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Published: September 4th 2007
The best part about having no formal itinerary is that when something happens that throws us off our plan it doesn’t really matter. Of course there are some things that a person really hopes will happen as planned. The job I had arranged teaching the student from Canada is one of those things. Unfortunately the deal seems to have fallen through. Just weeks prior to leaving I had heard from the woman who had hired me to teach her son and she was concerned that some issues between her and her ex-husband would prevent her son from being here when I arrived. Of course when we decided to take the plunge and come to Costa Rica we made sure we had a plan B and plan C in case something like this happened. Since arriving I have not been able to contact the woman and it seems like things have fallen apart. Fortunately I have been in contact with another person who has a job lined up for me teaching at a private school. We are planning to check out the school and community on the weekend. The community where the school is located is called Esparaza and it is on the main highway between San Jose and the West coast. The nice thing about Esparza and plan B is that Esparaza is about an hour away from the most popular beaches, it is about an hour and a half from the capital city, and it is a true Tico city with no tourists or gringos to speak of in the area. The not so great thing is that the job is full time and if I wanted a full time gig I could have stayed home and done that with much better pay. I guess we’ll see what happens. It’s all part of the adventure. Plan C is very simple. Find a community we like and find some students to tutor or not . If we couldn’t manage living here for a year without an income we never would have left in the first place.
After the success of our previous adventure we were on our way to San Jose and the Museo D’Oro and Museo de los Ninos. Since we had made the boys walk quite a bit the previous day we called our new friend Oscar the taxi driver who took us to the main bus stop in Alajuela. The fare for the family to take the 45 minutes bus ride to downtown San Jose was $4.50. As we got to San Jose around 10:30 we decided to walk down the main street to the Gold Museum and on the way saw the main cathedral and central park. We also stopped at the Teatro National and snapped a couple of pictures of the beautiful building. If you’re ever lost in Costa Rica one way to get your bearings is finding the Central Park where there will always be a cathedral that faces West. Apparently the idea is that the morning sun shines through the stained glass windows and lights up the altar and those who face it with God’s glory. Also at every central park will be a grocery store, bank, and a statue of a person of historical importance. There is always action in the park with families hanging out, musicians, and other attractions such as chasing the pigeons…the boy’s favorite activity.
The Museo d”Oro was spectacular. We really enjoyed the exhibits that showed the history of currency in Costa Rica and how the gold statues and were made from casts made with wax and clay. The Museo de los Ninos was unbelievable. The facility is housed in the former penitentiary and there is an endless amount of interactive learning exhibits….think Calgary Science Center times ten. We spent about 3.5 hours wandering around amusing ourselves and we could have spent more time had we been able to read the signage. When it was time to leave we experienced another spectacle. The afternoon rain arrived in San Jose and we saw rainfall like we’ve never seen before. When I say rain, I am not even doing it justice. It was like the raindrops were the size of my fist and we got completely drenched running the 20 meters from the doorway to the taxi. There was water a foot deep running down the curbside. Even the cabbie said it was over-the-top. We made it back to the bus stop without getting washed away or in an accident, visibility was non-existent, and the boys fell fast asleep on the bus ride home as they had left most everything they had in San Jose. That night we went to a wonderful seafood restaurant that was recommended to us by Norman and it was so delicious. We will have to make it back there again but not until we find a way to burn off the calories from the seafood mélange soaked in garlic and butter. We are planning to take it easy on Friday as Saturday is a travel day and we have been going great guns. I had a Skype session with Lee and Judy when we got home and we thought about our friends and family and hope everyone is doing well. It seems like we’ve been gone a while even though it has only been four days so far. Don’t be shy send a private message or leave a comment we love hearing from everyone. Oh, ya...GREAT :-( I can't find the USB cord for the camera so no pictures until we get back to Alajuela. GRRRRRR.
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Sherry
non-member comment
Glad to hear you have arrived safely
Hi Guys, So glad to hear you have made it to Costa Rica and thank you for sharing your adventures. This is like a wonderful novel - can't wait to get to the next chapter.