Post log #3 Culture Day - El Turno

Every semester the Spanish Language Institute holds a Culture Day for the adult students in place of going to classes. While we enjoyed them all – it was nice to have a break from classes and learn more about the culture – I think the last one we had was our favorite. Our teachers worked hard planning the day so that we could experience what is known as a “Turno”. These are carnival like festivals that are held in towns throughout Costa Rica. You can read more about the history at this link http://www.interculturacostarica.com/news/articles/mascarada.php.

For the first part of the day we played various carnival type games including Bingo, Ring Toss and Dart Throws. Then we had a guest speaker who makes the masks used in a Turno. The most fun was that after his talk on how they are made, a group of Ticos arrived dressed in the masks and playing instruments. They paraded through the school and down to Sojourn Academy where our kids went to school. It was an awesome experience and I'm going to try to post a video on YouTube so you can see for yourselves what it was like. (Anyone who has experience with that can send your advice - so far I've struck out on how to do it!

More photos at our shutterfly website: http://lafamiliamacy.shutterfly.com/

Post Log #2 Tortuguero, Las Palmas

When we were at ILE there were opportunities to take trips to various places around the country to see the sights. Since we had spent a total of 4 weeks vacationing in Costa Rica, we had seen many of the main sights that were close to San Jose. There were, however, a couple of things farther afield that we really wanted to do. One was to go see the turtles!! Their nesting season didn’t coincide with our previous vacations, so when the opportunity arose to take an excursion to see them last October, we decided to splurge.

There are no roads to Tortuguero, where the main turtle work happens in Costa Rica. So, after a microbus ride, we unloaded and got into a boat to take the canals up the coast. There was a lot of wildlife on the trip, so that was a big part of the excursion. We arrived late in the day to the resort (formerly an ecolodge, so take the word resort loosely!), and our guides told us that the trip to the beach to see the hatchlings would be delayed a bit because it was raining. We went to get hot cocoa, asking them to come get us when it was time to go. Well, somehow we didn’t get that communicated, and they went to the beach and saw many hatchlings making their way from their nests to the ocean while we enjoyed our hot cocoa and coffee! Fortunately, when we did go to the beach, we managed to find a nest that had a few stragglers still finding their way to the beach.

The next part of the tour was to go watch a mother make a nest. Around 9 pm we got in the boat to go up to another part of the beach. When we arrived, the guide told us we had to wait at the airstrip, while they went to find a mother. We waited and waited, and had to move under the cover of the small building of the airstrip when it started to rain. Abigail fell asleep on me on the concrete, and finally after about an hour and a half of waiting, the guide told us that we were going back. It was late in the season for laying eggs, and we just weren’t going to see that.
The next morning we were awakened early to the sound of howler monkeys. We headed out to the beach at dawn, hoping to see a mother finishing up, but we did not. We did, however, see the mother’s tracks, which were pretty cool themselves (as seen in photo above). After breakfast we took another tour of the rivers, and saw a lot of wildlife – including sloths, crocs, howler monkeys, a jesus christ lizard and a poison dart frog. We stopped at the town of Tortugera and the headquarters for the turtle preservation organization before making the long trek back to San Jose. It was an exhausting, but rewarding weekend.

One other trip that I had always wanted to make was to the beaches of the Caribbean. So, once again, when we had the chance to go on a school trip in April to see that part of Costa Rica, we jumped at it. The last part of the trip is on unpaved road, but the weekend was spent relaxing at the beach, so it was quite nice. One of the great things about the school trips was that the girls had friends to play with while we were away. Abigail actually went on a different microbus than we did, so she could ride with one of her friends! John and I got to enjoy sitting on the beach chatting while the girls were happily playing.

In the end, I think we all decided that we liked the beaches on the Pacific Coast better, but it was a really enjoyable weekend, and I was glad to get to fulfill that dream as part of our year in Costa Rica. The only bad part about the weekend was that we got a bit too much sun even though we tried to stay off the beach during the middle of the day, and use a lot of sunscreen.

As usual, more photos at http://lafamiliamacy.shutterfly.com/

Post log #1 - Visits from Eversons, Cideciyans, Macys

Besides the visit from the Fettigs last November, we had three other really great sets of visitors while we were in Costa Rica. The first was our good friends the Eversons (Lori, Terry and their son Peter) in February. We were thrilled to hear that Terry had been invited to conduct the brass section of the National Symphony and that they decided to make a family trip of it, since his hotel was paid for by the symphony. We were able to have them over for dinner once, meet them for dinner in San Jose once, and spent the day on Saturday seeing Volcan Poas (which we were able to see – it doesn’t always happen) and La Paz Waterfall Gardens, where there is a lot of Costa Rican wildlife and some beautiful waterfalls. The week was crowned by Terry conducting the brass at the National Theater and included a solo (trumpet) performance by Terry. It was great to hear him play again (I think the last time was at our wedding). An added bonus was that our kids had a GREAT time together.

Our next set of visitors was my sister Lisa and her family, during Semana Santa (Holy Week). We went to a beach which we had visited on one of our vacations. It was in a great little town called Samara, where you can walk to the restaurants and the beach. It also has calm surf (which is rare in Costa Rica), so we were able to enjoy the water with our kids. We headed back to San Jose on Easter, and I took the day off from school on Monday, so I could go back to La Paz Waterfall with them. The kids didn’t like the LONG trip to the beach (about 4 hours), but they didn’t complain much and otherwise had a great time.

Our last visitors were John’s parents, who came to see us very soon after they arrived back from almost a year in Ireland. We were delighted that they were willing and able to make the trip to come see us. We spent our time in the Central Valley, but John’s parents rented a car (for John to drive), so we were able to see some attractions that we never had seen even though they weren’t far away. One was the town of Sarchi, where they make the traditional Ox Carts. Another was Volcan Arenal, which we went to see on a Sunday afternoon in the rainy season, and had a spectacular view. (It is not usually clear enough to see it in the afternoon during the dry season, so needless to say I was pretty excited). We also went to tour a wood factory (that produces most of the wood products that are sold as souvenirs), which John and I had seen on school field trips, but the kids had not, so we all enjoyed that.
Thank you all of you who were able to visit and make our year even more special!
Photos here:http://lafamiliamacy.shutterfly.com/

Graduation Day

Today's the day that we (Amy and John) graduated, after a year of studying spanish! We had a beautiful day and a very nice graduation ceremony this morning. Now we are packing up, getting ready to head back to the US on Saturday. We have a few more gatherings with friends before we head off. It was fun to graduate, but we are sad to say goodbye to this year.

When we get back in the US, we will visit family in PA, John will have an interview for a position in Lancaster PA, and then he and I will head to Snowshoe, WV for a Symphony Festival while the girls visit the Fettig clan in PA. After that, God knows what we will be doing for sure! Please keep us in your prayers during this time of transition. If the next year is as good as the last, we will be happy! We thank God for the blessing of this year in Costa Rica.

If you have time you can see the slideshow that was played at the ceremony on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10Zx6lVt_9s

Shopping

It’s been many months since we’ve arrived in Costa Rica, but I have always wanted to write a little about shopping here in San Jose. On our second day here, our neighbor took us to Hipermas (Mas means more and, so you can sort of get the idea) which is owned by Wal-mart and is a lot like what you find in the US, only it’s more expensive!! It was a little discouraging at first, to see the prices that seemed higher than we remembered from our two trips here. We went to the farmer’s market from the very beginning, and that helped a lot because prices there are quite reasonable. But the market closet to us is pretty small, and I was thrilled when one of my friends with a car took me to the bigger market, which is a 25 minute walk from here. I love going to that market where I can get pineapple for less than a dollar, beautiful tomatoes for $.40 a pound and 4 kilos (more than 8 pounds) of mangoes for $2 (in season, which unfortunately is almost over). One week it was shocking that the tomatoes shot up to $1/pound due to some rainy weather. Fortunately they dropped back down. We usually go to both markets – the whole family goes on Saturday morning (because they have imported apples at a reasonable price, and a playground), and I go by myself on Sunday and take the bus home.

We had a few other adjustments to our shopping – finding just the right store for just the right products. We joined PriceSmart (owned by Costco) for meat and bulk items, and I regularly hit 4 other grocery stores, plus the market across the street for things we need. It took us a while to figure out that fresh milk across the street was just about the same price as anywhere else, and cheaper than the skim milk we started with that came in boxes with a shelf life. And they are open from 6 am until 7 pm every day except Sunday, when they close at 12 noon. Usually I walk home with my groceries (except for PriceSmart where we get a cab), so I go to the stores frequently.

The other shopping experience I remember vividly was the first time we went to the mall, several weeks after we arrived. It was on Saturday of the weekend that they celebrate Children’s Day, so it was a zoo (like Christmas time in the US), but the mall just as nice as many I’ve seen in the US. And the huge book store had Polly Pockets, all the school and office supplies you could want, and Clinique. Most of which was much higher priced than the same item in the US (about 50% higher), but at least it’s available if you really want something, which was a little freeing at that point in our life here. I still struggle with where to buy some things (contact solution is not sold at the grocery store!), but for the most part I have figured out where to get what we need.

Now that we are adjusted to where to buy things, and what recipes work best with the things we have available, I know it will be a shock to go back to the US. It seems like everyone we talk to mentions how much prices have risen, and we certainly noticed it even back in December in the US. Of course, prices are rising a lot here, too, but since we don’t buy gas too much and the prices at the farmer’s markets are still reasonable, I don’t think we feel it quite as much. One thing I know – I will miss buying as many red peppers as I like all year long!!!

But I won't miss things like having the water go out. If you are reading this today (Sunday), please pray for the restoration of water - it has been out for 4 days! I'll try to do another post on that topic later.

4th of July – US Independence Day and Cow Parade

Thankfully we had the day off from school for the 4th of July, so we could go to the US celebration at the cerveceria (beer and beverage bottling plant, where they have nice facilities). The picnic has been celebrated for 46 years, initially as a party at the embassador’s house, but over the years grew too large for that site. This year was the first year that they charged a fee, but it was small and included all activities and food.
We went with our friends, the Vaughn family, and took two buses to get there. We met them downtown after the first bus, which was great because it gave us a chance to look at a few cows. I haven’t had a chance to mention them yet, but there has been an art festival in downtown San Jose since March called a Cow Parade. There are over a hundred cows on display (some of them will be auctioned off), and they were quite interesting to see. Apparently it is an international idea, and I’m glad we got to experience it here in San Jose (it has made downtown a lot more festive).
After meeting the Vaughns, we headed to the next bus stop to catch a bus to the west side of town, out by the airport. The party went from 8 am to 12 noon, which might seem strange to you in the US, but when the storm clouds rolled in at noon, it was clear that the planners knew what they were doing. The first thing we did was get a BAGEL! It was the first real bagel I’ve had in a year. They also had cappuccino, hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, beer, Pepsi, etc. There were bands, kids activities, clowns and square dancing in addition to the food. We had a great time.
You can view the photos here: http://lafamiliamacy.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8CbM3DNm0bMrq&notag=1

Nicaragua Trip

John and I had the opportunity to go to Managua, Nicaragua a few weeks ago with our good friends Bob and B Nesbitt. We wanted to visit there before we leave Costa Rica because some other good friends of ours, the Sharpes, told us about a ministry organization that we wanted to investigate. In English it is called the Nehemiah Center (http://www.nehemiahcenter.net/). We were very excited about what we saw there - both at the Nehemiah Center and the Nicaraguan Christian Academy (where Bob was considering a teaching position). Both places have a vision of helping the Nicaraguans improve the situation in Nicaragua, especially through education.



The day before we left I was a little nervous because we had been experiencing quite a storm, and we found out it was supposed to be a hurricane before it hit Nicaragua. It did in fact cause some severe damage, both in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, but Managua was pretty well spared.



The trip itself was fairly uneventful (thankfully!), though the border crossing was quite a new experience. Bob had acquired the necessary papers for crossing the border at a lawyer's office here in San Jose. We arrived at dusk on Friday and were helped on the Nicaraguan side by a very sweet border crossing "tramitadore" (young men who work for tips), who was about to celebrate his 15th birthday. After going back and forth to several windows, we finally finished up and were able to go through fumigation, and across the border. As we left the border crossing area, we saw Jonathon again, and he asked for a ride to the next town, where we were going. It was a good chance to practice our spanish.

We arrived in the town of Rivas sometime around 8, and Bob found the house of B's nephew, Adam and his wife Rachel, where we were staying. They have an adorable little girl, two golden retriever dogs and chickens and avacado trees in the back yard (see photos). The girls would have loved it. But they might not have liked the cold water shower. Our house in CR has a hot water heater, but many only have hot water on the shower (aka widow maker). Rivas was the first time we stayed in a house with no hot water. Fortunately the weather was quite warm there, so it wasn't really a problem.

The city of Rivas felt like travelling back 20 - 30 years (in Costa Rica - quite a bit more in the US!). The taxis were bicycles and there were a lot of horse carts around. It was quite a bit more quaint than Managua.

We headed up to Managua on Saturday morning. It was an easy drive of about an hour and a half and we headed to the home of the Loftsgard's, where we were staying. They have a lovely home which they built to house a lot of guests (plus their 6 kids). We spent most of the weekend either at their house, or in meetings at the Nehemiah Center, although we did drive out to a market on Sunday afternoon, after having lunch with a large group of north americans at the local (modern) mall. Most of downtown Managua was destroyed in an earthquake in 1972 and it has not been rebuilt. We didn't make it down to that area of the city - maybe next time!!

We stopped back in Rivas for lunch with B's nephew and we had an uneventful trip back to San Jose - though the border was crowded with people returning to Costa Rica after visiting relatives in Nicaragua for Mother's Day - which happened to be the Friday we arrived. For pictures from the trip, go to http://lafamiliamacy.shutterfly.com/action/?a=8CbM3DNm0bMrI&notag=1