I apologize for the update you received that was actually a duplicate of what you've already received a while back. I was adding a Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Contact Page on our blog and FeedBurner sent an update to each of the subscribers.

As you can see, my last entry was the middle of February. I still have a lot of information and photos to share about our experiences from mid-February until the end of May when we returned to Canada.

I'm currently putting together a new Blog for our upcoming trip to Chile and I'm not sure if I will have the opportunity to bring our Costa Rica Blog up to date before we leave on November 4th. If not, I will come back later and bring it up to date.

If you want to follow us as we travel through Chile, I invite you to visit our new site and subscribe to the automatic updates.

Our New Site Is 

www.RandieAndMarisaTravelBlog.com

I'd love your feedback and comments on the look of the site. I'm still working on putting it together.

Beth and Robby, a couple we met recently, invited us to a pot luck dinner. Jo, the woman living in the upstairs unit of the duplex where Beth and Robby were staying, and Dan who Randie met on his way into town one day, were also invited. The people in the picture from left to right are: Jo, Robby, Beth, Dan and me. Randie, of course, is taking the photo.

Check out what Dan brought!

All the food was amazing. Take a look at my plate!

We had such a wonderful time. It’s amazing how much socializing we are doing here in Costa Rica…and so spontaneous…we love it!

After staying at Hotel Colinas del Sol for just over 2 months, it was time to move. The house we were renting was previously booked from January to March of 2011. We arranged to stay at our friend Barbara’s home for about 2 1/2 weeks and then go to Nicaragua for our "90 day visa run"…will share more about this later.  Barbara had to go back to the states so it worked out well for us to stay in her home and look after her 4 cats while she was gone. Here is a picture of her 4 precious ‘furballs’.

Barbara also has a dog, Morgan who she arranged to leave with her gardener since he was having some health challenges and we were not comfortable taking care of him.  Here’s Morgan.

Barbara lives in a beautiful 2 bedroom home with a pool and an amazing view. We were grateful to have the opportunity to stay here since our next rental would not be available until February 1st.

Randie cooked a great meal for all of us the day we moved in and it was such a beautiful night, we ate outside. Barbara’s friend, Karen joined us for dinner. (Karen is on the left and Barbara on the right.)

Our friend Grace went back to Canada on the 28th so she was not able to join us for New Year’s Eve. We enjoyed our time together and we’re glad she enjoyed her first trip to Costa Rica. Here she is ready to be taken to the airport.

We were invited to a Pot Luck, New Year’s Eve dinner by Vera, the woman originally from Brazil who we met while looking at her rental property.  We only spent about 15 minutes with her about a week ago and we really connected. Here’s Vera with her dog.

Vera also knows our friends Margaret and Steve and they were also invited. I just love the picture of Margaret as she almost knocked down the wine glass. The cake she made was delicious!

When we got to Vera’s home we saw Cynthia who we met a while ago. She ended up renting one of the units at Vera’s and was also part of the New Year’s celebration. The other woman who was invited, Marianna (on the right) is originally from Italy and she doesn’t speak much English. Somehow, everyone was able to communicate with one another.

We even managed to get a picture of the two of us. Happy New Year! 

At the end of the evening, Marianna was kind enough to drive us home.

We went for a walk today to show Grace our neighbourhood. There are so many beautiful flowering bushes around here.

Grace took us out for dinner at La Trocha, the outdoor restaurant where Randie took me for my birthday…Great food! We asked the waiter to take a photo since Randie takes most of the photos and is not in many of them. As you can see from what we are wearing, it can get chilly at night here. 

Our friends Penny and Craig invited us to their home for dinner on Christmas Eve. We had turkey and lots of other great food. We really enjoyed our time with them and look forward to spending more time with them over the next few months.

Grace brought a very tasty Christmas cake for dessert.

Penny and Craig have 4 cats. Here’s Penny holding one of her "babies."

We were invited by our friends Margaret and Steve to join them and some of their other friends for a pot-luck lunch on Christmas Day. We had another great Turkey with many side dishes. Margaret is very creative and even made name card holders. Take a look at the beautiful table display!

Steve is in the blue T-shirt and his wife Margaret is in the photo on the right in the white dress. We had a wonderful time and feel so blessed to have so many great friends here in Costa Rica.

The children’s Christmas Party was organized by a group of volunteers. This was the day all the children who were part of the Angel Tree program came together to not only receive their gifts, but to be entertained and to receive some treats. Here are a few of the volunteers getting all the gifts organized on the stage. 

Here is a picture showing the hundreds of children and their parents waiting to get inside. 

When the children first arrived, they received half a banana, an apple, a juice box and a slice of pizza. Penny and I helped serve the pizza.

The kids were absolutely adorable, not to mention incredibly well behaved!

Although the clown was there to entertain the kids, Penny and I got a picture with him.

Everyone had lots of fun, especially the children!

We decided to take the bus with our friend Penny to Alajuela to do some shopping. Alajuela is a larger city and is about a 40 minute bus ride from Atenas. Penny and I sat together on the bus and Randie sat across the aisle from us. When Penny and I got off the bus we thought Randie was right behind us. We then noticed that he was talking a long time to get off the bus. When I looked toward the back door of the bus, it looked like a lady was on the ground and I assumed Randie was helping her. Randie then got off the bus and realized his wallet was gone. Of course, the people who staged this incident were nowhere in sight.

As it turned out professional thieves staged a scene on the bus where a lady pretended to lose an earing and she bent down feeling around the floor right in front of Randie so he couldn’t get off the bus. Two men were pushing him from behind and he was doing his best not to fall on the lady in front of him. As he was trying to keep his balance, the men from behind must have taken his wallet out of his back pocket and then left through the front door. Although it was not a pleasant experience for any of us, we all felt grateful that no one was hurt or physically threatened during the incident.

A security guard at the bus station could see that we needed help and when he understood what had happened, he called the police for us. When 3 police officers arrived on foot a few moments later, Randie explained what happened and they said they would escort us to the police station where they would fill in a police report. We followed them through town to the station. Once we arrived at the station, they had us wait for another officer who came and filled in the report. They said it was unlikely they would ever find the thieves and that it is best to keep your wallet in your front pocket since this happens a lot, especially around bus stations. We asked if we could call the credit card companies from the police station to cancel the cards right away and were told that the telephone lines at the station were not wired for long distance calls. All the officers were extremely friendly and supportive.

Here is a photo of the sign outside of the police station and another photo of the officer filling out the police report.

Needless to say, we decided it would be best to go back to Atenas so Randie could call the credit card companies and report his stolen credit cards. When we got to the bus station we were happy to see the bus to Atenas was there and would be leaving shortly. When we got back to Atenas we went to a restaurant that had WiFi so Randie could call the credit card companies right away with my iphone through Skype and we could also have lunch before walking home. 

Overall, Randie handled this whole experience very well, even before he ordered the large beer you can see below. 

We attended a fundraising event with our friend Penny to raise money for medical expenses for a member of the community. 

There was a great turnout and even Santa Claus dropped by for a visit.

The event took place at Kay’s Postres. In addition to regular Wednesday Women’s Luncheons, Sunday Brunch and Salad Bar a few days a week, Kay is famous for her desserts. You can even drop by to pick up a good book and drop one off that you are finished with.