Yet another

Alex was still feeling under the weather, still complaining of an earache, still running a low fever. Another day to rest and get better.

Cristina and the girls went to the Escazu Waldorf School to celebrate the festival of Saint John. This is a very new school having just opened in February, as is typical of the school schedules here. They have 9 students in 1^st, 3^rd and 4^th grade combined and about 15 in the kindergarten. Also typical of Costa Rica, things NEVER start on time. So although Cristina and the girls arrived on time at 10:30 am, most others were arriving by 11 am. So they had a chance to look around the large house and very large yard (by Costa Rican standards) they have converted into the school. First the grades teacher welcomed everyone and explained the significance of this festival. He told a story about John the Baptist, and his wife. The basic theme was allowing your “light” to shine as brilliantly as possible. Things continued with each of the primary grades doing presentations of verses in Spanish with stomping, recorder songs, and a play in English.

The kindergarteners did a sample circle in Spanish and French. Then the primary teacher and kindergarten assistant put on a marionette show about a little girl trying to get her lantern lit and those she met during her pursuit. This was followed by a lantern walk around the grounds, and a school picture. The parents served snacks on the back patio. Overall, Cristina and the girls spent several hours at the celebration.

Alex and I spent most of the morning watching TV together. We watched “The Ewok Adventure,” a made-for-TV Star Wars related movie from the mid-eighties. Surprisingly, I had never seen it before. It was dubbed in Spanish. The special effects were ridiculously bad, but Alex liked it.

As we got the kids ready for bed, Sofia felt warm. We took her temperature and she had a fever! Will this ever end?

At about 8 pm, Cristina and I were on the computer when we heard what sounded like a marching band coming down the street. Nothing really surprises me anymore regarding noise in this city at all hours, but our curiosity got the better of us and we went outside to investigate. A parade of drum corps, firefighters with lit torches, and every fire truck you can imagine was slowly making its way from the church to the fire station in honor of their patron saint, Santa Barbara. It didn’t last long, but it definitely got everyone’s attention.

Late night parade

Another low-key day

Alex felt better when he woke up. Still slightly warm, but you can tell he’s improving. He ate a regular breakfast and his spirits were more normal. It wasn’t long, though, before Alex started complaining that his ear hurt. His fever returned, and he spent the rest of the day lounging and taking it easy.

I took Sofia and Isabella to La Sabana park, but it was raining so we didn’t play much. I needed change for the bus, so we went to Rostipollos and ate a late-lunch/early dinner.

Bella waiting for her food at Rostipollos

When we got on the bus, I was so busy looking for empty seats that I didn’t notice Ramon. We had happened to catch the same bus. As I looked for a seat with Isabella, I saw out of the corner of my eye Sofia sit on someone’s lap, and at first I assumed it was some kind old lady letting Sofia sit on her instead of standing in the aisle. Then I realized who it was.

That evening, Cristina went down the street with Isabella to get take-out Chinese for dinner.

After much deliberation, Cristina and I decided that it would be better to do the lasik surgery when Isabella is older. We’re still strongly considering coming here to have it done, so we’re glad we checked it out and found a doctor.

And Alex makes seven

Alex came into our bed early this morning, hot with fever. So now everyone has caught the bug, all seven of us.

We knew with Alex sick that it would be another low-key, stay at home day. So we stayed in bed as long as possible. Alex slept almost all day. His fever never got high enough to warrant medicine, but it was enough to keep him tired and snoozy.

Isabella tends to her sick big brother

At 4 pm, Cristina and Maritza went to a pre-screening exam for lasik eye surgery (for Cristina). Normally, it takes a long time to get an appointment, but Maritza was able to pull some strings and get an appointment today. If she opts for the procedure, it could be done next Tuesday. We hadn’t come here with the intention of getting lasik surgery done, but it is something that we were planning to do within the next few years. Here it is much cheaper, but still with a board-certified doctor using the latest technology.

I made spaghetti for dinner. Cristina and Maritza got home around 6:30. Cristina was impressed with how fancy the equipment was at the doctor’s office. The doctor was very knowledgeable and upfront: he didn’t sugarcoat anything. Our only concerns are how we would handle any complications down the line, since we’d be leaving in two weeks. However, there is only a very small percentage chance of complications.

Throughout the day, Alex only ate half a banana and drank two Emergen-Cs. When we put the other two in bed, Alex’s fever was 101.

I worked on my journal for a while and we did some more research on lasik. Cristina called her mom to let her know what we were thinking about and get her two-cents.

Cristina's birthday

The lookout point at INBioparque

I felt better this morning. Still a bit of headache, but I had more energy and appetite. Sofia still felt bad when she woke up, but improved quickly. I got up early with the kids to allow Cristina to sleep in.

On Monday, we had planned to go to a zoo/museum thing called INBioparque (pronounced INN-bee-oh-park) until we discovered they were closed Mondays. So we decided to do it today. INB stands for the Institute of National Biodiversity. While we were formulating plans to go to INBioparque, the mechanic stopped by. We figured it was either good news or bad news. It turns out he was putting the engine back together and realized he had the wrong bearing. So we needed to buy the correct bearing and then he could finish the car. Since Ramon was at work, we knew if we waited for Ramon, it would be another few days before the car was fixed. But if we went and bought the part, maybe the mechanic could have it fixed by tonight.

Here was the plan: Chino would drive us to the car parts place. He would order the part, we’d pay for it, then Chino would drive us to the INBioparque. From there, Chino would drive the part back to the house to give to Maritza, who could then give it to the mechanic. The part cost 18,000 colones, but we thought it would be worth it to have the car sooner rather than later. Since Ramón is letting us basically use it as much as we want, it seems the least we could do. 18,000 colones for 3 weeks use of a car is far cheaper than renting one for even one day.

Everything went like clockwork. We got the part and Chino dropped us off at the parque. Chino offered to pick us up as well, so we took him up on his offer. He said we could settle up then.

Unlike the gold museum, INBioparque didn’t even ask to see Cristina’s cedula. Cristina told her the truth, that she was Tica, as well as the kids, but I was not. The lady gave us all Tico price anyway. So instead of me costing $15, it only cost 2000 colones ($4). The kids were 1200 each. She didn’t charge for Isabella, so the whole thing cost 6400.

We started off at the movie theatre, where they ran a 12-minute video geared for kids about Costa Rica’s biodiversity. The video was in English. After the video, we went through a couple of galleries with displays about Costa Rica wildlife, their resources and geological beginnings. I was getting a little hungry, so we decided to eat before going any farther.

The restaurant, Heliconias, was not too expensive and very tasty. We got two “executive plates” with arroz con pollo (almost as good as Vicky’s!), sides, and refrescos for 2200 each. And free coffee! Cristina got an order of arroz con leche (rice pudding) for dessert.

The park is divided into 5 sections. They included the “humid” or rain forest, the dry forest, the central valley forest, the lagoon and the farm. We entered the rain forest part of the park, where a paved path winds through jungle-like vegetation, and saw the frogs, spiders and orchids displays. Here and there, signs would explain the plants or animals. While visiting the central valley forest section, we visited the displays on ants, bromeliads, and heliconias. While quietly looking at the bromeliads, we were able to see some birds and a squirrel.

As we were leaving this section, Alex whispered excitedly, “Look at the lizard!” So the rest of us looked around, searching for some tiny gecko or something. We quickly realized what he meant! A good-sized iguana, maybe a yard long, walked across the path. He proceeded to climb a tree and look at us until we left.

The lagoon section included iguanas, caimans, turtles, an aquarium, and a lookout point. There was also a fairly large enclosed butterfly garden. Bella was having a hard time not chasing the butterflies.

Included in the farm section was timber and fruit trees, medicinal plants, a vegetable garden, a section on traditional export crops like coffee and a working sugar cane mill. Alex of course was like glue to the sheep, goats and pigs and didn’t want to leave. You could even buy a rabbit for 1000 colones ($2).

Look at that spider!

The dry forest had a display on boas. Bella was particularly fascinated by a certain boa and kept pointing at it. In the dry forest, we also got glimpses of deer running through the park. Nice bonus!

Throughout the whole park, there was a nice blend of live wildlife and animals in display cases. It seems they may be working on a hedge maze, so that will be fun to check out the next time we come. There was so much to discover and 5 hours was not quite enough! It definitely helps you to get your bearings on the climates and the diversity of animal and plant life found here. There was lots for kids to do, but also a ton for adults to discover.

Chino picked us up at 4:30. We stopped at a place on the way home that looked like it might be a chocolate shop, but they only sold bakery items.

At home, we realized our plan was not as perfect as we thought: the mechanic still hadn’t come to pick up the part for the car. We shared the day’s pictures with Ramon. Maritza made palmito rice for dinner, which is a cheesy, rice casserole with corn and heart of palm. We had chocolate ice cream for dessert, which upset Cristina’s stomach.

Just as the kids got in the shower, the power went out. The suicide showers are great for unlimited hot water, but electricity is a requirement. So after waiting a while to see if the power would come back on, the kids finally got dressed without showering. Ramon told them a bedtime story on the porch, about a time when he was a boy mowing an airport runway for extra money. It was a good story. When he finished, I was about to tuck the kids in bed when the power came back on. So we got them showered after all. Sofia observed that when the power went out and came back on, both times she was in the bathroom.

The mechanic finally came and picked up the part for the car.

Sick Day

Sofia, Bella, Cristina and I all woke up feeling yucky. Although we had planned on going to the Jade Museum, we knew we all needed to take things easy.

Isabella ran a fever all night. Sofia and I woke up with headaches, achy bodies, and low fevers. Cristina felt the same way. She had had a sore throat and cough for several days too. Alex was the lone healthy one. How he escaped the bug, I don’t know.

Bella playing with beeswax

Maritza also woke up with the same cold. Aches, headache, and fever. Ramon started it and now we all had it, except for Alex.

We stayed in bed all morning, watching TV. Tylenol helped my head feel better.

Doing some spin art

After lunchtime, I was working on my journal on the porch when the Sheridans stopped by. Jennifer and Callista had dental appointments. We chatted with Bill and Jennifer while Callista played with Sofia and Alex. They dressed up in silks and alternated between pretending to be princesses and a king and princesses and a monkey.

After the Sheridans left, we made chicken soup for all the sickies and went to bed early. As I was putting Sofia and Alex to bed, I reminded them that tomorrow was Mami’s birthday, so we needed to let her sleep in as long as possible. Alex sat up with distress and said, “We didn’t buy her chocolate!” He was very worried that we hadn’t gotten Mami any chocolate yet, since we had decided that was what we’d get her for her birthday.

Later that night, the mechanic came by and picked up the clutch.

San Jose

We needed to get out of the house today because the maid was coming, so we decided to go into San Jose and do the children’s museum again. From the time I woke up, I knew something wasn’t quite right with me. I felt achy and light-headed, and I didn’t have much of an appetite. It felt like I was getting the cold that Ramon had earlier. I forced down some oatmeal and took some Tylenol.

On the way to catch a taxi, Chino passed by (he’s the friend of Maritza’s that operates his own pirate taxi service). Cristina flagged him down and asked him if he could give us a ride, so we had Chino take us to the museum. Unfortunately, we got all the way there to find out that it was closed on Mondays. Fortunately Chino hadn’t driven off yet, so we quickly formulated a plan B and asked Chino to drop us off at the Mercado Central.

The Mercado Central is a massive, indoor, labyrinthine market that takes up a whole city block. It’s a maze of booths and shops selling everything from pots and pans to fresh fish. It’s kind of crazy, a bit claustrophobic at times (especially if you’re 6’3”) and the place can sometimes smell a bit unpleasant. But it’s one of those San Jose places that has to be experienced at least once per trip, so today may as well be the day.

At one of the booths, we noticed some whip-like twists of white-colored leather. Cristina asked the vendor what they were. Bull penises, of course. What else? They stretch them out, wrap a cord around them (making the twisted shape, like a rotini pasta), dry them out, and then lacquer them. They are used as whips for horses, and Japanese tourists buy them a lot too. The surreal moment of the day had to be my wife trying to help this old man pronounce “bull penis” in English.

We looked around the central market for a good hour or so, then headed to the Plaza De La Cultura. We were getting a little hungry, so we asked a couple of cops in the Plaza where a good restaurant, not fast food, could be found. They recommended a Chinese place just around the corner, so we headed there. When we peeked in the door, I noticed a large round table surrounded by Asians. That seemed like a good sign to me, so we decided to eat there.

Since we had time to kill, we were in no hurry. So it worked out that the food didn’t come very quickly. It was quite good, although we didn’t actually order Chinese food. Just the old “plate of the day.” I got fish with mine, and everyone else got chicken. They were disappointed to find that it was fried chicken wings. No one in my family likes chicken wings but me. I ate some of Alex’s, but with my cold, I didn’t have the appetite to eat everyone’s.

The Asians, meanwhile, were doing the whole huge spread. Lazy susan in the middle, soup, tea, entrees, cigarettes, and newspapers. Sofia noticed that they were all boys. They looked rather tired and were reading Asian newspapers, so I guessed that they had just arrived in the country and had jet lag. I couldn’t quite place what nationality they were. A couple of them looked Vietnamese, a couple definitely looked Japanese, and some looked Chinese. When they left and the waiter cleared their table, I noticed that on one of their plates there was a rooster head. I pointed it out to the kids and they thought it was gross.

After lunch, we walked back to the Plaza to check on the prices of the Gold Museum, which is located underground beneath the Plaza. I was ready for a nap, so the last thing I wanted to do was walk around a museum for an hour or more. Besides, we did the Gold Museum in 1998 with Damian and Lisa. Prices were 1000 colones for Cristina, $6 for me (3000 colones) and the kids were free. Cristina wanted to take the kids, so I opted to hang out in the lobby and maybe snooze a little. The ticket seller studied Cristina’s cedula, as if checking it for a fake, which we found curious and amusing.

I sat on a comfortable leather bench and nodded off intermittently between watching tour groups come and go. Cristina and the kids spent over an hour in the museum and had a great time.

She reported that there were 3 different sections: the currency exhibit, an exhibit of watercolor paintings done by Ticos, and the gold museum. Interestingly enough, there was heavy security watching every section of the museum closely. She took the kids through the watercolors fairly quickly, then proceeded into the Gold section, which included a lot of details on the pre-Columbian cultures that were present in this area before Columbus discovered this land on his fourth voyage across the Atlantic. There was a small section on the matriarchal elements of these cultures and the crafts that show this, mostly statues. Then it followed into the early beginnings of these cultures, like what foods they ate, the things they grew, what they hunted during different periods of their development. There was a display on archeology and the importance of not grave robbing. There were examples of a grave with its offerings and you could enter the half hut with all its household items.

After all this information on the tribes and how they functioned, they finally came to the section for which the museum is named. It began with the two different methods used to work with the gold. The first was warming the gold enough to hammer it flat for wearable ornaments. The other was casting the figures, mostly animals. Throughout the whole gold section there were examples of the figures and ornaments. At this point, there was an interactive display with pictures of different animals and an example of the corresponding gold figure. When the kids pressed on the correct buttons a light would shine on the corresponding stuffed animal. Then there was a small room where everything was touchable. It had examples of how pottery is made and rubbings the kids could do of pre-Columbian design shapes. After that they went to the currency exhibit. It was fairly small and showed examples of the Costa Rican colon through the ages. It was mentioned that cocoa beans were once used for money very long ago. At the end, one of the attendants had coins, some as old as 400 years for the kids to hold. There was also a coin press thing that has the design to put on the metal. They were finally done.

We had stashed a couple of dinner rolls from the restaurant to feed the pigeons at the Plaza. Isabella especially had a great time throwing bread crumbs to the birds. Once Alex finished his bread, he started chasing the pigeons, so we moved on.

The kids had behaved well in the museum, so we rewarded them with some ice cream. Sofia got a double scoop cup of lemon and strawberry. Alex got a small cup of chocolate. Cristina had a triple scoop cone of banana, mango, and chocolate. I still felt yucky, so I just watched them eat.

On the pedestrian street, a trio of black guys played calypso music. One guy was working the crowd for donations. When we told him we didn’t have any money, he gestured to Alex with a smile and said, “You can just leave him with us!”

We cut through Universal, a big department store, to the other side of the block (Alex was amazed that we cut through the store and came out on a new street) and went to Joyeria Leonardo Da Vinci, a jewelry store that Cristina and her parents have gone to for over 30 years. The owner recognized Cristina, made pleasantries, and asked how her parents were doing. Cristina arranged for a pair of her pearl earrings to be repaired (she got them there) and she ordered two similar pairs for Sofia and Isabella. They would be ready on the 6^th of July.

We caught a taxi to the Coca-Cola, then waited in line for the Pavas bus. It didn’t take long and soon we were back home. Maritza made a dinner of garlic and onion chicken, potatoes, and rice. It was very good, even though I still didn’t have much of an appetite.

Ramon’s car has been in the shop since before we got here. The engine needed to be replaced, but while the engine was all taken apart, Ramon wanted to replace the clutch while it would be an easy job. But the clutch that was sent was the wrong clutch. So even though the engine has been ready for a while, the mechanic has been waiting on the correct clutch before he can put it all back together. Ramon ordered the clutch from Panama, because it was considerably cheaper there. Tonight, Jorge brought the clutch. His two daughters, Carolina and Julieta, and their two sons came along as well. Jorge is the husband of Cristina’s aunt (thus technically Cristina’s uncle) and lives down on the farm near the Panamanian border. Now that we have the right clutch, hopefully we will have the car soon to finish out the rest of our visit here.

Father's Day

Taking it easy on Father's Day

Cristina tried her darndest to let me sleep in this morning. As soon as the kids came in for their normal early morning wake-up visit, she went and hung out in their room, while they played. Wouldn’t you know, a fly kept landing on me, which roused me enough to disturb any deep sleep I may have hoped for. When I got up around 9, they gave me my Father’s Day card, one of Cristina’s beautiful handmade creations. I’m not usually a big fan of cards, but homemade cards are completely different.

I made breakfast (although Cristina offered). We had planned to go to La Sabana park and let the kids do some horseback riding, but things didn’t work out for that. Originally, we thought we would be getting together with Maritza’s children and grandchildren, but things didn’t work out for that either. Ramon was under the weather and spent most of the day in bed resting.

I decided I wanted pizza for my father’s day meal. We ordered pizza from 2x1 Pizza, which surprisingly didn’t offer black olives as a topping. Ham is the topping of choice in Costa Rica, so we had to make sure at least some of the pizzas were ham-less. The pizzas were a bit smaller than I expected, but they hit the spot. I ate an entire pepperoni by myself. The pizza was even slightly spicy, which was a pleasant surprise for this country, where it seems nothing is ever spicy.

Cristina made a big salad for dinner. We were all still pretty full from the late lunch of pizza, but the salad was a nice healthy way to end the day. After the kids went to bed, I went to bed and watched HBO. Constantine with Keanu Reeves. It was actually kind of good. I had to wear headphones though. The quiet parts were too quiet and I didn’t want to wake up Isabella when the movie got loud.