Thanksgiving in the rainforest...

Tuesday - 5 December

Back again in Monteverde… It has been a busy last several weeks! My trip in to San Jose was happily uneventful, but we did find what we were after. Anibal and I visited two different government offices and picked up a variety of aerial photos for the Monteverde region that we could use for our community planning work, both the most recent photos, as well as a set of historical photos from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and early 1990’s. Perhaps more importantly, we found a very nice turkey for Thanksgiving. As you may have guessed, Thanksgiving is pretty much an exclusively north American holiday, so turkeys— at least whole ones like we are used to in the US—are pretty hard to come by here! But, in San Jose, you can find almost anything, especially if you are willing to pay for it ;-) So we found a market across the street from the US Embassy and for the astronomical price of US$5.00 per kilogram, we purchased an imported 18lb bird from some place in North Carolina.

While it was probably the most expensive turkey we’ve every eaten, it turned out to be one of the best as well. We shared our dinner with Noemi and Russell Danao (the Director of the Institute’s) and their kids, and we feasted in traditional fashion, with nary a tortilla or dish or gallo pinto in sight. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce (cranberries were also found in San Jose and are even dearer than turkey!), and finished up with home made apple pie. As it drizzled with a chilly driving wind all day, it even felt like a Central New York thanksgiving weather-wise, though I must admit, the temperature probably never fell below 65F.

In the tropics though, 65F with a wet wind blowing is downright cold. The locals get very put out—they start dressing like it really is winter (lots of polar fleece, and even the odd down parka, believe it or not!) When we tell them how cold it gets at home in Cazenovia they just shake their heads—they have no conception of 20F, much less -20F!

In the past couple of weeks, we’ve begun to get ready for our trip back to the states for Christmas. I’ve been wrapping up various design projects, and Norma and I have both been walking lots and taking Spanish lessons at Niall’s school. We start in on a free Spanish course when we get back in January at the Institute that I’ve earned for all my web-mastering the past couple weeks too. We also got the car all set for next year, as in Costa Rica, all the registrations and insurance, etc. run on a calendar year schedule. So you may be wondering, based on how various DMV’s work in the US, Costa Rica must be quite the experience. Happily, I can report just the opposite. Here in CR, the bureaucracy tend to be pretty similar to in the US—lots of “gate-keeper” mentality folks who drive you crazy with paperwork. But not the DMV! Your registration and mandatory liability insurance are taken care of by walking into any number of local banks, and paying an annual fee that ran a little less than US$100. Then you need to get your car inspected for safety and emissions. In this case, there are about 20 different locations nationally to get your car inspected. You go on-line and get an appointment, pay $20.00, and then show up at the appropriate location and time. The inspection stations are operated by a private company that contracts with the CR government, and their very high-tech operation runs like a well oiled machine. I was in and out around 30 minutes, and they really checked everything, including some pretty neat computerized tests on the brakes and suspension. So our car is good to go for at least as long as we’ll be here, and it has a clean bill of health when we want to think about selling it in June.

Later this week we will head into San Jose for a weekend in the big city before catching a plane to California. So we’re all looking forward to that, and we hope we’ll be able to see many of you all before we head back here at the beginning of January. We’ll try to keep something going on-line while were in CA, but I can’t guarantee anything just yet. So in the event nothing pops up until mid January, now you know why! At any rate, Merry Christmas to all our friends out there, and have a great holiday season!