Oh, the Days Dwindle Down....

As the day nears when Layne and I must leave Costa Rica for California, we find it harder and harder to say goodbye. Every day brings another reminder of just what a wonderful life we have found here in the land of Pura Vida. As Layne puts it: Our dance card is always full!

Our Costa Rican home

Yesterday we joined a group of some fifteen friends at Antaño's Restaurant in downtown Atenas for brunch. Organized by Nancy and Mark Van Patten, the event was designed to cheer Nancy up after the last few days of unseasonable rain. Relative newcomers to Atenas, Nancy and Mark suffered through a pretty rough October last year, when they had only recently arrived and were still in the midst of construction on their home when the worst of the rains came. With most of their goods still in boxes and their house incomplete, it was a rough introduction to Costa Rica for Nancy. Like Ticos, most of us who have been here awhile take the rains in stride and appreciate the way they freshen the air, bring out the flowers and turn the hillsides emerald green.

This being Holy Week, or Semana Santa, as it's known here, the weekly feria was held on Wednesday instead of today, which is Good Friday. The week before Easter is about the biggest festival in Costa Rica, with most shops closed all week long, buses on a holiday schedule (or not running at all, as is the case here in Santa Eulalia) and no alcohol sold on Thursday and Friday. On our morning walk today, Layne and I happened upon a typical community observance of the season: a small parade of local people in costumes re-enacting the Christ story, including children dressed as angels and one man carrying a white cross. Preceded by a loud speaker on a van playing religious music, the group slowly traveled down the road, gathering neighbors as they went along, to a spot where the priest offered prayers and blessings on the group. 

Purple-draped crosses are on display in most front yards and families gather before hand-made altars to offer up homage to their God. Ticos seem to enjoy the holiday as much for the family celebrations as for the religious intent.

The grand Ficus tree next door

When we got home from brunch yesterday, we had a call from Marcial inviting us to come over to our neighbor's backyard just across our street to pass some time under a huge Ficus tree, sipping beer or whiskey. The host was Juan, brother of our landlord and long-time resident of Santa Eulalia. Juan told us his family had owned this land for over sixty-five years. The old estate is quite large, encompassing the sugarcane field and cornfield below us as well as our house, the landlord's house and several adjacent homes where his sisters live.

Pejibaye fruits

Marcial's wife Seidy soon joined us, bringing delicious homemade empañadas filled with a sweet jam that she and her sisters had made from a gigantic squash-type fruit using traditional methods. This meant roasting the whole squash over an open wood fire until the outer shell was darkened, making the inner pulp easily removed. Juan talked to us - with Marcial translating - of some of the other old ways of feeding a family off the land, as we nibbled on pejibaye that he offered, a first for us. This is an odd fruit from a certain type of palm tree with a taste, Layne and I decided, similar to garbanzo beans. It was quite pleasant. One recollection Juan shared was of another old tradition, practiced only before Easter, of going deep into the jungle to find a particular huge palm tree, which they would cut down to harvest a four or five foot length of heart of palm hidden inside. He recalled what a massive crash the tree would make as it fell. These days it's illegal to cut down such old trees to obtain heart of palm, another nod by Ticos to conservation of their natural resources.

Today our social life continues unabated, as we expect a couple of friends to come over later to play some music, with me on keyboards and Layne and the others on guitar. Just a light-hearted jam session. Then tomorrow we are hosting the first meeting of the Santa Eulalia Tiger Woods Fan Club, as a big group of neighbors joins us to watch Tiger play in the Masters.

Our life in California, rich as it was, was never so busy with entertaining activities as our life has been here. It will be a sad departure on Wednesday as we head back to the States. One thing is certain: We will return.

Party Time in Portland!

It was an entertainment edifice unlike any I’d ever seen. We basically had a four-lane bowling alley all to ourselves. The unusual facility was called Players and was located just a block away from the excellent Tigard West Motel 6 where Layne’s and my children were staying this past weekend. The family group included my son Damian, his vivacious friend Santina and her adorable baby girl Zaya, plus my lovable 13-year-old grandson Kai and their dog Achilles; then there was Layne’s son Jess and his family, amazing wife April, beautiful Sierra and precocious 10-year-old Orion.

Sierra and April 

Damian had discovered the place and found that it included a large video game arcade, shuffleboard, billiards, food, drink and the bowling alleys, all under one roof.  After a big extended family afternoon party at Layne’s sister Annie’s house on Saturday, Damian and Kai had wanted to check out Players and perhaps bowl awhile. Soon Jess and April joined them and when Layne and I arrived, the post-party party was in full swing - literally, as everyone took their turn swinging, rolling, throwing or guttering their balls down the lane. The younger kids, of course, found the game a challenge so when Kai stepped up for his turn and knocked down eight balls, leaving a split, he groaned in dismay at the odds of getting the spare. But he lined up carefully, made his approach and threw the ball, slicing the edge of the left pin just enough to flick it over and knock down the other one. A perfect spare! An even more unlikely occurrence came when Santina urged me to take her turn, just to see how I could do. So discarding my wedge heels in favor of bare feet, I picked up a couple of balls until I found a nice red one I thought I could handle. Now mind you, the only bowling I’ve done in some 30 years has been on our Wii game so it’s not like I expected to help Santina’s score much. But in a moment of Zen I threw the ball, and as we all watched with mouths agape, that red ball rolled straight and true and slid into the pocket for a strike! Nothing short of a miracle.

Grandma Kat & Kai - photo by Kai

Both our kid’s families are gone now, Damian and Kai headed back to San Francisco, Jess and April already back in Spokane, Santina and Zaya on a plane today going home to Spokane as well. But I’m sure all would agree that it was a fantastic weekend.

After Layne and I flew in late Wednesday night, the fun began on Thursday when he and I and Damian and Kai went out in a drizzling rain to play a round of golf at the nearby King City course. But by the sixth hole, Kai and I had had enough of such cold, wet “fun” so we headed back to the hotel to dry out and dog-sit Achilles. Meanwhile, hardcore golfers Layne and Damian continued on for the full 18 holes, preparing themselves for the more difficult course facing them on Friday.

Zaya graces us all with her smile

On Friday with Damian and Layne out on the golf course with Layne’s brother Ray, Kai and I spent the morning together, walking Achilles, playing video games (well, I watched) and having a leisurely breakfast -- from a grandma’s point of view, the perfect way to spend time! The golfers eventually returned, Ray having won as usual, and Damian headed to the airport to collect Santina and Zaya. That evening, we all went out for some excellent Thai food at Pacific Breeze near Annie’s house. Precious little Zaya kept us well entertained, bestowing her sweet smile on us from her purple throne perched up on the table. With the arrival of Jess and April and their children by car later that evening, the family flock was complete. We were up late that night drinking wine, laughing, talking and strumming a clever “backpacker” guitar Jess had brought along and gave to his dad.

Layne and his new guitar

But the highlight of the weekend had to be the Saturday afternoon gathering of the clan and long-time friends from all over the Portland area. From the youngest, Troy and Julie’s energetic twins Berik and Bowen, to the family matriarch Hazel, who proudly claims to be “98 and feeling great!” -- the backyard was brimming over with laughter and chatter, footballs and water pistols, good food and good cheer.

Friends & family:  Photo by Santina - thanks, Santina!

 Even the weather cooperated with a picture-perfect blue sky and a nice breeze. Layne and I got credit for bringing the good Costa Rican weather with us but perhaps the honor really belongs to the simple magic of a loving family. Pura Vida to all!!

Zen and the Art of Pura Vida!

When they warn you to have “patience, patience, patience” here in Costa Rica, they aren’t kidding. We’ve had a couple of object lessons on this motto lately and at least one of the slow-moving problems is still unresolved.

Manual labor builds roads

In a previous post, I wrote about the water problems here in Barrio Los Angeles: low and sporadic water pressure, then no water at all. We struggled through several days of having to lug containers of water down from the rancho to the apartment, eating out since food preparation and dish washing were difficult, unable to wash clothes and, worst of all, forced to take cold showers up in the rancho baño. For a few days, we assumed that the problems were related to roadwork on Calle Capre Verde, with gutters and pipes being installed in preparation for paving our little dirt lane. But additional research by our landlady Odie revealed that the city’s construction of a new water tower on the primary road leading to Los Angeles had disrupted water mains and service would probably not be restored until that work was done. Oh, great.

Our new water tower! 

Then, miraculously the water came back on, but only for a few precious days. Once again, last Saturday we were suddenly without water, except for a trickle sometimes at night. On Sunday evening, Odie informed us she had learned that the next day, water would be off in the morning but should be restored for good by mid-day. It seems that the new water tower had to fill up enough for sufficient pressure to push the liquid to us, but as people used what there was, the pressure dropped again. Welcome to the dry season. For a country with so much water falling from the sky, it doesn’t seem to be managed very well.

Another saga that tested our patience involved the television remote control for our cable service called SKY TV, a company that serves all of Central America. A few weeks ago, our clicker stopped clicking. When new batteries didn’t bring it back to life, I called the SKY TV phone number and was pleased to be connected quickly to an English-speaker in Customer Service who, after guiding me through a short test, offered to send out a new one. He said the replacement should arrive at the local post office in five days, perhaps less. We would need a copy of our landlord’s identification since the account is in his name. No problem there as Eduardo and Odie are always so responsive to our needs.

Always the optimists, we went to the post office on the fourth day and in my best Spanish, I asked if there was a caja (box) or paquete (package) from SKY TV for Eduardo Alexis Calderon. No, sorry. Check back in a few days.

After several more unsuccessful trips, I called SKY TV again and was assured that their records definitely showed the package had been delivered to the Atenas post office. Since there is only one post office in this small town, we knew we weren’t going to the wrong building. Take a deep breath and seek your Zen.

But after drawing still another blank at the post office, I called SKY TV and once more and spoke with a fellow who gave me a tracking number. This should do it, I thought. On our next trip, we were greeted with a knowing smile by Mario the postal clerk.  He checked in his computer for the number, but with a sad shake of his head informed me that it was not in his system.

Through all this, we had been able to use the television manually but suddenly, the picture froze and nothing worked. On the next call to SKY, I talked with Tech Support not Customer Service and guess what? By phone, they managed to fix not only the picture problem but the remote control as well! All the weeks of patience surely built character at least.

But hey! Things could be worse. Our friends from Central Oregon who were scheduled to arrive here last Sunday called early that morning to inform us that after driving to the Redmond airport at 4:00 a.m. in a snow flurry, they learned their flight to Costa Rica had been canceled! Now there’s a disappointment that would really challenge your patience. At least here the skies are blue, the breeze is warm and we have television and water! Hallelujah and Pura Vida!  

Singing in the Rainy Season

August 31, 2010

         It’s packing day here, getting ready for our move tomorrow. But I’ll take a break to draft this post and bring my devoted Followers up to date. We found our “almost perfect” apartment on Saturday. It turned out to be the very one that Dennis had mentioned before we arrived but then thought was already rented. Apparently, it was just miscommunication with the owner, so that a week later it was available after all. Just as we did last spring when we saw Hazel’s chalet, we fell immediately in love with the place. It has everything we wanted except for that second bedroom, but the “great room” is large enough to accommodate a futon for guests, there is a small office, and the rest of the place is simply delightful. All new and modern construction with lovely furnishings, it has a wonderful kitchen with a gas stove, which will make dinner parties a pleasure to prepare. There’s a big covered rancho a few steps away with a gas grill for cooking outdoors. And… ta da! … a gorgeous swimming pool. All this for $640 per month, including utilities -- not quite a Tico price but affordable. The landlords live in a beautiful home uphill on the sizeable property, which has a citrus orchard adjacent as well as acres of jungle and views of the mountains beyond. We can’t wait to move in tomorrow and finally unpack from our long summer of vagabond life.

         The day we were scheduled to go out with Gerardo and Nelson to look at housing options, there was a torrential downpour, a blustery drenching that we feared might delay the trip. In the midst of the storm, we heard a huge boom of thunder nearby and promptly the electricity went off, increasing our concern of a canceled tour. But shortly before our 2 p.m. appointment, the rain slacked off and soon our intrepid guides showed up. Still, the rain had taken its toll; as we neared town, we encountered a large dead tree fallen across the main road, requiring vehicles of all sizes to detour carefully around it. But by the time we returned to Vista Atenas two hours later, the authorities had already cut it back to allow passage and the electricity was back on, proving that sometimes things can move quickly and efficiently here.

         On our shopping trip into Atenas on Friday, we wandered through the farmers’ market and were delighted to find jalapenos, something we longed for all spring but never found. Contrary to what many people assume, Costa Rican food is quite bland in general and picante peppers are hard to find. With plenty of room for container gardening at our new apartment, I plan to grow my own jalapenos, tomatillos, basil, mint, tomatoes and turnip greens from organic seeds I brought from the States. Our new landlords seem to share our appreciation for organic foods, as well as other values such as recycling. The charming landlady we met, Odie, even mentioned her plan to get some chickens. How lovely to have fresh eggs!

         Friday night we called a taxi and headed up to El Mirador, the discothèque we frequented last spring, for an evening of karaoke and dancing. Our friend the owner seemed delighted to see us and Lenny, a Tico gentleman we remembered from earlier visits, came rushing over to greet us, a huge smile on his face as he pumped our hands in welcome. Unfortunately, the new D.J. had no English language songs or I’m sure Layne would have been on the floor, mike in hand, crooning old Eagles or Sinatra melodies. As it was we sipped our Imperial beers and enjoyed watching Lenny and others perform.

         On Saturday night, celebrating our success in finding a new home, we went downtown to Kay’s Gringo Postre for the monthly dance party. This time it was in celebration of Kay and Tom’s seventh wedding anniversary and the place was pretty packed with Gringos and Ticos alike. Not shy when it comes to dancing, Layne and I were on the floor more than most and when ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” came on, we had center stage to ourselves, flamboyantly improvising and giving expression to the lyrics. When the music ended, the crowd applauded our duet, with one man saying “I’d pay to watch that!” As the evening wore on, one of the Ticas approached Layne, inviting him to dance with her, a high compliment to his terpsichorean skills. He was flattered and delighted, reveling in the honor even after we returned home.

         The monthly dances are just one of the reasons that Layne and I feel we will settle in the Atenas area where we’ve learned the stores, made friends and know our way around. So yesterday we stopped in at the post office, or Correos, to rent a mailbox for a permanent address, only to learn they have none available until next March, when renewals come due and many will abandon their boxes. In the meantime, we’ll settle for General Delivery. No problema.         

         While we were there a Gringo entered carrying a big package to mail and struck up a conversation with us, asking how long we’d been in the country. As we chatted, he offered all kinds of cautionary notes to us newbies, from warning me not to wear fancy jewelry (what fancy jewelry?), saying thieves will “cut your hand off” to get a diamond ring, to urging us never to carry a computer in view. Although he allowed that Atenas is relatively safe, Alajuela and San Jose, like large cities the world over, are less so. There the criminals are willing to hurt you to get to your valuables. Indeed, already in our brief visits to San Jose, which have totaled only a few days, we experienced a near miss on a purse snatching while sitting at a sidewalk cafe, foiled only by the loud warning shouts of a nearby elderly Tica, so we are distinctly cautious anytime we visit the city. But I would feel the same way in Oakland, California, where drive-by shootings and random violence are so prevalent. Here in Atenas, we feel no such fear, comfortably exploring this charming pueblo and gradually becoming an accepted part of the community.

         (Drafted yesterday but unable to post due to Internet problems and photo transfer issues. Enjoy -- and look for another post soon now that we are moved into our new place.)

Falling Rain, Falling Mangos

May 2, 2010

(Click on photos to enlarge)

         Happy Birthday to both of my grandsons - Kai Josef is 12 today and Orion is 9! I look forward to seeing them both this summer. In fact, the prospect of some extended visits with family members is one of the redeeming features of leaving Costa Rica in only a week.

         The other positive aspect of our pending departure is the onslaught of the rainy season here. And what a dramatic change it has been! Not only is there predictable rain every afternoon and into the evening, but we’ve also learned something about our lovely mountain locale: There is a lot of fog up here and considerably more rain than down in the town of Atenas, some 500-600 feet below us.

         Last night we had occasion to go into Atenas for dinner with our duplex neighbors, Caroline and Cy, to try out a new restaurant, Antano’s, which had been touted as having good Mexican food. We drove out in a substantial shower but as we dropped down the hill, the rain began to slack off and had completely stopped by the time we reached downtown about five miles away. Perhaps it was that micro-climate of minimal rain even during the rainy season that prompted National Geographic to christen Atenas as having “the best climate in the world,” a motto emblazoned on every Atenas bus, an obvious public relations boon for the local community. In our experience here during the dry season, however, Layne and I found downtown Atenas to be too hot and occasionally too humid for our taste, lacking the refreshing ocean breezes that we enjoy at our chalet. Until these daily rains started, we felt that we had found the best spot here in Alto del Monte on the side of the mountain overlooking the Pacific. Now we wonder, particularly since most of these tropical storms include dramatic lightening bolts and massive booming thunder. But experiencing the rains reinforces our plan to become “snowbirds,” or perhaps more aptly “rainbirds,” as we expect to head north to the States when the euphemistically named “green season” arrives here in Costa Rica.

         This inevitable reversal of weather conditions is one reason Costa Ricans refer to the rainy season as invierno or winter, and verano, the dry season, as summer. Winter here spans the months of May through October while summer starts in November and runs through April. And indeed, local temperatures have dropped considerably since the rains began. Most mornings start out sunny and beautiful as always with clouds just visible on the ocean horizon but by early afternoon the fog rolls in off the Pacific like a grey wind, a palpable mist that quickly envelops the landscape and chills the air. It is so reliable here in Alto del Monte that a road sign just down the hill warns: Area de Neblina, i.e., area of fog. Now we know!

         Driving past that road sign last night we continued on through the fog and drizzle to El Mirador de Cafetal, the restaurant-cum-discotheque recently opened by our friend Ligia Cortes. A recent Latin dance class had added a few new steps to Layne’s and my repertoire and we enjoyed practicing our moves to the hot salsa music. The crowd at El Mirador is sociable and fun, including our vivacious waitress Rosie, who at one point dragged me to the dance floor to serve as partner for her sexy moves.

         But the sunny mornings still offer us a chance for our almost-daily walks down the side road into our local Tico community, a chain of houses along the ridgeline with kids playing soccer, riding bikes or climbing trees, dogs barking, clothes hanging on fences to dry and the local goat grazing by the roadside. Today as we came around the first big curve, we noticed that work had been done to prevent a mudslide, which could wash out part of the road. Although there is a large culvert that crosses underneath the road there, still the torrential rainfalls had already cut away part of the dirt slope dangerously close to the asphalt. Earlier efforts at retaining walls were evident, black plastic sheeting and big truck tires, but both had failed to contain the steady erosion. Now a concrete ridge had been installed at the edge of the road leading down to the new concrete drainage gutter. The gutter looks rather small to us but we hope that it does the trick. As we headed back up the hill to our house, we heard someone calling to us and turned to find a Tico hurrying to offer us a big bag of bananas from his yard. What a friendly community we live in!

         But with only a week remaining in Costa Rica, we are rushing to get some important tasks accomplished on our residency. Last Wednesday, our attorney Monika picked us up from the bus stop in La Garita and drove us to her office in Grecia to get some papers we need to open a bank account. We need the bank account so that we can pay for the Caja medical insurance online; we need the Caja membership in order to proceed with residency. Step one leads to step two leads to step three, et cetera, which we hope will eventually lead to legal status. When we walked out of Monika’s office, we found a friend from Atenas sitting in the reception area waiting to see Monika as well. Small world! After his brief meeting, Marc, Layne and I wandered around the central park of Grecia, gazing up at the unusual Gothic-style metal Catholic Church, then settled on a park bench to chat and nibble a cookie. Just as we were relaxing there, thinking we could hardly be in a safer place, a huge mango fell from the tree above us, flying by only inches from our heads, and splattered at Marc’s feet, splashing his pants and prompting us to move to a bench nearby without a mango tree above it. Which just goes to show, even tropical fruit can be dangerous!

         Only a few more days of our Costa Rican paradise before we return to the hustle and bustle of the States but at least we’ll get to see those two precious grandsons!