The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
O.K. so not so ugly. It is Costa Rica after all! I am now an expert on Costa Rica, having been here for one week. The good is that the beaches are empty, the bad is, how am I supposed to meet anyone? The good is that the water is warm, I do not need a towel when I come out for my instant dry; the bad is my floor is covered in sand as I have nowhere to rinse off as I cross the street back to my house.
My house is spectacular, as you can probably see from the pictures.
It is the ground floor of a duplex which has a full kitchen complement ( still virginal I may add), two bedrooms, a porch to sit on as well as dine and greenery all around. The bad is to get to the house you have to take your life in your hands. To get down to the beach, you drive down a narrow winding road for nine kilometers which in Canada would probably be about a one lane road but here is two lanes. Try navigating that at night ( in gearshift!) Once you are near the house, assuming you find the turn, you have to navigate through potholes the size of the moon and when you finally reach the house put the car in first gear to even get up the driveway because it is so steep. The first night I had the car I had to find my way home from the school in the dark and even though Playa Hermosa is about the size of a postage stamp I somehow missed the turnoff to my street. Not a surprise, really, if you know anything about me! Luckily, I saw about three guys talking in the middle of the road and when I spoke to them in Thai got no response. This time, it was not because they were Thai, but because they were Spanish. Switching to my non-existent Spanish I asked where the Hotel Finistere was, which is on the road to my house. Taking pity on me, one of them got into the car and drove with me for one block. He then asked for a propina ( see how fast I am learning) and when I offered him 2,000 colones, about four dollars, he saw the 5,000 in my wallet and asked for it. I did not feel I was in a very good bargaining position, frankly, and gave it to him, thankful that I found my house, actually had a key, and could finally get some sleep.
School is engaging, to say the least. I am up at six, just when I normally fall asleep. I am wakened by the gorillas in the trees near the house; at least they sound like gorillas although they are probably howler monkeys. I blindly pour my breakfast cereal and get ready for school. The good is I do not have to wear a tie. The bad is there is a reason for it. It is very hot ( supposedly) and I end up playing in the mud with the kids, as you can see from the pictures. The kids are doing phenomenal things as you can see…visiting our fish farm,
looking through microscopes, putting on an art show, putting computers together and so on. The good is that the school is on a farm, the owners are amazing and passionate and dedicated to learning and the bad is all of the above. Because the school is so new, there are only 50 kids and about 10 teachers. I think running a school of 1000 kids and 90 teachers would be a breeze but when you have a small size you actually have to work…it does not run itself.
My challenge for to-night is to find the Coco-Palm restaurant where all the expatriates I met at the beach are hanging out having a fish fry with the fish my ‘new’ friends caught to-day. There is Allan the business person from Baltimore, Dave who owns the golf course and Garth the Canadian. Should be an adventure.
O.K. so not so ugly. It is Costa Rica after all! I am now an expert on Costa Rica, having been here for one week. The good is that the beaches are empty, the bad is, how am I supposed to meet anyone? The good is that the water is warm, I do not need a towel when I come out for my instant dry; the bad is my floor is covered in sand as I have nowhere to rinse off as I cross the street back to my house.
My house is spectacular, as you can probably see from the pictures.
It is the ground floor of a duplex which has a full kitchen complement ( still virginal I may add), two bedrooms, a porch to sit on as well as dine and greenery all around. The bad is to get to the house you have to take your life in your hands. To get down to the beach, you drive down a narrow winding road for nine kilometers which in Canada would probably be about a one lane road but here is two lanes. Try navigating that at night ( in gearshift!) Once you are near the house, assuming you find the turn, you have to navigate through potholes the size of the moon and when you finally reach the house put the car in first gear to even get up the driveway because it is so steep. The first night I had the car I had to find my way home from the school in the dark and even though Playa Hermosa is about the size of a postage stamp I somehow missed the turnoff to my street. Not a surprise, really, if you know anything about me! Luckily, I saw about three guys talking in the middle of the road and when I spoke to them in Thai got no response. This time, it was not because they were Thai, but because they were Spanish. Switching to my non-existent Spanish I asked where the Hotel Finistere was, which is on the road to my house. Taking pity on me, one of them got into the car and drove with me for one block. He then asked for a propina ( see how fast I am learning) and when I offered him 2,000 colones, about four dollars, he saw the 5,000 in my wallet and asked for it. I did not feel I was in a very good bargaining position, frankly, and gave it to him, thankful that I found my house, actually had a key, and could finally get some sleep.School is engaging, to say the least. I am up at six, just when I normally fall asleep. I am wakened by the gorillas in the trees near the house; at least they sound like gorillas although they are probably howler monkeys. I blindly pour my breakfast cereal and get ready for school. The good is I do not have to wear a tie. The bad is there is a reason for it. It is very hot ( supposedly) and I end up playing in the mud with the kids, as you can see from the pictures. The kids are doing phenomenal things as you can see…visiting our fish farm,
looking through microscopes, putting on an art show, putting computers together and so on. The good is that the school is on a farm, the owners are amazing and passionate and dedicated to learning and the bad is all of the above. Because the school is so new, there are only 50 kids and about 10 teachers. I think running a school of 1000 kids and 90 teachers would be a breeze but when you have a small size you actually have to work…it does not run itself.
My challenge for to-night is to find the Coco-Palm restaurant where all the expatriates I met at the beach are hanging out having a fish fry with the fish my ‘new’ friends caught to-day. There is Allan the business person from Baltimore, Dave who owns the golf course and Garth the Canadian. Should be an adventure.
Does this mean we will not be golfing this week???
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