The last picture is of cheese we got at the supermarket on the corner.
After they left, Grant and I went to the bakery to ask for bread with cream cheese, which Dominic had said was really good. Tiene pan con queso crema por dentro? The lady said there were two kinds: salada y dulce (salty and sweet) so we tried the sweet kind today, and we'll try the salty kind another day. The loaf was 1,000 colones, or $2. When we walked out of the store we tried the bread, and we got it right! (we've tried twice now, and we havent quite asked for the correct thing). We walked through town towards the ocean, and we stopped at a pet store to see what they had. They had some parakeets, three lovebirds, a few bunnies and three ducks (the ducks cost $3 each). We walked a little further and ran into Miguel from the other day. Miguel was with the man he works for, who has a house near the one we trespassed in the other day. His name was Bill, and he lives 8 months in Costa Rica, and 4 months in Aspen, Colorado. He is partially retired, and he also sells firetrucks in Central and South America, and he sells real estate here. He said a little house like the ones here in town would be about $30,000. A property away from the beach would be $50/square meter, but a property 1-2 miles or closer to the beach would be upwards of $100/square meter. He said he though property in Panama was a better buy now. He actually lived 7-8 years in Petaluma in the early '80s.
After leaving Bill and Miguel we walked along the waterfront and looked at the macaws in the short trees. We took a few videos, which turned out better than I thought they would. It was hard to see the macaws on the camera screen because it was bright out, but the video is decent on the computer.
We also talked to an old Tico who tried to guess where we were from, but got it wrong every time. He told us to have babies in Costa Rica, and we laughed. Next we wandered over to the library in search of a Harry Potter book I could buy (in spanish). I lost the copy I bought before we left, and I never found it. We didn't have any success, since the library was only for borrowing (duh) but I did find the children's book, Goodnight Moon, in spanish at their library. The lady who works there directed us to a small store near our Cabina, but we didn't have any success with Harry Potter books there either. I did get two small paperback notebooks for writing my spanish words/verbs/phrases in though.
For lunch, Grant made an incredible meal of yucca and sweet potatoe, rice, frijoles (beans) with coyote (which is rich in iron, similar in taste to cilantro) and a salsa of onion, tomato, red pepper and more coyote. We also had some fried plaintain that Federico made for us. He used to be a chef, and everything he makes is incredible. I know food pictures are ridiculous, but here they are:
After lunch we walked to the outskirts of town in search of a Chemist, Allison, who has a lab in town called Rain forest Solutions. She makes natural products from things found in the rain forest. She was outside when we came to her house, but she was busy so we made an appointment to meet her at her lab in town in 2 hours. While waiting I finished and submitted my application for UC Davis (aaaaaaahhhhh.....). We met Allison and the lady who works for her (I didn't catch her name) at her lab, which was really interesting. She makes soaps, creams, insect repellents, liquid soaps, everything, from natural products. She flavors everything with essential oils. She spent about 45 minutes explaining all the processes, which Grant and I vaguely remembered from Organic Chemistry a few years ago. In the end, we got a cream that is good for sunburns (necessary, since I burned myself the second day we were here), a small bottle of the natural insect repellent (anything is better than the awful smelling stuff I bought, and my legs and arms are covered with bites) and a bar of soap because the humidity and heat makes everyone sweat like crazy. It seems that most people here shower at least twice a day.
Our pillows for tonight cracked us up:
When we got back to the Cabina, grant worked on his chemistry for the exam he takes on Saturday, and I worked on my other graduate school applications (almost done!!). It was another slow day because of all the rain, but it's been really nice. I'm enjoying the slow pace, and I can already see how returning the the United States will be a shock. Here, life is slow. People spend a lot of their day socializing, and they are not in a rush to do anything. They spend time cooking their own food, they socialize in the sodas (small restaurants) and they talk with the vendors who walk by on the street. Everything is relaxed here. it's a third world country, but life is wonderful here. Grant and I have already talked about where the best place to buy a house would be...we may never come back!
Only kidding :)
No comments:
Post a Comment