The Streets of Grecia and the Feria

Grecia's Municipal Building
The sign says Clean City

¡Hola Amigos!

The town of Grecia, Costa Rica

We wanted to share some information about the town of Grecia. We are staying just outside town, but go into Grecia often. The population is about 20,000 or so and it is a bustling place. Just a few facts about Costa Rican towns in general: there is usually a church in the center of town and also a park and/or soccer field (known as football here). The church in almost every single town faces west. This is so the people facing the alter are facing east toward Rome. This is a very Catholic country! Anyway, knowing that the church faces west can help you when you are trying to find your way around. There are no addresses here~none! To find a house or store you will be told directions from a well known landmark, like the church. Things are in meters here, so directions to someone's house may be told to you as:  go 200 meters south of the church, turn left and go 300 meters to the blue building, then go left again and the house is 100 meters down on the right.  Generally in towns, 100 meters means one block. But when you are in the countryside, it could mean anything from one block to a half mile or more! And sometimes the landmark is no longer there or has been painted a different color. Even in the capital of San José there are very few street signs. Makes for some interesting driving! (Driving is a whole other subject we'll have to talk about one of these days). 

We have come to really like Grecia and are getting to enjoy it more and more. We are beginning to recognize some of the people and they are recognizing us. We've included some pictures of Grecia and the streets and sidewalks. You MUST always watch were you are walking! Even if the sidewalk is fairly level, the gutters are usually really deep and falling into one could easily break a leg. The reason for the deep gutters is because of the amount of rain that falls here and how fast it comes down. Let us know what you think of "our" town!

The Central Park in Grecia

The Park with the Church in the background

The street coming into town

Lots of traffic during the day

Dog sleeping outside the bank--everyone just walks around him

Near the Park

Typical street in Grecia

The Central Bus Station

Another view of the bus station

Gotta watch your step! This is very common here!

More trouble

The Feria in Grecia

At the Grecia feria

Another thing we wanted to share with you is about the feria, or farmer's market. In Grecia it is held on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. It is an open air market although it is covered, which is really nice during the rainy season like now. It is as much a social event as a place to get all kinds of fresh goodies for the week ahead. It brings farmers and vendors together from around the area to compete for your business with fresh fruits, vegetables, baked goods, meats, fish, cheeses and coffee as well as clothing, purses, shoes, leather goods and beautiful fresh cut flowers. There's even a booth in Grecia that sells dogs outfits! You can also enjoy a typical meal here of chicken, rice, beans, salad and potatoes (yep, 2 starches!). Delicious! Through our neighbors Dave and Marcia, we met Tom who is from Pennsylvania and a baker. OMG! We've been spending more on baked goods than on all the fruits and veggies combined! We are really gonna miss Tom when we move on to Nuevo Arenal!

Check out the pictures from the feria in Grecia.

Our favorite baker--Tom

Need shoes?

Lots of great veggies and fruits

Open air market

They sell lots of things @ the feria

Great Watermelon and Onions!

Enjoy the pictures and we'll post more soon.

Hasta luego,
Tina and Jerry

Meeting new friends and getting our CR driver's licenses!

Jerry enjoying a beer on our Patio

 Here, finally are some pictures. They are from the house we are staying at in Grecia. Very lovely one bed/one bath with a beautiful yard and surrounded by coffee! We have all the conveniences of home including a washer and dryer (doing laundry today!). We are on the side of a hill and it goes down very steeply and then up again on the other side. We can hear a waterfall across the way, but can't quite see it because of all the trees. We're paying $750 a month and it includes electricity, satellite TV and really fast wi-fi (better than we had in Lake Geneva!).

So hopefully the pictures will make this more interesting!  The past couple of days have been busy ones. Yesterday we drove to a town west of here called San Ramon. We met Gloria and Paul who have been living in a casita (small house) near San Ramon for just over 2 years. Gloria and I met online while I was doing research for the trip. They showed us around San Ramon. There is a beautiful church there and I think the park is a bit bigger than the one in Grecia.  The streets are wide compared to Grecia and although the populations are about the same, it didn't seem as bustling. We had a wonderful lunch in town and then they took us to see their casita. It is about 5km from San Ramon right off of the autopista and is situated in the woods on the mountainside along with 6 other casitas. It was adorable! They have been here 2 years and have had it recently painted and it looked very homey. Like our Grecia home, it has neither air conditioning or heat. They have a living room, kitchen, bath and 2 bedrooms. Their rent is $700/month and includes electricity, satellite TV and wi-fi. The best part was the lovely front porch where they eat most of their meals when it's not raining. It was cloudy yesterday, and raining, but they said they can see the Gulf of Nicoya on a clear day~that's quite a distance! We then headed to the rancho and met some of the other ex-pats living there. (A rancho is a covered, but open area, where you can meet, cook and eat, or just hang out). We met 6 others and found out that they all enjoy the area and have actually started an alliance that helps out local organizations in whatever way that group needs the help. It was wonderful hearing them tell of the projects they are working on, like tutoring in schools and eco-projects. It is great to know that there are people here from the US helping to make a difference in the lives of their new neighbors. Gloria and Paul then took us back to our car and we made our way home. We stopped for pizza in Grecia~not exactly up to Chicago standards, but passable!

We wanted to get our Costa Rican driver's licenses and part of the driver's licensing process is to see a doctor to make sure you're okay to drive. So, Tuesday we went to see a doctor in Grecia. We just walked in his office and told him what we needed. No appointment, no wait, he saw us immediately. The doctor examined us and filled out the paperwork we needed. We also had our blood drawn because in CR they put your blood type on your license.  Today we were up and out early. By 7 am, we were on the road to San Jose, the Costa Rican capital, to get our driver's licenses. We took the paperwork the doctor filled out plus the lab results, along with a copy of our current WI driver's licenses and copies of our passports, plus the original licenses and passports and drove about an hour to San Jose. We took along our Tico neighbor, Juan Carlos, to help guide us through the process. Between his English and my Spanish we did just fine! First we got to go to the front of the line (not 'cuz we're gringos but because it was our first time getting a CR license!). Then we sat for about 45 minutes. We were then taken upstairs and a women wrote down information from our passports and licenses in a notebook. We waited some more and then got to see a guy who entered some more information into the computer. Then he sent us out with a piece of paper so we could go to the bank to pay for the licenses. The bank just so happens to be in the same complex, about a block away. We then returned to see him and he took our pictures, we had our one fingerprint taken and we put our signatures on an electronic device so it would show up on the licenses. We waited about 5 minutes and they handed us our brand spanking new Costa Rican licenses! We celebrated by going to lunch in Grecia at this really good restaurant our neighbors told us about. As we were waiting for our food, I took a look at my license and it says I'm 10 years younger than I am!! I was sooooo excited.  I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!!

Next week we'll stay in a hotel in San Jose for 3 days. We will do some sightseeing, see the city, and go to a two day seminar about living in CR as an ex-pat. Supposed to be all kinds of good information at the seminar, so we'll see. We have a couple other towns to check out while we're still in the Central Valley, then we will head north to the city of Nuevo Arenal, near the Arenal volcano and Lake Arenal. We want to check that area out because of the lake and because we visited there on our last trip and really liked it, but didn't have time to stay and explore. Thanks to internet friends, we've found a house to rent that sounds wonderful and is in a great location with a lake view. It's got 2 bedrooms, living room, dining room and bathroom for $210 a week. I'll add some pictures once we get there. We've really enjoyed our time so far and are looking forward to what the future holds for us on our journey.

Hasta luego,
Tina and Jerry

Our kitchen in our new house

This is our current home in Grecia

See how the hill goes STRAIGHT UP
behind the house!

Juan Carlos who helped us get our DLs

View from our patio looking to the west

Five Days In-Country

So, we have been in Costa Rica for five days now. Since we have arrived we have been living in a one-story, one bedroom, one bath home in the middle of coffee growing country. We are half-way down a mountain side and completely surrounded by coffee plants for as far as we can see. There are nine or ten other houses in sight as we look around the valley from our 7' by 10' balcony. It's beautiful when the Sun is shining, absolutely beautiful.But right now it is raining. It has rained every afternoon and night since we arrived. It is Costa Rica's rainy season. The mornings and early afternoons are often rain free and pleasant( 80 degrees). But every afternoon or evening it rains, and our house has neither air conditioning or a heater, so it is often damp in the house (few of the houses in this area of Costa Rica have A/C or heat). As a result I have a cold. It's a typical northern cold: sore throat, congestion, achey and painy. I thought I left all that behind.

Tina,on the other hand is very healthy and taking good care of me.

We have been spending a good amount of time with our landlords: a couple from North Carolina who live in the house next door. They have lived here for six years and are very content. They have been introducing us to the area and other Gringos who live here (not a derogatory term here). We have been spending as much time as possible talking to such gringos and learning as much as possible about how to adjust and survive. That is pretty much what we plan on doing for the next three months: exploring different areas of the country for climate and suitability to our liking, and learning from other gringos, and Ticos and Ticas, how to make the most of what the country has to offer. In three months we are required to leave the country temporarily before we can renew our visa and re-enter. At that time we plan to retreat to Florida, visit my brother, Bill, and plan the next three months. We figure that six months of exploring this country should be sufficient for us to decide if living here is for us.

The major issues we must decide are:

Can we feel comfortable here,in such a very different culture?
Can we develop a sense of belonging?
Can we afford to retire here given our resources?
Can we develop a workable plan for spending adequate time with our families while living in CR.

These are some of the things Tina and I will be assessing as we go through the next six months. We will share as much of it as possible with you. Stay tuned.

Welcome to our Costa Rican Blog!

We arrived in San José, Costa Rica last night about 7 pm. We got through immigration and customs without any problems. We bought some "time" for our Costa Rican cell phone and left the airport in our pre-arranged rental car. We certainly won't be obvious as gringos in that thing! Love the feel of being on the road again with all those crazy Costa Rican drivers. They are the nicest people, but they drive like maniacs. We managed to find the house we'll be living in for the next month. Our new landlords gave us excellent directions and we arrived just in time before the rains started. And, boy, did it rain! And rain. And rain. And this is just the beginning of the rainy season! We woke up this morning to cloudy skies that gave way to fog! But before we left for our first foray out into our new settings, the clouds and fog gave way to sun and warmth. We went with our new landlord/neighbors to the Maxibodega (supermarket) to stock up on supplies and then they treated us to lunch. We had a typical Costa Rican dish called casado. It had chicken, rice, potatoes, beans, pico de gallo and fried plantain. It was yummy! And very filling, for about $5! We have settled in nicely to our new home. We have a one bedroom house with a wonderful view of a very steep hillside and coffee plantation across from us. In fact we are completely surrounded by the coffee plantation. We have seen some different birds and are using our Costa Rica bird book to figure out what they are. We are looking forward to our adventures in Costa Rica. We'll add pictures as we take them, so you can see what we see. Hopefully our posts will get more and more interesting and colorful.

Hasta luego,
Tina and Jerry