Living in the Clouds

I have been blessed to live in many beautiful places in the world. Usually, I could find the silver lining in the clouds no matter where I lived. Ok, dry hot Texas was a bit of a challenge but who can complain about the hill country. I even joked when I lived in New Jersey that it was the "promise land". Before retiring, I had dreamed living out west somewhere in a rural community enjoying God's amazing creation. Well, Costa Rica is not exactly out west but God's creation is certainly on display 24 hours a day.

One statement Lori hears several times a day, hey, come look at the clouds, or check out this view. There are many challenges living so far from home, so far from shopping centers, dealing with the heavy rains and mud, language barriers but finding the silver lining in the clouds here is very easy. Ps 19 says, the heavens declare the glory of God. How true that is.

Technically I have been told we do not live in a rain forest due to the actual amount of rain we recieve but we live in a cloud forest. A cloud forest is a very good description of our little piece of Costa Rica. At times we live in the clouds, above the clouds and there is never a day without clouds.

One early morning

Another cloudy morning, but who is complaining

Most of the time our view is "clouded" over, but not this day

Sunset in Paso Marcos

Dirt and Dust

Moving into a new house is exciting. We have been blessed way beyond we could imagine. Jonathan, our son-in-law designed a comfortable, smart house for living in a cloud forest. The house is more beautiful than I could have dreamed cradled high up on the mountain side with an amazing view of the river valley and volcano. Believe me, I (Dan) am like a kid on Christmas morning excited to see what beautiful sky scrape God has painted for us each day.

One little drawback is we were living in a partially completed house. We moved when the two bedrooms and bathrooms were done. We had to wait an extra two weeks before we had hot water in the showers. We washed our plates in the laundry room or outside. One hassle with moving in early was dealing with the dust and dirt of daily construction. The worst was the highly refined dust from sanding the fibrolit (dry-wall). Slowly and surely more and more work has been accomplished. Kitchen cabinets were delivered, kitchen sinks installed (what a happy day that was), additional doors and windows made, extra bedroom/office completed and the cupola sealed and varnished.

Other niceties were when the railing around the house was finished. The dogs could no longer play and tramp mud over the covered porch. Additional stairs were built up to the patio, and we put down sod that has really helped with the mud.

Construction is almost complete. All the little details are slowly being completed. We have made little corrections like adding more downspouts to keep up with the heavy down pours that are common. Our prayer is this house will be a place of peace, joy and God be glorified in our house.

Living while under construction

Here, Lori is trying to keep our one room free of dust.

Before we had cabinets and a kitchen sink.

The railing keeps the dogs out of the house. AMEN!

Moving In--Real Soon

We hope to be moving in our new house sometime next week. It has been an interesting two weeks. Giovanny, our builder has started work on another house and he has turned the house over to his assistant. The transition has gone very well.

Tatto and his crew, Fernando and Llillo

Our new team has scrambled to get all the doors and sliding doors in place so the house will be secure. They have worked hard getting the Master Bedroom and Dustin's room completed so we have a place to sleep. We might not get paint on the walls but at least all the sanding and dusty work will be done.

We have the front sliding door on our house

There is water and the gutters up. Gutters are important since rainy season has already started. Half of our kitchen cabinets should be in place in a week or two. There are a ton of small details to take care but that is ok. Just like learning a new language, growing roots in a foreign country and moving into a new house, everything occurs poco a poco (little by little).

One of Dustin's windows. Everything was made here on the property

Lori designed our bathroom with a little help from Judith

Our good friend Michelle,
(the gardner was back again this year)
helped put in a couple of gardens.
Thanks Michelle!!!

As you can imagine, we are truly blessed and excited to move into our house.
(visitors are welcome)

Escape to the Other Side of the Volcano

We all need to get away at times, and Lori and I finally found some time to celebrate our upcoming anniversary. Our anniversary is not until the end of this month but with building a house and everything else going on, getting away is not easy.

We wanted to find a place different than our environment here without driving 4-6 hours to get to the beach. On our travels from San Jose to Paso Marcos we found an alternate route in which we escape the slow trucks and traffic. This route is high above the traffic and we enjoy the cool mountain air. We figured we could find a place to stay in one of those villages.


View of the Volcano from our hotel.

We found a place called Volcan Turrialba Lodge. It is 3 miles from the Volcano and 7 miles from the closest out of the way village called Pastora. Sounds great dosen't! This place was very reasonably priced and we had the place to ourselves (no other guests) except for the 1500 sheep and cattle on the nearby fields. The other cool thing about this place is that it was actually very cool. Volcan Turrialba Lodge sits around 8700 compared to 2000 feet above sea level by the Pacuare River.



Wonderful view of sunset

The reason why I called this article the other side of the volcano is because we can view the Turrialba volcano from our house on clear days. We live about 20 miles from the volcano as the crow flies. I felt like a little kid thrilled with excitment viewing something only seen in the news or magazines. We also got to see and smell first hand the volano's destructive nature, understand the different climates and geo systems in this amazing country.

We enjoyed the diverse terain during our 4 hour hike




The burnt side of the volcano where the
wind blows the dangerous smoke



Morning sun trying to penetrate
through the volcano's smoke

Clouds sweeping in underneath
the plume from the volcano.

Lori and I were very thankful for the time to get away and reflect on all that God has done in our lives.