San Jose with the Sheridans

Thankfully, Sofia felt just fine when she woke up. She packed her backpack for a 2-night trip to the Sheridans.

Maritza went to her classes (she takes various classes on Monday and Tuesday mornings). Cristina and Ramón (and Isabella) took a taxi to do the citizenship paperwork. I needed to stay behind and wait for the maid to come. She did finally come. As she got started, I took Sofia and Alex for a walk. Jennifer and Callista Sheridan were coming for a dental appointment around 11 (their dentist is right beside Ramón and Maritza’s place).

When we got back from our walk, Cristina and Ramón were back. In typical Costa Rican fashion, they had been sent on a bureaucratic scavenger hunt to get the paperwork done. The last step they could complete this morning was to take the birth certificates to a translation lawyer. They translate forms for 6000 colones per page. Luckily, we only had 2 pages to translate, but it would take about 3 hours.

The Sheridans arrived. We gave them their stuff from Arizona (a whole suitcase full). Jennifer stayed behind to look through what we had brought and go to her appointment. The rest of us rode in the Sheridans’ car to Plaza Rohrmoser, a little mall a few miles up the road. We bought a few items from the Mas por Menos grocery store, including some guayaba empanadas.

After killing a little bit of time, we dropped our groceries off at home, then headed into San Jose to pick up the translations. We dropped Ramón off at the lawyer’s office and then drove to a little park. Despite the rain, the kids ran around and played.

We picked Ramón up and headed to the place where they needed to take the translations to finish the paperwork process. Bill and I took the kids to another park, a much bigger one. I had a feeling this could take a while (I pictured Cristina and Ramón standing in a long line) and the rain was starting to pick up, so I suggested we find a little restaurant to get a drink or maybe a snack. We asked someone where a place might be and we were directed down the block to another park. We didn’t see much there, so we continued around the corner. We basically wound up in the red light district, where some of San Jose’s most famous hotel/casinos dominate the area. The rain was really starting to come down, so we decided to duck into one of Hotel Rey’s bar/restaurants. It was early afternoon, so even though I knew we’d be in the proximity of the world’s oldest profession (remember, it’s legal here) I figured it was a relatively mild time of day for “business.”

Hotel Rey, despite how I’ve just described it, is a very clean, family-friendly establishment. It caters very obviously to tourists, and as such is a safe haven for gringos like us. There were not very many people inside, other than the “hotel girls” (several came and sat near us after we arrived, but by law they cannot initiate any conversation. Besides, with 3 children in tow, Bill and I didn’t look much like potential customers). There were several TVs showing sports from the States, like beach volleyball and strongman contests. The kids got a kick out of watching these huge guys flip gigantic tires over and over.

We finished our drinks and then headed back up to the park. I hoped we’d catch a break in the rain (we’d left most of the umbrellas in the car) but we were not that lucky. It poured. We had one big umbrella for the kids, and one small broken one that Bill and I tried to share, but finally gave up on (Bill let me use it). When we got back to the park where the car was, we saw Ramón coming towards us. Then we saw Cristina huddled under the parking attendant’s umbrellas, Isabella asleep in her sling. It turned out they had been finished for about 20 minutes. We climbed in the car, tipped the attendant a little extra for graciously covering my wife and baby, and headed back to Pavas. When we explained to Ramón where we had gone for drinks, he thought that we’d made an interesting choice, but no harm done. He was glad it was me that had gone there with Bill, because if he had taken Bill there, Jennifer would have given him hell! In all fairness to Bill, he had no idea about the variety of wares available at Hotel Rey. It was just a nice place to grab a soda.

Back at the house, it was time for Callista’s dental appointment. Bill and Ramón went in the car to buy bagels while Jennifer went with Callista. Callista finished pretty quickly and it was time for them to go. With her overnight bag packed, Sofia excitedly said goodbye to us and left with the Sheridans for their home in San Ramon.The rest of the evening was routine. Ramón and I bought some fried chicken for dinner. We got Alex and Isabella showered and in bed. Then I read The Da Vinci Code until late. I tend to avoid cultural phenomenons, and The Da Vinci Code definitely falls into that category. That’s why I hadn’t read it yet. Whenever something gets so much hype, it almost always falls short of overinflated expectations. But I must admit, 400 pages in, I’m completely hooked.

To see more photos from this day, click here.