Nicoya, April 5

Hi, all!

Well, today I went to my first Costa Rican “big city.” At least, the people here in Sámara think of Nicoya as being a big city—that’s where they go when they want to go shopping. They talk about the stores in somewhat reverent tones and imply that you can find whatever your heart desires in Nicoya. That’s true to an extent, assuming that what your heart desires is tacky T-shirts, lots of cheap jewelry made in China, and random things for your house in the style of April Morning or TJ Maxx. Nicoya does, however, have a rather pretty central park (1/1000 the size of NY’s) and a historic church that is quite beautiful in its simplicity. I sat at the base of the back pew and watched an unseasonable rainstorm stain the red flagstones at the main door of the church an even deeper shade of red. Preparations for a wedding were being made at the same time, so it was interesting to be stuck there for a while. Then I went out and found more tacky T-shirts.

I will say, however, that the bus ride was far better than I’d thought it would be. When I asked my Texan buddy if there would be A/C (he has considerable experience with the buses in CR), he just started laughing. I assumed the worst: sweltering heat, stagnant air, hard, uncomfortable seats. For those of you who have ridden the trains in Italy, you know exactly what I’m talkin’ ‘bout! Well, FerroVia it weren’t, I’m happy to say. The buses here—while they don’t have A/C—have nice plushy seats and windows that fully open. Really not bad at all. My Texan bud has ridden trains in India and thinks that the CR buses are Nirvana in comparison. I’m just going to take his word on that…

Now that I’ve gotten a chance to see a bit of the countryside and get my feet wet, so to speak, I might venture farther afield, maybe to the southern tip of the Nicoya peninsula. (Also, my Spanish has improved and I can now chitchat with strangers without having to actually think about every damned verb conjugation. What a relief!) It is stunningly beautiful to travel the roads here, especially the ones that consist more of roads than potholes. I’ve never seen such green places: hills, mountains, gorges, rivers, palm trees jutting out in random places, etc. And this is the dry season! There are little tall, narrow structures called mirandoles scattered throughout whose purpose is specifically to give people an opportunity to enjoy the view. This would most definitely be one heck of a place to make a road trip!

My Spanish is getting better, and nowadays I can figure out what the Swiss girls are saying more than half the time. (Swiss German is really not very much at all like standard German, but I’m getting the hang of it. One of the girls jokes that I’m going to also have learned Svis-Duutsch by the time I leave.) Today during dinner it was just my Tica mom and I, and we chatted throughout the entire meal. Landmark evening for me! I’m also beginning to follow the conversations between the family members, which is much harder to decipher since they talk to each other a helluva lot faster than they do me, plus of course they have their own inner-family slang/shorthand. And I interpreted for the Texan guy when he came over and needed to borrow a bike pump.

Went to a family dinner a couple nights ago and got to see another typical Tica casa. (Cultural note: Costa Ricans refer to themselves as “Ticos.” There will be a quiz on this later!) Turns out that the house I’m living in is actually a bit bigger—having the entire kitchen and laundry area outside makes a huge difference. I’m lucky. It was fun to hang out with all the family members. And the student living with them is also a really cool guy. He wants to stay in CR for as long as it takes to get fluent. Kudos to him! That’s a pretty awesome commitment. He’s going to have his own apartment right next to his family—adjacent to their house—and will only have to pay $250/month for some pretty nice accomodations by local standards. As he says, (he’s a surfer from southern Cal), he’s “stoked.” Since we live with the same family (albeit the extended version) and are therefore Tico cousins, we might try to make an American meal for everyone once his kitchen is up and running. I think that would be a fun way to thank them for their wonderful hospitality.

Tomorrow I'm going to go rock- and shell-hunting at Buena Vista. It’s an absolute treasure trove of those sorts of things if you can handle walking over the VERY pointy stones that stand between you and the beach. Might try a different pair of shoes this time…wish me luck!

Hope you’re having fun! As the Ticos say, !Pura vida!