The Quest for Cheese - Una búsqueda de queso

I recently read an article in the Tico Times about a cheese making enterprise in Santa Cruz de Turrialba. The business is called Le Chaudron Artesanal and what caught my attention was one of the cheeses they make - raclette.

We first tasted raclette at the Swiss pavilion at Expo ‘86 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  We enjoyed it so much that we would buy the cheese and have our own raclette meal. We even had an electric tabletop grill designed especially for serving raclette.

Le Chaudron is selling their cheeses at the Auto Mercados, at El Mercadito Azul in Cartago and at the Feria Verde in Aranjuez, San José. We decided to drive to the Auto Mercado in Alajuela to see what varieties of cheese Le Chaudron had there.

Alas, no raclette but we did buy their Petit Blanc Cebollino (green onion) and it was tasty. 

I will keep watching for this brand of cheese goodness. After shopping at Auto Mercado, we drove to Price Smart in Alajuela and picked up a big block of cheddar, some fresh asparagus and mini frozen egg rolls.

 We made a dashcam video of our drive to Auto Mercado and back home.

The dates on the video are incorrect - we forgot to change the settings.

Click on images to enlarge.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - December 2019

During December, visits to this blog were received from the following 15 countries:

The total number of countries from which visits have been received increased to 129 in December, the most recent being Seychelles identified above.  Seychelles is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean off the coast of East Africa. The location of the visit from that country was Victoria (the capital city).

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

When you have lived in Costa Rica for as long as we have, you become acclimatized. Higher outdoor temperatures such as 85°F and above are not as uncomfortable as they felt "up north" where we once lived. Conversely, lower outdoor temperatures such as 60°F and below now feel outright cold in Costa Rica. Up north, such temperatures often felt mild and refreshing, particularly after a long winter.

One of the most miserable weather days that we encountered so far in Costa Rica was in early December. There was 24 hour cloud cover and drizzling rain all day. The high temperature was only 70°F (rare at our altitude). With some big differences, this was reminiscent of experiences with December weather in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada and the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. The differences were that it was happily a one off day. Up north, this kind of weather can prevail day after day ad nauseam in the winter. Also, the high temperatures up north in December can often be very near or below freezing.

With regard to rain, we have now clearly entered the throes of the dry season. There were only a few days in December with measurable rain. In the coming months, that few will likely become less or none at all. The following is a summary of the rainfall amounts in our area for the entire year 2019:

A treat at this time of year is to see the poro trees blooming with their bright orange flowers.

2011 - The Year We Moved to Costa Rica - A Retrospective in Photos

Yesterday - May 31, 2019 - marks the 8th year we have lived in Costa Rica. On May 31, 2011, we flew from San Francisco, to Dallas, to Juan Santamaria Airport in Costa Rica. I can still remember how I felt as we landed - we’re really here! And we’ve never looked back. It’s been a great adventure - so many new things to learn, experiences, new friends, the great beauty of this country - I could go on and on.

So our journey actually began in Cloverdale, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada - a client of Lance’s had visited here and told us we had to visit also because it was such an incredible country. Lance started investigating on line and one thing led to another - we decided to move to Costa Rica. I have documented our journey on this blog since the beginning so I won’t go into all of it again.

But I decided to put together a montage of photos from 2011, and you can see them at here at the bottom of this post. It starts with some final visits with family and friends in British Columbia, getting rid of/selling most of our stuff (Lance’s huge oak desk is shown heading out the door), then moves on to our early morning loading of luggage into our friend Jon Churchill’s car en route to the train station in Vancouver. Jon thought we were crazy but was a great help. We boarded the Amtrak’s Cascade train to Seattle, overnighted there, then caught the fabled Amtrak Starlight Express to San Francisco and then Los Angeles. We got off in San Francisco and spent two nights there ... it’s one of my favourite cities. 

Then on to Dallas, and Costa Rica. We spent a week in San José, the capital city of Costa Rica, to meet with our immigration lawyer. We had previously sent our cat Genny ahead of us using World Pet Travel. Then we moved to Atenas and the rest is history.

Click on this link Costa Rica to view the photos.

Storage Locker - Part 3

On Monday, July 31, 2017, we left our hotel in Abbotsford to drive to U-Pak Storage on Annacis Island, Delta. It would be the first time our locker had been opened in six years. As U-Pak promised, the locker had been moved from indoors to a covered place outside where we could unload our stuff. Here's what it looked like after unlocking the door. A few things had shifted around.

I had packed and wrapped the majority of our belongings in plastic storage bins, which had a number, and everything inside a bin was numbered also. This corresponded to our inventory list. We did not know at the time we acquired the locker if we would be shipping the entire thing down to Costa Rica so the inventory had to be done. That in itself was a major job but it did make things easier when asking family members what items they wanted. I just sent them the lists with descriptions.

From Monday until Friday, August 4, we drove every day from Abbotsford to Annacis Island and spent most of the day there, minus a few hours here and there for other appointments. Our plan of attack was to empty all the bins, unwrap boxed items, etc., and then refill the bins with those items being shipped to family. As each bin was filled, we took it to the UPS store in Surrey for shipping. The owner, our friend Raj, handled everything for us and the final price for shipping five bins to Ontario was quite reasonable.

We used ShredMasters in Abbotsford to dispose of paper and documents.

I had contacted Junk Squad, Inc.  prior to our trip to arrange for pickup and disposal of all items that we no longer wanted. This Canadian owned company will pick up your stuff and either donate it or trash it. They donate to over ten charities. We had quite a bit of good, useable furniture and small appliances so I imagine a lot of it will be reused. Since we had alloted just five days to get rid of everything, there was simply no time to try and sell things ourselves. After six years of not seeing any of our stuff, it wasn't hard to let most of them go. There were a few things we had hoped to bring back to Costa Rica but the four large suitcases and two carryons filled up fast so we left them behind.

What to do with all my paintings? Most were canvas on wooden stretchers, all different sizes - none of them would fit in our suitcases. The solution was to remove the canvases from the stretchers, a tedious job involving removing lots of staples, and rolling the canvases into mailing tubes. I needed four of those. Although the stretchers come apart, simply no room anywhere to carry them home. I brought back only one and am now looking for a source for stretchers here in Costa Rica - so far, no luck. I worried about how the paintings would fare being rolled but they are all in good shape. Coming home on two different airlines, the attendents graciously let me put the tubes in their closet. The overhead storage bins were not a good place for them. I had many, many tubes of high quality paint and art supplies - they came with us. 

No room for the authentic pith helmet or my desktop easel:

We finished on the fifth day, Friday, and that is the day Junk Squad arrived and the job was finally done. The next day, Saturday, we spent shopping for a few things to bring home: smoked salmon, Asian spices, clothing. We went to Canada with two large suitcases and ended up buying a third and U-Pak gave us another one left behind in an abandoned storage locker.

Comments on our trip - so happy to no longer have the burden of the locker and everything in it. The lower mainland: it quickly became boring driving back and forth from Abbotsford to Delta as, really, nothing much had changed in six years. Traffic is so heavy, especially on the freeways. Expensive: gas, food, hotels, restaurants, alcohol. Fifty Canadian dollars gave us only half a tank of gas. Depending on brand, alcohol in Costa Rica is about 50% to 60% cheaper then in British Columbia. I don't smoke, but I noticed that cigarettes are from 55% to 65% less expensive than in B.C.

Airports: mind numbing and exhausting. Do it all yourself: from shlepping six heavy bags onto conveyor belts and then off; checking ourselves partially through immigration with those crazy machines that take your picture and standing in the long, snaking lines to do so; being ordered here and there (and make it quick, please) by uniformed employees - bah! And, get this, in the Houston George Bush airport baggage carts are $5.00 USD each! And we needed two! They are free at Vancouver International. The next time I fly, it will be with nothing more then a carry on.

Airlines: All our flights were fine but - for the amount of money we paid for tickets - all we got was a packet of biscuits and water/juice/pop. We ended up buying a couple of meals on board. Six years ago, from Dallas to Costa Rica American Airlines served hot meals.

It was wonderful returning home to Costa Rica. Huge difference at the airport: all the luggage had been removed from the carousal and neatly lined up. I went to grab a couple of baggage carts. A Costa Rican porter said "no" and off he went only to return with a large wagon type carrier. He loaded all our luggage and we didn't have to lift a finger. He found a taxi for us and loaded all our baggage into it. At our house, the taxi driver unloaded everything - we lifted nothing.  It was the difference between night and day. Clearance through immigration was quick - we now get to use the Costa Rican citizens' lineup (also for people like us with residency). No rubbing shoulders with the touristas.

And this concludes my storage locker epistle.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

"Fifteen minutes of fame" is described as short-lived media publicity. The expression is credited to Andy Warhol, according to Wikipedia.

I had my fifteen minutes of fame last week, when I was contacted by Rogin Ghasemzadeh, Production Assistant, Roundhouse Radio 98.3 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

I was asked if I would do an interview with Kirk LaPointe, on his morning show "Our City".

Rogin told me: "Every morning, Kirk does a callout to Vancouver expats living around the world about their experiences and influences they’ve taken away from Vancouver. We define an expat as anyone who has spent time in Vancouver, knows the city, and can compare the way of life here to the way of life elsewhere. We delve into issues that are top of mind in the place where the expat is now living. The interviewee functions like a casual, conversational correspondent, giving us a local's insight into how the news, or particular cultural events, are playing out in their area. For example, we might talk to someone in Washington D.C. about the American presidential race. We might talk with someone in Hong Kong about recent clashes in the streets with police. We might talk to someone in L.A. about the Oscars. The purpose of this segment is to take advantage of the collective insight of Vancouverites (or former Vancouverites) around the world & deepen the international dialogue on our show."

I, of course, said yes! We did the interview on Skype at 6:00am Vancouver time, 7:00am Costa Rican time. Since we are up and about normally by 4:00am, this was no problem for me.

Here is the interview on 98.3 Vancouver. I am on at around 3:00 minutes, unless you want to listen to the local Vancouver news.

http://omnyapp.com/shows/our-

 

Living Legal in Costa Rica - Part III Addendum

As was indicated in my previous blog entry on this topic, we obtained our original drivers' licenses in Costa Rica when it was possible to do so on presentation of a foreign driver's license (British Columbia, Canada), a passport, and proof that an application for residency in Costa Rica had been made. Our passport numbers had to appear on these licenses because we had not yet obtained cédulas (Costa Rican ID cards).

Then the law changed. Now, you must have a cédula before you can get a Costa Rican driver's license. For some, this leads to the headache of having to leave the country every 90 days in order to keep driving in Costa Rica on the strength of a foreign driver's license. However, unlike ourselves, when these people finally get a cédula and their first Costa Rican license, it will be their cédula number which appears on the license and not their passport number. Later, when it comes time to renew such a license, the renewal process may be more streamlined than in our case. There will be no need for COSEVI to update its records to show a cédula number instead of a passport number.

The upshot is that it may not be necessary to go to a COSEVI office in order to renew a driver's license that already shows a cédula number. There will be no need for a "jefe" to update COSEVI's records. Instead, one should have the option to go to a participating branch of the Banco de Costa Rica which can handle the entire process – payment, photograph, etc. in one sitting. Go here for more information.

We were aware of the Banco de Costa Rica program but did not go to the bank to handle the process because we had visions of being told by the bank to go COSEVI to get the records updated with our cédula numbers, then come back.

 

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Guest Blogger!

I was recently contacted by fellow blogger, Kate, who is currently exploring Costa Rica for several months along with her husband, Shaun.

There are some amazing coincidences regarding this contact:

• Kate and Shaun live in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and my husband Lance was born in Victoria.
• Lance and myself are from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
• Shaun works for the Canadian Coast Guard.
• I worked for the Canadian Coast Guard for 30+ years.
• Shaun is an engineer.
• Lance is an electrical engineer.
• We know some of the same people, yet have never met.
• All four of us are presently in Costa Rica.

Here is Kate's blog entry. It's fun to get a younger and different perspective on Costa Rica. Make sure you go and read her blog and thank you, Kate, for initially contacting me.

"When I first stumbled upon Diana's blog, I was immediately struck by our similarities. We are both from British Columbia, both Diana and my husband have worked for the Canadian Coast Guard, and we are all currently living in Costa Rica. With all of these connections, it goes without saying that I was delighted when I found out I'd be guest posting on her blog.

Unlike Diana, who has settled into a routine within her Costa Rican lifestyle, my lifestyle here is far from routine. I am currently backpacking around Costa Rica for 5 months with my husband. We have been travelling for 6 weeks now, and at this point our 9-5 routine back in Canada seems like a different memory.

So far on our adventure we've travelled up and down the Pacific coast, checking out various surf towns, and having some amazing adventures. We've surfed in Mal Pais, seen the waterfalls of Montezuma, snorkelled in Tamarindo, and danced the night away in Playa del Coco. Despite all of the fun, we have so many places still to explore. We plan on continuing our adventures inland to the volcanos, to the rasta vibes of the Caribbean, as well as popping in to say hello in both Panama and Nicaragua.

Throughout our adventure, we've developed some tips and tricks to travel smart, and get the most out of our Costa Rican adventure. So, I thought I would share a couple with you guys! Here are our current top 5 tips for travelling throughout Costa Rica.

Transportation: Although Costa Rica has a public transit system, we have found that it is challenging to use while lugging around Shaun's surfboard. So, we primarily use shuttles to get around. Spending time to research the various shuttle options can save you both time and money. For instance, it is much cheaper for a larger group to pay for a private shuttle, and a smaller group to join a shared shuttle. It's also important to ask around at different places, and towns to see what your options are. This week, we tried to get a shuttle for the two of us to Mal Pais. In Playa Coco they quoted us $450, yet when we called a company in Tamarindo, they quoted us $120.

Banking: You can rack up a lot of service fees by taking money out of the bank machines here. Many places, especially in touristy towns, have also started charging an extra 10% to use your credit card. We try and balance between both, by limiting how often we use the bank machine, and using our credit card whenever we find out they don't charge the extra fee.

Food: Although the lure of the touristy restaurants can be appealing, the food we love the best is always at the local "sodas". Sodas are often Mom and Pop type restaurants that serve typical Costa Rican food. Casados, Ceviche, Patacones, Gallo Pinto?? You just can't go wrong.

Water: We often see tourists walking around with armfuls of 6L water bottles, because they don't want to drink the water here. At 4 bucks a pop, this can add up over an extended stay. Unlike many Central American countries, the vast majority of the water here is safe to drink. Aside for Mal Pais, we have consumed the water everywhere we've visited, and been just fine. If you are unsure, or concerned, just ask someone who works where you are staying. They'll let you know!

People: As a first time backpacker, I couldn't survive without the knowledge, encouragement and camaraderie of the people I have met while travelling. Lonely Planet, and other guidebooks will only get you so far. Make sure that you talk to people everywhere you go. You never know who you'll meet, what knowledge you'll gain or what sort of connections you'll make. This can be done virtually as well. Blogs, forums, and Facebook groups are great ways to connect with people. Just look at Diana and I, our virtual connection with both her, and you, has already made my trip more memorable!

So there you have it, a couple of basic pointers from us to you. If you ever need any help with your travel plans, or want to read more about my adventures pop by the blog www.hostelsandhotrollers.com. Love to see you there!

A huge thank you to Diana for letting me share my experiences with her readers. It's always wonderful to connect with new people!

Pura Vida!

Kate"

 

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Tuffy Update

Remember Tuffy? He's the cat who moved uninvited into our Cloverdale, B.C., house about six months before we moved to Costa Rica. We became attached to him and he to us so we did not want to just abandon him when we left.

We were bringing our cat, Genny, with us but had no wish to bring a second cat. To the rescue - my niece and her husband in Toronto, Ontario. We air shipped Tuffy to them and he adopted them as his own in no time.

An interesting aside to the Tuffy story - we were convinced Tuffy was female but it turned out he was not!

Here is a recent photo of Tuffy living the very good life in Toronto, Ontario. Thank you, Stephanie and Dave.

Photography: S.J. Kalinowski

 

 

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The Bounty That Is Costa Rica

Before moving to Costa Rica, we lived our lives in various provinces of Canada, ending up in southern coastal British Columbia which, compared to the rest of Canada, is nirvana in my opinion. Temperate climate, mild winters with rain instead of snow (although we would experience snow now and again), early springs (February), fantastic and really fresh seafood all year around, and a wonderful selection of fresh fruits and vegetables when in season. Still, a lot of produce was imported.

Here in Costa Rica, the selection of fresh fruits and vegetables is continuous. Everything has it's season, as in Canada, so some things are available only at certain times of the year. But I can always, always, all year, buy fat red tomatoes, enormous green onions, green beans, chubby spicy radishes, lettuce, cabbage, bananas, plantains, strawberries, cucumbers and on it goes and all grown in Costa Rica.

We have our own banana trees, an enormous mango tree, an orange tree, and also herbs, tomato and sweet peppers that I have planted just because I enjoy doing so. Right now, the mango tree is throwing off hundreds of beautiful mangoes. Our neighbor dried a dozen of our bananas for us, so I have a nice bag of banana chips to snack on. Once the bounty starts, it is difficult to use everything. We give a lot of it away. Our mango tree overhangs the road, so often Ticos driving a truck will stop underneath a big branch and take what they can reach .... they are more then welcome to it. It's a shame for anything to go to waste. Birds, and I also suspect other creatures we never see, also enjoy the fruit. Last year we had toucans in the mango tree.

Orange juice from our oranges

Two kinds of basil

Oregano

 

Tarragon (with the yellow flowers)

 

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Christmas in Atenas, Costa Rica

This will be our second Christmas in Costa Rica and in Atenas. I find the holiday season here a whole lot less hectic than it seemed to be in Canada, even though we had cut back a lot on all the shopping madness during the last few years we lived there.

This year in Atenas, we were fortunate to be asked to participate in a cookie exchange put on by our neighbours Rose Mary and Tony. We came home with nine dozen different kinds of cookies and I never thought we would be able to use them all. Guess what ... they were all gone within two weeks and it wasn't because we gave any away as gifts.

The cookie exchange table.

My contribution was Nanaimo bars, originally created in the lovely city of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. I'm making more tomorrow to give as Christmas gifts to our taxi drivers.

This coming weekend, the Festival of Lights happens in Atenas with the parade on Saturday starting around 6:00 pm. Just go to the park and you will see it. There will be venders in the park selling food,  and, my favorite, light sticks!

Also, Music Atenas is putting on concerts:

This year, we hung lights from our hedge and I also made luminaries from paper bags - so easy. Buy largish size paper bags from your local mercado, add some sand/soil from your garden in the bottom of the bags, roll the tops of the bags down about two times, place tea lights in the sand and light them. Instant and cheap decorations that look good! You can also cut some small designs in the sides of the bags and, instead of using tea lights, small LED lights could be strung through the bags. Of course, this would not work in rainy climates.

Here is a picture of my luminaries: