All the visits

We have had a busy couple of months here. Tourist visas require us all to leave Costa Rica every 3 months and then come back in.  So Martha went back to Peru for a few weeks.

And we went back to Panama.  Here's the line between Panama and Costa Rica, on the bridge over the river that separates the two.

Going to Panama.

On the boat to Bocas del Toro.

Kids were super excited to see phone booths.

This time when we went to Bocas, no one was sick, so we got to go swimming a lot more.

We even went out to lunch one day (next to the water too).

Forest-y (and mosquito-y) walk on the way to a different beach.

Said beach.

Starfish

Dolfins

Chiquita banana boat on our way back to mainland.

On the buses back to Turrialba...

From the window.

Back in Turrialba, kids went back to school 

(picture of soccer during gym)

Eytan's class put on a production of Don Quixote

The second pineapple growing in our yard ripened

And there was a movie night in the school gym.

There was also a conference at CATIE where I spent a couple of days

which our friend Indira (who I work with in Pittsburgh) came to (and she and her mom and younger daughter all stayed with us)

We had Noa's belated half birthday party, where a friend of hers and a friend of Li'el's came over.

And Eytan went to a birthday party of a friend of his.

We went on walks

Saw large mushrooms now that the rainy season has really come

And took occasional trips to the playgrounds in town.

(on the shuttle bus to Turrialba)

Kids built mattress forts (which may have been more arguing over the rules than actual playing)

And I kept going on farther-out walks, trying to get to see all the different fields on and around campus.

(oropendula nests)

(sugar cane gathering carts)

In late June, Unc and Christy came to visit.

We did a visit to the cacao collection of CATIE's botanical garden.

Eytan and Li'el got to sing with a school group for a student arts festival.

Eytan got to try a spelling bee.

And Mike was a judge for one.

Eytan's class also went to an amusement park in San Jose as a pre-vacation celebration.

And there were several last-day-of-school-before-vacation parties.

Including mechanical bull.

The school year here is opposite calendar-wise from the U.S., so the long vacation between grades is the months of December and January, and in the U.S. summer there is a 3 week break here halfway through the school year.  During the break, one of Oren's good friends from Pittsburgh came to visit with his mom and grandma. We stayed here with them for a few days and also went to Monteverde, an area with lots of cloud forest on the other side of the country.

Quick beach stop on the way...

In the Santa Elena cloud forest reserve there was a really neat tower where you could see above the treetops and watch the clouds roll in and out.

(trying to taste the clouds)

Also lots of hikes

And a couple in our group were able to see a quetzal.

(the town of Santa Elena, next to Monteverde)

(red eyed tree frog statue)

We also went on a hike with a lot of waterfalls and suspension bridges.

And while we did not go ziplining (which Costa Rica is well known for), some of us (kids and Mike) did go on a bicycle zip line (you don't go fast, but you basically pedal a bicycle attached to cable lines over the tree tops).

When we got back to Turrialba, we celebrated Martha's birthday

And a few days later the fourth of July (more cake!)

We also went to an archaeological site near Turrialba

Monkeys!

And then walked along the road for a while looking for lunch while waiting for a bus back (didn't find lunch, but did find lots of snacks).

Played ball on the porch

And climbed the playground equipment nearby.

Went on a night tour at the botanical garden (frogs, spiders, etc.)

And when we went to get ice cream in La Susanita, the little town nearby, the family that sells the ice cream out of their home invited us to see their garden and gave us a big head of mustard greens (greens not pictured).

After friends left, there was a cheese festival for two weekends on campus

Which also included a mechanical bull

And the cutting of Costa Rica's first and second largest cheeses (230 kilos and 180 kilos respectively) for 2023.

Also parades.

And music.

Martha has started going a few days a week to bag-making classes (with recycled seat leather donated by Southwest airlines).

Over the break, Li'el got to go with her once too.

And then we went for a few days to Pocora and EARTH University (which is the place where we were originally supposed to be on my sabbatical in 2020, and where I have a little side work project).

On the way visited the homestay family/farm where we had stayed for a few days last year when we were in Costa Rica with my students.

(fish pond)

(train tracks to carry bananas from field to processing facility)

(the house where we stayed in 2015, when kids were way younger, when I took a class to EARTH).

The person I was working with most at EARTH had two kids who loved playing soccer, so there was a lot of that plus swimming and fusbol.

And I got to see some student presentations too here and there.

So these last weeks been packed with all sorts of happenings. And while vacation is done and kids have been back in school for a week, we are seeing the end in sight. Mike found a new job (in Pittsburgh) so he'll have to leave a few days before us, but all in all we have about a month left of our stay here. It's a little weird to leave in the middle of the school year here, and I think we will all miss lots of things (like racing through the campus tunnel on bikes), but also I think everyone is looking forward to starting school again stateside (3rd starting-of-the-school-year in a row!). There's still lots to wrap up before we leave, but soon enough I suppose we'll be on our way.