One week living in the lap of luxury, devouring books!

Cindy (Principal of Cloud Forest school and Amber's employer) and her family have gone to Panama by bus. She has generously offered us her house to stay in while they are away. They'll be gone for 8-9 days, back just in time for the new school term. If I hadn't mentioned it before, we had decided to stay in Monteverde so Amber can work at the school for another week. Cindy is delighted because this will give her time to suss out another sub teacher as there has yet been no word from Beverly.

We're living in the lap of luxury now! We got out of bed about 730am and lumbered hastily next door where Cindy lives (they left at 6am for Panama). SKY TV!! It must've taken me about 30 minutes just to run through all the channels. Then, we hooked up the Nintendo Wii and Amber had about 30 minutes on some sort of exercise game doing lunges and stuff. Then we went head to head in tennis which I won 3 times in a row. Woohoo, in your Face, Amber! :s

Cindy and Jason have an enticing collection books on a bookshelf. Amber already has a stack of books eagerly pulled out of the shelf to be more carefully studied later. I've already finished 'Raising Cain' which I started reading 3 days ago. I'm shocked that i'm able to go through a book so quickly! In truth, Raising Cain is mostly filled with case examples and finding it a tad repetitive I find myself skipping a few pages now and then. Also, I had noticed that bookshelf in Cindy's house when we first got here and timed finishing my book perfectly! I started on 'The Book of Job' (translated by William Blake) this morning, but the one I have right next to me here in the coffee shop is 'Sophie's World', a novel about the History of Philosophy. I am looking forward to getting fully lost in it tonight.

The LUMIX digital camera is in DHL office Costa Rica. It's been held hostage buy the local postal agency and the ransom is 35 972 colones (NZ$94). As I just explained to Reg earlier on facebook, my feeling is that the local ticos have taken advantage of discovering the english word "customs" and used it to charge us for importing the camera. Mum had already paid DHL close to NZ$100 for it to be shipped here, and now we're having to cough up another 100 bucks. Grr.

So we're holding off doing all the 'fun' stuff in Monteverde until we're able to capture it on camera just for YOU. So be grateful. I have researched the local attractions (Lonely Planet and a Tourist Info. Centre visit) and have come up with 3 must-dos/sees:

1. Selvatura Canopies. http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/canopy/costa-rica-canopy.htm
2. Sabine's Horses (Day horseback trek to Sta. Luis Waterfalls).
3. Monteverde Parque Reserve.

Cindy, in her seemingly infinate generosity has given us free passes to National Parks/Reserves all around Costa Rica (being affiliated with a school has its perks!). Amber says we should "milk this for all its worth", and I'm inclined to agree. Our first big hike will be in here in Monteverde (no.3 on our list).

Also, we've let Hari know that we want his place in Mal Pais and he's delighted to have found us (he doesn't like to be there during tourist season. He likes his quiet). I figure this probably means the rent we pay him will sustain him for that much longer up here in Monteverde and he'll probably head back in low-season (May). So we're pretty much got our accommodation sussed until our visa expires (3 month tourist visa) in late April. We will re-assess what we'll do closer to the date. Right now I'm just baffled over how these recent turn in events have worked out in our favor!