My address

If you want to send me postcard and I'm not suggesting you do nor should you, but just for reference, my address is something along the following -

Carlos Beebe
The yellow house next to Walters Piscina Natural that was robbed 3x
Cahuita, Costa Rica

I think it would get here...


Editors Note: Piscina Natural means "natural pool". Pictures to follow.

Swimming Hole

Here is a collection of pictures of the backyard swimming hole and the Caribbean. The sun was a bit sketchy yesterday so they aren't the best and the water was still churned up from all the rain.

When the water clears it's a sand bottom pool deep enough to dive into in spots. Walter has a walk in area on his property as well and the white building you can faintly see in the background of one of the pictures is his.

Somewhere under the water there is a tunnel through the reef that you can swim through. Not sure if I'm up for that or not, but when it clears up, at least I will investigate.

Slept much better...

Last night I slept much better. The bat(s) were chirping up a bunch of noise around 10:25 pm so I told them to shut up or I was going to bang the side of the 2x6 they were nested behind with a stick! It seemed to work as they were quite for the rest of the night. Regardless the "notice of eviction" is going up today. There will be some space for subletting shortly. Tenant must be small and quite.

The "clammy" factor was only a modest 6 compared with the previous nights 8.5. The clammy factor works on the same 'factor of 10' scale as the Richter scale, so every .1 counts.

All the creatures outside the house - which will, from now on be referred to as "the ark", reasons forthcoming - were quiet. Chuck postulates that it is because we have been peeing off the second story balcony and have established a "territorial" perimeter around the house. In order to test this theory Chuck has tasked me with drinking all night at Walters until I have pee'd around the perimeter of the entire property, thus expanding our area of domination. This task I will have to do alone as Chuck M. doesn't drink anymore - or would that be anyMoore? Unless of course I can secure the company of the Swiss nannies?

The "ark" as I am now referring to it is the same "Caribbean" yellow inside downstairs, as it is outside. Ground floors tend to be block around here because termites are a problem.

The upstairs however is all wood, stained dark. There are no "inside" walls, only the wood siding on the outside (no need for insulation here), so I guess that makes the inside of the outside the inside? Between the wood, the exposed roof and the "flying hammock beds", with the addition of some inside clothes lines, it really does feel like and ark. Throw in the crashing of the waves on the reef and I feel like I'm at sea.

As soon as I replace the batteries in my camera I will upload some more pictures. Check back later today, as I have nothing else on my schedule for the week......

The sun still seems to be missing?!!

Reasons I couldn't sleep last night...

REASONS I COULDN'T SLEEP LAST NIGHT:

The rain on the corrugated roof made it seem like I was sleeping in a steel drum.

The bat in the corner (inside) was chirping all night.

The waves crashing on the beach 50' away made me think the house was getting washed away by a hurricane.

The frogs outside were croaking, the crickets were singing and the toucans were doing what ever toucans do.

The dogs next door were barking all night.

It was so humid I felt like I was sleeping inside a clam.

The air mattress was lumpy.

The Gilligan's Island suspended bed I was sleeping on made me sea-sick from all the rocking.

If I can think of any more later I'll be sure to let you know.


FUN FACTS I'VE DISCOVERED SO FAR:

Every house has a fence around it. Most are barb wire. If your house is so small you don't have any yard, then your veranda is fenced in and you have concertina wire on your roof so nobody can climb in your upstairs window. Usually people plant plants along the fence so it looks all natural, but underneath it is barb wire.

Everyone has a dog to eat strangers that come on the property to steal something.
Lock your door and windows every time you go out or else something will be missing when you get back.

The house Chuck and I are in was robbed 3x while it was empty. They stole the TV, the computer and the stereo. But most importantly, the A**holes stole the Mr. Coffee machine! You know how misadventures feels about his coffee....

You think my house looks nice (and I'll load up some more pictures shortly) you should see Walters next door. His is the Longwood Gardens of Costa Rica. He even has a bar on his property and the tab at the top of page 12 says Chuck!

Saturday Report

I'm sitting in the office (school) listening to Ted Hawkins (thanks Flash, and answer my email will you!). You will be happy to know that it is raining out, which isn't a big problem except for the fact that it rained yesterday and the day before that.

Even that wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact I'm way behind on reducing my gringo level - i.e. getting a tan. I'm not even a 'Beyonce brown' yet. Fact is I could probably get as tan as I am now in Philly in winter time. This is very disturbing to me because I can't come back to Philly in March without being at least 12x as dark - skin cancer be damned! Nobody will believe I was in Costa Rica, they will think it's all just some elaborate scam - me bouncing back and forth between Longwood Gardens and the Philly Zoo snapping pictures and touching them up with Photoshop.


We haven't moved in to the 'castle' yet because the electric co. didn't hook up the meter yesterday. We're moving in today regardless of the power status. Candles will work fine for a couple of days. We will have to borrow some power from our neighbor Memo or else we won't have any water either since that comes from a well. Don't feel to bad for me as it's still an improvement from cell block 12.


Last night I went out for a Friday night in downtown Cahuita. Spent a whopping 5000 colones! That's 10 bucks to you. For my effort I received in return 8 lovely bottles of Imperial beer. There are a bunch of bars in town but two seem to dominate - Coco's and Ricky's and out of the two Ricky's dominates Coco's so really there is only one place to go in town. The music varies from raggae to louder raggae to kareokee raggae.


Last night there was more than one homeless guy walking around with a big leaf for an umbrella which is kind of funny to see.

There is also a guy in town who is destined to become the President of the Caribbean chapter of 'Guys with Hats'....I'll get a picture.


So far the only communication problem seems to be between myself and Chuck. Turns out the Swedish nannies (Svedish nah-nies) are actually Swiss nannies. I'm not sure if that makes much of a difference or not but it does makes PinF's Ricola scam a bit more relevant. As I mentioned before, this requires more investigation and since we are moving to the north end of town today, I'll have ample time to do just that.

That's it for now, got to go wire some electric.

My neighbors

So you've seen the picture of my new house.

And you've seen the fixer upper across the street.

What you haven't seen yet is the gate just to the left of the fixer upper which leads to Annettes house.

Annette is from Sweden (say it like Vrom Sveeden to get the idea of how I like to say it). She has a couple of little kids. Turns out the kids have a couple (not one, but two) of Sveedish nannies looking after them.

This requires further investigation.

MisAdventuresofChuck is just zee man vor zee job.

Mi casa es su casa.....

I'll admit it's a bit of a fix'er up'er. It is for sale, I suspect it's quite cheap? It happens to be missing the screens on the front and on the north side. Well, actually it's missing the screens all around but surprisingly, the bugs aren't that bad here! The foundation's a bit shaky as is the roof...all it needs is a little TLC!

But on a positive note it's only 150' from the beach!

Even better it's right across the street from my house. In fact, you would have a nice view of the Caribbean if my house weren't in the way.

So when you get tired of working come on over and rest a spell in my hammock.

More local wildlife...

This is a rare sighting - the famous cross-eyed Ocelot!

It stopped by yesterday while we were having breakfast.










This is a night lizard, as opposed to all the lizards I see during the day which tend to be brown. These guys come and hang out by the computer center's lights at night and eat bugs.










This was a vulture that was looking for scraps by beach the other day.













Here is T-ban Chuck M**re, waiting for breakfast this morning. Notice the sand floor and thatched roof.

He doesn't quite qualify as "wildlife" any more but back in the day I hear he used to really get his groove on!

Chuck M**re

Here he is people, by popular demand. Well, actually at his own insistence as my boss!

You may have heard him referred to as Chuck - 'the other one'.

You may already know him as 'Chuck M**re'. Editors Note - Names have been blurred to protect the innocent.

His real name is 'Chuck el-kabob el-shoarma el-falafel', otherwise known in these parts as simply 'Taliban'.

Editors Note: we apologize for the somewhat dark picture, but 'Taliban Chuck' was very specific about the conditions under which he was photographed!

Cell block 12 shower scene

Here is the famous 'cell 12', cold only shower. Normally, you would have a 'shower massage' like shower head on the end of the pipe that has a small electric heater that will warm the water just enough - assuming it's running at only a slow trickle.

That's how the rich people here do it.

Unfortunately we have to do it the 'poor man's way' - If we want warm water, we have to reach up and touch the two open wires with our hand....

Beach Pics

First G.W.H Sighting

I thought I was coming down here to fix Chuck's computers!!

PSA

Public Service Announcement -

People, last year Chuck got a $40,000 grant which has now run out. I have no problem spreading the word among my 10 loyal readers (when you get a second helping via email, forgive me) to ask for money. It is the single most useful thing for him to have down here. I know that all of you make enough that you can help out, if only a little. Down here $20 bucks goes a long way.

I would be most grateful if you could all chip in! You can make a donation via Paypal on his website or mine - just make sure if you do it via mine, that you specify it's to go to OA and not my 'beer fund'.

What I am really looking for is someone who works for a sizable company, that might be willing to make a sizable donation? If you could help spread the word on that front for me, I would appreciate it. If it's a company you work for or you know someone that works for a company that might be willing to help, let me know who I need to talk to, in order to get it done.

Thanks.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program - "what Chuck's eating for lunch"......

Sunday morning coming down...

No real reason to reference a Johnny Cash song in the title, but I thought it fit. I understand that my eating habits might not be the most captivating story lines for you but give it time, I'm sure something will go wrong.

Before I forget, the weather today is sunny and hot.

This is the second meal in a row where I didn't have bean's and quite frankly, I'm starting to have withdrawal!

Today - Chuck's plan for me is to fix his Jeep. It seems his horn relay is no good but we are having trouble finding the damn thing in the car. Anyone have a Haynes manual for a 91 Cherokee send me the wiring diagram, STAT!

Hasta.

Saturday Pictures

Weather report for Saturday - Same as Friday.

In other news, 5 pm today C & C will play some hoops. I will begin my quest to be the #1 ranked hoop player in Cahuita. More as the results unfold.

Yesterday's house hunting went OK. We have a few leads and hope by tomorrow we will be out of our $12 night room and into a palatial palace (Cahuita style).

As promised a few pictures -




This was the hotel the first 2 nights in San Jose. The place we are in now is about the same - we lost the TV but gained a bathroom.

FYI - The showers tend to be "unheated". Luckily the water coming through the pipes isn't too cold.







This is Chuck's school, the Cahuita Computer Center. It is a pretty accurate picture of what a lot of the building's down here look like.

Most are 1 story, brick block with a corrugated steel roof.













Well what do you know - turns out there is beer in Costa Rica after all!







Chuck out, I'm going swimming.

Weather report for Friday (Viernes)

The weather today here in Cahuita is sunny and warm.

If I had to venture a guess I would say it's 85 but who cares about numbers. Sunny and warm is good enough for me.

The water is about the same as the air, which makes it almost too warm. Almost.

Today Chuck and are house hunting.

Stayed tuned for pictures, my laptop still isn't hooked up.

Coming to you live from Cahuita, CR

OK, so the blog is about back to normal. At least it looks the same just without all the postings. But who really goes back and reads them anyway? I admit it would have been nice to save them. Some of them were pretty good and maybe they would have made it into my coffee table book someday.

And then again maybe not.

As PinF said in the comments, always forward.

I just can´t stand looking at the empty right side of my blog....I guess that alone will force me to write!

Tomorrow I will figure out how to plug my laptop into the network and upload a picture or two. Chuck has 25 computers in the computer center, and 1 single 56K dial-up phone line. I thought my mom had a slow connection......

My new first post

As you will see, there have been a few changes here at MisAdventuras de Carlos. Most notiably in true MisAdventuras fashion, I thought I was updating the blog template, but in fact I deleted it (IT WAS IN SPANISH PEOPLE!!!).

Can we all have a moment of silence for those 198 articles that just went down the drain.....



Alright, now that that is done we can get down to business. I will have the blog back to normal ASAP as far as links, counters and the all important ¨donation¨ button. Time to get to work....