2/5/06 In David, Panama to renew Tica visa again. Uploaded Trees of Andarivel 2005 page totaling more than 300 trees at end of the year. Obliged by second month of dryness to construct more irrigation lines to the new river bottom trees from pools and waterfalls in the middle "promedio" level of Andarivel. Waiting now on start of rains to plant 30 olive trees on the upper slopes, plus some privacy screens of small bamboo and giant bamboo. Jesus 13 and Juan 9 returned late January to spend a wonderful five days with me, joined by cousin Daniel during the daytime. Lots of swimming in the cold but crystal clear river: Juan "El Presidente" dares to swim almost midstream now whereas a few years ago would not venture from the shore. Kenneth came up to visit one day and Cristhian (birth certificate name) visited another day, and Fabian about five minutes one afternoon on his way to Danielīs house to play video games. Greivin and Kenneth take makeup exams next week to pass their respective grades 11 and 10, hopefully. On January 6 signed contracts of secondary and primary education with Carmen and Noemy for Jesus, Juan and Daniel. Unlike the naive contracts of five years ago, the monthly stipends have been linked now to grades and attendance. My godsons signed the contracts around a crowded table in Soda Campesina and promised to follow the five rules of moral conduct. In David found some good workbooks to teach cursive handwriting. My right middle finger is still partially numb at the tip where a new nail is starting to grow. Expect another two or three months before return to normal.
2/20/06 Upgraded yahoo geocities to an ad free account with 500 MB storage. Ordered a small Canon A510 3.2MB digital camera to take and publish some pictures of Andarivel. Good news: both Kenneth and Greivin passed their makeup exams. Bad news: Development of San Gerardo continues with more new homes, land line telephone post installation (but none my side of the river) and a road dynamited around the football playing field. In spite of persistent dry weather I have been planting more fruit trees and some bamboo seedlings and eleven of the first group of olive trees in the promedio zone (middle level between the high entrance and the river bottom) which is completely irrigated. Constructed a concrete cascade of two pools of stream water to supply a network of flexible black half-inch irrigation hose. In the mornings with more energy haul buckets of water up from the promedio to refresh the new banana trees and others in upper Andarivel above the irrigation stream level. In the evening after washing up in the clear river, water the seedlings down at riverside level, a pleasant task. Waiting on necessary rains to plant more trees on the higher slopes where irrigation does not reach. Especially desire to plant some giant bamboo to screen out views of new neighboring construction and dampen occasional noise. Also contemplating a grove of giant blue gum eucalyptus trees (E. globulus) to tower up from the river bottom on a strip of land occupied now by a useful privacy screen of jungle grass.
3/3/06 Received mail package of new camera. Hands hurt from increasing arthritis and working with stone and cement to construct a concrete irrigation tank. My vital drinking water from a riverside spring has dwindled to a trickle which requires refilling a white bucket overnight. The shape of the nail on my damaged finger has bent due to the centipede bite.
5/7/06 In David, Panama again to renew visa. The first rains broke the long drought on 3/8. However the usual light daily afternoon showers did not really get going until April. The river is still very low. On 3/31/06 ownership of Arboleda Andarivel (arboleda means a grove of trees) was transferred irrevocably but reserving my rights of usufruct to my two godsons Jesus and Juan Brenes Delgado. The full value of $30,000 was declared and transfer taxes and honorariums added to $1,400, but at least my mind is now at rest concerning the future disposition of Andarivel. Young godsons Juan and Fabian have begun private tutoring in San Isidro at Fundacion Bonnie Jean. Jesus has begun a series of psychological evaluations at the same institution to determine why he failed seventh grade which he is repeating this year. Jesus (with Juan sometimes) has begun to visit Andarivel on weekends to work by my side and earn spare change to buy video games. He has to wake up at 4:30 in San Isidro to take the morning bus on Saturdays, sometimes stays overnight. He sleeps in the Rueda Dormitorio Pavilion while I camp on the table in the nearby Rueda Sala Pavilion, giving him space while not leaving him completely alone. In the afternoon his cousin Daniel sometimes joins us to study cursive handwriting and math for an hour (Daniel also spends a half hour of tutoring with me two days a week on his way to school in the morning). Projects completed the past month: built a new secure concrete post fence at the northeast boundary down by the river, planted 30 bamboo guadua and 30 bamboo aurea (not all of them survived), constructed a massive fence of river grass cuttings along the promedio shelf, and then covered with plugs of river grass sod in order to grow a tall screen to mask the view of the lower private zone from a dirt path recently cut down to the river along the fence line shared with eastern neighbor Otto Siebert. During his year-round absence when he returns to Canada, his newly constructed footpath could be used by firewood poachers or livestock grazers who would threaten the privacy and security of Andarivel, now that access to the river has been opened down along his side. Finished the dam [jacuzzi] and goldfish tank in the promedio. Finished planting 28 olive trees in four locations: west orchard (4), terrace (9), promedio (10), river bottom (5). Finished preliminary construction of a concrete bunker in a secret place to store documents more securely during my absences. Planted a few new fruit trees with the help of Jesus: cashew, nispero, guanabana. Started uploading photos of Andarivel to this site.
5/21/06 Some restructuring has begun on this Internet site. I have purposely broken all existing photo links. The personal photos of my godsons and me will not be restored to public view, except from a different set of pages other than my public homepage. I will advise friends and family later by personal email how to see more than the public Andarivel photos. It was brought to my attention recently that a certain person has been distributing weird circulars in San Isidro purporting to be authored by me, with my personal photos and addresses prominently displayed above and below the strange text. These personal photos and addresses were obtained by this person from my homepage and other linked pages. This data does not need to be seen by the public to appreciate Andarivel at least.
Finished planting E. deglupta, total of 23 now. These large, fast growing and beautiful eucalyptus are available locally whereas my mail ordered seedlings of E. globulus (blue gum from Tasmania) unfortunately never germinated, not even a single one of thirty. However 13 seeds of a guava tree spotted by the keen eyes of Jesus, who has a talent for observing details, were subsequently planted in the vacant vivero flowerpots and all of them have sprouted. It occurs to me that I have at least 7 kinds of trees beginning with "gua": guayaba, guarumo, guava, guanabana, guachipelin, guanacaste and guadua (the guadua is a giant thorny bamboo, not strictly a tree but large enough to be considered as such). Finished today but for cleanup, finally!, the concrete and stone construction of the jacuzzi in the promedio which was begun several months ago in the dry season, originally intended to serve as an irrigation tank. However now with the onset of daily rains, irrigation is not needed until next December, so I am calling the tank by the more evocative name of jacuzzi. For the first time in recent memory I do not have a single tree or bush or flower in the queue to plant, except for the baby guava seedings nursing in the vivero. So there is time at last to turn to other projects such as carpentry or Internet or maybe even travel, who knows. Also I really should try to get back on a meditation schedule, because sometimes it seems to me in moments of reflexion, such as when it rains and I am prevented from working in the field, and when I refrain from playing over grandmaster chess games, that I have been compulsively filling my time with Andarivel projects to the exclusion of all else, just as I concentrated on other major projects in my life such as software packages amounting to tens of thousands of lines of code, and of course the long-distance continental hikes. Meditation practice offers the promise of liberation from this pattern of compulsive activity.
6/7/06 Rented a house in San Isidro. Plan to divide my time between Andarivel and San Isidro.
7/21/06 Last week planted 4 more limon dulce, 20 banano and cleared brush for 7 more cipres. Bought a sleek high quality Shindaiwa C230 brush cutter/trimmer but have not dared to power it up yet; still clearing brush the old-fashioned way with an 18 inch machete. Planning U.S. trip to Boerne, Texas, for two weeks 8/3 to 8/17 to visit and process residency application at the Costa Rican Houston consulate. An HP Pavilion laptop is waiting for my pickup in Boerne. Jesus and Juan are coming up to Andarivel almost every weekend now to work and earn money. Juan wants to buy a bicycle. Confirmed telephone capacity of the San Andres house for high velocity Internet, but until account service is started, not spending much time in the nearly empty house. Instead prefer the convenience of downtown San Isidro Hotel Astoria.
7/27 In past week planted the 7 cypress and ordered 8 more. Plan to tape four colorful bandanas in the window of my San Andres rented house to serve as curtains. Good news, ICE has cut advanced Internet rates by more than half. A 100 Mb/sec line will cost $38 per month now.
8/2 Tomorrow Thursday flying from San Jose to San Antonio, Texas, via DFW, to visit with family and expedite CR residency application. Hope to return to Andarivel in two weeks with laptop computer. Finished planting all of the new cypress trees, now 17 in total (including the two of Jesus and Elizabeth now three years old and twelve feet tall). This required more than simply digging holes in the ground, but rather clearing tough river grass and uprooting coffee stumps, then constructing terraces with rock walls to prevent erosion. Took about 50 more photos to upload later -- had a scare with fogged camera due to humid storage near river -- let it dry out in the sun for an hour until the optics cleared. Jesus and Juan did not show up as expected this past weekend, probably taking a weekend to rest and play with their newly reconditioned bicycles. I missed them but reminded myself that my purpose in building Andarivel is mainly to practice meditation.
8/4 Uploading new photos from Boerne, Texas. New HP Pavilion laptop with wireless Bluetooth works well, except for the DVD player, especially with wireless mouse, no need to learn the touchpad. Wish the laptop had more than only three USB ports, full with mouse, Canon ip90 printer and Lexar jump drive.
8/9 Completed updates of Andarivel Photo Index with 86 photos in 34 linked pages. Drove up to Mineral Wells and back with nephew Dan to move my storage bin to Julie's house and visit with Gerald. Ready now for drive tomorrow to the Costa Rican consulate in Houston with nephews Dan and Chase. Boerne town and Julie's house are very nice except that there is too much good food to eat.
8/12 CR consulate in Houston would not accept birth certificate or police background check without accompanying authentication letter from the appropriate Secretary of State (Texas and California). Therefore a second U.S. trip will be necessary around next November when documents are ready. Visited Texas DPS office in Austin to submit to full fingerprint search.
9/05 Returned to Costa Rica on 8/17, happy to be back at Andarivel, much to do as ever. More than half of the the bananos planted recently are failing because the uprooted root balls cannot support the large trunks. Therefore the lesson is to plant smaller plants or else wait for sprouts to grow from the root ball. Transplanted five hijos from a mother platano in the cipres grove down to the kitchen to screen the view from the Cabinas Elimar across the river, after the new owner drastically cut down the privacy hedge. Erected a new wider kitchen tarp with a new third clothesline underneath to accommodate work clothes of Jesus and Juan coming up regularly one day per week. They are unselfishly buying their mother a washing machine with their earnings. Researching a wireless Internet connection for the San Gerardo library with Ellen Wisse as well as Andarivel. Returned rented San Andres house keys to owner and terminated rental contract by mutual agreement (she wants to sell the house anyway). Shindaiwa weed trimmer works very satisfactorily, cutting weeds in one morning that used to take two weeks by machete. Planning to populate upper slopes with a grove of pine trees, but might be prudent to wait until end of coming dry season before planting more trees, that is next March or April, 2007.
9/19 Taking a few more trees up tomorrow: 6 aguacate criollo (NOT Hass which did poorly in cold [?]), 4 nispero (yellow tropical cherry), 8 banano small hijos, and 2 Honduran pine saplings to get to know them. Last week, with help from Jesus and Juan one day, cleared a corridor along east fence to gather enough plant debris to fill in a platform below the kitchen to support a higher stand of river grass. This is to block the view of a two-story apartment building across the river which recently loomed into view out of the lush green background when a longstanding thick hedge around it was cut down for unknown reasons. In response to the surrounding world gradually penetrating Andarivel, I am raising higher walls in defense. The psicopedagogica report for Jesus was finally completed. It concludes his problems with repeating seventh grade are due to being slow. It recommends more individual tutoring but no counseling or therapy. I may have been expecting too much from him in the way of grades and future career. Now I am just glad to see him and Juan come up on Sundays and work with me on the land a few hours and swim in the river and enjoy cooking lunch for them and going down to the new library to play jigsaw puzzles and (very soon now) connect to Internet. Meanwhile I also enjoy tutoring Daniel twice a week. I feel somewhat remiss about not seeing Fabian down in the city more than once a month. I tried to relocate to the city but the rented house was not satisfactory for several reasons.
10/02 Jesus and Carmen have asked me to be his padrino of confirmation and I have accepted. I understand this is a commitment for life and not just for one ceremony. Another big change coming up for Jesus is his decision to drop out of school where he is failing seventh grade (again). Instead he says he wants to study at home. Met with Fabianīs teacher to discuss problems with his integration into his small class at Escuela Cientifica among students coming from more privileged families. He might change to a public school located directly in front of his house in Villa Ligia. Fabian is expressing some weariness with having to get up early for the one-hour commute and the heavy homework assignments.
11/21 Upgraded geocities site from williswhoa to new domain name andarivel.org. The transfer of the files, photos and link has turned out to be very messy. A lot of unexpected work is needed. Meanwhile, Fabian will be ending his year at Escuela Cientifica and starting fifth grade at Villa Ligia in front of his home. Jesus dropped out of school but has been studying Maestro en Casa books regularly every day, about 2 or 3 hours a day, sometimes in the public library, sometimes coming up to Andarivel to study on Mondays, after working with Juan on Sundays. Renewed CR visa in Panama because the authentication papers are not ready yet in the U.S. Daniel will be graduating from sixth grade and starting Colegio Canaan below San Gerardo since the family has decided not to move to the city. He took care of Ellenīs dog Lobo which I reluctantly chained under the bodega during my absence in Panama. Tomorrow is Juanīs 10th birthday.
12/05 Hopes of connecting Internet to Andarivel have been abandoned. Instead, have rented a more secure apartment very near the house of Jesus and Juan in Barrio El Posito in San Isidro city where a fast Internet line can be installed. The apartment will also be available to Jesus to study and to explore Internet. On my visits down to the city I will also have more Internet access than by going to an Internet cafe. I plan to update 36 pages of Andarivel photos in thumbnail format, including scenes never before published, such as the frontage road, the bodega workshop interior and my private riverside camp. 26 photos of Juanīs first communion were uploaded to yahoo photo pages. The concrete post, barbed wire east fence was finally completed in the middle level, now only a short, steep, muddy stretch remains to reach the topmost southeast property corner. The Costa Rican "summer" has arrived with light daily rains, milder than the total drought last year. I had to switch the drinking water supply from the rain collector tarp to the perennial spring below the falda slope.
12/28 An Internet ADSL phone line has finally been connected in the San Isidro apartment to give Jesus a world to explore and me a chance to update the Andarivel pages. Data transfer is slower than expected but acceptable for a start. Jesus, Juan and Daniel visited San Jose with me for a whole weekend 12/15. We occupied four beds in Gran Hotel Imperial and went to see the Nutcracker ballet at the National Theater, the Parque de Diversiones, the Bolivar Zoo, the San Pedro mall and the Pacifica train station near the Musoc bus terminal. It was a great Christmas trip and learning experience. Then Jesus and Juan came up to Andarivel to spend three days before Christmas. We read La Reina de las Nieves by Hans Christian Anderson. We moved some huge rocks for the Jesus path and opened a new path to a secret cave. Daniel came over on Saturday morning to work on his wall. On Christmas day I planted a güitite tree stump and constructed a small pond near the colorado grove down by the river. The last tuition payment was made for Fabian but without any further contact with him or family except a phone call. A cell telephone and an antenna were given to neighbor Ana Chavez and family. No contact with Cristhian, Kenneth, Eliza or Josue, all of whom failed their school years. Greivin apparently failed his exams again. At least Juan graduated from third grade and Jesus continues to study his Maestro en Casa workbooks. Authentication documents are ready in Boerne, Texas; my next visit is scheduled for 1/20 to 1/25.
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