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!