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Published: June 20th 2017
Geo: 10.0704, -84.5041
When we first contacted the owner of this house to arrange for our rental, Jeff told her we would like to meet some ex-pats. She wrote back to tell us that Debra and Joe, who live at the top of our hill had moved here from Maryland about 18 months ago and would be thrilled to talk with us. A couple of days later, she contacted Jeff again to tell him we had been invited to a birthday party that Debra and Joe would be hosting while we are here! So today we're going to a birthday party for someone we don't know at the home of people we've never met - and my mother told me not to talk to strangers. hahaha!
This morning I have peanut butter toast for breakfast while Jeff has eggs and toast. Of course we also have our very delicious Costa Rican coffee.
After breakfast it is time for a walk so we head out around the subdivision again. But today, since we know the route, we take our time and take lots of flower and landscape photos. These two photos need to be paired. The first is several Eucalyptus trees in the fog (there
is a LOT of fog in our area). The second photo is one of these "Painted" or "Rainbow" eucalyptus. When the bark peels the extraordinary colors are revealed. Isn't that cool?
This is a photo of a few of the coffee plants on our plantation.
The next two photos and the video tell a story. This photo on the left is a nice leafy plant ; the photo on the right is the same type of plant once the Leaf Cutter ants have attacked it. These ants, as you can see in the video, (click the photo labeled Leaf Cutter ants and the video should start.)are simply amazing (and clearly devastating). They strip the leaves, some twice their size, from the plants and carry them back to their nest. They don't eat the leaves but eat the fungus that grows on them. The ants leave a pheramone (sp?) trail so everyone knows the way to and from.
The joke here is that the Leaf-Cutter ants are the Costa Rican army. Did you know that Costa Rica doesn't have an army?? The military here was disbanded in 1948 and all the
money used to fund their military has been redistributed between education and health care. The literacy rate here is 97.8%, there is universal healthcare, and THIS is referred to as a third world country??
After our walk, we have a snack and go over to visit Ana. We drive to her house and when we get to her gate, toot the horn to let her know we are there and drive in. She comes out followed by four barking dogs of various breeds (or not). Ana is a volunteer that works to spay, neuter and save abandoned, and street dogs in this area. Three of these 4 are rescue dogs. She has a website: Oscar's Oasis that takes donations. There is no such thing as a Humane Society here in Costa Rica, but Ana and a large network of friends run a no-kill operation. Ana showed us her Tico style home (lovely) and gardens. She made guava jam from the fruit of one of her trees and promises me some. I lay in a hammock with one of her little dogs, who has climbed up and is laying on my chest. I wish I had a photo of that! She, Jeff
and I visited for about 90 minutes. When it was time to leave, I had to wake the little dog and I was sorry to go. But we'll see them again later today at the party!
Time for a shower - between the walking and the. dog hair I am definately due. Afterwards, I put gel in my hair and blow it dry, but there is no getting around the fact that my body LOVES the humidity and my hair is curly. I contemplate a baseball cap but decide against it. We "dress up" by putting on jeans and shirts with collars as opposed to shorts and tee shirts.
While Jeff is waiting for me to complete my personal grooming he turns on the TV and, Oh My God, there is the Denver Bronco game!!! I am ecstatic! This is a riot because all the commentary is in Spanish. We sit down to watch for literally the last two minutes and then the game goes into overtime! We can't leave now... The game ends with the Broncos squeaking out a victory and we are now about 45 minutes late for the party. No problemo...Tico time rules here and we are not
late at all.
I brought two boxes of Rocky Mountain Fudge Factory chocolates with us for this day. One small box for our hosts and a larger box for the 70-year-old birthday boy. I had also brought a handmade card from a Loveland artist for each.
We are going to this party with an agenda as we have a list of questions we've worked up and we want to talk to as many ex-pats as possible. The questions are:
* How long have you lived here and are you a part-time or full-time resident? Do you buy or rent?
* Where are you from?
* What areas in CR did you look at before choosing San Ramon and why was this place the winner?
* How do you occupy your days? The funniest answer here was: "Oh, that's not a problem because everything takes longer here!" (Tico time!) Other answers were volunteer work (several); gardening - some of these folks have incredible terraced gardens; play bridge; read...
* What do you miss most about "home?" These answers were things like "the shopping", "the variety of foods/restaurants." When we asked about family or friends, one woman said "Oh, I skype with my kids and grandkids all the
time. I never saw them when I lived in the States because they all lived in different states. This is better."
* What advice would you give someone considering relocating. The most common answer was "rent first." One of the guests, Butch, told us "You're doing it right." meaning, I think, that we are doing our research, investigating different locales and learning Spanish.
We were pretty good about getting all of our questions answered and everyone (it was a huge party as all the ex-pats know one another) was very very nice.
The newbie couple from yesterday was there, and talking with them solidified my thought that they aren't going to last long. The woman was complaining that she couldn't find "their" toothpaste at the market and mentioned that she was so happy she had brought all her hair care products. She was excited to learn that there is a Costco/Sams type store in San Jose where they could probably get "normal" stuff. It also told me something that she didn't already know about the store, Price Mart, because even a nominal amount of relocation research would give you that kind of info.
The party was very fun, we met some nice people
and made some good contacts. There were four gringo children at the party - turns out they and their parents live in the house of our lower level apartment. We make plans to go up and visit them soon...they have seen some parrots and a macaw (we haven't seen any birds like that) so I told them to pound on the floor when they saw good birds.
Ana calls to me from across the room and I make my way over to sit with her for a while. I remember that she didn't give me the guava jam she promised; she tells me that when she and Norman go home they'll leave their gate open and to come on down to the house to get it.
Eventually the party begins to break up. Jeff and I walk back down the STEEP hill in dense fog. We need to drive over to Ana's to get the jam. The drive, though short, is not much fun because we can't really see anything through the fog. We creep along successfully and return home with what promises to be a tasty treat.
Because Costa Rica doesn't observe daylight savings time it gets dark here around by 6pm
year round. We cocoon in our little apartment and talk about the nice day.
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Tom
non-member comment
You are making me jealous! (But then again, what if I couldn't find my hair care products!!!). You can keep the ants, tho!