The Chicken Coop and a Night Gown, San Ramon, and Taking in a Stray…..

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The first two weeks in Costa Rica have been good. We’ve had five guests and actually hit my revenue target for the month (okay, the target was mucho low) but all the same, it gives us hope for the coming months and in particularl the high season starting in December.

This week was not as rainy as first week, thank God. While Beth doesn’t mind the rainy season (they call it the “green season” for “touristico” purposes), it is taking me a little bit to get used to it.

On Thursday, we saw our last guests off until Sunday night when we inherit a family—parents and two teenage sons from the States. I’m meeting a friend in San Jose Sunday and staying there overnight so Beth will handle them. She’ll be fine I’m sure.

Speaking of Beth, one of the more amusing pictures of Angel Valley B&B, which I wish I had witnessed, was early one sunny morning this week. Chico, our handyman was working out near the chicken coop and Beth was in her nightgown discussing “pollo management” with him. For those of you who know Beth, can you imagine that!?!?! Well, she has said she is pretty much living like a nun right now—no makeup, a single bed in a small bedroom, no car, no going out to fancy restaurants, etc. That’ll change as she meets people I’m sure.

As you can see, this week’s blog entry (at least in the one blog that is EASY to add pictures to—I may scrap the other one), has several pictures of our little town of San Ramon, 5km down the road. Actually, the first picture is of Arenal Volcano. I’ve been there several times before but it was always steeped in clouds. Today I saw it though!!! So the first picture is of it! San Ramon doesn’t look like much but it is a pleasant place. It has everything you need and the various shopkeepers are friendly. We found a great “soda” downtown the other day which is essentially Costa Rica’s answer to the American diner. I had the typical “casado,” rice, beans, vegetables and a slice of beef, all for $1.66! Okay, it was a very cheap cut of beef, but tasty nonetheless. Beth had a “hamburgerguasus” which is yes, a hamburger with some Latin toppings of which I’m not sure what they are. She said it was good though.

One of the things I love about downtown San Ramon is that you can park virtually anywhere you want on the street. On some streets, you’ll find scraggily-looking men in crossing-guard garb who will watch your car for about 100 colones or 20 cents. I guess it is worth it for us grinos. We have to remind ourselves that while Costa Rica is the safest place in Central America, it still IS Central America. The other day, Gilbert, our remodeling contractor was over. He’s also a part-time policeman. He noticed my digital camera on the sill of the front window. I had just stuck it there for a minute. He told me not to leave anything of value in the open. Good advice.

I’ve tried to label the pictures of San Ramon so you can tell what you are looking at. Pretty basic stuff that every town has (not all pictured though): gas stations, hardware stores, appliance stores, various restaurants, bus terminal, etc. Okay, not every U.S. town has a bus terminal but they do in Central America. And, they are clean, convenient and cheap—at least in Costa Rica. I plan to use the bus system here often. You can pretty much get to anywhere in Costa Rica, from north to south and east to west for under $4.00. That’s another thing I love about living here, you don’t have to earn much to live well.

We’ve adopted a stray dog, looks just like Lassie, called “Jack.” One of our guests who is building a house in Nosara on the Pacific Coast, adores the dog and asked us to keep him until she comes back in November for good. Since Beth’s dog Lindy is not here, I think it is a good alternative. The problem we are having though is that Jack is a wanderer, wandering for pretty Tica dogs! So, if we tie up Jack, he howls all night; if we don’t tie him up he takes off for what I am sure are late night trysts. We’ll do the best we can but we have not seen Jack today so we are a bit anxious. He usually comes back when he is hungry though. We need to train him I guess.

That’s all for now!

Keep in touch!

Pura Vida!

Andrew
Am4cr@hotmail.com

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