Thursday we played tourist in San Jose after Bill's dental appointment. (three fillings for $72). I'd been wanting to see the National Arts and Craft Street Market for some time but we just hadn't made it there. Thursday we finally did. The market is on 13th street between 2nd and Central Avenue, west of the Plaza de la Democracia. ticoartesanias You can find many of the same things you find in all the shops throughout the country but less expensive. For example, a wooden bread board made to hold a baguette was priced at 8,000 colones or $16 at [View Full Entry]

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We attended our first tope in San Ramon Saturday. A tope is a grand horse parade. The Parada de Sol in Scottsdale has nothing on this horse parade. Bill thinks he heard them say there were 2800 horses in this parade. I don't know if there were that many but there were a heck of a lot of horses. The tope finally reached the center of town around 3pm, we arrived at 12pm as the sign said that was the starting time. We knew it wouldn't start on time but were non the less surprised when we didn't see our first [View Full Entry]

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Sunday was another election day in Costa Rica. I believe this was the mayoral elections throughout the country. I could be wrong but all the signs we’ve see recently say “alcalde” and in my book that’s mayor. I had to look it up to settle a difference of opinion between Bill and I. He thought the name of all the people on the billboards was Alcalde. Yes, there are many common names throughout the country, like Smith & Jones or Gonzales & Ramirez in the states. I’m sure there is even a Juan Valdez in every town that by the way [View Full Entry]

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Today we drove into Escazu after Bill's dental appointment in the nearby town of Pavas. We wanted to visit the EPA store, the Costa Rican Home Depot to get ideas for the new house. At EPA we ran into another woman we know from the San Ramon area who'd come into the city with two other couples to shop at EPA and our version of Price Club, Pricesmart. It's a small country. I got in trouble for taking pictures of the orchids in the garden center. I hope you appreciate the pics Mom. Luckily, Bill didn’t understand what the lady said [View Full Entry]

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It's the beginning of a new season in Costa Rica. We only have two seasons in this country although you’ll hear them called different things, wet or dry, green season or not, summer or winter, high or low. The winds of late have brought the dry weather. We’ve just entered into the dry season. Change is evident everywhere. Christmas is celebrated in the summer in Costa Rica. It takes some getting used to, having summer when it’s winter in the states. For us a warm Xmas is the norm as we came from Arizona. For those from the colder states I’m [View Full Entry]

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Callista and I had our six month check-ups yesterday at our dentist’s office in Pavas. We were thrilled to get great news, no cavities. We’re in the clear for awhile. Bill had his first exam, he wasn’t so lucky. We’ll be going into the city once a week for the next month or so. Callista and I don’t mind at all as we’ll be able to spend time window shopping and enjoying the holiday season in the city knowing we aren’t the ones getting drilled this time. We’ll see if Bill likes all the teasing when it’s HIS turn in the [View Full Entry]

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The wicked winds have arrived in our part of the country! We've heard these winds referred to as the Christmas winds, they're early this year. Perhaps we summoned the winds by decorating the giant cypress tree in our front yard Sunday and Monday. The howling winds began here on Monday night. Bill insists the gusts are no less than 40 mph. The Christmas tree is shaking but so far all the balls have stayed on. We had business to attend to in Palmares sometime in the week so we decided to get out of the wind and take care of business [View Full Entry]

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Thursday the 16th we headed south on a scouting expedition for Bill's January hike up Costa Rica's hightest mountain, Mount Chirripo at 12,526 ft. According to the guide books we were to expect a three hour drive from San Jose to San Isidro de General. I don’t trust what the guide books say as they don’t take into account what you may encounter on the roads. Use them as a general idea. Our drive from San Ramon to our final destination of San Gerardo de Rivas was about a six hour drive. We encountered road work from San Ramon to San [View Full Entry]

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I believe in randmon acts of kindness. We like to practice them as well. They're anonymous acts and not done to recieve thanks or credit in any way. I feel when we are the recipiants of those kind acts they ARE worth mentioning. Yesterday morning we were getting ready to head into Palmares for business with ICE, (the electricity company) when we noticed Edgar, our landlord and friend weed whacking our yard. We talked to him the previous afternoon about he and Bill working together on this the upcoming weekend. We have a large yard. It's much easier and more fun [View Full Entry]

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This past weekend we headed into San Jose for several reasons as is usually the case. We never go into the city for just one reason. There is always something we need or want that isn't available in San Ramon. So when we go to ‘the city’ on business or otherwise we make sure we pick up those luxury items that aren’t really necessary but add to your lives in ways you never realized. The desired luxury item this week was pretzels. Pretzels, like bagels and many other things people take for granted in the states are not available in all [View Full Entry]

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