The Bug of the Day Club

I'm wondering how a lone (I hope!!) leaf cutter ant found his way into the house during today's rainstorm.

But he wasn't alone. I found this beautiful grasshopper-type guy in a folded tablecloth on the patio.
It turns out he had quite a grip and it took a flick of the dustpan to convince him to move on.

I didn't give ol' leaf cutter the option. I'm becoming quite merciless. The rules are quite simple. If they bite, they die. If they're not biters, they are still food for creepy crawlies that do bite, so they have to move on or die.

I found out too late that my husband gave this scorpion
a second chance by releasing him in a grassy area about a hundred feet from the house. If he shows up again, he will meet with a harsher fate.

Pura Vida

Standing Room Only

Esquipulas Bus

My plan was to talk about cooking in the next blog post, but today I've got mass transit on my mind. Food will just have to wait for another day.

We had to take an early bus into San Ramon this morning for a routine medical test. By early, I mean we left the house at 6:25 a.m. to catch the 6:30 bus, which is the second bus of the day on this route.

We're used to riding in standing-room-only buses. It's the norm. Even though there seems to be an endless supply of cars, trucks, and SUVs on Costa Rica roads, in reality car ownership is a luxury reserved for a small percentage of the population. Most take the bus or a taxi - just like we do. Consequently, it is a rare occasion for a bus to complete its route without at least a few people making the ride on their feet.

But, holy cow, was this bus full! I've estimated that there are about 40 seats on the bus that services our area. And this morning, by the time we were half-way to town (and a quarter of a mile before the elementary school where a dozen children and a few parents off-loaded) there were so many people standing in the aisle that the driver could barely close the front door!

Contrast this with a bus we noticed in Phoenix when we were back there this winter. It was rush hour. We were driving home from running errands and looked over to see that we were passing a Phoenix Metro bus. There was one lone passenger riding about two-third of the way toward the back of the bus.

Okay... Maybe there had been a dozen more people on that same bus a few minutes earlier. We'll never know. But we were not nearing the end of some obscure route. This was on a major surface street, like Bell Road, although the exact location escapes me at present. And while I'm not much of a gambler, I'd bet at least a few colones that it was ever close to full capacity.

Too bad.

Pura Vida

Floors Need Mopped Even in Paradise

Unidentified Flowers


When we first announced our plans to move to Costa Rica, a dear friend asked us what we were going to do there. How were we going to spend our time?

It was an obvious and important question, and while we didn’t have a crystal clear understanding about how our daily routine would unfold, we did have some general sense that it would likely not be that much different than it was in Arizona. We spend a lot of time on our computers – for business, fun and communication with our large family. We have hobbies. The house would still need to be cleaned. We knew for sure that the laundry and shopping would take a bigger piece of our time than we were accustomed to, simply because we lacked both an automatic dryer and a car.

While we weren’t too far off on the cleaning part, we did run into a few surprises - most particularly, the amount of time we would spend mopping floors. In fact, mopping our nearly 2,000 square feet of them (1,300 sf of tile in the house and another 600 on the adjoining terrace) is typically how we start our day. And yes…that would be virtually every..single..day.

Lots and lots of tile. This photo was taken before we moved into the house. Tico houses almost never have carpet - unless it's an area rug.

Ahhh. You’re probably conjuring up pictures of lush green trees, vivid flowers, and grassy parks and imagining a damp climate with little dust. Don’t be fooled. All of that vegetation has two things in common: bugs and dirt.

In a culture where people live with their doors and windows open and spend more time outdoors than in, our tile will always come in a distant second.

During the dry season, the dirt blows in as dust and grit and gets tracked in on our shoes. Then, when the rainy season arrives, we add mud to the mix. The bugs… well, they don’t actually have a season. They fly (and crawl) in and out all day long all year long. Some stick around, but mostly they leave the same way they came in. The ones that stay generally end up as little dead dots on the floor. Sometimes they die from natural causes.. Sometimes they have a little help.


More tile -- surrounded by nature's bug habitat.

Either way, each morning we start our day by running a broom or dust mop around the floors to gather them up, along with the previous day’s accumulation of dirt, for an unapologetic and unceremonious dump in the wastebasket. Would that this would be enough, but no.

It only took a day or two of living here before that “ah ha moment” slapped us upside the head. We’d been noticing that Tica housewives mop their floors - and patios (!!) - every single day. Now we knew why. It was time to rethink our floor strategy. Surely we could come up with something better than that!

On to Plan B: Indoor shoes and outdoor shoes. Indoor shoes would get worn on the patio and in the house. Outdoor shoes get worn, well, everywhere else. Right. Like that’s going to work when the patio performs perfectly as the ultimate dust magnet and all that dirt patiently waits for us to track it inside on those “indoor” shoes!

After a few unsuccessful attempts to refine the rules, we moved on to Plan C – adding a barely wet mop, swished around everywhere that does not involve moving large furniture, after the bug removal, to the morning routine. This is followed by a leisurely third cup of coffee while we wait the floors dry. The indoor/outdoor shoe policy still stands, of course!

Not so bad. It's a quick mop and, like anything else that becomes part of your routine, you end up doing it without giving it much thought. But then there are those other 1,000 square feet or so of tile in the workshop and carport that get really, really dirty. Needless to say, we don’t worry too much about footprints in those areas, but they, too, need cleaned at least weekly to keep the dirt from abrading the surface.

And even more tile on the sub-level.


And so goes life in paradise. What do we do here? We mop the floors. (And cook, too, but that’s another topic for another day.)

Pura Vida

Bananas growing in our front yard

Another Day (Week) in Paradise

What a week!

It started with a minor complication with the bed frame we are having made - and an opportunity to learn how a sticky situation with custom-made furniture is resolved here - and went downhill from there with no looking back.

I guess you could say it was a week of confronting the reality that "We're not in Kansas, anymore, Toto."

After a couple of days of digestion and a bit of Internet research, the information our neighbor shared about the local wildlife - coral snakes, constrictors, scorpions, and big black ants - probably won't keep me awake at night. Truth be told, lots of folks in the U.S. deal with those nuisances and more! We lived in scorpion country, ourselves, for about twenty years. How we managed to never encounter one in or around our home amazes me, but I won't let that history lull me into a false sense of security.

Just as the week was about to end - on Friday, May 13, I might add - we experienced our first "real" earthquake. It measured a solid 6.0 on the Richter scale and was centered about 13 miles from here. Luckily, it was also about 70 km (about 43 miles) deep! Our new block-construction home rocked and rolled for what felt like about 10-15 seconds, though it might have been less. By the time we made our way outside, the tremblor ended and we hit the Internet in search of details. Amazingly, reports started to trickle out within fifteen minutes, although it took until this morning for the facts to stop shifting.

And then finally, on the day when we were set to teach our Costa Rican friends how to make America's favorite - pecan pie - the water went out. Completely out.

We soon learned that the entire town of Palmares had been without water since early Friday. We, like many residents here, have a backup tank that keeps the wet stuff flowing during the periodic outages. As luck would have it, the landscaper was installing sod in our yard yesterday and this morning and drained the tank!

So for now, we're pulling the water jugs from the freezer for drinking and washing dishes and hauling the big backup jugs from storage to use for flushing.

We can't wait to see what next week has in store for us!

Pura Vida


One of our local squirley friends trying to outsmart Vic and his old "hang the plantains in a tree for the birds" trick.

It's a Bug's Life

With the onset of the rainy season, I find myself noting the difference in climate between the new house in Buenos Aires and our apartment in Esquipulas. In fact, it's hard to believe that they are separated by a mere one mile, as the proverbial crow flies, and a valley with what we presume to be a small river at the bottom (as we've yet to set eyes upon it).

The apartment sits on ridge of somewhat rural land - pastures and small garden plots separated by clusters of homes. We occupied a second story apartment that afforded us constant breezes and pleasant morning sun that helped to chase away the dampness from the previous night's rain or morning dew.

The new house, sits on the opposite ridge of the same valley, but instead of open pastures, we are surrounded by dense, natural forest that holds the moisture and shields us from some of the air movement we enjoyed in Esquipulas. It is also block construction, and therefore, lacks the natural ventilation we had in our log-cabin apartment.

The bottom line, is that we notice that we sweat more, the laundry dries more slowly, we have had to change some of our habits to prevent mold, and -- this is the big one -- we have way more bugs!

In addition to some our bug-of-the-day photos I've included here, there was the two-inch spider I found in our bedroom that I refused to let Vic photograph before unceremoniously escorting back to nature, the bazillion May beetles that have put a temporary end to our evenings outside, the black ants that periodically launch a midnight expedition through the downstairs, and a plethora of miscellaneous creepy crawlies that I dispense with on the basis of my perception of the threat they present. Some of them are just downright cool. Others ... well, they simply have to go right now!








In my previous life, I would have been far more alarmed by them. But this is Costa Rica. They come with the territory - and lots of birds in our little forest to help keep the ick population under control.



Pura Vida

Getting Settled

For a place that boasts a relatively slow-paced lifestyle, the changes in our lives are taking place at a surprisingly rapid rate.



We have a new home. It’s a rental house situated in Buenos Aires, one of the districts of Palmares de Alajuela. In addition to a comfortable Tico-style home, the property includes a mix of open and forested areas, where we can have a vegetable garden, pick bananas, mangos, papayas, plantains, and lemons in our own backyard – after a morning trek on our very own nature trail as it winds down the hillside through the lush forest and shade-grown coffee plants.

Yesterday we made the trip with our camera and new puppy – another new development!







The new house is further from el centro than our old apartment was and seems to have fewer taxis zipping up and down the road to town. This requires a little more walking while we figure out the new bus schedule and how to make the three modes of transportation work together.

This is a birder's paradise, for sure! Each morning, we sit on the patio, coffee cup in one hand, binoculars in the other, and a reference book on Costa Rican wildlife nearby, scouring the trees for a new discovery. Here is a photo of a Blue Crowned Motmot that visits us regularly. As our nature photography skills improve, so will the number and quality of photos we can share.




We are learning that it is not uncommon for entire neighborhoods to be populated by extended family relations. This one is no exception, as the property on which our house sits was once part of a large family holding that was eventually divided amongst the next generation. Our landlord’s brother lives two doors down from us. To the delight of mi esposo, he is an agro engineer who was educated at the University of Costa Rica and Iowa State, and a ready and willing resource for adapting North American gardening skills to our new environment. More importantly, we have been blessed with not just one new friend, but an entire family of them.

Chaquita, our new puppy, dedicates her life to adding comic relief to our daily routine of sorting and emptying boxes.



You'll notice that she can make a bed out of just about anything. And when she’s not entertaining us, she's either sleeping or trying our patience as she works her way through her terrible twos and the mouth-everything-with-razor-sharp-puppy-teeth stage.

Puppy challenges aside, she is a delight and if feels great to have a little one in the house again.

Until next time…

Pura Vida

We Made It!

It’s been a long five months since our last report from Costa Rica. During that time, we returned to Arizona, where we enjoyed visiting with family and friends between long days of hard work. In spite of all of our planning and list making, the job of getting the house ready to be put on the market, packing and/or selling everything we own, and loading what we decided we couldn’t live without into a shipping container turned out to be far more complex than we ever imagined. And when our time was up, we said sad farewells to the people we love and flew off to start this next phase of our life.

Our biggest disappointment was that, even though we stayed in Arizona two months longer than expected, we still ran short of time to see everyone and in the end, the time to leave arrived so quickly that we missed out on the opportunity to savor our last moments at home. I guess we'll just have to keep reminding ourselves that the U.S. and everyone we left behind is just a plane ride away.

For now, we have a lot of learning and adjusting and settling in to do - starting with a pop quiz on how to cope with the day to day challenges of living here.

In our first four days…

We found ourselves locked out of both bedrooms, the water went out twice, the suicide shower melted down, and the propane tank ran out of gas (while making the morning coffee, of course).

On the flip side… in our first eight days, we succeeded in reinstating our cell phone service, ordering a new Internet connection (which was installed in 7 days instead of the 8 we were promised!), resolving a computer problem with the bank that was preventing us from accessing our account on the Internet, signing me up for a supplemental insurance policy that will cover treatment at private hospitals and clinics (more on that another day) and fixing and/or enduring all of the problems that went wrong in the first four days.

On balance, not bad.

Note on the shower problem: When I went to use it for the first time, I turned on the water, but only a few spits came out. Silly me, I then opened the spigot more (dumb, dumb, dumb) thinking more water pressure (what’s that???) might help. It didn’t. With no water to cool the heating element, it overheated before I had the good sense to turn spigot (and the power) off. Result? The PVC pipe to which the shower head was attached softened and sagged. The suicide shower had bit the proverbial dust.

Note on door locks: The massive doors in the apartment had sagged while we were gone, throwing the striker and the latch to the deadbolts out of alignment. A little attention from our landlord’s handyman restored our access pronto!

Note on bank problem: There’s little point trying to understand banking computer systems. Problems happen mysteriously and they resolve mysteriously. We are simply grateful both for resolution and the efforts of Luis, who stuck with the problem until it was fixed.

On to one of my favorite subject: Tico grastronomy!





Meet the not so lowly guanabana – or a quarter of one to be exact. This specimen was a gift from Señora Mayra. Since Mayra and I still share a serious lingual disconnect, I said a gracious “muchas gracias” and headed for the Internet to learn how to transform it into the juice I know to be a favorite among Ticos.

It turns out that the fruit of the guanabana, which is known in some parts of the world as the soursop, is made up of dozens of fibrous membranes, or pockets, and each of those contains at least one large seed. To eat the fruit or juice it, each membrane has to be removed and the poisonous seed squeezed out.

The fruit is quite tart, so I can’t imagine eating it out of hand. Turning it into juice seemed like a much better idea, but that involved blending the seed-removed membranes, forcing the pulp through a sieve, blending it again and sieving it a second time. Whew! Add a little (lot) of sugar, some ice, and some water and voila! We ended up with about 12 ounces of guanabana juice – an interesting flavor reminiscent of a creamy blend of pineapple and strawberry.

If you someday find yourself staring at a soursop and have a bit of time on your hands, give it a try. It’s worth it just for the experience.



Pura Vida

Simple Things I Took For Granted in the U.S.

Some people would say I think too much. That might be true.

Today I've been thinking about how different life is without a few simple things -- luxuries, really -- that I never fully appreciated when they were part of the fabric of my everyday life. Things like...

Bathtubs. In a little more than a week, it will be a full five months since I’ve had a bath. True, I’ve taken lots and lots of deliciously hot showers here in Costa Rica. It is also true that before coming here I was far more likely to choose a quick shower over a long soak in my fancy jetted tub. All that is about to change – at least for the three or four months we’ll be back in Arizona, at any rate.

Comfy Sofas. For reasons I don’t understand, upholstered furniture here is hard. Really hard. While that firmness may be better for one’s musculoskeletal system, it’s impossible to kick back and relax on it.

Touchy-feely Shopping. It's a fact. U.S. gringos have learned the joys of self-service shopping. We like to walk down the aisle and browse at features, color, texture, price, unbothered by helpful employees, because, let's face it, they're usually not even there when you need them. While there are plenty of stores in Costa Rica where you can touch and feel at your own leisure - grocery, clothing and fabric stores, for example - forget that kind of shopping in pharmacies and hardware stores, where the products are typically maintained on shelves behind a service counter. Want aspirin? Just ask. Want #10 wood screws. Just ask. That takes a bit of getting used to.

A local pulperia (corner store)

Broad Product Choices (and at Competitive Prices). Another fact is that U.S. gringos have learned to expect choices. Lots and lots of choices. And truth be told, I'm not sure that touchy-feely shopping is all that important here because product choices are very limited compared to the U.S. About that aspirin? Your choice is probably limited to one or two brands, and it’s likely that the store you’re at may only offer one of them. Same with certain specialty products, like a dehumidifier. We looked for one when our granddaughter was visiting and found only two stores offering them – both in San Jose. The price was twice the cost of what it sells for in the U.S. because, in addition to shipping and import duties, which can add from 30% to 75% to the price of imported goods, they simply don't sell as many here. And here, like anywhere else, sales volume has a direct correlation to price.

The ferretería (hardware store) we pass on the way to el centro.

Big Box Stores. The simple truth is I miss Costco, Home Depot, Lowes -- and even Walmart. 'nough said.


I could go on, but the point is clear. I have no choice but to plead guilty to taking for granted many basic elements of life in the U.S. -- elements that I now know are not widespread beyond our borders. Fortunately, it's only a matter of time before the new ways will become second-nature and the old will seem as foreign as these things feel right now.

For the short term, though, I'm focused on my homecoming plan. Right after a long, leisurely bath, I plan to stretch out on the sofa while I watch the 10 o'clock news. Then in the morning, I’ll be off to Costco, Home Depot, Lowes -- and dare I say it? -- Walmart!

Pura Vida

Wrapping Up Lose Ends

Winged Visitors

We've started hanging plaintains on the clothesline on our balcony for the birds & butterflies and have been rewarded with some amazing visitors.




While the blue-grey tanagers are a bit skittish and rarely pose for pictures, the moths and butterflies are quite the opposite. When they find a good food source, they settle in and sometimes stay for hours - oblivious to camera flashes and movement around them.



The wings on the Caligo (owl) eurilochus butterfly below measure a good 4" from top to bottom and has a wingspan that approaches 7"!

Clearly, they must love plantains almost as much as I do!





Farewells at the Feria



Today we made our last trip to the feria before we leave for the States. As we made our rounds, we said goodbye to the vendors who have come to think of us part of their regular Saturday morning clientèle.

There's the college student who, along with her mother & brother, sells chicken. She studies English in Alajuela and next year plans to start at the university. She knows our order by heart - 1 kilo of bonless skinless chicken breassts. Today we surprised her by taking home a whole chicken. It is hot soup weather, after all!

Then there is the young married couple from whom we usually buy papaya and a few vegetables. On this particular morning, he was at his post in the produce booth, while she offered some of her homemade pastries in another. She told us today that they lived in New Jersey for about 10 years. "The U.S. is nice, but our country is our country," she explained with an apologetic shrug. We bought a pineapple braid from her and promised to get with them when we return so that her husband and mi esponso can share stories about fishing off the coast of New Jersey.

Last, but far from least, there's the butcher from whom we buy our beef products. He wears a hook prosthesis on one arm - we presume the result of an unfortunate meat-cutting accident. His son works in the business with him. Neither of them speak a lick of English, but they both seem to look forward to seeing us each week, always greeting us with a big smile and warm welcome. When we told him we were leaving for a few months, he tossed a package of spicy chorizo in with our order and said, "de la feria." As always, he also dropped two small bags of homemade candy into to the bag, as well.

We'll miss our Saturday morning routine while we're away. We'll miss the papaya and pinaapple and plantains. But we'll also miss the people who have welcomed us into their community and made us feel right at home.

Patron Saint Fiesta



This is also the weekend during which Palmares celebrates its patron saint with a street fair. Actually, the fiesta opened last Sunday, but the activities will kick into high-gear today.




Yesterday we ate lunch (a delicious gallo de picodillo) in the church social hall. Today we're headed back to try the lomo relleno (stuffed pork loin), which one of the volunteers was proud to show us while we were there. Full from our picodillo, we promised to return to try it luego.



This promises to be a busy, but fun week. We decided this morning to take one more trip to San Jose before heading home. Then there is one more doctor's visit to review the results of our routine bloodwork, prescriptions to fill, about a dozen little errands to run, and, of course, friends to say goodbye to. With luck, there will also be time for at least one more message from Costa Rica.

Pura Vida

The Flip Side of the Coin

As we prepare to leave Costa Rica for a few months to arrange for a long-term relocation to this beautiful country, it occurs to me that this would be a good time to introduce a little counter-balance to the glowing praise we have so generously dished out.

Over the past months, I have formed the opinion that the only thing backward about Costa Rica is the infrastructure. Certainly the people are anything but backwards!

For the most part, Ticos are well-educated, with a 95.9% literacy rate. They benefit from a constitution that affords them freedoms and protections very similar to those we enjoy in the U.S. And they understand those rights – especially as they pertain to employment, healthcare, land ownership, and renter/landlord relationships. They understand and utilize as many of the current high-tech gadgets they can afford. Some own luxury appliances like dishwashers and refrigerators with ice-machines.

They understand the importance of learning English. Many high-school students enroll in multi-lingual studies. Parents want their little ones to learn English early. Grade-school children show off their fledgling English skills as we pass them on the street or in the grocery store or at the feria. Adults enroll in English classes. And almost everyone who speaks even a little English clutches every opportunity to practice!

Ticos also recognize the opportunities that tourism presents to them personally and to the country's economy. I've probably met more people enrolled in tourism programs at the University of Costa Rica than any other course of study.

Costa Ricans are not a backward people, for sure. The infrastructure is quite another matter.

I have spoken lightly of pot holes and crumbling sidewalks. These are, indeed, a problem both for safety and continued economic progress.

As in the States, bridges are aging and in a mountainous country, riddled with deep gorges that carry the runoff from tropical rains to the ocean, bridge failures can be both tragic and economically problematic. Modern services like city water, electricity, and Internet waft on and off seemingly at will. At home, keeping candles and a few gallons of water on hand can get one through the outages easily enough, but I can only imagine the challenges that businesses face – especially small businesses.



The battle of the bugs must be fought every single day. I know that spiders are not technically “bugs” but to me if it’s creepy and crawly it bugs me! So I’ll lump them all together for purposes of this discussion.

In case you didn't already know it, let me tell you... spiders are very industrious creatures. Webs form just about everywhere over night. I try to maintain a live and let live attitude, reminding myself that they make dinner out of the other creepy crawlies. But if they cross my threshold, they’re gonners! And I’ve killed my fair share.

Ants are a bigger problem. Not just because they don’t respect the three-second rule (you know, the one that says that if a cookie hits the floor and is retrieved in 3 second, it’s not really dirty ;)

Seriously, every crumb, drip or splash has to be cleaned up immediately, because failure to do so will result in a near-instantaneous convergence of armies of several different species of ants. And these guys bite!

As it turns out, I have a sensitivity to one or more of the ant species that share our apartment. And, it also turns out, that some of the bites I had attributed to mosquitoes and/or spiders were in fact from ants. I saw the proof with my own eyes yesterday. Today I have 2-inch welts around tiny red scabs where they took their bites.

On a more serious note, crime is a real and growing problem. Yesterday, President Obama included Costa Rica in the black list of countries with a serious drug trafficking problem. Almost daily, I read reports and complaints from expats; some are just plain worried, other downright afraid, some have become victims of burglaries at one time or another. Every once in a while the papers carry stories about foreigners who have been murdered. Most of the offenses are drug related.

Like in the U.S., anyone here can become a victim of crime. Here, like there, few places remain where one can walk down the street at night without keeping a watchful eye out for suspicious activity. And in both countries there are places where a mid-afternoon stroll might be likened to a game of Russian roulette.

So it would seem that the old real estate adage – location, location, location – is as important here as it is back in the States.

While towns like Palmares, Zarcero, and Sarchi are not immune from crime, falling victim of anything more than petty theft in one of these towns would be a rare exception. By contrast, gringos who choose to live in the capital city of San Jose or in beach communities or in upscale, gates gringo enclaves face very real safety issues on a daily basis.

Presidenta Laura Chinchilla appears to be taking the problem seriously. It remains to be seen, however, if she can mobilize the rest of the government to enact solutions.


So why choose to live here, many would surely ask? Good question. One that I have asked myself dozens of time. Perhaps the answer is because we can.

We can live here because we have the willingness to live with spiders, ants and other annoying creatures.

We can live here because we can prepare ourselves for those times when modern conveniences fail.

We can live here because we don’t mind (and actually prefer) using public transportation, relieving us of the stress of driving with crazy drivers on insane roads.

We can live here because we have the Internet (most of the time) and can maintain contact with the people we love at home.

We can live here because we can live in a small, quiet, relatively safe town with Tico neighbors who have welcomed us as part of their community -- neighbors who keep a watchful eye for us and do their part to ensure our safety and happiness.

We can live here because here we -- like everyone else, no matter how rich or poor -- have access to good medical care...unlike in the United States.

And most importantly, we want to live here because we have the psychological makeup that makes us love how the experience has opened our eyes and our hearts to new people and experiences.

Pura Vida

Independence Day Celebration

For nearly 300 years, the countries that now comprise Central America were Spanish colonies. To the frustration of the Conquistadors who occupied the region, the people of Costa Rica proved unwilling subjects. While the indigenous people of Costa Rica suffered great losses both in battle and from diseases brought by their invaders, the roots of pacifism run deep in these proud people, who often simply retreated into the forest rather than become slaves.

In 1821, Costa Rica was part of the Kingdom of Guatemala, along with Nicaragua and the rest of Central America. On September 15th of that year, Spain relinquished its hold on the region and granted the entire kingdom independence. Without roads connecting the colonies, the government in Guatemala dispatched runners with torches to carry the news to the outlying regions. It took a full month for the runners to traverse the dense terrain and finally reach Cartago, the territorial capital of Costa Rica at the time.

Ironically, although the country's independence is roundly celebrated these days, the news was met with little more than a shrug back in 1821, primarily because Costa Ricans never accepted subugation in the first place!

Now, almost two hundred years later, the country’s independence is celebrated with a re-enactment of the events of 1821. Torch runners set off from Guatemala for Costa Rica and the other Central Americans countries who share the same Independence Day. As the torch runners reach critical road junctions, they are met by other runners, whose torches are lit by flames carried from the original torch. And so it continues until every school in every canton of every province has received a torch runner honoring the country’s independence. The first runner dispatched from Guatemala to Costa Rica will continue his journey until he reaches Cartago, where the torch will be received by Presidenta Laura Chinchilla.

Concurrent to the torch running that commemorates the 1821 dispatch, the celebration gets an early kick-off with concerts in the park and lots of flag waving.

We stumbled upon our first encounter with one of these concerts this past week when we crossed through the park en route to the bank. The picture above is of a high-school (collegio) girl singing on the bandstand in the center of Parque Central. What a joy she was to hear - certainly would be a contender on the Costa Rican versions of America's Got Talent or American Idol! With many errands yet to be run, we couldn't linger to watch the performances that followed, but we did get a snapshot of these girls waiting their turn to perform.



On the eve of Independence Day, Ticos will gather in the park to sing the country’s national anthem. Then early on September 15h (we’ve heard that it starts at 5:30 a.m.!), school children, dressed in traditional garb and carrying Costa Rica’s tri-color flag will parade through town, accompanied by marching bands.

[As I write this post, the high school band can be heard rehearsing for the event right across the street from our apartment.]

This year will be our first opportunity to witness and take part in the celebration. One thing we have learned in our nearly five months in Costa Rica, is that Ticos know how to throw a good party. Expect more reports as the festivities unfold.


Pura Vida

Bimbo Bread

I'm thinking the Bimbo Bread people have the whole thing figured out pretty accurately.

To be sure, Bimbo Bread is clearly a staple here in Costa Rica. And they are major sponsors of the all-important fútbol team - a fact that no doubt earns the company extra points in every Tico heart.

I read about Bimbo Bread online a while back. An expat was asking where to buy good bread -- not Bimbo Bread, he emphasized. I naively assumed he intentionally chose his words to communicate his opinion that "smart folks" don't willingly buy pasty white bread.

Imagine our surprise to learn upon arrival that the biggest bread company in the country markets "Bimbo" brand bread products. According to Wikipedia, Grupo Bimbo "biggest Mexican food corporation and the largest bakery in the world[2] with brands in Latin America, Europe, China, United States, Canada and Puerto Rico." Apparently, its holdings include Entenman's and Thomas, as well as other products we know and love back in the States.

Maybe so, but apparently our food preferences comprise a small minority here. Bimbo doesn't seem to offer a true whole grain bread in the Costa Rica supermarkets, leaving us to find alternatives to the Costa Rica version of Wonder Bread - and the brown version bread makers would like us to believe is super nutritious.

Corn tortillas are made from whole corn that has been soaked in lime to soften the hull before before being ground into masa. This makes it a healthy choice that has to rank right up there with loaf bread made from freshly ground wheat berries. While corn tortillas offer the added benefit of being an excellent source of calcium thanks to the lime soak, they leave a lot to be desired when building a tuna salad sandwich!

Wheat tortillas provide a functional, if not gastronomically perfect, substitute when used as a roll up. But where's the fiber?!?!

And of course, there are the loaves of crusty, long, white bread from the panadería, (bakery). While they definitely have more tooth than Bimbo Bread and make a good sandwich, they still fall short in the nutrition department.

For months we've dealt with the problem by trying to teach ours taste buds to expect something other than a sandwich at lunch, while secretly lusting after an occasional slice of chewy, homemade, whole grain bread! To that end, it would seem that we will have to bring along our grain mill and hope to locate a source for wheat berries.

Failing that? All I can say with certainty is that if we can adjust to a new culture and learn a new language, live every day without the close companionship of our friends and family at home, we surely can learn to live without a routine diet of American-style sandwiches. That and a vow to continue to give pasty white bread a wide berth in the supermarket.

Pura Vida

Pura Vida! The Real Treasure of Costa Rica

I saw a reference to an article in the AARP magazine about great places to retire. Atenas, a nearby town here in Costa Rica, was included so I decided to check out the article online. Here’s the link in case you’d like to read it yourself.

http://www.aarp.org/home-garden/livable-communities/info-07-2010/best-places-retire-costa-rica-central-valley.html

(Sorry I can't give you an active link. I'm sure it's a user error deficiency and not the fault of Blogger.)

I, for one, came away with mixed feelings.

Atenas is, indeed, a lovely little town. And I know a number of expats who love living there. What bothered me about the article was the implication that life in Costa Rica is a walk in the park. All sunshine, great hospitals, shopping and unparalleled biodiversity.

Anyone who has read more than one of my blog posts knows by now how much we love Costa Rica. But life here takes effort – which, if we are to be perfectly honest, is one of its attractions for us.

To paraphrase what another expat said recently, even the well-heeled gringos who come to live here eventually have to drive on pot-hole pocked roads – or in our case, negotiate sidewalks that are so seriously undermined by erosion that they promise to break into pieces without warning – and sometimes do! And whether you drive or walk you have to deal with some of the worst drivers on the planet!

I could go on, but previous posts have covered many of the challenges expats and Tico nationals, alike, face living in a developing country.

My point here is that, for the sake of making a buck, the media often portrays retirement life, whether it’s in a U.S. “active retirement community” or in a foreign country, as easy, glamorous, and idyllic by telling only half the story.
It truly is a shame, in my opinion, because Costa Rica is a rich, complex nation, as measured in ways that matter far more than the great deal you can get on real estate (not so great as a few years ago, by the way) or whether you can hire a housekeeper for a song (not actually true and the employment laws will devour you if you fail to do it the right way).

I’m talking about the people, who value family, friendship, education, health, peace, each other, and Pura Vida above all else.

For sure, the country has its problems. As mentioned above, the infrastructure, education system, law enforcement… you name it… it all needs more attention than the available colones will support. Earthquakes shake things up with surprising regularity. Floods chase families from their homes.

But when you turn on the morning news (or watch it in a soda now and then the way we do), you see a sign language translator in a little box at the bottom of the screen. When I was waiting to see a doctor at the local clinic the other day, a nurse came out and gave instructions on breast self-exams to the women waiting with me. The bus driver on our route stopped yesterday to give mi esposo a ride up the last 300 feet of steep grade – at no charge – just to be nice.

The real treasure of Costa Rica is that it oozes an enlightenment that is too often lacking in more developed nations. It is this I wish that the media would spend a little more time selling.

Maybe, as a result, fewer people would leave after a short time, disillusioned that they failed to find paradise, when in fact they failed to recognize it when they saw it.

Pura Vida

Adventure in Paradise

After a very extra busy few weeks, we're back to report on a fabulous visit from some of our kids. One daughter and granddaughter stayed with us for a full week before the rest of the gang, their significant others, and another grandson arrived. The trip was a combination reunion, birthday and graduation celebration, and most of it was spent on Isla Damas, near Quepos. But while they were with us, our little apartment (and an adjacent one loaned to us by our wonderful Ms. M.) turned into Fiesta Central!

Aside from the sheer joy of seeing the kids -- and having them visit us on our "new turf" -- the highlight the trip was a stay at Lands of Love Resort. The property is located about half-way between San Ramon and La Fortuna, on the way to Volcan Arenal, making it a great place to stay while exploring the region. And I can tell you that we fell in love with it the moment we turned off the main road and began our descent to the hotel.

The property is beyond incredible. The view from our very comfortable and beautifully appointed room left us awestruck.



But what really sealed the deal for us was the attention to detail, like handpainted accents on the bed linens and placemats, and the personal attention we received from the staff.



Our granddaughter suffers from life-threatening allergies to milk and peanuts - and, to a lesser degree, eggs. So you can imagine how scarry it was for her mom to bring her to a country where the food is very different from the U.S. and where the language barrier might present extra risks. Lands in Love, a vegetarian resort, turned out to be the perfect destination for Emily.

When we explained her food restrictions, the chef came to our table and spent an incredible amount of time discussing menu options with our daughter.



Then each and every one of her meals at the resort was prepared especially for her, keeping her special needs in mind. The chef even prepared delicious bread, containing no milk or eggs, that tasted fabulous and were perfectly safe for Emily to eat.



While we were there, we ratcheted up our courage and signed up for some adventure tours: a breathtaking zip line, a canopy tour that includes a Tarzan swing, and canyoning (or as I would call it, repelling into a waterfall). Never in my life did I expect to willingly jump off a perfectly good bridge - but I did it. And so did Emily, her mother, and Grandpa. What a thrill.

Next time we go to the resort, the kids want to add horseback riding and whitewater rafting to the itinerary and I want to save some time for a guided birdwatching tour. Even though we sighted some pretty cool ones -- including a small flock of toucans -- on this trip, I'd really like to see how much more we would see with an expert.

It was sad to see everyone off this past weekend. Yet it felt good to get back to our routine. What felt really, really good, though, was realizing that we actually have a routine to get back to -- and after only four short months here!

Pura Vida