A trip to the doctor

Bella ran a fever all night and did not eat much breakfast. We called Ana, a cousin who also happens to be a doctor, and asked if we could meet up with her at some point. She said she was working a clinic this morning but she would be at her sister Nelly’s house after lunchtime. She said we could come there and she’d be happy to check out Isabella. We made arrangements for a friend of Maritza’s to drive us to and from Santa Ana, where Nelly lives.

After breakfast, we headed out to the farmer’s market, which stretches down the street just outside of their house. Hundreds of vendors were selling every type of fruit and vegetable you could imagine, and a few that you couldn’t imagine. Maritza bought some standard stuff that we were familiar with (corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, strawberries) and a few things that we weren’t as familiar with. One thing that Sofia took a liking to is called guava. In the States, what we call guava is called here guayaba. What they call guava here is a long seed pod kind of thing. You crack it open and inside is a row of white, soft segments. You eat these segments, but each one has a big seed. When I first put a piece in my mouth, it had the texture of a banana, but not the taste. The taste is hard to describe. Sweet and chewy. Eventually, the chewy fruit part separates from the seed, which is shiny, soft and greenish-black in color. Maritza said people make earrings out of the seeds. They are quite pretty. I later suggested to Sofia that she collect enough seeds to make a set of checkers out of them. We’ll see if she does it.

We tried another fruit called zapote, which reminded me of papaya. It had a taste kind of like papaya, but a texture more similar to a pear. It’s wild trying new fruits that have their own unique taste and are not really like anything else. All you can do to describe them is try to compare them to other fruits, but that doesn’t really do them justice. I didn’t really care for the zapote. Too sweet for me.

Sofia and Alex got a coconut to drink. The vendor whacks the top off with a machete, sticks a straw in, and you drink the milk straight from the coconut.

A man walked through the farmer’s market playing an accordion. Sofia and Alex each put a 100-colon coin in his collection cup and then Sofia asked if she could take his picture. The old man took off his hat, smoothed his hair a bit, stood a little more erect, and played for her and her camera. It was cute. She took a video clip with her camera, so she captured some of his song, too.

As we were leaving, the girls bought a couple of cups of fresh-milled sugar cane juice. Also too sweet for my taste. Costa Ricans like their sweetness, that’s for sure. In fact, this point was driven home the day before at the restaurant I went to with Sofia and Alex. The waiter brought us a plate of chips, salsa, and refried beans as an appetizer. In Phoenix, the salsa would almost definitely be spicy hot. This salsa was sweet. That’s Costa Rica.

After the farmer’s market, we got Isabella down for a nap, so she’d be well-rested for her trip to the doctor. Our ride came around 1 pm. The drive only took about 15 minutes. Sofia and Alex stayed home. (On the way to Nelly’s house, I saw a man at a bus stop wearing a Phoenix Suns cap.) It was nice to see Nelly again after all these years. We knew this visit would be short (since we had a driver waiting for us) but we will be spending a few days with Nelly later on.

Ana checked Isabella out. She looked in her ears. She looked in her nose and in her throat. She thought that Isabella had a virus because her ears didn’t look infected and her throat had some spots that looked like a virus that was going around right now. We were glad that we didn’t need to find antibiotics. Ana suggested treating the symptoms to keep her comfortable and ride it out. It seems that the virus has been lasting about 5 days in most cases.

Ana and Nelly were cooking for a big Arguello family reunion on Sunday, so we said goodbye and headed back to Pavas.

The kids needed an outing, so I put Bella in the sling, grabbed our umbrellas, and headed to Galerón with the three kids. It hadn’t rained for a few days, so today it made up for it. But we trekked along with our umbrellas and enjoyed the shower. I picked some children’s acetaminophen for Isabella, as well as some chicken for Maritza, and a box of Golden Grahams (cheaper here than in the States). I had been thinking that maybe a ball would be a good idea for the kids, who at times already exhibited signs of cabin fever. So we picked a blue plastic ball that said “Costa Rica – Alemania 2006.” The kids can now play with a ball and show their World Cup spirit.

We bought tacos for dinner from across the street. They were filled with chicken, fried, then covered with a mountain of shredded cabbage and heavily coated with mayo and ketchup. Alex didn’t care for them. So far, he’s having the hardest time adjusting to Costa Rican food. I’ve never thought of him as a picky eater, but he’s having a hard time trying things that are different. He’ll usually try a bite, which is good, but he often doesn’t want more than that trial bite.

I tried to find the Suns game on TV, but to no avail. I finally gave up and worked on transferring my journal to the blog. While doing that, I saw that the Suns lost. Ah well. They went further than most had expected them to.

Cristina and her dad tried to solve a Sudoku puzzle on the laptop while I worked on Ramón’s computer. When I had the blog up to date as much as possible, I went to bed and watched some TV until Cristina came to bed.

To see more photos from this day, click here.