Charlotte & David buy a Finca

What a treat! We got invited out to see the finca (farm) our friends just bought. The view from their wonderful property in the Orosi Valley is incredible. We went over to their house the night before and did a sleep over so that we could get an early start to the farm in the morning. After a walk around the property we had a picnic and admired their view and the river. I am not kidding you. There's actually a river that runs through it! I don't think I've ever known anyone who owned property with a river running through it before. Sometime during the next few months they will start making plans for building a house on their property. It will be fun to see what type of house they decide to build in this beautiful spot. Meanwhile we've been assured that we will have an open invitation to visit them at their house on their river. What a life!

Inbioparque-A Walk in the Park

Let's go do something! Before the rains come! During the rainy season, we have to learn to think like this. My inborn tendency to have coffee, surf the net, have something to eat, relax, think about what to do today, does not work during the rainy season. If you want to do something, it's a good idea to do it soon after waking - especially if you are not an early riser. So today it was let's go to Inbioparque. This place describes itself as "an amazing theme park that offers an interactive experience with nature." It further says that it "teaches people about Costa Rica's biological diversity and the importance of conserving it." Sounds either like a fun park for kids or an educational tool for school trips. In our book it turned out to be a pleasant place for a walk through "jungle" trails, around a pond and through a butterfly garden. Pretty birds in the trees along the way made us feel like "birders" without the early morning awakening. A relaxing cafe hidden away in the midst made for a nice rest stop for a snack with coffee when the rains started. Yes, of course they started. After a walk back to the entrance during a lull in the rains, we stopped for lunch at the large commercial feeling restaurant. Yes, there are educational displays with information about flora and fauna and all that stuff. There are also markers naming the plants growing along the way. There is a huge map display with a video about Costa Rica's national parks. Our timing was off. We arrived just as the video ended, but the map was interesting. For us it was mostly just a pleasant walk in the forest. We will go again, but won't bother with the overpriced, oversized casado (set meal) in the restaurant. Instead we will just lunch on a variety of the nice little pastries with coffee in the cafe in the jungle. Or maybe we'll take a lunch and just have our coffee there. The 2,300 colon entry fee was reasonable enough for a pleasant morning. I would not, however, pay the $20 US fee that is charged tourists. We have lived 15 minutes from this place in Santo Domingo for 5 years. It was time to see it. We had always planned to take guests there but always ended up filling their time here with other activities and never made it. I guess I'm glad we didn't take them now. Although it would be a pleasant place for a morning with guests, I don't think any of them would find the $20 entry fee a worthwhile value.

Afternoon in Grecia

We took a day trip with our friends Emma and Jon today. Grecia's claim to fame seems to be its red metal church, which was shipped from Belgium in pieces in the 1890's. They also claim to be the cleanest town in Central America. We had some good bocas in a plain and comfortable bar/restaurant, enjoyed the attractive parque central, which actually has grass instead of concrete, had ice cream and came home. The museum was closed. Funny thing is that before we moved to Costa Rica, Gene had it in his mind that we would end up in Grecia (this just from reading about it). I always thought of it as a pleasant little town. After spending an afternoon there, I've decided it's too big and too busy. I still like Santo Domingo de Heredia - or perhaps Barva. But it's a pretty place.

Day Trip to San Ramon

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

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

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

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

Mark Visits Costa Rica!

The Best Coffee in This World!!!

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

A long climb-and a little wet!

Aunt Mary Comes to Costa Rica!

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



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

Aunt Mary Does the Waterfall Gardens

Busy Week with Aunt Mary, Barb & Chick

Day at Zoo Ave: Monkeys, Birds and All

Dale joined us for lunch at Teatro Nacional

Gail Comes to Costa Rica

My best buddy Gail from Hollywood, Florida (where we lived before Costa Rica) actually came to visit us! She had promised when we moved here that she would be down - and Gail is always good for her promises. What a great time we've had!


Bienvenida! Welcome Party for Gail on the patio

Zarcero-
famous for the topiaries in every size and shape in front of the church
Topiaries shaped like a cat riding a motorcycle, an elephant, a bullring with matador, charging bull, and spectators. That's what I've read. You coulda fooled me. Interesting, but mostly I thought it looked like mis-shapen shrubbery!


















And a morning at Zoo Ave - not only is it beautiful but it's one of the most relaxing and fun places to visit in the area, as well as being filled with educational information about all the birds and animals that are rescued and bred there. A Costa Rica must see!

They say that all good things must come to an end, but I've never understood why. We did a few days on the Caribbean in Puerto Viejo and Cahuita, some more day trips, a lot of sitting around and talking. And suddenly it was time for my good friend Gail to leave. I just hope that she had such a good time that she will want to come visit us again soon. I miss her already!

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!

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!