After stocking up with goods at Price Smart and a local grocery store, we left Margarita’s mid-afternoon with a full load…our new pickup was loaded to the max! Along the way, we stopped at a fruit stand and bought ripe mangoes, cantaloup, small watermelon, jack fruit, pineapple and something that looked good, but we don’t know what it is, yet. It all cost $10.00 (and that was most likely the gringo price). We barely managed to fit it into the truck!

It took us a little over 3 hours to arrive at our rental house. It’s an easy drive and we made great time!  Lopez, the caretaker, was ready for us. He is from Colombia and doesn’t speak English, but I can understand his Spanish quite well. He showed us around and helped us unload our many pieces of luggage.  I wonder what he thought about that. We started to settle in…hook up the computer, our Magic Jack phone and look around.  I was disappointed in the kitchen as there isn’t much there, but the ample closet and storage space makes up for it!  It was a long day, so we made do with a left over burrito for Eddie and PB&J sandwich for me for dinner.  We didn’t even bother trying to unpack much.

This morning after a delicious breakfast of fresh fruit and scrambled eggs, I spent most of the time unpacking and getting organized. While I was doing this, Eddie was harvesting bananas!  I had no idea what he was doing until he called me from the front door wanting me to see his bounty. It was pretty impressive.

Eddie with his “catch” of bananas

Bananas hanging to fully ripen

(From Eddie):  Knowing we had a dozen or so banana trees down the hill from our house, I was curious about how to take advantage of the delicious fruit.  So, of course, I Googled “How to harvest bananas” and soon became an expert on the subject.  I surveyed the trees and found a bunch that were mature and ready to be cut.  Needing a way to cut them down, I located a machete outside our caretaker’s casita and proceeded to whack at the stalk several times to free them from the tree.  Now, we have the bunch hanging under the eve of the house to fully ripen.  So, come on down to Costa Rica and I will give you a banana!

stay tuned….more to follow….