Still no internet. 

We do now have a data card and the hope is that if we sit in just the right spot up on the hill, we'll be able to receive a signal. We tried today, but the lines must be down as we didn't have cell phone reception either. We'll try again tomorrow. Such a roller coaster ride of emotion. 

Still no internet

After saying goodbye to Santiago and Adrian, we found a 'ferreteria' which is a hardware store here. Although it ain't no Home Depot (which we use to affectionately call 'the mistress'), Kevin was in heaven. This tiny, crowded store is stocked full of a mishmash of things. Yet again, we found someone who spoke English. His name is Sixto and he learned English in Minnesota. If a Costa Rican speaks and understands English, you can bet they went to school or worked in the United States for a couple of years. 

Still no internet. 

While we were waiting for Adrian to make the copies, Santiago, in his best English, said that we would like to come visit our farm to see if we could be part of the cooperative. He also told us that in the next year, San Marcos is looking to add a canopy (zip lining) tour and create a tourist hub between the Dota region and Quepos, which is on the Pacific side near Manuel Antonio National Park. He also said that selling trout is a very good business. That was encouraging on both fronts. Our bed & breakfast could benefit from the tourist traffic and knowing we can sell our fish through the coop is fantastic.

Still no internet. 

Then, we met with Santiago who didn't speak a word of English. It felt like we were in a Hollywood movie as they typically portray Central America. We sat in a darkly wood panelled room with very poor lighting. The old man across from us had a handbook and he started to write a list of sorts... it could have been his grocery list for all we know, but we sat there for several minutes in complete silence. Eventually, he looked up as us as if to say 'okay, so, what can I do for you?' ... sure hope we're not paying him by the hour! We tried our best to explain and that's when he got up and beckoned Adrian to come in to help translate. This is how it goes here. There always seems to be one person in each building that can speak just enough English to help us. They made copies of our documents and after a lot of back and forth about our cash flow, they told us to come back on Monday morning. 

Still no internet.

Kevin and I decided to go into San Marcos to open a bank account at the National Bank, which is a much larger bank than the cooperative. We've been told they can to wire transfers, which is what we need to bring our money from Canada to Costa Rica. Well, as I've stated before, nothing is simple here. The bureaucracy can be quite funny if you can stand back and see it as an onlooker. While sitting in the chair, however, trying to explain what we need, is tedious and frustrating, but someone always comes to the rescue. The teller went to get someone who can speak English. Vanessa introduced herself and made the process much easier. She looked over all our documentation and she was pleased to see we were so prepared; however, we needed to get all of them signed by a notary public up the street. Of course, the 4 signatures that we already have aren't enough, we need one more to seal the deal. She kindly drew a map of where we needed to go and off we went. 

Still no internet.

No school today since the teacher was sick. I did some laundry, which is a whole adventure onto itself. We went for our morning walk with Frankie up our property. She's getting the routine down pat. Martin and Nacho arrived at their usual 7 am start time and Nacho finished cementing the wall in the pond. That's a good job done. And Martin cut the grass and cleared all the messy bit with the weed wacker. They are both very hard workers and always aiming to please us. We're lucky to have them as our workers, but more importantly as our new friends. 

Still no internet. 

We drove further south to that little town called San Gerardo. The road is mostly paved and is full of twists and turns down a steep valley. It's quite touristy with lots of hotels and cabinas for rent. Near the bottom there's a beautiful resort so we went in to have a look, and get some ideas as the property is similar to ours. It has fish ponds and is located beside a rushing river. It's a very nicely manicured resort and very much caters to a North American clientèle, I would imagine. Our bed and breakfast is meant to be a bit more private, but there was lots of inspiring ideas. Mostly, we learned there's a thriving business employing many people and the resort is even more remote than our property, so it gives us hope that we can build something special and people will come. 

Still no internet.

Same morning routine as the last few days. After lunch, we drove to the Costa Rica Fish Institute to see if we could find it. We did find it and were able to have a look at the operation. Two men greeted us, and with my broken Spanish, I asked all the questions we had. They were very helpful and showed us around. We'll go back in November when we're ready to fill the ponds. Good find. Then we went and spoke to a woman at the Quetzal National Park to see how much it costs to go into the park. It's free to walk around on you're own, and costs $16 to hire a guide whether you are a couple or a large group of people. We were asking so we can recommend places for our guests to go visit. She was very helpful. She told us that it's 8 kms to walk the short trail and over 16 kms to walk (with a guide) the longer trails. There's one trail that is apparently quite steep in parts and winds its way to the waterfall in San Gerardo. We thought that was pretty interesting and hope to do it one day. We learned about an animal called the danta. It looks like a tapir. I don't know how big tapirs get, but dantas are about 4 feet tall and 6 feet long! Thank goodness they only eat vegetation. They are not harmful to people unless you stand directly in their path. If a danta charges, all you need to do is step sideways to get out of their way... they are too big to turn around... they will simply keep going straight (very good to know). And the park is known for sightings of  the elusive quetzal. We have quetzals on our property, but we have yet to see any.

Tonight it's raining very hard. We had several power shortages today and I'm not sure if we'll make it through the night without a few more. I had a nice hot bath and watched the lightning through the window. It was quite the show... who needs t.v. Kevin was tired and went to bed at 8:30 pm while I decided to stay up and write. The rain is now pounding on our roof and the river is gushing down. We've been told the river can swell during the wet season. We'll have to keep a watchful eye.

After lunch, Kevin and I went back to San Marcos and asked Nacho to join us so he could help translate to Milagro what we needed. While she was working on the chip, Kevin and Nacho went out for pizza and I stayed and checked my emails, paid some final bills and went on facebook again. I even had a chat with Phoenix who happened to be online at the same time. That felt really good. It made me happy, happy, happy.