Here are the two fruits opened. The granadilla (orange-like one) has a very hard outer skin. You have to first poke it with the end of the knife before you can cut it open. Once you're through the outer skin it is easier to cut. The mamon (red-spiky one) can easily be broken in two with your fingers. The spikes are soft and not prickly. This is like what you would see on "Fear Factor" (which happens to still be on here). Now which one do you want to eat?

Two new fruits

Granadilla or mamon? Which would you rather eat? We've tried both of them and we liked one.

El cajo esta aqui

The box is here. It finally arrived late Friday afternoon, with everything intact. It was just in time, too, because Nancy was missing out enjoying “quilt week” with the women in her family. Lickety-split she set up her sewing machine, pulled out one of her many “ufo” quilt projects and logged into Skype to share the experience with them electronically. Today I was informed that what I had thought was the “stretching room” (i.e. where I go before I run to use the mat on the floor) is now to be referred to as the quilting room. Mind you, it is not the sewing room. That would be the area at the base of our stairs that looks out at Nancy’s favorite tree.

On our walk this morning, a bicyclist yelled “perro gringo” (Yankee dog) as he sped past. Aside from being the only hint of rude behavior we have encountered in Costa Rica, and aside from being insulted by a man with shaved legs wearing spandex, it seemed ironic for him to evoke such an epithet in front of the Bridgestone / Firestone plant, which is next to the Coca Cola distributor and around the corner from the Phillip Morris office and down the street from the Intel plant.

For church, we have attended Escazu Christian Fellowship for the past three Sundays. The service is at 5 pm, but even so, “good morning” slips out. It has been a long time since we have been the new people in a congregation, but this relatively small congregation serves the English speaking community. Since many English speakers are here as part of a work assignment, there is always someone new in attendance. Our experience has reinforced in us the need for church members to welcome visitors and those people they do not know personally.

We hope you are enjoying the blog – we enjoy reading your comments and emails, too. Let us know if you have a subject you would like us to cover.

Nublado y llover

And now, the weather report…
Even though we are north of the equator, the Tico's refer to this as winter. To us, it’s the rainy season, which started in April and ends in December (or else).
We had to make a lot of tough choices on what to bring with us, and what to send in “the box” (…and NO, it is not here yet). The one essential item that Nancy packed to carry with us, above non-essentials like our Spanish phrases book or our Rosetta Stone CD’s or an extra pair of shoes, was a rain gauge. And the first thing she did when we moved in was to put it in the back yard.
Every morning I (Nancy) go out the back door to see how much "llover" we received the day before. In the first 21 days, we've had 7.5 inches of rain. The most we've had in one day is 1 inch. We've had 6 days with no rain and 4 days have had an inch. The rest are split between 1/2 inch rainfalls and .1 - .2 inches of rain. We've heard rumors that October is the climax of the rainy season and when the rain is constant and hard. Jim's boss even suggested to me that October would be a good time for me to visit my family in the States.
The weather can change in an instant. It can be pouring in one place and perfectly dry a mile away. On the whole it is "nublado" everyday. But even the clouds come and go. When we look across the valley towards Escazu, it seems like it is usually cloudy. The clouds get trapped in by the southern mountain. My guess is that they have had more than 7 inches of rain in the last 3 weeks, while I got to see a rainbow over Escazu.
The temperatures are quite constant. The highs are between 75 and 80 and the lows are around 65. Everyday. We only have air conditioning in our bedroom but we haven't used it yet. The humidity is noticeable but not stifling (unless you’re hiking up a mountain). (Or maybe that is just my 51 year old female body).
Nancy used her new found Spanish skills to hire some workers to mow our grass. She even managed to get them to cut the price they were going to charge…inadvertently. They’re supposed to be back in two weeks. Most of the time we see people mowing with string trimmers, but our experts used a regular push mower. (I know this must seem very mundane to North Americans in early summer, but we like to marvel at the fact that Nancy accomplished something tangible with her Spanish.)

Father's Day Blog

Father’s Day in Costa Rica started with a walk this morning passed the local cemetery where they were holding a Father’s Day service. Respect for the dead seemed a bit at odds with the use of the above ground crypts as something to lean against.

This afternoon our neighbors held a Father's Day barbeque (the first time we've seen a cookout) and watching a futbol game on TV. At least the cheers and jeers didn't sound like they were watching golf.

We now have functioning internet, cell phones, and cable TV. All we need now is our box with our belongings, and we will be all set. It has been 3 weeks to the day since we arrived. In some respects it seems like much longer but in others the time has flown by.

Yesterday our adventure plan was to head to Baurilo Carrillo National Park. The maps and internet suggested that there were a number of interesting things to do there, including an aerial tram through the rain forest. As soon as we started driving, our intrepid GPS companion kept interjecting that there was a traffic jam ahead. “He” repeatedly recalculated the route, which would have sent us around three sides of a rectangle and taken 4 hours, instead of the direct one hour route. So Nancy politely shut “him” up, and we followed the map, only to find ourselves at the end of a seemingly endless line of trucks parked on our side of the two lane highway. I guess there was a traffic jam. Our truculent GPS friend then refused to speak to us, but not deterred, we headed for a different park entrance. Reluctantly, he offered up that we would encounter an unpaved road ahead. Right again. After innumerable switchbacks following a slow moving smelly diesel truck up the mountain, the road turned to little more than a bumpy washed out cart path. Nancy, being of the delicate sort and tiring of the rough ascent and fumes, was about to pitch me out of the driver’s seat, along with her breakfast, when we encountered a local farmer out walking his two dogs and cow. The rambunctious cow decided it was “game on” and began to out run the RAV4 (which at this point was in low gear and 4WD). We were both amused and impressed by the cow, but it may explain why Costa Rican “carne de vaca” is a bit tougher than we’re used to.
The park ranger directed us to a wide spot in the road to leave the car near the entrance. Our brief "Spanglish" conversation seemed to elicit his pity after we proudly explained that we lived in Belen, so he charged us the Tico entry fee of 2000 Colones ($4) instead of the tourist rate of $16. He showed us where to hike, and we headed off with great expectations.

As you can see from the pictures, the forest is incredibly dense, so much so that it is apparent that only animals that travel by air, tree or on their bellies survive here.
After about an hour of hiking uphill along a soggy path in the lush thicket, we came to a sign promising that Barva Lago was just 200 meters ahead. After another half hour’s climb, the Nancy decided that the distance must have been 200 “Phil-o-meters” (the ever expanding metric distance of a hike – units for measuring a Troop 570 Phil hike).

We now have a better appreciation of why they call it a rain forest. As we returned to the car, the continual mist of the clouds coalesced into a heavy down pour for the last 200 "Phil-o-meters", so we drove back down the “creek” in our wet clothes, regretting that once again, we forgot to take the scenic pictures of the valley below on the way up when it was clear.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

San Antonio de Belen is the small town just south of our house. It is full of the noise of commerce – but at strange times. We constantly hear traffic noise coming from the cars and trucks on their way from Heredia to Panasonic and beyond.

At 3 am Sunday morning, both Jim and I were awakened by booming sounds, Mariachi music and loud cheers. We lay in bed trying to figure out what in the world we were hearing. We pondered whether that many people would have been watching the World Cup in the wee hours of the morning, thinking perhaps that the US (or EU as we are called here) had defeated Britain (and then definitely hoping that they weren't cheering because US had lost). We finally realized that it was fireworks and we could have had a fantastic view from our balcony. The aerial bombs continued through the day on Sunday and culminated in a fireworks display Sunday night. Jim found out on Monday that the church was celebrating the birth of San Antonio de Belen (Belen = Bethlehem).

Last week (as alluded to in an earlier blog) we were caught in a sea of people clogging the streets of town as we tried to make our way to the grocery store. On the way back, we had to follow a detour because of the Ox Cart parade. We can’t wait to see what the little town of Bethlehem has in store for us this weekend!

Apparently two of the oxen are our neighbors, since one day last week I heard some guys yelling outside the back of our house. I looked out to see two men trying to herd two huge oxen up the driveway next door. They’ve been there ever since.

No internet, no cable and no cards
We’ve been here for two weeks and we are in desperate need of our box. The smartest purchase we made before coming here was a laptop computer. At least we have been able to continue the Rosetta Stone program and assorted other non-internet programs. But not having internet has been a challenge. I do feel totally disconnected without it. We also haven’t gotten the cable hooked up yet. The sales lady thought we’d have it by Friday or Saturday but it hasn’t arrived yet. We ascribe it to Tico timing, and Jim prays for patience. I can tell that Jim is definitely suffering from DVD withdrawal since he couldn’t keep his eyes off of the Ballywood video while we ate dinner at the Tandoori Palace. We packed the cribbage board and cards in the shipment box. With it dark by 6:15 every night and our early waking time, we’ve had to be creative in keeping busy and awake during the evenings. Besides reading and Spanish, we play Yahtzee against each other on our hand held Yahtzee game I brought for the airplane. I make scorecards on scratch paper and we take turns on the game. We really know how to have a great time!

The box also has our scissors and tape. I chose not to buy any here because I know I have some on the way. We’ve had the little plastic price tag holders on our trivets for 2 weeks. We could break the tag off with our hands but not the plastic loops. Jim finally mentioned that we do have nail clippers and that worked just fine to finally cut off those loops. We also needed to tape a paper with our work order number on it in the front window for the internet guys. We don’t have tape but post-it notes left here by the previous tenants are doing the job.

We ventured through the crowded city of Alajuela to Volcan Poas Parque National on Saturday morning. The ranger at the gate warned us (as we paid our $23 in non-resident admittance and parking fees) that the view comes and goes and we might not see anything. Fortunately, as the picture shows, we were able to see the caldera quite clearly. We have a video of the roiling sulfuric acid in the lake washing up on the rocks on the bank while a local woman says “I been here many times before and this is the first time I seen this water moving”. We figured if it was going to blow, we might as well stay for the show, because there’s no way to beat a fast retreat from a volcanic explosion. We hiked around through an unbelievably dense cloud forest to a lake formed by a side vent. By the time we hiked back to the main caldera, the whole thing was lost in the clouds. As we left, it started to pour. So all in all, perfect timing and a great trip.

The teaser from our last blog mentioned the guard, the stove and the oxcart parade. The guard at the gate to our condo complex during the day is very friendly, but speaks no English. So when the cable lady showed up the other day, the guard commented to the cable lady that “Oh, no – I am going to have to call ‘her’ (meaning that new American woman who can’t speak the language) before I can let you in”. Well, obviously she made it in but there’s been no sign of the installer yet – then again, they’re probably backed up with requests because the World Cup has started, and Ticos are nuts for futbol.

Everyday, when I walk out our bedroom door (at 5:45 or 6:00) I am greeted with this wonderful tree. One of the many gorgeous sites that we’ve seen in Costa Rica.

I’m sorry that we haven’t written more but we are still waiting for internet at the house. If you remember, Jim spent 3 hours at the ICE (pronounced E-say) office last Wednesday. He ordered internet and it would take 10 days to be installed. He tried to pay for the installation but they said that it would be added to the first bill. Yesterday, I got a Spanish call from ICE and after much babbling I managed to give Charlie our landlords phone number in Spanish. Carlos called this morning and said that we needed to go down and pay the installation fee. We did that and we’re back at square one and 10 days until installation. I guess everything is slow down here.

The first morning, after Jim went to work, I grabbed an armful of dirty clothes and headed to the laundry room. I was surprised to see that the GE washer was in Spanish. I could figure out “nivel de agua”. The positions were minimo, medio, alto and maximo. The temperaturas were also a breeze. I’d learned frio and calor in the Rosetta Stone which meant that tibio must be warm. The “intensidad de lavado” had a normal setting. That’s good for me. My options for the programas were manchas dificiles, blancos, de color, de cama-edredon, delicada, lavado express (with a picture of a pair of running jeans) and extra centrifugado. I just set it to de color and turned it on.

On the weekend, Jim and I did grocery shopping at the Automercado. I wanted to make stir-fry but couldn’t find any water chestnuts or cornstarch. So, yesterday I ventured out of our Condominium complex to the little grocery store across the street. I’d been told that it was run by a Chinese family. I’d looked up cornstarch in the Spanish dictionary and came up with maicena or almidon de maiz. Water chestnuts weren’t in the dictionary. This store is like the old grocery store in East Enterprise, Indiana (the Broge’s will get my reference, but it’s funny how rural Indiana keeps cropping up as a reference point). I had to watch my step since the floor wasn’t level. I’m not sure there were electric lights in the store. I couldn’t find any water chestnuts or cornstarch. But I did find a bag of almidon de yuca. It felt like cornstarch (through the bag) and so I bought it for 150 colones. I felt bad giving the guy a 10,000 colones bill to pay for it. For those who don’t remember the exchange rate – 500 colones is a buck. We missed the water chestnuts in our stir fry but the almidon de yuca did a great job of thickening up the sauce.

I’ll write more later. I missed quilting today.

Coming soon: Did we tell you the one about the guard, the stove and the oxcart parade?

Sabado a la playa Jaco and other adventures

I am starting to get settled at work – I can find the bathroom now.

On Friday morning, the eastern sky was clear – a first for us. A plume of smoke emanated from the peak of a distant volcano and streamed across the sky. Excited to learn more about this sighting, during lunch I asked two co-workers what volcano I had seen. Now keep in mind four things: first, directions in Costa Rica are relational – geographical points of interest are near someplace else or on the way to somewhere; second, there are plenty of volcanoes in Costa Rica; third, I can find about five places after living here all of five days; and fourth, my pronunciation of places in Costa Rica is perfect – until it comes out of my mouth.
So the conversation went something like this:
J: “I saw an active volcano this morning in the east. Do you know which one it was?”
G: “You mean over there?” pointing at the mountains visible to the south.
J: “No –in the east, where the sun comes up”.
G: “Hmmm. You mean over there?” pointing north.
J: “No – east”.
G: “There is no active volcano that direction”.
J: “OK, I discovered a new eruption then”.
Enter co-worker A, who lives near us.
J: “A, I saw a volcano in the east this morning. Did you see it too?”
A: “Oh sure”
G: Spanish spoken quickly to A.
A: More Spanish spoken even more quickly to G and V.
G: “Oh, east. That’s where I live. Near Iruzu, but it isn’t active.
J: “So which one did I see?”
V: “Turrialba. It’s near Iruzu.”
J: “Doo-ree-ell-ba” I repeated with perfect pronunciation.
V: “Turrialba” he said, looking at me as if I had started singing a song from the Sound of Music.
J: “Doo-ree-ell-ba” I repeated.
V: “Tu–rri--alba” he says for the third time, looking at me like I was a tourist trying to find a bano at a gasolinera.
My dysfunctional pronunciation brought to mind that I had had this “naming” conversation before, after living in Minnesota for 10 years. I had told a native MN coworker that we were going to “Lake Kabetogamma”, naturally assuming that the end of the word was pronounced like the Greek letter. She took great delight in teaching me to say “Cab-a-TOE-gum-a”. So relative to speaking Minnesotan, my Spanish is coming along nicely.

On Saturday I bounded out of bed at 5:30 a.m. The sun was up and I had slept in for as long as I could. Nancy was unconvinced, but by 7:30 we are on the road to the beach. We punched “playa Herradura” into the GPS since it looked like a good spot on the map and arrived in an hour and a half or so. The pictures make playa Herradura look like paradise, but the garbage and low-life left us with the impression that it was more of a fishing beach than a resort destination.

We headed a few Km south to Jaco, where we parked on the beach, watched the surfers and went for a walk. Eventually the heat, humidity and sun told us it was time to find some agua y un bano. We found the water … but no bathroom.

(Note added in proof – we read in the newspaper that a heavy storm had pelted the Herradura and Jaco areas on Thursday, so perhaps the mess at Herradura was atypical.)

Nancy drove in Costa Rica for the first time today, as we ventured out and around the neighborhood – without turning on the GPS.

Last night we heard all the strange noises of sleeping somewhere new but it seems an odd combination – windows and doors creaking, a few dogs yapping, trucks jake-braking … and roosters crowing.

Actually, the move went well. The trouble is, “everyone” does not speak English, contrary to popular opinion. I managed to order lunch in broken Spanish, but all I could understand from the guard at the gate was that his English was worse than my Spanish. (Even with that, Jim did have a 5 minute conversation with him.)

During the move we discovered we have a gecko living in our master bedroom closet. We tried to trap him, but he was way too clever and fast for Nancy, and Jim was right behind her. On the other hand, Gecko’s have been known to make it into more secure environments, so we’re in good company. He eventually made his way to a window, where Nancy trapped him and sent him out to play in the yard.

We have not been able to update the blog from our new home since leaving the Marriott because we do not have internet at the house. Without the residency permit, I would not be able to get it. Fortunately, our landlord was good enough to go to the “ICE” office this morning at 7:30 am (which included a 2 ½ hours) with me to make the arrangements in his name. Now we just have to wait 10-15 days for the installation. They will call ahead – but in Spanish. Nancy was thrilled with this tidbit. She sees now that her “sliding” by with no Espanol will not do.

We encountered our first earthquake. It was 6.2 out in the Pacific somewhere. We were in our hotel room Monday night when the floor started vibrating up and down like someone really heavy was doing jumping jacks. It did not last long, but it was a strange sensation. We didn’t really realize what it was until the next day when Nancy was shopping with Catalina and she asked if we had felt the earthquake.

Aerosmith was apparently staying at the Marriott too, but that darned Steven Tyler always forgets to call me. I mean come on – I own one of his records after all.

The weather has been great, but I was wrong about the sunrise timing – it comes up around 4:30 or 5. It gets dark at 6 though. We have a fantastic view of the neighborhood lights across the valley from our back balconey. The sunrise was also quite spectacular.

So far so good on the driving front – I have managed to drive to work three tims without getting lost or worse. Today I took the "back" way in. It was like driving to my parents farm in southern Indiana (I know all of you won't get the reference -- just think rural, narrow, winding roads), except there were people walking on both sides of the road.