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Before I start I have heard from a few of you that my
missives are a little on the bulky side. I will "try"
to reduce my writing and ask if there is anyone who
wishes to be removed from the emailing list. Be warned
I will only ask once. :)
One of the first things my Tico friends told me when I got here was the phrase "pura vida". It means pure life and is used to answer when someone asks how you are. This is apparently a phrase unique to Costa Rica. Of the many things I have been told about Ticos, their reputed disregard of time has not been my experience. Everyone is at work at 8AM or sooner, they all seem ambitious to get ahead in life, and every time plans have been made the people have been more or less on time (same as Canada) with only one exception. Just goes to show, it's not a good idea to generalize about any culture. Since I was paying off first & last month's rent I elected to wait until Sept to get cable TV. (I'm told it's around $50US/month) In the meantime I can watch the national channels all of which are in Spanish. I have noticed that the evening soap operas seem to be set in different time periods than the present. Despite what I have heard, they are not borderline softcore porn, I can't speak for the daytime ones as I working then. I watched an episode of Stargate and a Geena Davis movie (Cutthroat) in Spanish, the voices are amusing compared to the ones I recognize. To fill my time a friend mentioned that there is a used bookstore downtown that buys and sells English books. I have been averaging 3 - 4 books a week and have even branched out from my usual Jane Austen & Charles Dickens fare (very hard to find in Costa Rica) into modern authors like Michael Crichton and John Grisham. The store owner speaks excellent English and is very entertaining, he looks like a musician, not some musty used bookstore owner. Despite that, I have discovered a compelling reason to get cable, a friend of mine in Vancouver recently got a juicy role on an episode of Dead Zone, a new TV series, I don't think it airs there but I have seen a commercial for the series on one of the channels here, hopefully I will catch that episode. There are a number of TV shows aired here that are filmed in Vancouver; Stargate, Cold Squad, Dark Angel, X-Files, Smallville, etc. Some of them are even dubbed in Spanish. I didn't get cable until the end of August, but we have it in the office (the board room TV), probably for the Ticos to watch the soccer, err pardon me, futball (football), games when they are on. Yes, like many Latin American countries they are mad for futball, I won't comment, coming from Canada where we do the same thing for hockey. Okay, some generalizations ring true. I found out that getting cable TV is almost as difficult as getting a phone number, but not as difficult as getting a chequing account. Apparently there aren't enough connections in the condominium complex for all the condos. fortunately my condo has an existing connection in Mercedes name (one of the previous tenants was my boss and she had set it up for him). However I was told it could still take 8 - 10 days, don't ask me why. Well, I guess the cable people are afraid of Mercedes, it took about 8 - 10 hours, they hooked it up the day after she sent the request. My Canadian visitor, Ruth, has been checking out the tours available. She has gone on a 1 day tour to Arenal Volcano (I'm told it's best to take the 2 day one because it is a long trip, 3 - 4 hours one way) which includes lunch and supper. She was lucky enough to see Arenal in the evening on a clear night (a rarity in Costa Rica's summer, yes, it's still north of the equator so we are in summer, despite the rains) from the hotsprings. Also she's tried out the 4 in 1 tour which goes to the Poas Volcano, 2 waterfalls, a boat tour, and a butterfly observatory (and includes breakfast and lunch). She tells me that she has found the site of her future home, beside the hummingbird gardens. Both tours were quite long (11+ hours of travel and tour) but I am told they are quite good. Cost was $75US each. We spent the weekend in Samara, a beach resort on the Pacific peninsula of Costa Rica. To save money we took what we dreaded to be an arduous 6 hour bus ride. Well, the Friday bus wasn't that bad, only marred by the constant rains, but nowhere near as bad as expected. The bus takes the ferry to the peninsula to reduce travel time, unfortunately we didn't know that you needed to get off the bus and purchase a ferry ticket as well (only 30 colones, no big deal), it was sorted out with assistance from Ruth's phrasebook and some semi-frantic hand gestures. The hotel owners (friends of my boss) picked us up at the bus stop. They proceeded to show us our room, then the ocean (in the dark), and the bodega next door where we got some rather tasty chicken burgers. Saturday was rainy all day, a recipe for a dull day at the beach you might think. Not for us, it's amazing how much fun it is frolicking in the ocean in the pouring rain, both the ocean and rainwater were warm. We also discovered boogie boards, now I used to think they were something for children or people afraid of surfing. Boy, was I wrong. Rain or no rain we spent most of the morning trying to ride the waves. It dried up slightly in the afternoon so we struck out for Ruth to do some tourist shopping for souvenirs. I have to mention the lunch we had at one of the resort hotels, the freshest fish grilled with tons of garlic, it was amazing. I was raving about it all weekend. Later I hit the waves again then we relaxed beside the pool. Sunday was a picture perfect blue sky beach day. Yes, I did get a slight sunburn, but it's hard to keep sunscreen (even the waterproof stuff) from washing off in the surf. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant recommended by one of Ruth's travel buddies on one of her tours, very fresh pasta. One note though. If you plan on going there few places take credit cards, most, even the hotels, prefer to take colones or US dollars. I highly recommend the trip out there if you visit. The bus trip back on Monday morning was extremely comfortable, the scenery was lush, and we arrived sooner than expected. |
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