Costa Rica 2006

Shopping day

2006-07-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-06T23:04:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-05T23:03:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-03T23:21:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-02T22:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Guayabo

2006-07-01T23:36:00.000-07:00

Bella woke me up in time to shower before moving the car from the gas station at 7 am. Bill stopped by to let us know they were getting their car out and heading to breakfast. I took Isabella with me as Cristina started packing up the room with Alex and Sofia sleeping a little longer.

I got to the car around 6:50, but I was blocked in by another car. I waited till about 7:10 when someone came and moved the other car.

We walked a block or so to a little soda and had a gallo pinto breakfast. It was a little too crispy for my taste, but the eggs were good and handmade tortillas were a nice bonus. They gave us too much change back and seemed surprised when we caught the mistake and gave them the extra money back.

We finished packing up at the hotel, checked out, and headed out of Turrialba to Guayabo Monument Park.

Guayabo is the most important and largest archeological site in Costa Rica. Because of its central location between the 2 continents and its geographic structures (two mountains, one east and the other west, and two rivers running north and south) this area played an important role as a meeting ground between different pre-Columbian cultures and had influences as far away as Canadian tribes. Archeologists have only excavated 20% of the total area. What is visible now is several mounds, part of a stone road and several aqueducts. All of this was constructed without the use of beasts of burden or the wheel, between 1000 BC to 1400 AD. Simply put, it was all made by human exertion. All the stones were brought from the rivers down below. The aqueducts are still flowing today. Two cultures seemed to be the most important and were symbolized in a carved stone with a jaguar god and an alligator god. Very little is known about these people, including their name or the name of the city or translations of the many petrogliphs.

Cristina visited here when she was around 5 years old with her family and the Fallas family while they were living in Turrialba. At that time you could walk all over the ruins and nothing was roped off. The park was founded less than 2 months after Cristina was born.

It was a beautiful drive up the slopes of Volcan Turrialba, where Guayabo lays. The road is good-quality asphalt except for the last 4 km up to the National Monument. There it turns into a very steep, rocky road, where I decided to use the 4-wheel drive for the first time.

When we arrived at the park, we were greeted by several vendors and a park ranger and a guide. Once again, it pays for Cristina to have her cedula (national ID), as it cost about $3 total for all 5 of us and $9 each for the Sheridans. We decided to splurge on a guide, Gerardo, an archeology student and father of 2 children.

The guide was definitely worth it, because he pointed out things that we would have never noticed on our own. For example, there is a plant called sangre de Cristo (blood of Christ) that supposedly sprouted form the ground where drops of Jesus’s blood hit the ground when He was crucified. Gerardo told us this, and then lifted the leaves and showed us the underside. Each leaf had a bright red splotch of red on its underside. Another example was when he saw us spraying bug spray on the kids. He told us not to use it because it actually attracts bugs. Instead, he showed us a plant where you pick a leaf, crumple it up, and then spread it on your clothes. The mosquitoes hate the smell of it and will stay away. He also showed us a plant whose milk, when squeezed from the stem, can be put on itchy bug bites to make the itch stop. We definitely needed that. When he saw Alex’s bites, he tore off a good size piece and gave it to me for future use.

Gerardo’s English was pretty good, but when he struggled, he had Cristina to fall back on to translate for the rest of us. I heard him speaking with Callista a little bit. Her Spanish is getting pretty good. She’ll be fluent in no time.

The archeological site was pretty cool and we all learned a lot, but seeing all the wildlife and tropical rain forest around us was just as satisfying. Gerardo even pointed out a sloth, albeit pretty far away in a distant treetop.

We spent a few hours at Guayabo and then were ready to move on. Before we left, Cristina bought some hair pins made out of Pejibaye wood, an exotic hardwood. She paid 500 colones for the pair.

It was lunchtime and we were all getting a bit hungry. On the way back down the mountain we stopped at a restaurant called Dos Culturas (Two Cultures) that happened to be a Mexican/Costa Rican restaurant. We thought a little taste of home (Phoenix) would be kind of fun. The restaurant is owned by an older married couple, she from Chihuahua and he from Costa Rica. The food was good and cheap and we chatted with them for a while. Jennifer’s family is from Chihuahua, so there was that connection.

Sofia enjoyed her bean and cheese burrito so much she wanted a second one (which we got for her). Brasil was playing France, so I was keeping an eye on the game during the meal as well. I chatted with the owner a bit about the game and found he was rooting for Brasil (not a big surprise). I kept neutral, even though I always like to see Brasil lose.

I got out the map to check our route home. The owner offered a suggestion of a much nicer, picturesque way home. While he explained it to Cristina and Bill (Cristina’s the navigator…I just drive), the girls were dancing to an Irish jig that the owners were playing on the stereo. The woman owner danced with them, and I couldn’t resist video taping them. It was sweet.

We drove through the most beautiful mountains I think I’ve ever seen. Through little towns called Santa Cruz, Pacayas, and Cipreses. We ended up at Cartago, where we finally got on the autopista to San Jose. After the gorgeous mountain roads, the autopista was a disappointment.

Back in Pavas by 4:30, we said goodbye to the Sheridans and unpacked our stuff. Ramón and Maritza were not home. The kids watched some TV while I ordered a pizza from Papa John’s. Since we had a car, I thought I’d go pick up the pizza instead of having it delivered. I failed to get directions to the store because I thought I knew where it was. Well, it wasn’t where I thought it was. Cristina had tagged along with Alex and Bella (Sofia opted to stay home). Of course, Cristina was annoyed at me for not getting directions. I remembered the number to Papa John’s but we had no cell phone and the pay phones here only seem to take calling cards. So we had to go home and call for directions. It turns out the place is inside a grocery store. Who would have thought?

Back home, Sofia was feeling ill and wound up throwing up. Cristina was handling that while I was eating pizza in the kitchen with Alex and Isabella. About a half hour later, Isabella had the mother of all poops and when Cristina picked her up, poop squirted out of the back of her diaper. A little blob landed on Bella’s arm, and when Bella saw it, she thought it was a smooshed bug (it had a black bean in it) and she started screaming! Cristina finally calmed her panic when she convinced her that it was just poop, not a bug. It was hilarious. So within half an hour, Cristina had been up to her ears in throw up and poop. When it rains, it pours.

We got the kids to bed and Ramón and Maritza got home. We got good news from the mechanic: the car was done and ready to be picked up! We had toyed with the idea of extending the rental on our car but now it seemed that that would be unnecessary.

Moving on to cooler climate

2006-06-30T22:58:00.000-07:00

Now that we had decided to leave today (hotel check-out was at noon) we knew this morning would be our last big beach outing. Bill stayed up at the rooms while the rest of us went down to the beach. It was a great morning. We built sandcastles, we played in the waves, the kids buried me in sand. Isabella even let us bury her in sand, all the way up to the neck. We sculpted a mermaid body out of sand for her, which was very cute and drew the attention of some Canadian tourists.

I had sunscreened well, so it was more of a comfortable morning knowing that I wasn’t going to burn. It was still hot, but the water was cool and refreshing.

We kept an eye on the time, because we wanted enough time to get showered, pack up, and check out by noon.

As we loaded up the cars, the Argentina-Germany game was in overtime. As the owner of our hotel is German, the game was on in the restaurant and a big group was watching. I kept an eye on the game as I loaded the car. Germany won in a shoot-out!

We headed out of Cocles a little after noon. We had decided to go to Turrialba for the night, and then drive up to the archaeological ruins at Guayabo the next morning. I was out of cash, and a stop at the ATM was fruitless: the power was out all over town.

We stopped in Siquirres to again try to find propane gas for the Sheridan’s car. I led the way, and despite Bill’s warning about a particularly tricky one-way street, I went down it the wrong way (in my defense, it was raining buckets). No problem. After some blaring horns to alert me of my error, I did a quick turn around and got on the right path.

We looked for an ATM, and finally found one, but the line of people waiting for it wrapped around the block. So I just waited. Bill said he’d spot me the money for lunch.

We were all pretty hungry (it was around 3 pm) so we stopped at the central market. Luckily, we were able to park very close to the market so we didn’t have to get very wet. As is often the case in places like this, we paid to use the bathroom. I think it was 100 colones per person. The guy who was manning the toilets had a kitten with pierced ears! We were so amazed by this that he had Alex pose with the kitten for our cameras. We asked him where a good place to eat was, and he took us to a little soda in the middle of the market.

Funny, Cristina and I had never eaten at a central market soda. It’s not that we don’t think the food is safe, but…central markets just have a very rough-hewn edge to them. They can be crowded and noisy. You usually have to eat at barstools, like a lunch counter, rather than tables. And it’s very likely that you might be eating right beside a smelly fish booth, or a butcher’s kiosk with all parts of the animals on display. So we’ve just always chosen to eat at a more traditional restaurant-type place, or a soda, which is just a very small, greasy spoon-type restaurant. I have to hand it the Sheridans: they will eat anywhere. And I love them for that. Bill said to me once, “We’ve eaten at every kind of hole-in-the-wall, dumpy-looking place you can imagine. I thought we would have gotten sick at least once by now, but we haven’t. And the food is always good!” So when Bill suggested we eat lunch in the Siquirres central market (at a soda next to a fish booth no less) I trusted wholly in his experience. Plus, I was tired and hungry.

The soda didn’t have much chicken left, only enough for two plates. So the Sheridans got pork chops, our kids got the chicken, and Cristina and I asked for eggs with our rice and beans. I was pleasantly surprised. The meal was awesome! Those were the best eggs I think I’ve ever had! The lady who seemed to be running the soda had scrambled them with some onions and garlic and they were bursting with flavor. And the rice and beans…she cooked them with coconut milk (Caribbean style) and they too were rich and delicious. Everything was great and I practically licked my plate clean. Cristina remarked later about how beautiful the woman was that ran the soda. She was probably in her 50’s, dark skin, and green eyes. Very striking. She helped us try to locate the propane stations, even made some calls for us, but to no avail. We would get no propane in Siquirres.

Onward to Turrialba. After missing the road and asking for directions, we finally got going the right way. It took about an hour to get from Siquirres to Turrialba, and it was gorgeous and cool (as in chilly). The mountains around Turrialba are rain forest, and at times the road we were on drove through the clouds. Breathtaking views. When we got to Turrialba, the word “magical” came to mind. I even thought that if we moved to Costa Rica, I could definitely envision living in or near Turrialba. I dunno, it struck a chord with me.

It was almost dark. Time to find a place to stay for the night. The Fallas family used to live in Turrialba and still has family that lives there. So we pulled over and called Vicky on the cell phone. She made some calls and then called us back with a recommendation. Hotel Karday. Clean, no-frills, safe, and cheap ($30 for us, with three beds, $25 for the Sheridans with two beds). That was the hotel that some of the Fallas clan had stayed at when they visited Turrialba. That was good enough for us. After filling up the tank, we found the hotel and got settled.

The hotel was just as described. No frills. Clean. Our room had a small bathroom with suicide shower (i.e. relatively hot water). One double bed and two twin beds. Considering that in Pavas, Sofia and Alex sleep on the floor, any bed for them is kind of a luxury. Oh, and the room had a ceiling fan and cable TV, two things we didn’t have at the beach in our $50 rooms (not that we really wanted TV, but the ceiling fans were a befuddling omission there).

In addition to the very adequate rooms, there was a community room I the back of the hotel complete with kitchen (fridge, microwave, toaster, toaster oven, dishes, pots and pans, etc) and pool table. We cobbled together a light dinner of watermelon and avocado while the kids played pool (sort of…Bella was on the table, so it was mostly just rolling the balls into the pockets).

For 1500 colones each, our cars could be parked at a gas station next to the hotel where they would be covered and watched all night. The only catch is that we had to move the cars by 7 am, because they would be blocking a storefront that opened at 7.

I took a quick walk to an ATM and finally got some money.

Beach Day

2006-06-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

Around 3am, there was a gigantic thunderstorm. It was so big and loud that it pretty much woke everyone up. The thunder was so deep and rumbling and long-lasting that it almost felt like an earthquake. And the combination of the sound of pouring rain and ocean surf…it was very loud. No wonder it woke most of us up. We all went back to sleep though.

Bella woke early and Cristina took her on the porch to watch the waves and eat some leftover rice. When we all got up we took appraisal of the damage: Alex was covered with mosquito bites. On one elbow alone he had about 30 bites. Sofia had a few bites, but luckily not as many as Alex. Cristina, Isabella, and I weren’t too bad, but we had slept right beside the plug-in mosquito repellant. Sofia and Alex had slept in a smaller room that was in the back. I quickly surmised that we needed another plug-in mosquito repellant for their room.

Breakfast was included in the price of the room and it turned out to be a nice bonus. We could choose between a Tico breakfast, which was gallo pinto, an egg, coffee, and homemade bread, or a pancake breakfast, which came with fresh fruit. They also had a continental breakfast of bread, juice, and a big fruit plate of pineapple, cantaloupe, papaya, and mango. The homemade bread had carrot in it and was delicious.

After breakfast, we went to the beach. I knew this was going to be a big beach day, and I prefer to only get sunscreened and sandy one time per day, so I opted to supervise this outing and take pictures without getting wet. It started to rain, so I used an umbrella while everyone else played in the water.

Based on everyone’s dislike of the hot, humid weather and the plethora of mosquito bites, I brought up the possibility of only spending 2 nights here instead of three. I suggested we could drive back up to Braulio Carrillo to spend the third night. Anywhere cooler would do! Add in the fact that this hotel was costing us more than we’d planned, and it was an easy choice. All the adults agreed that we would leave Cocles the next day and head somewhere cooler.

Between taking pictures and watching the kids play, I was people-watching as well. There were not many people on the beach by Florida standards, but there were probably 5 or 6 other people in our immediate vicinity. I spotted one particularly striking couple. The man was huge and bald. The woman he was with had quite the figure as well. I was watching them off and on from afar when suddenly the woman took off her top. So my guess is they were European. I thought about going up to them and asking where they were from, but I figured they might misconstrue my intentions.

The lifeguard stand in front of our hotel usually has one or two lifeguards. It was perhaps no coincidence that while the topless sunbather was doing her thing, there suddenly was a need for reinforcements. About five or six lifeguards were in the tower, binoculars in hand. Keeping the beach safe, of course.

I hadn’t sunscreened, so I kept my hat on and I even used the umbrella when it wasn’t raining. Nevertheless, my neck got burnt, as did my legs from the knee down to my sock line.

Another couple went topless, so I guess once the first girl did it, it gave others the bravery to do it. Cristina decided to keep her top on. Besides the sunburn factor, it would have been too much of a temptation for Isabella.

We spent a few hours at the shore until it was about time for lunch and Isabella’s nap. We got showered and went into town to buy some ice for the Sheridan’s cooler as well as another mosquito thing for the kids’ room. Back at the room, Isabella took her nap and I bought cokes for the kids from the restaurant downstairs. While Isabella napped, the kids snacked on some chips, popcorn, and cookies. Isabella wound up taking a really long nap, tired out by the sun and playing in the ocean. Sofia nagged us repeatedly to go back to the beach, but we needed to let Bella sleep. It was getting so late that we decided to eat a big early dinner instead of lunch as soon as Bella woke up. Once she got up, we drove down the coast to Manzanillo, a tiny town that is almost as far south as you can go on the pacific side. The only other town is called Sixaola, right on the Panamanian border, but you have to drive a dirt road through banana plantation to get there.

We ate at a little soda right near the beach and were pleased at how good the food was. I had fillet of marlin in garlic, Cristina had a whole fish (I think it was red snapper) and the kids had spaghetti. The natural drinks were great too. While we waited for the food, the kids went across the street to the beach and explored a bit.

After dinner, we drove down further through Manzanillo until we basically ran out of road. Then we turned around and drove back to the hotel.

It was getting dark by this point, and we had promised the kids one more beach time before we called it a day. Bill and I went down to the beach with the kids. It was kind of scary. The ocean was really rough and of course it was dark. So we made it a short trip. Besides, Bella was ready to go back after about 10 minutes.

After the kids were showered, sprayed with bug repellant, and asleep, I worked on my journal while Cristina and Jennifer sat on the porch and talked. I had a hard time falling asleep and didn’t get to sleep until after midnight.

So this is what hot feels like

2006-06-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

Because we had packed up the night before, we were ready to go early. The Sheridans were going to come to our place, then we’d caravan to the beach. The Sheridans were a little later arriving than expected, so we didn’t leave till about 9:30. But it was comforting to know that we aren’t always the slow ones holding up the works.

We had no problems getting out of San Jose. The road through Braulio Carrillo National Park was gorgeous, lush and mountainous. We passed too many waterfalls to keep track of.

Bill’s car has the same propane conversion thing that Ramón’s car has, and there are only so many stations in the country that are equipped to fill up the propane tank. The last place he knew of was near the little town of Siquirres, so we stopped there for a fill-up. The guy there said they only fill up the tanks of customers that have had their cars converted by them. He told us of a place up the road that could do it. While the Sheridans went up to look for that place, we had a drink at a little bar/restaurant. The Sheridans were gone for a while, but they finally returned…with no gas! There was no other place that sold propane for cars. Cristina talked to the man again and talked him into selling them a tank of propane. In no time we were on the road again.

As we came down the mountain into the lowlands towards the port city of Limon, the weather got decidedly warmer. We did the totally gringo thing and used the air conditioner, which was lovely. We passed through Limon and turned south down the coast. I filled up my tank at a gas station in Limon. Bill and Jennifer bought some snacks for us all. Unfortunately, Jennifer turned her ankle and took a spill in the parking lot. She scraped up her knee, but she survived. We kept on.

We pulled off at Cahuita, our old Pacific beach stomping ground, for lunch. We found our little cabin that we’ve stayed at several times (1998 and 2001). It’s right on the beach, with some nice reefs and tide pools. We chose a little restaurant, called Miss Edith’s Kitchen, right beside our old hotel.

Bear with me, because I’m going to complain a little here. I’ve lived in Arizona, and more specifically, the Sonoran desert, for two years now. I lived in Florida for 23 years. I have experienced all kinds of hot. The sticky, oppressive, stifling heat that we felt at Cahuita while we ate lunch was probably in the top 5 nasty-hot experiences of my life. It was like being forced to wear a 3-piece burlap suit, first dipped in boiling salt-water, inside a health club steam room, with a heat lamp turned on for good measure. It was sick, and I’m not using that word as slang for “cool” like the young whippersnappers do these days. I played it off like it was no big deal, but I was thinking, “Please don’t let the whole 3 days be like this, or I will die.” I could tell Bill felt the same way. He was using napkins from the table to wipe the backs of his knees where the sweat was rolling off. I remember going to the bathroom, which was even hotter than our table, and looking in the mirror at my red, shiny, dripping face and thinking guiltily how much I just wanted to be in air conditioning. I chalked it up to Arizona causing me to lose my acclimation to severe humidity. I’ll admit it: I’ve become a humidity wimp.

Maybe my opinion was skewed by the heat (you think?) but the restaurant was not very satisfying. They had no beans (how can a restaurant in Costa Rica not have beans!?), it was overpriced, and of all places that could use a fan or two, this one had none. Since there were no beans, I got pasta with chicken. The chicken tasted like smoked pork to me and looked pink. The pasta was cooked with Caribbean seasonings, which was different but okay, although Sofia didn’t like it. But it was just too darned hot to enjoy a meal. And they didn’t take plastic (of course) so I had to use a good chunk of my precious cash.

After the meal, we checked out the adjacent tide pool area where a few small boats were moored. The kids found some cool shells. We headed on towards Puerto Viejo.

Thank God we had rented a relatively big 4x4 because driving the road from Cahuita to Puerta Viejo is somewhat like what I would imagine driving on the moon to be like, except with the gravity of Mercury. We endured potholes that I imagine the locals have probably named. When we finally got to our hotel, I wanted a t-shirt that said “My car survived Pepito and his 827 brothers.” The worst ones are the ones that are so big and full of muddy water that you can’t judge how deep they are. There were two like this just before bridges. All the cars on this road are zig-zagging around at a mere crawl, trying to find the smoothest path possible through this obstacle course. It’s funny how much satisfaction you get by navigating through a rough patch without hitting anything major. More often, though, there just aren’t any good spots and you have to pick the least painful looking pothole to hit. At one point, Isabella would laugh every time I swerved or hit a hole. That lightened the mood.

We arrived at La Isla Inn, our hotel. The ocean was beautiful and we were feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, the front desk guy knew nothing about our reservations and the prices were in the 80’s and up, depending on the room. He went and checked with the manager, who said they knew about the reservations but they knew nothing of all the kids and dog that we brought. The best she could offer was two rooms for $50 each per night. We knew we probably wouldn’t find anything cheaper, and certainly not as nice, so we agreed. I know $50 for a beachside hotel is dirt-cheap in the States, but this is Costa Rica! The only place we’ve ever spent that much on a hotel here is in the Monteverde cloud forest, where everything is expensive.

The rooms were nice and had a view of the ocean. We wasted no time in donning our beach garb and running across the road for a quick dip in the ocean. The water temperature was just right. Not so warm to be icky, but not so cold to be bracing. The kids had a ball. Isabella would laugh and smile the biggest smile I’ve ever seen whenever a wave would knock into her.

The surf here is very dangerous, with an undertow that’s so powerful it can be lethal (no exaggeration) so we were careful not to go out further than knee deep.

Our rooms were side by side on the second story and out front there was a long balcony with a long bench. After getting cleaned up, the Sheridans pulled out various fruits, vegetables, and snacks for a light supper. To contribute, Cristina and I drove down to the little supermarket to get a few things. I wanted to get some rice from a little soda, so we stopped at one. We got more than rice: we were taught a life-lesson for the low price of $8. We didn’t get a price upfront and after they had scooped the rice and given it to us, they told us the price was 4000 colones ($8). We complained, and they justified it by saying that all places will charge you about 1000 colones for one plate of rice, so we were getting a bargain for about 6 servings of rice. Yeah right. Lesson learned: always get the price upfront. If they refuse, move on.

After dinner, we got the kids to bed. We hadn’t brought any mosquito things to plug in or burn, so we borrowed one of the plug-in kind from the front office. Our rooms had fans and no a/c. I hoped the fans would be enough, but it was a hot, sticky night. And unfortunately we would be visited by many uninvited guests.

Rental car

2006-06-27T22:55:00.000-07:00

I woke up and checked online for car rentals. I wanted something cheap. I didn’t even care about the size. I figured a 4x4 would be out of the question, though it would be ideal for the bad roads here.

Through the Tico Times classifieds, we found an Isuzu Rodeo (4WD) for $30 a day! Incredible. We would have to pay in cash, but as long as we don’t get stung on the safety deposit, we will have gotten a great deal.

Chino took us into San Jose to pick up the car. It went very easily and soon we were driving home in our own car. Other than a mile or so that I drove Dom’s rental car in 2002, this was my first driving in Costa Rica, in six trips here.

We filled up the tank. There are three things of note concerning gasoline in Costa Rica. 1. There is no such thing as a self-serve gas station. I actually like the full-serve here. Not having to get out of the car, the attendant checking the air in the tires, etc. I remember that kind of service when I was a kid, but full-serve gas stations have gone the way of the do-do bird in the States. 2. The gas is very dirty here. Costa Rica imports 100% of their petroleum, and the quality of the gasoline they produce and consume is very bad. 3. It is expensive. Today it was 504 colones per liter, which is close to $4 a gallon. At least you don’t have to search for the cheapest station: Costa Rica’s gas is controlled by a state-run monopoly, so every station has the same price. That’s handy. Anyway, it is because of #2 and #3 that Ramón paid the $1000 or so to convert his car to propane. Clean burning and about $2 a gallon. Our rental car had a quarter of a tank when we picked it up. This fill-up cost us about $60. Ouch! Freedom and mobility ain’t cheap.

When we got home, we ate some lunch and discussed what we wanted to do with the rest of our day, now that we had a car. We decided to go to Cartago and visit the cathedral (basilica). To set the scene, we told Sofia and Alex the story of the Virgin of Los Angeles, Costa Rica’s patron saint, as best as we could remember it. Here’s the gist:

Hundreds of years ago, a little girl was collecting firewood. She found a doll-like statue on a rock near a bubbling spring. She took it home and put it in her jewelry box. The next morning, she went back to the same spot, only to find another statue. “Cool, now I’ve got two,” she thought as she took it home. But when she opened her jewelry box, it was empty. This time she put it in and locked it. The next morning, she looked in the box. It was gone. She went to the rock, and sure enough, there it was. She went to the priest, told him what happened, and gave him the statue. He kind of blew it off and put the statue in his room. The next day, it was gone and the priests found it, you guessed it, back at the same rock. Now they decided it was a miracle, and that the church should be built on that spot. So now the bubbling spring there at the church is considered holy water and people come from all around to drink it, take it home, cure what ails ‘em, etc. It’s a pretty cool story, and Sofia and Alex got a little excited to see the church. Better than just saying, “We’re going to go visit a church.”

We made a wrong turn somewhere on the way to Cartago and took the scenic route, which proved to be beautiful and fun. We had one long stretch of crappy unpaved road, but most of the trip was through bucolic mountainside roads and quaint little villages. Occasionally we would stop and ask someone if we were still on the path to Cartago. I think only twice did we need to backtrack some and take a different turn.

We got to the basilica and looked around inside. The stained glass was beautiful. Alex was very well behaved, quiet with his hands behind his back. We saw the rock where the little girl found the statue. We drank from the holy water spring. We bought some little holy water bottles to fill up for possible souvenirs.

We drove to the ruins of an older cathedral that was destroyed by an earthquake. In the story that Cristina had been told by her grandmother, the little girl told the priests where to build their church (with the Virgin Mary’s urging via the little statue) and the priests refused. They built the church where they wanted to, and an earthquake promptly destroyed it. So they finally recognized their error and built where the girl told them. Who knows what story is “correct,” but it really doesn’t matter. Like any good myth, this story obviously has different versions depending on the source.

Before we left Cartago, we popped into Burger King to use their bathroom. They had a playground, so the kids played for a while. I felt a little guilty for using their facilities, so I bought a kids meal that we all shared.

We took the correct route back and got home much quicker, even with rush hour traffic. We parked on the porch. It just barely squeezed in.

I was pleased to find a package waiting for me, finally! A little background first: every year, the University of Florida produces a poster for the upcoming football season. It has the schedule, as well as some kind of cool photo collage. They give the posters away at the stadium, but for those of us that no longer live in Gainesville, you can send a check for $5 and they’ll mail you up to five posters. I hadn’t ordered my 2006 poster yet because I was waiting for the basketball national championship poster to become available, and that wasn’t going to be ready until May. I wanted to bring Ramon a football poster, since I know he likes to frame them and put them up in his house. So I waited too long and before I knew it our trip was only a week away. I knew I wouldn’t get the posters in time to bring to Costa Rica, but just in case, I wrote a little note at the bottom of the order form that said “I leave for Costa Rica on May 31 and would like to take these posters with me. Please rush if possible.” We got a phone call the day before we left from a lady in the marketing department of the UF Athletic Association. I guess she sympathized with my plight, because she offered to mail the posters to me in Costa Rica! We quickly called Ramón and asked for his mailing address, but we didn’t tell him why. So this whole trip, we’ve been asking Maritza to check the mail. They’ve known we were waiting for something, but they had no idea what until tonight when I opened the poster tube. Ramon was very impressed. The basketball posters were included. They had just “come off the presses” around the time we left for Costa Rica. I ordered 3 football posters and 2 basketball posters. So I’ll give Ramón one of each, and that leaves one of each for my classroom, and Alex can put a football poster up in his bedroom.

During dinner, we relayed the day’s exploits to Ramon. Once the kids were in bed, we packed for our 3-day trip to Puerto Viejo, a beach town on the Atlantic side, down near Panama. Ramon called and made reservations: $40 a night at a little beachside hotel that he’d stayed at before.

Car or no car?

2006-06-26T23:51:00.000-07:00

We waited for the mechanic, but it seems that he is trying to work out some little kinks. He doesn’t want to rush it, especially with the propane conversion stuff. Meanwhile, our time is ticking away.

We didn’t do much today except wait for the car, which never came. The kids and I walked to Plaza Rohrmoser, ate a fried chicken lunch at Campero, then got a few groceries at Mas por Menos. The plan was to make California tuna toss for dinner.

Before starting on dinner, we walked down to a fabric store so Cristina could get some thread for a needlework project she’s doing. We wound up spending an hour and a half there, much to my boredom. Isabella and Alex had fun playing hide-and-seek amongst the bolts of fabric.

As Cristina and I were going to sleep, she pointed out that we might just have to bite the bullet and rent a car. I was afraid of that. But she’s probably right.

Let's go to the movies

2006-06-25T19:54:00.000-07:00

Both Alex and Sofia seemed to feel better in the morning. Alex’s temp was normal, Sofia’s was 99.4. Not bad.

I got up with Isabella at 6 am and made her a scrambled egg. I ate some breakfast myself and then went back to bed around 7. I got up again around 9 and made eggs for everyone else.

We decided to go see Pixar’s Cars today. It just opened on Friday. There is a theater near the American Embassy that allows you to pick your seats when you buy your tickets. Maritza called them for us and, using a little map of the auditorium, we picked our seats and bought our tickets. Pretty cool. Even better, the whole price for five of us was a little over 5000 colones. That’s about $2 a ticket. We can even afford popcorn!

We ordered pizza from Papa John’s for a late lunch/early dinner. We ordered the special that came with two glasses shaped like soccer balls. We thought they were going to be plastic, but we were surprised that they were actually glass. Pretty cool!

Chino drove us to the movie theater and we picked up our tickets. The Cars poster had a little sign on it that said “Hablamos en Espanol.” I had a bad feeling about that. The feeling was confirmed when Cristina asked if it was in English or Spanish. Though they had told us on the phone that it was in English, they had apparently told us wrong. It was in Spanish only. We chose to get our money back rather than sit through it in Spanish. What a shame, too. I was really looking forward to seeing it. Even if I spoke Spanish, I would still want to see it in English. So often in movies, little things get lost in translation, especially jokes and idioms.

Luckily, we knew that Ricardo and his family were seeing the show right before the one we were going to see. So instead of calling Chino or walking home, we waited until the movie got out to see if they could give us a ride home. They could and did.

We ordered Chinese take-out with them and the kids got some good playtime. Isabella especially had a good time playing with Santiago.

We checked with the mechanic and it seems that the car will be ready tomorrow. We’ll have to get the propane hooked up on Tuesday (it runs on propane gas), which means we could hopefully leave for the beach Wednesday. That’s the plan anyway.

Yet another

2006-06-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-23T21:43:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-22T23:23:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-21T23:20:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-20T23:41:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-19T23:59:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-18T23:40:00.000-07:00

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.

Los Chorros

2006-06-17T23:37:00.000-07:00

One of the beautiful waterfalls at Los Chorros

We got up relatively early (around 6:30) and had a nice breakfast of gallo pinto, scrambled eggs and Fruit Loops for the kids. This was my first gallo pinto breakfast since being in Costa Rica this summer. Gallo pinto, by the way, is rice and beans (usually leftover) mixed together. For breakfast, it’s usually served alongside eggs.

We loaded up and headed to Los Chorros, secluded waterfalls that we had visited during our first trip here in 1994. Sofia rode in Inesita’s car with Alice, Inesita, Vicky, and Daniela. We stopped at the farmer’s market in Grecia and Marcos bought a watermelon and papaya. Alice and Inesita brought a pineapple as well.

To get to Los Chorros you take what is called “the old road to Alajuela” from Grecia. Unlike the “autopista,” which is the closest thing to a freeway here, the old road is a longer, curvy road through the countryside. About half way to Alajuela, in a small village on the left side, is a small sign that points you in the right direction. We probably made it up in 20 minutes.

When we got there, the man who minds the parking area had not opened the gate, but finally he opened it and we parked. We paid him 2000 colones to “care for the cars,” while we were down at the falls. From there we walked down a gravel road, missed the path, and were redirected by a driver going out. All the way from the road you could hear the power of the falls.

We got to the park entrance, where the attendant questioned us about “estranghetos.” Cristina quickly replied in Spanish that she was “Tica” and those were her children, in a tone that he didn’t question any further despite giving me a quick glance. I paid for all of us to get in, a mere 8000 colones, around $16 for all 12 of us (normally tourists are $4, residents are $3, Ticos are $2). There is definitely a price difference and I have learned to keep quiet, while Cristina shows her cedula (Costa Rican ID card) and handles the purchasing.

Marcos, Cristina, and Alex tasted the water from the exposed drinking hole at the entrance. Then off we went down the very wet and sometimes slippery path to the falls. As you walk along the path, you walk above the river that is flowing from the two falls and many streams. You also walk on top of some pipes that are carrying part of the water to supply parts of Alajuela. As you approach the bottom of the river gorge, along the banks there are many picnic tables, several small changing huts, a couple of bathroom “shacks,” a snack bar (closed), and a couple of covered table areas. Way more than a dozen years ago! So we put all our stuff down at one of the picnic tables and followed the roar and path to the falls. They are amazing, powerful, beautiful and majestic! The vegetation around the falls, thanks to the constant mist coming from the falls, is incredibly lush and vibrant. That mist makes it quite chilly, and if you venture into the mist, in no time you are soaked to the skin.

Beautiful...and cold!

We climbed around on the rocks near the falls, got a bit wet and cold, and took lots of pictures. We trekked back up to the picnic area and had some fruit, then went back to the falls for a little more play.

It looked like rain was coming, and we didn’t want to brave the paths with the additional mud and slop caused by rains, so we headed back. On the way, Alex was running with the other boys and fell, scraping his knees up and getting muddy. Cristina took him down to the river and washed him off.

The gang, right before leaving Los Chorros

We took a different route home, through San Roque, where Marcos’s parents live. During the ride, Daniela fell asleep in Sofia’s arms, much to Sofia’s delight. Back at Vicky and Marcos’s house, we took quick showers and changed into dry clothes. Sort of. I had a dry shirt and underwear, but I had to put on the same wet shorts I’d worn to the falls. My shoes were also soaked, so I chose to go barefoot the rest of the day, whenever possible.

The rest of the day would be spent at William and Alice’s house, just down the hill. Their house has changed a lot since the last time we were here four years ago. They’ve made a new driveway which goes behind the house, and the yard with the mango trees, previously very steep, is filled in and much more level now. A nice play area for the kids. Just big enough for Alex and Carlos to kick a soccer ball around. Inside, one of the four bedrooms has been made into a dining room and the adjoining hall has changed. The old laundry room has been made into a room for Gabriella. The kitchen is revamped and reworked and has newer cabinets and a new stove. The closets from all the rooms were removed due to termites.

Using the bamboo mango-knocker

The U.S. was playing Italy, and surprisingly the score was tied. Thankfully, the U.S. team looked completely different than their first game, so I didn’t have to be too embarrassed. While the game came to a close, we ate a delicious lunch of Vicky’s arroz con pollo. Cristina ate four platefuls. Even Alex had seconds, so you know it was good. We have such a fondness for Vicky’s arroz con pollo that in 2002, we had Vicky show us how she made it while Cristina translated the steps for me to write down. So for the past four years, every time we’ve made arroz con pollo at home it has been from Vicky’s recipe. But hers is still better than ours. They knew how much we have enjoyed it over the years, so despite it being Christopher’s birthday, and this not being his favorite dish, they made it for us. By the time we finished eating, it was close to 3 pm.

Afterwards, several of us sat on the front porch that faces towards Grecia. It used to be that you could clearly see the church at the top of the hill. But the trees have grown so tall and lush that you have to sneak glimpses of it thru the trees. Inesita decided she wanted to take advantage of having our kids along and wanted to get a piñata and cake to celebrate Christopher’s fourth birthday. Isabella and I tagged along with Inesita when she drove into town to get the party goods. At the store where Ines was buying the Spider-man piñata, Isabella wanted many things that she saw. I gave in on a little Mylar, heart-shaped balloon. It was on a discounted, buy-one-get-one-free table, so I picked up two.

Back at the house, William was home from work so we prepared for the big celebration. The kids each had a turn whacking the piñata before Gaby finished the job and the usual mayhem ensued. I thought a nice touch was that when the piñata burst, while the kids were on all fours scraping up the candy, Vicky threw confetti, adding to the festive chaos.

It had been a long day, but we still had cake and ice cream before we could wrap it up. The cake had a spider web on it with a Spider-man candle right in the middle. After Christopher blew out his candle, William dunked his face into the icing. After cake and ice cream, it was close to 8 pm. Finally, Christopher opened his gift from us, which was a silk, mini-parachute (very Waldorf). Christopher seemed mildly interested, but compared to the action figures he’d gotten from the other family members, our gift probably seemed a bit odd and out of place.

Inesita gave us a ride home. Alex and Isabella both fell asleep during the ride, which was a good hour or so. I knew that Cristina was going to let me sleep in the next day for Father’s Day, so I stayed up way too late working on the computer. I didn’t get to sleep until close to 2 am.

Grecia

2006-06-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sofia woke me up at 3 in the morning, complaining that Alex was in her sleeping bag. I told her to just get in his, but she said she couldn’t. So I went and checked things out. Alex’s legs were still in his sleeping bag, and his body was twisted around and snuggled up in Sofia’s sleeping bag. She said she had been curled up under the couch. She tried to wake him up, but to no avail. So I put him in his sleeping bag properly and went back to bed.

The kids woke us up early, as usual. I watched Argentina annihilate Serbia while I made eggs for the kids. We’re eating a lot of eggs here, almost every morning.

We packed for an overnight trip to Grecia. Around 1 pm, the Sheridans picked us up to attend a choral performance at the University of Costa Rica, featuring our very own Maritza Garbanzo. We dropped Maritza off about an hour before the performance, then walked around campus. We let the kids play while we discussed possible things to do together in the following weeks.

Maritza singing in the chorus

The venue for the performance was…interesting. The performance was in the lobby of the music college. There were not very many seats and people were passing through during the show, normal traffic on their way to classes and whatnot. It seemed strange to me that a college of music wouldn’t have it’s own auditorium, or if they do, why it wasn’t being used for this. Regardless of the strange venue, the music was very nice. Maritza and her chorus sang 4 or 5 songs. They sounded great.

After the performance, we rode back to Pavas to drop Maritza off and pick up our pre-packed suitcase. By the time we got to Grecia, it was dark. We picked up some bread from Mus Manni before arriving at Vicki and Marcos’s house. It’s a polite custom to bring some bread when you come to someone’s house for a meal or coffee, etc. Bread, pastries, pan dulce (sweet bread) …something like that.

The first thing we noticed at Vicki and Marcos’s house was the additions they had added since we were last here. They now have a garage with a veranda above it. They have also added a den/family room to the back of the house.

We said goodbye to the Sheridans and got settled for the night. Vicki and Marcos have three children, Carlos Andres (6), Christopher (4), and Daniela (13 months). Our kids wasted no time in playing with them and their toys while Vicki finished making dinner. We had mac and cheese with mushrooms, rice and beans, fried yucca, and salad (salad in Costa Rica is typically shredded cabbage and carrots with a little vinegar or lemon juice).

After dinner, we were about to get the kids ready for bed, when the Fallas family started arriving. First Alice and William arrived with Inesita. Then Gaby showed up with her dog. We spent an hour or so sharing pictures and chatting.

Chatting with Gaby (left) and Alice (right) Fallas

After they left, we got the kids showered and in bed (it was after 9 by then, very late for our kids). Then Cristina and I joined Vicki and Marcos in the family room for a little more socializing. Marcos had the TV on, and since it is hard for me to follow Spanish conversations, I found myself easily distracted by the TV. Around 10:30, I suggested we head to bed because tomorrow was going to be a big day.

Chicken burgers

2006-06-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

We didn’t do much today. In fact, Sofia suggested I could title this journal “The Nothing Day 2.”

Costa Rica played their second World Cup match this morning at 7 am. I watched most of it while still in bed. Unfortunately they lost, which means they will not be advancing to the next round. A sad day in Costa Rica.

I didn’t even get in the shower until noon. It was that kind of day.

Cristina and I started mapping out the rest of our days here and figuring out when we were going to do everything that we still wanted to do. Since we haven’t had a car (Ramón’s is still in the shop) we’ve been in kind of a holding mode. Hopefully the car will be ready next week and we’ll have a bit more freedom to explore for the last half of our stay.

I had planned to make chicken burgers for dinner, but I needed some supplies. I was going to go to Mas por Menos by myself, then decided to take Sofia and Alex to get them off the computer. Then Cristina and Isabella decided to come as well. So for the second time in as many days, we walked to Plaza Rohrmoser in the rain.

The burgers I planned to make were not your plain, old run-of-the-mill chicken burgers. A few months ago, I bought a cookbook (Rachel Ray) and tried a recipe for chicken burgers with basil, spinach, and mushrooms. We were all impressed with how full of flavor they were, so I knew that would be a good meal to make for others. I was able to get everything I needed at Mas por Menos, except for shallot. They didn’t have those. Not a big surprise. I bought a little bundle of basil that had massive leaves. Usually basil leaves range in size from tiny, to maybe the size of a bay leaf. But these were almost as big as your hand! Cristina took a picture she was so impressed.

The burgers came out very good. Ramón and Maritza were impressed and had seconds. I also made an unusual (kind of gourmet, I suppose) potato salad, and Sofia’s favorite: tomato-basil salad. To top it all off, we had Swedish lingonberry drink that we brought from IKEA.

Alex and Sofia had done way too much computer and were suffering the ill-effects (Sofia felt kind of sick and Alex was way too whiney during dinner). So we got them to bed as soon as possible. Ramón had a cold, so went to bed early. Cristina was tired and went to bed early. So I washed the dishes and went to bed myself.

Chez Christophe and Plaza Rohrmoser

2006-06-14T23:33:00.000-07:00

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.

Volcan Poas

2006-06-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, Cristina and I were up, out of bed, and at the breakfast table by 7:30. It wasn’t easy, but we did it. Today’s goal was to visit Volcan Poas, one of nine volcanoes here in Costa Rica. In all the trips we’ve made to Costa Rica, I’ve never made it to Poas, so today was the day.

It was a bit of a drive, but we made it to the volcano around 10. France’s first game in the World Cup started at 10, and since Nelly’s husband is from France, she was rooting hard for “the Blue,” even though we weren’t going to be able to watch the game.

On the road up the volcano, we saw an old man with a traditional Costa Rican oxcart, with two beautiful steers attached. We stopped for a picture. Tourism has definitely caught on here because the man asked for a dollar after the photo. We had no small change, and Nelly was annoyed that he asked for money, so we just thanked him graciously and headed on.

Entrance into the Volcan Poas National Park: the kids were free, Cristina and Nelly were 600 colones each (about a buck each) and my admission, as a non-resident, cost $7! It pays to be a local, that’s for sure.

We brought our jackets, since we knew it would be chilly up at the top of the volcano. Where we parked it was comfortably cool, not cold enough for a jacket, but not uncomfortable if you decided to put one on. As we walked up the path to the crater, Isabella did not want to ride in the sling (she wanted to nurse) and for some reason, she had a little bit of a bloody nose. So she cried most of the way up to the crater.

By the time we got to the crater, it was chillier and the jackets felt good. You could smell the sulfur from the volcano all throughout the park (I told the kids, “If you need to pass gas, go right ahead because no one will know the difference.”) At first the crater was obscured by clouds/steam, but within a few minutes, the wind pulled back the curtains and we got a great view of the crater. It looked like another planet. Poas is a fairly active volcano. Not bursting with photogenic lava like Arenal, but often belching up gases and making a bit of a fuss. One of the reasons we hadn’t ever come to see Poas is because several times the park was closed due to increased volcanic activity. Poas has been pretty active the past month, so I’m glad the park wasn’t closed today.

As we admired the crater, you could hear a sound that was similar to distant traffic. Not horns, and screeching brakes, but the airy whoosh sound of trucks going by fast on a freeway. That was actually the sound of the gasses coming from the vents.

Alex asked several times why we couldn’t go down into the crater. We explained it as many ways as we could (it’s dangerous, we could get hurt, we could die, it’s a one-way ticket, etc.) but he kept asking and asking. Either he wanted to go down really badly, or he was so fascinated with the thought of it being dangerous that he kept wanting to hear us reaffirm the danger.

We hiked on a path to the lagoon, which is another crater that has been totally inactive for many years. So instead of being a rocky, gassy, barren, alien-looking crater, it just looks like a beautiful, unnaturally round lake. The hike, while on a nice paved path, was more of a workout than we anticipated, especially when carrying a 25-pound toddler. Plus, it was all uphill, it started to rain, and we had absent-mindedly left our umbrellas in the car. But the kids had rain jackets, and though Cristina and I had non-waterproof jackets, we didn’t get that wet.

From the lagoon, we hiked a different path back to the parking area. This was a longer hike, and some of it was still steeply uphill, but it was a good hike. The park is beautiful and laid out well, with handrails at various places and paved paths in certain places. Overall, a great hike with small children.

Back at the entrance, we went to the bathroom and checked out the museum, where lots of information about the volcano was displayed. Some employees were watching the game (of course) so we were able to see the last 3 minutes of the France game. They tied 0-0. Boy, many people from the States hate those kinds of games, and that’s one of the excuses they give as to why they don’t like soccer. But that’s just the way it is sometimes. Nelly was disappointed, but I reminded her that it was much better than a loss. I told her I was going to tell Alexis that France scored as many goals as the United States did. Yes indeed. We’ve won as many games as Costa Rica and scored as many goals as France. We’re doing pretty well so far!

After the cold, rainy volcano visit, we were ready for a cup of hot chocolate. We had passed a restaurant on the way up that advertised “tortillas so good you will die” (as in, “tortillas to die for”) so we decided we had to try these death tortillas. Nelly had had them before and confirmed that, indeed, they were death-provoking. Alas, it was not meant to be. When we got back to the restaurant, we noticed the sign very clearly said “Open everyday…except Tuesdays.” But Nelly knew of another place that had tortillas that were probably about as good, so we went there. The waitress said that there’s were even better.

The kids played on a playground behind the restaurant until the hot chocolate came. The tortillas were hand-made, huge, fried, with cheese in the mix. Extremely tasty and satisfying. I did not die, but I came close. They were quite filling too, and after a tortilla and cup of hot chocolate, we felt like we’d eaten a full lunch.

The road up and down the slopes of the volcano offers several things: fantastic views, acres and acres of coffee plants, and very inexpensive and delicious strawberries. We bought a kilo and a half for 1800 colones. Over 3 pounds of strawberries for about 3 dollars.

On the way home, we stopped at Marta’s house. A brief slice of Cristina’s family tree for clarification: Nelly’s grandmother and Cristina’s great-grandmother were sisters. Marta is Nelly’s mother’s sister. I’m not exactly sure what that makes Marta and Cristina, but they’re related. That’s all that matters. Marta is one of those people that we have to make at least one visit to when we’re in Costa Rica, to keep those connections alive and healthy.

It was a short visit, and we were soon on our way back to Santa Ana. We were expecting Nelly’s sister Ana, the doctor, to come for coffee around 4:30 (and a re-check of Isabella). We got a good visit in with her, while Nelly made quiche for dinner, complete with homemade crust. She gave the kids some little bits of dough to play with while she was cooking. They loved rolling and shaping their own dough into the shape of their choice and then watching it bake in the oven, alongside the quiche.

Bella enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with Alexis during dinner. The big surprise during dinner was a visit from a crab, about the size of a large tarantula. The dog saw it first, creeping along the edge of the dining room wall, heading for the kitchen. Nelly thought it was a spider to begin with, then we all realized it was a crab, lost from the nearby creek.

For dessert, Nelly heated up some fondue chocolate, and we had Volcan Poas strawberries and chocolate. A perfect end to a great day.

A trip to Nelly's

2006-06-12T23:56:00.000-07:00

The United States’ first game was this morning at 10 am. Nelly was scheduled to pick us up around 10 to come to her house. We were running a little late, as was Nelly, so the time got bumped to 11. This allowed me to see enough of the game to realize that the US was going to get its pants handed to them. They looked like a high school team out there. Embarrassing. Hopefully they’ll get it together by their next game.

For those that don’t know Nelly, she is a distant cousin of Cristina’s (she has a lot of them here. See yesterday’s blog.) who lived in Gainesville for about a year back around 1998. Having spent a lot of time with her in Gainesville, we’re pretty close to her. She married a French guy several years ago who already had a son, Alexis (pronounced Ah-LEX-ee), from a previous marriage. Thierry, Nelly’s husband, is currently in Germany on business so it was the perfect time to invade their household with our brood.

Nelly picked us up and took us to her house in Santa Ana. Their house is gorgeous. It is open and airy, beautiful Spanish tile, with a big back yard with lots of trees. A little creek runs near their yard, so you can always hear the calming, quiet sound of water. Nelly is a licensed massage therapist, so she has a massage table set up on the back veranda. When I first saw their house, I told Nelly it looked like a resort. She wants to install a Jacuzzi, which would certainly complete the resort feel.

Soon after arriving, we realized we’d left the flowers!

When Alexis got home from school (he’s 16 years old) I heard him excitedly telling his step mom how badly the U.S. was beat. Nelly shushed him, thinking that he might hurt my feelings, but I assured them I could take it.

We had an amazing lunch of tuna steaks, rice, beans, steamed broccoli and carrots, salad, and platanos. After hanging out for a while, we drove to Alajuela to visit Nelly’s mother, Lida. On the way, Nelly picked up some empanadas de pollo to have with the coffee that Lida would serve. Empanadas de pollo are fried pastries filled with seasoned chicken. Delicious. They were hot and fresh, making them even better.

We had a nice visit with Lida, and Nelly’s sister Lilly showed up too. I remembered that Lida used to have a box of Zolo blocks, wooden artsy toys that Sofia used to love playing with. The kids were getting a little restless at one point, so I asked if they still had the Zolo blocks. Luckily, they did. They were surprised at my good memory.

I also remembered that Lida had a turtle that lived in her back yard. Sofia vaguely remembered it too. It was raining, so they said we’d have to see the turtle some other time. But to our joy, the turtle walked right up to the back door where we were sitting. Nelly gave the kids some dog food to feed it, and they loved watching it carry the food back to its little water hole and chow down.

We left Lida’s and headed back to Santa Ana. Back at Nelly’s I watched a little TV with the kids while Cristina and Nelly made dinner. Funny, I try to only watch Spanish-language TV so that the kids get more exposure to Spanish. But this time, I happened to stop on a news channel from the States that was giving a report about sunscreen, and how someone is suing the sunscreen makers for not being completely honest on their packaging. Not the kind of program that kids would usually care much about, but all 3 of the kids were riveted, even Bella. Maybe it’s because it was English, and after nearly 2 weeks here they were just basking in the glory of comprehension. At any rate, when the story ended I switched to some claymation thing on Discovery Kids, in Spanish of course.

After dinner, the kids took a shower. Nelly does not have a suicide shower. She has two hot water tanks. One for the kitchen and one for the bathrooms! But I think the kids were more impressed with the wall-mounted shampoo and body gel dispenser. Now they want one of those in our shower in Arizona.

We’re sleeping in 2 beds here. Sofia and Alex share a twin, and Cristina, Isabella, and I have a full-sized. Both beds are in the same room, so we all laid down together while the kids went to sleep. It was then that I realized how quiet it is here. Absolute silence, except for the sounds of the aforementioned creek, and the light sound of crickets and geckos. Pavas is noisy. Even at 10 or 11 o’clock at night on school nights, there are teens hanging out on the sidewalks, kids singing at the tops of their lungs, and even more jarring, cars with little to no operational mufflers speeding by. Ramon and Maritza live on a hill, so every car that goes by is either gunning it to make it up, or downshifting to go down, both of which are very loud. Since the windows stay open, it’s quite a bit of noise. The kids have handled it fine; it has never kept them awake. I’ve gotten used to it also, but here in the tranquility of Nelly’s neighborhood, I really noticed the quiet.

The Children's Museum

2006-06-11T23:54:00.000-07:00

We tried to get up and out as early as possible, in an attempt to get to the Museum early. But by the time we got there, it was nearly 1 pm. Oh well! When you’re on vacation, it’s hard to make yourself get up early and rush to do anything. Especially in the land of pura vida (sort of Costa Rica’s version of Jamaica’s “No Problem, mon” attitude) and la hora latina (whatever time you expect something, add an hour for good measure).

Those that told us there was a lot to see at the museum were absolutely right. They don’t give you a map, which just adds to the feeling of “does this thing ever end?” There is a ton to see at the museum, and everything can be touched and handled by the children. We all had a great time and enjoyed the exhibits, even though almost all the exhibits were in Spanish. Maybe Sofia would have learned more if she could read all the explanations, but she still had a great time regardless. They had a section about the human body (Alex loved the farting machine), space and space travel, geography (cool earthquake machine), banana plantations, coffee production, aviation, art, technology, it just goes on and on. They also had a real helicopter that the kids could go inside and explore, as well as a train and an airplane cockpit. We ended the visit with the tilted room, a building where all the rooms are tilted and your sense of balance and perspective is challenged. They give you a guided tour of that section, and Sofia even got picked to help with a demonstration.

Here’s proof that Costa Rica is a small country. Cristina noticed a woman that looked familiar. She told me it looked just like a cousin that she hadn’t seen in years. Finally, the curiosity got the best of her and she got up the gumption to ask the woman if her last name was Gonzales. Sure enough, it was her cousin! They chatted for a few minutes and that was that.

We left around 5, totally exhausted even though we had been there for only 4 hours. One plan for getting home was to take a taxi to the San Jose central bus stop (called “the Coca-Cola”) and then take the Pavas bus home. But we were so tired, we paid a little bit extra for the taxi to take us all the way home. It was worth it.

A change of plans

2006-06-10T23:53:00.000-07:00

The original plan was to go to Carmen’s house for a birthday party for her son Andres. But in the morning, Ramon informed us that Maritza felt very ill, so they were not going to the party. With them not going, we were not going to go either. We could have gone, but since we don’t know Carmen very well, we took the easy out and decided to stay home as well.

We went to the farmer’s market, only intending to buy a few things. We wound up buying much more than we intended to, including a CD of marimba music sold by a musician that had his marimba set up right in the middle of the street. Sofia and Alex also bought necklaces made of malachite. Sofia’s has a turtle and Alex’s has a sun/moon design. We bought a bundle of flowers to take to Nelly’s house on Monday, the day we had arranged to spend with her.

We thought about going to the Children’s Museum in San Jose, but the day had gotten a little late and Bella hadn’t had her nap yet. We had heard that you really need a full day to see the museum, so we decided to wait. That’s the luxury of being here for 6 weeks. If we don’t feel like doing something one day, there’s always another day.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out at the house, watching the World Cup games, and snacking on the fruit and vegetables that we just bought. We made chicken soup for dinner. It was a nice relaxing day. Rainy, of course, which just added to the comfortable feeling of staying inside and taking it easy.

The Game

2006-06-09T23:50:00.000-07:00

Not only was today the first game of the most widely watched sporting competition in the world (right up there with the Olympics), but the opening game happened to include a little Central American country called Costa Rica. Their opponent: this year’s host of the World Cup, Germany. As a result of this momentous occasion, a national holiday was declared here. All government jobs and public schools were suspended for the morning so that everyone could watch The Game.

We took a pirate taxi to Ricardo’s house. We ran a little late and the game has just started when we got there. Ricardo is not a government employee, so unfortunately he did not have the day off. But his wife Carolina was preparing a nice lunch for everyone.

I suppose I should explain what a pirate taxi is. There are, of course, official taxis. They’re red, have a yellow emblem on their side, and use a maria, or meter. A pirate taxi is simply an individual that gives rides to people for a small fee, usually half of what a real taxi will charge. There are some places where you can get a pirate taxi, and other places where you have to use a real taxi. Where Ramon lives in Pavas, pirate taxis are common. They have been especially beneficial to us for relatively long trips, like when we went to Nelly’s to see her sister, the doctor. That round-trip cost us 6000 colones, and the driver waited for us while Ana checked Isabella out, which took about 20 minutes. A real taxi would have charged much more and probably would not have waited, or would have left the meter running. Ricardo also lives a good ways from Ramon and Maritza, so a pirate taxi was a much more economical way to go. Plus, Ramon and Maritza have certain pirate taxi drivers that they know well, so it’s a friendlier, personal type of taxi.

Although Costa Rica gave Germany a good game, they ultimately lost. Spirits were not particularly low because realistically, not many Costa Ricans expected to win this one.

The Sheridans finally showed up (they got a little lost). After the game, Carolina served an excellent lunch of salad with tuna, garbanzos, and palmito (heart of palm). Maritza had made a big platter of rice casserole with spinach and cheese, which was also delicious. After lunch, we had a little birthday celebration for Isabella. Maritza had made a chocolate bundt cake. We lit a candle, sang happy birthday, and Alex helped her blow out the candle (she gets shy as soon as the singing starts).

Maritza gave Isabella a birthday gift: a plastic bug about the size of a football that runs on batteries. When switched on, it rolls around the floor. When it bumps into something, it turns and keeps going. Its legs move, its eyes move, and its tail moves, and a flashing light oscillates in its back. And best of all (sarcasm intended) it plays this little song over and over and over. Isabella loved it. Everyone else patiently waited for the batteries to die.

The Sheridans took us home. It was a snug fit piling 10 people into their SUV, but we made it. The Sheridans hung out for a little while at Ramon and Maritza’s, but Jennifer had a cold and didn’t feel very well. They soon headed home. We ate a little dinner and got the kids in bed. Ramon and Cristina stayed up late talking about education. I tried to update my journal, but got sucked into their conversation and before we knew it, it was after midnight.

Another day without Sofia

2006-06-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

The original plan was for the Sheridans to come into town to do paperwork with Ramón and exchange Sofia in the process. But Jennifer wasn’t feeling very well, so they decided to keep Sofia one more day instead of doing the bureaucratic stuff. So they went to the beach, Playa de Doña Ana, just south of Puntarenas beach.

Alex and I took the bus to Plaza Rohrmoser for a little outing. Alex likes to sit in the very back of the bus. “Why do people write on the seats?” he asked, in reference to the copious amounts of graffiti found in the back of the bus. I tried to explain why people do bad things. Alex wondered what the bus driver would do if he caught someone writing on his bus. He put much thought into all this as we made our way to the little mall.

At Plaza Rohrmoser, we walked around and checked out all the stores, more than we had done with Bill and Callista on Tuesday. Many of the stores just sell what I consider to be junk, low-quality goods that aren’t particularly useful. Of course, junk is relative. Some people would not consider a plastic fountain shaped like the Virgin Mary to be useless and junky. But overall, the stores didn’t have much pull on me or my wallet. We checked out the food court and decided to eat lunch there. As I’ve said before, Alex is having a hard time with the food in Costa Rica, so I thought I’d give him a break. I got Alex 2 pieces of fried chicken, French fries, 2 tortillas, and a drink for 995 colones (about 2 bucks). And the chicken was delicious, not like the stuff we bought on Tuesday night. I got my lunch from a different place. I got soup, grilled chicken breast, rice, vegetables (green beans and carrots), a teeny little salad, 2 slices of fried platanos, lemonade, and dessert (a teeny butter cookie) for 1995 colones (about 4 dollars). Overall, a great deal for lunch and very tasty (for a mall food court).

After lunch, we walked to a toy store with the hopes of finding something inexpensive that Alex could safely play with at home. We finally decided on a little basketball hoop that came with a small inflatable basketball. It even came with a little pump for the ball. Price: 2275 (about $4.50).

One of my goals for this trip was to buy a large container of chocolate ice cream. For some reason, the Palí near the house does not carry chocolate ice cream (Ramón jokingly says it’s because Palí is lower class, and the peasants don’t like chocolate). Cristina was having a hankering for chocolate the other night, so I made a mental note to pick some up the next time we went to a Mas por Menos. The only issue was whether the ice cream would survive the bus trip home. How long we might have to wait for the bus could determine how much the ice cream melts. We picked up some yogurt, some more cream cheese, and the chocolate ice cream, which happened to come with a free Frisbee (nice bonus!). After paying, we immediately headed for the bus stop.

It seemed like the ice cream gods were watching over us, because the cross walk light went green just as we approached the road. We ran across to the bus stop on the other side. So far so good. And not 3 minutes later, our bus came roaring up.

And roared right past us.

A note about busses in Costa Rica: If a bus is packed full, the driver won’t stop, even if you wave for them. About 5 minutes later, another bus for our route came. And passed us. I still had faith that the ice cream would survive. It was close to 10 minutes before another bus came. I had already decided that if a third bus passed us by, I was going to get a taxi. But the third bus stopped, and before long we were at home, ice cream safely tucked away in the freezer.

I put the basketball hoop up on the porch and was pleased with how well it worked. Alex had a great time shooting baskets and though I put the goal up pretty high, he made many of his shots.

Maritza was the only one home, as the others had walked to the Galerón to get stuff for the birthday party the next day. Soon they returned and Isabella played some basketball too.

Dinner was spinach pasta and guacamol (they drop the “e” here in Costa Rica for some reason). The kids ate fairly well. We finished off with some guayaba paste and cream cheese. I got the kids in the shower, watched a little TV, read Alex a chapter of his book, said some prayers, and got both kids down by 7:15. I updated the journal and blog, then sat with Cristina and Ramón and listened to stories about Ramón’s adventures on the farm with wood thieves (he scared them away with his gun) and duendes (literally elves, but described more like trolls).

Isabella's Birthday

2006-06-07T23:19:00.000-07:00

I got up soon after Alex and Isabella did. I let Alex make breakfast. First he made Isabella a scrambled egg. He made sure to pick all the shells out, though she probably wouldn’t have cared if her eggs were crunchy. Then he made 3 scrambled eggs for himself. After that, he washed the dishes.

After breakfast, I let Alex watch Disney’s Pinocchio. Monday night, he had watched the last half of a live-action version of Pinocchio (with Roberto Benigni). Even though it was in Spanish, he loved it and it occurred to me that he’d never seen the Disney version. It just so happens that we brought the Disney version with us on VHS. A teacher in my department was cleaning out some old stuff and he had several Disney movies he was giving away. I scooped up three of them, and we decided to bring them down here with us and leave them here for the children in Ramón’s relatively new family to enjoy. After the movie, Alex and I walked down to Mus Manni for pastries.

Around lunchtime, Maritza’s daughter Carmen came to visit with her 5-year-old son Andrés. After lunch, Carmen drove Maritza to a doctor’s appointment, and Cristina and I took Alex, Isabella, and Andrés to La Sabana park. Andrés said it was the first time he’d ever ridden a bus!

The park was a bit wet and muddy, but the kids were undeterred. The slopped it up and made sure whoever would be washing their clothes would know they had a good time. At the lake, we saw a young man catch a fish, a tilapia. The man let Alex pose with it for a picture.

Back at home, Carmen and Andrés left and we ate a nice dinner of rice, beans, Russian salad (leftover from lunch) and a little frozen tilapia that I fried up. After dinner, we put a pineapple strudel from Mus Manni in front of Isabella, lit a candle, and sang happy birthday. She got shy, but she did blow out her candle. Not much of a celebration, but the real party is scheduled for Friday at Ricardo’s house after the football game (Costa Rica kicks off the World Cup against host country Germany).

After getting the kids to bed, I finished reading The Da Vinci Code. Very satisfying! Now I’m ready to see the movie. I’ll try to see it here, because I don’t think I want to wait 5 more weeks.

I watched a little TV in bed. On Jay Leno, Jay was talking to a country bumpkin/American Idol finalist that the Tonight Show sends to red carpet events to interview celebrities. Amazingly, her name is Kellie Pickler (my grandmother’s maiden name was Pickler) and she’s from Albemarle, where my grandparents lived! I wonder if she’s related to me!

To see more photos from this day, click here.

San Jose with the Sheridans

2006-06-06T23:03:00.000-07:00

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.

The Nothing Day

2006-06-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those classic Costa Rica days that I love. We did practically nothing. Sure, we did the usual: showers, eating, going to bed. But in between…not much. Okay, here’s the major events of this day.

The maid was supposed to come around 10 am, so we needed to get out of the house so she could clean. We were going to take a taxi to San Jose so Cristina and Ramón could get the paperwork done for Alex and Isabella’s citizenship. We spent the morning/afternoon waiting for the maid, but she never showed up. So there’s about half the day gone.

While we waited, Ramón and I managed to get the laptop hooked up to his Internet service (his computer is painfully old and slow and crashy). It took us an hour or so of trying to configure it correctly, but we finally got it. So now I can update my blog, check my email, and upload photos much faster.

After checking my email, we saw an invitation from the Sheridans for Sofia to spend a few nights with them.

Maritza made arroz con pollo for dinner. I started reading The Da Vinci Code that we’d brought for Ramón (he had gotten 140 pages into it and wasn’t sure if he wanted to keep reading…too slow, he says). Sofia started feeling sick after dinner and threw up as the kids were going to bed. She felt better after that, and we all hoped her trip to the Sheridans would not be in jeopardy. We’d have to see how she felt in the morning.

Horses in the park

2006-06-04T23:30:00.000-07:00

Inesita Fallas, second oldest daughter of the Fallas clan (see previous journals) called this morning to arrange a visit. We suggested she come after Isabella’s nap, around 1 pm.

The kids were getting a little rambunctious, so while Cristina took her morning shower, I took all 3 kids for a walk. Being Sunday, most places were closed. The Palí was open, so at the very least, I thought we could go buy some orange juice. We stopped along the way to watch the leaf-cutter ants that were making their way down the sidewalk (got some cool pictures).

Ramón had said there was a bakery across from the Palí. Sure enough, there was my trusty Mus Manni, the chain bakery that you can generally find on every street corner in this country. He crossed the busy street, bought some pastries and bread, and headed back home.

Inesita arrived right on time and we had a nice visit. I couldn’t understand most of the conversation, but she’s doing well. She lives in San Jose, has her own car, and recently traveled to Europe.

Ricardo and his family arrived while Inesita was still visiting. We were all planning to go to lunch/dinner together at a seafood restaurant called La Princesa Marina. We didn’t want to just kick Inesita out, so we invited her along. She accepted.

The restaurant was a short drive away. It was busy and loud, and a bit warm inside. The scene was slightly chaotic while ordering, but we finally got it all done and waited for our food. My camera batteries had died earlier, so Sofia was the lone photographer for this outing. She took some cute pictures and video while we waited for our food.

They somehow forgot Alex’s order, so the poor little guy didn’t get his food when the rest of us did. Also, Cristina ordered the fish filet with avocado and was surprised at what was set before her. A plate completely covered with thick, rich creamy cheese sauce. If you know Cristina, you probably know that she is lactose-intolerant. I offered to switch her meal with mine, but she said she’d make a go of it. Alex finally got his food, then, after tasting the shrimp in his rice, decided he didn’t like them and picked them all out with his fingers. We kept telling him to use his fork, but he sometimes has a hard time not using his hands.

If dinner didn’t go very well for Alex, what happened next made up for it. Ricardo stopped at La Sabana, the park we had gone to on Friday, and to the delight of all the kids, about a dozen miniature ponies were there for the riding. In no time at all, Alex and Sofia were mounting up for a guided walk around the park. They took the short walk, about 10 minutes for 600 colones. Ramón said they only have the horses here on Sundays. It costs 600 to go for the short walk through the trees, and for 2000, you get to go all the way around the lake. He said we could come another Sunday with a picnic dinner and let the kids do the long walk. They’ll love that.

On the way home, I finally got my bearings as to where our house is in relation to San Jose. As we drove home from the park, we passed the end of the big San Jose road called Paseo Colon. During our first trip in 1994, we stayed in an apartment just off of Paseo Colon, so it’s pretty familiar territory.

Back at the house, we all sat on the porch while the kids played. They played with the tea set we brought from IKEA, they played with beeswax, and they played with our silks. For a good chunk of a half hour, the three boys wrestled and “fought” with Ramón. Ricardo (the 6-year-old, not the adult) and his brother Santiago are into Power Rangers, so that’s what they were playing. Alex just went along with the fun. If it’s physical and rowdy, sign Alex up.

After Ricardo and his family left, we showered the kids. I read Sofia and Alex a chapter of the book I’ve been reading Alex (Sofia’s already read it, but she likes to hear it again). Updated the journal and called it a night.

To see more photos from this day, click here.

A trip to the doctor

2006-06-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

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.

Our first real outing

2006-06-02T23:35:00.000-07:00

Isabella’s fever broke in the middle of the night, and by the grace of God, Sofia and Alex let us sleep late! When we finally got up around 9, I cooked an egg breakfast for everyone. Even Bella ate an egg, so it seemed that she was feeling better.

Our plan for the afternoon was to take a bus to a big park, called La Sabana, where there is a playground and lake. By the time we were showered and ready to go (I prefer to take my showers in the morning) it was time for Bella’s nap. Since she had been sick the night before, we decided it would not be wise to skip her nap, so I took the two older kids. We caught the bus to the park, about a 10-minute ride. We accidentally got off the bus about a block too soon, but the walk was nice. The park was beautiful and huge, a massive green space in the middle of the city, San Jose. Mounted police patrol the park, but unfortunately we didn’t see any. We did see some droppings. Horse that is, not police!

We’ve only lived in Arizona for 2 years, but already I have gotten accustomed to the lack of humidity. Ever since we’ve been here, I’ve thought it was uncomfortably humid. I feel sticky. It gives me a headache. Funny, I never really noticed it when we lived in Florida. How the body adapts!

After walking around the park and enjoying the lake and surrounding artwork, we crossed a busy street (and train track) to eat lunch. We picked a restaurant called Jicaro del Campo. The kids weren’t very hungry, so I ordered one casado (simple plate of rice, beans, platanos, and the meat/fish/poultry of your choice) and a kid’s arroz con pollo (rice with chicken). Sofia and Alex each got a refresco de Mora (a 100% natural fruit drink made with blackberries) and I got Coke in a glass bottle (my favorite here). The food was tasty, and a marimba player added some nice atmosphere. As nice as the restaurant was, the service reminded me that we were in Costa Rica. It took the same amount of time for our check to come as it did for us to eat our meal. Ah well. Not like we had somewhere to be.

We caught the bus home. Uneventful except for the drunk guy sitting behind me that kept speaking to me in Spanish. He actually had a can of beer open right there on the bus. At home, I made tuna melts for dinner. I used a yummy cheese called palmito cheese (despite the name, it has nothing to do with palm trees). While the kids showered, we got a late visit from Ricardo and his family. Ricardo and his wife Carolina have three children age 6, 4, and 18 months. The kids all played for about an hour while I made a couple more tuna melts. Later on, Ricardo turned on the TV and it was only then that I realized Ramon and Maritza have cable. Not only do they have about a hundred channels, but many of them are in English. We watched the last few minutes of the Miami-Detroit playoff game, albeit with Spanish-speaking announcers (the Heat won, sending them to the finals against either Phoenix or Dallas).

After Ricardo’s family left, we got the kids in bed. Since Bella was starting to run a fever again, we decided to turn in early. We even splurged and turned on the TV in our bedroom. While Cristina nursed Bella, she watched HGTV and the “Cosmo” channel, which was showing some chick-flick. I sat in bed with my laptop and updated my journal until about midnight, then we turned in.

To see more photos from this day, click here.

Unpacking Day

2006-06-01T23:47:00.000-07:00

It would have been so nice to sleep in, but Alex and Sofia would not allow it. They were fighting over a book. They had already woken up their grandfather to investigate a rooster that had woken them up at the crack of dawn. I finally dragged myself out of bed. We started unpacking a few bags and when I found the grits that we brought, I made breakfast for the kids.

Isabella surprised us all by doing her first poo-poo in the potty (Ramón had acquired a toddler potty for us). There was applause and, of course, we took pictures.

Exhausted from the day before, we spent almost the entire day unpacking our bags, getting settled in, and relaxing. Since we were given the food vouchers the day before, we hadn’t eaten our bagged lunches. So we ate them now. Maritza tried a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, even though it didn’t look very appealing after a day of traveling around the world in a paper bag. She liked it okay, but her stomach has been bothering her lately, so she didn’t eat much.

Our first mini-outing was to go to the bank and change some dollars into colones. The exchange rate was 508 colones = 1 dollar. I changed $140. Many places take Visa, and you can also get colones out of any ATM. But I brought some cash to change just in case.

We walked down to the Palí, a chain grocery store. We went with the intention of buying bread, sour cream, and eggs but we bought a few extra items (ice cream sandwiches, milk, and cream cheese). While in the store, I accidentally hit my foot on the back of Alex’s shoe and broke my toenail.

On the way back, we noticed the street had numbers painted on it for the farmer’s market every Saturday (marking where each vendor’s spot is). It will be nice to have a farmer’s market practically right outside the door every week.

For dinner, we had rice, beans, tortillas, and salad. Then it was shower time for the kids. Let me tell you something about this shower. I used to show a movie to my film studies classes called “The Tune.” It’s an animated musical, and one song is about this “lovesick hotel” where depressed people go to stay. Each room has some kind of different method of committing suicide. One room has a chair under a ceiling fan that is hanging on by a thread, insinuating that if you sit under that fan, you stand a good chance of being injured by it. Yes, this sounds like grizzly movie content, but it’s actually handled in a very lighthearted, comical way. Anyway, the shower that we use here reminds me of that room with the dangerous ceiling fan. If you’ve read my other journals, you know that most households in Costa Rica use a special type of shower that warms the water in the showerhead, rather than using a whole-house water heater. This is much more economical, but it results in some compromises that most spoiled North Americans wouldn’t be willing to make. Namely, the harder the water pressure, the colder the water is. So to have warm to hot water, your shower is anything from a trickle to a gentle sprinkle. To achieve warmth at the showerhead requires electricity, even though electricity and water don’t usually make good partners, especially when you’re wet and naked. So the Costa Rican “suicide shower” has electrical wires running all over the place. When we got ready for our first shower, Ramón pointed out that when we turn the water on and off we should do it while standing on the bathroom floor, not from inside the shower. Otherwise, you get a slight jolt. Nice. To make this particular shower even more special, the showerhead is held in place over your head by a thin black string tacked to the ceiling. It may sound like I’m complaining, but I’m not. I have no problem using the suicide showers. The nice thing about this house is you don’t lose all your water when the neighbors flush their toilet, which is what happened in Grecia. When Alex and I took a shower this night, I accidentally had the water too hot (i.e. I needed to turn the water on a little harder). But I was already in the shower. We tried to tough it out by splashing the hot water on our bodies, but the shampoo wasn’t getting rinsed out that way. Rather than get out of the shower dripping wet to adjust the flow without receiving a shock, I put my college education to good use. Plastic does not conduct electricity well. So I took a plastic-handled shower brush and tapped the water spigot until I got the temperature I wanted. I want all you gringos reading this to think about us the next time you take a shower in your luxurious North American showers.

After Sofia and Alex went to bed, Ramón, Cristina, and I sat around the table and chatted. Isabella wasn’t sleeping well and Cristina kept having to go nurse her back to sleep every 30 minutes or so. Finally, around 11 pm, Isabella threw up after Cristina gave her some belladonna for a fever. She continued to run a fever and throw up for the next several hours, which made our second night in Costa Rica an interesting one.

To see more photos from this day, click here.

Traveling

2006-05-31T23:30:00.000-07:00

Cristina and I had high hopes of being all packed up and ready to go early enough to get a normal night’s sleep. But alas, this trip was to be no different than usual. We got to bed around 4:30 am, with my alarm set for 6:15. The kids were fairly bright-eyed and eager to get going, but Cristina and I were in a yucky, headachy, bleary-eyed fog as we forced a big egg breakfast down our throats and prepared to get to the airport.

Nancy Yaki and her daughter Bo arrived around 7:30. I loaded all the luggage (9 bags to check, 10 to carry-on, plus a stroller, a car seat, and some bagged lunches) into Nancy’s truck. Then, I drove Cristina and the kids to the airport in the van while Nancy stayed at the house. Returning to the house, I put the van in the garage, and then drove with Nancy to the airport in her truck with the luggage.

You’re supposed to check-in for international flights 2 hours early. We were about 30 minutes late, but it ultimately didn’t matter because our plane had mechanical problems. We were delayed an hour and a half. As a result, they gave us food vouchers for lunch. By the time they gave them to us, though, we were going to be boarding in 15 minutes. So we grabbed some food from Wendy’s, which was right beside our gate. We carried it on to the plane and finished eating it there.

Funny, when you’re in an airport, you tend to feel like you’re already gone, already started on your trip. Being in Sky Harbor airport for several hours before finally taking off made me feel like we had already left. So when we did take off, it was almost disorienting to see our neighborhood (we live near the airport) quickly shrinking below us.

The flight was standard-issue. Cristina was able to sleep for an hour or so with Isabella. I think I got about 15 minutes of a doze. Sofia read some and Alex watched some of the in-flight movie, “Glory Road.” Because of the delay, they gave everyone complimentary headphones, instead of the usual charge.

Because of the delay, we were at risk of missing our connection in Atlanta. We set down with about 15 minutes to spare, but it took nearly that long to get off the plane. Luckily, we met a couple, Doug and Anna, from Tucson who were also connecting to Costa Rica. They offered to help us with our carry-ons so that we could get to the gate more quickly. We all barely made it. Sweaty and hearts racing, we took off from Atlanta without even stopping to think about the fact that we were briefly in Atlanta.

Delta showed “The Pink Panther.” Alex mildly enjoyed the more slapstick moments. I must admit that even I laughed at the part where Steve Martin and Jean Reno start dancing to prove that they are Beyoncé’s backup dancers. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, but that scene cracked me up.

We touched down in San Jose with rain-streaked windows. It was about 8:30 pm, Costa Rica time, 7:30 Arizona time. Right before we landed, Sofia said, “let’s clap when we land!” She remembered that this is the custom for Costa Ricans. So as soon as the wheels made contact, we started clapping. There was a decent smattering of applause throughout the plane, no doubt partially instigated by us. We were satisfied.

To our surprise, Monica Fallas, who works at the airport, greeted us right outside the plane. Monica is an old family friend who, if you’ve read my other Costa Rica journals, you’re sure to be familiar with. She helped us all the way through baggage claim. It was chaotic when we finally got out to the street. The airport guys wouldn’t let us take the carts past a certain point. They wanted us to use them and their carts, which of course we would need to pay them for. Call me cheap, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay anyone to carry my luggage 20 feet after I’ve dragged it through my house, loaded it on and off a truck, and carted it through 2 airports. Since Ramon and friends were right there waiting for us, I hauled it all 2 pieces at a time while Cristina waited with it.

There to greet us were Ramon and Maritza, Maritza’s son Ricardo, and the Sheridans: Bill, Jennifer, and Callista. The Sheridans are recent transplants from Phoenix. Sofia and Callista, who were in third grade together, were excited to see each other again. They compared their heights, noticing that they were almost the same.

We loaded up into Ricardo’s car and the Sheridans’ car. As I put luggage into Bill’s car, I wiped some drops of water off the car and asked, “What’s this stuff?” Bill laughed. I told him he must have driven past some sprinklers on the way to the airport. We drove to Pavas, a city suburb west of San Jose, which is much closer to the airport than Grecia, which had been a good 30-minute drive. It took us about 15 minutes to get to Ramon and Maritza’s house.

We got all the luggage inside, took quick showers, and went to bed. By the time we were all asleep, it was after midnight.

To see more photos from this day, click here.

In 34 hours, we'll be on a plane

2006-05-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

We've been "packing" for the past 3 days and there's still nothing in the suitcases yet. We've been running lots of errands, getting those last minute items, trying to clean up the house, and trying to be prepared enough to not stay up late Tuesday night packing. I hope we'll be mostly packed by dinnertime tomorrow, but the "to do" list is still pretty long.

This will probably be the last entry before we leave. It's about time to send family and friends the link to this blog so they can start reading it, if they're interested.

One last minor detail: I can't seem to find my passport. I have everyone else's, but mine has disappeared. Well, I still have about 32 hours to find it. No worries.

10 days to go...

2006-05-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

One more week of school. It's crunch time. On top of closing out the school year and grading those last essays, I'm trying to get ready for our 6-week trip abroad. Passports are all in order. We've picked up most of the stuff that Ramon has requested. Cristina had to get Alex and Isabella's birth certificates translated so that we could do the paperwork to get their Costa Rican citizenship while we're down there (Sofia already has hers). Costa Rica is one of the few countries that allows dual citizenship. Since Cristina was born there, our kids are eligible. But the paperwork is a slight monster, as you can probably imagine. Cristina kind of forgot about it till last week, but hopefully the birth certificates will return by next Friday from the Costa Rican Consulate in Miami, where they had to be authenticated.

We're also trying to get some professional pictures taken of the kids before we head down to "Bananalandia." We got some photos taken at Sears just in the nick of time: they should be ready on May 31...the day we leave. But they almost always come in a few days early. We should be good. Isabella didn't cooperate very well; she's pulling that 2-year-old stuff a little early. But we got something, as you can see here.

My first blog

2006-05-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

I was looking at the calendar today and counting the days till we leave for Costa Rica. 3 weeks and 5 days. I've been pondering what kind of communication to use to share our trip with family and friends and decided that it's time to blog. I've always kept daily journals of our Costa Rica trips and emailed them. Well, during our first trip in 1994, email was still a bit too primitive. In fact, that summer I actually kept a longhand journal on a legal pad! But ever since then, I've typed a journal on a laptop. And now we (finally) have a digital camera and our own laptop. Rather than email journals and photos, I'll try the blog route. This will be a first. I hope it's successful.