Thursday night at the quaint little hotel Aranjurez found us both slapping ourselves all night long.... You see, we had not quite learned enough yet. When we booked into the hotel and I asked for a room with airconditioning and was told that they have fans only because it does not get hot enough here - well, I just let it slide right by. What I did not realise is that when a hotel only has fans in this neck of the woods, that means that..well, there are more airholes in the structure than is normally ok. And so it was here as well. The quaint little garden right outside one set of windows of the room, was nicely humid and fairly buzzing with little flying critters that I had found cute and somewhat interesting earlier. The other windows were all of the slatted kind and not one of them closed properly at all. All nice when one only has fans and the weather does not get hot! But........ when there are mosquitos, ants and other critters breeding gardens everywhere, it definitely does not make for a good sleep. I literally woke up one time with me smacking my own face and when it was finally light enough to get up there were a good few different types of bugs, now dead, littering the bed alongside us. The shooting in the middle of the night somewhere nearby outside also did not help, neither did the fact that any time either of us moved even the slightest bit, the bed scooted across the tile floor, heading to the opposite wall. Finally we put a couple of little coffee tables between the far wall and the end of the bed - that helped but created a fun obstacle course for me to climb over ever time I headed to the bathroom!
So we packed up yet again, checked out early, got a refund with a smile and headed out again. The taxi driver took us on a sightseeing tour around the city, all while trying to convince us that we were going on the most direct route. Suuuuuure. It was a 5 minute drive that took almost 20 minutes, but what the heck can one do if he pretends not to speak English and waves his hands feverishly around while jabbering loudly and frenetically while weaving in and out of traffic?? We got here safely, and thats what really counts.. And while we were booking into this hotel, we heard some others who were wondering about the earthquake we felt yesterday. I was sitting on that ever moving bed sorting through photos when I felt everything shake - the lights rattled and I reached out to quickly grab my camera before it fell off the table. It was not all that bad and no one ran outside yelling or anything, but it really made me think about sleeping fully clothed! Apparently it was centered around Quepos, near Manuel Antonio and was much better felt down there!
So now we are here in Irazu, a little suburb right next to San Jose. The cameras have stopped fogging up finally - that was quite irritating... with the humidity further south, every now and again we could only see a thick fog through the lens. Off came the lenses and we would gently blow them clear, until the next time. Both the camera's are going to need a very serious cleaning job when we get back again. Now we are all spread out in the hotel room - yes, it has airconditioning, no air holes for critters, hot water, a flushing toilet and a view of the Poas Volcano.
Yesterday we literally just relaxed - it was so good to totally unwind, not have to think of finding another place, not have to pack up again, not have to figure out what or where next..... we just relaxed, had lunch and then popped into the little casino right next door for a chance at luck. We fed in a note that had a horrendous number on it - 5000 colones. That is the currency name here - colones and the exchange rate is around 500 colones to one dollar.. So although it was almost nervewracking to gamble with such a huge number on the bill, it was onlly $10. I played and lost all mine, Frank played for a little while and then........ ting ting ting TING....he won something and it was spitting it all out into the tray making one heck of a noise and flashing a light above it as well. We are still not sure just how much he won, but think it was around $150 dollars.... time to get out of there and call it quits - and we did. We had a ticket to half price at happy hour at the hotel bar, but it was so noisy and busy there that we happily slipped past it and headed to the room where Frank had put a beer on ice for us earlier. And so we had the best nights sleep for weeks!
This morning we booked a half day city tour of San Jose.. They dont do the tours of the church's here at all - but we got to visit the Gold Museum and the National Theater which were both very interesting.. The National Theater is the most beautiful building with about five different styles of construction. We were fortunate enough to be there when a group of people were practising for a production and we watched them doing their twirling dance steps from the darkened top balcony. The dim lights all around gave me just enough light to be able to take photographs - and I am rather happy at how they turned out. The inside of the building had huge statues all around, some tall and austere looking, one even looked totally ticked off at whoever looked his way, and others were stunning artworks with the feelings oozing out of them - like the one of a mom sitting curved gently over, holding her infant in her lap. It was made of white marble and was all rounded and .. just beautiful. And the paintings - they were just awesome too. Every part of the ceiling had some huge painting on it - in a huge frame. Some were very colorful while others looked like life in the clouds in an imaginary story - all soft and inviting. There were huge gold plated ornate designs everywhere and the whole feeling of the place was very welcoming, with long spiral staircases winding their way upstairs. Its definitately one of the most elegant buildings I have ever been in.
Apparently way back when the mode of transport around here was still by horse and cart - people would wish the dancers and performers "a night of lots of shit". Seriously!! If there was lots of it, that would mean that many horses had passed that way and they would have good attendance that night. Makes sense, but not a figure of speech I am about to adopt either!
And the Gold Museum - that was more about the ancient cultures and the items they made from different mediums like clay, wood and metals. It was incredibly fascinating and the detail in some of those things were stunning! The little talismen that they would create always depicted the connection between humans and all other creations, so many of the items were fascinating things with incredible detail. The building itself was weirdly built and of course I tried taking pictures of that too - but was quickly shut down by the security guy there.... no pictures of this concrete structure at all allowed. I was free to take pics of all the contents, displays and all - just none of the walls and ceilings. It looked pretty sturdy to me and we wondered why they would worry about that.
After seeing all the gold and stuff and the Theater, we were taken for a drive through San Jose proper....... the good, the bad and the ugly. Being Saturday, downtown was really busy, with cars parked all over the road, little roadside stores all along the sidewalks and people everywhere popping in and out of the shops along the way. It continuously stuns me that there are huge piles of garbage everywhere and it alljust seems to be part of life around here... The shops all have bars over the doors and windows and most have apartments above the them that are also all barred up with razor wire strung for miles everywhere. When we were driving through the residential areas, the rich, the middle class and the poor areas - it felt as if everyone is living in a prison... I kept on taking photos of these barred up homes and shops, of the razor wire that in some places had flowers growing over and through them, but still there, and found my mouth hanging open in absolute thankfulness of where and how we live.
I cannot, absolutely cannot imagine living behind all those bars and that razor wire and then when outside of all of that, to face the trash in the roads.. We asked the tour guide about the crime and the bars and all and he spent about 10 minutes telling us that there was no problem at all with crime in Costa Rica - that the bars and all are a status symbol here. If your neighbors have pretty bars, then so should you. Hmmmm- then why does the razor wire all have the names of security companies on it? I know that they cannot talk about the real picture here, and it is heartbreakingly obvious that there is a tremendous crime problem in this country. One of our more independant guides about a week ago, was telling us that the organised crime is absolutely terrible and that its a very very hard place to live if anywhere near the cities. This is not a place I would like to grow up in - not near the cities at all. I have stopped carrying my camera with me when we walk around, or even my handbag.
But even with all this, there does not seem to be a problem during the daytime - everything moves right on, kids walking by themselves, moms sitting in the parks with the kids, pigeons fighting for food in the square and very tolerant drivers everywhere. We escaped the rain today - only finding a few drops earlier but now the lightening is flickering again outside, lighting up the outline of the volcano in the distance. Tomorrow we are taking a tour up onto that volcano and also to a market place where we hope to find some interesting things that want to find a home in Tennessee.
Oh - and I put another two albums of photos up on the web yesterday :)
Till next time and with deep thanks for our lot in life
love, light and laughter
...... an extra dollop to U6 - I miss you all lots!
Annie
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