Museo de Arte Costarricense

After watching all the ox carts lumber out of Parque La Sabana and down Paseo Colon today, we spent some time in the park at the booths of the annual Rural Tourism Fair. A lot of interesting businesses were represented, with some good ideas for future trips around the country. The booths were spread out behind the Museum in the sculpture garden, one of the really neat places in San Jose.

The beautiful building on the east side of Parque La Sabana which now houses the Museo de Arte Costarricense (Museum of Costa Rican Art) was originally the terminal for the San Jose international airport. Opened in 1940 and closed in 1955 when the new airport was built in nearby Alejuela, it’s hard to envision an airport in this busy downtown location. Photos of the area on the museum’s web site, however, show an area that probably was thought of as “outside of town” at the time it was built. Today Sabana Park is a huge urban park with walking and running paths, basketball, tennis and volleyball courts, baseball diamond, soccer field and a fish-stocked lake. This in addition to the national stadium, national gymnasium, and of course the museum.
There’s a lot of impressive art inside this building. My favorites though, are outdoors, in an area called el Jardín de Esculturas (Sculpture Garden). Among many interesting sculptures are my friends Tres Mujeres Caminando (Three Women Walking).
The natural flow of their dresses, the gracefulness of their strides, the realness of their expressions fascinate me. The artist is Francisco Zúñiga. Besides the fact that they are so beautiful, maybe part of the reason I feel such an attraction to las mujeres is that they, too are recent arrivals, having only found their home in 2003, the year after our move to Costa Rica.

Desfile de Boyeros

The Christmas season is officially here. Not only is our neighborhood already being decorated with lights (including the tiny guard shack) but the house two doors down is sporting a house-sized snow man! So to celebrate the season, this morning we bussed into San Jose with our buddies Jon & Emma to view the 10th annual Desfile de Boyeros (parade of ox cart handlers). What a show!
Originally meant to haul coffee beans, the colorfully decorated carts (carretas) have become a major symbol of Costa Rica. No longer needed to take the coffee crop to the Pacific port of Puntarenas, a 10 – 15 day trek over muddy roads, the decoration of the ox carts and wheels has become a national art form.
It was a fun morning. I didn’t try to keep count, but there must have been way over a hundred carts in all sizes and colors. And the oxen, decked out in beautifully decorated yokes, were as colorful and interesting as the traditional carts.
As always in Costa Rica, the kids stole the show!

Ox Cart Parade

*****CLICK ON THE OX'S FACE FOR MORE PHOTOS*****<

Tico Time

One of the cultural differences that's hard to adjust to here is the concept of "Tico Time." I remember when we first moved here my friend Emma and I were invited by a friend to her 4 year old daughter's birthday party. "A las dos" she told us (at 2 o'clock). At two o'clock we showed up at her house. At four, just as someone arrived with the birthday cake, we apologized that we had to leave because Emma had an appointment she had to keep. The hostess was visibly surprised and disappointed and insisted that we eat a meal before we left! We had heard about "Tico Time," but we just didn't get it.
By last year, after 3 years in Costa Rica, you would think that we would have learned. We were again invited to a birthday party, this one for a gringo friend, hosted by his Costa Rican wife. We arrived at the appointed hour of six. At seven a pretty cake was set on the table to admire. At eight someone started cooking...
Yesterday I was reminded again that I'm still operating on "gringa time." A few neighbors have started getting together 3 mornings a week for an exercise session together. I am very excited to be invited to join in. Not only do I need exercise, but it's an opportunity to get to know my neighbors and to practice my Spanish. Yesterday was the third session and I finally realized that when they said to meet a las ocho (8 o'clock) that, of course means around about 8:30, or as they would say, "A las ocho, mas o menos!"

GDP or The Happiness Index?

GDP doesn't register, as Robert Kennedy put it, "the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, or the intelligence of our public debate." GDP measures everything, Kennedy concluded, "except that which makes life worthwhile."

Eric Weiner tells us in the LA Times that there is least one country in this world that takes happiness as seriously as economic growth.

Guy Fawkes Weekend

OK, so we're not British, have never played darts, tried horseshoes once at summer camp 45 years ago, haven't a clue what cricket is (some kind of bug?) and until moving to Costa Rica had never heard of Guy Fawkes...

The new experiences just never end. Our good friend Dale, who is also not British (does Kiwi count?) invited us to the big weekend party this weekend in Jaco. What a blast!

Talk about feeling like an outsider! You'd think we might be used to that, living in a foreign country and all, but on a day to day basis, this is just my home. I do not feel like an outsider. But toss me into a crowd of people who speak my own language differently than I speak it, people who actually KNOW how to play cricket, darts and horseshoes, and well, no one actually ever asked me if I was from the Colonies, but...

The whole weekend was actually one big party. And yes, the Brits certainly know how to throw one. The local was the beautiful Hotel Club del Mar at Jaco Beach. Great facility. Wonderful service. Excellent food. Right on the beach, which is where the cricket game was played. Now I have no idea if cricket is normally played on the beach, but it sure made it interesting. The darts competition, on the other hand, was held at the end of the pool, with 2 dart boards set up and probably 50 people competing. And no fatalities as far as I know!

Our group of 5 had reserved one of the 2 bedroom 2 bath cabinas. It turned out to be the one right in front of the beach. It was a beautiful little apartment, with ocean view. Go to sleep at night listening to the surf. Yes, I could live there!

Guy Fawkes

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Tortuguero

Tortuguero is one of the places we'd been talking about visiting ever since we made our first trip to Costa Rica some 8 years ago. After a trip to Playa Grande on the Pacific coast a couple of years ago to see the Leatherback turtles nesting, we knew that we had to go to the Caribbean to see the Greens. But getting there seemed difficult - and expensive. It seemed you had to fly there from San Jose, or take an expensive tour. Not our usual traveling style. When we got serious about it last month, we realized how easy it can be. And inexpensive. So we took our favorite bus trip from San Jose over to Cahuita, spent the night with our friends Judy and Bob, who live there, then took the bus up to Limon in the morning. From Limon we took a taxi to the port of Moin, from where we caught a 4 hour boat trip up to Tortuguero! Simple! OK. So maybe not all that simple, but relatively inexpensive. And definitely one of the most beautiful trips to take in this country. For more on Tortuguero, click here. Best place to sleep and eat in Tortuguero? Miss Junie's - we loved it. The people were great, Miss Junie is wonderful, and her food is awesome!

Tortuguero

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Quick Trip to El Caribe

Cahuita & Puerto Viejo

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Not much happening this month. After traveling in North America for 2 months, it's very quiet here. Our friends Judy and Bob are still on their boat in British Columbia. And Emma and Jon have taken off for Malta and Sicily. Our only travel was a quick trip to Hone Creek on the Caribbean to check on Judy and Bob's house.Click on the above photo for more pics.

We're Home!

What an incredible trip we had this summer! We spent all of July and August in North America. We started with travels throughout Florida, visiting our great family and friends there. Then we flew to Portland, Maine and drove to Union, New Hampshire, where we got to attend the wedding of my sister's son Michael and his beautiful bride Aimee. I had a fabulous time visiting with my sister, and we even got to take a trip up to Sweden, Maine, where we visited our cousin Phyllis, who actually lives in our grandmother's old house up in the wood. It was an incredible experience. What memories! I had thought grandma's old house might not even be there anymore, but it certainly is, and Phyllis has done a beautiful job of remodeling it, without harming the original aura or the place! After a couple of weeks in New Hampshire, visiting and eating and gaining another 10 pounds (!), we flew to Chicago to visit with Ron and Marilyn. Ron is Gene's buddy from all the way back in high school, and we love them both and were so happy to have the opportunity to visit them. From Chicago, we flew on to Seattle, then took a bus over to Spokane, where we visited with my beautiful daughter Angelique and her awesome sons, Jorden and Mark. Mark got to go along with us when we drove over to Missoula, Montana for a few days to see younger son Rob, his incredible wife Polly and their amazing sons Evan and Logan. Wow! What a blast to get to spend time with my grandkids. Made me wish we could be around them all the time. Back to Spokane, then back to the west side of Washington again and a visit with our wonderful friend Madelle, in Olympia. The climax of the trip was getting to spend 10 days boating with our friends Judy and Bob, who live 1/2 the year in Costa Rica (on the Caribbean) and the other half in BC on their boat! Judy instructed me in various boating procedures and promoted me to a new rank each time I successfully accomplished a new goal! At the end, after learning to drop the big balls into the water when we docked, pulling them up when we left the dock, throwing the strings to a waiting person on the dock when we landed, and various other important sea tasks, I believe I was promoted to the rank of Boatswains Mate. Or maybe it was high ballyhoo assistant Boatswains Mate. Something like that anyhow. It was a blast! After a few final days in Seattle, we flew back to San Jose. We had thought that 2 months would seems like a very long trip, but everywhere that we went, I wished that we could spend more time there. To see more about our summer trip, see our summer trip blog.

Volcan Rincon de la Vieja - Girls' Trip with Sue, Natalie & Lynn

Mud Baths: So Who Needs a Facelift?!

Grand Fun at Jaco

Great fun in March. Gene's nephews John & Jeff visited us from Florida. They also brought John's Gregarious Girlfriend Jeanna. We met them in Jaco and stayed at an all-inclusive resort where "the boys" have a time-share. Serious pool time. Serious Fun. Serious Drinking. And Jeanna introduced Laurie to that fabulous liquor that tastes like suntan lotion!

We Could Live Here!!!

Gene looks out over lower Arcos from the wall at the park.

Arcos de la Frontera

It only took a day to know that this pueblo blanco would be our home for awhile.

Spanish Cooking School

Almuerzo es listo!
Who Says Spanish cooking lessons are expensive? Francisca & Laurie make dinner.

Mark Visits Costa Rica!

The Best Coffee in This World!!!

For nearly two years my older son Mark has been saying things like "I definitely need a break at the end of this quarter. I'll be down in about two months." And I always knew he meant it, even though every quarter end turned into "next quarter" due to work commitments that always sound way too stressful. What a fabulous treat to finally get to see him again. The visit was way too short, so we did the shortened version of the waterfall gardens tour, which makes an interesting stop at a coffee farm as well as the waterfalls with the butterflies and the hummingbirds and the "tipico" lunch. We both had a great time.

A long climb-and a little wet!

Aunt Mary Comes to Costa Rica!

Last summer when she was supposed to be celebrating her birthday, Gene's Aunt Mary was busy doing hurricane preparedness and recovery routines in Florida (remember Charlie, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne?). So her daughter Barb and Barb's husband Chick decided that February would be a great time to get out of Buffalo, NY, stop off in Florida to meet Aunt Mary and bring her to Costa Rica for a belated birthday celebration! We were soooo excited to have them visit!



At Hotel Bougainvilla, a leisurely walk thru the gardens and then conversation in the bar

Aunt Mary Does the Waterfall Gardens