Celebrating a Saint, Costa Rica Style

In Costa Rica most every little pueblo has its own Catholic saint, no surprise given the number of towns with "San" or "Santa" in its name. You have our own Santa Eulalia, for example, along with dozens of San Rafael's, San Carlos', Santa Elena's, San Ramon's, Santa Cruz's and, of course, San Jose's, including the nation's capital city. Each year most all of these communities set aside a few days to honor their saint with a fiesta for the whole town and anyone else who wants to join in.

The church in San Isidro

Thus it was that most of the Santa Eulalia gang (minus Marc, who stayed home, and Eroca, who is currently back in Canada) made our way to San Isidro de Atenas last Sunday for the final day of their "saint's day" celebration in honor of Saint Isidore, the patron saint of farmers. San Isidro is a beautiful little barrio located at almost 3700' high in the mountains above downtown Atenas. Atenas is also the name of our canton, or county, so just as our barrio is Santa Eulalia de Atenas, so San Isidro needs that identifier to separate it from all the other San Isidro's in Costa Rica.

When we arrived by taxi, the church service was just finishing up and much of the town was out in force, on motorcycles, bicycles, cars and pickup trucks. Marcial and Seidy, it turned out, were acquainted with Doña Rosa, who had cooked huge pots of food for the event and we were ushered into her kitchen to tempt our palates for later.

Doña Rosa in the kitchen

As we wandered around we discovered one of the big attractions for the day was to be 4x4 mud races on a muddy track in a large open space, previously a soccer field, in the cradle of steep hills. Spectators were already perched around the sides of the basin ready for the day's action, but since we had a hike to do, we decided to return later when we were sure the races would still be on.

So with our intrepid leader Marcial in charge, we headed down the road, now bumper-to-bumper with fiesta-goers looking for parking. Marcial had spied a trail heading up the side of a hill across the way but we didn't know how to get there from here. Never fear! Having noticed what looked like a path beyond a barbed-wire fence, Marcial stopped and asked a fellow who was helping park cars across the road how we might get in. An instant amigo, the guy sent over another man to cut the fence and open a gate for us! How's that for friendly? He gave Marcial his name so if anyone stopped us as we hiked along, we could say Juan gave us permission.

Just cut the fence -- No hay problema!

Seidy and I are across, Marcial helps the others

We traipsed down the narrow path alongside the fence and soon came to the inevitable river to cross. But this one was shallow and easy so I just walked through the 3-inch water in my trusty boots. Marcial helped the others to cross safely. The trail took us up through coffee fields, shade-grown under a canopy of banana trees and other tall nameless greenery. 

Marcial and Chris far ahead, Sue coming along

Seidy picks culantro

Along the way Seidy noticed some native culantro growing on the sides of the path and began picking the tender leaves, explaining to me how good it was in frijoles or gallo pinto, the ubiquitous beans-and-rice dish so popular here. Culantro is similar in smell at least to cilantro, which Layne and I love, but I've not found the flavor to be quite the same. Still, when Seidy pulled up a small plant for me, roots and all, I put it in my backpack and have now planted it out back alongside my other herbs. 

Looks like blueberries, tastes like plum!

Marcial peeled a "potato mango," one of the many varieties here, and cut off pieces for us - delicioso! - and Seidy introduced us to tasty little berries that looked like blueberries but tasted more like a peach or plum.

On our return trip, Seidy and I stopped to look more closely at some rusted old metal and concrete structures. She described how they had been used in the past to press the juices from sugar cane, using the giant waterwheel to power the press. Then in large metal pans seated in the huge concrete bowls now filled with plants, workers had heated the syrup (miel or honey, as Seidy called it) to render granulated sugar. It was a fascinating taste of Costa Rican history.

The big rusted waterwheel

A press for the cane

What used to be concrete bowls for heating sugar cane juice

 Returning to the festivities, we found the 4x4 mud rally already underway. Chris and Sue, Marcial and Seidy and Layne all stayed to watch while I walked back to the churchyard to check on Bonnie and Stephen who had opted not to hike. They were enjoying some of the comida tipica or typical food for sale and shared a couple of tasty Chicharrones, fried pork, with me before they taxied back home.

The ever-popular 4x4 mud races

When I rejoined the others at the rally, the races were in full mud-spattered swing, with some of the cars stalling out in the deep murky pools of water and having to be towed off the tracks. But the crowd was enjoying the day with barbeques and picnics throughout the grassy hillsides.

Eventually Layne and I left the rally heading for the dance being held in the salon near the church. There we joined in the salsa dancing and even managed a waltz, which garnered us a nice compliment from a Tica, before Marcial and the gang joined the party. 

By then it was time for the entertainment to begin with dancers from San Ramón performing historical Italian dances and a group of colorfully-clad Ticas doing a spectacular full-skirted rendition of Costa Rican traditional dances. Once again we all reveled in the great opportunity to join with our Tico neighbors in a celebration of their history and culture.  

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Through a Costa Rica Shot Glass, Darkly

Seidy, Marcial, Eroca and Bonnie

Sprawled out on the grass halfway through another splendid Sunday outing with the Santa Eulalia gang, our friend Eroca, newly returned to Costa Rica from Canada where it was minus four degrees, asked me: "How can you possibly describe a day like this in a blog?"

"You really can't," I replied. "Pictures help," I added, while shooting this photo, "but mere words can't really capture the magic of a day like today."

We were relaxing on the lawn after an extravagant Tico lunch of tamales, some kind of rich soup, picadillo, rice, beef loin and tortillas, now awaiting our mini-van to pick us up and haul us to our next stop in this wild tequila-fueled day. Behind us were hundreds of Ticos on the plaza in front of the Catholic Church in downtown Zarcero, a charming mountain town about forty minutes up the slope from Atenas and a few thousand feet higher elevation. They were gathered there for the Patronales Fiesta, another religious celebration in this oh-so-Catholic country, in which Ticos from local barrios parade through town carrying their community's own saint statuette into the big church, there to pay tribute to the higher level saint, in this case San(to) Rafael, patron saint of Zarcero, and by the way, of Atenas as well. Although religious in nature, for some Ticos it's a good excuse to party, with live music, food and craft vendors, caballeros on horseback, kids dressed up as angels, buxom young women in fancy clothes and high heels, carnival rides and a cattle auction. 

Little fellow awaiting his Fate

This excursion was a variation on the regular Sunday hike and after-party that we've been enjoying in recent weeks. Our fearless leader Marcial had come up with the idea to hire a mini-bus for the day and take a drive up the mountain visiting several of the surrounding cities, fitting in our mandatory trek along the way. Our first stop was Zarcero, where we arrived earlier in the day just as the parade was starting up, marchers and saints blocking our way. So we all hopped out of the van and joined the sidewalk crowd as they watched parade participants stroll by.

Besides the beautiful surrounding mountain landscapes, Zarcero's main attraction is the incredible topiary gardens of Francisco Alvarado Park. Carved continuously since the 1960's by artist Evangilisto Blanco from conifer cypress that thrive in the crisp high altitude with its foggy mornings and frequent rains, the trees have been transformed into all sorts of fantasy creatures, from dinosaurs, elephants and birds to monkey faces, turtles and two enormous Alice-in-Wonderland archways leading toward the huge church. It is quite a stunning display of landscape artistry.

Sir Layne against the Dragon

Monkey faces all in a row

Yours Truly in Wonderland

A Green Bird in the gardens

Looking back at Zarcero

We gathered for a picnic breakfast provided by Marcial and Seidy of coffee, French roll and local natilla or sour cream, at a table in the park then wandered off to take photographs, peek into the big church or shop at vendor booths. 

A hillside of farmland

But Marcial's plan for our hike was to take us further up the mountain so we soon headed up the road passing some spectacular scenery along the way: pastoral views of the bulky black-and-white dairy cattle for which the area is famous, patchwork hillsides with agricultural produce in every possible shade of green and small red-roofed Tico houses with horses, goats and chickens running around.

At my request for a bathroom, we stopped at a bar which at first glance appeared to be closed but Marcial worked his magic and we were soon inside where the barista was just setting up for business. Now since it was my need for the baño that had landed us there, I got the blame (or the credit?) for all the craziness that followed but I swear I was hardly the instigator. When I exited the bathroom, I found the whole gang bellying up to the bar for shots of whiskey or  tequila!

The 10:27 a.m. toast!

Laughing at the spontaneous display of decadence, Sue said, "I can't believe it's only 10:30 in the morning and I'm having tequila!" Her husband Chris quickly corrected her: "Oh, my dear, it's only 10:27!"

Unable to resist the mass insanity, I joined in and was soon enjoying a salt-rimmed shot of tequila followed by a pucker-inducing suck on a limón. And since one was so good, most of us had another! Soon Eroca, rather cheery on her second tequila, had dragged our tolerant (and sober) driver onto the dance floor for a little salsa and Layne and I were quick to follow.

The friendly black stallion

As you can imagine, we were all by now laughing hysterically at ourselves but the day's exercise still lay ahead so thanking our hosts for their kindness, we headed out for a leisurely hike down the mountainside through a lightly misting rain. Along the way we petted this beautiful stallion who seemed to want to join us happy humans in our freedom and indeed could have almost stepped over the low wire fence. Looking at the roadside fields in cultivation, we consulted with Seidy on the crops there: broccoli, cabbage, radishes, carrots, all abundant and lush. The operative word, we decided, was fecund -- a bountiful land producing lots of healthy foods.

After a mile or so of walking, someone said they were thirsty and within minutes we had conveniently come upon another bar where we were again welcomed by a friendly bar staff. Without delay we proceeded to add to our tequila quotient with a couple more shots, followed by a beer chaser. Does the word "festive" come to mind? Oh yeah, we were feeling mighty festive.

Boarding the bus after our visit to the cantina, we next stopped at a dairy farm where Marcial talked our way into an up-close-and-personal tour of the place, including the milking room, where poor Marcial got an unplanned spray of cow urine from one of the cows who chose that moment to relieve herself.

Chris (l) and Marcial in harm's way

Off we went once again, this time heading back to Zarcero for lunch but our first stop in town was at an unusual helado (ice cream) shop -- basically just the front step of a home -- for an unlikely but delicious appetizer before our upcoming meal. 

Yours Truly enjoying helado

The Zarcero area is known for its excellent dairy products, especially natilla, the ubiquitous sour cream served with gallo pinto, the national dish of seasoned rice and beans. The lady proprietor of the ice cream shop makes her own natilla and uses it in some of her ice cream specialties, including the fabulous strawberry version I had. Then, as if Fate had planned out our debauched day, she brought out a tray of shots of an utterly decadent homemade liqueur for all of us to try. After indulging in one more jigger of booze, Eroca and Layne demonstrated their inebriated state with this classic pose, which got an enormous laugh from everyone.

Eroca and Layne after one too many!

Following lunch at the Salon Parroquial , we headed back towards Santa Eulalia but not before one more stopover at still another bar, this time with some food to accompany our tequila or beer. Although the ceviche and nachos were less than spectacular, the joy of being in the company of our friends was wonderful. We all recognized what an amazing day it had been and none of us wanted it to end.

Unwilling to part company just yet, everyone except Eroca (who wanted to return to her sweetie Marc) got off the van at Sue and Chris' house for one last hour together. It was a very special day, one we will never forget. Fun and fellowship, laughter and happiness with good friends along with a little -- or a lot! -- of tequila thrown in for good measure sure make for a magical Pura Vida memory.
(And remember, dear readers, you can click on any photo to enlarge it and sort of join the fun!)

Angels and Pit Bulls and Saints! Oh My!

With all the desperately bad news worldwide, it’s hard to muster up the energy or happy state of mind needed to write a blog post. Even here in Costa Rica we’ve had some troubling headlines: a recent 4-day strike by Caja (the national health care program) workers amid word that the Caja is in serious financial straits, and we’ve seen an uptick in crime in Atenas in the form of one home invasion of a Tico family at gunpoint and a few burglaries. Good grief!

Our new home!

But at least we have some good news personally. After weeks of searching, we have finally found the new home we’ve been seeking. We put down a deposit yesterday and will move in September 1st. We can hardly wait to begin enjoying a bigger space with two bedrooms and two baths, the modern open kitchen and great room and our own swimming pool! It’s only partially furnished so we will have to buy some “stuff,” but we got the house at well under market value so we feel pretty pleased with the decision. Best of all is the location: walking distance to town (mostly downhill), on a frequent bus route, slightly higher (i.e., cooler) elevation and friends who live nearby. And as you can see, the place looks like a Mediterranean villa!

It’s very hard to think of leaving our home here and our wonderful landlords -- who have become friends -- but I guess we are somewhat spoiled Gringos and need our “comforts.” More importantly, we very much want to be able to host dinner parties, cocktail get-togethers and pool parties and that’s not easy in our small apartment here. So it’s on to the next adventure.

One of the many things we knew we would miss in moving from here is Roscoe, the friendly pit bull neighbor who has been such a consistent visitor to our front porch during the late afternoon cocktail hour. Lately, we noticed that he had not been around and we have become concerned that he has run off and gotten lost, was stolen or worse. Two young men came by yesterday afternoon with their own pit bulls on leashes and called out to us asking if a dog was missing from here. I said yes and called Eduardo to come speak with them. They talked in animated Spanish about Roscoe for several minutes, although exactly what was said we don’t know. We expect to talk with Odie, our landlady, later today and find out what has befallen him. We are heartbroken to think something bad might have happened. He is such a sweetie. We miss him and hope he comes home soon.

We had quite a surprise last Tuesday as we headed out on our morning walk to town. As we turned the corner onto the main road here in Barrio Los Angeles, Layne and I were surprised to find the street festooned with tall plants and white flowers and energetic Ticas were laying a red carpet up the steps to the church, then further on blue and white angels on posts stretched as far as the eye could see. 

We knew it was a holiday, a religious celebration honoring Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles, also known as La Negrita, the patron saint of Costa Rica. On that day, thousands of devotees make a pilgrimage to visit the Basilica in Cartago dedicated to this religious figure, some walking barefoot carrying rosary beads, or even crawling for many miles to pay respects to their saint. What we didn’t know is that because our small barrio is named for this “Lady of the Angels,” local Ticos go all out in decorating the nearby church and entire neighborhood to welcome the faithful who come here for the holiday instead of trekking all the way to Cartago. And apparently many from Atenas do just that because as we continued into town, foot traffic was all going the other direction, heading to Barrio Los Angeles. In our typical Tico style, we greeted each one with a “Buenos Dias” and a smile, but soon the sheer number of the faithful coming our way made speaking to everyone a bit much. We persevered, however, in honor of Pura Vida, our patron saint. We hope Our Lady of Los Angeles appreciated the courtesy to her followers. 

Update on Roscoe: We learned from Odie a few minutes ago that he ran off and, according to the two young men, is being held at a home nearby. We are hopeful that Eduardo will be able to rescue him when he goes there tomorrow.