. We also got the oil changed and new filters and so forth. Our baby is running like new. It felt like a productive week, getting things checked off our to-do list... with a little R&R, too.