4th of July in CR- What 4th of July means to me.

WARNING:  Includes political comment that may not be suited for some adults.  Most definitely suited for the young as they are still teachable.

It's the 4th of July.  All of the US is celebrating.  Here in Costa Rica, not so much.  :)  I have seen posts on the expat sites though that in large expat areas they are having celebrations.  My first thought was, "Why are people who have voluntarily left the US, due to not being real happy living there, celebrating its independence?" 

I thought about it more and did some self analysis, (as usual).  I guess I can't speak for others but as for me, it is still a good thing to celebrate  Although some people say, "we are celebrating our freedom", I don't think that is what the holiday is about.  It is about the US taking a stand.  For the US to declare independence from England is a proud, strong moment it its history. We should celebrate this courageous act and replicate it as much as possible to win our country back from governmental tyranny. So even as expats, it is good to celebrate this history and try to keep that spirit alive.
Someone posted a comment about how America (I don't usually use this word anymore to indicate the US as I am in Central America, where they don't like we US folks saying we are American.  They are too.) is not free.  I totally agree.  So what we should be celebrating is that strength of spirit that our forefathers had to fight off England's governmental tyranny and declare their independence.  We should strive to get the power back to the people.

One of the solutions I often promote is to totally get rid of Congress or at least demote their responsibilities to committees that analyze proposals and give recommendations to the people.  We don't need them anymore!  When the government was first organized, people needed respresentatives.  They did not have access to current news, events and issues.  They did not have a way to vote quickly and effectively.  With television and the internet, people have access to all of this now.  We do not need legislators to tell us what is best for us.  We can decide on our own.  We do not need legislators to vote on any issues.  We can do this on our own now. 
Lets get rid of Congress, or cut back their power and responsibilities drastically!  We don't need to pay their overinflated salaries.  We don't need their bought and paid for votes and opinions!
We need to truly give the power back to the people!  Get rid of these special interest bloodsuckers!

 Ok, enough political rant.  On to what we did for the 4th.
Nosara has quite a few expats but there were no picnics or anything like that.  Maybe next year we can organize something like that.  With not much going on, we decided to have our own little celebration.  Jacob made a wonderful mixer from mango juice and fresh pineapple to go with our Captain Morgan's rum.  We had a couple drinks at home then Jarred ran us down to Olga's bar on the scooter.  It can only handle two people at the most but Olga's is just down a dirt road so he took me down there and then came back and got Jacob.

Jarred and I were hungry so we had dinner, delicious as usual.  Had a native Pittsburgher come up and talk to us.  Although this one was not one whose hometown would be necessarily proud to claim.  Nice enough guy but by many indications, a long time tweeker.  I had kidded Jacob that the men here for me are either younger than me and fat or quite abit older and skinny and which one should I choose?  Last night after this guy talked to us he said I should go for the younger and fat ones.  LOL

VIEW FROM OLGA'S

Olga's was pretty dead last night so although we had planned on partying, we did not stay long.  However, I never get tired of the free spirit ambiance there and the ocean breezes and view.

I didn't sleep well last night though so I was tired.  I had Jarred bring me back early.  Tomorrow will be a busy day too.  I did miss seeing fireworks though.  I love fireworks!


P.S.  Jacob just told me he and Jarred heard fireworks at Guiones beach last night.  Missed it, damn!!

                                                                                                      

Becomming

 

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

— Goethe

The past week has been peaceful and restorative again.  I have went down to the ocean several times and laid out by the pool a few times too. 

 

OUR PIECES OF HEAVEN ON EARTH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the amazing things here are the multitude of opportunities that come your way, whether you choose to take them or not.  We have gotten to know our property manager, Bhajan, better.  Due to this connection, Jacob has obtained a job.  Bhajan had started a property management company here in CR.  A friend of hers, who is also a property manager, has too many properties to handle and is referring a bunch of them to Bhajan.  Now Bhajan already has several irons in the fire.  She is a photographer, marketing person, yoga instructor, works part time teaching yoga and working at the restaurant at Blue Spirit, a yoga retreat center.  We found out she also makes chocolates which she sells to a few stores down here.  Being a property manager is not what Bhajan wants to spend all her time doing.  So she is hiring Jacob to talk to clients and renters, show properties, manage cleaning and maintanence crews and stuff like that.  Jacob is very excited about this opportunity as it will give him a good income for Costa Rica living and he loves the idea of working in the area of property.  He and I still haven’t given up on our dream of flipping properties.  We are starting to think that maybe here in CR we will have a chance to do that.  We are hoping this opportunity will grow to include Jacob’s partner Brock and Jarred.  Jarred loves working with plants and such.  With his artistic capabilities, he would be a good landscape architect and landscaper.  Brock has a lot of construction background and would be great for upgrades and maintenance in the property business.  So who knows.

JARRED'S SHELL MUSHROOMS 

As for me!  Well, the only nitch I have found for myself here is writing and self reflection, which while nice, has not paid any bills yet.  LOL.  Ok, that isn’t entirely true.  I still want to teach English classes and while this area is poor, I think that even if I take trades for lessons (yes, chickens, fish and produce) it would be a good thing to do.  Also, my years of midwifery experience can also turn into something down here I think.  However, we really need transportation other than just the scooter and cars are very expensive down here.  A cheap one is $5,000.  That would be one that is about 15 years old.  I also want to ship the rest of my stuff down here so I can make jewelry.   

So tomorrow I am flying back to Denver to find a paralegal job for a few months to a year.  I can make quite abit of money faster in the US so I will make that sacrifice for now. However, yesterday on the beach I was second guessing myself again and asking "Now tell me why again I am leaving this and going back to Colorado?"  :)

 

Which brings me to the quote of the day.  I have achieved several goals I have set for myself during my lifetime.  Some have brought personal growth but a lot of them were career, money earning oriented.  Recently the goals I achieved were finishing my TEFL training and moving to Costa Rica.  Neither of these were based on financial potential.  Rather they were specifically for personal growth.  I have achieved these goals and even though I have not taught English, YET, and I have not found my path here in Costa Rica, YET, I am so happy with what I have become.  I have become more comfortable and happy with myself.  I have learned to live with more gratitude, more forgiveness and less judgment.  I am waaay less consumer oriented and happier to live more simply.  Things are sooooo unimportant, especially the want to have the newest, shiniest toy.  Slowing down and being in the moment is also something I have learned but continue to work on.  I have continued to become closer to God.  I am happy with what I have become and continue to become.  We never stop “becoming”, we continue to grow as long as we are alive.  It is just a matter of becoming in a positive way or a negative way.   

Regarding my spiritual growth, I am still not a church goer and don’t know if I ever will be.  Still don’t believe in the Bible as “the word of God” although I do believe the authors were divinely inspired so in a way it is the word of God.  I do not believe in the literal sense of the Bible though.  Miracles though, yes, I do believe in miracles.  I see them every day when I look at this beautiful world and the people that God has put in my life.  I am so grateful from the gifts you have brought and what I have learned from all of you.  Connecting with others on a spiritual level is one of the miracles God gives us. 

Ok, enough philosophical ramblings.  You aren’t reading this for that reason. You want to know what the heck it is like for an expat to live in Costa Rica.  So back to the car thing.  Costa Rica is a small country.  They don’t make cars here.  They are all imported.  The import tax on cars is at least one half of their value.  That with shipping costs push a car to at cost at least twice its value of what it would be in the US.  There are brand new cars here but they are few and far between and very expensive.  I had one friend tell me he priced a new truck in the US.  It was $45,000.  When he tried to buy if from a dealer here, with shipping, taxes and licensing it was just over $100,000.   

So what they usually do here is import older cars.  They cost less and therefore cost less in import taxes.  Then they fix them up very nice.  The used cars here generally look much better than the used cars in the US.  I don’t know how much work they do on them mechanically but body wise, they usually look very nice.  I haven’t seen many Subarus down here.  They have a lot of Toyota’s.  I mean A LOT!  Gas is expensive here.  At this time a little over $6.00 a gallon.  So if possible, you want a vehicle that is very fuel efficient.  They do have inspections and licensing on cars but I haven’t gone through this process so I am not sure what it entails. 

Talking of cars brings to mind the roads.  We have been very excited because they have been fixing the gravel roads here in Nosara.  When we first came they were very bad.  Huge potholes, very rough, muddy.  It was also much wetter here then.  Torrential rains everyday.  After we got back from Ciudad Quesada, we noted that they had graded the main road.  It was much smoother and you could travel faster.  There is a rumor that they are going to pave it.  However, this same rumor has been circulating the area for at least the past three years.  The past two days they worked on the little side road to Playa Pelada, which we live on.  We heard an affluent family from San Jose bought Pancho’s down this road.  Pancho’s is a hotel, restaurant and super (supermarket, although not very super actually).  We all think they might be doing our road as a requirement of that family purchasing Pancho’s.   We don’t really care why it is happening, it is just nice that it is being fixed.  It is much easier on our little scooter.  Especially when two of us pile on it.  I don’t think the suspension of little Abejorro was meant to handle the weight of two of us AND the rough road.

 

JARRED AND ME ON ABEJORRO

 

Now to explain Supers, since I brought it up.  Supers as they are called, are anything from a small place that sells snacks and drinks to a good sized supermarket, with fresh produce and meats.  I guess in Costa Rica “super” would be the same as when we say “store” in the US.  However, no matter what the size, supers do not have near the same selection as even a small store in the US.  A decent sized super will have a choice or two for every basic thing you need, plus a few fun, interesting things.  However, they do not have, let’s say, 80 kinds of cereal under 10 different brands.  Maybe they will have two brands but only two kinds of cereal under each of those brands.  It can be challenging finding stuff you like to eat.  Especially here in Nosara where supers are very small. 
The biggest one here is Super Nosara.  Downstairs is food and such.  Upstairs is household goods, brooms, coolers, chairs, plastic containers, etc.  It is where we usually shop. 

So, oh yea, another moment of becoming, I am no longer a picky eater!  LOL

 

Whew!

I don’t know how to even start with what happened the last couple weeks.  Most of it is pretty personal so I won’t be sharing.  Sorry.  Ciudad Quesada is a very nice town though, I will tell you that.  It is up in the mountains a little ways, about 45 minutes to an hour to San Ramon, about an hour and a half or so to San Jose.  E opened his taqueria and by all accounts it is going pretty well for him.  For reasons I will not explain, we decided not to go into the business with him and also, not to stay in Ciudad Quesada.  Suffice it to say, we learned a lot, grew some more, through some good and bad experiences and are once again, richer in our lives from the experience. 

We returned to Nosara day two days ago.  A 7 hour bus ride.  We did have a layover in that time.  Don’t trust the bus schedule thing online for Costa Rica.  The times are pretty accurate but if you plot out the connections it does not tell the whole story.  Once again we were dragging two big suitcases, one carryon, a couple backpacks and Annie in her carrier. We started in San Carlos at 5:15 am.  They put Annie under the bus with the luggage which I argued about but the driver insisted it was against policy to have her in her crate in the bus.  First time I ran into this, so poor Annie had to ride down there in the dark for an hour or so.  

The online bus schedule thing showed only one bus change.  We ended up with 3.  We first took a bus from San Carlos to near Sarichi.  Bus change.  Ok, this was not an ordinary bus change and just to warn you if you ever come here, you don’t always get off one but and then right on to another.  A lot of times the other bus you have to catch is blocks away.  This was the case for us in Sarichi.  Luckily, I have ridden them enough to know that when they drop you off on some street, you better find out where you catch the next bus.  So I asked a guy that was standing there, “San Ramon Autobus aqui?  No, he points to a church and tells us it is on the other side of the church is where we catch it.  Oh, great.  We schlep all of our luggage a couple blocks.  Get all kinds of looks from the ticos.  A strange group of crazy gringos, hauling luggage and a meowing cat along the streets and getting on a very local bus.  About half an hour this trip.  These local buses are converted school buses so they are not comfortable.   

We get to San Ramon and we stop at the area where San picked me up when I came into town.  Jacob said, “Should we get off here.”  I said no, I think there is an actual bus terminal here.  But we can’t figure out where we get off at.  Finally everyone gets off so we do too.  On some street.  We ask a few people where the bus to Nicoya is (we have to go to Nicoya to get to Nosara).  We get questioning looks.  I decide when all else fails, get a taxi.  So we flag down a taxi and ask him to take us where we catch the bus for Nicoya.  Pay another $2.00 to find out it is where Jacob suggested we get off in the first place. 

A few buses come and go.  They have signs of the names of where they are going but we don’t entirely trust the signs.  So we ask the first couple “Nicoya?”  No.  A guy sees us ask a couple times and tell us the Nicoya bus comes at ocho y media.  8:30.  Ok, it is 7:30.  Ah hour to wait.  So we don’t really trust that people are telling us the truth and we keep asking each bus.  Finally about three people were telling us ocho y media.  I’m sure they were thinking “these dumb gringos just don’t get it”  LOL.  Sure enough, the Nicoya bus pulls up at 8:30 on the dot.  A few hours ride to Nicoya.  Beautiful scenery!  I truly do love this country.  With all its good and bad!  It is amazing! 

We sleep part of the way because this isn’t a local bus and is more comfortable with cushioned seats.  As we get nearer to Nicoya though, it gets hotter and hotter.  The beaches are quite a bit hotter and more humid than the mountain towns.  Although it is refreshing to see the sunshine.  We got very little of it and a lot of rain in San Carlos.  And most of you know I pretty much hate that kind of weather.  To be fair it is the rainy season and everywhere in the country is getting a lot of rain, torrential rains most of the time, even the beach.  The beach usually gets sunshine in the morning though so I can get a dose of sun at least. 

Pull into Nicoya, which actually has a bus terminal.  Donde es autobus de Nosara?  Oh, awesome, it is the bus right next to us. How much is the bus?  2000 colonies each.  $4.00.  Crap, I only have $4.00 total.  I need more money.  However, the bus driver for the Nosara bus is trying energetically to get us on that bus.  It is pulling out in a couple minutes.  I explain in bad, bad Spanish, no money, no colonies, sin dinero!  He finally lets go of our luggage and we walk away.  There has to be an ATM around her somewhere.   It’s a freakin bus station!  Ahhh, but it is a freakiin bus station in Costa Rica.  “Donde is Banco Automatico?”  Blank stares.  I pull out my ATM card.  “Donde?”  Ohhh, in Spanish he motions me down the road.  I am wondering how far when a guy who speaks English says he is looking for an ATM too and the taxi driver told him it was 200 meters straight down the road.  So Jarred and I head out. 

We go way beyond 200 meters, no bank, no ATM.  The taxi driver and the English speaker drive by us and waive.  Thanks a lot!  We follow the taxi as far as we can see it go.  We don’t see where it turns and we are lost, once again.  Hmmm, I decide I am going to ask someone in a store so I go into a woman’s clothing store.  They try to tell me and finally one comes out and says in her own unique Spanglish way, “See the park.  Go past the park. (arms moving indicating past the park).  Then turn right. (arms indicating turning right).  Ohhh, muchas gracias! 

So we walked down there and found an ATM.  While walking back I decide I need a smaller bill for the bus than the 20 mils it gave me (which is roughly $40.00) so we get a couple pieces of pizza.  We get back to the terminal and sit and wait for the next bus to Nosara.  

I really want to shop at the local food market that is by the bus station but the boys are whining about how we have too much too carry as it is.  Nevertheless, I bought some homemade tortillas and talked Jacob into going and buying some strawberries.  3 containers for $2.00.  I haven’t seen strawberries being sold in Nosara and the strawberries here are delicious.  They remind me of when I was growing up and had to pick berries in the summer to make money.  Well, I didn’t have to but my best friend Debbie Adams talked me into it. (Thanks Deb)  But the strawberries back then were mostly small.   It took forever to pick a flat full, not to mention we ate almost as many as we picked.  However, those small little strawberries had so much more flavor than the big, juicly, perfectly red ones we buy at the stores today.  The strawberries in Costa Rica are like those strawberries of my childhood.  Scrawny and a little blotchy, no perfect color but soooo good!  So much flavor.  And I won’t even torment you with how good the pineapples are here.  Ok, I will.  They are grown locally so they are allowed to ripen on the plant, not picked really green.  So they develop the most amazing flavor.  Even better than the pineapples I had in Hawaii in my opinion, however I don’t know why they would be better here. 

Anyway, we get on the next bus to Nosara, about an hour wait total.  I sat next to this fun girl from Arkansas.  She came to Costa Ricaa year or so ago to be certified to teach yoga (there are two yoga instructor training facilities here, both world renowned.)  She then moved to Playa Grande where she lives with her tico boyfriend.  She is coming to Nosara to help out on another yoga training.  She is now training teachers.  She is also a physical therapist so we discuss my recent hip replacement.  The hour and a half goes pretty quickly and soon we are being dropped off at Five Points.  We have to walk down the road about ¼ mile, dragging suitcases along the gravel, dirt and sometimes muddy road.  Somehow I don’t think the rolling suitcase wheels were meant for this kind of terrain but luckily, they hold up one more time!  Once again we are back at our house.  J