Semana Santa

This is Holy Week in Costa Rica, the week before Easter, and it's pretty quiet around here.  I'd been warned not to travel during this week as it is when everyone else in the country travels.  So, Layne and I have been hanging around the house catching up on some much needed sleep.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to fill you in on some other random things...

Bus rides
I've mentioned in previous posts that the driving here is crazy.  I would never, in a million years, attempt to drive in this country.  This past weekend, when we were on our way back from Manuel Antonio, our seats just happened to be the front seats in the bus.  Well, when we arrived in San Jose and the bus had to make a lot of turns, we literally almost hit a child.  It was so scary!  There was a family crossing the street and the bus was making a turn.  The driver didn't even slow down to make the turn until he had to slam on his brakes from almost hitting the child.  We couldn't even see the child anymore and wondered if he'd been hit.  We watched as the parents grabbed the child and yanked him out from under the front bumper of the bus.  It was really traumatic.

TV News
I haven't watched TV very much since I've been here, but I'll catch it from time to time if I'm in a restaurant or a waiting area somewhere.  The other day I saw a report of a motorcyclist who had been hit and killed during an accident.  On the news was the scene of the accident and the dead motorcyclist just lying in the street.  I was caught off guard and realized how much the U.S. media shields us from images like that.  I can't think of a time when a real live news report in the U.S. showed pictures of the dead body at the scene.  It was kindof like a train wreck when I saw it here...I knew I shouldn't look, but I couldn't tear my eyes away.

Scams
Layne has had his fill of people "scamming" us here.  I have to say that I don't think it's happened as much as I anticipated it happening, but there have been a few occasions when a taxi driver takes advantage of us.  In Costa Rica, it is the law for every taxi driver to have a meter in his car.  They all start at the same rate and you can watch it increase as the driver takes you to your destination.  There have been a couple of times when we got into a taxi that did not have a meter.  I've always asked BEFORE he starts driving...where is the meter?  On a couple of occasions I've been told that he didn't have a meter, but that the charge was a set amount per kilometer.  Because I knew about how far we were from our destination, I could quickly do the math in my head and know how much would be fair.  Last week, though, when we were coming back from Manuel Antonio, we had to grab a cab from the bus station to our house.  Before we got into the cab, I asked where his meter was.  I was told that it was in the car. Hmmm...I was suspicious, but we got in anyway.  As he started driving, I again asked for the meter and that's when the driver told me it was a "rate per kilometer."  I secured the amount with him and put the issue to rest.  About 5 minutes later (this is how Layne does things...he thinks about them for a few minutes before speaking) Layne says to the driver, "No Meter...No Scam!"  I was sitting in the back seat (Layne was in the front) and the driver (who didn't speak English) asked, "Que?"  Again, Layne said, "No Meter...No Scam!".....I just laughed at him...and assured him that I'd already talked with the driver about the rate.  Layne was just mad.  He said he's sick of people trying to take advantage of us...poor guy.

Uniformity
I love things to be even.  I like routine, I like to be on time, and I like to see parallel lines.  Well, here in Costa Rica, those things are very difficult to find.  I was looking at a stairway the other day and I noticed that the entire set of stairs was all messed up.  It was made of many different types of materials, the railings (when there were any) were at all different heights and angles, and the steps themselves had no rhyme or reason to the various heights.  For my mathematical mind this is a nightmare.  I very much like how things in the U.S. are built to code.  There are standards and specifications that have to be met and I miss that very much.

Noise
Before I came here I read about how Costa Ricans view people from the United States as loud and rude.  I was determined not to fit that stereotype so I have kept my head down and remained very timid while here.  However, one day my friends and I went to the mall where we had a few drinks at Chili's, talked about our lives, and laughed a lot.  As we were heading to the exit of the mall, we were still just cutting up and laughing when a lady sitting on a nearby bench shhhh'd us!  We couldn't believe it.  We were really just minding our own business, but were a group of girls laughing like people do in the mall.  I was a little embarrassed that she shhhh'd us, but I was a little ticked off about it, too.  Who is she to tell us we can't laugh and joke in the mall, of all places?  Grrrr.

A desensitized Layne
One day, when we were at Jaco Beach, I saw a pair of red parrots flying.  It was exciting to me and I pointed them out to Layne.  He shrugged it off as no big deal.  I couldn't believe he did that and I told him that I thought it was so surreal to actually see parrots flying in the wild.  He complimented me when he told me that he supposed, due to the number of things I've exposed him to in his life, that he just isn't surprised by things anymore.  That made me feel good because I always worked hard to share this beautiful world with my boys.  I guess by exposing them to so many things, they are not shocked when they see something as unusual as parrots flying in the wild (I'm still blown away by them, though!).

Laly's
There is a local place that we go to eat from time to time called Laly's.  It's just a little restaurant, but we like the typical food there and have visited it more than any other restaurant here in Escazu.  When my sister was here last week, I mentioned to Layne (in front of my sister) that we should take her to Laly's.  She asked, "What's Laly's?"....and Layne replied with, "it's where you go to get your adverbs."   For those of you who ever watched Schoolhouse Rock, I hope you laughed as much as I did at that! He's too funny!