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Happy Girl
I realized we didn't have any pictures of the kids in this blog, so I figured I had to put in something. This one was taken by Ari (and, as the date on the picture shows, wasn't taken on the 4th of July).Happy 4th of July everyone!
Sorry, it seems that the travelblog web-site has had some bugs over the past few weeks. Hopefully those have been worked out and everyone can get access to the blogs. I think that one guy, Ali, runs the whole site. Considering the size and scope of it, I'd say he does a pretty good job. And, hey, it’s free so who are we to complain.
Anyway, we’d like to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July. To answer the question that is on everyone’s mind - yes, they do have the 4th of July here. What, you think they go from July 3rd right to July 5th? Ha, ha, good one, right? Yeah, I crack myself up. I think I heard that joke back when I was Ari’s age. Of course, no one here celebrates the holiday except a handful of ex-pats.
To celebrate the holiday, the American Colony Committee hosts a big get-together at the picnic grounds of the national brewery not too far from where we live. I have no idea what this organization is or does - I’d never heard of it before and, as far as I know, all
It was like a big, frat party
The first thing we saw after entering the grounds was the Imperial beer tent...free beer for all who entered and a huge crowd out front...many of whom would have looked right at home in a frat house in Philly. it does is just set up this picnic. (Google searches on the name just come back with references to the picnic.) We only found out about the picnic on Monday (the third) and we decided to go check it out.
I’m not sure what we were expecting, but it certainly turned out to be a lot bigger than whatever it was we thought. As we pulled up, there were cars parked everywhere - along the side of the highway, in the median, by the fence of the Intel factory (you get the picture). We were waved into a small sugar-cane field (recently harvested) and parked among the rutted furrows lined with chopped down cane plants. (Quick aside - if you happen to find yourself in Costa Rica and pay for a place to park - which is very common - keep your receipt. Chances are you will need to give it to someone on your way out. This is to prove that you paid but also to be sure the guy collecting money isn’t putting it in his pocket. Other places, like the mall or Hipermas (the Walmart-like mega-store), give you a token (everyone gets the same token) when
Red Sox fans everywhere...
And of course, we found the requisite Red Sox fans all over the place. One of the Peace Corps volunteers had his hat on...and we met these guys, too, while waiting in the hot dog line. During our travels in Costa Rica, our informal survey has proven that Red Sox' paraphenalia is by far the most popular of all the US sports teams. Not quite as many Red Sox hats as all the other teams combined, but pretty close. (Nothing like sharing a beer at 11 in the am... not our usual schedule. But, hey, it was after noon, Boston time.) you park in their parking lot. Don’t lose the token or you can't leave with a car. Of course, they don't know whic car you came in with -- just that you came in a car. So, as one of our friends pointed out, if you're looking for an illegal upgrade, just drive in with your old '87 trooper and leave with a new Land Rover... no problem - as long as you have your token!)
Anyway, long story short, the picnic was very nice. Hard to say, but I would guess there were more than 500 people there - far too many of them dressed in ridiculous red, white and blue get ups. There was a decent band cranking out good ole’ American rock and roll (right by the beer tent). And there were hot dogs, cotton candy, ice cream, Coca-cola and more (but no corn on the cob or watermelon). For the kids (and grown-ups), there were the traditional 4th of July favorites - water balloon tosses, sack and 3-legged races, one of those big inflatable slides, and more. We even ran into a couple people we know. And the Republicans Abroad and Democrats Abroad contingencies had
...And good US spirit
This nice lady let us take her picture...she didn't speak any English (wonder how she got in? The picnic was limited to US citizens, but I think spouses of citizens were allowed, too), but she had the spirit. dueling voter-registration tents set up. Just like back home.
The picnic was scheduled to run from 8:00am to noon (planned to avoid the afternoon rains) and, sure enough, right at noon they started shooing people away. So from there, we headed to Alajuela, the next town over, to check out a used book store that had been recommended to us - it is very hard to find English books here (no big surprise), but this store had a ton -- a great find. Then we hit a little Mexican restaurant (run by a Colombian guy from New York, of course) which had also been recommended.
And that was about it - we couldn’t find any fireworks anywhere.
Now back to the regular grind.
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Saratica
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lost again
We couldn't find the picnic... and they had HOT DOGS. Our favorite!!! See you!