Navarro otra vez

I went again to visit the Navarro property with Guillermo, Fernando, and Shelly, a woman from Boston who is looking for property. I looked at the farm on the river again, and Guillermo had another one for us to see, with awesome views.

I like Navarro, it has some really good things about it, it is very small, very private, on a river, nice views, very close to Orosi, decent roads. The only thing, which is a big one, is that the river below contains the runoff grey water from the big city of Cartago, mainly because Cartago hasn't the funding or ability to create a wastewater treatment plant. It will probably happen someday, but meanwhile, while we were visiting, there were sawths of soap bubbles flying into the air above the river.

Ikea, Costa Rican style

So Ray, Jimmy and I go to this tourist place on the way to San Isidro that Ray has been to before. It is full of lots of touristy stuff, but most of it is a cut above the usual crap. Here is Ray, goofing around with the hat and poncho - he usually doesn't look this tacky! Ray and Jimmy are the owners of the Orosi Valley farm B&B nearby, which is a lovely place with an incredible view of the Orosi valley. I ended up buying a simple bed frame, a rocking chair, a hammock and a couple of gifts. I spent a little under $100.

So then my personal furniture angels come back to my house to assemble the furniture, and we find that the bed holes don't quie line up, so they had to be re-drilled. It turned out to be more of a job than the guys bargained for. Once all that was done, it went together pretty easily, but the bed turned out to be just a little bit short for my standard "matrimonial" (double) size mattress...It's OK, I can live with it. In fact, its real comfy.

enjoying the differences

Olga and I had a lot of fun - she is studying English, and I got to help her practice and helped her with comprehension, pronounciation (Spanish has no sound for "sh" - they say "ch") and to see how difficult it is from teh other side. I thought I had it hard, learning Spanish! It is much harder for a Spanish speaker to learn English, because there are less "rules" and more irregulars in English. This fruit in front of Olga is not an eggplant - it is a tepezcuintle, which has a lovely purple and white mottled flesh, and tastes unlike any fruit I have had before. A little grainy in texture, but delicious.

Olga, like many Ticos, keeps a small viviero, or garden with orchids. Here is one of hers in bloom now, that survived despite heavy winds.

When I got back to Orosi, it was like breathing a sigh of relief. I am really starting to see this place as my home. On Saturday, my friends Ray and Jimmy decided to take me to this furniture place they knew of, south of Cartago. We stopped in Cartago to hit the ATMs (cajeros en espanol) and Ray pointed out this interesting signage.

Grecia and its many wonderful features

Grecia is an interesting city - it is small enough to find everything you need, and then some. A suprise in the market is Sophie from Taiwan, who has a completely vegetarian Chinese mini restaurant in the cetnral market. The "tacos" which we know as egg rolls are to die for. Lunch in the market was always a tough choice between seafood or ceviche and Sophie's yummy goodies.

I came to Grecia for the dentista, Doctora Irina, who is very nice, very competent, and speaks very good English. She has her office painted green, and a little viviero, (garden) facing the chair to help her patients to relax. She did three cavities, two reconstructions and got me a prosthetic where I am missing a tooth. I can't afford dental care in the US, especially without insurance, but here, it is about 1/5th of the cost.


While in Grecia, I stayed with a woman my age named Olga, who has a fruit stand int he central market. She works it with the help of her cousin Felipe, and two others. She sells many very good fruits, some of which I have never tried before. Pictured here are pejibaye (pronounce: pay he bye yay) which is something that grows on a palm tree, and tastes like a cross between a slightly salty, dry sweet potato and water chestnut. Ticos love them with mayonaise. I just like them. The thing that looks like a potato is a sapote, which is bright orange inside, with a pit like an avocado. Has a sweet and slightly tart flavor. Probably need to eat a few of them to really become a fan.

Alta Araya Again

Went to see another property, about 10 acres this time, in Alta Araya, near the other one I looked at. This one is much nicer, with absolutely lovely views of Irazu (the nearest volcano, the massif in the photos), and some flat areas for construction.

The only problem as I see it, is that road going up there. The people in Orosi refer to the people in Alta Araya as "goats", because it is so steep up there.

I really like a lot of things about this property, and I want to try driving this road, to see how difficult it is, because I would have to do it a couple of times a week, on average.

Because the price on this is really good, and the farm is organic (not certified - just not sprayed) it is one I will continue to consider.

Yes, My new home in Orosi

This past week has been really busy. I was starting to get a little tired of the youth hostel. I had wanted to stay with a family, but due to the Spanish school having a huge group in, they were not able to put me with a host family. I also started thinking about finding a rental situation for when I come back in March or April. Somehow, very quickly, the universe responded to my request through Randall, who introduced me to Ligia (pronounced Li-hee-ya) a single woman who has a small apartment right behind her house. Above, the outer garden.

With a kitchen, full bath and a nice sized bedroom, use of the laundry and a gorgeous garden, I was hooked, and rented it immediately. ($160/month) Since the apartment was not furnished, I needed to get a few things, very quickly. I went to Paraiso, and bought a bunch of kitchen stuff, sheets, a mattress, a refrigerator and a gas range. The next day I went to the bigger city, Cartago, and bought blankets and pillows and more kitchen stuff. Above, the inner garden.

Little by little I will get other things, like a bed frame and an armoire (Ticos don’t seem to do closets) and a rocking chair and a blender will probably come soon, as I am totally hooked on those “refrescos” (fruit juices). These are all things I will need here anyway. Lijia speaks only Spanish, but her niece speaks English, and wants to practice. Mientras tanto (meanwhile) my Spanish continues to improve poco a poco, (little by little) so we are getting along very well, and she is really great about getting all the little problems fixed up. She is also very close friends with another woman I recently met and also greatly enjoy, Alesandra, (Nano’s sister.)

It feels really good have my own place here, and I am enjoying having my own kitchen, learning the names of the plants in Spanish (rosa, culantro, yasmine, ginger and orchidea are the easy ones!) and meeting her family and other new people.

More strange fruits

I keep finding plants that I have never seen before. Every time this happens, I have to send photos to my friend Pablo (the adorable ethnobotanist) so I am awaiting his reply on these. The one with the fruit is in the garden of my new home in Orosi.

Portals

An interesting custom here that comes with the Navidad (aka Christmas) is the portal. Almost every home and bisiness has one. It is a diorama type thing of the Nativity, complete with animals, live plants and is only limited by the creativity and finances of the owner. The custom is to leave the crib empty of the Christ child until midnight Christmas eve. What it looked like was everyone rushed home from whatever they were doing at midnight to be together when the baby "descends" into the crib. About two weeks AFTER, they have another ceremonial fiesta (party/holiday) where the child is removed. I have had the opportunity to see several portals, and they are as varied as their owners. Here's an especially nice one at the home of Ligia, with the waterfall next to it.

falling in love again

The other property, across the road, (and “road” is used very generously here!) was about the most gorgeous thing I have seen – a large spacious view, enough flat space to build and walk easily on, and an older but livable house. 3 and a half hectares, (about 7 acres) and he is asking $80K. I think the prices are rising every time I look – it must be that they see “gringo” and double the asking the price automatically.

Puente Negro Properties

Randall also took me to look at a couple of properties in Puente Negro, (Black Bridge) an area I like outside of Orosi. Here is the lower of two properties for sale next door to each other. One is selling for about $30K for 2 manzanas (about 3 acres). I liked it, but I think there wasn’t enough flat buildable space on this one for what I want to do – there were really just two areas that were flat enough for building. One had the very old primitive house, and some lovely huge palm trees.

Strange Baked Delights

My local shopping mecca is the nearest town of Paraiso, about 20 minutes up the mountain from Orosi. I have been able to find almost everything I could possibly want in Paraiso, pretty easily. It also has a dance school, a great Saturday market, and a decent bakery with whole grain bread, and good coffee. After several visits to this bakery, I finally noticed this cake model in the window, down near the bottom of the case. This is something you wouldn’t usually find on a cake in the US! I couldn’t stop laughing.
I showed it to Randall, a Tico friend helping me with shopping one day, whose wife is expecting their second set of twins. It was not lost on him.

Another visit to Bill’s

Once again, I ended up going to Cachi, an area I am increasingly becoming fond of, to visit the lovely property of ex-California and Coloradoan Bill. I went with Peter from New York, Linda, and her very cool 13 year old son Eli. Here is Bill with his waterfall, and Eli having a moment on a beautiful overlook.
Here is some more of the view from Bill’s property. It was a beautiful day, and I still owe Bill some ginger or a nice dinner.