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| Pelican resting on a log on a pond at Zoo Ave, the bird sanctuary. |
“Sightings from the Veranda in Costa Rica”
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| It was pouring rain when I took this photo from the veranda. These two little Tropical Kingbirds didn’t seem to mind the rain. |
There’s never been a time where I’ve seen Tom enjoying shopping, not in a store, not grocery shopping, and certainly not shopping online for clothing. In most cases, I’ve purchased everything for him such as was the case when we replaced our entire wardrobes while we were in Minnesota.
We’ve known this daunting task of deciding on clothing for Antarctica was facing us and we’ve both procrastinated for some time. Now, we’re down to the wire.
Spending only one night in a Fort Lauderdale Florida hotel on November 22nd, (US Thanksgiving eve), and the necessity of having of having everything arrive in one box, we’re having everything sent to our mailing service.
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| A police building in a small town on the mountain road. |
Once it all arrives, the mailing service will pack it into one large box and ship it to the hotel with a plan for it to arrive about a week before our arrival, in the event of any mailing delays. We’ll purchase insurance for the package and send it USP for a fast arrival.
If anything does go wrong, we’ll have time to reorder everything to have it shipped to Buenos Aires where we’ll be for one month prior to the Antarctica cruise…backup plan in place. We always have to consider contingencies when we’ve experienced plenty of shipping issues throughout the world over these past five years.
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| Even some of the newer homes don’t have clothes dryers and hang their laundry outdoors. |
We both committed to getting the shopping done this week allowing plenty of time to receive it all in time. None of the items required shipping fees. The only shipping fees we’ll have to pay is for sending the box from Las Vegas to Fort Lauderdale which will be a lot less than we’ve paid for international shipping.
Having added other supplies and products we’ll need for our year in Africa, this will be one large package of supplies. We’re hoping to avoid having anything shipped to Africa if possible. No matter how hard we’ve tried, it’s not possible for us to exist with products offered in many countries.
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| Many homes are small single story styles. |
In Australia which is a shopping haven, we couldn’t find a replacement laptop for Tom suitable for his needs. We ended up paying US $400 (CRC 229,814) for shipping fees for the laptop from the US to Australia.
I’ve been using my laptop since January 2015. It’s still working with only one issue with the touchscreen. I can’t swipe from the right to the left to access the “networks” screen. With an easy workaround, this hasn’t been a problem for me.
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| Gated villa in Roca Verde, our neighborhood. |
Tom is worried, we’ll be in South Africa and my computer will crash and I’ll experience the same frustrating situation as when I dropped it and broke the screen in in January 2014.
Okee Dokee and I drove the long distance to Nelspruit to purchase another laptop. It was a disaster when my only option was an inferior HP which proved to be a dud.
Here’s the post from the date I dropped it and here’s the post from the date Okee Dokee and I drove to Nelspruit to find another.
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| Many homes located outside of the planned communities aren’t gated. |
I certainly don’t want to go through that again. But, I hesitate to replace this laptop that is working so well for me at this point. It’s a decision I’ll have to make within a week or two prior to the shipment being sent to Fort Lauderdale.
At the moment, Tom is finishing his order on Amazon spending a little less than I did. By the end of today, he too will have it completed and we can put one more task behind us.
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| Corn growing along the road. |
With the sun shining this morning, we’re hoping to spend time by the pool. Yesterday was sunny and warm during which we stayed in the pool until our fingers were wrinkled.
As always we swam, we laughed, we talked, and we shared stories of our lives long before we knew one another. We’re so grateful for this unusual life we live and the ways in which we spend it together. Life is good.
May your live be good as well.
Photo from one year ago today, October 11, 2016:
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| In Bali, these smaller buffaloes than the scarier big males, present a huge task for these young boys as they walk them to the river and back. For more photos, please click here. |