Shopping day

The first thing we did this morning was pick up the Tico Times and look for pictures. On the page with all the photos, the biggest one was Bella being pushed in the swing by Cristina! The picture of Sofia didn’t make the cut, but Sofia understands the baby factor (everybody likes to see cute little babies) so ending up on the cutting room floor didn’t bother her.

We drove into San Jose and did the cedula thing. Maritza came along to help. A cedula is a Costa Rican ID card…kind of like a social security card, in that every Costa Rican is entitled to one, but they are used a lot more frequently than social security cards. They’re used more like a driver’s license is used in the States. You don’t get the actual card until you’re 12 years old, so Cristina got her first one when we came in 1994. During this trip, we noticed that her cedula expired two years ago, since they have to be renewed every 10 years.

Waiting in line...a Costa Rican tradition!

Ramon was sure it would take 10 days or so for the cedula to be ready, which meant we might have to have it sent to the consulate in Los Angeles for pick up, since Cristina has to pick it up in person. Luckily, after explaining to the cedula people that we live in Arizona and are leaving on Tuesday, they put a rush on it and said it would be ready by 2 pm! Perfect! Picking it up in LA would have been a hassle, and we had plenty to do in San Jose anyway.

Next we drove to the artisan’s row, near the National Museum. I’m not sure if this shopping area has an official name or not. These small booths sell various handcrafted souvenirs, from the extremely fancy and exotic to the slightly cheesy. Everything from very expensive hardwood bowls and carved artwork to Imperial beer T-shirts and iguana key chains.

Isabella checks out the wares while the vendor supervises

These vendors used to be located at the Plaza de la Cultura, above the Gold Museum. But several years ago they were relocated here probably because the city thought they were a bit of an eyesore. The Plaza has kind of a nice European look, filled with a variety of people and pigeons, with the ornate National Theatre dominating one edge of the Plaza. So you can imagine why they wouldn’t want what basically looks like a flea market right in the middle of that.

Today we were after gifts for various people. First and foremost, for our friends, the Yakis, who have been watching our house in Phoenix, feeding our cat, raking his litter box, starting our cars occasionally, etc.

Then we needed some things for various other family and friends. And we wanted to stock up our “gift closet” for occasions that come up like birthday parties that the kids get invited to. And we bought a little bit for ourselves, which is important to remember to do. Alex picked a miniature marimba for himself. Sofia got a beautiful, ornate photo album to put some of her Costa Rica pictures in (she’ll have to pick her favorite 40 out of the thousand that she’s probably taken). Sofia also got some little things for her best friend, Bo, and their teacher, Ms. Crain. I wish I had students that thought to get me a souvenir when they went on vacation. That must be nice! I guess I should consider myself lucky when I have 4 intact tires every day after school. Such is the life of an inner-city high school teacher.

I love and I hate these days. These end-of-the-vacation days where you buy a lot of stuff. It’s fun because you get to pick out beautiful things for yourself and people you love. I hate it because after living very cheaply for six weeks, I’m suddenly pouring out money like a faucet. Or at least it feels that way. It’s not really that bad, but it’s always hard for a spendthrift like me.

Maritza got a suggestion for a good place for lunch, so we walked a block or so and ate a nice lunch at a little Columbian restaurant. We had five big plates of food and drinks for 4800 colones! Amazing.

Our little Columbian soda

Next we drove (it is so nice to have a car!) to a store called Universal, where we hoped to find a Costa Rican flag for a good price. Right beside Universal is the jewelry store where we needed to pick up the earrings. To avoid parking and make it quicker, I dropped Maritza and Cristina off and circled around. It took three slow loops before they were ready. Universal was out of flags and the earrings weren’t ready. But Cristina found some cool Costa Rican beads at Universal, so it wasn’t a complete waste.

It was around 2 by now, so we went back to the cedula place and got Cristina’s cedula. Like clockwork.

On the way to our next stop, we needed to get into the right lane, so Cristina stuck her head out the window and gestured that we needed to get over. The guy in the next lane sped up to keep us from getting in. Cristina yelled at him and he rolled down his window and yelled back at her. First he said something obscene in Spanish, then when he realized she spoke English, he pulled out all the stops. He started using every English profanity he could remember from watching movies, I’m sure. But his accent was thick and he sounded ridiculous. His favorite choice of insults sounded like foggy beach. Cristina yelled something to the effect of “You don’t even know what you’re talking about!” I had to hold her by the back of her pants to keep her in the car she was so livid. It was like when you have a dog in the car and you pass by a cat and the dog practically jumps out the window barking and trying to get at the cat. The ultimate joy in this whole experience was when it occurred to me how much the guy would hate it if we got into his lane one car ahead of him. So I gunned it forward to the next car, Cristina gestured kindly, and the guy let us in. As we drove on, you could still hear Profane Man yelling, “Foggy Beach! Moto-fogger!” We waved to him as we accelerated away. It was beautiful, or as beautiful as a profane shouting match can be.

Next, I dropped Cristina and Maritza off near La Casona, a big artisan’s shopping center similar to the artisan’s booths near the museum, just under one roof and a little pricier. They found a flag there and bought it. One more thing marked off our list.

We were done with San Jose but there was one more place we needed to go in Alajuela. It was late enough that Ramón would be home from work, so we went home first, dropped off all our goods, and picked up Ramón.

Just past the airport, there is a factory that makes wood products, the kind of stuff that the vendors sell at the market we were at earlier. This particular factory is the only place we know of that makes these tiny little tea and coffee sets, about dollhouse size. They make nice gifts for children, especially the children/parents at Desert Marigold, who perhaps appreciate wood toys more than the average person. We made it to the Sr. y Sra. Ese factory at 5:15. They closed at 5:30, so we just squeaked in. We wound up keeping them there 30 minutes late, and we bought more than we intended to, but we got some great stuff.

On the way home, we went to a KFC drive-thru for dinner. Ramón ordered from the back seat and we had a good chuckle because he forgot some of his Spanish. He was asking for chicken, instead of pollo, and the guy didn’t know what he was talking about.

Las Musas

Jen made pancakes for everyone, which was a nice way to start the day. The original plan was to go to the beach today. The Sheridans live about an hour from some nice Pacific beaches. Sofia was looking forward to going to “her” beach again, as she had gone there with the Sheridans earlier during our trip.

After sunscreening, we got in the cars and headed off. We didn’t get very far before we hit bumper-to-bumper, fully-stopped traffic. And it didn’t seem to be moving much. We could see miles ahead of us thanks to the curvy mountain roads, and the line of cars and trucks went on and on. After being stopped for nearly 20 minutes, and then barely poking along for a few more miles, we decided it was not worth the risk. In Costa Rica, you never know how long you might be stuck in traffic like this. Better to go to plan B before investing too much time in the slow traffic. And it’s not like there are other routes to take. This road was our only realistic choice.

We turned around and drove to the Sheridan's property where they will soon be building their dream house. I knew the views would be good, but I did not realize they would be so fantastic. Photos can't do it justice. They want to build an octagonal house to maximize the views as much as possible. I can't wait to stay with them again in a few years when the house will be finished!

This will be the view from the Sheridan's living room

Just down the street from the Sheridan's rental house is a recreational area called Las Musas. The park has a large pool, a kiddie pool, a big water slide, a playground, and best of all, a huge (natural) waterfall. It cost 1000 colones for each adult, Sofia and Alex were 500 each, Bella was free.

First we checked out the waterfall. None of us really felt up to climbing into the cold water at the base of the falls. The cold mist was enough. Back up at the pools, the kids had a great time riding the water slide. Isabella even went down once with me and twice with Cristina. I took a bit of video here, which I haven’t done much this trip. Now that we have a nice digital camera, it’s too easy to neglect the video camera. Even though my video camera is fairly compact, it’s still a bit more cumbersome than our little slip-in-the-pocket camera. But here I got some video, especially of everyone going down the slide. The batteries on the still camera actually died, so we mostly got video here. However, Sofia had her camera, so we still got plenty of stills.

There is also a restaurant at Las Musas, so after looking at their menu, Bill and I went up to get some lunch for everyone. They didn’t have some of the stuff that we wanted (no fried chicken, no chicken empanadas) but we got enough stuff to supplement the items Jen had brought.

Back at our picnic table we feasted on PBJs, French fries, fried yucca, cheese empanadas, tortilla chips and refried beans, and popcorn.

After getting our fill of the water play, we drove home and got showered. The Sheridans have two bathrooms. The bigger one has a gigantic shower that fit all five of us easily. The power went out for about 10 minutes, so we had to wait to have hot water.

I started working on dinner, with help from Jen and Cristina. We made oven-roasted garlic and herb chicken with chopped salad with creamy caper dressing. It turned out great. Jen made a pot of rice to go with it, and we had good, crusty bread from Mus Manni. The salad seemed to be a big hit with Bill. I thought the chicken was very good. Not amazing, but solid. It was the first time I made the recipe (from Rachael Ray’s book, of course). I’d make it again.

We had wanted to drive back to Pavas tonight, since early in the morning Cristina was going into San Jose to renew her cedula. The Sheridans offered for us to stay there a second night, but we thought it would be best to drive home after dinner. We timed things pretty well because by the time dinner was over, it was about 6 pm. We were all already showered, so we could just drive home and put the kids in bed.

Cristina drove home so Isabella wouldn’t be as tempted to nurse. That usually works in Arizona, but this time she wasn’t going for it. She cried pretty much the whole ride home, which took about an hour. It was rainy and dark and one of the windshield wipers fell off, but we made it home safe and sound.

San Ramon

Maritza made an executive decision: we should just take the car without the spare instead of waiting and waiting and losing more time. To save time and gas, we decided to pack quickly for our overnight and all ride with Chino to pick up the car.

By leaving for San Ramon from Ricardo’s house, where we picked up the car, we probably saved about 30 minutes of car time. It only took about 45 minutes to get to San Ramon. We had a little trouble following the directions Bill gave us, but we found their house. The Sheridans are renting a house while they build (or make ready to build) their own house.

After getting a tour of their house, we drove into town to eat lunch at one of their favorite sodas. I offered to cook dinner for them, so Jennifer and Cristina went to the grocery store and the rest of us went home. Bill and I watched the rest of the soccer game and talked about everything from furniture to satellite TV. Isabella played nicely with the girls and Alex watched one of our DVDs (Tarzan) in Jen and Bill’s room.

When the girls returned, we decided that after eating such a big lunch late in the day that I would cook for them the following day. So for tonight, we just made a light supper of fresh fruit salad, avocado, and tomato. We also ate the leftover arroz con pollo from lunch.

Exploring the sugar cane field behind the Sheridans' house

Bill and I took the kids on a little hike around their property. We decided against going on the “jungle” path, since I had Isabella in the sling. One of their neighbors has some cows and horses, so we checked those out.

Playing in the rain

After getting the kids to bed, Jennifer’s massage therapist Edgar came over to give Cristina a much-needed massage. It didn’t seem that we would get back to Nelly’s for her to give Cristina a massage, so Edgar was the next best choice. Edgar is fairly new at massage therapy, but he’s fully trained and gaining experience with every job. He gave Cristina a two-hour massage for 10,000 colones (20 bucks)! Jen has a massage table, so while they did their thing in the living room, I sat with Jen and Bill on the back porch. We chatted quietly and listened to the night, which included the amusing sounds of a distant Karaoke bar.

After the massage, Cristina had a cup of hot tea and then we went to bed.

Fourth of July party

We got up, dressed in our patriotic garb, and headed to the Cerviceria in Alajuela for the annual Fourth of July party, sponsored by the American Colony Committee. The party started in 1977 and has grown every year. We went in 1998 with Damian and Lisa, and at that time it was at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence. Now it’s at the Cerviceria, which is basically a huge fairgrounds owned by the Imperial Beer Company.

Thousands of people attend every year. You have to be a U.S. citizen (they checked our passports very carefully at the gate) or the immediate family of a U.S. citizen to attend. So there were a lot of Ticos there, but there are all kinds of Gringos there as well. There are tourists who are just here for short vacations as well as Gringos that have lived here for years and years. Some are pensionados (people who retire to Costa Rica and live off their pensions from the States). Some have family members who are Costa Rican…like me. And some Gringos live and work here. We even met an archaeologist that studied at Arizona State University! He works here and is married to a Tica. It’s neat to hear the different stories of where people are from and what brings them to Costa Rica. Everyone has a story. I was watching the kids ride a ride and the guy beside me told me he moved here eight years ago from the Michigan area with his family to do missionary work.

The grounds are filled with tents offering all kinds of free stuff. Free Imperial beer, cotton candy, Coke products, popcorn, cole slaw from KFC, frozen yogurt from TCBY, coffee and cappuccinos from Café Britt, bagels, and of course hot dogs. Thousands and thousands of hot dogs handed out in a continuous stream from a huge tent. There are tons of games for the kids, like water balloon tosses, 3-legged races, sack races. There’s a fishing type game, where the kids put their fishing line over a wall and “catch” some goodies. There was square dancing (oddly enough, all the dancers were Costa Rican!).

About midway through the festivities, everything shuts down for the flag-raising ceremony. Two marines in full dress raise the flag, then everybody sings the anthem and says the pledge of allegiance. In respect for our host country, the Costa Rican anthem was played first.

Cristina wore a Florida Gators T-shirt and Gator visor. I had on my 9/11 Gator shirt with the American flag (sold at the Swamp the week after 9/11 for everyone to wear to the following football game, to show solidarity). We saw many other Gators at the party, more Gators than Seminoles I’m proud to say.

While Isabella was swinging, a photographer from the Tico Times (largest English language newspaper in Latin America) took some photos of her. We look forward to checking out this Friday’s Tico Times to see if her picture gets published.

Towards the end of the party (it’s starts at 8 am and is over at noon) we made our way towards the dance floor, in front of a live band that was playing a mix of rock, blues, and funk. They were really good. Those on the dance floor (including Ramón and Maritza) were having a great time “cutting the rug,” as we say in the South.

While the dance floor rocked, Alex and I were tossing a little rubber ball back and forth. Sofia joined in and it turned into a midified version of monkey-in-the-middle. A cute Tica (probably in her early 20’s) was hanging out at the Imperial booth where Alex was catching the ball. She started playing with Alex and getting him to throw her the ball. Pretty soon, she was in the thick of our game, playfully fighting to get the ball before Alex did. I jokingly told Alex later that he found a girlfriend at the party and he said vehemently “No I didn’t!” When I explained that she was kind of a friend and she was a girl, so she was a girlfriend, he bashfully conceded agreement.

Alex playing with his girlfriend

Ramon had had a good amount of beer so by the time we left, he was ready for a nap. In fact, after dancing like a college kid, he fell asleep on the dance floor as the stage was being dismantled and everyone was leaving. We kidded him heavily for that. The whole ride home with Chino, as he would nod off, Cristina would poke him in the ribs and say, “Wake up, Viejo!”

Back home, we chilled out. Stuffed on hot dogs and soda (or beer in Ramón’s case) we certainly didn’t need any additional lunch. We thought the Sheridans were going to experience their first Fourth of July party in Costa Rica, but they had some kind of appointment concerning their residency, so they didn’t make it. They did come by the house afterwards and got the scoop on the festivities.

While the Sheridans were there, we shared our new plan. Instead of going to the Guanacaste area for a few days, we would spend a night or two at the Sheridan’s house in San Ramon. They only live about an hour from a Pacific beach, so that could be a possibility. They also have a park with a waterfall right near their house. Plus, it would be nice to see where they live, and maybe go see the property they bought where they plan to build a house.

We found out that Ricardo was waiting to get a new spare tire for the car he was loaning us, but he wouldn’t be able to get it until after work at 5. So we would have to wait a little longer for a car.

Later that evening, we found out that Ricardo couldn’t get the tire before the parts place closed, so he’d try to do it the next day.

For dinner, we treated Ramón and Maritza to an Italian meal at Restaurant Ana, a place in San Jose we’ve eaten at before. It’s kind of pricey by Costa Rican standards, but the whole meal for 7 of us cost about what we pay at Olive Garden for the five of us. And this meal included desserts and coffee! Cristina wasn’t crazy about her pesto gnocchi, and Sofia’s ravioli was a bit undercooked (she likes the Yaki’s ravioli better!). But my lasagna was delicious. I even got a cappuccino for dessert.

Dinner at Restaurant Ana (Sofia's food was late arriving)

While we waited for Chino to pick us up, the kids and I played the statue game, where one person gets moved around into whatever pose the “artist” puts them in. I made Sofia into the statue of liberty (it was the Fourth of July) and I made Alex a monkey.

The Statue of Liberty

Another day of rest

Still no car.

Ramón went to work, Maritza went to school. We didn’t eat breakfast until close to 10. We made a pot of cheese grits and a big skillet of scrambled eggs with onions and peppers.

I found a little toy in a kitchen drawer. It came inside a loaf of bread (loaves of bread here often have little toys, like cereal does in the States). I gave it to Alex to put together. He and Cristina worked on it. It turned out to be a little Bimbo bread truck. Cute!

Sunday morning I had been woken up by Isabella. I turned on the TV in hopes that I could sleep a little longer and wound up watching Rachael Ray cook Flounder Francese with lemon spaghetti. I thought I’d cook that for dinner tonight, so I took the kids to Mas por Menos to get some stuff. We went to the bigger store, the one with the Papa John’s. I couldn’t find flounder, so I got some dorado fillets and some cazon, a fish which I did not recognize but it looked good.

The meal turned out pretty well, but the cazon was tough, almost the consistency of a tough pork chop. Not surprisingly, the more expensive dorado was good and tender. I should have splurged and got all dorado. Now I know.

After getting the kids to bed, I worked on my journal. Ramón had gotten a call from the mechanic and left. I didn’t even want to ask, because I might jinx it. A little while later, I heard a car parking on the porch. Ramon’s car! It does exist! One snag: the engine is running very rough and can only be driven around the neighborhood for the next few days. It will need to be tightened up and fine-tuned after a few days, which means it’s really not of much use to us. Looks like we’ll be calling Steven to try and rent a car for a few more days.

Luckily, Ricardo has an extra car, which just got out of the shop as well. He’s going to let us use that for our last mini-trip to Guanacaste. So we won’t have to rent again after all. I’ll pick it up in Heredia after the Fourth of July party tomorrow.

Note the hair pins in Sofia's hair. They're the ones we bought at Guayabo.

Ceviche

After such a busy and tiring three days, I looked forward to being able to take it easy today. Catch up on my journals, maybe take a nap.

We returned the rental car on time and everything was fine. I’m now totally satisfied with this experience. It’s always a little nerve-wracking to rent here because the roads are so bad and you never know if the rental company is going to charge you for some tiny ding caused by a flying rock or insane pothole. But this one-man upstart operation was very reasonable and you certainly cannot beat the price. I still can’t believe we rented an Isuzu Rodeo, in excellent condition, for $30 a day.

The guy that owns the rental business, Steven, gave us a ride home. He’s had the business for about 6 months now. He got started in the rental business with a gringo from Illinois that he worked for, but the guy didn’t put much into maintaining the cars, so there were a lot of break-downs. Customers started complaining and even taking legal action. Steven hated this aspect and decided to start his own rental business. His fleet currently has about 8 cars and he’s planning on adding a couple with more seating (like 7 or 8 passenger). If anyone is planning a trip to Costa Rica and will be renting a car, contact me and I’ll hook you up with Steven. Good guy.

We took it easy the rest of the afternoon. I even got my nap.

Around 5 pm, Chino drove us all to the home of Juan Pablo and Hisela, the sister of Carolina (Ricardo’s wife…I know, it’s confusing). Juan Pablo made ceviche (seh-VEE-cheh) with cobia. Ceviche is an appetizer popular in Latin America consisting of raw fish marinated in citrus (usually lime) juice. The action of the acid in the lime juice "cooks" the fish, thereby firming the flesh and turning it opaque. Onions, tomatoes and green peppers are often added to the marinade. Only very fresh fish should be used for this dish. Ramón said low-oil fish like cobia or shark is best. I read that red snapper, pompano, and sole are the most common fish for ceviche. I was first introduced to it in 1994 when Ramón ate it during our beach trip. When he described it to me, I thought it sounded disgusting, but I’d lately been wanting to try it. So tonight I got my chance. It was good. Not lick-the-bowl-clean-and-beg-for-more good, but tasty enough. Juan Pablo just made one big bowl for everyone, so I only ate one small bowl of it. I was proud that Sofia tasted mine and wanted a bowl of her own, which she ate. Alex took one bite and decided he didn’t really like it.

The “party” lasted a couple of hours and Hisela’s parents, who also live in Pavas, drove us home. Cristina crashed with Isabella and I stayed up with Ramón and Maritza for a while. Maritza is taking an English class, so Ramón and I helped her with her homework. It was fun. She was supposed to describe these drawings of four different people. We were making suggestions and couldn’t help but throw lots of inappropriate but creative details in there, most of which I can’t print here. For example, one picture showed a woman writing a letter. The typical description would probably be something like “The woman is 35 years old. She is of average weight. She likes to write.” We were making suggestions like “The woman is of average weight, but she has a tendency to gain during her period. She fancies young men. She particularly enjoys writing submissions to lurid magazines.” Of course Maritza didn’t understand everything we were suggesting and was mostly blowing us off for just being silly, and rightfully so. But we did convince her to write that one of the people, a sharp-dressed man in a suit with a cell phone and a laptop, was gay. Her teacher will probably get a kick out of that.