Christmas in Costa Rica - 2020

This is our ninth Christmas spent in Costa Rica and our second Christmas at our house in Grecia. We our now experiencing the dry season with nice strong trade winds, mostly blue skies and nice warm temperatures in the afternoons. Nighttimes are cool (61F!) so easy sleeping.

Because of Covid-19, most public seasonal activities have been cancelled. The Grecia park has been reopened and decorated for the holidays, so people can enjoy that - following protocols of course. The park and the cathedral are the heart of Grecia and this is true of all Costa Rican towns.

The municipality has created a Santa convoy and they have been driving around the different neighbourhoods all week, throwing candy out to the kids. Today we ended up at the tail end of one of them while out and about.

We don’t put up a Christmas tree or decorations but every year we have our driftwood tree with lights (made by our friend Pete) and a little lighted polar bear (came with our house) outside. Some of our neighbours put on elaborate displays. 

It seems to be orchid flowering season, as least for some of my orchids. My epidendrum stamfordianum produced an amazing display this year.

And a couple of other different species have put out inflorescences (flower stalks) so I look forward to enjoying their flowers.

Mature coffee beans (aka red cherries) are presently being harvested through to about March. And the sugar cane is flowering now. The flowers are a beautiful pale pink mauve shade and the undulating, waving fields of sugar cane are beautiful.

Flor Maria, our housekeeper once every two weeks, created this gorgeous flower display for us this week. She used flowers that grow all around our house. She has a florist’s eye and this was a lovely surprise for us. 

To all my friends/readers of my blog - we wish you the very best for this holiday season. 2020 has been a tough year for so many. Please - wear your masks and wash your hands. Keep your distance. I believe that 2021 will be much better.

Here’s a little painting I did of a Christmas Brahman calf. Thanks to Beeche Brahmans, Costa Rica, for letting me use their photo as a reference.

(Click on photos to enlarge).

The Craziness! How to Cope At Times in Costa Rica!

In my last post, I talked about our Subaru breaking down on us and being hauled off to our mechanic, Carlos.

So we don’t have a vehicle right now. And tomorrow, Wednesday, is going to be so busy. Our housekeeper, Flor Maria, doesn’t live far from us. Normally, she walks to our front gates and phones me and I drive down to pick her up. Then I drive her home when she is finished work.

Well, I can’t do that tomorrow so I texted her and asked her if she could take a taxi to and from our house and we would reimburse her for that cost. No problem. One down.

Number two: our side by side refrigerator broke down the other day. Our landlord, Rodrigo, arranged for a repairman to come to our house on Wednesday afternoon (or so I thought). Tonight, Tuesday, I get a phone call from Rodrigo saying “open the gate” (we can open and close the gates with our phones). I thought, Rodrigo what are you doing here at this time of night? He lives in San Jose.

He was in San Jose, phoning me and asking me to open the gate for the refrigerator repairman. The repairman looked at everything, asked me to unplug the refrigerator in the morning to defrost the freezer. And he would return at 10:00 am tomorrow. Okay, so now the repairman and our housekeeper will have to figure out how to work around each other.

Number three: I have an appointment at our EBAIS tomorrow at 1:00 pm for a routine ECG. I will have to arrange for a taxi to get me there and back. No problem - I have taxi connections. EBAIS is our assigned medical clinic. There are similar clinics all over Costa Rica.

Number four: We need some groceries... I can do an online order with Compre Bien but I don’t know when they will arrive with the order. Also I don’t know what to order until the refrigerator is fixed. No point in buying perishables if the cooling unit doesn’t work.

Today was quite wacky .. we only have one egg left for breakfast tomorrow!

The Kindness of Costa Ricans

Like the proverbial stubborn mule, our Subaru refused to move another step as we were driving home from grocery shopping yesterday.

Here is where she decided that enough was enough:

 Waze put us as being stranded on Invu 3, Rincón de Arias - not far from Carlos, our mechanic.

Lance was able to reach Carlos who arranged for a tow truck (flatbed truck here) to bring our reluctant vehicle to his shop. The only issue was how long that might take. It turned out to be quite a while.We were stranded in a nice area, with houses on the left of the street and sugar cane fields on the right. Lance had guided the car to a space under a large tree so we were in shade.

Not much to do but hang around the car and wait. A fellow walking along the sidewalk stopped and asked us if we needed help and what our problem was. He indicated he lived not far down the road and if we needed anything to just ask. We told him help was on the way but we didn’t know exactly when.

About half an hour later, he returned - concerned about where our tow truck was. Not long after that, another fellow turned up on a bicycle. According to Jorge (that was our Good Samaritan’s name), this person worked on vehicle air conditioning systems. Then, another mechanic who lived on this street appeared. They all disappeared under the hood of our car.

Men doing man stuff:

The tow truck arrives:

More men looking into the engine area. This is our vehicle parked near our mechanic’s shop. They later pushed it across the street and into the garage.

Jorge said he would drive us to Carlo’s shop and he did. He said the next time we were driving on this road to stop by his house and have a coffee. In previous posts on my blog, I have related how Costa Ricas have stepped up to help us when we are having problems. This has happened time and time again and they never ask for anything from us.

We’re going to go to the feria this weekend and buy a big bunch of nice flowers for Mrs. Jorge. It’s a way to say thanks without making anyone feel awkward. This was Lance’s idea and it’s a good one.

(Click on photos to enlarge).