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Published: December 16th 2005
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Gates on all the houses
ALL the houses here have gates - nice ones and not so nice, good neighborhood or not. It's part of the Tico culture. It makes them feel safer. Our host family, the Figuer's, had a gate outside the house with a lock and a padlock AND also a gate on the front door. 4 keys to get in and out. So, back to Costa Rica. As per our second journal entry, our intrepid adventurers have made it to Costa Rica and are comfortably ensconced (is that redundant) at la casa Figuer in San Jose, a big, bustling, noisy, traffic-filled city. There is really nothing great about San Jose except that it is in the middle of Costa Rica so it serves as a nexus to get to all the different parts of the country. We did get an excellent briefing by Vernon Bell the morning after we arrived - everything from how to get to the center of town by bus to how to get hot water in the shower.
There are lots of buses everywhere and they are cheap. Very cheap. We were staying about a 20-30 minute bus ride from the central part of San Jose. Bus fare: about a quarter. Also, there are bus routes all over the country and these are equally inexpensive. Unlike the stereotypical Latin bus, they are not painted wild colors, decorated with fringes and other doo-dads and laden with live chickens. They range from a typical city bus to luxury motor coaches, depending on how long the journey (but we haven’t come
Tico street
Here's a typical street in town. All the houses have the gate outside a small front patio area. Here, the hill gives a great view of the mountains in the background. across one with a bathroom in the back, yet - maybe those are for the longer journeys).
In addition, although the traffic is pretty bad at times, the drivers are not too crazy. Don’t get me wrong, they are aggressive and pedestrians definitely do not have the right of way. But unlike in Mexico City or Bogotá, they pretty much obey the traffic laws and if the road is 3 lanes wide, you don’t end up with 5 cars across. I would say it is on par with Boston - it will be interesting to see how we fare when we rent a car (or end up having to buy one). In traffic, the drivers will not give anyone else an inch. Even if the road ahead is bumper to bumper as far as you can see, the driver will pull right up to the car ahead and not let oncoming cars make a left turn. I did see, once, a bus driver slow down to let someone cross the street (it was a pretty, young lady, however - the pedestrian, that is, not the bus driver).
And since I mentioned it, I should explain a bit about
RICE AND BEANS!!
Here's an aisle in a local mini-supermercado. Note the entire bottom shelf in this aisle is filled with rice and beans (and the next aisle too). We eat a lot of rice and beans and chicken here! the hot water. Most houses here do not have hot water. Most houses do have a gizmo built into the showerhead that provides hot water in the shower. Basically it is a toaster that the water runs through. I always thought that water and electricity don’t mix, but 10 million Costa Ricans can’t be wrong (we also saw these in Belize, though not as prevalent and they didn’t work as well). They actually work quite well. The temperature depends on the flow of the water - the faster the water flows, the less heat it gets. Turn the water on low (not ridiculously low, just a good amount) and it gets comfortably hot. Very ingenious.
Vernon also gave us a few maps - something that is very hard to come by here. When we’ve asked Costa Ricans to take a look at our maps, it is obvious that they aren’t used to looking at them. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, many streets do not have names and there is hardly a street sign to be seen anywhere. “How do know where to go?” you ask? Addresses are given in a dead reckoning format. For example, the address
Everything you'd need
They really have just about everything you could need here. Some things are much cheaper than is the US, and some are much more expensive...and it doesn't always make sense which is which. Here we found Frosted Flakes (along with many other sweet cereals)...the kids are quite happy. of the Figuer house roughly translates to “From the church in Sabanilla, go two long blocks south, ½ a block west, and a little south again, and it’s a dark green house with light green trim and a palm tree in front.” No, I am serious. Addresses like that are what people put on their business cards. Needless to say, you don’t see many UPS or Fed Ex trucks around (and forget about Mapquest). Imagine if you had to give someone directions to your house this way.
Pretty much to get anywhere we start with an address like that and then we have to just keep on asking people as we get closer. Yes, men, you have to ask directions. People are always very happy to stop whatever they are doing and try to help you. If you are walking down the sidewalk and go into a store to ask, often times the clerk will come outside with you to help get you oriented (even if you speak Spanish). And if the person you ask doesn’t know, they will stop another person and ask them. Sort of “directions by committee”. It is incredible - this isn’t a third world
What's in this aisle?
From rice and beans to coffee (cafe...only Costa Rican!) and shampoo. country. And it is frustrating.
Oh, and by the way, they don’t say blocks (as in 2 blocks south) - they say “100 meters.” So if something is 5 blocks away, they say 500 meters. If the blocks are particularly long ones, they say 500 long meters. The metric guardians in the Hague (or wherever the metric guardians are) must love that one.
Anyway, the first day we headed downtown - not to the center of the city, just to a more commercial area not too far away. We changed some money (about 500 colones to the dollar, not that hard to make a conversion in your head). We hit an internet café so Ari could check his e-mail (internet cafes are a dime a dozen - and that is about what they charge, too) then found a spot for lunch. It was good to see that the kids jumped right in trying new foods, but we were expecting nothing less.
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Rae Koosman
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A wonderful diary
It's great receiving these travelblogs from you. I love reading them. I hope you are living comfortably by now. Your kids are wonderful little troopers.