Sounds of Progress

Hello darkness my old friend

I've come to talk with you again

But the peacocks screaming down the street

And the nightjars calling constantly

Break the silence with their freaking cacophony

I need sleep

I'm begging for the sounds of silence…

Just kidding. Well, not kidding about the peacocks and the nightjars, but they make beautiful sounds. The barking dogs across the street are not as soothing, but they don't bark every night. Sound is what I've been thinking about - can you tell?

Daytime and nighttime sounds are very different. Daytime starts about 5am with the howler monkeys in the trees below and the rooster down the street. At that point you can either give in to their insistent calls and get up, or you can roll over for more sleep (like I usually do).  howlers

The birds start singing then too. Clay-colored robins sing all day - their song is similar to the American robin but a bit more varied and definitely more melodic. They might be thirsty - they keep singing about iced tea because I keep hearing te frio (tay FREE-oh) in their songs. clay-colored robin

About 7am either Lenny or Sergio stops by for the key to Twicasa (the name of our house) so they can open it up and start the day's work. Lenny comes by bicycle, so we don't hear him coming. Sergio comes by car so we know when he's stopping here. Henry shows up a little bit later and he's very recognizable skidding along the gravel road in his small pick-up truck. Henry is loco and drives mucho rapido! LOL

We hear construction sounds from our casa occasionally, but it's 100 meters up the road so we only hear if they use the metal grinder. On our twice or thrice daily visits to view the work, if we hear the sparky sounds of the welder, we stay outside until it stops. A constant sound (except during coffee breaks) is the circular ssshhh ssshhhh sssshhh of Lenny applying the plaster skim coat (repello) to the walls (paredes) - he's going to have a right bicep the size of Arenal volcano!

Arenal volcano at the southeastern end of Lake Arenal

Back on Heather's patio, we often hear toucans calling in the distance - their sound is just like running your thumb down a comb, over and over and over and over. The gray hawk in the valley must need a mate - his simple 'here here here' happens many times each day. In March the orapendulas burble a lot but right now we are hearing their bubbly song only occasionally - the flowering tree they were eating nearby has no more flowers so I guess they've moved on.  oropendola

Flycatchers, vireos, doves, more robins, anis (AH-nees not AY-nis!), wrens, chacalacas, grackles, euphonias, seedeaters, grassquits, etc. provide more grist for our ear-mills all day.  chacalaca

So do the various trucks lumbering up and down Chimurria Road making deliveries to the different construction sites. Between Heather's casa and our casa, down in the valley, Andres and Paula are having a casa built mostly out of stone. Every few days a giant dump truck has to make the precarious trip down their curved dirt driveway to dump a load of rocks. Going down is pretty easy, but we've observed some difficult situations when they try to drive back up. The good thing is that the stone house will not obstruct our view of Heather's casa and the 3 volcanoes across the lake - its roof is below the level of our floor.

Andres and Paula's rock house under construction next door

 Andres and Paula are from Chile, but they have been living over at the beach (Playa Coco) for about 15 years. They are moving here to escape the heat of the beach. We are in the highlands at about 2000 feet altitude. If it's 85 degrees here, it's 100 at the beach. Plus our area stays green as it squeezes the last bit of rain out of the clouds moving from the Caribbean (east) to the Pacific (west) coast. Once you drive about 5 miles west of here, past Tilaran, you are down in a hot, dry valley all the way to the Pacific beaches. And if you go about 5 miles east of here (which is across the lake), you get (on average) 85 more days of rain each year than we get. We believe we are in the optimal area for temperature and rainfall!  

Rainbow over the hot dry plain west of Tilaran

Just like at home, the daytime sounds wind down at dusk with the robins still singing. But then, unlike at home, the cicadas pick up where the robins leave off. You are hard-pressed to sit outside and have a conversation when the cicadas crank up their buzzing!  cicadas

Oops I'm supposed to bring you up to date on our progress on the casa, not babbling on about sounds. It's going very well. It's 'muy dificil' to understand Estaban (the electrician) but we think he's going to finish on Friday. Most of the outlets and switches are installed, as are very simple $2 lightbulb sockets where each light fixture will go (after we find and purchase them). Also we have motion sensor security lights installed all around the outside of the house. Here's a photo of Estaban (on the left) buying materials at Rafa Ferreteria. Elberth, on the right, is the only person at Rafa that speaks any English, so he ususally waits on us.

Two of the placeholders for overhead lights in the main living area

There is a fair amount of poverty here, or maybe it is better to call it 'surviving one day at a time', so crimes of opportunity something to guard against. That means don't leave anything outside if you're not home, and, if we are not going to be here in CR full time (which we're not), we need security bars on the doors and windows.  I sometimes think that as each Costa Rican boy comes of age, he is given a weed whacker and a machete and sent on his way. For some, that becomes their way of life - become a 'Jose of all trades' and hustle every day to find the next day's work. Henry, Sergio, and Lenny have been working steadily for us for over 2 months now and will continue to do so for at least 1 more month. Henry also manages to fit in odd jobs like weed whacking people's lawns, collecting scrap metal to sell, and building doors like this one he is building for Heather. 

Henry has trouble fitting everything in. You ask him when he will do something and he replies 'mañana' (tomorrow) - our joke with him is it's 'mañana, mañana, siempre mañana!' (always mañana!). Heather's door isn't done yet, but Henry assured her he will finish it mañana. 

Back to the casa… so ya, the electrical is almost done and the windows have started (yay!). We got 2 quotes for windows and Michael, the local-right-in-Tronadora guy, came in significantly less. We are happy to give someone local the business but it was a little awkward that we didn't choose Sergio's son Anthony. Anthony's business is about 2 hours away and it was difficult (3 weeks or so) to get him here for a quote. Not sure if Sergio felt bad - not sure he would have let us know if he did. Anyway, we paid Anthony for his time and fuel to eliminate hard feelings.

We have 20 windows (!) and 3 sliding glass doors. We ordered 5 windows and 1 slider to start, so we could be sure we liked Michael's product. Two weeks ago I went with Heather for a ride to Danny's house on peninsula 2 to pick up some plants he was giving her. He had a cool house with large, beautiful windows. I asked him about them and he said his neighbor did them. Turns out his neighbor is Michael. Small world, Tronadora!

Last evening Michael and his partner came and installed the 5 windows, and tonight they will come back to install the 9 foot sliding glass door. Then we will place an order for the next batch of windows, based on which openings Henry and Sergio will have ready next week. Here are photos of windows and doors being installed.

Michael installing one of the sliding glass doors

We discovered one glitch this week. We wanted hanging barn doors that roll to each side for the bedroom doors. I know I've gone through the motions (multiple times) to show Henry and Sergio how we wanted the doors, but somewhere along the line my pantomime got lost in translation. Yesterday we got the barndoor point across and Sergio's face darkeoned a bit. Turns out he didn't install any reinforcement above the door for the metal track that will hold the total weight of the wooden doors. He installed reinforcement all around the opening, figuring that hinges would need to be screwed in there. We all agreed to just think about it for a while - bedroom doors are not a priority.

The priority right now is that I get to bed before the peacocks and nightjars turn up the volume! TWEEEEEET and PURA VIDAAAAA!

(sound clips and some photos courtesy of Heather Ray)