Christmas Nite Lites

Great Christmas afternoon eating, drinking good wine, and having good conversation on a great variety of subjects with our new friends Linda & Chuck (hosts) and Emma & Jon. The lights out over the valley as we rode down over the mountains coming home tonight were awesome.
It’s Christmas. It’s different from any other Christmas we’ve ever had. We miss our family. We miss our long term, loyal, forever friends. We miss shopping for fun presents and wrapping them and watching them get opened. But we are enormously grateful for our newly adopted home, for the opportunity to live in such an awesomely beautiful and fascinating place, for the amazingly warm and friendly people, the opportunity to learn and live in a new culture, and for the wonderful new friends we are making, who, while adding a whole new dimension to our lives, will never be able to replace the old friends and family we left behind. Hopefully all of them will eventually find their way down here to visit us.

Holiday Customs

There are some odd combinations of customs here. Of course it's a very Catholic country. Throughout the evening and late into the night on Christmas Eve, we heard church bells ringing. Beautiful. There are so many beautiful old churches, and several are close enough for us to hear the bells toll. But we also listened to the fireworks late into the night. How did fireworks ever get to be part of Christmas? Some of them sounded like bombs going off in front of our house!

Every house in Costa Rica, as near as I can tell, has a crèche in, or in front of, the house. Many of them are huge, and very detailed. Apparently historically, in keeping with the private celebration of Christmas, the crèches were inside the house. In recent years, the Ticos have started decorating outside, and the displays of lights and huge crèches and other decorations are fantastic. I wonder how some of them can afford the electricity bills.
I suspect that the stores sell more during December than they do the entire remainder of the year. This is largely because every Tico worker, by law, must be paid a full month's salary as a bonus during the first week in December. Rather civilized idea, don't you think?
And of course the food. It's a big tradition here to have tamales for Christmas. Apparently every woman in Costa Rica has her own recipe for tamales, and prepares large batches of them. They are fabulous. I don't know what other things they cook for the Holidays, but I can tell you that the aromas coming from my next door neighbor's kitchen last night were so incredible, I thought of going over and standing at the door looking hungry. This morning there are more aromatic foods being prepared over there.
Speaking of food, we have been invited to Christmas dinner this afternoon at the home of our friends Linda and Chuck, who I had met when I was down here two years ago. They live further up the mountains from us, real country, with a fabulous view. It will be fun!

Feliz Navidad de Costa Rica

It's Christmas morning at our casa in Siboney de San Pablo de Heredia de Costa Rica. As I sat in the courtyard peeling onions for our traditional creamed boiled onions, I daydreamed about all the Christmases past. Has there ever been a Christmas when I haven't made boiled onions? I don't think so. Are my kids making boiled onions today? I doubt it. Funny. I always thought I was raising them to be totally independent. But now I think I failed to teach them the most basic of important things. Creamed boiled onions on Christmas day.
Today is very different from our Christmases past. In some ways it may be like Christmas forty years ago or more in the U.S. Especially if you were Catholic. Which I wasn't.

Last night we went downtown to go to mass at the beautiful old church by el parque central in downtown Heredia. We didn't know what time the service was, so we got there at almost seven, just in time to hear the end of the Ave Maria, which was incredibly beautiful. There weren't as many people there as I had expected. But then we realized that almost everyone goes to the midnight mass. After the mass, they go home for dinner. We enjoyed walking downtown on Christmas eve. There were a lot of people out and about, but not nearly as many as the night before, when it appeared that absolutely everyone was downtown doing last minute shopping. Buying a few gifts for our friends, I thought this must be like Christmas in New York, with all the hustle and bustle, street vendors selling everything, and bubbly young women cheerfully wrapping gifts for their customers. It was fun.
Speaking of view, it is the most glorious Christmas day in Costa Rica. I'm sitting barefoot in the courtyard writing this. It's warm and sunny and beautiful. Our house is enclosed by this beautiful private courtyard downstairs, so there's no view. But from upstairs, we see out over the valley and to the mountains on the other side. It is so beautiful. I really can't believe we live in a place like this. We’re so lucky. At night the lights all across the valley and into the hills are absolutely indescribable.

Unfurnished

As I’ve mentioned, the house we’ve rented is unfurnished. I probably should describe what that means in Costa Rica. Generally speaking an unfurnished Tico house has nothing in it. I mean it has no appliances, no kitchen cabinets, no closets, no medicine cabinets or shelving or mirrors in the bathroom. Emma was relieved when the landlady told her that, unlike most Tico houses, hers already had light fixtures. She was excited that she wouldn't have to shop for light fixtures to cover all the bare light bulbs. Then she found out that what the landlady meant was that it comes equipped with light bulbs! So we're all out shopping for light fixtures, among other things. We've done a lot of shopping together, and have lent and shared and got by and laughed a lot! By the time we moved in, we had a mattress, fridge, stove, washing machine, beautiful rattan table and chairs for courtyard, some cooking pans and a set of dishes for 4. We also had a few odds and ends like some drinking glasses, wine glasses (priorities, you know), "silverware," and a few other little things for the kitchen. We keep acquiring more stuff, but as I mentioned before, shopping can be a challenge. We have been known to spend days shopping for sheets and towels and a blender for Jon, which he apparently could not live without! A set of bed sheets can cost $60 - $80. The locally made ones aren't made quite big enough to keep the bottom sheet on the mattress. Some of them have fabric that is close to burlap! If I'm ever in a Target store in my life again, I'll probably buy every set of plain white percale sheets on the shelf! But life is good. On Monday we found a bathroom mirror. It is framed in bamboo and I'm in 7th heaven. Of course I got to see myself for the first time in 3 weeks, which was kind of frightening!
No matter what else it is, it's always an adventure!

Christmas Gifts

I miss buying presents for everyone, wrapping them on the kitchen table, delivering them up to my friends and family. But there are so many wonderful things about Christmas here. Historically Christmas is a family thing here. All the family gathers for Christmas Eve and Christmas day and many other parties during the season. The entire family participates, and in that way, it reminds me of Christmas many years ago in the U.S., a time when life was simpler. I always think of Christmas as a kid when we all went to Gramma's house! Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, old, young, everyone. And presents under the tree for everyone. Of course most of the presents were handmade. Not because we were so arty and creative and individualistic, but because there was no money to buy lots of store-bought things. For some reason, I always remember making pin cushions out of walnut shells! Every adult in the family must have had a huge collection of walnut shell pin cushions accumulating in a drawer somewhere! But it was important to have a gift for each person. A lot of aprons got made. My mother worked on her knitting year round. We all had the most beautiful sweaters. And every kid in town had a pair of my mother's mittens! My grandmother crocheted beautiful things. Everybody made something.

Self Service - Not

Self service has not come to Costa Rica yet! Having someone wait on you can be very nice. Sometimes it’s aggravating having a “helpful” clerk follow you around while you shop. In many places, like the hardware store or the pharmacy, the merchandise is not out for you to see and touch. It is thus necessary to explain to the clerk, in Spanish, what you would like to purchase. The clerk then goes to the back to find the item for you. Once the item has been located and you have agreed to buy it, the clerk writes up a sales slip, which you take to the caja (cashier) and pay. The cashier takes your colones, gives you change, stamps the sales slip paid. You then take the paid sales slip back to the sales clerk, who packages your merchandise and gives it to you. Sometimes instead of going back to the sales clerk, you go to the paquette desk to retrieve your stuff. In the case of the Christmas gifts I bought today, after returning to my sales clerk, I found that I was supposed to go to the line at the paquette and wait while the sales clerk looked in the back for the boxes. While standing in line, I saw that other customers were getting their purchases gift wrapped and asked if I could get mine wrapped too. Just like any big store in any big city during Christmas week, I thought. When it was my turn, one of the bubbly young women spent about fifteen minutes meticulously wrapping my four gifts with beautiful paper and fancy ribbons. When she was finished, they were a work of art. I said yes to the gift tags, she smiled appreciatively when I told her they were muy bonito, and wrote me up another sales slip, for the wrapping, which I then took to the caja, paid 300 colones ($.80), obtained my stamped slip, returned to the paquette, and obtained my gifts. When you're accustomed to self service, it all seems a bit awkward and time consuming. But here it's the way it's done, you get a lot of service, you learn patience, people smile and say friendly things, and it doesn't cost much.

Every Day Another Incredible Experience!

We were downtown at Mas por Menos, a medium sized grocery store. The pre-Christmas crowds were huge everywhere we went. Suddenly we heard beautiful Christmas music and wound our way through the aisles to see where it was coming from. There was a whole choir singing by the checkout counters. We learned that they were a project of the University, although some of the singers were way under university age. It was an wonderful full professional choir, with a conductor and the whole thing. Some of the most beautiful Christmas music I've ever heard, in a straggly little downtown grocery store with street vendors outside crying out about their wares to the crowds. I love this place!

We've Rented a House!

We found a great 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in a nice area up on a hill near downtown Heredia. From upstairs we can see all the way across the valley to the hills on the other side. The view at night with the lights is awesome. Upstairs we have a big master bedroom with vaulted ceiling and a window seat. There are also 2 small bedrooms with windows overlooking the coffee fields and the valley below. All of the upstairs floors are wood, except for the bathroom, which is tiled and has a suicide shower. Downstairs there is a long narrow living / dining room, a kitchen, and another bathroom. At the back there are French doors from both the living room and the kitchen out onto a beautiful small tiled courtyard with high vine covered walls. Off the courtyard there is a "pila" (laundry room) and a storage room. From the front of the house, you enter directly from the sidewalk (no front yard) to an extra large double garage. The garage has big double metal car doors plus the pedestrian door, so it's totally closed in from the street. But there's a break in the high roof toward the front and one side so that lots of light gets in. The garage ceiling is wood and the floor is ceramic tile. There's a pretty tropical garden area on one side. Of course we don't have a car and it's very nice out there, so Gene is going to set up his studio out there. It's much more house than we had planned to rent, but it was so fantastic compared to the other few places we'd seen in the same price range that we grabbed it. We're paying $425 per month, unfurnished. Actually we weren’t even thinking about looking at houses for probably another 6 months, but Emma and Jon invited us to go look with them and the rest just sort of happened! The landlady had 2 houses for rent and Emma and Jon have rented the other one. So we already had friends for neighbors before we even moved in. We've spent a lot of time together, out looking for the things we need to live here and just visiting. They are very friendly.

Back to the Pacific: Tamarindo!

In our ongoing attempt to see as much of the country as possible before "settling down" somewhere, we're now in Tamarindo. The trip to the beach took an hour more than expected, about 6 ½ hours. Bus was hot and uncomfortable; no room to move legs. One stop along the way to pee, etc. Got let off right in front of the Villas Amarillas, where we are staying. Certainly not a fancy place, but everything we need. A/C and hot shower, too. Right directly on the beach. And the beach is absolutely gorgeous! On-site outdoor restaurant. Outdoor kitchen for the use of the guests. There’s a balcony outside our room with a great view out over the beach and the ocean. The cost is $25 per nite (+ 7% if charged on Visa). Had a good lunch from the bus station; took it aboard and ate on the bus. Had dinner at a nice place on the beach in middle of town, Restaurante ZullyMar.

La Caja Continued Again

To Caja. Try in another 22 days, mas o menos! Great excuse anyhow for another trip to our new favorite restaurant, Matices. Dale went with us. We all had a great meal. Very friendly and consciencious waiter, Caesar. Went to Azzurra’s for coffee.

I'm beginning to understand that everything is in 22 days, mas o menos (more or less)!

The Little Theater: Chase Me Comrade

Dale and I fixed pasta with spinach and sautéed garlic for lunch. Very nice. Enjoyed it with some red wine. In the evening we finally got to see “Chase Me Comrade.” It was Dale’s first acting part, and she was great! The play was hysterically funny. We were invited to the after-play party at Stephani & Kevin Glass’s home next to the theater. A very large group of fascinating people. Kept trying to figure out why one of the actors seemed so familiar. Finally realized why. Harry Towne used to live on San Juan Island, and was active in the theater there! By the time I had figured this out, he had left the party. I’ve asked Dale to ask him when she sees him at the Sunday matinee, how he liked living on San Juan Island! Stayed at the party til 2 am!

Theatre People

Went to a very nice soda in Santa Ana for delicious arroz con pollo (Gene & me) and pollo asado for Dale. That’s about all they serve at that particular place. Then stopped at Pali for a few supplies and got a box of wine at the liquor store. Ann and a couple of other people from the theater stopped in for drinks after the play, so we ended up staying up too late talking! Dell (who’s in the play) and his visiting friend are from Toronto. Ann was her usual entertaining self and was telling us about the theater that she had back in Toronto years ago.

We Have Malls in Costa Rica too!

My first trip to Multiplaza – just like any mall in South Florida. Felt for all the world that I was in Aventura Mall, except that the prices had gone up! Dale needed tea. I wandered through 2 bookstores. Gene bought a pair of “Dockers” pants! We stopped in the mall for desserts and coffees and laughed about the fact that we’d spent more than we would for a whole meal at a soda! Went to an art supply store and got Gene a few things to do some drawings. By the time we came out, it was pouring! Got totally drenched getting a bus. Stopped later on and picked up some dinner pastries at Musmannis so we wouldn’t have to go back out in the rain for dinner.

Return to Civilization

Chad drove us to Carrillo to catch our 8:30 am flight. Hung out on the beach waiting for our plane. It is a gorgeous beach. Nowhere to stay right on the beach here, but there are a few places fairly close by up on the hill, and of course a lot of places in Samara, some of which are right on the beach and many others right across the street from the beach. Also there are several good places to eat in Samara. Looks like it could be a good place to hang out for a month or more, although I suspect that when we go back we will want to check out some other places we haven’t been to yet. The flight back over the mountains was beautiful. A nice clear morning. Stopped at ARCR. The lawyer said that our residency application was indeed submitted before they changed all the rules, so we are o.k. with that. Great news! Called Dale and arranged to meet her at Tex-Mex around noon. Bussed to Santa Ana. Dale is letting us stay at her place for a few days so we can get to the play on Saturday nite and to Sharon’s party on Sunday. In the evening, Ann picked us up in her car and we all went for pizza at Ginos. Dale brought wine along. Good wine; good pizza. Great conversation. Neat, fun friends. Pizza for 4 of us was less than $10.

The Flying Crocodile

The “Flying Crocodile” is a beautiful place, hidden away in the Rain Forest, feeling very remote. There was only 1 other couple staying there, a young couple from Germany, friends of the owner. The owners are away in Germany (for 6 months I believe). The staff, with a little help from Chad, apparently keep the show running without them. Chad flies the ultralights and takes customers up in them as well. Other than that, he seems to just be hanging out and doing a little overseeing and making trips to the airstrip and such. He apparently wandered out there one day a year or so ago, wanting to find out about the ultralights. He learned to fly them well enough that the owner, Gaido, trusts him to take others up for rides, so he hangs out and helps out from time to time. He was in the Marines for 6 years and has been out for 10 years, so I put him at about Mark’s age. He likes to wander and has lived in a lot of different places.
We had good meals, breakfasts of fresh fruit, toast and cold cuts, cheese etc. Dinners different every night but seeming rather “German,” with meat cooked well and other things on the dry side, except for the salads, which were over-sauced. Nevertheless, generally the meals that the Tica cooks turned out were fairly impressive. The veggies were good.
We walked down to the beach the first day, 15-20 minutes over a muddy, rutted road, and made it back almost before the rains came. The beach area is beautiful and we went for a nice walk down the length of it. There’s a lot of driftwood and some trash on the beach. Not terrible, but not the beautiful immense stretch of pristine beaches that you see in the pictures. Since there was usually only a short stretch of sun time each day in between the rains, we spent the rest of the week sunning at the beautiful pool area at the Crocodile when the sun came out. It was steps from our cabina. The rest of the time we read, took naps, played cards or rummitile.
One day we spent the better part of the afternoon watching about a dozen howler monkeys in the trees outside our cabina. They are amazing – and amazingly loud! It was fun and we took many photos, but although we could see them all well enough running around in the trees, it is hard to see them in the photos. There were 2 fabulously beautiful macaws in a large cage by the dining area. The blue and yellow one was often allowed to fly free around the area, and even sat on my shoulder. He can talk, but his vocabulary seems to be limited to “Hola.” I think his Spanish is coming along about as well as mine! There were peacocks – a male, female and 2 babies. They were fun to watch. There were 3 dogs and several cats. There were a few squirrels around in the trees.
The sounds of the rain in the trees and the crickets at night. Relaxing and calming. Very good sleeping weather. Our cabina was a beautiful “Moorish” décor thing, with 2 big beautiful beds made of some sort of gorgeous wood. The building itself was sort of “rounded,” with seven or so sides, the floor on 3 levels, with a couple of steps down between each level. The bathroom was all tile, with exquisite designs made with different color tiles. The step down in the bathroom was rounded, everything free-form. There was a snake-like red light stream, like a neon thing, built into the tiles on the counter-top and up the walls. Fabulous open shower, with all the hot water you wanted!!! Above were different colored glass insets in the tall rounded ceiling.
The paths and gardens throughout the property were fabulous, with a real “hidden away in the rain forest” feeling. Probably my favorite part of the property was the kitchen and eating area. I seem to really be into kitchens – especially when they are “outdoors.” This was beautiful with lots of open shelving of gorgeous woods, beautiful European appliances, tile, and big serving areas. Although it could all be closed up like a smallish room, and was actually the bottom floor of the owners’ house, it led out onto the tiled eating area, and felt totally open and outdoors. The large eating area was covered with bamboo roof and also contained a turtle pond (2 big turtles), the macaw cage, and a hammock. Everything about the place was designed for total relaxation.
A big fun part of the week was catching a ride with Chad into town a couple of times. Each time he would check to see if we could cross the river to go the short way and decide it was too high. So we would take the long way around (about an hour to town), crossing 3 rivers along the way, one of which was pretty big. We stopped once to pull another vehicle out of the middle of the river, and another time to make sure that the smaller truck we had passed along the road made it across o.k. Chad always stopped to pick people up along the road. The Ticos walk for long distances all the time, but are very appreciative when they get a ride! There were a lot of dogs everywhere we went, and they were all skinny as hell. Also there were a lot of cows in pastures and they were all skinny. We saw a few horses and they were not fat either. It was about an hour into Samara and the beach there was wide, long, and beautiful. It was also virtually empty, this being the green season. I could live here.
Got an e-mail from son Mark, who said he “couldn’t help worrying a little,” when he doesn’t hear from us for a few days! Couldn’t help remembering trying to track him down back in his college days. Don’t you just love it. Paybacks are hell!

Flight to Playa Samara, Flying Crocodile

Early morning flight to Samara (Carrillo) was fabulous. Flying over the mountains and beaches in a small plane was truly incredible. The pilot decided not to land in Nosara because it was raining and there was no visibility. There was an older woman and a couple with a 9 month old baby who were left on the airstrip in Carrillo trying to decide how to get home to Nosara. The pilot had given them a choice. They could fly back to San Jose with him or get off at Carrillo. Apparently the couple with the baby were coming back from a trip to the States with massive amounts of luggage and stuff, definitely more than could be fit into a taxi! Hope they made it! They looked to be at least mid to late 30’s and said their baby had been born in San Jose and therefore had her first flight at the grand old age of 2 weeks, flying home to Nosara. Since then she has flown several times, including a couple of trips to the States to see her grandparents! All 3 of them seemed pretty casual about it all.
Chad was waiting for us at the air strip with a 4-wheel drive truck. The drive out to the Flying Crocodile took about an hour. We checked out the main river on the short route and he decided not to try it, although he “thought” we probably could have made it. The current looked pretty strong, the river was fairly wide, and I couldn’t tell how deep, but definitely not shallow. The “Crocodile” is definitely out in the wilderness. There certainly are no restaurants within walking distance. Supposedly the beach is in walking distance, but I don’t know if I believe it. I think it’s a good thing we have an “all-inclusive” package, which includes breakfast and dinner at the Crocodile.

Matices & San Rafael

Got ready for our trip to the Peninsula tomorrow and then walked downtown and messed around for the rest of the day. Had lunch at Azzurra and dinner at Matices in San Rafael de Heredia. Really like that place a lot and also like San Rafael a lot. I ordered a “boca” for something like 700 c, expecting a little bite to eat, and got a whole plateful of dinner! I definitely could live in San Rafael.

Independence Day

Let’s go to “SantAna”! By the time we got started with our day, we figured the parade was long over, since Baldwin, the owner of Azzurra’s, had told us it started at 8 am. Thinking maybe we would find someplace to stay in the Santa Ana area for after we get back from the beach, we headed out for the day. Surprise! We got to downtown Heredia in time to watch the end of the parade! We’d forgotten about “Tico Time!” And a great parade it was! Seemed like everyone was out there – all of the school kids playing in their bands (and they are good!) and their parents and everyone else they know showing up to watch. Huge crowds. Gene, of course, could see over everyone’s heads, and took some pictures holding the camera over his head. I climbed up on a concrete wall and hung on to an iron fence and had a fairly good view! It was fun!

Once the parade was over, we had some corn on the cob and “corn pancake” things from a stand in the park and watched the holiday action for a little while.Then we rode to San Jose and took another bus to Santa Ana. Hadn’t been able to reach Dale, so took off on our own, looking for a neat sounding B&B we had read about in one of the books. Went to Tex-Mex to ask for directions and found out the place we were looking for is no more. What’s in its place now? Tex-Mex!!!
Had beer and munchies and then bussed over to the next village, Piedades to look at a hotel we had read about over there, Hotel Posada Canal Grande. Very nice, up on a hill with a beautiful view out into the hills. Beautifully decorated rooms with a veranda overlooking the pool. Nice, but not all that convenient for location and quite expensive (he came down to $50/nite from the $70 mentioned in our book). E-mailed Sharon and Dale asking if they have any suggestions for where to stay while we come back for a week or so to do Sharon’s party and Dale’s play.

La Garita & Atenas

Finally made it to La Garita and Atenas! Yesterday we took the bus from Heredia to Alajuela, then another toward Atenas. We jumped off the bus just before La Garita when Gene thought he saw the restaurant we were looking for, so we were at one of the knock-off corn places instead of the Fiesta de la Maiz that we had heard about, but it turned out just fine anyhow. Food was excellent – and cheap. Charming place.

We had been wanting to check it out to see what sort of places there might be to stay in that area. We picked one (Apartmentos Atenas), which, unfortunately was all the way on the far side of Atenas. Called a taxi to take us there and went over all these windy roads out in nowhere. By the time we found it, it was getting dark and we had spent something like 6500 c for a taxi, so we decided to stay the night! Stayed in an adorable little cottage fully equipped with little kitchen. The grounds were really nice and there was a small pool. It seemed like we were really out in the jungle. You could be comfortable there for a long stay. It was fun. But even though it seemed like we were out in no where, there were several dogs barking in the night and a lot of traffic noise from the busy road just past our cabin.
They served us a very nice breakfast in the morning. The couple who were running the place are just friends of the owners, who are currently back in Germany on vacation. This couple are in the process of having their house built on their finca. They haven’t lived here very long. So they are staying at this place while their home is being built and are taking care of the place for the owners. They were very friendly, and he gave us a ride into Atenas in the morning so that we could catch the bus. He also gave us the “grand tour” of the area, driving us up into these beautiful hills where lots of people have built / are building homes. The road was really scary on the side of the mountain. He said the homes there are selling for $120,000 – 150,000. They were all incredibly beautiful and unusual and all had pools!
The area around Atenas is all very beautiful, mountainous, and has lots of flowers. The town of Atenas seems like a really nice small town, with a nice park and church in the center. We walked around the town for a couple of hours. There was a lot of activity going on (like a fiesta) outside the Mas X Menos (grocery store). We were looking at the very beautiful church and realized there was a wedding going on, so we stayed and observed for an hour or so. I even got to throw rice at the bride and groom when they finally came out! We decided maybe it was too hot for us in Atenas, but when we headed home (via busses) we realized it was just hot everywhere today. We may have to check out Atenas some more some day.
Tomorrow is Independence Day so there’s a lot going on. We wanted to stay downtown because the torch was being passed in Heredia at about 4 and at 6 the kids were going to do some sort of candle thing in the park, if it doesn’t rain. The torch thing is really neat. The main torch is relayed all across the country, lighting smaller torches as it goes. The smaller torches are then run out to all of the outer reaches of the country, so that by the end of the 3 days every piece of road in the country has been run with one of the torches! Sounds really neat! Big parade tomorrow morning. We were getting tired and figured we should go back to Hotel Roma and see what was going on, since they had said they would need us to move downstairs today. They helped us move when we got there. We now have a private enclosed patio, but it doesn’t make up for the view upstairs!

La Caja Continued

Back to the Caja! Went to the 1st window and got something stamped in no time. Went to the 2nd window and only stood in line for 10 – 15 minutes!
The lady at the window told us they would have to make a file for us and that we should return in 22 days (which, fortunately, Linda had already explained to me really means 21 days – as in 3 weeks!)
Decided to check out “Matices,” the San Rafael restaurant that Linda had recommended, ½ block uphill from the church. Great place. Got there in the rain, but just before the sky opened up. Great food, very low prices. A real deal. I had the Casada Tipico with pork chop w/ barbeque sauce, rice, beans, salad, mixed vegetables, broccoli, steamed yuka & carrot, fried plantains. Gene had the same thing with chicken with a teriyaki type sauce. 1100 each (+ drinks, coffees, dessert-total bill was 4488 c). They also had great sounding bocas for 400-700 c. We will definitely go back.

Continuing Saga of La Caja

First Things First. We will get the paper that we need from the Guardia to get us into the medical system.. Got Nidia to call out to the Guardia for us. Alas! “Something…I mean someone,” she says, “died. The secretary will not be there today.” The policeman told Nidia to tell us to go to the police station in Heredia and that they would do the paper for us. So we went to the Heredia police department, with all of our papers in hand. The uniformed reception person inside the door understood what we needed and motioned us to go back out the front door and to the right. Following his directions, we turned right outside the door, walked to the corner of the building and turned right again, all the while looking for a door. We found one about half way down the side of the building, and, seeing 2 police persons at the top of the steps, I started up to tell them what I needed. The male policeperson enthusiastically put his hand up to motion to me to back off!

I backed off quickly as ordered. He indicated to me that I should go back around to the front of the building (from where we had just come). I tried to express in Spanish my confusion, but said that I would return from whence I had come! We started retracing our steps as Gene told me they had just taken a guy in through the door in handcuffs as we had walked up. I guess I had been so busy trying to find a door that I had not seen what was going on just inside the door. So we got all the way back to the main door of the large ugly green building again, where I tried to express my confusion. I can’t remember if I spoke in English or my newfound “Spanglish,” but they quickly got the idea and one of the policemen offered to walk us to the correct place. He walked us back out the front door again, turned to the right, and pointed to the hole in the wall (barred window) 3 feet from us. So much for our powers of observation. The woman behind the window immediately knew what we needed and proceeded to take care of it for us, even before an English-speaking policeman appeared to ask if he could help. Someone must have told him that there were 2 stupid gringos wandering around unable to see a window standing 2 feet in front of them. We offered all of the necessary papers to the secretary, including the very official piece of blank paper, the “papel oficio.” She smiled very nicely and indicated that the special paper was not needed, as it was all in the computer! Within 2 minutes, everything was done, we did several “Muchas Graciouses” and were on our way.

Before heading back to San Rafael for the next step of the process, we decided to reward ourselves with a cup of café con leche at Azzurra’s. Good decision. Ran into Linda, who just happened to be downtown between appointments. She was enduring a good deal of frustration over her car being in the shop and having to get around by taxi. So we enjoyed visiting with her and then shared a taxi out to San Rafael, where her appointment was.

We went directly to the Caja medical facility, where we were to present our papers, passports, temporary “orden patronal,” and the paper from the police station, which told them that we live within the boundaries of their district. Based on the written directions that we had been given at ARCR, we stood in line at the sign that said, “Afiliacion.” The line was not long, and we were feeling like things were going really well when we got up to the window in less than 10 minutes. After looking at our paperwork, the clerk told us that we first needed to go to the line marked “Verification de Derechos.” No problem. There was only 1 person in that line. We were doing well! Got up to that window, and after looking over our papers for a few minutes, apparently attempting to decipher them, she gave them all back to us, pointing to the stamp on the temporary “orden patronal,” and speaking rather rapidly in Spanish. It finally became clear that there was a problem due to the fact that the date stamp was August, and since we had not got around to doing this stuff while we had been in school trying to learn Spanish so that we could try to communicate with people when we got around to doing this, it indeed is now September. Clearly this is a problem. She does not appear to be amused at my suggestion that I can change the date, and crosses out the stamp in ink with her pen, apparently afraid that I will attempt to forge it!

After some discussion, we decide that the best thing for us to do for the rest of the day, is to take a bus into San Jose to the ARCR, where we should be able to easily get an updated temporary “orden patronal,” since we’ve already paid in advance for 3 months of insurance. Off to San Jose! No problema. Got new “orden patronal” with September date within minutes. Let’s go for some more sushi! Nope! Sushi Restaurant is closed from 2 – 5. Oh, well. At least we know where the bus stop is now!

And on the way home,we get off the bus right across the street from “Casita del Chicharron,” and discover another legendary local eatery. Good greasy food!

Never Curse Fate - Again!

With all appropriate papers in hand (passports, copy of utility bill from Hotel Roma to show where we’re living, the temporary “orden patronal” from ARCR, and the very official blank piece of paper obtained at ARCR, the “papel oficio,” along with the “timbre fiscal of 25 colones,” obtained at ARCR) we headed out by taxi to San Rafael to the “estacion de la guardia rural de San Rafael Heredia. This was the next step in getting registered in the public medical system.

We had made plans with Nidia at Hotel Roma that she would call them at 1:30 to let them know what we were coming for, and that we would arrive there at 2:00. When we arrived, the guard at the desk spent several minutes or more looking and relooking at all of our papers and somehow (he spoke no English and I really could not understand any of his Spanish) communicated to us that we should return tomorrow morning after 8:30 because the secretary, pointing to a metal desk with an ancient Underwood typewriter, who types the paper that we need is not there today. Found out later that Nidia had found this out when she called but had no way to reach us to tell us not to go. It was o.k. Now we know where the Estacion de la Guardia is, a plain and ugly concrete block building hidden behind a concrete block wall with chickens running around the mud-filled yard.
We walked around and saw the beautiful church and really liked this small, neat, clean town. Wide streets. Not much traffic. Nice school next to the park by the church. A nice man who was doing some work on the outside of the church (it appeared to be freshly painted) saw us gawking and asked us if we like it. We told him it was gorgeous. He seemed very proud of it, and a few minutes later came running after us with a very nice full color glossy booklet that had been printed a few years ago for the centennial of the church! The sky was getting ready to open up, so we had coffee at the nice big soda on the corner and watched the world go by for a little while, before catching a taxi back to Hotel Roma. Never curse fate. If the secretary had been there, we probably would have spent some time at the police station (Guardia?) getting our papers, and by then it would have been raining, so we would have missed our walk around this charming little town. We might never have seen the beautiful church, talked to the nice man who was working so proudly on it. We might never have discovered the corner neighborhood café with its great-smelling lunches being prepared behind the counter. I could live here!

Never Curse Fate - Electric Outages, Sushi Restaurants & Moveable Bus Stops

By a "lucky" turn of events, we discover a Sushi Restaurant!

Took bus to San Jose to pay our INS insurance and check on the status of our residency application. Oh, stopped for ice cream at Pops on the way! Talked to a nice young woman from the states who is a student at the University. International Business. Interesting. Never curse fate. The insurance person was out to lunch and the lawyer couldn’t give us a letter re our residency application status because the electricity was out. The electric was out in that whole area of town. While walking around looking for somewhere we could get something to eat (no one’s cash registers or kitchens were working because there was no electric) we ran across “Restaurante Pacifico” (at Toyota 100 este 25 sur Paseo Colon – 257-9523). In spite of the fact that it said it was a Korean/Japanese Sushi restaurant, we tried it. Comfortable little place, got table by the courtyard. Sushi was not bad. Of course, it’s not Sushi Blues, but it was o.k. So if we hadn’t had the problems with no electricity and the insurance person being out to lunch, we never would have found it. I realize now that the subject of sushi had come up frequently lately. We must have been reaching our limit of going without our sushi fix! Had a couple of nice rolls + 4 sushis + beer for 5610 c. Went back to Casa Canada and got all the rest of our business done too! They moved the bus stop for Heredia! What luck that someone else waiting for a bus on Paseo Colon asked us where we were going and told us she had just found out that her bus stop was now one street over (north) and that she thought ours might be too. Otherwise we might have waited forever. As it was, it only took us about half an hour to get a bus. Then they made us get off around the corner at the next bus stop and wait for the next bus. Because it was already full and we were standing? The driver raved all the way to Heredia about the situation with the changed bus stops. He was raving in Spanish and I couldn’t figure out anything he was saying, but it was clear that the changes had not put him in a good mood. Good day for us anyways. Coffees at Azzurra’s on the way home to celebrate making it through the day. Es todo.

Sunday Morning at Azzurra's

Met the Gallo Pinto Group at AzzurraS. More & more people kept arriving until we ended up with 13 people, mostly expats from the US. Chuck & Linda, and a bunch of people we hadn’t met before. Tim, Richard & Elizabeth, Emma & Jon, Lori, Jim, Loyd, Lisa and us. Emma & Jon have been here only 4 wks. She’s very friendly-wants to get together-maybe do some traveling together. They’re renting in La Garita. Will try to get together with them this next week. I already know that Emma, who is originally from Bolivia but has lived in the US for many years, is going to become one of my best friends! Lori is staying at Hotel Roma.She came to Costa Rica with a friend 1 wk ago. He’s found a job and now she has to figure out what she’s going to do, find a place to live and a job. She came up to our apartment and visited later in the evening. Jim we had met a few days ago. Lisa lives near Chuck and Linda; works for a sports-book outfit. Has been here 2 years; seems interesting; just had cosmetic surgery and has 2 dogs, at least one of which is a Doberman. Elizabeth is Richard’s Tica novia and is also very friendly. Richard is getting dental work done and currently has no teeth!
Had lunch at a Chinese restaurant that Linda had recommended. It was pretty bad and I’ve definitely sworn off Chinese food for the rest of my life in Costa Rica.

Random Thoughts-1st Month in Costa Rica

We’ve been here for five weeks and have spent four of them in school studying Spanish. So my mind has pretty much turned to mush dealing with my apparent inability to quickly learn a new language. It’s been very frustrating. On the other hand, it occurs to me that it is probably not as frustrating as working for a living. We’ve been having a good time staying in Heredia and are very happy to finally be in Costa Rica to stay. We’ve also applied for residency and health insurance. Random Thoughts:

Churches: The churches are all beautiful. And unlike other places I’ve lived, it seems their doors are always open, which is interesting. Open to everyone, as near as I can tell. In Heredia there’s a group of dogs that head for the area just inside the huge front church doors when it rains. It’s dry there. I love the church bells, which seem to ring all the time. Gene says they ring at 25 minutes after the hour and 25 minutes before the hour. That may be true. And if true, there may be a reason for it. I don’t really care. I just love listening to them. We can hear them from our apartment and it’s great.
Our Apartment: We had expected to be holed up in a little room somewhere the whole time that we travel around the country until we decide where to live permanently. I can’t believe we found this wonderful apartment at Apart-Hotel Roma. We ended up with a fabulous 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment for the month for less than we had expected to pay for a little room. We have an indescribable view of the Central Valley from our “penthouse,” and the lights at night are awe inspiring. The people here are friendly and helpful, there are grocery stores nearby, it’s near our school and all of the downtown activity. Absolutely perfect for our first month.
Everyone Will Help You With Your Spanish: And for this I’m very grateful! I’m amazed at how helpful and patient everyone is. Nevertheless, my Spanish is still so inadequate that it’s exhausting to try sometimes. People start up conversations with total strangers all the time around here, which, of course, coming here from South Florida, is not something I’m accustomed to. Once in a while someone will start speaking Spanish to me on the street, in the store, whatever, and I do not understand one word that they say. Feeling overwhelmed by it, I say, “No habla espanol,” thinking that will get me off the hook. Consistently, the other person will try to help me by (1) speaking more slowly, (2) speaking more loudly, and (3) explaining with 5 – 6 additional paragraphs so that I will understand!
Getting a Decent Meal: I’ve always judged new places first by their food. A lot of other criteria follow, but food is really the most important. Therefore Costa Rica is a pretty easy adjustment for me because I really like most of the food. I didn’t realize how easy it is for me until one of my classmates, who is doing a homestay, said that she’s starving to death and that she will never eat beans and rice again as long as she lives! I love fish and have had really good fish here. But all in all, I suspect that some of the best meals in the country can be found at the markets. I remember discovering it a couple of years back in San Jose and have now discovered it here in Heredia. The little sodas inside the market are the places to go for a good casado del dia. A complete meal, including a salad, rice and beans, and pork or chicken or fish. Add a couple of other things on the plate, sometimes fried platanos (love ‘em), and a refreshing fruit drink. Give me all that, charge me anywhere from 900 – 1100 colones – and call me a happy woman!
There’s Always Manana: I think I’ve spent my whole life panicking over everything I didn’t get done today. As soon as I put my feet down at Juan Santamaria, I discovered a whole new thing called “Manana.” It’s life-altering. Trust me.Speaking of Manana: Tomorrow we will meet a gaggle of new friends at Azzurra’s by El Parque Central in downtown Heredia. The band plays, the children chase the pigeons, the vendors display their wares, people actually fill up the beautiful old church, and right outside, the clowns clown and the bubble man blows bubbles. And across the street, at the (largely gringo) coffee shop, Azzurra’s, a small but animated group of friends from our online discussion group, Gallo Pinto, will discuss whatever comes to mind at the moment, face to face.

Schools Out!!!

Last day of school. A relief not to have to study every night for a while. We’ll do some more studying later, after we’ve had time to do some practicing and studying on our own for a while. Met another new person today, Jim, who is a friend of Loyd’s from their Spanish school. Talked for quite a while at Azzurra’s over coffee after school. He’s been here many times, last time studied for 2 ½ months and did a homestay the whole time. Retired LA cop. Quite a talker. Thinks he’s here to stay this time. Turns out he’s also staying at Apart-hotel Roma. Celebrated our graduation by going to lunch at a new place down the street from Azzurra. The art gallery part of it is called “El Garabato.” The restaurant is called “Quimera.” Neat place. Good food, except that the rice was terrible. Jim, who we had just met earlier in the day, came up to our apartment and we all talked for a couple of hours or more.

Open House at The Little Theatre

Went to the Little Theater in Bello Horizonte in Escazu. Great party. Dale had invited us. Wine and munchies, a great preview of their next show, opening at the end of the month, “Kiss Me Comrad,” and auditions for the following show, which will be The Crucible.” Gene tried out for a part! Met some neat new people, including 3 or 4 women, all of whom live in San Joaquin de Flores, right near Heredia. San Joaquin keeps coming up as a good place to live. Loyd lives there. One of the women, Ellie, is going to have a house to rent in a couple of months. She has 2 houses there. A large one, which has never been lived in, and she’s finally decided to move there. The smaller one, which she is in now, is very close to the other and has a nice big yard. We’re going to call her and go over and see it. We don’t need a place for a while, but she says she probably won’t get moved for a couple of months, so it just might work out. She said she had never got around to renting the other house, which had been her original intent, because everyone that wanted it had a large extended family, and she was afraid of what would happen to the house with that many people in it. Mary White, who also lives in San Joaquin, gave us a ride all the way home, which was great. Getting over to the theater had involved a taxi downtown, a bus to San Jose, a bus to Escazu, and a taxi to Bello Horizonte, which was fine except the cab driver had no idea where I wanted to go and drove around stopping people and asking them about it until we found it! I had directions, sort of, but they were from the long bridge, and since the bus went another way because the bridge is closed down (for repairs, I think), I ended up disoriented. Never mind, we had a great night and met some neat new people!

Day Trip to Atenas - Not

Sundays happen. Decided to take a bus to Atenas via Alajuela. Wanted to see how long it would take to get there from here, now that we knew we could bus through Alajuela, instead of through San Jose. Thought we would stop off at Fiesta del Maiz in Garita. It’s famous for very tasty local dishes from corn. Free tastings. No plate over $3. Sounded like a place we had to try.
Walked downtown and through Parque Central. The park is so great on Sundays. The band was just warming up. There were adorable little kids everywhere, as always, chasing the pigeons, blowing bubbles, laughing at the clowns. There were a lot of vendors in the park today, selling jewelry and various novelties. One vendor had these funny foam-rubber lizards on sticks, which jumped and hopped around when he “walked” them.
We walked by Azzurra and spotted Sonia and Ron, so of course, stopped to say hello. Before we got away, Chuck walked up. Next came Richard Goebel, who we had not met before, but who was down to see Dr. Pacheco (my dentist)! Chuck and I had both recommended Dr Pacheco to him on line. He’s trying to start up a business with a friend down here re airplane maintenance. He plans to return to US in a couple weeks and then move down shortly if all goes well. Then Loyd showed up. We discussed places to live, Loyd’s experiences with Ticas, cooking, restaurants and shopping. Chuck and Loyd had both been sent out in the rain by their cats, who were out of food!
By then we decided it was too rainy and late to go to Atenas! Oh, well, there’s always Manana! Had lunch at the vegetarian restaurant “Vishnu,” which was ok, but not worth writing home about.
Still can’t get over the fact that I can buy 4 great oranges & 4 great bananas for 120 c (30 cents)!

Day Trip by Bus

Riding the busses can be a great adventure. It’s possible to get almost anywhere on a bus – cheaply. It’s not necessarily easy to figure out how to get from one place to another by bus. One method is to ask strangers. This doesn’t necessarily work all that well because everyone wants to be helpful and give information even if they don’t know the answer. The result can often be confusing. Our usual technique is to walk around looking for a bus that boasts a destination that sounds like it is in the direction we want to go. It’s all part of the adventure.

Today we decided to get on a couple of busses and see where we ended up. So we jumped on a bus in downtown Heredia headed in the general direction of Santa Barbara de Heredia. The bus took us through San Francisco, San Joaquin, and on into Santa Barbara, where we got off the bus to walk around for a while. There wasn’t a whole lot to do or see in downtown Santa Barbara, so after a leisurely walk around the usual Parque Central, and a look at the usual beautiful old church by one end of the parque, we decided a good way to escape the rain was to jump on another bus!
When we spotted a bus that said “Alajuela,” we jumped aboard. A rainy day may not be the best time to visit a city for the first time, but today’s rain was really just a drizzle, not the torrential downpour of yesterday, so we at least got a look at the town. “It’s a mini-San Jose,” says Gene. I don’t think he really meant it as a compliment. We wandered through the market, which had shops with good-looking fruits and vegetables, meats and fish. Since the rain was only a drizzle, the little kids were having fun feeding the pigeons in the park, several groups of older men were carrying on political discussions or playing checkers on the built-in checker/chess boards on the park benches, and a few young lovers were kissing and cooing on other benches. It was a normal day in a Costa Rican park. There was the usual impressive church at one end of the park, many people wandering around enjoying life. So different from Florida where most people are hiding out in their air conditioning and the parks are used mostly by homeless people! The Pops by the park in Alajuela had no tables and I was craving iced cream, so we found our way back to the main bus station and found a bus bound for Heredia. In only 45 minutes, we were back in downtown Heredia, eating ice cream sundaes (mine had great coffee ice cream). It just doesn’t get any better than this!
Our expenses today:
3 busses 710 colones
1 taxi 400
Breakfast 2300
Coffees 300
Sundaes 1200
Total 4910 colones ($13.60)
Not a bad price for a full day tour including food!

Thank God for Pops!

Pops is the Costa Rican answer to Baskin Robbins. Just as you can count on a church at one end of every park, and at least one park in every village, you can depend on at least one Pops in every town. Seems you can also count on at least one internet café on every block. Ice cream is called "helado."

The Last Guy Who Insisted That Pedestrians Have the Right of Way is Dead

Getting Around by Bus: You really can get anywhere from here – by bus. It never ceases to amaze me. Now, it may take a while to figure out where to catch the bus, or which bus to take to somehow get from Point A to Point B, but that’s another whole story. I think you can get about anywhere in this country for $4 or less. And anywhere around the Central Valley for under $1. I love not needing a car. No car payments. No insurance payments, no registration, no pumping gas, no maintenance costs, no parking costs, no repair bills, no parking tickets. It’s awesome.
Or Take a Taxi: Otherwise you can always take a taxi. Most of the time a cab costs us about a dollar. A great way to get home from the grocery store with a bunch of groceries. Or just get somewhere fast when it’s raining. I’ve found that if I just close my eyes and hold my breath for the entire trip, I rarely have any problems. And anyhow, since we’ve moved here and adopted such a relaxed lifestyle, I rarely ever have panic attacks. So I recommend taking taxis from time to time just to make sure the adrenaline is still there.
Potholes: They really do repair them! The six foot deep, six foot by 3 foot hole in the middle of the road right at the corner at the bottom of our hill got filled in this week! I can’t help wondering what it’s filled with, since I noticed previously that there were a couple of tires and a few other interesting objects down there. And I’m not sure where the metal rods that used to stick straight up from the hole may have gone…but no more hole. And it only took a couple of days after the hole was filled for the 3 foot high pile of excess pieces of concrete to be moved out of the middle of the street. I notice that the taxis still swerve when coming around that corner. It’s going to take a while….
Pedestrians: Drivers of vehicles assume that you are an intelligent enough human being to get the hell out of the way of moving vehicles. A compliment, I suppose. After years of training at always crossing at the crosswalk on the corner, I’ve now retrained myself to always cross in the middle of the block, where I have a slightly improved chance of getting to the other side of the road before the traffic coming around the corner can reach me. The last guy who insisted that pedestrians have the right of way is dead.

Partying with the Ambassador

This year, 2002, marks the 50th year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The occasion is being celebrated in Great Britain and around the world with parties, festivals and exhibitions. Today HM Ambassador, Georgina Butler hosted a celebration of the event in the form of a Golden Jubilee Charity Garden Party at her Residence in Escazu.

According to the emailed invitations, The Garden Party seeks to bring together members of the British and Commonwealth communities, all those with British connections, Costa Rican friends of Britain and the Commonwealth and their friends. All proceeds from the Garden Party will go to projects sponsored by two local charities, the Costa Rican Red Cross and the Salvation Army, in support of disadvantaged children.

There were activities for everyone: Tug Of War, Pony Rides, Sponge Attack (with your favourite personality!), Three-legged, Sack and Egg 'n' Spoon Races, Coconut Shy, Dog Show, Treasure Hunt, Tombola and Raffle. Theatre (including: 'Five Minute Hamlet' and Ayckbourn's 'Gosforth's Fete'), Puppet Show, Children's Storytime, Scottish Bagpipes and Dancing, Live Music. There were also homemade jams and chutneys, pies and cakes, Tea and Scones, Coffee and Cake, Strawberries and Cream, Soft Drinks and Beer, and Pimms, and food by Bagelmans, Tin Jo and Outback Steakhouse and lots more!

What a great party! We went with our friend Dale, met her daughter and granddaughter, along with several other new people. Everyone ate, drank and had a great time. The Ambassador herself took part in one of the comedy skits performed by the Little Theater Group and she was a kick! How gracious of her to make the beautiful grounds of her home available for the party. And all the proceeds are for the benefit of disadvantaged children!

Social Life & Noise Levels

1st week of school is over. I need a lot more practice than I’m getting. Had lunch at Le Petite Paris with several of the other students: Kim from my class, a special ed teacher from NJ, Mauri, the Air Force Colonel, another student originally from Jamaica, I think, and the very young one with the little voice. All a lot of fun. Linda called. We’ll have lunch at their house after coffee at Azzurras on Sunday. Gene will finally get to see their house up in the mountains which I’ve told him so much about! Also called Dale. We’re going to meet in San Jose tomorrow to go together to Escazu for the British Ambassador’s fund-raising party. I think Gene’s worried about when he’s going to study. I guess I should be worried, too, since I definitely have to do some studying over the week-end. I just can’t seem to work myself up to worry about anything.

Friday nights are always very noisy! Doesn’t bother me, but it’s obvious. Ticos love music, dance and partying. I think they have a lot of energy! Also I’ve noticed there are always lots of sounds around, no matter where you are. People here are great at “multi-hearing.” Multiple conversations, conversations over several other sounds, etc. They don’t seem to notice. In a taxi, the sound of the dispatcher is non-stop, the radio is blaring, and it apparently seems normal to the driver that he should ask you several times where you want to go before he hears the answer.

Mothers' Day in Costa Rica

Mothers’ Day is a Huge Holiday here. I think mothers are more important here. No school. Wiped out from studying. Hung around the apartment and read a book. Realized we didn’t want to fight crowds at restaurant and didn’t have anything on hand for dinner. So went to Auto-Mercado for a roasted chicken and some groceries. Very expensive place. Will not go there again. Guard says “Pali” is the lowest priced grocery, then Mas Por Menos, then Hipermas, then priciest is Auto-Mercado. With a whole new culture as well as a new language to learn, I learn more here every day than I used to learn in a year!

Sunday in the Park

Met some of the Gallo Pinto Group (an expat online discussion group) at Azzurras for coffee & desayuno. The idea was to talk & also hear/see the Sunday band in El Parque Central. With all the conversation, I don’t think anyone was even aware of the band! Anyhow it was fun. Chuck and Linda were there. Also Loyd and Tim. Walked around the park on the way to Azzurra. There were many (!) people in the church, the big doors wide open and the music playing. It was wonderful. The old church itself is fabulous,

although we still haven’t gone inside. Later, Gene said he walked by again and there was a group of very complacent dogs in residence, just inside the door. Looked like they had just found a really comfortable place to hang out for the afternoon – kind of like the “boys” that hang at Azzurra’s every day! There were many vendors in the park today, and clowns for the kids!

I was trying to think if I had found anything I’m not real fond of yet. Thought of 3 things:
The Shower Decision: Do I want a cold shower today, with some water pressure, or do I want a hot shower with no water pressure?
Toilet Paper in the “Wastedbasket.”
Darkness by Around Six p.m.
Into the evening, we realized we had failed to plan for dinner. The hotel guard told us there was a nice, but inexpensive, fish place not far from here that we should try. I guess maybe we should have asked him to define “not far from here.” Anyhow, it was an interesting ride, with some fabulous views along the way. El Banco de los Mariscos is a huge, extremely casual, family sort of place, with tables inside or on the porch. The food was good, but nothing particularly exciting. The experience of getting out there and back was worth it, although I probably would not go all the way out there just to have fish again. The taxis almost cost us more than the dinners!

More Photos of Heredia & Parque Central

We May Be the Oldest Students!

Walked to Intercultura to register for classes. Our classes start Monday morning. Very busy place. Lots of young bubbly students racing around and talking. Most are clearly college kids (and some younger) down for the summer. What a great way to learn Spanish. Wish I had suggested it to my kids when they were that age. Maybe the grandkids! They are all doing homestays and having a great time.

Had a great breakfast at a really nice soda, (Don Tito) on the way to the school. 1950 colones bought us 2 really good gallo pintos con huevos y pan o tostados y cafes con leche (Costa Rica beans & rice with eggs, toast and coffee with milk).

After visiting the school, we had cafes at Azzurra and got some cash from an ATM machine. 1st machine did not like our card, so we went to another with no problem. It even gave us the option of talking to us in English. Got my watch fixed at no charge.

Another Day in Paradise

Back to the Embassy to pick up the SS Certification for our residency application. Then a great Italian lunch at a lovely little café called “La Mole,” down the street from the Embassy. Back to ARCR to take the SS Certification to the attorney and to get our “authenticated” passport copies. Also did all the application paperwork for health insurance. Paid for the 1st 3 mos of Caja (public socialized medicine system) insurance. Have to get utility receipt to take to police to get paper to take to the Caja hospital or clinic in our area to get our Caja card. We’ll receive notification of acceptance on the INS insurance (private medical insurance but still a government monolpoly, as is all insurance) in about a month and pay at that time. Back to Heredia. Cafes & postres at Azzurra. Back to apartment. Dinner of my ceviche and (Linda’s) cookies and milk.

Our First Dinner Guests!

The big event of the day was definitely having our first dinner guests. Linda & Chuck Leake came over to see our wonderful view with the lights coming on at night! We fixed pork chops, little potatoes, broccoli, salad and had a nice dessert from hipermas. Also had wine. Linda showed up with some nice little cookies, then Chuck showed up with some very good local cheese & “sausage” and some crackers. He even brought their cheese board and a knife down, knowing that these “fully equipped” places never have things like that. We had a great evening of conversation. Lesson for the day, from Linda: Ticos don’t say “In a week.” They say “In Eight Days,” counting the current day. Sounds ok, she says til you realize that if today is Wednesday and they tell you to come for lunch “in eight days,” that means next Wednesday, not next Thursday!

Talk about a disastrous breakfast! This one beats them all. We had desayuno downstairs at newly opened Chinese soda. Really bad! Juevos con jamon (eggs with ham) was a big plate of so-called ham (what was it really? I do not know) with a little bit of egg, all sort of scrambled together. Very weird. Café was weak & they had no leche (dairy dust only). So much for Chinese sodas.

Embassy & Residency Application

This morning we went to Pavas to the US Embassy to request certification of SS benefits, which we need for our residency application. It took us 1 ½ hrs at the embassy even though there were only a few people in front of us. Each of them seemed to take forever. We have to return on Thursday to pick up the certification.
We had a good lunch at a soda. Casados con pollo, pepsi & choc milk shake. 2730 total. The meals included rice, beans, potato, veg, salad, tortillas & bowl of peppers.
After lunch we picked up our photos for the residency ap, then went to ARCR (Association of Residents of Costa Rica), where our lawyer’s office is. Someone from the lawyer’s office accompanied us to the police station to get our fingerprints done for the residency ap. We paid ½ of the residency application fee to the lawyer.

Cab to downtown Heredia 350
Bus to San Jose 300
Cab to Embassy 1000
Lunch – Soda 2730
Cab to ARCR 700
Cab from Policia 730
Bus to San Jose 130
Bus to Heredia 290
Residency Ap (1/2) $550
Documentation $25
Café & Banana Bread 900
Internet 300
Cab to Apt 400
Chinese fried rice etc delivered 3000

Getting Internet & Cost of Spanish School

Mon, Aug 5, 2002
Toast, juice & café in apartment. Taxi to Parque Central. Cafes at Azzurra’s. Met Megan (!), young woman who is here for 1 yr to teach English, while waiting to see if she gets accepted for Grad school. She gets free Spanish lessons for teaching English. Said her choices were to do this or to do a gov’t job again in Illinois!
Yeah! We now have an internet account and can use the laptop from the apartment! First we went to an office supply store which is authorized by Racsa (the government internet monopoly) to open accounts. A nice young man named Victor helped us fill out some forms. Then to the bank to make the required deposit (only ½ hr in line). Then back to the store. Victor thanked us for being patient with his English! It amazes me that people here will apologize for their English. Excuse me! Shouldn’t I be the one apologizing for not being able to speak Spanish?!!! Then back to the apartment to get the laptop. Back to the store to get the laptop “configured” with our account information. And now we’re on!
To Intercultura. Looks very good, but pricey. $725 each for 4 weeks of Spanish lessons. That’s for 4 hours a day 5 days a week.
Back to Azzurra for ice cream cones (200 c each).

Our Apartment

Our apartment is amazing! We have 2 bedrooms & 1 ½ baths. It has a massive living room with big desk, couches, etc and a kitchenette. It also has a 180 degree view of the valley and the mountains. Absolutely awesome! We also can have an internet connection in our apartment, but it´s Sunday so I have to wait til tomorrow to get us signed up. But we have 2 phone lines in the apartment, 1 for the internet. Now that we have a kitchenette we may occasionally eat in. It includes daily maid service and a bunch of other really convenient stuff. The staff is very helpful. All this for far less than we were paying for just a small room at the hotel in San Jose. We took it for a full month, while we stay here to study Spanish. Otherwise the rate would have been quite a bit more. All of the apartments (they call it an "apart-hotel,") have 2 bedrooms and are very nice, but we splurged on the biggest, most expensive one with the view because we thought it would be so nice to have such a comfortable place to stay while we study for a month. Then we´ll be off to do some traveling around the country!

Move to Heredia

Coffee at the hotel. Taxi (at Hotel Roma’s expense) to Heredia. Move into our wonderful new home for a month! Bought milk and beer and munchies at the store across the street. The bells are ringing in Heredia on Sunday evening. Our view out over the valley at night is awesome We can see the lights all the way to San Jose, over the valley and up through the mountains. One of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. Watched a movie on our many-channeled tv. Got pretty funny at times. It was in English with Spanish subtitles. “Infucking incredible” was translated as “amazing.”
Tomorrow we will try to locate the Spanish schools and decide which one to go to. I guess we have the rest of the week to figure it out so we don’t have to decide tomorrow. It seems difficult to find out where they are. Linda told me over the phone where two of them are and supposedly Nidia knows, here at the hotel and she’ll be working tomorrow. When we checked in the very helpful young man at the desk said it would be better if we waited until tomorrow to pay! I have no idea why he didn’t want to take our money! Many things here are unexplainable.
On the other hand, some things that seem unexplainable are indeed eventually explained. Getting onto one bus, the driver kind of shoo-ed me along, wanting me to get out of the way apparently. So once everyone was on, I tried to go back to the front to pay and he almost pushed me away, telling me to stay behind the red line. I thought he was unusually concerned about security or something. Turns out there’s some sort of electronic gismo that counts the number of people getting on the bus. So I assume if I go across twice, he will get charged twice for my fare and come up short.
Had lunch at “Spoons.” Surprised to realize the lunch bill was 6,068c ($17). Not worth it. Probably won’t eat there again. Gene had spinach lasagna, which was only so-so and I had a Quesadillas. The coffee milk shake (“iced cappuccino”) was good, though. Spent some time at the internet café. This one is only 200c an hour, compared to 450 an hour in San Jose. Interesting.

Dale's "Wee" Apartment & Other English-English Translations

Lunch at Dale's house turns into another all day party!
Running late-cab to Coca Cola. Bus to Santa Ana. Dale meets us at the bus stop. Taxi to Dale’s house. Dale’s “wee apartment” is fabulous! Very unique little place with a small bedroom, small living, eating, kitchen room. All in interesting shapes. No 90 degree angles here! Tile floors. Tile countertops, bottom cabinets only. Little bar at the end of the “kitchen” area, where Dale has her computer set up. All tile in the bath with a big shower. Not much furniture or décor; she just moved in. But she now has a set of dishes and served us a very nice chicken (already cooked from the grocery store, but very good recipe), little tiny seasoned potatoes and a salad. We ate around a real table and had some very nice red wine that came in a box. Oh, yeah, I just realized that she has wine glasses too! Everyone here has a story. Dale says she gets more frustrated trying to communicate in English with Norte Americanos and Brits and Canadians than she does trying to learn Spanish! She knows she doesn’t know Spanish, but assumes we all speak English! She told me she can spend $10 US and have enough fruit and veggies for a “fortnight.” I sat there for about 30 seconds trying to remember what a fortnight was, and finally admitted I didn’t know and asked her. Turns out it’s two weeks. I think I should have known that. I’m sure my grandmother would have known that. I suspect that everyone in New Zealand still knows that! (Reminds me of Ann saying that she can’t even talk computers in English, never mind Spanish!) Dale’s fabulous “wee apartment” rents for $250 a month. When she first got here, she ran around asking everybody to help her find a job. Now, she says, with the theater and everything else she does, there’s no way she has time to work! Cab to the bus stop. Bus back to San Jose. Walk from Coca Cola back to the hotel. A good long walk. Stop along the way for sandwiches (big Cuban style things) at my favorite soda. Wow! What a great day! It’s just so amazing to be here. Everywhere we go, I look around and think, “I just can’t believe we’re really here. We really live here!” We made it!

Another Old Friend & Finding an Apartment

We meet up with Chuck in Heredia. As always he is full of information about Costa Rica. And he even ends up leading us to our first apartment!Had made arrangements to meet Chuck in Heredia. Got a little hung up on getting ready and needing to stop off at the internet café so ended up splurging on another cab [something like $5 for a 20 minute ride; 3 days ago I spent $10 to taxi down the street to the post office and back in Hollywood]. Chuck is the guy who runs one of our Costa Rica Internet discussion groups, “Gallo Pinto.” We met him at Azzurra’s, the coffee shop across from el Parque Central. Talked for a couple hours. Chuck is a wealth of information. Told us how to get cell phone cards so our cell phones will work here (outgoing only; some people get pagers so people can page them to call back). Don’t feel any need for a cell phone, but maybe someday we will, so it’s good to know how to go about it. Talking to Chuck is kind of like listening to an ongoing encyclopedia of Costa Rica in progress. I had first met Chuck and his charming wife Linda when I was down here last year. After meeting them at Tex-Mex with a group of online expat friends, they had invited me out to their home in the hills for lunch one day. I remember that on that day I had taken the bus from San Jose to Heredia and Chuck met me in front of McDonalds and took me on a grand tour of the area in his truck before going to lunch. I learned a lot about living here that day. And the valley view from their lovely home in the hills reinforced my desire to move here.
We Find an Apartment: Chuck mentioned a place called Apart-hotel Roma where a couple of other “Gallo Pinto” members had stayed when they first arrived. It’s up on a hill in walking distance of downtown Heredia. I had eliminated the place from consideration, although it sounded pretty good, because the guide books said it would cost about $50 a nite. For some reason, we all ended up climbing into Chuck’s little truck and trekking up the hill to check the place out. Turned out we could get an apartment for anywhere from $600 to $900, after a little negotiating, and by taking it for the whole month and paying cash. We fell in love with the biggest, nicest apartment. It has an incredible view of the mountains and the valley. At night it would be awesome, seeing out over the lights of the entire valley and the mountains and San Jose. Anyhow, after talking with Chuck for a few more hours, we had lunch on the square in Heredia, caught the bus back to San Jose, and called Hotel Roma and told them we wanted the “Penthouse Suite” starting on Sunday.
Dale called to say she’s bought a set of dishes for her “wee” apartment and we were invited to help her christen them on Saturday for lunch. So another big day on Saturday and then we’ll move to Heredia on Sunday!

First Day in Costa Rica!

We did it! I still can’t believe we’re really here. And yet somehow I feel like I have come home. It’s been a busy day, meeting friends, learning the busses, eating and drinking. But mostly just soaking in the flavor of our new country.
8:00 am: Having my café con leche on the patio of Hotel Dona Ines. Gene’s already out walking.
8:30 am-My friend Dale just called! We’re meeting at Tex-Mex in Santa Ana at 4 this afternoon! The front desk guy brought the phone to my breakfast table. I thought it was a mistake. No one knew where we were! Then I remembered. Dale was the only person in the world who knew where I was! Yesterday morning I had seen her daughter post on our on-line Costa Rican discussion group that she and her husband are leaving to go back to New Zealand. I panicked! Dale helped me celebrate my birthday when I was down here by myself last year. She had invited me to opening night at the Little Theater – and the cast party afterwards. She was my first real friend in Costa Rica! I immediately e-mailed her – please tell me you’re not leaving just as I’m finally getting back! Within 2 minutes I had a reply: No, I’m staying and I have my own “wee apartment” in Santa Ana already! So much excitement as I e-mailed her to tell her we’d be staying at Hotel Dona Ines in San Jose again. So it’s Tex-Mex at 4!
Lunch: Stopped at one of my favorite places to eat in San Jose, the little “soda” across the street from my old school-arroz con cerdo (pork fried rice) for me and arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) for Gene. Café con leche for me and Coke for Gene. Total bill 2,300c (about $7.50) – and it was great! You can feed yourself well and incredibly cheaply or you can spend a lot more. But the difference in price is definitely not necessarily indicative of the difference in quality. The comida del dia which can be had at any little soda in the country for 1,100c or less is really good food, a whole meal with salad, vegetable, fish or meat, rice, beans, a drink and sometimes even soup.
Later: Tex-Mex is a real gringo hangout in Santa Ana, a 20-30 minute bus ride from San Jose. On my last trip here, I had met a bunch of people from the internet groups there on a Saturday afternoon. That’s how I started to meet people and make friends. Dale wasn’t able to make it that day, due to a Little Theater rehearsal. She e-mailed and invited me to get together another time. And thus we immediately became fast friends! Santa Ana, by the way, is pronounced “Santana,” like one word, and skipping one of the “a”s.
Getting to “Santana:” (Remember this is our first day here!)
Gene: We’ll take a cab?
Laurie: What for?
Gene: Why not?
Laurie: It’s expensive.
Gene: How expensive?
Laurie: I don’t know.
So we took the Sabana-Cemetario bus (the one that is going to turn towards Coca Cola as opposed to the one which is not going to turn towards Coca Cola! Wonder if I’ll ever understand this type of direction!) from Calle Once, Av Central y Dos to Coca Cola (the large bus station-not one of your more savory areas, but no big deal). After only 2 minutes of standing in line, we caught the Santa Ana bus on the street outside of Coca Cola (they leave every 20 minutes). Anyhow, since it came so fast, I hadn’t figured out how much it cost yet, and couldn’t see any amount on the window, as is normal. I had figured out that the driver had said ciento cuarenta y cinco but was having trouble counting out all the weird coins for 145 twice. A man across the aisle said “It’s 300.” Not the first time I had tried to make something too complicated. It doesn’t have to be exact. They will give you change! The truth is, though, somehow, you always end up with mounds of strange coins and eventually have to try to use some of them! Anyhow getting to “Santana” was quick and easy, as well as cheap – 60c to Coca Cola and 145c to Santana (exch is about 360c to US $1).
At Tex-Mex: Wow! How great is it to arrive in your new home in a new country and on the very first day get to meet an old friend! It was so great to see Dale. She is such a fun friend. And she even came with a huge bouquet of flowers for us! Welcome Home! What a great time! Dale came to Costa Rica from New Zealand a couple of years ago to be here for the birth of her first grandchild. Her daughter and son-in-law have now returned to New Zealand, taking Dale’s only grandchild with them! Dale has no plans to leave. Like us, she is home.
Another New Friend: And an amazing experience! Dale’s friend Ann showed up, abruptly announcing, “I am now brain dead.” Since I had never met her before, I wasn’t sure how to take her comment. Seems she had been on the phone with RACSA (the Costa Rican internet provider monopoly) all day, trying to get her computer working again. "I don't understand computers in English; nevermind in Spanish!" One guy gave up on her "and went for coffee, apparently." Her monologue on her experience with RACSA sounded like theater. I kept thinking if she was sitting on a stool in the middle of a stage, doing the same lines, people would pay good money for the performance. It helped that she had a fascinating English accent, and pronounced “Racsa” very crisply! Turns out that she does do theater – both acting and directing, as well as writing the theater newsletter. She also writes for the Tico Times – and is off for a few days to Guanacaste to interview several people for as many articles. Later, reading last week’s Tico Times, I realized the article on a new wine bar in town was hers. Fascinating person. Lived here 11 years. Left a few times to do some traveling in other countries, once for a year, but she always comes back to Costa Rica. “I couldn’t live in Canada again, and certainly could not afford England.” She says you can travel around on $5 a day if you don’t have a home base to maintain. When she first got here, she would go places with her landlady, who apparently sold cosmetics, or whatever else she could find to sell, door to door. Her clients paid her 50 colones a week or whatever. So she goes around with the landlady to call on her customers. At every gate, the landlady would call out “Upe!” Ann thought it odd that so many of the Costa Rican women were named “Upe.” Eventually she learned that “Upe” is the greeting that one yells at the gate, waiting to be invited inside! They would get ready to go somewhere and the landlady would say they were going to “Alavuelta.” They never seemed to end up getting there and Ann was anxious to see “Alavuelta” and eventually one day asked the landlady about it. “You always say we’re going to “Alavuelta,” she said, but we never get there. Where is it?” After falling on the floor laughing, the landlady told her that “a la vuelta” meant “around the block.” Every story Ann tells is hysterical. The British accent helps! Ann recently acquired a car and started driving. She says that it turns out that most of the streets are one-way, but the only way you know that is when oncoming drivers start yelling at you!
What a Day! A gringo named David at the bar kept coming over to our table to welcome me profusely. In grand shape after spending most of his day at the bar, he obviously had heard me exude about it being my first day here! After sitting around getting caught up on everything that’s happened since I left a year and a half ago, and of course drinking Imperial (local beer), and then having dinner, we splurged on a taxi all the way back to our hotel for 2,500 c. We went for coffee in the evening, around the corner on the porch of the charming Fleur de Lys hotel. 2 cafes con leche and a shared dessert cost 2,000c. We are happy. Hey! Everybody back home, we made it! We really did it!