October 2009, by Laura Birt

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Housebound no more

One of my major worries in writing a blog in lieu of a journal was not updating it very often especially in light of how bad I am in keeping a journal in the first place. So my apologies to myself and everyone else.

It has been a busy ten days or so. We went through the experience of buying a car in a foreign land. There is a lot more to it than one would think. If you don't like the thought of car shopping in the states you would not have enjoyed the process we had to go through to get ours.

As soon as our friend Karoy heard that we were seriously wanting to get a car (we thought we could survive without one but we couldn't and it has already paid dividends) he was very much on the job. That same day he took us by an acquaintance's house to look at his car, an Isuzu Rodeo. The car was not at home. So he drove by another house who he knew was selling a car. It turns out it belonged to an ex-priest who gave up his calling to get married and then the two of them gave up their jobs to sell the equivalent of Nutra-system type products. Things were not working out for them career move wise, financially or socially so they want to move away and start anew. It was a nice car but I had was not ready to jump at the first car we saw especially since it was a Suzuki. Then he drove us around a nearby neighborhood looking for his boss' brother's house because he had a car for sale. Three times around the same "block" called the street of witches in the dead of night we still did not find it. As we decided to give up the car drove right past us. It was an older Ford Explorer so we continued on our way without looking back (sorry Amanda & Ricardo but I wouldn't want a Ford back home why would I want one here). Strike three.

The next day he brought his wife, Isue, over for an English lesson with Laurie. We looked through internet classified ads for used cars. It seemed that after hours of research the Suzuki might not be a bad little car after all. Just as they were about to leave we spotted an ad for a car in Heredia about two hours away. Karoy quickly called and it was still available. He asked if we wanted to go look at it that afternoon. We wanted to but we were in the middle of laundry, no one else was home and the others didn't have keys not to mention Karoy said we would have to take the bus back if we didn't buy the car. Karoy was in a hurry but he had his mind made up to help find us a car and he thought this might be a good one. We packed for what we knew would be a long day (every adventure with Karoy turns into a long day), wrote a note, asked the neighbors to hold our house keys and were out the door.

We had to pick up a mechanic Karoy knew, a Cuban, on the way about 20 minutes from the car dealership. We looked at the car, took a quick test drive, got the okay from the mechanic and struck a deal. So far so good. We had to then drop Karoy at his old workplace, take the mechanic back and stop at the bank to withdraw enough money to complete the transaction. We weren't even going to have to take the bus back. After a quick bite to eat (at Mc Donald’s of all places but Laurie was very hungry and it was too dangerous to cross the busy street to get to Taco Bell) we went to the bank. After waiting in line (sitting down then getting up and moving a seat then sitting back down every time we moved up) for 45 minutes, the teller told us that he couldn’t help us and we had to go to another line. It wasn’t our fault, the concierge sat us there after asking us what we needed and he said. “perfect” when we answered that we did indeed speak English. After a 20 minute wait, we found out that there is a limit to how much of our monwy we had access to. It turns out that it wasn’t enough.

All this time Karoy is late for work. When we picked up Karoy, sans money to buy the car, he informs us that the dealer’s lawyer was not available today anyways but if we put down a small deposit they would not only hold the car but would bring it to us the next day. We did indeed end up on the bus, and didn’t arrive home until after ten (there was a fatal accident two miles from our stop that blocked the road for to extend our day just that much longer). Karoy did not get fired so it was not all bad.

We heard that the dealer’s attorney would not be available for a few days so we struck out on our own. Actually Karoy asked around and got us a recommendation. This attorney also happened to be in San Juan for the day so we wandered to the office of a lawyer who had introduced himself to Laurie one day. He made a few calls including to Karoy and after some discussion hooked us up with another lawyer who lives three blocks away and set the meeting with the car dealer. The next day we met with the lawyer, signed the papers and were on our way with our “new” car (a 1998 Yoyota RAV4) it actually said Yoyota in the paperwork. You cannot purchase a car without using a lawyer; who acts as not only the go between the buyer and seller but as a government liaison to collect taxes and fees (including their own). We didn’t take a picture of the car so if you are curious google white 98 RAV4 and I am sure you will get a good idea of what we purchased.

This was actually going to be about our trip to Baldi Hot Springs but I got carried away I apologize once again. And thanks Karoy for all the help. It just may be worth it to you seeing as how now you won’t have to think you need to cart us around from place to place. Thanks for that too, we appreciate it.

One more quick aside. We were throwing the idea of moving to a new location with a more gringo-friendly climate and Karoy within an hour had made a few calls got a line on a place and three more numbers to call with places to rent. We have made no moves on that front as of yet (we would hate to lose our address as it is so catchy and easy to remember)

Do we derserve this?

Here are a few of the dozens of pictures we took while staying at the Baldi Hotel (spa and resort). How we ended up here I am not exactly sure but we somehow rationalized that since dinner and breakfast were included not to mention free access to the array of natural hot springs/pools it was indeed the most economical way to go (if economical is Latin for luxurious). The rest of the photos will be posted to the online account shortly (I don't remember which service it is but they will be there). There are some good flower/plant photos so i would check it out if those kinds of things interest you.

We got off to a late start Wed. morning for a few reasons, mostly because we are Gregory/Birts but also because Leif was sick and running a fever and we were deciding whether or not to cancel the trip altogether. In the long run I figured he could just as easily be sick in the lap of luxury as in our quaint hot little house driving each other crazy for three days of no school. Reason won out and thank goodness it did, as we got to enjoy three lovely days in paradise.

The pictures do a decent job of describing what we experienced. There were many pools with natural thermal spring water of various temperatures including a few that would around bars. They kids and Jana enjoyed ordering drinks while swimming even if Sid is going to have to take out a second mortgage to cover the tab. Thanks Sid and Carolyn. Besides swimming there was delicious food including a chocolate fondue fountain, incredible gardens throughout the estate, a great view of the nearby volcano (for the five minutes it wasn't covered in clouds) and an extremely comfortable KING-sized bed. One of the toughest things about living in Costa Rica is the double bed. For one it is a double and not a king and two it is not very comfortable (unless you are planning on visiting)

We spent our days living like tourists; which if you could afford it is not such a bad life every so often. The last day we hiked around the volcano for a few hours. We got to see some sort of new (1992) lava beds, some beautiful jungle, and were visited by the above coati who fleeced us of all our bananas. He actually scared us into giving them to him so as to leave us in some peace while we ate a quick bite before heading back home.

Swimming In The Rain

I have been thinking of how life is different here than in the US (not better or worse but different except for the school hours). There are so many differences and it is late and has been a long day so I am sure I won't get to all of them but I also know that we have seven more months to think of them and experience even more.

Today Laurie woke up sick with a fever and soreness in her joints so my mom and I walked down the hill at 6:15 to Karoy and Isues house, a seven kilometer jaunt. The temperature at 5-5:30 is the best but by 6:30-7:00 it gets a bit muggy. More than half of the way there are sidewalks so it is pretty safe going. Karoy took us down to Barranca to the farmer's market. We spent about $30 and got a bag of limes, three papaya, four pinapples, two watermelons, all kinds of bananas (finger regular and ripe platains), four mangos, one large guanabana (doo doo do do do) a bag of potatoes, three tomatoes, three onions, a head of lettuce, a head of bok choy, a bag of carrots, three avocados and a loaf of homemade Quaker bread.

When we got home I spent an hour and a half cutting and freezing fruit for the week's juices and to make room in the cooler for everything. The guanabana (doo doo do do do) itself took almost an hour cutting the seeds from the very large sweet, slimey guava/anone tasting fruit. I should have taken a picture but that is what google is for.

At one-thirty I walked down the street to meet with neighbor Carlos to ride the four blocks to our game together but he wasn't there so I just walked on over. There was no one there so I just walked back got some water, my swimsuit my mom and my son and walked back over with the plan that if no one was there I would swim with Leif and my mom. Sure enough I got a two hour swim in as my team never showed. It was a good time especially watching Leif improving by leaps and bounds his swimming and his diving. It was also refreshing that it started to rain because although the pool is just solar heated, it is solar heated and is a bit too warm for my taste.

After the swim I sat on the pool's edge in the nice cool rain while Leif swam a bit more. I was the only one sitting in the rain but it did feel very nice. I very rarely feel anything akin to cold except our now broken shower. We got home to find out my mom left her glasses at the pool so we walked back over then up to the store for some yeast to make some more pizzas (more on that in a bit).

When we got back I cut up some watermelon for Sidne and a papaya for Laurie. Caught a few innings of the Dodger game; can't remember who they were playing except I know it wasn't the White Sox. I missed the World Cup qualifying games as I was playing a game with Leif and Carolyn and Sidne were watching the Parent Trap in Spanish. Just as I started typing this entry my mom awoke from a nap and so we played a few games of bridge.

Ok here are a few differences with no judgement attached as although I may find them peculiar there may be some logic that I am not privy to. Some of the differences are between life in the US and in Costa Rica in general and some are differences between how I live in the US versus how I live here.

The concept of time could take up three or four entries on its own. Even if you could find a schedule for something it means very little here. The owner of the English school was telling us the same thing but in her school she demands that classes start on time but every class we have visited started fifteen minutes late and with less than half the class. Stragglers would wander in up to forty minutes late. I will get messages from my neighbor that there is a soccer game on a certain day at a certain time but then the next time I see him it has been changed.
The same thing happens with Natan's little league games. Karoy will tell us that he is coming at 5:00 en punto which I translated incorrectly to mean 5:00 on the hour but I have since learned from experience that 5:00 en punto really means 5:30 even if it is stressed that he means 5:00. If you can unburden yourself from the idea of being on time, much stress is lost.

In the opposite direction, people here stand in line for everything. They will stand 20 deep to use the ATM machine, they will wait an hour early waiting for the bank to open, they have to wait outside the clinic starting around 4:30 a.m. if they want to get an appointment that day (the clinic opens at 7:00 or 7:30. In grocery stores there are more than enough workers wandering around but unfortunately there is usually only one lane open for about every 6-8 customers waiting. No one seems to mind so I am trying not to mind. What the hell else do I have to do anyway?

Laurie and her mom were taking a taxi from Puntarenas and the driver asked them if it would be alright if he picked up his wife on the way. Can't believe that would happen in the US.

The idea of laws also has us a bit complexed. We know that there are laws because some of them are posted (stop signs, speed limits, littering is prohibited, turtle eggs are protected). However since we have yet seen a police officer do anything we think that these are actually suggestions and not laws. A guy is at the farmer's market every Saturday in the middle of everything yelling that he has turtle eggs for sale. A guy was in the middle of the road near the toll booths where traffic stops selling counterfeit auto registration stickers and the police station was less than 50 meters away. Stop signs mean that if you don't stop you will be at fault if there is an accident because no one stops unless they will cause an accident and even then they will try to find some room to maneuver without stopping. Double yellow lines (even around curves) must mean something completely different because it is possible to see any type of vehicle, even the old greyhound type buses, flying down the center lane passing whatever may be going three khp slower.

There are many more examples I want to chronicle and I will in the future but it is almost 1:00 and I wanted to share one other blog item. Every so often I hear a Spanish word that just makes me smile or has a nice ring to it; so every so often I am going to share my new words or phrases. The first one was liga de goma which is a cute sounding word meaning rubber band. Then I spent a day or two trying to use enhorabuena which means congratulations but no one uses it much so it fell out of favor. I then found the phrase tomar el sol which literally means to take the sun but is translated as sunbathing. I now think about taking as little sun as I can but I am starting to darken up a little bit even on my white belly. Leif and Laurie on the other hand are hogging up all the sun they can get their hands on. Both started out fitting in as a Tico but now both are darker than most and are probably considered to be Nicaraguans (another topic for another blog)

I forgot about the pizza stories. Oh well, Karoy and his family are coming tomorrow night(now tonight) for pizza and cake to celebrate Karoy's birthday, but that is only a small bit of the story. Maybe I will remember to write about it if and when I recount our celebration.

Montezuma

On the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula is a little town called Montezuma. Apparently this little town attracts Oregonians like butterflies to flowers. We six Oregonians recently spent a weekend in Montezuma at a hotel called Montezuma Gardens Mariposario. This hotel has a cool butterfly theme, centered around its large butterfly enclosure.

Anyway, on the ferry ride to the Peninsula we met a group of students on exchange from Linfield College. Granted, these students were not actually going to Montezuma. They were headed to a town called Santa Theresa. Still, in Montezuma we met 1) the owner of the hotel, Josh Bickle, a former Oregonian; 2)&3) a couple whose names I've forgotten who were visiting from Lincoln City; 4), 5), &6) A woman and her two sons (including a 6-year-old named, I kid you not, Leif!) from Eugene. Add the six off us and there were at least 12 Oregonians in the very small town of Montezuma, Costa Rica last weekend.

I heard two theories about why so many Oregonians were in Montezuma this weekend. The first theory has to do with the fact that this is the rainy season in Costa Rica. Although it has been a fairly dry rainy season thus far, the norm is rain all afternoon and evening. Oregonians can handle their rain, but who wouldn't prefer to do so in a tropical beach setting where the rain is a welcome relief from the heat instead of chilling to the bone? The second theory is that Montezuma is a tree-hugging, environmentally conscious, outdoorsy, hippie type town, as are two of the more populated cities in Oregon (I'll let you guess which two).

Walking east (I think) from the town of Montezuma, you can apparently hike along beaches and behind beach heads for 7 km. My mom and I walked about 2 of these kilometers on our last day in Montezuma. Each beach was different. One had gray sand, the other had crushed shells, another had a finer crush of shells resulting in white sand and another had mostly huge rocks that unfortunately catch alot of trash that washes up from boats. And as we walked we could hear the crazy growl/howl of howler monkeys. If you didn't know what they were, they would sound pretty scary!

We spent part of a day at a wildlife rescue center called Rain Song where they take in injured and orphaned animals. This is where we got to hold the baby howler monkeys in the pictures. These monkeys really like to climb up and cling to your hair. I think it reminds them of clinging to their mother's back. We also saw porcupines, turtles, a white throated capuchin, parrots, toucans, an anteater, a margay (sp?) missing an eye and some deer that licked us with their sandpaper tongues.

The butterfly enclosure at our hotel was pretty incredible too. Josh owns the hotel with his two brothers and his mother. Josh, his girlfriend and two volunteers were at the hotel while we were there. Leif spent lots of time following the volunteers around the butterfly enclosure finding caterpillars and eggs and chrysalises. He got to see quite a few butterflies as they were just emerging from their chrysalises. For anyone who knows a young 18-20 something aged person who wants an inexpensive way to stay in Costa Rica, the volunteer program at this hotel is a great opportunity. These young people pay $200/month and give some time each weekday working with the butterflies. In return they get a room, two meals a day and a family atmosphere. Actually you don't have to be young necessarily. Again, the name is Montezuma Gardens Mariposario. They have a website, so google it.

-Laurie

big beetle

How's this for a live creature, Karen?! It was on our screen last night. Luckily on the outside.