Our First Boarder Run - Nicaragua

 Last weekend we made our first boarder run. We need to do this every 90 days till we are able to put in for residency (which is another blog post in and of itself)

We heard about a great tour to Rio Indo Lodge (http://www.therioindiolodge.com) 

It was an incredible adventure and one we will not forget, if ever. Yea, that memorable.

I want to share what Tracye wrote about our trip, she does a great job of nailing it. 

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I am posting pictures of the beautiful very remote jungle lodge we flew to today, had lunch, returned home and are good to go for another 90.

Let's just say it was an adventure! I have never ridden in a plane that small, a lot of praying there and back was going on. 

We landed deep in the jungles of Nicaragua on a remote air strip about a mile off the Caribbean coast.

This is the lobby of the Rio Indio Lodge. This place is nice!

There are raised walkways all over because the lodge is in the middle of a rain forest.

 

 The Rio Indio Lodge

When we arrived we were greeted by military with armed machine guns; the guys were nice though, (thankfully). Once we were stamped in, we walked a nice trail to our waiting boat to be taken to the lodge up river. The only way in our out was by plane or boat. I am not kidding when I say reeeemote.

We arrived at the lodge after the short boat ride and it truly was an oasis in the midst of some of the wildest habitat I have ever been in. Beautiful just does not quite describe it. We were served coffee and a light snack then walked around the property...amazing. We saw poison dart frogs sitting on stumps; walk on the water lizards, a howler monkey sleeping way up in the canopy, and gorgeous birds.

A poison arrow frog, there were a lot of them on the forest floor.

This is a lizard that when it is scared, it can run across the water. 

We did not get to see the 19 foot gator that hangs out at the dock waiting for fish to be thrown to him...maybe next time.

After our tour of the lodge we were served an amazing lunch of fish, rice, veggies and salads. We had to hurry a tad as the weather was becoming questionable, so after lunch we loaded up on the boat and headed back to the airport.

We get back to the airport (a strip of pavement in the middle of dense jungle and a small building). We go into to get our passports stamped and pay our fees) uh ..oops somebody changed the rules and it is going to cost everyone an extra $20.00 US to leave (NO ONE had it) … It was a tad unnerving as we stood there watching the armed guys shaking their head no, they will not take CR money…only dollars and no one has any. At this point I am wondering…how deep the doo doo is gonna get … I was a tad nervous.

Fortunately the owner of the lodge had ridden back with us to see us off and was able to convince the guards after about 20 minutes if discussion to accept our CR money as payment since no one was informed about this “increase” in fees….oh and FYI Saturday and Sunday’s will cost you a dollar to get into Nicaragua and 70 to get out.

We were finally done and began boarding the tiny plane. I was relieved to be on the plane and not standing in a remote airstrip wondering how I was going get out. The ride home was a tad bumpy (storm clouds) but all in all it was a fun trip…quite the adventure and we now have this 90 days done!

Pura Vida

We Moved In - Our First Weekend in Our New Home

Tracye at our friends house relaxing

We have finally gotten our keys to our house and our car and we are now officially living in our rental home here in Costa Rica.

We have enjoyed getting to know Costa Rica and her little nuances she has to offer.

Friday

We went to the feria (the local farmers market) and picked up some food and then got some essentials at Coopatenas, the local grocery store.

We took all that back to our friends house and then went and picked up the keys to our house and car. Talk about being excited.

We unloaded the cars and have suitcases all over the living room but we got our internet up and running. That should show you our priorities there... grin.

I have been working on some news to send out and I am having a dickens of a time with the Prophezine website. It just does not want to play right. So after a lot of frustration I give up. It is time to shut down and take a shower. What we do not know is that the water company is doing work on the pipes and they turn the water off around 7 - 8 PM at night.

No showers tonight Maynard.

You have got to be kidding. Both of us were looking forward to a nice shower.

Now, they did turn the water back on at 4:30 AM because I had to get up and turn off the running shower after it grumbled and growned then starting running.

Went back to bed and caught more zzzz's.

Saturday

I got up around 7:30 in the morning and started making coffee. Got the water boiled and poured it into my french press.

To my dismay, my french press was damaged in the last leg of the trip. OH NOO... No Coffee.

Thank goodness Tracye had the foresight to get a coffee sock. She likes making coffee in the sock vs the french press.

Whew... a bad day due to no coffee has been averted. Thank you Tracye.

We had a great cup of coffee and I cut up some fresh fruit that we bought at the feria for breakfast.

We sat here in our wonderful kitchen answering emails and listening to the new sounds. There are parrots outside making noise along with other birds. I go to put my bowl in the sink and that is when I notice we have a sugar ant invasion.

These are those microscopic ants that invade by the millions. We were able to catch the invasion at around a couple hundred thousand.

Yes they were all over and would not go away.

That is till I reverted back to my high school chem and biology classes.

See, ants are blind and they are acidic creatures. How they get around is by following the trails of acid laid by the scouts.

So how do you get rid of sugar ants?

You use "AXION... EL VERDADERO ARRANCAGRASA - or in English "The Real Grease Stripper." (Note - to get the full effect, this needs to be said in your best Spanish radio announcer voice and it helps if you speak into an empty metal garbage can... try it, it works.)

Folks, this is some of the best dish washing soap on the planet. What is great is that it even works in cold water. Which is what most kitchen sinks have here in Costa Rica, luke warm coldish water. Hot water is not very common in most kitchens except for US American homes who have installed a hot water heater.

See some of the main ingredients in this soap is magnesium and sodium. For those of you who took chemistry in school, you know these as "base metals" and react harshly to "acids."

Want to get rid of ants which are acidic in nature? Use something that kills the acid, which is AXION!

We have not had the ants return yet and it has been two days.

Saturday afternoon was pretty uneventful.

Well not quite.

We went for an early dinner at the worlds best pizza parlor, Ristorante Pizzeria Alida.

Folks, I am a huge pizza snob. I used to help manage a pizza parlor in the SF bay area that constantly won best pizza in all of the San Fransisco Bay Area. For those of you who may be wondering, the place was called Fargo's Pizza and it was located in Mountain View, CA.

Well, Alida's pizza is to die for. They make everything from scratch. Alida tosses the dough and gets it so paper thin that you can almost see through it.

She then lays down just a little of their sauce and then piles the ingredients on. My mouth is watering just thinking of it.

This is the best pizza I have had in a very long time. PROMISE - if you come down for a visit, we will take you to Alida's. You will love it too.

Sunday

We got the chance to go to church here in Atenas. Once a month they have an English / Spanish sermon and it was nice meeting a lot of the expats.

It was neat being in church here. Many of the songs we knew already, but were in Spanish. So you could sing along in English if you know all the words.

What is great is that you see the love of the Lord and you know that you are brothers and sisters in the Lord. Even though there are language barriers, the holy spirit is there and the body is one.

So we sat and we enjoyed our first church service here in Costa Rica and then later went out to Don YaYo's for some lunch.

Tracye had the taco plate and I had the typical blue plate special AKA Casado which means "married" in Spanish. This is a typical dish that every restaurant has. It usually has some sort of pork or chicken, with rice, beans, salad, fried plantains, a potato hash, and maybe another spoonful of something.

It is called Casado because the wives in the morning would fix a meal that would last their men during a hard days work. Every restaurant has their own spin on the meal and Don Yayo's is famous for their Chicharona's. Chicharona is fried pork belly with a little fat. The same area that bacon is made from, but with more meat. It was pretty good. Again, forgot to take pictures of the food. We need to do that so that folks can see what they are missing.

We then came home and have been hanging out on the interent. I was chatting with PZ Insider Kaye and her husband. They are the first PZ Folks to come down and visit us. Looks like they will be moving down as well.
It is now 4:40 Sunday afternoon.

Our first weekend in our new home has been a blessing. There is a lot we still have to learn, but we take the road bumps on at a time and even though they might be a hassle, it is nice knowing that we are where the Lord has led us. We are living a simple life. The moment we stepped off the plane and got in the van with our driver Alex, we felt what we have been calling the "foreboding feeling" just melt away.

Pura Vida! - To the good life.

Day 19 - Guest Post - Should You Move To Another Country To Escape The Collapse Of America? 10 Questions To Ask Yourself First

 By Michael Snyder

Why are so many people leaving the United States right now?  Over the past couple of years, an increasing number of Americans have decided that moving to another country is the best way to prepare for the collapse of America. 

According to the U.S. State Department, an all-time record of more than 6 million Americans are now working or studying overseas.  Of course many of those that have left the country do not believe that the U.S. economy is going to collapse, but without a doubt there are an increasing number of preppers that believe that now is the time to "escape from America" while they still can.  And certainly there are a lot of reasons why the U.S. is becoming less appealing with each passing day.  

In addition to our economic problems, crime is on the rise in our cities, our liberties and freedoms are being eroded at a frightening pace, political correctness is wildly out of control, and our corrupt politicians continue to make things even worse.  But is life really that much better in the rest of the world?  The sad truth is that life in most other nations is more difficult than it is in the United States.  Yes, there are some nations that are relatively stable and that look promising at first glance, but the truth is that moving to another country is never easy.  If you plan to do it, there are some hard questions that you need to ask yourself first.

If you plan to move permanently to another nation, it would be wise to visit first.  The way that things work in a foreign country is often very, very different from how things work in the United States.  If you are not accustomed to being in a foreign culture, it can feel like your whole world is being turned upside down.

But of course it is definitely possible to make a successful transition to another culture.  Millions of Americans have done it.  The following is from a recent RT article...

Ever dream of leaving it all behind and heading out of America? You’re not the only one. A new study shows that more US citizens than ever before are living outside of the country.
According to statistics from the US State Department, around 6.4 million Americans are either working or studying overseas, which Gallup says is the largest number ever for such statistic.
The polling organization came across the number after conducting surveys in 135 outside nations and the information behind the numbers reveal that this isn’t exactly a longtime coming either — numbers have skyrocketed only in recent years. In the 24 months before polling began, the number of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 living abroad managed to surge from barely 1 percent to over 5.1 percent. For those under the age span wishing to move overseas, the percentage has jumped in the same amount of time from 15 percent to 40.

But picking up and moving to a foreign nation is not something to be done lightly.

The following are 10 questions to ask yourself before you decide to move to another country...

Do You Speak The Language?  If Not, How Will You Function?

If you do not speak the language of the country that you are moving to, that can create a huge problem.  Just going to the store and buying some food will become a challenge.  Every interaction that you have with anyone in that society will be strained, and your ability to integrate into the culture around you will be greatly limited.

How Will You Make A Living?

Unless you are independently wealthy, you will need to make money.  In a foreign nation, it may be very difficult for you to find a job - especially one that pays as much as you are accustomed to making in the United States.

Will You Be Okay Without Your Family And Friends?

Being thousands of miles away from all of your family and friends can be extremely difficult.  Will you be okay without them?  And it can be difficult to survive in a foreign culture without any kind of a support system.  Sometimes the people that most successfully move out of the country are those that do it as part of a larger group.

Have You Factored In Weather Patterns And Geological Instability?

As the globe becomes increasingly unstable, weather patterns and natural disasters are going to become a bigger factor in deciding where to live.  For example, right now India is suffering through the worst drought that it has experienced in nearly 50 years.  It would be very difficult to thrive in the middle of such an environment.

Many of those that are encouraging people to "escape from America" are pointing to Chile as an ideal place to relocate to.  But there are thousands of significant earthquakes in Chile each year, and the entire nation lies directly along the "Ring of Fire" which is becoming increasingly unstable.  That is something to keep in mind.

What Will You Do For Medical Care?

If you or someone in your family had a serious medical problem in the United States, you would know what to do.  Yes, our health care system is incredibly messed up, but at least you would know that you could get the care that you needed if an emergency arose.  Would the same be true in a foreign nation?

Are You Moving Into A High Crime Area?

Yes, crime is definitely on the rise in the United States.  But in other areas where many preppers are moving to, crime is even worse.  Mexico and certain areas of Central America are two examples of this.  And in many foreign nations, the police are far more corrupt than they generally are in the United States.

In addition, many other nations have far stricter gun laws than the United States does, so your ability to defend your family may be greatly restricted.

So will your family truly be safe in the nation that you plan to take them to?

Are You Prepared For "Culture Shock"?

Moving to another country can be like moving to a different planet.  After all, they don't call it "culture shock" for nothing.

If you do move to another country, you may quickly find that thousands of little things that you once took for granted in the U.S. are now very different.

And there is a very good chance that many of the "amenities" that you are accustomed to in the U.S. will not be available in a foreign nation and that your standard of living will go down.

So if you are thinking of moving somewhere else, you may want to visit first just to get an idea of what life would be like if you made the move.

What Freedoms and Liberties Will You Lose By Moving?

Yes, our liberties and our freedoms are being rapidly eroded in the United States.  But in many other nations around the world things are much worse.  You may find that there is no such thing as "freedom of speech" or "freedom of religion" in the country that you have decided to move to.

Is There A Possibility That The Country You Plan To Escape To Could Be Involved In A War At Some Point?

We are moving into a time of great geopolitical instability.  If you move right into the middle of a future war zone, you might really regret it.  If you do plan to move, try to find a country that is likely to avoid war for the foreseeable future.

When The Global Economy Collapses, Will You And Your Family Be Okay For Food?

What good will it be to leave the United States if you and your family run out of food?

Today, we are on the verge of a major global food crisis.  Global food reserves are at their lowest level in nearly 40 years, and shifting global weather patterns are certainly not helping things.

And the global elite are rapidly getting more control over the global food supply.  Today, between 75 and 90 percent of all international trade in grain is controlled by just four gigantic multinational food corporations.

But grain is not the only thing that the food giants control.  Just check out the following statistics from a recent Natural News article...

The paper said three mega-multinationals now control better than 40 percent of global coffee sales, for example. Eight companies control the supply of cocoa and chocolate. Seven control the lion's share - 85 percent - of tea production. Five multinationals control three-quarters of the world banana trade. And the largest half-dozen sugar traders account for about 66 percent of world trade, the new report by the Fairtrade Foundation said.

The elite are also buying up food producing real estate all over the globe.  That is why farmland prices in the United States have been absolutely skyrocketing lately.

The people that run the world are rapidly getting a stranglehold over the global food supply.

So wherever you end up - whether it is in the United States or in another country - you will need to make sure that you can provide enough food for you and your family to live on independently of the system.

These are all things to think about when considering whether or not to move out of the United States.