That’s right, my office was hit by a typhoon and, later, an outbreak of dengue that put one of my staff in quarantine for two weeks—he was literally unsure if he was going to survive, and had asked an intermediary to tell me he quit in preparation for that eventually, though the message never made it through.

This all happened on the other side of the world in the Philippines, and is one of the interesting sides of outsourcing.

When I didn’t hear from my coder for two weeks, I figured B) he got married and was taking a honeymoon without telling me first, or C) he ran into too great a challenge with the work and was too embarrassed to tell me, but in the end I discovered it was the old A) Dengue Fever hospital quarantine.

He’s okay now, reinstated and trying to recover his lifestyle after most of his things were sold or pawned to pay his bills.

Having been vehicle-less for 7 months in Costa Rica, among other reasons, Asheya insisted we add a second vehicle to our lifestyle so we each always have the freedom of mobility, at least for now.

We were so fortunate to find a Toyota Echo (our first choice) locally, 2005, and get this—only 37,000km! That’s practically a new car! We say this could very well be Elias’ car when he’s 16.

We wanted an Echo as it’s listed as “Recommended” in the Lemon-Aid Used Car Guide, has excellent ratings in Consumer Reports, is described as having “parts easily found”, with “really low” repair costs, and has the best fuel efficiency of its class.

I already broke it in (without breaking it, as happened with our old ‘94 Dodge Colt on a similar trip years ago) on a camping trip with just Elias, Eowyn, and myself to Kusawa Lake (we’re all set for that trip in the photo above), but that’s another post.

My third travelogue post was about biking Haeckel Hill / Mount Sumanik above my house (accessed from my front door), so it’s fitting that my third post since returning home is about my return to these hills, and this time with a camera.

Michael & I biked up the smaller facing hill, as I had done previously, and this time ditched our bikes and bushwhacked as far as we desired into the midnight sun.

There were well used game trails everywhere, and lots of moose and bear sign, including several bear hibernation caves and a kill / bury site (we got away from that clearing with all of its animal remains quickly). Besides huge swarms of mosquitoes (a sad feature of the Yukon in the early summer, particularly given the irony of our mosquito-free seven months in the tropics). We saw other strange creatures as well amongst those long-dead trees:

Had we wanted to, we could have reached the turbines:

And here’s a refreshing perspective on Porter Creek (my community of Whitehorse):

That’s handy.

What the heck—perfect health the last 5 months in Nicaragua and Costa Rica (and only minor issues the 2 months prior to that), exploring the jungle and taking the bus daily with people living on nothing but beans, and within a week of getting back to the Yukon, we’re sicker than we ever were in the tropics, and awfully annoyed.

In my 20+ years in Vancouver, I rarely had flu-like symptoms. The last 3 winters in the Yukon we could pretty much count on them—and we can add this summer to the list now, too.

Grrr.

Besides trying to squeeze every last bit of juicy goodness out of Costa Rica, it’s been a busy time in other ways. The latest checks on my “to do” list were to

• Find and secure a lawyer (BC)
• Find a commercial insurance broker (Alberta)
• Find and hire a graphic designer (Ontario)
• Find and hire a marketing consultant (California)
• Find and hire two programmers (Philippines)

One might think hiring people saves time, but it’s quite the reverse. Of course, we also get much more done.

My three favourite pictures from Zoo Ave:

“It’s not a Puma” (think Schwarzenegger)
Actually, it is.

The amazing Tucan

Look at how they each have white tufts!

I went for a little hike in Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo a little while back, and had the monkey experience many seek when traveling to Costa Rica.

When we came upon a troop of monkeys in the trees, having not met a single other person in our few hours of travel led me to believe they were not “domesticated”. They made a racket up there, eating twigs and dropping debris, urinating with abandon, and coming nice and close to get a good long look at us.

Bummer, I guess the daily afternoon thunderstorms took a liking to the internet receptor on our roof, and did a little cooking while we were away. A triggered breaker and crispy resistors inside the power converter beside the data input jack confirmed my suspicion. The wireless router’s baked, too. With like 5 important things on the go, b-a-d timing.