When in Costa Rica, do as the Ticos do

We just moved out of our house in Pica Flora. Back in June, we had rented it knowing that we likely would not  be staying there for the full year. But, we thought that we would have had some time to shop around to see other places and decide what type of experience we wanted; we didn’t think that we would be “evicted” without having any option to extend our stay and then have to rush a decision. Pica Flora is technically a vacation rental. It is absolutely beautiful with a magnificent view but the surrounding area is really not your typical Costa Rican neighborhood; the other houses in the area are occupied by Gringos living here or renting for a few weeks.

We had to decide what we wanted from our experience – a gorgeous vacation home in the hills or being with the locals. We were (and still are) torn between the positives and negatives of both options. In the end, we settled for the latter.

We are now 5 KM outside of the center of Atenas in an area called Barrio Mercedes. The interesting twist is that we are indeed in a Tico neighborhood but the house that we are renting is a North American style home. It is so unique in the area that our official address for the TV cable company is “casa de 2 pisos” (2-story house). Walking through our front door and into our house feels like you are crossing a border into the United States or Canada. 

The views of a typical Costa Rican neighborhood in front of our house

Our current house came with some big bonuses for the kids. The house belongs to a family with 3 children of similar ages. As soon as our kids laid eyes on all of the toys, they were sold on this house. And, as far as the kids were concerned, the swing set and trampoline out back sealed the deal.

There are many Tico kids on the street and this was an important part of the decision for us. We are hoping that our kids will be able to integrate with the other kids on the street.

Now we have to get used to the action outside our house. When we were at Pica Flora, we had to deal with one rooster; the number of roosters that surround our current home are too numerous for us to fend off. Combine the sound of the roosters with the barking dogs, trucks, and motorcycles, and you have a real Costa Rican symphony a single-pane window away.

Naimah is a maniac on swings

Our backyard has seriously psychedelic eucalyptus trees

Faces In The Crowd

We have seen many interesting creatures while we have been living in Costa Rica (no, this won’t be yet another bug post). I was going through some pictures from the last 7 weeks and thought I would post some of them.

When I saw these 3 turtles sitting on this log, I couldn’t help but think of our 3 kids.

We had to let this guy down the stairs first (but it didn’t look like his legs were going to be long enough).

This monkey is used to the paparazzi because he turned to pose.

I couldn’t resist but include at least one bug. In this climate, whenever you leave a carpet to hang out to dry, guaranteed something will decide to relax on it.

Bring Your Own Toys (BYOT)

We knew we weren’t going to ship anything down to Costa Rica for our move in July so we had to make everything fit in 10 bags (2 per person to adhere to airline rules). High on the priority list - toys for the kids. We wanted to be sure that the kids would be entertained in whichever house that we rented (and chances were high that we would be renting a house without children’s toys).

Toys that we couldn’t live without and are guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment:

Playmobil   

Transformers

Our generous neighbor, Reece, in Victoria, BC had given Gabriel the scorpion Transformer before we left to Costa Rica. The scorpion theme definitely fits here.

Gabriel’s action figures also keep the girls entertained. When Gabriel plays with them, we hear many crashes and sounds of explosions while the girls’ storylines usually involve a princess being saved or Barbie marrying Spiderman. Maybe the girls should script a Hannah Montana vs. Wolverine crossover movie now that it looks like Disney will own the rights to both?

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Los Sueños

Anybody who has been to an all-inclusive resort in a Third World country has travelled from the airport to the luxurious property on an air-conditioned bus passing through local neighborhoods. For some people from North America or Europe, the view outside the window of the bus is a bit of a shock – the houses seem like shacks compared to the multi-storey constructions back home, the roads are in bad shape, garbage is left in piles on the side of the road (and might even be on fire), and livestock are wandering free. In many ways, the area in which we currently live is like that other side of the air-conditioned bus window.

My parents have travelled to parts of Mexico and the Dominican Republic before and just last year, they spent some time in India. So prior to their arrival last week, I was able to prepare them mentally for the area in which we live. However, they had planned a short 5 day visit and we thought that it would be a nice balance for them to experience a bit of our town (real rural Costa Rica) but then wash it down with a nice visit to a beautiful hotel on the Pacific Coast – Los Sueños. 

Los Sueños is situated on Playa Herradura which isn’t a gorgeous beach but the hotel makes up for it with an extraordinary, gigantic pool which feels a bit like a mini-Venice. The water in the pool was such a perfect temperature that the whole family spent most of the day just soaking and wandering through the canals.

The kids liked this “message in a bottle” boat outside one of the restaurants.

The walk under the aqueduct to eat breakfast and dinner.

The canopy of almond trees provide shade for the lawn chairs on the beach.

Gabriel taking a break from swimming in the pool.

Naimah with an intense look on her face practicing with her boogie board.

It is much hotter on the coast so we had to make sure that the kids stayed hydrated.

The kids were just so happy to spend time with Bubby and Zaidie (Grandma and Grandpa in Yiddish).

Naimah was wiped by the end of the 2 days of heat and sun.

A video of the surfers in training before they hit the beach.

Coq Chantant

I am an early-riser especially since I started working on a different time zone 5 years ago. Since 2004, I have been starting work around 5:30am Pacific Standard Time (PST) due to the time difference of 3 hours between British Columbia and our head office in Quebec; now with a 2 hour time difference in Costa Rica, I am spoiled with an extra hour of sleep.

I was joking recently with someone at the office that considering how early I wake up, I should have been a rooster. Yes, but being a rooster would mean that I would wake the rest of the family up with my crowing in the morning. Little did I know that literally the day after, the entire family started getting woken up by an actual rooster crowing at the absurd hour of 4 am. (Aren’t roosters supposed to crow when the sun is actually up?) Where exactly did this rooster come from? Did one of our neighbors purchase a new rooster or had this rooster moved into a nearby vacation rental? The strange thing is that the crowing seemed to get louder and louder each morning until it sounded like it was right outside our window. Was it our sleep-deprived minds that were causing this illusion? The kids even told us that they had seen the rooster right outside their room. Ya, right. Finally, one morning Mélanie couldn’t take the sound anymore, journeyed outside, and, ‘lo and behold, the mischievous little bugger had indeed walked over to our house! Talk about an annoying house call.

We spent the last 2 mornings chasing him away in our underwear and now we just close the gate to our house at night to prevent him from getting in at all.

Here is a picture of our uninvited guest enjoying our yard at dawn before I chased him away (hopefully) for the final time.

McPinto

If we start to feel like the family from “The Mosquito Coast” dealing with the bugs, snakes, and scorpions, a quick jaunt to San José provides the creature comforts of North America. There might not be any Tim Hortons but staples like McDonald’s and Subway can easily be found. It is always interesting to see what kind of twist these international megachains have to cater to the local population. For example…

When we lived in London, England, we got a kick out of the fact that McDonald’s had a McCurry sandwich to cater to the British love for Indian food. In Costa Rica, Gallo pinto is the prototypical traditional dish of pre-cooked rice and beans so add McDonald’s to the mix and you get a “McPinto”.

Even though Canada uses the metric system, one still orders either a 6” or 12” Subway sandwich. In Costa Rica, you order either a 15 cm or 30 cm sandwich. (I won’t tell Léah that her 15 cm sandwich was really only 5.9 inches.)

 

On the topic of megachains, Wal-Mart cannot be left out. However, Costa Rica doesn’t have Wal-Mart but rather Hipermás. Wal-Mart owns a big chunk of Hipermás and when you enter the store, it is pretty much the same store but swap the happy face logo for a whale.

Spending a few hours in air-conditioned restaurants and shopping malls was a big change for the kids. Best line from our 4-year-old around midday in reaction to her feeling a bit like a fish out of water today, “it feels like we are on an adventure”.

No Artificial Ingredients

The Costa Rica Tourism Board picked a very fitting slogan: "No Artificial Ingredients." For such a small country, there is no shortage of plein air activities to enjoy. Last week, we went to Los Chorros Waterfalls (situated a half hour from us).

It was hot in the sun and Naimah made good use of the umbrella that we had recently purchased for her to create some shade.