Christmas Day

Christmas Dinner was great. There were only an even dozen of us this year, which made for comfortable conversation, as well as comfortable seating.

Unfortunately I'm still trying to get over this horrible cold, but at least I can talk now. Dale and Gene spent 2 days running errands and shopping. Then Judy and Bob arrived and handled a lot of the last day prep work. All in all I relaxed more than usual and took naps while they did all the work. Not a bad deal. Christmas day actually turned out to be rather relaxing. I'm thinking that 12 is a good number to stick to. In past years when we've wanted to invite everybody, it has been nuts all day.

A New Restaurant!

Well, not new. Actually it's been there for years, but we just discovered it and are very excited. It is La Lluna de Valencia and they actually specialize in paella and other great Spanish food, including a nice selection of tapas! They are in San Pedro de Barva de Heredia. Easy to get to. Gene and Emma and I spent the afternoon there - and we definitely plan to go back soon.

Christmas Tamales!

Tamales are a Christmas tradition in Costa Rica. It's quite a process and is usually turned into a party with everyone in the family participating (or all the women anyhow!) So our friend Jackie decided we would have our own tamale making party.

We definitely did it the easy way since her Tica assistant gathered together all the ingredients and did the major part of the preparations in advance. When we all gathered yesterday afternoon, she had the banana leaves cut to size and spread out on one counter. On the kitchen island were bowls of prepared pork, rice with red chiles and peas, and a bowl of cooked and diced mixed green beans and carrots. There was also a large bowl of prepared "masa," a mushy corn meal mixture.
We each got to take a turn (this included not just Jackie, Emma and me, but our husbands Joe, Jon & Gene, equal opportunity kitchen such as it was!) as our "profesora" patiently showed us how to spread a large dollup of the prepared masa onto a double sheet of banana leaves, then a dollup of the rice mixture and a spoonful of the veggie mixture. Next a couple strips of pork, and then the wrapping process.
We learned to wrap them, folding the leaves over in a precise manner so that the stuff would stay inside when cooked. Two tamales were placed together, seams facing each other and then tied together with twine. After being steamed in water for about 1/2 an hour, the tamales were ready for sampling. And sample we did! Not only did we have a great afternoon with our friends Jackie and Joe at their beautiful cabin in the mountains, but there are now six more tamale experts in our part of Costa Rica!



A Toast to La Profesita!

Crime, Security & Returned Camera

On an online group that I participate in, Costa Rica Living, a woman recently asked about safety in my town of Heredia. Someone had posted about being attacked on the street and his gold necklace stolen. She had decided to move to Costa Rica and was now questioning her choice of Heredia as a place to live. We hear a lot about crime here. We sometimes don't hear enough about the other side of the coin. My answer to the concerned woman:

I honestly don't know if Heredia is a "much safer place to live," but I have lived here (up the hill from Universidad Internacional, so relatively close to downtown) for over 4 years now. Although I am aware of crime in the area, and even in my own neighborhood, I must say that I do not live in fear. I go where I want to go when I want to go. I have walked on the downtown streets and in parque central after dark without feeling threatened. It's also true that I had my day pack stolen from right on the floor by my chair while I wasn't paying attention in Pop's ice cream place. And yes there were once some small items stolen from our garage. On the other hand, my home was broken into when I lived in Tacoma, Washington (and the door was broken down to enter); I had stereo equipment stolen from my home in a "safe" suburb of Houston, Texas; my apartment was broken into and several items were stolen in Hollywood, Florida. I feel no less safe here than I did living in those places or in other places where I've lived. I know that no matter where I live I am not exempt from crime. But I do not feel threatened. Most people here are so friendly and helpful that it's amazing to me. If anything, most seem to need to look out for my welfare, knowing that I am an "ignorant foreigner!" Yesterday, getting off a bus, my husband Gene somehow dropped his camera. He didn't realize it until the bus driver came running down the sidewalk looking for him to give it back. Another passenger had noticed it and told the driver. This morning after our neighborhood exercise class, my Tico neighbors reminded me (twice!) to close my garage doors! I like living here. Sometimes there are things I do not like. I could say the same about any other place I've ever lived. But by and large I am much happier with my lifestyle - and my neighbors - than I was in the other places.

Day Trip to San Ramon

We had been meaning to get over there for a long time. Our friend Jose has a used book store in the town of San Ramon. We love used book stores! Actually it's a book store / internet cafe / coffee shop / real estate office / furniture store and probably a few other things I can't think of. But mostly it's a charming little shop called "Solo Bueno" in a pleasant small town. Yesterday we went with our friends Emma and Jon to check the place out. The four of us can make the smallest thing into an all day trip. It's part of the fun of discovery here. We'll never run out of places to see.

As always, just getting there is a big part of the fun. We all live in the town of Heredia, but the simple place to meet is in San Jose at the end of the Red & Yellow (bus line), where we have a cup of coffee and a pastry at Musmanni and then walk the 6 blocks to the Puntarenas bus terminal. From there the bus to San Ramon takes about an hour, first through town and then through some beautiful hills where coffee and other things are grown. We didn't know exactly where Jose's place was, but knew that San Ramon is a fairly small town and figured we could find it. Bravo, Jose! Your "direcctiones" were perfect. Once the bus turned off the highway into San Ramon, we traveled about 1/4 mile and pulled the "parada" chain when we came to the traffic light. We could, at that point, see the "Twelve Disciples," the tallest palm trees in the world. The bus stopped at the parada (bus stop) right in front of the bookstore. We recognized the colorfully painted building, with its cigar store sign (ah ha! I knew there was something I was missing in my description of what is sold there!) immediately.
Once there we met Jose's charming wife Joanna, as well as Adela, the manager, who, although we had never met before, greeted us like long lost friends! We all browsed and bought a few books (as well as trading in a few). We admired the beautiful bamboo furniture, which I would love to have if only we had room! There were quite a few people using the computers. Gene tried the coffee and told the rest of us it might be better to wait and have coffee elsewhere. Solo Bueno is apparently the gringo place to hang out in San Ramon these days. If we lived there, I'm sure we would be there often, or at least whenever we needed something else to read!
We ran into Tom, who we had met a couple of years ago (funny how you keep running into people you know in this country) and he offered to introduce us to a good "tipico" place for lunch right across the street.

This adorable place definitely fills you up with their casado. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the place.

After lunch we walked to el parque, admired the beautiful church (every village in Costa Rica has at least one beautiful church to see), wandered through the market, tried to visit the museum (which is closed for repairs), and ate ice cream in the park. A full day's adventure, and then it was time to catch a bus home. After all, we all had new books to read!