Lunch - Chirinquitos Del Rio Restaurante & Bar, Grecia, Costa Rica

Today we returned for a second time to have lunch at Chirinquitos Del Rio Restaurante & Bar. I wrote a previous post about our first visit to this restaurant and you can read it here.

The setting above and beside the river is so nice. Because we have had so much rainfall this green season the river was full and running fast. The sound of it is nice to hear.

Their menu is quite extensive and I remembered how large the lunch portions were so this time we decided to order bocas, thinking the dishes would be more snack size and we could try several types.

Well folks, at this restaurant they are definitely NOT pequeño (small) dishes. We started with sangria. Even these are very generous sized. Lance ordered arroz con camarones and gallo de pescado. I too had the gallo de pescado and also the chifrijo de chicharrón, one of my favourite dishes.

Lance’s choices translate to shrimp with rice and breaded fish on a small corn tortilla. Both dishes came with chips and a salad. The rice was loaded with shrimp. My chifrijo is best explained here.

The sangria:

My gallo de pescada (and Lance ordered the same dish):

Lance’s arroz con camarones: 

And my chifrijo:

So, as the photos show, it was a lot of food and we brought a good deal of it home to enjoy tomorrow.

While up at the cashier, we met a customer from the U.S.A. who had brought his beautiful English cocker spaniel to lunch with him and a friend (it’s not unusual here to see dogs and cats in restaurants - some of them live there). Well of course I had to make friends with this doggie, whose name is Junior. Outside at our cars, we had a good chat about what brought us to Costa Rica. He was of like mind and had the same mantra as we do - “if not now, when?”. He was a pharmacist and, while counting out pills every day, he pondered on making the move and then did it. We all agreed that this is our home now and we have no intentions of leaving.

CIMA - Our Experience

CIMA (Centro Internacional de Medicina), San Jose, in the suburb of Escazu, offers high quality medical services in a state-of-the-art facility.

Walking into the main building, it certainly did not look like any hospital lobby I've encountered in Canada. Off to the right was a nice open cafe with real linen tablecloths on the tables. We were early for my appointment, so we had breakfast. They didn't skimp on the fruit plate I ordered!

Unfortunately, the lady I was going to meet who would match me up with a doctor was unable to meet with me, due to no fault of her own. No problem - we were sent to the Public Relations office and the Co-ordinator had an appointment for me in no time. She cheerfully squeezed this unexpected snag into her already busy schedule.

She even went so far as to walk us over to the building where the doctors' offices are and even walked us another block to show us where Aerocasillas was located - another stop on our day's itinerary. We had two hours to wait before my appointment so we took a taxi to the Art Depot, where I bought some more acrylics and canvases. Also had time for bocas in a coffee and wine bar.

The doctor assigned to me was amazing. He spoke perfect English, which is imperative for us right now in a medical setting. He spent an hour and a half with both of us, explaining my condition in great detail, how he planned to treat it immediately and what tests he was planning for the future. I now feel as if I have completed Med Student School 101.

So - we had an hour and a half with a superb physician, an examination, meds - final cost: 45,000 colones or $90 CAD!!!!

Wait! There's more! I have instructions to call him back on Sunday (!)  on his cell phone number and let him know how I'm doing. No doctor in Canada has ever spent this much time with me during an appointment - it was always more like "here's your prescription refill script, see you in 3 months, goodbye". We didn't feel rushed at this appointment. Furthermore, now my husband is involved too - I think that's important.

We highly recommend CIMA.