Semana Santa-Holy Week in Costa Rica

Easter in Costa Rica

In many Spanish speaking countries Holy Week is also called Semana Santa.  Holy Week in Costa Rica is very special and an important time for families to spend time together. Most workers get off from Thursday through Sunday. Good Friday is celebrated with family and a meal. Some new Costa Rican friends (Christian and Charlotte) invited us to their family dinner for Good Friday.

Our new friends in Costa Rica at their family Good Friday dinner. 

 Christian's father built this house and all the beautiful furniture and wood work. 

We had noticed during a trip to San Isidro this week 'logs' being sold along the road and the farmer's market. These 'logs' were about 3 feet long and approximately 8 inches in diameter. Since we hadn't seen 'logs' being sold before we realized it had something to do with Semana Santa.

Turned out the logs are from palm trees. They are cut lengthwise and the heart of palm taken out to make a special dish for the family dinner. Christian’s mother made a traditional Good Friday meal with one of the dishes being made from heart of palm. The meal was very tasty. We really enjoyed the meal and time with their extended family.

We came home in the dark, driving through the mountains from San Isidro to Serenity. The amount of people walking home from family dinners was as heavy as the car traffic. John had to be extra cautious on the dark winding roads because around the bend might be a family on the side of the pavement.  They don't walk on the shoulder but on the pavement because there likely is no shoulder. We came across a family walking home with their two goats. Then as we drove through Pejibaye there was a procession with Biblical characters; Jesus, Disciples, Mary, Roman soldiers, friends and enemies of Jesus, etc. It was a very interesting day and evening.

During an outing one day, we kept seeing booths along a mountain road with wooden trays and bowls. I thought one of these wooden bowls would be perfect for fruit and veggies so we stopped at one. The produce in the wooden bowl ((I am sure they have a special name but I don’t know it) shows some of the lovely produce from our weekly trip to the farmer's market.

This little fellow wanted to come up on our front porch. He was about 1.5 feet away and almost made it up but became camera shy and took off.  He was about 15 to 18 inches long from nose to tail.   The more common Costa Rican Iguana has a heavier body; this guy was skinny and had a flap on his head that looked like a leaf.

Missing Michigan

Now that the weather in Michigan is turning warmer, I find that I have times when I long for Davisburg, my old house and all the loved ones we left behind.  It was really hard to miss Michigan when Northern America was consistently in single digits or below 0 degrees and getting tons of snow.  It was a good time to skip out on winter, what a brutal one it was!!

 

But once another beautiful day is underway, I have had my coffee, been able to sit and watch 6 different types of hummingbirds come to my feeder, I am cheerfully excited about our adventure here in Costa Rica.  There are certainly people I miss and can say, "Michigan, I do miss you."  (In the better weather.)

 

Tall House!

Our roofs are on and we are getting pretty excited. We never realized the house was going to be sooooo tall. At least there will be no one in back of us complaining we are blocking their view of the valley. We have the house situated far enough over near the tree line so no one will be building directly in back of us.  The two levels of roof are to allow warm air to rise and escape out the windows between the two roofs.  

 

Our builder, Christian Arce, did an amazing job on the basement. We are shocked he is going to all the trouble to put such a nice plaster and paint finish on the block basement walls. The basement arches were another big surprise how nice they turned out. On the weekends, when the guys go home, we can sit up on our veranda and enjoy our “home”. Tonight we saw three young toucans while sitting up there.

We are in the “hunting stage” for house fixtures and tile. Fortunately we think we have located enough choices that we don't have to drive to San Jose in the north part of Costa Rica. We thought we were taking a trip there this week but this Saturday found enough choices to satisfy our needs and canceled our trip to the north. We will drive down the other side of the mountain early tomorrow morning to look at a hardware (ferreteria) store down along the coast to make sure we are satisfied with our choices.

 

 

Enjoying the Sights

This past Saturday we were walking through a coffee farm inter-planted with banana trees. The bananas give the coffee plants shade. Thought you might like to see coffee and bananas growing on a lovely little farm in the mountains.

 Unripe Coffee Beans

 

John and I continue to pick mandarin lemons and make a lemon/orange juice drink. We often have visitors stopping here while touring Serenity for our “lemonade” refreshment. The lemons grow wild and we get oranges from Aldemar's brother down the road. Yum! No coke please!

 

Almost Three Months

We are almost going on three months of living in Costa Rica and life here is very good. This is the dry season and every day is like summer reaching around 85 in the sun for a few hours. In the shade it is cooler; very lovely usually with a nice breeze. We wonder what we will feel about the rainy season. I have talked to many Norte Americanos and Costa Ricans who say their favorite time of the year is the rainy season. I will have to see for myself, can't imagine saying that.

We went back to Aldemar's boyhood swimming hole this week. It is a lovely place in the river with a waterfall, rock ledges and cool flowing water. Both John and I find we like it better than going to the ocean where it is hot, sandy and the waves turn the water murky. I know we aren't in the majority and “paradise” to many is sandy beaches and blue ocean waters but we like the cooler mountains; it is plenty warm enough here for us plus the water is clean. We can also swim in a smaller pool under the falls in the river right next to our rental house if we don't want to drive a mile to the larger swimming spot.

 

Swimming Hole. Bottom is all rock so it is very nice for walking.

 

Off to Panama!

We had to travel to Panama this week to renew our passports. Every 90 days visitors have to leave the country. Although we have applied for residency and been accepted by immigration we don't yet have our official cedulas. We expect to get our cedulas in the fall, takes about a year after acceptance. A cedula is Costa Rica's official certificate that you are now a resident, (not a citizen), but accepted as a resident. But immigration and motor vehicle departments don't operate by the same guidelines. So to keep our drivers licenses and auto insurance current we have to go out of the country and have our passports stamped. Even banks won't wait on you if your passport is overdue the 90 days. Once we have our cedulas we don't have to leave every 90 days.

Crossing the border to Panama was very laborious. It took about 3.5 hours to finally get over the boarder and on our way to the city of David. That was 3.5 hours at the boarder, on top of 2+ hours driving down there.  Our builder, Christian, came with us so we had an experienced Costa Rican help us. There were so many windows, applications and fees to pay. Get this stamped, pay an exit fee, fill out this form, go to this window, buy this stamp, talk to this person, get your picture taken, get your car fumigated, etc.! It is really crazy!

 

For those going to Panama, there is a new exit tax, $7.00.  They only had one person collecting for everyone wanting to cross, even babies.  Took 1.5 hours to get through that line. You can pay this tax ahead of time at Bancredito.  Not sure where you will find one but that would save you a long line if you can find one before you get to the boarder.  Maybe one in a city near you.  We will look beforehand next time for that bank. 

 

Panama Border Crossing

Not to worry my loved ones, but I got to feel my first earthquake while at the border. John and Christian didn't feel it because they were standing in another area. I was sitting on a very large heavy cement bench and was wondering why it was moving. I heard some people in CR felt the tremors also. To put your mind at ease, where we are living is not earthquake prone, hurricane prone or any volcanoes.

Once away from the border of Costa Rica & Panama, Panama was lovely; shopping was nice and we had lunch at TGIF. Yep! The franchise restaurant. Christian said they really don't care for many of Panama's independent eateries so we went safe.  Didn't care for the border, it seemed really dirty, noisy and too many trucks. 

Update on the House

Christian says he hopes to have our house done in 3 months from this point. It is exciting to anticipate moving in. We are getting to the point where a lot of decisions will have to be made. Won't have any trouble finding tile, (tile is a big thing in the tropics) but light fixtures aren't meeting my approval so far. Got to keep looking...

Christian's brothers are cabinet makers so will work with me on the look I want. Going for a more modern look this time. Our roof is more complete than this picture shows but this is what I have on my computer right now from a few days ago.