Costa Rica Week 2: Hobbits, Harry Potter, and Mud

We have survived our first ten days in Costa Rica, and each day continues to be a mix of ups and downs. Some things are getting easier (the homeschool routine generally, flexibility with food, familiarity with our surroundings) while some things remain challenging (the daily rain, our lack of Spanish fluency, missing home and our “old life”).

Once again, we’ll summarize our week in a “Highlights of the Week” section, provide our individual reactions in a “The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly” section, and share a “Lesson Learned.”

Thanks for following along on our crazy worldschool journey!

Highlights of the Week

Parque Nacional Los Quetzales

Our first “official” outing was a visit to Costa Rica’s newest national park, which is also the closest national park to our Airbnb in El Guarco – El Parque Nacional Los Quetzales. While we did not see any of the namesake resplendent quetzals (or much wildlife at all), we did manage a “fun” (subjectively speaking) though admittedly muddy hike through a magical cloud forest.

Fairy House Building

Getting outside during the morning before the afternoon showers is a daily goal, and many days we elect to just have “recess” in our jardin. Some days it’s a free-for-all, others we play soccer or frisbee, and one day this week we decided to build fairy houses out of fallen branches, leaves, and other scattered materials. It will be interesting to see how well they survive the daily downpours.

Our First Visitor!

“Uncle Joel” arrived on Thursday for an extended weekend visit, and it has been great having a familiar person join us in El Guarco. Joel even moonlit as a math instructor for Older Brother, sharing his wisdom about personal finance, budgeting, and life goals.

Hobbits and Harry Potter in Cartago Province

Perhaps the highlight of the week was a visit to La Gruta Bohemia, which bills itself as “a place where nature and fantasy meet.” While there are countless ecotourism businesses dotting the Costa Rican countryside, this might be the only one that combines Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and a 2-km trek through cloud forest to three cascading waterfalls. It was a cool spot.

The Shire

The Wizarding World

And the Waterfall Walk

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good

Dad – I have very much enjoyed the opportunity to be present as “dad” and “husband,” without a miles-long to-do list keeping my attention from those who matter most to me. The months leading up to our departure from the US were incredibly busy and chaotic. There was so much to do, and I could spend every waking hour doing something. And I pretty much did. That left very little time for me to be “dad” or “husband,” and those roles were largely pushed to the side. Now we are in a place where there isn’t much to do except be present with those around me. And it’s actually been pretty great! It has also been nice having Uncle Joel visit!

Older Brother – Costa Rica has very good candy. I also went to a Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings place and we got to go into a hobbit hole.

Sister – We went to a Hobbit/Harry Potter place that we thought had a Mario part but there wasn’t. I really liked the Harry Potter part because we are listening to Harry Potter and watching the movie. I also like sharing a bunk bed with Younger Bro except for his loud, loud snoring. His snoring scares me some times.😳

Younger Brother – We used some of our empty cans and set them up however we wanted and then used a soccer ball to bowl them down. I also liked seeing the Harry Potter stuff. Joel came to our Airbnb and stayed with us for a few days.

Mom – I’ve really enjoyed checking out some local spots to walk where we can be fully immersed in the vibrant and lush plant-filled trails while listening to the songs of the local birdlife. The younger crew has needed a little bit of extra convincing along the way as the trails have been quite muddy with a near constant threat of rain.

We ventured out to two local stores for some supplies, which felt like a huge accomplishment. The second store, which is closer to our little house, was a much better experience – better prices and the girl working there spoke English, which was a huge bonus. She even gave us a few recommendations about some local products, which we appreciated!

It has also been nice being here in this environment where we are not constantly rushing from one thing to the next and trying to juggle all of the moving parts of school, work, soccer practice and games x3, getting homework done, etc. Instead, we actually have the ability to slow down and we have the mental bandwidth to breathe. That’s not to say we don’t still struggle from time to time–we are human after all–but it makes it all a whole lot easier to deal with some of the bickering and challenging behaviors when you’re not constantly running on empty.

The Bad

Dad – Things seem to be resolved now, but we had two water-related issues at our house in the span of 24 challenging hours. First, we noticed a steady drip, drip, drip of water in our bedroom during heavy rains, which necessitated us moving our bed and putting a bowl under the drip spot. Second, around midnight one night I woke to a noise that sounded an awful lot like rushing water coming from beneath the floor. I walked around in the dark, looked under sinks and toilets, but didn’t see any active leak or notice any change in water pressure, so I tried to go back to sleep. But all night long the rushing water noise persisted, as did my restlessness. When daylight arrived, I sourced the noise – a recently-fixed (now un-fixed) pipe firing water across the basement onto the far wall. Thankfully, our Airbnb host was responsive and both issues were resolved, but for a day or two it all seemed to be going wrong.

Older Brother – My family members get stressed out easily and I just go to my room. Also, the roads are SO SKETCHY.

Sister – IT IS SOOOO MUDDY!!!!!!!! We had to go for LONG LONG LONG walks!!!!!!!!! Bugs can get into our Airbnb, and I hate BUGS!!!!!!! We always have to go to the store but we also stock pile on food.🥗🍳🌭🥪

Younger Brother – Older brother’s negative attitude when we were bowling made it less fun.

Mom – Rain, rain, go away! The mornings have been nice and somewhat sunny but by early- to mid-afternoon there is nonstop rain for the remainder of the day which makes it tricky not being able to get outside as much as we’d like.

The Ugly

Dad – The morale of the group continues to ebb more than flow (which I continue to internalize) and the yearning for “our old life” is still dominant among some. Similarly, educating younger brother continues to be a persistent challenge too, as daily hours-long battles around school work (math and writing especially) impact everyone in the family. No trick or tool from Mom and Dad’s collective two decades of experience working with learning-resistant students has thus far worked.

Older Brother – It rains ALL THE TIME 🙁. Sometimes it can be SO MUDDY and VERY SLIPPERY.

Sister – We fight about a lot of different things but not always. Younger Brother can kind of freak out a lot and get violent, but it doesn’t bother me as long as he’s not hurting me. There’s wild dogs and sadly I hate dogs!!!!!!!!!!🐶🐕😞😣

Younger Brother – I was mad that they didn’t have the Mario themed things that were advertised at the place we went…

Mom – Trying to get our youngest to engage and participate in all things academic has been a huge struggle. He’s such a smart kid and once he sets his mind to do his work it’s done within 15 minutes but the 2-3 hours of him trying at all costs to get out of doing his work is exhausting. It also usually results in escalated voices and behaviors that are very distracting to the other two who are trying to get their work down.

Lesson (Almost) Learned

Dad’s lesson (almost) learned this week is that it is okay to “just be” sometimes. Those who know me know that my mind and body are often running nonstop, and I sometimes struggle to just “be.” But, other than schoolwork, “being” with each other is just about all we have to do right now. In fact, “being” together (if not “being together”) was one of the primary reasons we made the choice to travel and worldschool.

I still fight my “go, go, go” impulse, and still have to check my urge to find things and activities to put on and cross off of my to-do list, but ultimately I have way more time for “being” than I have had in Septembers past, when I was often so drained from being “Mr. Suttmeier” all day that I had very little left for my children or wife when I got home.

For some people, this much downtime with family would be terrifying or impossible, but I do love my wife and kids and have enjoyed the opportunity to “be” and be “dad” and “husband” more than before.