Partying with the Ticos "Que Rico!"

The past week has been a week of festivals. Last Saturday, here in Orosi, at the oldest surviving church in Costa Rica, there was music, food, chance games and dancing at the church, in the outdoors classroom area, all to raise money for a group that assists elderly and infirm local residents. There was a band from San Jose who are local favorites, which had a huge old marimba played by three men, a saxophone, a vocalist, and three drummers. They played meringue, bolero, and cumbia. Here Sigifredo (my landlord) and I are dancing, and Jordan, also from the US is dancing with a Tica woman. Beth, his wife, was also dancing. BTW, "Que rico!" is something you say when something tastes good, is fun, cool, or in some other way wonderful...

The Pilgrimage to the Black Virgin

Last week was the festival of La Negrita, the black virgin. Half of the country converges on Cartago, the provincial capital, for the occasion. Some come by foot as far a Panama and Nicaragua, but most come from Tres Rios (5 miles) or San Jose (9 miles). My friend Margoth and I did part of the pilgrimage walk again (I was here for this last year)from the next town over, Paraiso, this time about two miles, and went into the church, surprisingly in time for the evening mass, and it wasn’t even really crowded. This time, I also visited the museum downstairs, which houses display cases filled with hundreds of little silver charms of all types of body parts that have been healed by praying for the Virgin’s intercession. We also got to see the fireworks, which I attempted to photograph. Later, walking back, we came upon a corner where the people were so densely packed, all we could do was bump along each other, in the general direction we wanted. Even in India, I have never been in such a tightly crushed group of people. I wish I had thought to take a photo of this from the air, it was truly an incredible experience, definitely not for the claustrophobic. Margoth and I hung on to each other’s clothes, so we wouldn’t get separated. Amazingly enough, even though everyone was bumping along and considerably much more “up close and personal” than normal decorum dictates, everyone was good natured about it, and smiled and nodded to each other in passing.

Trauma time for "mom"

Jessie has a large blister type bump on her neck right now, and we have been to a good vet, where he attempted to drain it, but since it seems to be connected to a small blood vessel or vein, and has filled up again, and as I post this, she is in for surgery, and went under anesthesia this morning. My poor little sweetheart, I don’t think she is in pain, but her life has already had so much medical intervention! Other than that, she has a host of novios (boyfriends) who range in age, (the oldest ones are guys in their fifties) who are always happy to see her and throw sticks, and the younger ones actually applaud when she catches them in the air. Thank whatever dieties there are for my "support team" of Ray, Sifredo and Bill helping me with the transportation and keeping me from too much worrying...

Permanent Orchids

Comfortably ensconced in the new house for about a month, we are having a great time. I get critter visitors sometimes, like large spiders, moths and butterflies and we share the property with a family of small lizards, for which I am really grateful, because they chow down on the mosquitoes. This past week, I started a garden, the way you do this here is to stick things in the soil and then wait a little while. Right now, the garden is still too new to take a photo, everything is alive, but small. Give it a couple more weeks…the guys who work outdoors all carry machetes for a reason. I have also started painting again regularly. My “taller” (studio) is upstairs on the porch, in the hammock, with a small table beside me, and a view of the volcano. It’s a tough life, but someone has to do it. For some reason, I am now painting realistically, which I have not done since art school. I have started what appears to be a series of paintings using acrylics on canvas of orchids from photos that I have taken. I am totally surprised at how much I like both the process and the results. In these photos, some of the paintings are not finished yet...