Eating Out - Grecia and Atenas, Costa Rica

Recently, we have been enjoying having lunch with friends at restaurants here in Grecia and also in Atenas, where we used to live.

We met our Canadian friends, Diane and John, at Casa Nostra in Grecia. We couldn’t find this restaurant the first time we tried to go there. It has two spellings of its name: Casa Nostra and Casa Nosstra - why, I do not know. We were trying to find the “Nosstra” version on Waze but it only showed “Nostra” and so we gave up trying. Yes, I know - why didn’t we go to “Nostra” and see if it was the right place? It was raining and the traffic that day, for some reason, was really bad. Tried again another day using the “Nostra” name and were successful.

The menu uses “Nosstra”.

Like many homes/buildings in Costa Rica, you can’t judge a place by looking at the outside.The restaurant is east of a public pool and a special needs school in Grecia, down a very narrow road that dead ends at an ICE works yard. ICE stands for Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad - the country’s government run electricity and telecom services provider. When the gate is closed, it looks like nothing special at all. However, once the gate is opened and you drive in to park, the view is lovely.

The restaurant is open sided, like many in Costa Rica, so you get the nice breezes. Service is excellent and so was the food we ordered. 

Margaritas!

My order - shrimp, rice and a beet salad.


Lance had shrimp in rice with the beet salad and fries. The fries were so good - coated in a batter of some kind.


John ordered this and I can’t remember what it was - hearts of palm? Diane had a pasta dish that she said was very tasty.

We returned a second time with our other Canadian friends, Jean and Mike, and everything was as good as we remembered.

Then our next food foray was to El Fogon Campesino in Atenas. We used to have breakfast here and the omelettes were terrific. We were there for a reason and that was to meet with our friend Tom who lived in Atenas for a number of years but then moved to Georgia. He was here on business. John and Diane and Tony and Rosemary (our former neighbours) also joined us.

Everything is cooked over wood fire, in the old campesino way that food is prepared. 

Our friend Tom.



Here is what I ordered - a seafood soup or sopa de mariscos. Whenever I see this on a menu I always get it. 

Lance and John both ordered the Caribbean chicken (pollo caribeño). Those are plantains on the left, chicken and salad in the middle, and patacones on the right. I like how everything is served on banana leaves.


Tom’s dish - rice with chicken? Not sure.




There are so many places to eat out in Costa Rica. 

Sold #2!!

In a previous post, I had mentioned that one of my paintings had sold to a Costa Rican and his wife, who reside in Atlanta, Georgia. Here is that painting - “Colores de Costa Rica”:

While browsing through my art web page, they saw “Vanilla the Cow” and decided to buy this also:

Raul and Angela flew down here to pick up their paintings. We had them over for lunch and it was so nice meeting the both of them. They were able to look at the paintings I have in my inventory and decided to buy “Blast Off”!

Here are “Colores” and “Vanilla” framed and hanging in their new home in Atlanta, Georgia:

Wait! There’s more! Raul may be having a print made of “Colores” to hang in the Costa Rican Consulate in Atlanta. He said the painting represented his home country so well.

It’s an honour to have people like my work enough that they purchase them and then display them in their homes.

Photo references: “Colores” and “Blast Off” are from my own photographs. “Vanilla the Cow” courtesy of Andy May.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - November 2019

During November, visits to this blog were received from the following 16 countries:

The following is a summary of weather for the month in the area where we live:

Compared to October, the amount of rain and the number of days with measurable rain in November was significantly less. This was one signal that the rainy or "green" season in Costa Rica was coming to an end.  Another was the occurrence of several days in succession where the weather was more characteristic of the upcoming dry season: relatively clear skies, low humidity, and breezy winds providing a cooling effect.

In my post regarding the weather in October, I mentioned that high and low temperatures are measured in a fully shaded area of our property. I also mentioned that the temperatures on our partially shaded patio where we spend much of our time tend to be 5 to 10 degrees (°F) higher. I did not say anything about temperatures inside our house and this raised some questions.

We do not record temperatures inside our house. However, I can say that daytime highs inside are normally cooler than outside highs (whether measured in the shade or on our patio) and overnight lows inside are normally higher than outside lows. This normality is achieved by leaving doors and windows open during the day and closed during the night. We have been obliged to turn on a cooling fan only on rare occasions.

At the Dentist

As I have previously mentioned, we have an excellent dentist here in Grecia - Dr. Marco Vega Quesada. Again, here is his card:

His modern office is located near POPS on the second floor and across from the central park and cathedral. A plus is that he is bilingual, although his office staff is not. He also works at our Grecia Caja hospital, San Francisco de Asis. He and all his staff are so personable, kind and caring. Great view of the park from the treatment rooms.

I had my third visit with him this Wednesday for gum surgery. All my appointments so far have been late afternoon (4:30 pm). This means that quite often it is dark when I leave his office (this being the tropics after all). We don’t drive in the dark so Lance drops me off and I taxi home. Reasons for not wanting to drive in the dark: narrow, winding roads; few if any sidewalks and lack of shoulders; people, dogs, chickens walking on the roads, lack of street lights and so on. Obviously not all of Costa Rica is like this, but it is in our area and we prefer to leave the driving to the taxis. 

This particular appointment was over an hour long and I left with a mouthful of stitches and cotton batting on one frozen side, instructions to rest, avoid the sun, don’t drink hot beverages and take the prescribed medications. It was dark out by now.

So here’s the funny part. There’s a large farmacia (pharmacy) near his office and the taxi stand. In I went, handed over my script and was handed back a pack of pain killers, mouth spray and a large needle with vial! I thought ... am I supposed to inject myself? That’s for sure not going to happen. Then I remembered - in Costa Rica pharmacies provide a lot more services then just dispensing pills and selling shampoos. They will also give injections.

So I was motioned into the back of the farmacia, had my blood pressure and heart rate recorded, then into another room - up on the table and the deed was done. I’m assuming the shot was antibiotics - the doctor explained everything to me but I think I missed that part so I was kind of shocked when I saw the “giant” needle. Poor Lance - I had phoned him to say I was not yet in a taxi but in a farmacia waiting to have a shot of some kind, but I couldn’t talk very well with the freezing and batting or even explain why this was going to happen to me. I was a bit addled!

Anyway, taxi home and I got to see all the wonderful Christmas light displays on the houses in our neighbourhood.

Expatriate Archive Centre

Recently, the Expatriate Archive Centre (EAC) in The Hague, Netherlands, invited me to join their Blog Archiving Project. They believed my Costa Rican blog would be an important resource for researchers and academics and, therefore, a valuable addition to their archives.

Needless to say, I was very flattered that they found my blog and asked if I would agree to be a part of their project and of course I said yes.

The Expatriate Archive Centre is a home for expat life stories. They collect and preserve life stories of expatriates worldwide for future research. Although they are located in The Hague, their outreach is worldwide. Their collection includes documents about lives of people far away from home. They have over 130 family archives dating back to the late 19th century.

You can find more information on their Blog Archiving Project on their website here: https://xpatarchive.com/initiatives/eac-blog-archive/. It is quite interesting reading about this project.

So there you have it - I write my little stories about our life here in Costa Rica and now they will be archived! Quite amazing.

Club Aleman de Costa Rica - Expo Fair

This past weekend - November 16 and 17, 2019 - the Club Aleman de Costa Rica (German Club of Costa Rica) held an expo fair at the National Convention Center in Alajuela.

Fifty plus companies were exhibiting - offering food, drink and crafts of German origin. In addition, there was an exhibition of services related to the economy and cultural exchange between Germany and Costa Rica. As an aside, there are many different clubs in Costa Rica for the expat - Canadian, USA, British, Dutch and Italian as examples.

We had been wanting to see the convention center so decided to go. Freeway traffic on this Sunday was good - but it can be a nightmare during the week. 

The grounds are beautifully landscaped:

These beauties are Dietes iridioides. The flowers last just one day:

One of the booths:

Too early for beer but you could get it:

There were booths selling chocolate, coffee, Christmas ornaments, sausages on buns, and all sorts of products - we decided on pretzels with spicy mustard. When I saw a fellow selling smoked fish, I had to stop. Here is his card:

It was trout he had smoked and it looked really tasty. So we bought trout, cream cheese with spinach and smoked trout mixed in, and a very nice green sauce to go on the fish. The sauce is made with honey, mustard, spinach, dill and balsamic vinegar. 

Not inexpensive but some things in life are worth a little splurge. Bruno lives in Escazu and he said if we wanted to get more, give him a call and we can visit him at his house. I guess that is where he does the smoking.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - October, 2019

In October, visits to this blog were received from the following 14 countries:

The following is a summary of  weather for the month of October in the area where we live:

As expected, the rainy season continued in October. While there was at least some rain on most days, there were only 3 days without measurable rain. However, the total amount was less than that in September which had 9 days without measurable rain.

High and low temperatures were generally within the norm for October. However, it should be noted that these temperatures are measured in a truly shaded area of the property. There is no direct sunlight and reflected sunlight is minimal. On our patio which is partially shaded and where we spend a lot of our time, daily highs occasionally can be 5 to 10 degrees (°F) more than in the truly shaded area.

Nevertheless, higher temperatures on the patio are typically accompanied by significantly lower humidities than those in the truly shaded area. The result, if the measured temperature is 80 degrees or more, is a "feels like" temperature comfortably less than the measured temperature.

Asparagus, the Feria and the Soda

I’ve been on the hunt for fresh asparagus. Some expats have said they have found it at their ferias so we decided to see if anyone at our Grecia feria was carrying it today.

First order of the day - breakfast. We went to El Restaurante Griego, a soda run by a father, a mother and their son. It’s 100 m. north of the Peri Mercado and right on a corner. It is very popular with Costa Ricans, so one gets a taste of daily Costa Rican life. Another plus is that it opens early in the morning. The food is very good, typical soda food, and the prices so reasonable. While we were there, a lot of take out orders were being called in.

But I think what really makes this restaurant are the owners. They are so friendly and personable and you will be greeted with a handshake on arrival and  the usual pleasantries are exchanged - how are you? Fine, thank you. And you? All is good. But it is in Spanish: ¿Como estas? Bien, gracias. ¿y usted? Todo bien. The owner has some English. It’s our favourite soda.

Here’s the menu (photo by Brian Cordoba on Google Maps):

I had the omelette and gallo pinto, but I asked for just a small portion of the pinto. Lance had two eggs and gallo pinto but his serving was huge, took up half the plate. Impossible to finish in one go so we asked for take away (para llevar) and you can see below how much was left. It will feed the both of us tomorrow morning, with bacon and eggs. Our tradition is to have bacon, eggs and waffles on Sundays. We’ll skip the waffles this time.

Off to the feria. I so enjoy going to these weekly markets. Grecia’s is open on Friday from noon to 8pm and on Saturday from 4am to 1pm. Closed the rest of the week. First stop was a stand selling leather goods, purses, etc. Lance bought a new belt. Then we wandered around searching for asparagus - but nobody was carrying it. You can buy just about anything here - meats, breads, all manner of tropical fruits and vegetables, clothing, dairy products, sodas (the eating places) and so on. Plus it’s such a lively setting. We enjoy interacting with the sellers, some of whom speak English.

Here is what we purchased - red peppers, green beans, sixteen eggs and tamales. Two tamales tied together are called a piña.

Strawberries, Breakfast, Cows and Poas Volcano

On the recommendation of a friend, we decided on Friday to visit Bosques de Fraijanes - a recreational park on the slopes of Poas volcano.  The park has a lake and forests and hiking is popular. Another reason for a visit was to buy the luscious strawberries that are grown in the area. 

We left our house around 0730 - we wanted to have breakfast in the Fraijanes area. Freddo Frescas was recommended but instead we stopped at Restaurante Tipico de Fraijanes. It was open and had lots of parking available so in we went. We were not disappointed.

It’s a very large restaurant and the interior is beautiful. I think it caters to a lot of tour groups and tour buses going up to Poas volcano.

The menus are in English or Spanish. We always choose Spanish because it forces us to read and order in Spanish. We no longer have much trouble doing this but if we get stuck, I have a translator on my phone. Our server was really nice.

We both ordered mora batido con leche and a desayuno tipico (typical Costa Rican breakfast). The mora is a fruit similar to blackberries and a batido is similar to a smoothie but you can have it made with milk or with water. We had ours with milk. Lance also ordered a coffee.

This breakfast was excellent. Starting from the left and going clockwise - two eggs, slice of local white cheese, toast, plantains and lastly the gallo pinto. I thought this gallo was really tasty but, as usual, the quantity defeats me and I can never finish the portion. This version had nice big pieces of cilantro in it. Total cost: 11,000 colones (about $18.84 USD). You can get similar breakfasts for less at the sodas but, as I said, this restaurant probably caters to tourists so the prices would be a bit higher.

A view from our table. Dark clouds were starting to come in. Sure enough, as we left the restaurant it started spitting rain.

Hydrangeas everywhere and always blue because of the soil.

Off we went to find the park and strawberries. At an elevation of between 3000 to 4000 ft., almost in the cloud forest, strawberries grow very well. The volcanic soil, temperature and the annual rainfall all contribute to big juicy berries. Coffee is another crop grown in this area. I’ve seen both strawberries and coffee grown under shade cloths. 

I’m not sure what’s under these shade cloths - strawberries or coffee, sometimes it’s tomato plants.

We found beautiful berries at a shop along the way. 2 mil for this container (2,000 colones, about $3.40 USD). I’ve seen much smaller sizes in our local grocery stores for a higher price and not as good looking.

We found the park but decided not to go in because of the rain. We’ll leave this visit for the dry season. The area around Poas is absolutely stunning. Dairy cows thrive here because of the cooler temperatures. Here is a cow tied up to a fence outside the field so she could eat the fresh green grass that was there. Several other cows were also tied up and none of them were bothered by the traffic going by or by me taking photos.

Breakfast was so good and the strawberries a real treat that we are going to make going to the Poas area a more regular occurrence. After all, it’s only about a 45 minute beautiful drive from our house.

Dental Visit

Since moving to Grecia from Atenas, we have been looking for a new dentist. On the recommendation of several expats in Grecia, we decided on Dr. Marco Vega Quesada. The reasons for this are that he speaks English, and is young which to me means he is up on all the newest treatments and has the latest equipment. Yes, yes - I know - my Spanish should be better but when it comes to dental/medical I prefer to converse in English so I don’t misinterpret anything important. Here’s his business card:

His offices are across from the cathedral and central park on the west side. The cathedral faces west (as do most churches here apparently) so you can orientate yourself that way. Dr. Vega is on the second floor of the building that also houses Pops ice cream and Kentucky Fried Chicken on the first floor. These are completely normal directions for Costa Rica.

He has a really nice receptionist and a small waiting room. There are three treatment rooms. Today I went for a cleaning and a consultation. The first treatment room I was in looked out onto a balcony and the park. They don’t skimp on air conditioning and I was told they would give me a blanket if I was too chilly. All the equipment was modern. Dr. Vega did the cleaning with help from an assistant. They work fast. Then it was off to another treatment  room for the x-rays.

Final cost for the cleaning, which included the x-rays, treatment assessment, polishing and a fluoride treatment - 40,000 CRC or about $70 USD.

My next appointment is in November to start the work for replacement of a crown (estimate, if I remember correctly, was less then 300,000 CRC or less then $520 USD.) And then we will go on from there.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - September 2019

In September, visits to this blog were received from the following 27 countries:

This is the second month in a row where the total number of countries was unusually large. Also, the total number since November 2012 has increased to 128, the most recent being Kazakhstan identified above. The source of the one visit from Kazakhstan was not identified. The connection was probably by satellite internet.

The following is a summary of the weather for the month of September in the area where we live:

September and October are typically the worst months of the rainy season in Costa Rica. September was no exception. During the month we had two significant deluges - one on September 4 and the other on September 20, the latter of which produced a one day record downpour for the current year - over 3 inches (8 cm).

But, the deluge on September 4 which produced only about half the amount of rain on September 20 was even more remarkable. It was accompanied by very high winds. For a short time, the rain was literally blowing and whirling around sideways. The wind knocked over chairs and other stuff on our patio - almost like a mini tornado. Worse, it managed to drench and destroy the normally sheltered outdoor component of our digital thermometer. To keep outdoor records for the days which followed, we had to use the indoor component of the thermometer.

As of September 15 we received a new weather monitoring system. It not only measures and records high and low indoor and outdoor temperatures and humidities on a daily basis but also records rainfall on a daily, previous day, week, month, and all time basis. The "previous day" feature is great. In the past, we used a simple plastic tube rain guage. Consequently, some records for a given day might have included rainfall from late the previous night.