Costa Rican Restaurant in Chicago, U.S.A.

Check this out - a Costa Rican restaurant in Chicago! It’s named Irazu, Irazu being Costa Rica’s highest active volcano at 11,200 ft (3,432 m). We have been there and it is so cold at the top.

Irazu Restaurant was also featured on the Food Network show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The episode is here.

So, if you are in Chicago or planning to be - try this restaurant out for a taste of authentic Costa Rican cuisine.

Annona Squamosa and a Hindu Buffet

We recently bought fruit at Super Rosvil that I did not recognize and had never tried. It was so odd looking that I simply had to buy it (just one since I didn’t know what it was). The sticker on it said “anona”. A Wiki search told me it was the fruit of the annona squamosa, a small tree or shrub that grows in the tropical Americas and the West Indies.

It is delicious. You just scoop out the flesh and spit out the largish seeds, same as eating a watermelon. I’ll be looking for more of this fruit.

When we lived in the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, British Columbia, we had access to so many different cuisines. One of our favourites was food from India, which mostly were the kind of dishes found in northern India. I was never able to find a restaurant that served food from southern India or Goa but perhaps that has changed. When I saw this ad, I immediately made reservations. It appears that the food will be prepared by the Taj Mahal restaurant and the Naans & Curries restaurant. We’re really looking forward to this brunch.

Sarchi, Costa Rica

Earlier this week, we decided to take a morning drive to Sarchi - 12.1 kms from our house in Hacienda El Paseo, Puenta de Piedra, Grecia.

Sarchi is the capital city of the canton of Valverde Vega in Alajuela province and is 1000 m/3000 ft above sea level. It’s a beautiful drive through winding, climbing roads surrounded by coffee fields. Sarchi is a key artisan town famous for woodworking - wooden bowls, folding rocking chairs of wood and leather (we have one at our house), furniture of all kinds. This is where the carretas (oxcarts) are elaborately painted by hand and for which Sarchi and Costa Rica are famous. The oxcarts were originally used to haul coffee and other goods from the highlands of the central valley down to the Pacific ports.

Our green/rainy season is a good time to travel around. The mornings are mostly sunny and warm, with rain falling later in the day (or not at all). Everything is lush and thick with growth. Since it’s the off season, there are not many tourists around. Not far from Sarchi itself, we stopped at Fabrica de Carretas Joaquin Chaverri, the oldest oxcart factory since 1903. This is a tourist site with many tour buses arriving every day during the dry season. We were the only ones there at our visit so it was nice to stroll around without the crowds.

I think Fabrica de Carretas have recently renovated their site, which was huge to begin with. They did a good job, with beautiful murals on the inside and outside. A mural artist was painting inside when we were there. The gift shop is very large, and the prices are reasonable for most things. Marked prices are in U.S. dollars but they will convert to colones if asked, as I did.  I drooled over the leather purses, gorgeous. There are beautiful handmade wooden items and we ended up buying a carved wooden sea turtle and a wooden key ring for our car keys. At the back there is a lovely garden. I think this is also  the area where you can see oxcarts being made and painted and there may also be a restaurant - we didn’t go back there this time.

Heading back home, we got roads mixed up a few times (few or no signs!) but it didn’t matter. We have all the time in the world to putter around.

Beautiful carved oxcart.

Painted oxcart.






Incredible details on the murals.


The light across the iguana is from the sun.

Sugar Cane Production, Costa Rica

Sugar cane is a vital part of Costa Rica’s economy and it seems that no part of it is wasted. It is made into granulated sugars (white, refined, white special, raw). The canes can be burned for heat, processed into agricultural mulch, and the stalks used in cardboard and rough paper. It is used in ethanol production. And let us not forget guaro - some say the national liquor drink of Costa Rica!

In the 2016 season, there were 7,074 sugar cane producers and 13 sugar mills around the country. Where we live now, we are surrounded by hectares of sugar cane fields. When the cane is flowering, the effect is beautiful - fields of white flowers.

Harvesting involves burning the fields before cutting to get rid of dry leaves and venomous snakes. This is important for the safety of the cane cutters. The cutting is done with machetes or cane knives and it looks to be very hard work.

The Cacique brand of guaro is produced near Grecia. Here’s an informative article on guaro: Tico Times.  Learn how sugar is processed in the mills from Sugarcane.Org.

We often find ourselves behind a tractor pulling cane trailers headed for the mills. There is a sugar cane mill not far from us and we stopped there one day to watch what was going on. I made a video of the mill, including photos of the cane fields and the Cacique factory.

Grecia, Costa Rica, Countryside

Today we decided to drive some of the roads that lead out of and into our nearby town of Grecia. We meandered around, climbing ever higher. We drove through many small towns. I’ve seen pictures of Switzerland and what we saw today looked a lot like some of the photos. Perfectly manicured fields with dairy cows. The air was cooler than where we live. 

Hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoyed our drive today.

Snake Encounter

In the seven years we have lived in Costa Rica, I have seen only two live wild snakes. One was a false coral - which I wrote about in a previous post some years ago - and yesterday I saw a live fer-de-lance or terciopelo as it is known here.

It was in the middle of the road just outside our laneway and our condominium complex guard was trying to convince the snake to move off the road and into the jungle area across from our house. He managed to eventually do this without harm to the snake. It was so amazing to actually see a fer-de-lance and this one was large. They are, however, not pet worthy. Here is what Wiki has to say: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bothrops_asper.

I made a video of our guard encouraging the snake to move off the road. He was able to do this without harm to himself but, really, these snakes are so dangerous.

Here is a screen snapshot of part of the video. You can see the snake with wide open jaws.