As my friend Sunshine is half Costa Rican (her mother was from there) and she knows I love the country, when she, her daughter Cathy, son-in law Cardiff and younger children Amanda and Arianna were going for a family reunion, they invited me.
Sunshine has many nieces, nephews, cousins and even a grand-nephew there and they are the most hospitable people I have encountered in many years of travelling. To begin with her nephews Alexander and Harry took off the entire week from work so they could take us all over the place. From we arrived on Tuesday 15th March it has been go go go. On arrival at around 10 am (we gained two hours over Florida time due to day light savings time) we were met at the airport by Alexander and his wife Laura and appropiately they came in a minibus owned by Harry.
He had been in the tourism business, hence his transport was tailor made for us.
From the airport we were transported directly to his sister Jackie's home and man was it georgeous.....about an acre of well kept lawn with pool, games room and entertainment centre. There we had a typical Costa Rican breakfast waiting for us.
She lives in Ala Juela, the second largest city which is near the international airport. I had discovered from my second visit that they eat rice and peas with breakfast and just love it. Interestingly later meals are accompanied by plain rice and of course other starches, but apparently never rice and peas later in the day.
We stayed there until after 2 pm, just lyming and when we were taken to the hotel to check in, it was only to bathe and go back to dinner and to meet the rest the entire family, a very large family.
The entire family is extremely warm, from very young children to the older folk...the theme was just tu casa es mi casa! I later discovered that Laura is a very accomplished artist as she paints and enhances her work with paper machet......really good stuff. Incidentally, she and her children speak English fluently, but her husband Alexander, doesn't.
Anyway, she does not do art commercially as she says its time consuming but she has really nice stuff she has done for the home.
One Wednesday they allowed us to rest but by mid day, we had jumped on a local bus to go to Escazu in search of local food. We found a lovely place operated by an Iraqi but the food was Costa Rican and excellent and of course they had a full supply of natural, local juices. When we were at the bus stop to return to the hotel, up drove Alexander and we all piled into his vehicle. He and his family had been on the way to visit us at the hotel and to make plans for the rest of the week.
That evening he, Harry and their families took us to a restaurant way up in the mountains of Tarbaca called Alcides. The road was steep and winding but naturally it had a beautiful view all the way up. If I thought San Jose was cold, I really felt what cold was like up there. I was expecting snow anytime, but you know me, anything below 80% is freezing to me! Seriously though, it must have been about 60% up there. This place is a large grill house that specialises in various types of meats and of course I didn't look at anything but the pork. I was introduced to Chicariones, a type of grilled pork. It was super good and my only disappointment was that they didn't give us any pork skin at all. That's my one disappointment with the pork there!
Coming down was a bit scary as it is really steep and winding but the view is breathtaking and sections of that roadway seems to be a popular "lovers lane".
Thursday was a full day which should have seen us heading straight out to the eastern section of the country near the Irazu volcano. However, Harry asked if we wanted to go downtown to get souvenirs and do a mini tour, so off we went.
Downtown San Jose is filled with pigeons and men make a living selling packs of corn to feed them and don't the birds swamp you when you open those packs! Cardiff enjoyed himself throwing corn over his wife Kathy so the birds could descend and land all over her.
Next we headed out to go for a dip in the hot springs and then to visit the famous Cartago Bascilica which was built in 1912 at a sacred spot where it is said the virgin Mary appeared to a local girl in 1635. However, we first went up a scenic route to Sanchiri restaurant. The view of the hills and the valley below with the coffee fields and a winding river was absolutely breathtaking. In the valley below, there is an outstanding triangular shaped house built by "Little Joe" of Bonanza fame. Naturally, as we were at very high elevation it was extremely cold and misty and I had a soup called Olla de carne.
After lunch, everyone was so full and cold and as it was getting late that we decided to bypass the hot springs and go straight to the Bascilicia. The is a huge, beautiful church a with very expensive and attractive painted glass windows all around. A service was in session as we entered but no one stopped us taking pictures and wandering around. Downstairs there are three pipes through which water constantly flows. They say no one can find the source of the water although many have tried but that exact spot is where the child saw the virgin Mary. They sell containers there and you can go and fill these up with the holy water. I bought one, can't harm I guess.
Below the church there are display sections laden with silver pendants of various body parts, vehicles etc. These you buy and hang up in the display cases and pray for a miracle to heal whichever body part is sick or even if you are going a on a bus trip, plane ride etc. Who knows, maybe it really works and because CR is highly Roman Catholic, most people seem to believe it will. As we had driven quite a distance from San Jose, it was almost night when we returned so they dropped us off till next day.
On Friday, Alexander and Laura came and took us to Monrovia. This is a quaint town in the centre of the country where there are lots of souvenir shops. Because competition is stiff, one is able to bargain and really get good prices. That night it was off to Alexander and Laura's home to a wonderful Italian dinner.
Saturday was a really full day as most of the members of the family came to take us to Poas volcano and La Paz Waterfall and Gardens. To get there we had to drive about 60 kms in very pleasant and fruitful country. The roads were excellent and when we started to ascend the hills, we could see the heavy mist resting on the volcano. That area is extremely fertile, the volcanic ash I guess and the landscape is covered by what seems to be hundreds of acres of greenhouses and well laid out plantations of strawberries, coffee, peaches as well as humongous flowering trees and wild flowers.. It seems too that most Costa Rican farmers make some kind of cheese and vendors sell this along the way.
A vendor asked Cardiff for a souvenir of Jamaican money and when he was given a $50 bill, he gave us lots of strawberries and peaches. As we drove to the gardens, you could see numerous landslides and cracks in the road. Harry told us that this area had been the epicenter of a large earthquake some two years ago.
The signs of the destruction were evident everywhere and Harry told us that 16 persons had died and many homes destroyed. The gardens and waterfalls are breathtaking and everyone who visits Costa Rica should go there to get an introduction to the animals, snakes, butterflies, colourful birds, waterfalls and plants that make that country a virtual Garden of Eden. Be warned though, the walk is not for the faint hearted but there is a bus to take you back to the main area. An interesting aspect of the tour was a traditional house where a campesina was baking corn pudding on an old dover stove. It was absolutely delicious when eaten with the locally made cheese and I made a pig of myself. She also offered us dulce agua, their name for cane juice. The difference is it is mixed with milk and served warm. Really nice.
After the tour we had to cancel the visit to the volcano as it was so misty that we couldn't see anything. It was really a lovely but tiring day.
Sunday was the grand finale as we had to come back to reality on Monday. Alexander invited us to visit his farm in the country and most of the family and extended family came. Again we headed for the mountains, this time in the to Tortuguro where there is also a volcano. This is where Alexander and Harry's mother was from. On the way we saw hundreds of cyclists nattily donned in their attractive outfits. I felt like joining them. There was apparently a bikaton in the area. We made a stop at a cold, misty, rainy resort. I nearly froze to death until I got myself some delicious hot coffee. There they have attractive gardens, a fresh food market, cut and potted plants for sale and a sampling of the animals found in Costa Rica. The kids really enjoyed that stop.
When we arrived at the "farm" we discovered it was an attractive 3 bedroom log cabin with concrete floors and you had to walk over a little bridge to get to the house. Although the pastures were well kept and even had electrified fencing to keep the cows in, I saw no farm animals . So basically it seems to be a country home..... .lovely place. Harry and his older brother Hugo were the barbecue chefs and the fillet and pork were to die for. Cardiff, Ronald and Alex went hill climbing and when they returned they showed signs of having rolled in the mud.
After an absolutely wonderful day of real lyming I really felt sad to have to say goodbyes to some of the folk. For although I had only met them a week before, they really felt like close family. Their culture of mi casa es tu casa is very real.
On Monday Harry, Alexander and Laura came to take us to the airport but not before we stopped at Jackie's for lunch. I was introduced to arroz con pollo and it is really good. I think I have to learn to cook it.
I really regretted having to leave and if we had stayed where Jackie lives it would have been absolutely perfect for that is closer to the Atlantic side where it is much warmer than in San Jose and Santa Ana.
I look forward to lyming with the Henriquez and Browns again in the near future.
See more photos at; http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10150171435976823&id=763366822&aid=338214
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