Welcome to our waterfalls and jungle trails!

The last post had Bill supervising a crew to build trails down to Solrisa’s waterfalls. The exciting news is that the crew cleared the path and cut earth stairs to the pools, making the way much easier. Consequently, Bill, Squirt and I took a hike.

The waterfalls are not very far away, only about a 20-minute hike, but it’s a steep trail. It’s well worth the effort the effort though. We have an upper and lower set of falls. The upper fall quickly slides down rocks into three refreshing pools. We are thinking of calling the upper fall Tres Charcas or Three Pools. The lower fall is much taller and wider, with one big pool and gigantic tree below it. Sorry, no pictures of the lower fall, but believe me, it's spectacular. It's a toss up for me whether I like the fall or the tree better. Together, they are a personal natural wonder.

The trails reveal the true beauty of a secondary low land jungle that is trying to rejuvenate itself from partial clearing which took place years before we owned the property.

Our plan for Solrisa, is to have rustic nature trails weaving in and out of the jungle so people can experience the sights, sounds and ocean views of this park-like jungle property.

The first fall

The deep, crystal clear second pool with the third pool in the background

A jungle path

Surrounded by Green

A Quick Update

Sorry if I left you hanging after the last entry. Bill is better, not 100%, but better. It’s too hard to make an entertaining story out of all that’s happened since my last blog, so I’ll just give you an update.

First of all, a lot of work goes into living in style in paradise. Bill is working 30 hours for Fluke and doing the development. I’m trying to keep things clean in a dirty construction zone, arranging for laborers and communicating in Spanish. I’m functional but my business vocabulary needs much improvement. We are interviewing for a new caretaker and conducting employment interviews in Spanish is just barely effective. I miss the nuances that my native tongue affords me.

Our partners, Larry and Bunny, arrived two weeks ago and have since left. To spite all of our efforts, the second cabin wasn’t quite as complete and homey as we would have liked for them. I’ve found that in this country, some things are best let go, like all of my expectations for getting things done in a timely and convenient manner. Things move at their own flow here. Trying to speed up the flow usually leads to frustration and failure.

It’s a scorcher today. We have a crew of three workers building retaining walls around the cabins. Ticos are generally the hardest working people that you’ll ever meet. I have so much respect for the workers and their extreme endurance as they toil ten-hour days of hard labor in this climate. Bill is supervising a crew of two who are blazing trails in the jungle so the general public (and I) can walk to our waterfalls. Real jungle exploration is not for me. If there is a trail in the jungle, I will walk it, but I will not forge a new one by swinging a machete. It’s a useful one and a half to three-foot sheathed knife that you wear around your waste. I use a machete for my gardening.

Squirt, our adopted dog, is all tuckered out today after following Bill into the jungle. She is a valiant little trooper. We finally took her to the vet to get her spayed. She a jungle hiking dog with stitches right now. She gets them removed on Friday. The Junglemobile was out of commission for about three weeks. It’s back in now with a rebuilt engine. I’m not even going to go into the woe that not having a car for a week and a half caused us. Let’s just say that although I had a ton of stuff to do in San Jose, it looks like there is no way that I am going to get to San Jose and back to Dominical again during this trip. That means that light fixtures can’t be installed and cabinets for the bathroom and kitchen won’t be installed anytime soon. It’s a small country, but feels isolated at times.

With Bunny and Larry, we did manage a trip to the duty free zone in Golfito. Only Costa Rica could create such a strange and chaotic shopping experience. The duty free zone is a razor wired walled compound of mostly electronic, appliance and liquor stores that give you about a thirty percent discount from regular prices.

Each party is allowed $500 of duty-free goods every six months. To do this, each person goes to the customs office and picks up a ticket for the amount of $500. The ticket is good for three months. Married couples can combine their purchases for a value of $1000, if a single item that they want to purchase costs over $500, but they should tell the customs agent this when they get their tickets, so the proper paperwork can be processed. The next day, after customs process your paperwork, you can begin shopping. As you purchase things, the value of the items you purchase is removed from the ticket. To take full advantage of the Golfito process, purchase until your ticket value is zero.

We were told that you could get everything for half price at Golfito, but we didn’t find it to be true except for liquor and booze. Golfito is a great deal for alcohol. After we paid for transportation of goods back to Dominical and hotel accommodations while we were there, the discounts were only about ten to twenty percent. Golfito got me away from the torture of our construction zone. We stayed in an air-conditioned motel with a swimming pool (a luxurious pleasure) and came back with enough Bailey’s Irish Cream and Mint Irish Cream to last the rest of the trip.

Random Pictures

A Cusinga, a smaller more colorful bird than the toucan.


A disguised Praying Mantis on a leaf of a plant on our balcony. We never know whose going to drop in around here.



Squirt in her new bed. Exhausted and hammy.

It’s a girl! – Puppy Update

Our temporarily adopted dog is coming along slowly but surely. She might steal our hearts yet. Her safety circle has been reduced to about three feet instead of twenty. She follows Bill around the property and has been all the way out to the end of the middle ridge with him, which is an amazing accomplishment for a dog whose legs are only six inches long. Other puppy-like behavior that she’s developed is that she occasionally carries away my slippers. We figure she’s not going to get much bigger. She is probably a toy Doberman mix.

She wants to be around us, but only on her own terms. She will sleep next to us in her box on the patio, yet she will not come to us of her own accord even with an encouraging, "Here girl!" On occasion, she will let us pet her, but she gets this tortured look on her face and runs away afterwards.

The electrician working on the cabins came up with a great name for the dog. Of course, there’s a story behind it.

Bill decided that the pooch needed a bath, so we prepared her tub - hose water in a wheel barrel with a little dish soap. Bill grabbed the unsuspecting dog while she was in her bed to carry her to the bath. Jorge, the electrician, was watching and laughing as the terrified dog proceeds to squeal like a pig and pee then poop all over Bill and the patio. As Jorge is witnessing the crazy gringos trying to help this dog that clearly doesn’t want to be helped, he yells out, "It’s a squirt!" We’ve been calling the dog Squirt ever since then. We both have to admit it is an apt name.

Isn't she cute? The Rescue Squirt Fund is accepting donations. Better yet, Squirt needs a home.

We’ve wanted to take Squirt to the vet to get her checked out and cleaned up for days now, but we haven’t had a car for a week! This is sometimes the most frustrating place. The barriers to getting things done around here are truly amazing. I’m beginning to think that the trick is to have no expectations of accomplishing anything. Then when you get something done, you’ll feel you’ve accomplished a small miracle.