About a year ago from Costa Rica...

An email from my dad.

Hi Everyone,

This being the week before Christmas and Year's End Merlyn and I wanted to share a part of our visual experience here in Costa Rica.  Our home, under construction, will be completed in mid March 2010 and we wanted to invite you to join us in the coming year for fun discovery, rest, adventure, great food, fresh air, clean, clear warm Caribbean waters, songs of many birds, occasional monkey howls, strolls through a nearby Botanical Garden (about 200 meters from our home) and places yet unrevealed. 

Happy Holidays

 Puerto Viejo Playa Negra beach is composed of volcanic rock and is finer than the finest sand I have ever encountered

Just beneath the surface, maybe 6 inches down is white sand which surfaces at the water's edge or when a sand crab excavates some sand to build its home and appears as a small pile of whiteness in the darker surrounding blackness.  

An interesting property the black sand exhibits is a sparkling glitter when the sunshine hits the sand. As you move across the beach the angles change, the reflections are caught by the eyes as tiny diamonds winking and twinkling. Being black, the sand gets very much hotter than white sand when the sun shines so remember to put on sandals before

walking on it please.

 Puerto Viejo Playa Negra with the white sand beach in the distance on the right by the palm trees. The village begins where the white beach starts.

 Puerto Viejo Construction 1 month 10 days. Notice the rebar extending to where the second floor will be. We can hear the ocean waves breaking on the shore but the forest blocks the view. When the balcony is build on two sides of the house on the second floor (one side facing the garden and the other the forest behind the building) maybe we will be able to see

the sea by closing our eyes and imagining. LOL.

 

 Here is Bob supervising the construction. The patio will be level with the top of the wall in the foreground. We will fill  the space where he is standing with gravel and then a layer of concrete before leveling the space with the top of the wall with ceramic tile.

 This is the main road that passes by hour lot where it intersects with the main, main road (highway) You can see the ocean but not the beach of Playa Negra from this angle.

 This photo was shot aimed directly at Puerto Viejo with Playa Negra in the foreground.

 A lone tourist strolling along the beach at Playa Negra. Note Puerto Viejo in the distance.

 Puerto Viejo  in background Playa Negra with sunbathers ends where the village begins along with the beginning of the white sand beach.

 Puerto Viejo Construction 1 month 10 days with our San Diego California neighbor's white house next to us. That's Bob in the distance.

 Windy day at the beach, bad hair day but good living day.

Puerto Viejo horses by grounded barge in surf. The bridge in the distance is just a dozen meters from where the road which passes our house intersects the beach.