Our new house and a bike update

After a hectic week with the CO and visitors, we also had things fall into place to move.  So Monday we vacated Casa del Sapo...for the record I do not wish upon anyone (well at least brothers and sisters) that place.  On the outside it looks very nice and when you walk in it is nice too...but out of 4 air conditioners only 2 were working when we moved in and by the end of the month only 1 was working. Thankfully there were fans in both bedrooms to help us stay cool and to circulate the air some. There are very few lights in the house.  Both bedrooms have a small lamp and that is it.  The kitchen is well lite, the bathroom when all lights work is ok, and the small hall way has a light but the living room which is rather big has a small lamp!  In the day there is lots of natural light, but in the night it gets dark!  Unfortunately, there was a leak in the bathroom before we got there and rot had set into the wood under the tiles.  I am sorry to say that Ray and I broke a few of the tiles just by stepping wrong.  The kitchen is well equipped and pretty nice.  We had no complaints there.  As well there was a lot of closet space and good cable.  The internet was slow and spotty and the laundry was a nightmare!!  For a couple it wouldn't be too bad, but for a family of 4 with a little boy...it was hard. 

That all said, our new place is much smaller, but very cute!  We have an air conditioned master bedroom and an adorable loft for the kids.  We still don't have much light, but Ray is on that after he finishes working on the boat.  He also is going to work on the fans.  The house has 3 ceiling fans that should keep the house cool, but we haven't figured out the trick for turning them on.  There is a beautiful staircase that goes up the loft and a very artistic kitchen.  We were told the internet was faster, but it wasn't fast enough, so we just bought a little box that is like a wireless router. It seems to go quite fast.  We are all moved in now and seem to be quite happy.  The Marina is very quite and full of English speakers.  Not so good for the kids to learn Spanish, but at least away from the worldly influences.  We do miss the island of Carenero...the people were nice and we were finally getting along with the boat drivers so that they sometimes charged us like we lived there:) and not like tourists.

Here is the new house and yard around it. 

As you enter the house, you are in the living room.

Turn left and look at the kitchen stair case up stairs.

At the kitchen take a quick right and there is the bathroom and another quick right the master bedroom.

Turn around and head up the stairs to the loft where the kids sleep.

If you go back out through the door near the living room you get to see all the boats in the marina.

That's it our cute little abode for a year.  It is less money so at least we will be able to save some.

Currently the marina is in the process of repainting so all the mismatched railing you see will be gone by next week.  It looks really nice.  We still have to take a boat to get into town and are right now working on getting the phone number of many boat drivers.  The Marina has a water taxi that costs $1 each way per adult to take into town but it only runs at 8am, 10am, 12noon, 1pm, 2pm, and 5pm.  Then you are on your own to find a ride.  It means on Tuesday night we head to town at 5pm and hang out until meeting at 6:30 then we find a taxi ride home after meeting.  On Sunday we have to find someone to take us and bring us home...hence all the number gathering.  Getting home isn't as hard, but getting into town is can be tough.  When the boat is done, we will be much more free to get into town for meeting and not as worried about it.  We will only have to determine where to dock the boat during the time we are there.  Working on that still... 

We also just rebought bikes.  A week after we bought bikes, two were stolen.  We just replaced them and now I've taken pictures.  When I took these though, Ray didn't have his yet.  It was getting a basket and seat put on.  I'll update later after I get a picture of it tomorrow.

 
 I guess last night there was a rampage through town and someone stole seats all the way down main street including Madi's...They tried to take Ray's, but it was too rusted in for them to fight it.  Ty and my bikes had a small lock keeping the seats on and to the frames.  We also bought huge chains for the bikes so it will be hard to steal them.  We will have to buy Madi a new seat tomorrow and a lock for it so that hopefully we are safe from stealing from this point on.  If anything else happens, we might be bringing our bikes onto the boat and taking them to the Marina.  It is a super safe place as it has 2 guards roaming around at night and all sorts of workers here during the day, including the marina office right below us!