Month: January 2020

One of the more rewarding experiences to-date is buying our produce for the week at the Saturday “Feria” or Farmer’s Market. There are two fresh fruit and produce stands. The one I am drawn to is at the edge of the market. The first time we went, we discovered that the line was already really long at 9am. Matt was “hangry,” which probably made the line seem longer and made me wonder why a 48-year old man has still not learned that he needs to eat within an hour of waking. Sam is the same way…genetics. I grabbed fewer items than I would have liked, but promised myself to come earlier the next time.

So yesterday, I made sure that we got there right at 8am. The four people staffing the produce stand were only about a third of the way through setting up. I was about the 2nd or 3rd vulture to descend. You could feel the buzz of need and slight competition in the air among these early arrivers. Who would get the best head of lettuce?

I picked up my basket and started filling it with vibrantly colored produce. I enjoyed picking out the best of the best as I worked my way through my mental list until I had everything I wanted that was out. Then I stepped back and just watched as they continued to unload their truck. It was already warm this early in the morning. They were working fast, I am sure feeling the pressure as more and more people gathered and got in their way. I watched the guy who seemed to be in charge direct one of the workers on how best to “present” the bananas. I was impressed by the care and obvious pride they took in their produce. A plastic crate of cucumbers came out next. I saw him notice they had a light film of dust on them. He walked back to the truck, grabbed a spray bottle of water and misted them until they were clean and glistening. He returned to the truck for the next crate with a serious look of concentration, his back was soaked and his face dripped in sweat.

I continued to watch as a few more crates were unloaded into hand-woven baskets, but where were the strawberries? I felt a slight sense of panic. What if there were no strawberries this week? So, I waited, not wanting to be pushy. As they seemed to be getting to the end, I couldn’t hold back any longer and asked, “Tiene las fresas hoy?” He nodded yes and I am pretty sure asked me how many I wanted. I replied “Dos cajas, por favor.” He nodded again and went back into the truck. He did several other things that had nothing to do with strawberries, but I continued to wait. Finally, I saw him uncover a flat of strawberries and watched in appreciation as he hand selected two containers of berries and handed them to me. “Muchas gracias!” I smiled. I waited in what had, just like last week, become a long line and paid about $30 for almost a weeks worth of produce. Score.

Matt and I walked home in the heat and appreciated the sections of the road in shade. As we entered the condo, I noticed Gus was still sleeping, Sam was playing Fortnite and the clock said it was 9:15. It had taken us an hour and half to walk into town, get lattes and get produce. Then, it took another hour to clean, cut and bag everything. At home, a trip to Whole Foods would have netted the same result in about 45 minutes. Life here may be simpler and at times more rewarding, but I can’t help but notice things definitely take longer.

We look at the ocean everyday. It contains fish. Yet, purchasing fresh fish has been a challenge. This makes no sense to me. I must figure this out.

We have eaten a fair amount of fish at the various restaurants we have tried. So, again, we know there is fish. And we all love it, which just increases my desperation. Gus, in particular, streams a constant rant of “I must have poke! Can we eat poke for dinner? How about poke?” Geez, kid. And, Sam really likes ceviche or any grilled fish. And, when it’s hot…which it is almost always…fish just sounds good. So, light…so fresh. I must find the fish.

Of course you can buy fish at the Auto Mercado…but it is crazy expensive (like $20 a pound). I am pretty sure my family of four can put away a pound and half of fish in one meal, so that’s like $30…just for the fish. I don’t think so. Plus, it’s grocery store fish…that’s just sad when you look at the ocean every day.

So, yes, I turned to the internet. I found one site that said they sell fresh fish at the Saturday Farmer’s Market. I checked that out, but no. Another site said there is a market just past the boy’s school. Turns out, it is closed. Another site said the place two doors down from us sells fish on Tuesdays and Fridays, which at first seemed weird because when I went in just after we arrived here it appeared to just be an Italian deli and cafe. But, I thought, “I’ll try again.” So, a couple weeks ago I went in and asked the woman working there (in Spanish). She walked me over to a small refrigerator in the back corner (that I previously thought was in the employee only section) and showed me one shelf with a few small packages of fish (fresh, not frozen!). They had both tuna and dorado…my heart raced with hopeful excitement. “Was it fresh?,” I asked. She tried to respond in English, but messed up her days of the week. So, I tried in Spanish, “De Lunes? De Martes?” “De Martes” she replied. It was Thursday, so the fish was from Tuesday. I would roll with two-day old fish. But, wait…was it crazy expensive? After a few seconds of quick colones to dollars calculations, I figured out that two good sized chunks would be about $15. Not a great price, but better and fresher than anything I had encountered to-date. I was doing it! I came home and proudly presented my find to Matt and the boys and immediately proceeded to making homemade poke and ceviche. They were delicious. Everybody loved it. I rode the high of my success the rest of the night. So I thought, “Well, maybe I won’t hit ‘buying fresh fish from the guy off the boat’ nirvana, but this was not a terrible consolation prize.”

The woman at the deli had said they usually get fresh fish every Friday and sometimes on Tuesdays, so I went back on Friday expecting to repeat my success…but discovered that they had not received any fish. She shrugged and seemed to imply it was strange, but “pura vida.” So, I went back the following Tuesday and, again, they had not received any fresh fish. Well, this may not work after all.

So, I kept asking around. Our property manager said that he fishes once a week and might have some to sell sometime. However, he could never sell us tuna, because his wife has dibs on the tuna. Smart girl. He also said he could take us out fishing sometime…that we could go to the reef, catch yellow fin and eat it right there in the boat with some soy sauce. That sounds AMAZING as a one-time experience. Full stop. But, I don’t think that’s an every week type of event. He also said he thought there was “a guy” who delivers and he would try to find out his contact information. But, when we checked in with him a few days later he seemed to have forgotten that we had had the conversation. Ah, pura vida.

Another woman in his office suggested we look for one of the trucks with “Mariscos” written on the side. She said they deliver to the restaurants and we might be able to buy fish, but more likely shrimp, straight off the truck. To which Matt responded, “I just saw one of those trucks!” She also said there used to be a fish market on the beach, just past Nogui’s restaurant, but the guy had retired. His nephew or son-in-law may still sell fish “near there.” She said we should go by in the morning sometime and maybe we could buy fish there. Hmm…was my ‘buying fresh fish from a guy off the boat’ nirvana within reach after all?

So, we left and headed home. Within 45 seconds, Matt yelled, “There’s a Mariscos truck!” “Where?” I searched. We had just passed it. It was parked on the other side of the street, facing the other way, and there were two guys unloading bags of something. “Do you want to stop?” Matt asked. “Yes!” I said. As I hopped out of the golf cart and trotted across the street dodging moving cars and motorcycles, I tried to decide which verb and verb tense I should use. “Esta veniendo pescado fresco?,” I said trying for the holy grail first. They shook their heads and said “no” without even a pause. I glance at a ginormous piece of tuna wrapped in plastic…probably pre-ordered by a restaurant I decide. “Camarones?” I try again. “Si, camarones” they said and showed me a HUGE bag of shrimp. ” I notice that they are frozen, but quickly decide that it’s probably okay since they sell to the restaurants. “Cuánto cuesta?” I ask. They take out a calculator and show me their math, which means nothing to me, but I see the total and quickly understand that they want the equivalent of $27 US. Feeling the pressure of the moment, I decide that they are probably ripping me off a little bit, but that’s still a lot of shrimp for $27, so I agree and pay them. We get home and separate out the gigantic bag of shrimp into six “shrimp for 4” serving size bags of maybe 40 shrimp each, pop five into the freezer and start to thaw one for dinner.

That’s about five bucks a meal, y’all. Now we’re talking.

So today I tell Matt that after we drop the boys off school, I want to check out the area around the old fish market on the beach and see if we can buy fish somewhere around there. Like a good husband, he accommodates my request. We park the golf cart and walk through the trees along the beach and see an old red building with Pedro’s on it. We notice all the windows are closed up, pass it and walk around to other side. We see an open door and and older woman sitting next to it. “Esta veniendo pescado fresco?,” I reuse my question from the other day. She replies in lightening fast Spanish, but we are able to make out that ‘they’ are still out fishing and will be back later. We figure out that we should come back at around 11 am and agree to do so. Fingers crossed. I may just get my ‘buying fresh fish from a guy off the boat’ experience after all.

A trip back home and couple errands later, we return. We ask again. Unfortunately, there is no tuna, but there is red snapper and Mahi Mahi. She pulls out a huge slab of white fish in a plastic bag and shows me. “Yikes, that’s a lot,” I think. I touch it and notice it’s frozen. “Uh oh, I thought this going to be fresh from this morning” I think. Confused, I ask her. She pokes at it and explains it was from yesterday and it is still very fresh. I feel a slight stab of disappointment and decide this is still the best thing we have found. We find out that she wants 10,000 colones (or about $17 US) for a kilo of fish which Matt tells me is 2.2 lbs (so nice to have a walking encyclopedia on hand). That’s less than $8 for a pound of fresh fish! I tell her we’ll take 2 kilos or about 4 1/2 pounds. We take it home, cut it into three pieces, put two pieces into the freezer for another day and one in the refrigerator for dinner tomorrow night. That’s about $11-12 for fish for four. I’m thrilled.

So, we have not quite reached fish nirvana. We are still one day and a freezer away, but I am feeling good about the progress and enjoying the adventure.

On one of our first evening walks to the Surf Club (our most frequented dinner hang out just two blocks from our condo), we noticed that a long section of the gravel/dirt road was unusually dark. My first thought was, “Oh, they probably water it to keep the dust down.” But then I quickly realized that didn’t make any sense. Any water applied in this climate would quickly evaporate. Then I thought “Maybe it’s some kind of petroleum product…that would too bad.” Then, last week on a walk midday, we were approaching that same section of road and I noticed that the road was much darker than before and glistening in the sun. Obviously, something had just been freshly applied. As we started walking on that section, I noticed my flip flops were becoming a little tacky and then the occasional smell of slightly burnt molasses found my nose. “Wait…did they put molasses on the road?,” I thought. “That couldn’t be. That would require SO MUCH molasses. Wouldn’t that be prohibitively expensive? Hmm.” Then, as we approached the neighborhood mini super to get drinks, I noticed there was a path of broken down cardboard boxes on the way to the door and just inside the mini super. Those had not been there before. As I walked on the boxes, my shoes stuck to the cardboard. “I think this has got to be molasses. So strange. I bet Google knows.”

And sure enough, a quick internet search brought up several articles explaining that “a liquid mixture of water and molasses is splashed onto the roads, the coating dries and hardens in a matter of days into rust-colored “asphalt” that glues the dirt and rocks together. Molasses is water-soluble, so when the strong rains return, it washes away.” It turns out that is this is actually an eco-friendly solution to keeping the dust down because molasses is a by-product of the sugar cane production here. So interesting!

I love swimming. I used to do it all the time. But it was one of the things that dropped off our harried schedule, plus the added time of driving to the pool and back, and the extra mental strength required to do it in January. Have you ever walked out of a pool into 35 degrees and freezing rain with a wet head? It can be done. I have done it. But, it is not easy.

Here, swimming is easy…necessary even. After a warm, sweaty walk into town and back, there is nothing you will want more than to get into the pool. Plus, its one easy flight of stairs and a few steps from our condo. It’s like having our very own pool.

For those of you that know us well, you know that a big driver for this “sabbatical” was a need to escape. Both Matt and I were burnt out and unhappy, for different reasons and in different ways. Not a lot of time was put into deciding where we would go, nor was a lot of time put into the question of should we and would we go. We just needed out, so we jumped.

We have now been here two weeks. It has been a interesting mixture of experiences, part vacation (playing in the ocean, watching sunsets, swimming and eating out), part moving to a new place and getting settled (buying sheets, towels, sharp knives and a good frying pan) and part regular routine (grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, getting boys to school, feeding boys, chivying boys and kicking them off screens). All things familiar, but in a combination and environment we’ve never experienced.

We are not yet “settled,” but are perhaps in the process of “settling.” I wonder how long it will take for us to feel “settled” and what that will look like. A couple from Tel Aviv (they moved here to escape their own version of the “rat race”) owns a bakery and cafe in town called, “Breaking Bread ” (a play off the “Breaking Bad” show). On our first (of what will eventually be many) visits, the wife told me it took her 5 or 6 months to adjust. “Yikes,” I thought, “we don’t have that kind of time. We will be heading home in 5 or 6 months. I certainly hope we are not heading home just when we feel settled.”

I think a lot about what I want out of this experience and what I was needing when we made the jump. One of the answers is to take better care of myself and one of the ways I am doing that is swimming. Now that the boys are in school and we have a few free hours four days a week, I swim. The pool is cold in the morning. Initially I always wonder if it’s maybe a little too cold…but after a few laps, my heart rate rises, my body loosens, my mind settles and it feels perfect. I still think a lot about what else I am looking for. At least for now, I have found this one thing. It brings me joy and that’s a pretty good answer.

We have now been here a week. There has been some adjusting, some settling in, some figuring out how things work. It has been a lot to take in and process, but here are some of my observations thus far.

It’s warm here. And, sometimes very windy. But, I heard that it should be less windy in about a month or so. Then, I heard it’s about to get windy. Hmmm. Thankfully, most of the time, the wind is the in form of a refreshing breeze.

Sitting on our balcony/patio/veranda (we haven’t landed on the right word yet) in the mornings and evenings is particularly lovely.

They have “hard” water in Costa Rica. We have “soft” water in Oregon. I am always reminded of this fact whenever we travel. I don’t know if “soft” water is rare or if we just tend to travel places with “hard” water, but “hard” water stains are really hard to remove. However, it does make my hair either nicely full or crazy frizzy.

The laundry detergent has a very strong perfum-y smell…exactly like what they use in Mexico…maybe all of Central America? It’s a strong overtone that tries hard to cover up the slighty musty smell in our condo.

My family members are all unique individuals with their own specific interior landscapes, contoured by very different emotional and physical needs.

People are, in fact, REALLY NICE here.

It only took four days to meet someone from Portland (thanks to Sam who was wearing a Timbers shirt).

Groceries are surprisingly expensive.

My feet are going to require daily attending, to keep them from turning into sand-caked, dry, cracking embarrassments.

Sam needs to eat within an hour of waking up.

I love the sound of the many tropical birds you can hear from our patio.

I love my new cerulean blue tank dress.

I wonder what we will find in ourselves and in each other, now that we’ve stripped back many of the structures and demands of life back home.

Our first black out was totally survivable because the condo has a generator that provides power to the common areas and one light in our entryway, people gather around the pool and make a party out of it, we were still able to go out to dinner and it came back on before bedtime.

I learned that the blackouts are generally caused by the wind. In the coffee roasters this morning, the lights kept flickering and she explained it was because of the wind.

Matt is always the fastest walker in the group, unless there is bird watching to do.

When my mind drifts to my (last) job and I start to think about the next problems that need to get solved, I remind myself that they are no longer my problems to solve and I feel a layer of stress fall away.

Homemade guacamole is REALLY good.

Would a diet of guacamole, ceviche, poke and fresh fruit be adequate?

For being the most self-contained of our children, Gus is surprisingly outgoing in new social situations. “Hi, my name is Gus,” says Gus with hand extended.

I love having a pool. It feels amazing after long hot walk from town. It’s also cool enough, that I can swim laps with my swim cap on. I’m thrilled.

I am enjoying skipping the getting ready for work routine. I shower, dress, put my hair up wet and I’m ready to go!

School starts for the boys in 3 days and we need to find a way to transport them to and from school. For better or worse, our condo is on the south side of Tamarindo, while their school is on the north side. Poor planning, perhaps, but we just couldn’t find anything close to the school that we could afford ($8,000 per month for a 3 bedroom, albeit gorgeous, condo? Sadly, not for us.) And, we were told (and now tend to agree) that the Playa Langosta neighborhood is a nice place to live. And, we thought “A mile and half? That’s nothing. We can do that! We can probably walk that!” Except that a mile and half is an eternity in the heat, the sometimes crazy winds that create brief little pockets of sand tornadoes, the insect-like chaos of “el centro” with its motobikes, pedestrians, golf carts, scooters, cars, diesel delivery trucks and bicycles and a final stretch of road on the way out of town where everyone suddenly speeds up, passes on the left and there is NO shoulder.

When this dilemma first came up, back in October, I did some research (as I do) and proposed to Matt we lease a car for five months for $780 per month, including insurance, or roughly $4K for the entire trip. He thought that was too much to spend and suggested we figure it out once we got here. I took a deep breath and thought, “Okay, be strong, try winging it.” For those that know me well, you will note that this sort of “letting go” is a stretch for me. But, one of the things that I am working on during this trip is being more relaxed and less controlled. So, here we go.

In say November, Matt randomly suggested “Let’s just get scooters!” And, I thought, “Oh, that would be fun! Maybe this will work out after all.” And, again, I did what I do and took to the internet and discovered that we really can’t rent/lease scooters for a long term and the daily rates are prohibitive. So, maybe we buy scooters? Again, taking to the internet, I learned that you CAN buy a scooter for about $2K new and $1 to 1.5K used. So, that seems doable, except, how do you actually “own” a scooter in a foreign country and what about insurance and what if you can’t sell it before you leave? Hmm…

Fast forward to our arrival and impending need for transportation. Since we had a full week before the boys school started, I suggested, “Let’s just TRY the commute from the condo to the school in each form of transportation this week and maybe that will make it clear what we should do?” Matt agreed.

Option 1, a car, was easy to try out since we already had a rental car that brought us and our eleven bags from the airport. Not surprisingly, driving, was super easy and quick…also, very practical for transporting groceries which tend to contain lots of heavy beverages (did I mention it’s hot here?)…but, maybe a bit boring and not beachy fun at all.

Option 2, a golf cart, also easy and almost as quick as the car. You may recall from the beginning of this post that there is that one final section of the road where the cars speed up and, it turns out, the golf cart just can’t keep up. So, you pull all the way to right, grimace a little and let a few cars pass, until suddenly….you are at the school! Also, golf carts ARE beachy fun! However, you can’t really lease them long term for much of a discount. They are $50 per day to rent and $40 per day if you rent them long term, so those of you who like math the way I do, that’s $1,200 per month and $400 more than the car option that I found back in October. And, we’d still need to rent a car to drive anywhere else in Costa Rica. So, as much as I love the thought of having a golf cart all the time, it seems a bit much and the practical side of me does not want to spend the extra $ to be beachy and fun. <sigh>

Option 1a…so maybe we do just lease a car? Except now, it’s going to be $5,000 for the five months, instead of the $4,000 it would have been back in October. Why am I turning my back on my super organized side? That side of me gets things done and for less money. Hmmm…okay, breathe, staying the course.

Option 3…bikes? Luckily, there is a place two doors down that rents bikes, so that’s easy and the people are nice. The store, which also sells touristy stuff, like t-shirts and tours, and yummy stuff, like gelato for boys and lattes for me, is run by a very friendly family who actually acted excited when we told them we had just moved here for five months. The Dad describes himself as a “Texafornian” and the Mom is a Tica. They have one 11-year old son, Jimmy, who is bilingual and seems really sweet. He made my latte and did a great job. Upon meeting Jimmy, I immediately thought, “He’s the same age as Sam!” and hoped for an instant love connection, but no, they were a little shy. Two minutes later Sam came over to me and said wished he was an introvert. Yeah, right, kid. Maybe the love connection will take two meetings…or school will start. So, anyway, bikes were $10 per person, per day. You will note that the combined cost is about the same as a golf cart, but I think a super long term deal is there for the taking. So, we got on bikes and the first 10 seconds were GREAT, until Sam got sand in his eyes from one of the mini sand tornadoes that swept across the road. Crying and frustration ensued. Matt and I looked at each other and quickly agreed that the first stop in town would be to buy sunglasses for the boys. So bikes took forever, but I do think we’d get it down. Matt tried the ride to TIDE this morning and reported that traffic in town was quiet, but the last section of road before TIDE was not safe and the path along the road was super narrow and not for bikes. So, while probably super affordable, I think we can eliminate bikes from the options.

Option 4, two-wheeled motorized vehicles (aka scooter for me, “Navi” bike for Matt). I am not a motorcycle person, even if small and electric (I think…but new more adventurous me should probably at least try it). Matt is thrilled with the idea, so that’s worth noting. However, renting them long term does not seem to be an option, mostly due to the expense…online they are $40 per person, per day…so we would have to get a major deal for them to compete with a golf cart. As noted earlier in the post, you can buy them new or used, but we would need to figure ownership, insurance and probably also transporting them here. So, for now, we are putting a pause on this option. We will still try them, but they are not feeling like top of the list.

Option 5, taking public bus. We are going to try this today. We have been told that it is about $500 colones (just under $1), but there is likely not much of a schedule and is not likely a dependable condo/school/condo form of transportation, but maybe it’s a fine just “into town” option or “back to the condo” option when carrying heavy bags.

So, for now, our plan is to rent a golf cart for Sunday to Thursday next week, so we can at least get boys to and from school. We think we can get a $40/day deal. If that works out, perhaps Option 6 and the ultimate winner will be some kind of hybrid, where we rent golf carts for the short school week ($160 week/$640 month) and mix in the other forms of transportation as needed?

Any other logistically-oriented minds with thoughts to share out there?

We experienced or first blackout, only on our fifth day. Not only was it our first, but it lasted four hours. One of the longest in a while, according to locals. And we had some worries. Our biggest worry was that we would have to sleep without A/C. But, once it was nearing 5:00 we were wondering what we were going to have for dinner but, we just ended up going to the local sports bar. At 6:30, the power turned on and, just like that, we were all happy and it made us realize how different it is here.

By Sam Whitman, Guest Blogger (Also known as Trina’s son)

Thank You!

Thanks to Sam’s lightening fast sprint and unwavering determination, he was able to capture this amazing video of a family of monkeys travelling down the power lines on our street. So cool!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/2hgaY5KnevE

I knew not everyday would be paradise…just didn’t think it would come so early in the trip. I thought maybe the first week or so would feel like vacation, because everything about this place feels like vacation. Then, in maybe a couple weeks, the pull of friends and home would start. That will probably still happen, but today caught me a bit by surprise. It was just one of those off days. And, in an attempt to have some perspective, I am telling myself that you need to have the off days to contrast with the good days. We will persevere.

Some highlights:

Parent: “I don’t think you want to wear a sweatshirt.” Child: “I’m going to.” Parent: I think you will be really hot and uncomfortable.” Child: “No, I won’t”

Thirty minutes later: “I am so hot. I don’t want to eat breakfast. I feel terrible. Can we go home? I hate it here.”

Parent: “Do you want to rent bikes and ride around.” Child: “No, I just want to go back to the condo. I want a down day.”

Back at the condo…before going into the pool:

Parent: “You should put on sunscreen.” Child: “I don’t need sunscreen.” Parent: “Sweetie, you’ll burn.” Child: “I don’t need sunscreen.”

After a short time at the pool…

Child: “Can I back to the condo?” Parent: “We haven’t been here very long.” Child: “I don’t care I want to go back.”

Later…

Child: “I don’t want to go to dinner.” Parent: “It’s only two blocks and I think you’re going to really like it.” Child: “I still don’t want to go.”

Five minutes later:

Child: “That was not two blocks. It was more like three or four.”

On the positive side, the boys had a great time body surfing at the end of the day and I had my second good latte in a row this morning, a good pina colada at dinner and enjoyed another glorious sunset.

….for more lyrical, witty version of the same story.