I went on my twice a week errand to Erika’s house in Tuis last night and came home this morning. My refrigerator live there and we make ice in the freezer using quart plastic milk jugs. While visiting with my daughter and catching up on her busy life, I also do our laundry. Life at the farm is at this moment rather like a camping trip.

The trench for the underground electric lines has been dug, and we bought the conduit for it yesterday. I expect that next week we will have the utility installed with new larger gauge wire which should give us more electricity.

If I had a regulator and a few batteries, I am sure that I could run a refrigerator off the pelton and my washing machine.

Phil is in San Jose today on business. Our primary forest qualified for Carbon Credits so we applied to put it into protection about 5 months ago. Everything has been approved and he is signing the paperwork today. It is a good thing. It will help us to protect the land and it will offset the cost of owning a protected forest.

Homestays in rural Costa Rica:

I am trying to think of ways to create jobs for the people of Esperanza. One of my thoughts is to offer homestays with several families in the pueblo of Esperanza. You can come, visit the farm, and stay in the home of a local rural family. They will have to meet certain criteria, and we will need to be flexible. It will give you a glimpse into their lives and you will improve your Spanish as the same time. Would you be interested in a true Costa Rica vacation? It would be genuine rural experience. Your visit would change their lives. It would give a family a chance to earn some money and improve their living conditions. You also bring knowledge, goodwill, and you would stimulate the possibilities their lives could have. We could help them get started by offering a micro loan to install hot water in the shower, and they must have a mattress and bedding. We stayed with a family who slept on boards, after 3 nights we opted for luxury and went to a resort. We learned a lot about the culture, their lives, and it was an overall fantastic experience. I highly recommend you make a homestay part of your adventure. You become part of their family, no longer are you on the outside looking in. You are living their life, how incredible is that?