The Great Meeting

7-6-11

                We woke up at the hotel at 8 and had and breakfast like my first day in San Jose, fruit, make your own eggs, juices, toast and coffee. It was a nice start for the family; we left right after breakfast to go over to my tica family’s house. After we wrestled with the GPS, it didn’t want to find any locations… We made the 2 kilometer trip to our house and my two families finally met. It was a bit forced with the language barrier, and there had been a miscommunication about going out to coffee at the national theater since the plans had been delayed a day. Being a planner this stressed me out, I wanted everyone to have fun and not feel pressured. We straightened it all out and we brought our luggage into the house for safe keeping for the day while they got ready. We were on the bus to San Jose by 10:15 and were settled in the coffee shop in the theater by 10:30. I was still feeling a bit stressed about ensuring everyone’s good time but once I decided what coffee I was getting I relaxed a bit and began to enjoy the café as much as I did the first time. It just has that old world feel that you could while away the day there… We all got different coffee drinks, I got a Café de Flores (ice cream, espresso, cream, spices) and shared some raspberry cake with my mom. Devon shared the most amazing Chocolate mousse cake with Angel and Sophie got strawberry crêpes. Randdie and Mama tica shared a sandwich and each had coffee. We made a good time of it by trying everything and the translation happened rather easily. After coffee we took pictures together in front of the theater and said our goodbyes and Mama Tica invited us to dinner next Friday before we leave!  We walked together through the (pigeon) Plaza and were subsequently attacked by birds. Devon, Angel and Randdie were having none of it and so were not amused when the seed vendors headed our way throwing seed on the ground near us. The pigeons flocked and those three ran for it. I rather enjoyed the show, but tried to hide this from the traumatized three.. We parted ways shortly after and my family and I headed to the Artisanal Market and a quick walking tour of San Jose. Daddy was antsy to get on the road so we took the bus back to Veritas at 1:15. I had a good time showing my family the school and my neighborhood in CR, they got to see a bit of what everyday life was like. We went back to the house at 2 to recollect our bags and were on our way by 2:20 after a discussion with the GPS who didn’t want to find our hotel.

                The drive to Puerto Viejo was not that bad. The roads are well maintained due to the importance of the Port of Limon to the Banana trade and Fruit companies. The first half of the drive was scenic mountains (I did not get car sick!) although there were several slow trucks. We stopped in a small town to eat at a soda. I got the best tortilla with CR queso ever and was very pleased with the progress of the whole lets-rent-a-car. However, when we got back on the road we were competing with the major commercial shipping route to the Caribbean coast. In other words there were trucks, lots of them on a two lane road. This made for slow and stressful progress since we were in a rental car in a foreign country. We made it through Limon by nightfall but the last 40 Kilometers to Puerto Viejo almost gave my parents a heart attack. We were on a rural two lane road where pedestrians, bikers, dogs and one way bridges were common and it was dark. Let’s just say that that was an interesting drive and everything we passed made it through alive. It was a bit difficult to find our somewhat remote eco-lodge but we made it there by 8. Pepo and Sivia (the Spanish owners) were ready and prepared a fish dinner for us while we unpacked and settled in to our bungalow. The dinner was delicious and Devon and I both ordered milk and shared a chocolate ice cream afterward. It was a calming end to the somewhat hectic day. 

My house (the corner town home) 

My view out the window

My Tica Family, Sophie Angel and Mama Ruth