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This blog entry has many pictures and little text, particularly to compensate for the lack of pictures in my last blog entry and because I took so many pictures from our recent birthday party (more on this below).
We decided to have a big birthday bash for our terrific cleaning lady, Karol, and our great neighbor, Fernando, since their birthdays fall around the same time. It was also a good time to “celebrate” the beginning of the rainy season (called “green season” by the national tourist board). We also decided we would go all out and ordered several trays of vegetable and meat lasagna from the man who owns the local Italian restaurant. It was definitely terrific! In addition, we had our neighbors and friends bring dishes so with about 40 or so guests, we had all types of food ranging from typical Costa Rican to Italian to American and more! It was definitely a food-lovers paradise—and of note, not a single slice of cake was left by the end of the evening—and we had a lot of cake, but I only got one piece!
We were a bit worried the entire day as we thought the afternoon and
evening rains might put a damper on our plans to have salsa dancing on our patio. As it turns out, barely a drop of rain fell the entire evening. However, at the most inopportune moment, about 10 minutes until 4pm (the “official” start time of the party), the power went out. Usually, the power goes out for a few minutes here and there, particularly when it is raining or storming but this power outage lasted for over two hours and the outage apparently struck all of San Ramon, Palmares, Naranjo, and other nearby towns. Fortunately, we have a gas stove so re-heating food wouldn’t be a problem and candles added to the atmosphere. It did put a damper on the music as I either couldn’t find a radio/CD player in the house that took batteries (and we have several) or when I did find one, it didn’t take the batteries that I did have. Well, it worked out okay in the end as the power came on just as we were moving from the eating part of the party to the dancing part.
The evening became very exciting and even more festive because at about 7:30pm, a group of
Mariachi players we had hired came up the driveway and everyone moved outdoors to the patio. Without much prodding, our patio became a dance floor and the evening kicked into high gear, with the last guest (I think our friend Jorge), leaving around 11:30pm. It was very satisfying to see throngs of people, some dancing and some on the perimeter of patio enjoying the sight of dancing under the stars, with the patio only lit by candles and string lights above.
This was one of the best days I’ve had in Costa Rica. I’m amazed that after living here only a year we were able to rustle up about 40 friends and neighbors for the party. Someone commented that where our B&B is located, there is a real sense of community and on this night, it definitely showed. All ages, ethnicities, social backgrounds, married, single, and many others were represented at the party—and everyone had a terrific time!
The pictures provide more about the party than I can write. So, enjoy, and see you next time….probably for more introspection! :-)
Pura Vida!
Andrew
andrew4cr@gmail.com
http://www.AngelValleyFarmBandB.com
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Donna
non-member comment
Wish I was there
Andrew - I'm sorry I missed what looks like a great party.