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)!