Baile de los Diablitos

Our New Year this year was spent in the wonderful indigenous village of Boruca, where each year the villagers have a 4 day festival that celebrates the fact that the Boruca people were never conquered by the Spanish conquistadores. Many of the men dress up as diablitos (in this case best translated as spirits) and fight against a bull (who represents the Spaniards). At
the beginning it seems like the bull might win, but in the end the diablitos prevail! There are sometimes over a thousand spectators (both extranjeros and locals) to this festival but only local men who have carved their own masks are allowed to participate.

Our entire trip was arranged and led by a marvelous couple, Sarah Joy and Julio. Anyone who knows us knows that we do not do tours. This trip was definitely the exception to the rule. Thanks to Sarah and Julio, we felt like honored invited guests for the entire 6 day trip. This was not a fancy resort, eat in the hotel kind of "tour." This was a trip with friends, where we were invited into peoples' homes and made to feel like a part of the family.
We met the van at 6 am on Friday for the 6 hour trip to Boruca. After lunch and getting settled into our various accomodations in private homes or the "hotel," we relaxed a while and met up with our group again for dinner at the home of Doña Rosa, who indeed fed our entire group 3 meals a day the entire time we were there. She prepared all our wonderful meals on her wood stove, and she was always smiling! After dinner that first night, the local "story teller" arrived to tell us some Boruca stories and legends. Like most of the villagers, this community elder speaks the Boruca language as well as Spanish. He told his stories in Spanish - and Julio and Sarah translated for those of us who don't understand Spanish well.
On the second day we were taken by truck and car to the top of Mount Cuasrán, from where we could take photos of the incredible views and hike through the wilderness, either the short hike or the long. The mountain is a holy mountain in the Boruca tradition and the home of one of the most important gods of the Brunka, Cuasrán. In the afternoon we were invited to the home of the "mayor," where we were allowed to watch the creation of the "bull." We were then told about the rules for visitors, which involved staying out of the way, understanding that we were guests and not to get in the way of the ceremonies. The main thing was to not use flash cameras and to keep a reasonable distance with cameras. The actual ceremonies were to begin at midnight.
By morning of the third day (Sunday, New Year's Eve), the "game" was in full force. We awoke to the sound of the diablitos shouting, horns blowing and more fireworks, which we had already learned the night before sound more like bombs than any fireworks I had ever heard. There was a "battle" on the corner by the hotel - before breakfast even! The excitement begins! After breakfast, which didn't begin until 10 since some of us had actually attended the opening "ceremonies" the night before, we visited some of the artisan's homes. At our first stop, at the master carver's home, we saw the mask that I should have bought. It was an incredible "traditional" mask, made of natural cedro wood - not painted. Although it was amazing, I made the mistake of wanting to see others before deciding what to buy. So of course it was sold by the time I went back. Nevertheless we had a great time viewing the masks of various carvers as well as the homes of the weavers (the women). These women are amazing. They grow and harvest and process the cotton, dye it, spin it, weave it - everything. Beautiful stuff. And when you look at what they sell their weavings for (based on hours required to create them) compared to what the men sell the masks for, you have to start thinking again about the perceived value of "women's work." Eventually I bought a mask - one of the painted ones - carved from balsa wood. It is truly beautiful. I also bought a woven bag (purse). The diablitos paraded about the village all day, stopping to stage a battle and then continuing to another location in the village for another battle. It was an ongoing process throughout the day.
In the evening our group gathered at the local bar to drink beer until close to midnight, when we had been invited back to Doña Rosa's to see the new year in. There was a large crowd of locals and visitors gathered at her house - and every sort of booze was offered on a big table. Interestingly, there were no "mixers" offered - until Sara went back to the bar and bought some. I guess if you're accustomed to drinking "chi cha," (an evil corn liquor thing) which many of the participants seemed to drink throughout the 4 days, you might not find mixers to be a necessary part of drinking alcoholic beverages! All of us had a blast. I think it was the most fun New Year's Eve I've ever had.
Monday, Day 4 - New Year's Day - We wandered about most of the day - watching the diablitos do battle and looking at weavings and masks. Some of the group had planned to go horseback riding, but the horses never showed up. We think that the horses were ok, but that their owners perhaps had had too much chi cha!
Tuesday, Day 5 - This was really the big day for the "game," with major battles going on throughout the day, and the bull eventually being defeated at day's end. In the evening, the bull was burned (fortunately just the "costume," not the human being inside!
I wish I could do a better job of describing this 4 day event, but it's definitely one of those things where you "had to be there." The next morning, leaving the village, I wished that we could stay longer. We had to leave, but have already decided we want to go to the Baile de los Diablitos again next year - and we definitely want to go with Sarah & Julio. I hope the photos will give you a feeling of this awesome event. For even more photos, go to our group's photo site
.

New Year's in Boruca - New Friends

A great Time was had by all on New Year's Eve - first at the neighborhood bar and then at the ever friendly Dona Rosa's

Pictures of Our New Friends

Sarah - our Amazing Tour Guide
Mike ("Dad")- an angel from Bainbridge Island, WA
Pedro - font of knowledge on everything Borucan
Julio - font of knowlege on Costa Rica
Peter - always smiling & helpful (Mike is his Dad)
Annalisa - a year in Argentina & now in Costa Rica
Alexis - a year in Thailand, 6 mos in Nicaragua (Mike is her Dad)
Norma & Jose - from Sacramento, Calif - loved Costa Rica
Jose, Alexis,Rochelle & Tom - from Canada
Rochelle - likes to have fun
Gosia - the one with the pink hair - from Poland - then US - now Costa Rica
Christine - 63 countries so far ...
Annalisa - after talking with her I just know we have to go to Argentina
Gene had a great time!!!
Norma & Jose with Julio

Christmas Tamales!

Tamales are a Christmas tradition in Costa Rica. It's quite a process and is usually turned into a party with everyone in the family participating (or all the women anyhow!) So our friend Jackie decided we would have our own tamale making party.

We definitely did it the easy way since her Tica assistant gathered together all the ingredients and did the major part of the preparations in advance. When we all gathered yesterday afternoon, she had the banana leaves cut to size and spread out on one counter. On the kitchen island were bowls of prepared pork, rice with red chiles and peas, and a bowl of cooked and diced mixed green beans and carrots. There was also a large bowl of prepared "masa," a mushy corn meal mixture.
We each got to take a turn (this included not just Jackie, Emma and me, but our husbands Joe, Jon & Gene, equal opportunity kitchen such as it was!) as our "profesora" patiently showed us how to spread a large dollup of the prepared masa onto a double sheet of banana leaves, then a dollup of the rice mixture and a spoonful of the veggie mixture. Next a couple strips of pork, and then the wrapping process.
We learned to wrap them, folding the leaves over in a precise manner so that the stuff would stay inside when cooked. Two tamales were placed together, seams facing each other and then tied together with twine. After being steamed in water for about 1/2 an hour, the tamales were ready for sampling. And sample we did! Not only did we have a great afternoon with our friends Jackie and Joe at their beautiful cabin in the mountains, but there are now six more tamale experts in our part of Costa Rica!



A Toast to La Profesita!

Museo de Arte Costarricense

After watching all the ox carts lumber out of Parque La Sabana and down Paseo Colon today, we spent some time in the park at the booths of the annual Rural Tourism Fair. A lot of interesting businesses were represented, with some good ideas for future trips around the country. The booths were spread out behind the Museum in the sculpture garden, one of the really neat places in San Jose.

The beautiful building on the east side of Parque La Sabana which now houses the Museo de Arte Costarricense (Museum of Costa Rican Art) was originally the terminal for the San Jose international airport. Opened in 1940 and closed in 1955 when the new airport was built in nearby Alejuela, it’s hard to envision an airport in this busy downtown location. Photos of the area on the museum’s web site, however, show an area that probably was thought of as “outside of town” at the time it was built. Today Sabana Park is a huge urban park with walking and running paths, basketball, tennis and volleyball courts, baseball diamond, soccer field and a fish-stocked lake. This in addition to the national stadium, national gymnasium, and of course the museum.
There’s a lot of impressive art inside this building. My favorites though, are outdoors, in an area called el Jardín de Esculturas (Sculpture Garden). Among many interesting sculptures are my friends Tres Mujeres Caminando (Three Women Walking).
The natural flow of their dresses, the gracefulness of their strides, the realness of their expressions fascinate me. The artist is Francisco Zúñiga. Besides the fact that they are so beautiful, maybe part of the reason I feel such an attraction to las mujeres is that they, too are recent arrivals, having only found their home in 2003, the year after our move to Costa Rica.

Desfile de Boyeros

The Christmas season is officially here. Not only is our neighborhood already being decorated with lights (including the tiny guard shack) but the house two doors down is sporting a house-sized snow man! So to celebrate the season, this morning we bussed into San Jose with our buddies Jon & Emma to view the 10th annual Desfile de Boyeros (parade of ox cart handlers). What a show!
Originally meant to haul coffee beans, the colorfully decorated carts (carretas) have become a major symbol of Costa Rica. No longer needed to take the coffee crop to the Pacific port of Puntarenas, a 10 – 15 day trek over muddy roads, the decoration of the ox carts and wheels has become a national art form.
It was a fun morning. I didn’t try to keep count, but there must have been way over a hundred carts in all sizes and colors. And the oxen, decked out in beautifully decorated yokes, were as colorful and interesting as the traditional carts.
As always in Costa Rica, the kids stole the show!

Ox Cart Parade

*****CLICK ON THE OX'S FACE FOR MORE PHOTOS*****<

Tico Time

One of the cultural differences that's hard to adjust to here is the concept of "Tico Time." I remember when we first moved here my friend Emma and I were invited by a friend to her 4 year old daughter's birthday party. "A las dos" she told us (at 2 o'clock). At two o'clock we showed up at her house. At four, just as someone arrived with the birthday cake, we apologized that we had to leave because Emma had an appointment she had to keep. The hostess was visibly surprised and disappointed and insisted that we eat a meal before we left! We had heard about "Tico Time," but we just didn't get it.
By last year, after 3 years in Costa Rica, you would think that we would have learned. We were again invited to a birthday party, this one for a gringo friend, hosted by his Costa Rican wife. We arrived at the appointed hour of six. At seven a pretty cake was set on the table to admire. At eight someone started cooking...
Yesterday I was reminded again that I'm still operating on "gringa time." A few neighbors have started getting together 3 mornings a week for an exercise session together. I am very excited to be invited to join in. Not only do I need exercise, but it's an opportunity to get to know my neighbors and to practice my Spanish. Yesterday was the third session and I finally realized that when they said to meet a las ocho (8 o'clock) that, of course means around about 8:30, or as they would say, "A las ocho, mas o menos!"

Groceries

The regular grocery stores that most Ticos use are much smaller than what we were accustomed to in the US . “Pali” is the lowest price grocery store, but the merchandise is very limited. Good for laundry supplies and staples, but not much for fresh merchandise. “Mas por Menos” is a step up in price and also in variety of product availability. You could probably get everything you need there, but not necessarily everything you want. They have a decent fresh produce department as well as fish and meat. They also carry the local coffee that we like and our favorite “vino collapso.” Another store, “MegaSuper,” is similar. Depending on the neighborhood, both “Mas por Menos” and “MegaSuper” may have a greater or lesser selection. There are also “Hipermas” and “Auto Mercado,” which are almost like the big stores you are accustomed to in the US , and offer many imported products at very high prices. Next, my favorite stores are the little neighborhood stores, the "pulperias". It’s amazing. Every little neighborhood has one. There are two in easy walking distance of our house. Their size ranges from teensy to very small, but they cram an amazing amount of varied products into the space available, everything from a few fresh vegetables and fruits to school supplies, zippers, bread and milk and gift wrapping paper. Many also carry meats. Recently, on the corner of our street, someone opened a small meat market (carniceria). If figure if I wanted to, I could get by without ever leaving “the hill.” Many neighborhoods also have nice little fruit and vegetable stands, but we don’t have one - yet. Also, downtown there are many open fruit and veggie stands on the street, and in some areas, people just selling peppers, cilantro, or whatever from the sidewalk. Another of my favorites is the Mercado, the big rambling area downtown with many vendors of fruits and vegetables as well as meat, fish, herbs, fabric, kitchen ware, clothing, baskets and God knows what else. Going to the market is always fun, the produce is fresher and cheaper. Last and least expensive for fresh stuff is the Saturday morning feria, or farmers’ market. The one in our town, Heredia, is huge. It’s about 4 blocks long, with vendors’ stands selling every sort of vegetable and fruit. There are also a few stalls with meats, cheeses and other stuff. But mostly it’s fresh produce. A great way to buy good fresh stuff at great prices, but also great entertainment on Saturday mornings. Some towns have their ferias on Sunday mornings. On a recent trip to the feria, we bought:
Kilo of potatoes
Kilo of carrots
4 Red peppers
½ Kilo of onions
Bunch of radishes
Large squash
3 Small cauliflower
4 Large tomatoes
4 Ears of corn
4 Small cucumbers
Kilo of avocados
Small pineapple
Small watermelon
Cantaloupe
Strawberries
½ Kilo of cheese
All told, the above, which more than filled my super oversized market shopping bag, cost about $8 US. It’s possible to eat very well on a very small amount of money. It’s also possible to spend a lot, if you need specific imported or prepackaged things.

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!