What a good start to a morning - sleeping in past the sunrise, having some fresh, Costa Rican coffee, a hearty breakfast, opening stockings, and then a walk, a little over 5 1/4 miles in the community. It was quite breathtaking, and we got to see much coffee, many other plants, and a couple of Christmas cows.
Then it was back home for a traditional Christmas lunch of tamales, some plantains, and some very untraditional rain. And the opening of presents. With beans cooking for tomorrow, there was a little time to relax before prepping our Christmas dinner for the Batzer and Luce families. We prepared something non-traditional: two smoked chickens, green beans, rice, bread, cheeses, trail mix, and no bake cookies. And despite heavy rain, and limited internet usage (thanks to a lot of people on the network, along with aforementioned rain), the afternoon passed affably.
Side note: We finally had success in getting our iPads to access the 3G Data, the website: http://www.unlockit.co.nz. Similar to the process that Pam had to use to unlock her iPhone in London, we had to do something similar with our iPads. We accessed the webpage, clicked on the generate APN tab, selected the appropriately suggested provider, and then generated a new APN key. This downloaded an app on our iPads that then prompted us to make the APN change. Presto change-o, we had access, to our great delight. We are keeping the site bookmarked for future travel, and it is now permanently in our memory banks.
The Luces were retrieved and arrived, unscathed by the morning’s weather. Stockings and gifts were exchanged, and in addition to some lovely coffee and earrings from Aaron, we got the most wonderful home-made card.
After this, and an inundation of videos, we sat down to a good Christmas feast, and started up conversation, which spanned a large number of topics. Definitely a wide range of experience was in the room, along with a peg leg. We were all amused with Tati’s antics (well, ok, not quite so much, she was more than a little rambunctious and ravenous), and guarded our food, which was followed by no-bake cookies a la Darien.
The Luces went home under the bright light of a very full Costa Rican moon. Tomorrow both sets of families on different endeavors and meetings of people, and will be reunited for a trip to the mountain on Thursday.
Sleep well, all -- I hope that we do, too!
