|
Casa
Rodriguez
We
managed to rent a house for 5 weeks, with hot showers, a full kitchen, two
bedrooms, and a phone for the grand whopping total of $210. The
funny thing is that we thought that we were just renting a
cabin/guesthouse from the Pension Tucan, a hotel run by Carlos and Maria
Rodriguez, only to find out that we were actually renting their
house. They and their two daughters moved into the hotel during our
stay so that they could cash in.
The
result was that we got to live in true Tico style, complete with family
pictures on the walls and roosters crowing around us all day, every day (frickin'
roosters...). We were also about a 30 minute walk from town, which
meant that we were the only gringos within a few kilometers, which was
kind of nice... after all, gringos are gringos.
The
little things
In
keeping with our long standing tradition of listing the little things
about the areas that we've been living in (ok, so we only have one other
entry like this, but we're keeping our tradition and you can't stop us)
here's a few tidbits.
|
Awesome pineapple!
|
- Pinas mas barratas! - I
love me some pineapple, and in Costa Rica, you can get big
whopping ones for about seventy-five cents. I was in
heaven.
- Salsa Lizano - They had
this green sauce, flavored a little bit like curry, that was the
bomb! It went well on the rice and beans that came with
every single meal. I'm thinking that we get exclusive
distribution rights in the states, repackage it as a gourmet
sauce... who wants to be a millionaire?
- Still no TP in the
pooper - I think we are starting to
see a trend emerge in Central and South America. Just like
Guatemala, throwing your used TP into the commode will earn you
a full morning of cleaning up the bathroom floor.
Fortunately, we've only had to experience this vicariously
through others who didn't know the "No TP" rule.
- Rice and Beans and Rice
and Beans and Rice and Beans - Enough
said.
- Fried Plantains
- These were awesome! Plantains are like big bananas,
although they are not very sweet, until you cook 'em. We
usually got them with breakfast... yummmm.
|
-
Water
from the Tap is muy bueno! - We were
thrilled that we could drink water from the tap in Costa Rica
everywhere we went. Laurie had to whack me with a broom to get
me to stop turning the water on and off in the kitchen when we first
learned that we didn't have to buy bottled water everywhere we went.
-
"Pura
Vida!" - Literally, Pura Vida means
"Pure Life" and it is used kind of like
"cool." A good person or thing can be described as
pura vida ("Juan es pura vida") and it can be used when
someone asks how you are doing ("Como estas?".... "Pura
Vida!").
-
Guaro
- Guaro is the local firewater, made out of sugar cane, but which is
consumed, and tastes a bit like, tequila. We tried it, but
fortunately resisted the temptation to overindulge.
-
Flor
de Caņa - A Nicaraguan rum that was very
popular in Costa Rica, with a bit of an interesting history... story
goes like this (don't know if it's true): good ol' Ollie North
is runnin' drugs and arms and what not to the Nicaraguan death squads,
I mean, Freedom Fighters, and his guys on the ground needed a cover
story. So, the CIA (or whichever three-letter acronym secret
agency it was) buys a rum company and runs it as a business to launder
the money coming into Nicaragua. Problem was that the rum
absolutely sucked. So, expert rum makers were brought in and the
operation started churning out really good rum. While the whole
Arms-Contra thing has faded away, Flor de Caņa has not, and it is
pretty damn good. Unfortunately, we did overindulge on several
occasions, and I'm pretty certain the hangovers we suffered were
harsher than the slap on the wrist Ollie and his good buddy the Gipper
received for lying like dogs and breaking scads of federal and
international laws which resulted in the deaths of countless
Nicaraguans. And to think they made such a big deal over an fat,
loose intern in the next administration... tsk..tsk..tsk...
- Tica
- This little kitty shows up one day, and despite being thin,
has a rather noticeable belly. A quick check assured us
that this was a female cat, and that somewhere out there was a
little boy cat who must have been pretty proud of himself for
having slipped one past the goalie. We nicknamed her Tica
(not very original given that everyone in Costa Rica is either a
Tico or Tica) and she came to see us pretty much every
day. Three days before we left, Tica must have had her
litter because she showed up with a very slim girlish
figure. We told her to be more careful next time.
- Insects
- Costa Rica has a lot of damn bugs. I won't list all of
them, but two notable entries are the Asthma Beetles which
Laurie and John both ate, and the "Mule of the Devil"
(we call them "Walking Sticks" in the US).
Here's a snapshot of the little bugger...
- Colones - Money in Costa
Rica is called a Colon, and there are about 360 Colones to the
US Dollar the time of this writing. I was thrilled at one
point when I got some money out of the ATM and it reported back
that I had an available balance in the millions! YAHOOO!!!
Then I realized that it was in colones. Ay! Carumba.
Easy come, easy go.
Fun
time!
We
really worked our butts off on the site during our time here, and there's
nothing wrong with blowing off a little steam at the end of a hard work
week! Here's some shots of our Saturday Night Stogie (a new
tradition... we'll see how long it lasts) and our favorite watering hole,
a little place called Bar Amigos.
|
 |
|
Our pregnant little
friend, John...
|
|
I mean, Tica.
|
 |
| Mulo del
Diablo |
 |
 |
| Saturday night stogies |
Bar Amigos with our
amigos & a bottle of Flor de Cana rum |
|
|
