Crime, Security & Returned Camera

On an online group that I participate in, Costa Rica Living, a woman recently asked about safety in my town of Heredia. Someone had posted about being attacked on the street and his gold necklace stolen. She had decided to move to Costa Rica and was now questioning her choice of Heredia as a place to live. We hear a lot about crime here. We sometimes don't hear enough about the other side of the coin. My answer to the concerned woman:

I honestly don't know if Heredia is a "much safer place to live," but I have lived here (up the hill from Universidad Internacional, so relatively close to downtown) for over 4 years now. Although I am aware of crime in the area, and even in my own neighborhood, I must say that I do not live in fear. I go where I want to go when I want to go. I have walked on the downtown streets and in parque central after dark without feeling threatened. It's also true that I had my day pack stolen from right on the floor by my chair while I wasn't paying attention in Pop's ice cream place. And yes there were once some small items stolen from our garage. On the other hand, my home was broken into when I lived in Tacoma, Washington (and the door was broken down to enter); I had stereo equipment stolen from my home in a "safe" suburb of Houston, Texas; my apartment was broken into and several items were stolen in Hollywood, Florida. I feel no less safe here than I did living in those places or in other places where I've lived. I know that no matter where I live I am not exempt from crime. But I do not feel threatened. Most people here are so friendly and helpful that it's amazing to me. If anything, most seem to need to look out for my welfare, knowing that I am an "ignorant foreigner!" Yesterday, getting off a bus, my husband Gene somehow dropped his camera. He didn't realize it until the bus driver came running down the sidewalk looking for him to give it back. Another passenger had noticed it and told the driver. This morning after our neighborhood exercise class, my Tico neighbors reminded me (twice!) to close my garage doors! I like living here. Sometimes there are things I do not like. I could say the same about any other place I've ever lived. But by and large I am much happier with my lifestyle - and my neighbors - than I was in the other places.

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).

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.

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!