Chez Christophe and Plaza Rohrmoser

The original plan was for Nelly to give Cristina a massage this morning. However, the pressures of having Nelly’s in-laws coming this weekend for a 6-week visit had Nelly cleaning up the house in a bit of a frenzy. So Cristina and Nelly decided to do the message another time.

Nelly washed our dirty clothes, even though we knew they would not dry before we left. We hung them up for the morning, and when it was time to go, we loosely folded them into a basket to hang up again at home.

French pastries from Chez Christophe in Escazu

We got packed up and headed back to Pavas. As we passed through Escazu (a rather wealthy town that is a favorite for Gringos) Nelly stopped at a French bakery that she had told us about. It was called Chez Christophe, and is owned and operated by a French baker. We were stopping to get croissants, but when we saw all the beautiful little pastries, we couldn’t resist. We wound up with croissants, chocolate croissants, and six little pastries of different varieties.

At the house in Pavas, we gave Nelly her flowers. They were on the decline, but they still looked okay.

No one was home. We hung up the clothes and decided to go to Plaza Rohrmoser for an outing. We decided to walk there instead of taking the bus or taxi. It started to rain, but we put on rain jackets and took our umbrellas. I wore Bella on my back in the sling and before long she was asleep.

At Plaza Rohrmoser, we walked around and looked in the windows of all the shops. At a little cigar shop, we looked at patches that say “Pura Vida” to put on Sofia’s backpack at home. We were just checking out prices. We were several shops away from the cigar shop when Isabella suddenly held up one of the patches we had been looking at. I took it back to the shop and apologized to the lady. She was nice about it.

We checked out the restaurants and chose the fried chicken place (Campero) that Alex had eaten at the time he came with me. It was inexpensive and yummy. It was a bit early for dinner, but we hadn’t had a very big lunch.

I have been unable to get money from an ATM the entire time we’ve been here. I’ve tried several different banks and I always get an error message. I finally wrote my credit union an email and told them of the problem, but I am still waiting for a response. So until then, I’m using the Visa check card and the bit of cash that I converted when we first arrived.

We bought some ice cream at the Mas por Menos and headed to the bus stop. While waiting for the bus as rush hour traffic passed us by, a “microbus” passed us by with the sign “Liceo Franco.” Soon after, Alexis’s head stuck out the front passenger window and shouted “Cristina!” She gave a quick smile and wave as he passed by on the way home to Santa Ana. As we waited for the bus, we figured that a taxi probably wouldn’t be any more expensive, so we got a taxi. Sure enough, it was just about the same cost as the bus (for 5 people).

Ramón had been home from work for about 20 minutes, so we timed our outing nicely. We chatted with him about the past few days, and then Maritza got home from the doctor. We warmed up some rice and beans and ate a little dinner, even though we had eaten a late lunch.
That night when I checked my email, there was a reply from my credit union. They said I hadn’t filled out a “traveling abroad” form, so my card was restricted to prevent unauthorized use (Phoenix is the ID theft capitol of the U.S., so I don’t mind them being a little tight on security). They said they filled out the form for me and my card should now work. So that was good news.