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Published: December 22nd 2009
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While visiting Granada last month, during an Irish pub´s quiz night, we were lucky to meet Berny and Julia, a great couple living near San José, Costa Rica. They had invited us to stay with them during our Costa Rican trip. (To protect their identity, we never learned their last names, except when it was included in their email addresses.) Originally, we had hoped to see them over a few days. Between illnesses and Bree-sightings, our plans went awry and we only had a single day to spend in San José. On Tuesday, Nov. 10th, we headed into the capital of San José from Montezuma, hoping to make the most of our one day in the capital area with Berny and Julia.
Berny is a young
tico, Costa Rican, born and bred. When we met him in Granada, he explained that he was a puppeter. He works for the Moderno Teatro de Munecos puppet company. He does everything you can imagine a puppeter doing - he makes the puppets and sets, directs puppet plays, manipulates puppets using hands and strings, and does the´voice-overs´ too. But he´s no Geppetto. As we were to appreciate that day, Berny helps organize about half
of all cultural events, public and private, in the San José area. During much of our time with Berny, he was constantly running errands and/or taking calls. Like the puppets/marionettes attached to strings, he manipulates clients, staff, and funders to keep any number of projects on the move.
Julia is a charming young lady from France who came to Costa Rica a few years ago to do some volunteer work. She had originally meant to return home (home is France, after all), but she met Berny and that changed her plans. She is both busy getting her new life started in Costa Rica, and helping Berny with work whereever she can. Both Berny and Julia are fluent in English, and each other´s native languages (Spanish and French). Given that Eva is fluent in two Chinese dialects and is pretty good in Spanish, I was the only one around that afternoon who couldn´t speak three languages. Everyone was kind and stuck to the one language I know.
Berny met us at the bus station shortly after we arrived. Our first stop was the Moderno Teatro de Munecos theatre, where Berny used to watch puppet shows as a boy, not
knowing he would one day find himself behind the curtain. Out front was a small stage, with black-and-white pictures lining the walls. Backstage was cluttered, with paraphenalia from over 30 years of shows, including some ancient puppets. Some new paper-maché and cardboard puppets were currently being constructed for a production of the Oddesy in a few months´ time. We had left our two huge backpacks backstage, as it was safer there than in the trunk of Berny´s car.
Next Berny drove us to a nearby museum where Julia and several workers where cleaning up from a puppet show/games session that Berny and his company regularly present to school-aged childern. Eva and I helped them load some of the beautifully-constructed wooden games (for learning) into a van, and then unload them at a warehouse. It was hungry work. Afterwards we went to Berny´s dad´s restaurant for some delicious
comida tipico. Hard work runs through the veins of this family. Berny´s father has been the owner, manager, and head cook at his own place for 20 odd years. Berny´s grandfather was in the business before that. Berny´s father made some delicious
tipico stir-frys, which actually tasted quite Chinese. This was not
unusual, as his father before him was Chinese.
After lunch, we journeyed a half-hour or so into the heart of San José to find the
correo, or post office, for Eva to mail her photo DVD´s home. Then we made our way back to Berny and Julia´s home in Tres Rios, with Berny taking care of business along the way. At one point, Berny went through one of those drive-thru ATM machines to withdraw some cash. A few minutes later, we were driving behind a public bus with a garish advertisement on the back. The ad featured a man and woman giving each other a one armed hug and staring back at us with cheesy smiles. The man was pointing straight at our car with his free hand.
¨That guy,¨ said Berny, ¨I need to pay him. That´s why he´s pointing at me.¨
I didn´t think I heard right first, so I asked for clarification. Yes, we were on our way to pay the happy guy painted on the back of that metro bus. This has to be a joke, right?
The car stopped on a side street. The same guy on the bus ad, life
size now and wearing a pink shirt, walked over to the car. He still had that smile as Berny rolled down the window and gave him his due. Apparently he was an actor who was the master of ceremonies at one of Berny´s events, for which he was being paid. What a coincidence!
Eventually we arrived at Berny and Julia´s apartment after a hectic afternoon.
Well, things happen on the road that you would never expect. For instance this time last year I would have never imagined that on Tuesday, Nov. 10th, 2009, we would have conflicting social engagements in San José, Costa Rica. Alas, Bree and rumours of Bree were happening at the Backpacker´s Hostal downtown. Berny (no surprise), had work that night, and he graciouslly drove us back to town. We met up with Bree at her hostal for some drinks. I enjoyed the Costa Rican favorite, guaro, which is fermented sugar cane juice. Later we went for a bite with Bree and Thomas, another alumni from our San Pedro Spanish school. Alas, this was our last meeting with Bree in Central America, and maybe for some time to come. Berny picked us up at 9
and we headed back to Tres Rios.
We arrived home to discover that the power was out. We lit some candles and enjoyed some wine, cheese, and crackers. The power came on a few minutes later, and Julia finished making supper: pasta with a homemade red sauce. The sauce was really simple - I think it was just tomatos, garlic, and basil - but it was fantastic! I´ve made similar sauces in the past, but none turned out as well. Maybe you have to be French.
Berny and Julia were almost apologetic when they offered us the fold-out couch. Truth is, after months of hostels, we were very happy to stay in a real home. They told us to treat the place like our own. ¨Mi casa es su casa¨ as they say down here. I told them I would raid their fridge and their liquor cabinet after they went to bed, and I meant it. However I ended up falling asleep.
The next morning, we said our good-byes to Berny as he headed back to town for an early meeting. Julia served us coffee and eggs with leftover red sauce. We chatted with her about her home, family, and her new challenges in moving to Costa Rica. Later she made arrangements for our transport to the airport. We left Julia and her comfortable apartment around noon with great reluctance. We really wished we had more time with them.
We boarded our plane around 6 that afternoon. With that, our Central America adventure was over, and our new adventure in South America had begun. We landed in Lima, Peru around 10:30 pm local time, on Wednesday, Nov. 11th, 2009.
P.S. To Berny and Julia - Thank you so much for giving us a great day in the San José area. Your hospitality and generosity was greatly appreciated. We hope we can pay it back someday!
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Julia
non-member comment
Thank you
Thank you guys for such a nice blog's post, really. It was a pleasure to met you for both of us and a good experience of sharing cultures. I hope your trip is going well (i will follow you through the blog), y would like to do the same one day, going to these -i think- amazing countries. Your fotos are great too!! Un beso! y mucha suerte (good luck) Julia