Jorge's Wedding

Recently, we were invited to the wedding of Jorge and Fabiola, held on Saturday, November 23, 2013, at Iglesia Los Angeles, 5:00 pm. Jorge is one of our regular taxi drivers and also our friend.

What to wear? I had brought a navy, silk, sleeveless dress with me when we moved here from British Columbia and had sandals to match. The dress needed a wash and an airing out after having been hanging unused for two years but it was perfect for this occasion.

Lance, too, already had the perfect clothes in his closet - lightweight and light colored trousers and an ivory colored shirt worn untucked, very much like embroidered dress shirts that men wear here for special occasions.

Jorge asked that guests not give presents, but money which was fine with us - made things much easier. An envelope was included with the invitation for this purpose. He has already built his house and will use the money to buy exactly what he and Fabiola want/need.

Jorge and his parents arrived first, as well as three pretty little “bridesmaids” (not sure what they would be called here) and lots of guests. Jorge walked around the church greeting guests, shaking hands, while awaiting his bride. When it was time for him to walk up to the altar, his parents walked on each side of him with firm grips on his elbows. They were followed by the little bridesmaids. There was no best man.

Then Fabiola was walked up the aisle with her parents on either side of her. She looked lovely, in a long, white dress with veil pinned at the back of her hair and trailing behind. At the altar was a bench for Fabiola and Jorge to sit on, decorated with her colours - mauve and white netting. The wedding invitation had a mauve ribbon on it and the lettering was mauve. Our friend and neighbor, Rose Mary, offered me a selection of English wedding cards to choose from and by coincidence one had a bridesmaid wearing a mauve dress so we chose that. She thought they might like to have a wedding card in English and it was a good idea.

There was a singer with a lovely voice. Of course, the service was all in Spanish but we caught a few words here and there. Costa Rica is a Catholic country so obviously this was a Catholic service. We just watched what everyone else was doing and stood and sat down when they did. A Tico acquaintance sitting in front of us helped us out also.

Then they were officially married and so began the “night of the photographs”. Jorge and Fabiola stood patiently while everyone in the church had their picture taken with them. Once that was done, everyone went to “en casa de Familia Castro (Guizaro)” which turned out to be a large, open sided facility obviously built to be used for parties, receptions, etc. We were given a lift by one of Jorge’s family members.

It was beautifully decorated for the reception. There were nine tables and the head table and we reckon there were about 100 people there. There was a DJ, a bubble machine and a smoke machine. We were assigned to table 9, which seemed to consist of a lot of Jorge’s relatives. A fellow sitting across from us spoke some English and he introduced us around. When Fabiola and Jorge arrived, a toast was given, she had a dance with her father (Mario), and Jorge danced with his mother-in-law. Then off the two of them went to spend most of the night having their pictures taken. A wooden swing had been decorated with lights, they sat in it, and the photographer had all his equipment set up.

Appetizers were served to each table. I had a juicy piece of pork on a small corn tortilla and a yuca fry. There was wine for the toast but, after that, most people drank soft drinks or beer. Each table was called in turn to go out to where the happy couple were and, yes, have their picture taken with them! Jorge and Fabiola must have had achingly sore smile muscles the next day.

In the meantime, the guests were enjoying dinner which started with a creamy, squash soup. On the dinner plates were rice, pork, chicken, vegetables and something that tasted a lot like grits. It was good and I would like to know what it was. No dessert was served and there was no wedding cake. We were so full from the meal that anything else was unnecessary.

As people finished eating, they got up to dance, including little kids. Lots of lively, Latin music.

Jorge and Fabiola finally finished with their photos and sat down to have something to eat, this must have been about 9:30 pm. Jorge was still circulating around talking to people and shaking their hands. In Canada, wedding receptions are all about the bride and groom with lots of speeches and toasts. Here, it seemed the reception was to acknowledge the guests and the bride and groom played a secondary, and hard working, role.

We had a wonderful time and felt so special being invited into the Tico community and seeing a part of this country that I think a lot of foreigners are not able to experience. We believe this is because we do not have a car and therefore have always used taxis and the bus system, becoming immersed in the culture.

Here is a video I made of the wedding and reception.

 

 

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Weekend in San Jose and an Anniversary

February 12, 2022, marked our 40th wedding anniversary and February 14, 2022, marked our 6th wedding anniversary!

How did we achieve this, you ask? February 12, 1982, was when we married in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and February 14, 2016, was when we got married in Costa Rica. I did a blog post about this wedding and you can read it here.

We decided to drive to San Jose for a weekend stay. I couldn’t get reservations at Hotel Aranjuez, where we stayed for a week when we first arrived in Costa Rica May, 2011.

The Gran Hotel had vacancies so this is where we spent two nights. This is the high season so I was surprised we were able to get a reservation. The hotel has undergone a lot of renovations inside since the last time we were there but part of the historic 1930’s exterior has been retained. The Gran Hotel is in an excellent location - steps from the National Theatre, a pedestrian walkway which extends for several blocks, the Gold Museum, shops, cafes, the Plaza de la Cultura and so on.

Staff are very friendly, bilingual and helpful. We left our car with the parking valets out front and they whisked it off to a nearby lot. Parking is $25 USD for 24 hours. It’s worth it. Our luggage was first taken up to the 5th floor - this is where check in/check out is and also the piano lounge and dining area.

That done, our luggage was then taken to our room on the 4th floor. We had a king bed room with inside view. It was small but very comfortable, with a mini fridge, a safe, very large wall TV, toiletries, etc. Check in time is 3:00 pm. 

We had dinner at the hotel. The view is excellent. Very good menu and bar drink choices. We opted to share the cured meats and cheese board which came with marinated olives and bread. Drinks: Tito’s handmade vodka.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel’s buffet. Lots and lots of choices, including Costa Rican traditional foods.

We discovered that John Fitzgerald Kennedy (USA president from 1961 to 1963) had visited Costa Rica in March, 1963 and stayed at the Gran Hotel. On the fourth floor we discovered this:

I sat in one of the chairs and imagined that JFK had sat in that very same chair. Here is a video of his visit. 

Because we had been to San Jose several times before, visiting the National Theatre, the museums, the parks and so on, we just opted to relax around the hotel area. We went to their casino but were not that impressed with it. There is a Peri grocery store close by and we picked up some items to take home. I also had to pay our electric bill and we were directed to an ICE office not far from the hotel. 

On the way there, a young fellow approached us and asked if we spoke English. He was very relieved to find out we did. He proceeded to tell us a tale of great woe …. he had been robbed - his backpack was torn off his neck (showed us neck injuries) - he needed to get to the airport to meet his parents - but had no money to get there. He had a vaguely British accent. Anyway, we gave him a few colones and he thanked us profusely. Yes, most probably none of his story was true but his performance was worth it.

Back to our hotel and decided to have cold fruit drinks at the Quiznos outlet. There we could sit, watch the world go by and relax. A tour group:

The National Theatre:

So after this exhausting day, and to give the housekeeper time to clean our room, we went up to the 5th floor lounge. There we could sit quietly, listening to the piano player and checking our emails. There are a lot of pigeons in the vicinity of this hotel. They hang around the Plaza de la Cultura where people feed them and tourists take photos.

The pigeons were quite active on the window ledges and seemed to be in tune with the piano player. I made this video of them through one of the windows.

One thing we wanted to do in San Jose was go for dim sum. This was one of our favourite meals when we lived on the west coast of Canada. We went to Restaurante Casa China (aka China House) on Sunday, before driving home. We have eaten here previously. Excellent dim sum and we ordered extra to take home with us.

This is their dim sum menu.

Click on images to enlarge.

Lunch - Reverdecer, Grecia

February 12 was the date of our first wedding anniversary. February 14 was our second wedding anniversary and you can read all about that wedding here and here.

So on the 12th, we decided to try the newly opened restaurant Reverdecer, situated across from the Catholic church, on ruta 118. Translated from Spanish to English, “reverdecer” means “to revive”, “reawaken”.

Reverdecer does not seem to have a web or Facebook page at this time but you can search for it on Google Maps and see reviews, photos, etc.

There is an outdoor patio and ample indoor seating with refreshing breezes blowing through. Service was prompt. We started with sangrias:

This is one page of the menu. Sorry it is somewhat blurry.

For me - creamy tomato soup with croutons and parmesan cheese. 

Lance’s order was pinchos camarón or shrimp skewers. The skewers also had onions and pineapple. I tasted a shrimp - nice and juicy. Excellent fries.

 

Since this was an anniversary lunch, I wanted a dessert - maceta de prestiño con helados was my choice. In English - prestiño pot with ice cream. You can read all about prestiños here. It was delicious. Feast your eyes on it:

Since February 12 fell on a Sunday, Lance suggested we get there before noon because once  the church services were over, there might be a lineup to get into the restaurant. Sure enough, more people started to arrive. 

I found their operating hours - closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Saturday: 10:00 am to 11:00 pm. Sunday: 10:00am to 8:00 pm. Wednesday and Thursday: Noon to 9:00 pm. Friday: Noon to 11:00 pm. They have breakfast items on the menu if you want to eat a bit later.

We will definitely be returning to try more of the menu items. 

Click on images to enlarge.

Hurricane Otto

Hurricane Otto is expected to touch land in Costa Rica sometime tonight or tomorrow morning (Thursday). I don't know what sort of weather it will bring to us here in Atenas, in the Central Valley. You can read more about the hurricane in the Tico Times, and they have a real time weather map.

Just in case we end up losing power, I decided to go to the store to get some extra supplies. We have the use of our neighbor's car this week and we were just about to go to her place to get the car when - blam! - a transformer in Vista Atenas blew and that was the end of that idea. We don't know how to open her electric gate when the power is off so could not have got the car out.

So I decided to walk down to Maxi Pali for the exercise and taxi home. The temperatures here have been quite cool the last few days so it was a comfortable walk, with just a bit of spitting rain.

I bought two boxes of candles, ten in each box, and a propane lighter. For some time now, we have said we should have a small, one or two burner propane stove. Our electricity can go out unexpectedly and we never know for how long. It would be nice to be able to make coffee in the morning, or heat up some soup. We have a chorreador so all we would need is boiling water. Lots of people here have full size propane stoves and that would be ideal - much cheaper then using electric stoves.

I found a one burner propane stove at Maxi Pali and I thought the price was decent (18,830 colones, roughly $38 CAD) so I put it in my basket, along with a gas cylinder. Also decided we needed a small pot to fit on the burner, so I got one of those. Also picked up extras like cat food, tortillas, some canned goods, soups, etc. We have lots of books to read and I have my New York Times Sunday crossword puzzles.

Here is our emergency equipment:

 

Jorge, one of our long time taxi drivers, picked me up to take me home. We laughed so much - talked about this and that with a mishmash of English/Spanish - today is his third year wedding anniversary (we went to his wedding). 

It's 2:10pm now, and the rain has started. We'll see what develops in the coming hours. Lots of people have already been evacuated from the Caribbean side.

Beginning our Third Year in Costa Rica

"It was a dark and stormy night" - actually, it wasn't stormy but it was dark and raining. Two years ago, on May 31, 2011, at 8:30 pm, our plane landed at Juan Santamaria International Airport in Alajuela, Costa Rica. We set foot on Costa Rican soil for the first time ever and thus began our adventure of living in a new country with a new language and new culture.

We knew no one but had a San José hotel booked, our immigration lawyer selected, our cat boarding with an excellent vet in Santa Ana, we knew the town we wanted to live in to start with (Atenas), six suitcases and were eager to start this exciting new chapter in our lives. We had left Vancouver, B.C., but had arranged it so we could easily return there if we decided Costa Rica was not for us.

Looking back on the past two years, we are very happy we made this decision to relocate here. Costa Rica suits us well. It is incredibly beautiful, of course, and the Ticos (as the Costa Ricans call themselves) are truly wonderful people - welcoming, generous, content, hardworking, innovative. I think they have the capacity to enjoy life more than many others. The tropical weather is another attraction, as are the incredible numbers of plant, bird and animal life here. The abundance of year 'round fresh fruits and vegetables is another plus. We have lots of seafood from the two coasts - the Pacific and the Caribbean.

We still have so much to see of this country but have been delaying any trips of more than a few hours because of our elderly cat, Genny. With failing kidneys, she needs to be monitored to ensure she is eating and drinking lots of water. We don't mind - this is all part of the responsibility of pet ownership. Costa Rica will always be here.

Chile and Equador are two other countries that we hope to visit one day and of course now we are perfectly positioned to do that.

I often think that, if we had not done this two years ago, we would still be sitting in Canada saying to each other, "We really should try this". Time passes by and, in the blink of an eye, it is too late to try anything except the next insipid meal at the rest home.

In the past two years, we have made many friends, both expats and Ticos. Yesterday, we received an invitation to a Tico wedding in November and are really looking forward to this new experience. The network of expats in Atenas and neighbouring towns is exemplary. We share information about where to find different foods, butchers, doctors, dentists, gardeners, vets, the lady who does clothing alterations, new restaurants, when a road is closed or when it has reopened, etc.

There is a Facebook page entitled "Atenas Costa Rica Info" where information is shared. It is open to the public and is interesting reading for those thinking of relocating to our small town.

I heard a phrase the other day that sums up what we and other adventuresome types have done. It is "Life Reimagined".

Boyero with Oxcart Team, Atenas, 2013

 

 

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Always Keep Your Camera By You

I missed a nice photo opportunity the other day because I left my camera at home. We were driving past the Atenas church and were stopped because a multi-wedding was leaving the church and walking across the road to the park.

We saw about five different newly married couples walking to the park and there may have been more before we arrived. The park was all dressed up with white tents, decorations and music.

Each couple was followed by their attendants and as they entered the park, everyone clapped. The brides looked lovely in their long white dresses and the grooms were handsome in suits. The priests followed at the end.

What a great idea - multi-weddings - saves a whack of colones.

Afterwards, we were strolling through the Atenas centro market and noticed a fellow selling hand carved oxen pulling painted carts. I bought two of them, one small and one larger. He did a lot of work making them and the price was very reasonable. The oxen have wheels on their hooves so the whole rig can be rolled along.

Else Kientzler Botanical Gardens

Recently we visited the Else Kientzler Botanical Gardens, near the town of Sarchi. Before reaching the gardens, we passed by what seemed like acres of greenhouses. This is Innovaplant  a company that grows all sorts of ornamental plants that are shipped around the world. They also have a laboratory for developing new species of plants.

We were the only visitors at the time we were there - I imagine because it is the off season and we went during the week. So we had the entire place to ourselves and could stroll around at our own pace. Admittance fees are modest. Apparently you can have a guided tour and there is also a restaurant for lunch. This is a popular place to hold a wedding and we saw tents being taken down from a recent one. The venue is beautiful of course.

We didn’t go on all the trails because some were not suited to our footwear. Perhaps we’ll visit again and see what we missed the first time. So many species of plants/trees and everything is marked with it’s name. Highly recommend these gardens - gorgeous.

The Great Atenas Wed-In

On Sunday, February 14, 2016, over 71 couples remarried in the central park of Atenas, Costa Rica. Lance and myself were one of those couples. Why? This link explains it all. There is a great deal of information on this site, so scroll all the way down to get the entire story.

It was a beautiful day - breezy, sunny and quite warm. We met up with our friends Diane and John, who were also remarrying.

Lance and myself, before the ceremonies.

The ceremony went surprisingly quickly and smoothly, considering how many couples were getting remarried. This was all due to the skilled organization of Rafael Valverde and associates at Outlier Legal Services, Pat and John Wegner, and David and Norma Jean Manheimer (witnesses).

The service was very nice, starting with a welcome statement and consecration by Rafael, followed by an exchange of vows (exchanged in unison by all couples), individual couple's declaration of intent, pronouncement of husband and wife, and then our attorney presented all the newly married couples to the public.

Each couple received a keepsake marriage certificate. The authentic certificates will be available at the Registro Nacional in due course.

For our wedding luncheon, we went to POPS Ice Cream, across from the central park!

Professional photographs were taken by Melissa Michaud, Bebecitos Fotos and will be available next week at which time I will post our photos in this blog.

Here are some more links to the Atenas Wed-In:

Tico Times

A.M. Costa Rica

 

We're Invited .....

.... to the wedding of Jorge and Fabiola next month. What an honor to be invited into the Atenas Tico community this way. Jorge has been one of our regular taxi drivers since we moved to Atenas a little over two years ago.

Looking forward to this event very much.

 

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Atenas Wed-In Photos

We have now received our professional photographs from the Great Atenas Wed-In. The photos were taken by Melissa Michaud at Bebicitos Fotos.

She did a great job - taking photos of 72 plus wedding couples on a sunny, hot and windy day in the central park of Atenas, Costa Rica.

Here are our photos:

 

 

Wedding Anniversary Getaway

Click on images to enlarge.

On February 12, 1982, we were married at the courthouse in Vancouver, British Columbia.

So, forty two (!) years later …. we decided on a little getaway to explore an area of Costa Rica that we had not yet seen. We chose Hacienda La Isla (on this link you can select your language preference on the top right bar), a unique lodge in the foothills of the Braulio Carrillo National Park.

We decided to rent a vehicle from Adobe Car Rental here in Grecia as our Subaru needs the front brakes worked on and we are waiting for the parts to arrive from Japan.

Here is our driving route (in blue) with the red pin being Hacienda La Isla. 

Although this is a road with lots of tight turns (some of them hairpin) it is a well paved and marked route. It straightens out more after La Virgen. Beautiful scenery. When we stopped to change drivers, we saw these fantastic plants - Gunnera, or “poor man’s umbrella”.

We were using WAZE (free navigational app) but it let us down towards the end of our trip. It told us to turn into a laneway that supposedly led to our lodge but this was wrong. The road was terrible and led to nowhere. Back to the highway and we made a few more wrong moves. Finally I saw a sign that read “Hacienda La Isla Restaurante” so we decided to try this road. The sign was not large and was easy to miss, which we had done a couple of times.

It’s a dirt road and very narrow. I’m glad we didn’t meet a vehicle coming towards us - there was only one area to pull over and let a car pass. 

Hacienda La Isla is a unique place with beautiful gardens and walking trails. There is a swimming pool. The buildings are traditional Spanish colonial style. Our room had a king bed. There is no air conditioning and I thought that would be a problem but the large ceiling fan made it more than comfortable and at times almost too cool at night. We could sit outside on the two chairs provided with a table. There was a small safe in a cabinet. Good internet. Bring your own shampoo/conditioner.

Outside our room:

We met the people next to us … they were from Holland.

Temperatures: we were in the rain forest. The first day seemed quite humid. After that we were more comfortable. But it does rain and moisture drips from the trees. Many trees and plants we had never seen before. Same with the bird calls. What I believe was a gray-necked wood-rail strolled by one morning. 

Restaurant: breakfast is included and is a typical Costa Rican meal. Food service starts at 7:00 am. There is no menu - but you are asked how you want your eggs prepared. The coffee was terrific … strong! The fresh fruit drink was amazing … made from their own fruits. Dinner starts at 7pm.

The owner of Hacienda La Isla is on site (he is from Belgium) and we met him during breakfast. He greets everyone who arrives using any number of different languages. This is a popular place for European travellers.

Photos from our stay here:

The open air dining area.

The lagoon beside the restaurant.

Ceiling patterns in our room.

Up top there is a room with a balcony.

The lush growth.

On our last day here, we were treated to the appearance of a howler monkey and I was able to make a video:

For our trip home from Hacienda La Isla we decided to plot a different route as shown on the following map:

Coincidentally, and despite a significantly shorter driving distance, the driving time indicated on the route shown is precisely the same (2 hr 23 min) as that indicated for our trip to Hacienda La Isla. This is because much of the trip was through heavily populated areas including the cities of Heredia and Alajuela. However, our actual driving time was substantially greater. We ran into bad traffic conditions, bad weather conditions and bad WAZE conditions.

We chose the route shown because we understood that it would include some spectacular mountain scenery on a part of National Route 32 which is the main highway between the capital city of San José and the port city of Limón on the Caribbean coast. However, almost immediately after we turned onto Route 32 we came to a dead stop at a bottleneck (B1 on the map) which seemed to include more semi-trailers, buses and other large vehicles than it did automobiles. There we sat for 15 to 20 minutes.

When we began to move, traffic was very slow at first but eventually separated and began to speed up and reach normal speeds. But, this did not last long. Roughly within the circled region on the map there was a dramatic change in the weather. As we climbed up into the mountains it became cloudy, then it became foggy, then it began to rain within the fog - and at times it began to fog up within our car. So much for spectacular scenery - everybody had to slow down.

The next dead stop (B2 on the map) came about 100 meters after we exited the Zurqui Tunnel. There we sat for at least a half hour. There was no oncoming traffic. I have no doubt that traffic behind was backed up not only through the 600 meter length of the tunnel but well further on the other side of the tunnel before the entrance.  The reason for the bottleneck never became clear - road maintenance, a traffic accident or whatever.

Ultimately, we exited Route 32, the skies opened up, and the road ahead was clear - or so we thought. Trouble is that my Smartphone pooped out. Somehow, it failed to become fully charged despite having been plugged in all night the night before. Consequence: no connection with WAZE and no ability to navigate through unfamiliar territory. Solution: Park, charge the Smartphone from our vehicle power outlet to get more directions from WAZE and repeat as necessary. We had to repeat 3 or 4 times before we entered familiar territory near the city of Alajuela. We then required no more directions from WAZE to get home.

LESSON: If you are going to go on a trip which relies on WAZE (despite the various foibles that it has), make sure you include your Smartphone (or iPhone) charger within your luggage and that it can be usefully plugged into a compatible power outlet provided by the vehicle you are driving.

Hidden Gems

Click on images to enlarge.

Costa Rica is a country of roads that will take you to places that you never knew existed, even when you live close to them. Take any side road and see where it leads you.

I belong to a lot of different Costa Rica Facebook pages. They can be invaluable when searching for information and everyone is happy to share. 

Recently someone posted that they had found a new brunch restaurant not far from where we live. We’re always ready to try new restaurants. This one is named Briselas Brunch & Pizzeria. It is located on Calle Corinto, San Isidro, and is just 3.5 km from our house.

But wait! There’s more! The restaurant is across from Tennis-Gimnasio Webb. I have been looking for a good gym for a while. It had to have modern equipment, an on-site instructor and be close to our house and this place checked all the boxes. So I signed up and had my first session yesterday. Some light cardio and weights for strength training. The monthly rate is reasonable.

There’s still more! There’s a tennis court, a small wedding chapel and an event hall. I knew there were tennis courts because I saw their sign when we have driven down this road but never imagined what else was there.

Back to the restaurant. I took fotos of the menu but the first page came out blurry. Here is page two:

I ordered the limonada clásica:

And Lance chose a cafe latte.

Our meals - for me it was the huevos rancheros. The cast iron pan was sizzling hot:

With lightly toasted bread on the side, good for dipping in the ranchero sauce:

And Lance decided on the burrito desayuno:

The portion was extremely generous and we ended up taking half of the burrito home for breakfast the next day. Both meals were excellent.

The restaurant has gorgeous views:

In the field below us, workers were cutting sugar cane manually with machetes. This is hard, hard physical work.

Some interior views of the restaurant:

And …. on the driveway into this complex, I saw this:

It’s an outdoor aquarium complete with live fish!