Adios Costa Rica!

Well, here I am sitting at the airport in San Jose waiting to board the plane to Miami and then to back home to my lovely husband in Grand Cayman.

Looking back at this past two weeks I have to say that I am very happy and grateful because I had a wonderful time and I was able to share many good times with a lot of family and friends, some that I have not seen for more than 10 yrs!!!

The party was plenty and the tiredness of it all finally got to me a couple of days ago... Good thing I'm flying back on a Sat. so I can spend all day long on Sunday next to my wonderful man, decompressing and gathering strength to go back to work and back to reality on Monday!

Besides this trip made me realized once again, how proud I am to be from a country like Costa Rica, everywhere you look there are gorgeous scenes, nature is anything but scares and the people are in general very friendly, pleasant and fun.

Last night my aunt took us to a wonderful Japanese Restaurant call Sakura, we had one of those Teppanyaki (which is a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food, it was delicious, I had the Imperial choice (shrimp, beef and chicken), yummy!!!

Well... looks like my flight is starting to board... See ya all!!!

Some of Nature's many jewels

Tuesday we visited the beautiful Else Kientzler Botanical Garden located in a small town of Sarchi here in Costa Rica. After the botanical garden we also visited a small but very nice butterfly farm.

I took tons of pictures but I have not had the time to sort them out never the less the internet connection to even try to upload them, so here are a few of them and I will definitely post more in the future, enjoy!

Another paradise

There are so many beautiful things to see in my country, I am very grateful and happy to be here after all this time, and even though most people I have seeing keep commenting of how I live in paradise, to me CR is another very beautiful paradise.

All of these pictures I took around my parents yard. Tomorrow we are going to a botanical garden that has lots of beautiful plants and flowers but it also has a labyrinth... Can't wait to take lots of pictures!!!!

Blog neglect

It's been a while since the last time I was able to post something on my blog and there are a few reasons why:

1. I've been in Costa Rica since Aug, 20th.
2. I am really full of activities, seeing friends, driving places, and not that much time to spend in front of a computer.
3. It's pretty hard to find a nice, fast and reliable internet connection that will give the chance to actually get something done.
4. Party hardy!
5. I am on vacation!!!

So, here I am tonight, it is almost midnight and I can't sleep, mostly because I am very tired, I've had a weekend full of activities (since Thursday when I had the appointment to renew my American Visa and it got approved so I had to celebrate!).

Also I've been sleeping on a different bed every night since Thursday and besides the point that it's already hard to sleep well without my husband by my side, every night on a different bed, different pillows, different smells, sounds, etc... Not that much fun!

The best bed so far is been the one at my aunt Sonia's house, that bed is even better than mine at home and I felt like i5 was my own private suite just for me...



Besides the sleeping deal and the fact that I really miss my husband and my doggies, I am having a fab time and I finally got the chance to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in a long, long time...

Still I can't wait to go back to my life in Grand Cayman and to see my husband and dogs again.

Dogs, dogs, dogs

It's been almost a whole week since I left Grand Cayman, my house, my husband and my dogs, but today while chatting on Skype with my husband I told him how much I'm missing him but also I realized that I don't miss my dogs quite as much, because almost every house I've visited has a dog so I've been able to fulfill that part of my daily life with other people dogs.

These are some of the dogs I've been spending my time with, they are all awesome animals!

(Negra, Gaia and Emma)

Wanda is my cousins neighbor dog, but she kinda adopted my cousin and her husband

Jack is my fathers dog, he is Negras son and also brother of Gaia and Emma

Sammy is my aunts dog

Beignet (french for pastry) is Sammy's daughter and also lives with my aunt

San Jose Downtown

Here are some random pics that I took while riding in the car with my dad today... Mostly cars, lots of beautiful big trees and some nice churches and buildings.

getting closer to SJ downtown

local mural

local fashion

Church

San Jose Cathedral

The traffic was crazy, at least I wasn't driving 'cause I'm definitely not used to this madness anymore!

It's all about fetching

The other day I went with my dad and his dogs (one is technically mine, Gaia the white one) to their daily routine of fetching their toy and take some photos of them in action.

I took lots but mostly being action shots are quite out of focus, I have so many that I decided to put together a collage so it's easier to upload them on the web. Enjoy!

The black one is Negra (the mom- older dog), the yellow is Emma and the white one is Gaia (E&G are sisters)

Aren't they adorable???

Honest Scrap Award

Thanks to Jess (This Life Is Mine) I got a new award, you rock girl and you must definitely made my day brighter with this new award:

There are three rules for this award:

Rule #1. link back to the person who gave you the award

Rule #2. Give the award to 10 other bloggers, (not sure I have 10, but I am going to give it to as many people as I can).

1. Jess for being such a great sport about my blog, being she is the one and only fellow blogger that has ever nominated for an award, her support and good laughs give me a lot of strength to continue sharing my life, ideas and experiences with ya'll.

2. First Time is not only a wonderful blog, great pictures, great humor and the author is the most wonderful man I've ever met.

3. Ooh La La would be my third nomination, Heidi has a great blog with lots of very nice pictures of architecture designs, decoration and more, keep it up Heidi, you are doing a great job there, I really enjoy visiting your blog.

4. speaking in CAPS has already being nominated by Jess, but I also agree with her that Jim has a great blog and now he is honoring us with a new one (He read/She read), looking forward to many good posts.

5. where is kristine now is a wonderful blog, she not only has some beautiful pictures of where she currently at, but also where she has being. And as a citizen of the world that she is, her blog and her post are very rich and pleasant to read.

6. Days of Five Lives is a pretty new blog to me, but I really love the way Janelle talks about her family, her day to day in dealing with marriage, raising kids, life, work, responsibility and more... Can't wait to read more about her in the future.

7. Low Car Jane is a great blog whether you are or if you would ever want to be into the whole low carb living, she's got very good ideas, recipes, tips and more.

8. Moonstruck is a very fun and fresh blog, I just nominated Maggie for my one and only thankful award and I think she deserves this one as well, cause her blog is very honest and genuine.

Well, I guess that is as far as I go with the tagging people for this award, I know that rule #2 says tag 10, but I'm still pretty new at this so I don't really want to tag people of the heck of it, so I guess all I can say is "My blog, my rules".

Rule #3. List 10 honest things about yourself.

1. I always start to eat the pizza from the crust side.
2. I love to eat jello with ice cream.
3. I hate the movie Titanic.
4. I kissed a girl on the mouth once (a very good friend of mine).
5. I have tried LSD before and loved it!
6. I can probably stay in bed all day as long as it is not too hot weather.
7. I did ballet dancing for about 6 yrs of my life.
8. I absolutely love mayonnaise.
9. I hate roller coasters.
10. I sometimes wonder if my life and thoughts are interesting enough to keep me blogging,

Shopping Spree

Yesterday afternoon after I took care of all my passport renewal stuff we went on a shopping spree...

Every Friday afternoon, my mom goes to get all of her weekly produce for the house as well as for her company (as she manufactures natural jellies, marmalades, chutney and sauces), at the local Agricultural Market...

This is a market that goes on only twice a week on Friday and Saturday and you can pretty much find anything that you can imagine... I took tons of picture so here are some of the best ones!

Beautiful colors in nature

Flowers and more!

Watermelons

young entrepreneur

Tomatoes anyone?

Wanna buy some socks???

All sorts of bell buckets

Have a great weekend!!!

First Mission Accomplished

O.k. so I made it home safe and sound, my flight was pretty good, the connection from Miami to Costa Rica was delayed for about an hour.

When we were getting closer to the San Jose airport was incredibly cloudy and very, very thick clouds all around, after we landed I manage to get some wine at the Duty Free, clear customs and get my bags, greet my mom and get to the car all before it started pouring down like only in CR and only in rainy season.

Got home, saw my dad, the cat, the 3 dogs and just relaxed for the rest of the evening, slept well.

Now, this morning was my first mission, get my passport renewed for another 5 years, my dad took us down into town (me and my mom), and from there we catch a public bus to get to immigration. I was fearing that it was going to take a while but I was very pleased to know that the service there has improved quite a bit and I did all in under 45 minutes.

So now, we are at Denny's Restaurant were they have a good internet connection so I am able to update my blog and here's a picture of my mom and me!

Have a great day everybody!

I got this feeling...

... today is the day!!! And it is, I'm at the Grand Cayman airport and in a few minutes I will be boarding my plane to go to Miami and then over there I will catch my plane to Costa Rica.

I'm not sure how much of an internet access I am going to have because believe it or not, my parents still have this rare type of internet access call Dial Up (as they live up in the mountains) Yeah I know, unbelievable!

I got my new little 11" laptop with me, and I'm pretty confident that I will find lots of places around with free wi-fi so I will be able to update my blog from time to time.

Also I just want to send out an official notice and possibly a warning that from today and for at least a few weeks I will be posting LOTS of pictures from my parent's house, the dogs, the cat, the scenery, parties and more... so be aware and try to enjoy it, LOL!

Now I leave ya'll with a little airplane humor and I'm off, bye!!!

Wednesday Movie Post

By recommendation from a fellow blogger, last weekend we rented the movie Thank You for Smoking.

I have to say that I found this movie to be quite a good one and very entertaining. Even though the story line and the subject are very unconventional, I think the approach to the whole idea was done very well.

It has its funny parts and I also think the movie cast does a fabulous job.

But what I liked the best about the movie, is that it gives you room to think a lot about human choices and most definitely free will. If the information and educational tools are giving to you, then you and only you can decide what to do, and what choices to make in life.

Thanks Jim for recommending me this movie, it was quite enjoyable.

********************************

And in another note, I'm leaving to CR in less than 24 hrs!!!

Happy Hump day to all!!!

Thankful Tuesday

So, today my post is going to be a thankful Tuesday were I mention what I'm thankful for from the day I started this blog, including some of the people I've met, the connections I have established and the beautiful blogs that have made me think, laugh and even inspired me while interacting with blogger world.

First of all I give the honor mention to my most favorite blogger out there, FIRST TIME, I can probably say that by his example and inspiration is why I made the decision of starting this blog thing. FIRST TIME is being around for quite a while, even before we met, I guess for a while he kept it secret fearing my reaction of finding out he had it was not going to be good, but when he told me I thought it was really cool that he was able to express himself to people out there and share his life with people that were willing to share it with him as well. He is got great pics and he has a one of a kind sense of humor, if you even check out his blog, just make sure to leave him a comment so he knows you were there... He of course is my lovely and wonderful husband.

My next thankful note goes to This Life Is Mine. Boy, do I enjoy her blog, Jess is simply awesome, she is young, fun and loves a good party. She is also very authentic and has some crazy ideas for her posts... I am so glad I found your blog Jess, keep it up! (PS. I'm still waiting for you Helium Karaoke video, don't think I forgot, LOL!)

My third thankful note is to a blog that has some a lot of amazing and eloquent ideas put together (for a man, joking!). speaking in CAPS gives me chance to explore the male mind. When I first find Jim's blog he had posted something about his dad that was very inspiring and weeks later he wrote about his wife and that just made me realize he is an incredible individual with an amazing talent to express and put into words what many of us would only dream off... great blog!

Another blog that I cannot help myself to mention is Gods Little People, because I love animals and it makes me some happy to find other people that share the love I have for them. Her posts are always beautiful and inspiring but unfortunately not always happy. If you even read it, it would remind you about the beauty that life will bring you by loving animals and by giving them care and kindness, something all humans being should pay more attention to!

And at last I want to thank Moonstruck for her kind words and all the comments on my blog. Maggie has a great blog, very genuine and fresh. I can tell by reading her blog she is a very fun person to be around and I'm glad I have found her.

O.k. I've seen this being done in a couple of blog, they call it either "shout out", "pass it on" or in some cases people give out awards. Well, not sure if I'm ready or worthy enough to give out awards, but here it goes...
Feel free to copy and paste to your blog, and again thanks for your blog and sharing it with me!!!
Have a great day : )

Another week, Another Monday...

When you move to live in a place like the Caribbean, back in your home country and other places people tend to think that here we live some kind of "resort life".

They imagine for us, it's all about beaches and daiquiris. That we spend our days deciding between going snorkeling, laying down to catch some rays, having a colorful cocktail with one of those little umbrellas or just watching the sunset from our hammock.... But not without forgetting to leave your sandy flip flops by the door so we don't mess up our place!

Well, I guess some people do have the pleasure to live that kind of a life, because they either have the money, the time or both....

But for some of us, even though we live in a wonderful paradisaical setting, we actually get some work done around here. We have schedules, meetings, responsibilities, bills to pay, house chores and everything else that involves living in society.

Sure I have a wonderful view working at a place that is right on the waterfront but it also can make you sad when you have a gorgeous, beautiful setting outside but you are stuck inside, having to run reports, inventory, trying to sell people some stuff... When all you really want to do is to be out there and try to live that life that you guys somewhere else think we live, a "resort life".

my window view from work

So, for me and of you reading this; it's another week, another Monday... And with that being said, I only have 3 days left of work this week and then I'm off to Costa Rica for two weeks!!!!

Have a great week!!!

Lazy Sunday

Not much to post about, just laying down, enjoy the fact that it is Sunday.



Weather is nice but quite windy as activity is finally starting on the Hurricane Season 2009. Ana is currently a tropical storm but barely there, so hopefully it would go down to Tropical Depression and that way my flight to CR won't be delayed on Thursday.

Just 3 more days to go and they I'm off to see my family and friends, can't wait....

My two Moms

Back in the 70's two girls (Lorena and Gilda) met through Lorena's husband Manrique. First they became just acquaintances but after some time they became best friends (without knowing that their friendship will some day change the entire life of a certain person-me).

Lorena & Manrique circa 1977

Time passed and one day Lorena & Manrique decided to hook up Gilda with Lorena's brother Alberto. Well, it was a match made in heaven!!!

Alberto and Gilda got married and just after the marriage started she got pregnant. It wasn't a very easy pregnancy for her but she made it through and the result was a beautiful baby girl that they named Mariasol (that's me!).

My mom Gilda & Me circa Aug. 1977

Then, when I was 6 months old my mom Gilda all of the sudden got very ill, she was rushed to the hospital and in less than 24 hrs she passed away (died of an aneurysm). As you can imagine it was a huge shock for my family and specially my dad Alberto, who at the time was just in college and not very ready to take care of me by himself.

My Dad Alberto & Me circa Aug. 1977

So, he had to make a very important and hard decision about my future, so after much thinking he decided to ask Lorena & Manrique (with whom both Him and Gilda were very close) to take me into their lives and help him raise me along with the two boys they already had (my now brothers Gian Franco & Mauricio).

And, that's how. God gave me my "life" mom and my "birth" mom. I had a wonderful childhood with Lorena & Manrique. My dad was always very closed to me too, he finally remarried when I was 9 yrs old but was unable to have any kids with her new wife, so I remain the one and only girl of both homes!!!

So, that's my life story, pretty much, and the reason of my post is because today, in my home country Costa Rica we celebrate Mother's Day, (not sure why is not the same as most of the world in May, but that's just how it is).

And specially on a day like today, I can't help but think about my birth mother that gave me life but also with her departure God gave me the other best possible mother I can have.

So, to my two mothers (one I already called on the phone) and the other one wherever she is, I love you both and I thank you for the love and protection I know you are always giving me, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Friday Humor

This might just be the solution to my no sales at work, NOT!!! LMAO

Have a great weekend!!!

Work= Slow

We are finally into August which for us here in the Cayman Islands working in the tourist/service industry means low season = slow at work.

Yesterday I mention that work decided to let us take 1 hour lunch everyday instead of 1/2 hour, well I was really looking forward to it, packed my bag and camera to go to Smith Cove beach during my lunch and guess what? My manager called in sick and the rest of us had to suck it up and still take only 1/2 an hour because we were short of staff, go figure!

Well, this morning, I got up, had some breakfast (did not exercise because it is my rest day on my routine), took my daily dose of vitamins, showered, got dressed and then as I'm about to leave the house I get a text from my boss saying I should come in from 11am to 4pm...

You see, for me slow=boring= no sales. For my husband slow=good=no problems. This is because he is a broadcaster engineer so when he is busy it's usually because some equipment fail or he needs to fix something on the radio station computers.

So, now I'm home posting this and getting ready to go lay down in the sun for about an hour before I finally head out to work. Tough life, I know!!!

Yesterday I was taking some pictures on our back porch and my dog Sheba was very happy to have me sitting on the floor getting the following shots, so she came running at me and I was able to capture the true essence of my wonderful dog (always happy and always playful).

Check out the shots I took of her and also the shot I took of a Bananaquit visitor as well. Have a great day and hope it's not very slow at work for you!

Our back terrace

Our chairs

Happy Sheba

Just goofing around!

Bananaquit Bird

Wednesday Movie Post

Is it Wednesday already? Boy this week is really flying by, which is a fine by me because I am leaving to Costa Rica in 8 days and a wake up, can't wait!

So lately I haven't watch very good movies, just typical Hollywood flicks with nothing new or cutting edge.

One of the movies was The Hangover.


And all I have to say about this movie is that it is the typical movie that you hear a lot about in the beginning when it comes out. A lot of reviews, people talking about the trailer and how good it looks, how funny it is...

And yes, I guess it has its funny parts, but nothing too out there or different from any other comedy about partying, being drunk and doing stupid stuff. So, I guess in a way I was disappointed.

The other movie I watched was The Ugly Truth.


Well, this is just another Hollywood movie that uses the never ending theme of Man trying to understand Women and vice versa. I guess some parts are fun-ny because of again it makes a lot of reference to the always present dynamic of Men & Women and how different we are, think and act.

So, in recap this is just another romantic comedy that starts with 2 characters hating each other and they end up falling for each other and I guess living "happily ever after", yeah right!

Why is it directors/producers of movies are so fixed in making movies with the same type of endings over and over again? We need something different out there, we need movies that leave us something to think about, something to feel and in life not everything has a happy ending...

I guess this happens mostly in romantic comedies, but it happens as well in Horror movies, cause at the end most of them get resolved and they find the killer, of kill the killer or something like it, right?

That's one of the reasons why I prefer movies that are based in real facts as well as dramas that not all the time leave you with a sweet soft feeling but that shake your soul and your inner self, right? Much better from my point of view...

But Oh well, I guess if there are people out there that like this very flaky, weak flick they'll continue making them!

In other news: Starting today at work we are going to have a whole 1 hour lunch instead of 1/2 because the season is slowing down and we are not very busy, so I'm going to go to the beach on my hour, lay down on the sun and maybe even take some pictures.

Here's a picture of the beach I'm going to go to:


Happy Hump Day to you!!!

Home is where the heart is...

Today I'm thinking a lot about this expression, about what it means to me and how much its meaning has changed in the past few years.

I guess the reason why this comes to my mind lately is because of my near trip back to Costa Rica which is my hometown, the place where I was born at and the place where I have spend most of my life, so I'm pretty certain that is where my heart was, for many years.

But now, after leaving away from "home" for more than 4 years, finding the man of dreams a.k.a my husband and having a house together, I am sure this is where my heart is now...

Then what should I say when talking about my trip? Am I going back "home", even though home is where I am right now in Grand Cayman? I guess I'm going to say, I'm going back to my home country? Yes, that sounds about right...

And in other matters of the heart I had to share the wonderful story of the heart puppies that I saw on the internet a couple of days ago (in case you missed it).

This is the story of a dog in Japan that has a heart shaped spot on her side, well she had puppies a few days ago and one the puppies of the litter came out just like her mother....

Isn't adorable????

Now, this dog will always know where his heart is, right??? LOL