Groceries Are A Man's Worst Friend!

Ok so here we are in the middle of our second week in paradise and we're beginning to learn a few important lessons, mainly regarding our diets.

We actually had the same problem in Panama last year but this year seems to be getting out of hand.



Sorry for the hazy pictures but I think I was somewhat delirious from seeing the nice little spanish gal hitting so many cash register keys so fast.

We had stopped for groceries on our way in from the airport but after just 8 days we had run out of food. We arranged for a driver and he (Randall) arrived promptly at 8 a.m.

He was a nice enough guy but he spoke very little english (that he'd admit to) and we were really hoping to see Tonny again.




Chris (the current owner of this place was gracious enough to come with us.  Chris speaks spanish pretty well and his help proved invaluable.

We took a little tour of the farmer's market then decided to walk over to the store to get our groceries since Alex wasn't with us.  We first stopped at the bank to get some colones (local money) and took out enough cash (we thought) to last a few good weeks.

The store was much smaller than Automercado (nice larger store) and was typical of those we had seen in Potrero on our first visit.  The selection was minimal (only kind of soup was Tomato) but all in all it had a fair amount of what we needed to get through the next week or so.  Prices are a bit higher on things, typical U.S. on others and (what the hell do you mean it's $$$$ on others).

Sandy shopped away, I strolled around pretending I was helping and found a 50 Qt cooler like the one above for the bargain priceof 40,000 colones.  I thought it would be nice to have for the great meat we were about to buy but then it struck me, 500 colones per dollar makes that an $80 cooler!  That was my first clue that it could be a little bit of a spendy shopping trip. (I looked a similar one up at Target and it was $37).

As usual our stomachs got the best of us so the grocery cart was filled to the brim.  Sandy started loading the goodies on to the counter, the nice little spanish gal, start hitting keys and the grocery bagger kept rolling his eyes.

I stood by the door and kept checking my pocket to make sure my half of the cash was still there.  I had a feeling I was going to need it.



Long story short, another $370 and a grand total of groceries for our 8 days ($710) plus the taxi ride, another ($100) which we thought was going to be $50.  Yikes!!!  We are now on the slim pickens diet and Sandy guards the refrigerator.  We've come to realize that we ain't in Kansas anymore and grocery shopping was a killer.  I am starting to like the idea of beans and rice (the meal of choice for most locals).

On the way home we stopped to see what a car rental might be ($85 per day) and think we may go that route for groceries in the future.  A trip to Automercado, a much more modern and well-equipped store is quite a bit farther away than the "bargain"store but would cost us $200 just to get there and back!! You kidding me?  Do we get a foot massage with that?

We also realized that the Budget Rental was next to the same airport we flew back to San Jose from during our first trip (12 years ago).  It was actually nice to see and brought back a flood of nice memories.

We got back home and spent the day reflecting on how crazy and out of hand food had gotten.  Next trip, I plan to stay out of the store and let the boss (Sandy) do the shopping.  After all she's been the master chef of the house for quite a few years and it was clear she didn't need my help.

The next day we took another walk.  I like to try and be creative with some of the pictures so I asked Alex to step into the thick brush next to the pretty bamboo so I could get the "thorns" in the foreground.

Like the trooper he is, Alex stepped into the brush and the brush stepped into Alex.  The end result was a nice little scratch.

"Thanks Dad!"

As we take these health walks I generally lead the way since there are Ferdelance (deadly) snakes here and Bushmasters.  If you get bit by the Ferdelance you have 4 hours to get to the hospital and this is a real risk here.  Not much chance that we will actually make it to the hospital in time from where we're at so....

When we get in the stretch of our walk where the grasses are thick or high enough to hide a coiled up snake, I wave my stick out ahead of us like I am sweeping for land mines.  If a snake actually scampers away I'll probably die from a heart attack anyway so not sure if this extra effort is worth it or not.

I doubt this will help much but it seems like its better than stepping on them.

This pic was just for fun.  Kind of an experiment in perspectives.  I am shooting the picture off the sliding glass doors into the kitchen at sunset and Sandy has the kitchen lights on.

If you look closely you can see a variety of things both inside and out (even a glimpse of the green plant behind me).




Every night, we see beautiful sunsets from our patio.  We can't seem to keep ourselves from staring at it every night so I fully expect we'll have eye damage by the end of the trip.

This little beauty is called a Golden Orb.  It has a huge spider web outside the bedroom window on the second floor.  (That window stays shut ;-) )

I am guessing it's body is about 2 inches long and the span of it's legs is maybe the size of your hand.

We take a 2 mile walk every other day and I can feel the fat burning off (I've convinced myself of that whether it's true or not).

Along the way, we pass a whole herd of cattle grazing on the hill.  As we pass, they look at us like we're idots (Never seen a cow before?)

Although you can't really see it in the picture so well, this hill they are standing on has got to be at a 45 degree angle.  How these guys don't end up rolling down the hill is beyond me!

We are hoping that our friends, Jeff, Wendy, and Brock Blasdell come and spend a weekend with us soon.  We met these great folks during our 2nd trip to Costa Rica up in the northen (Guanacaste region) of Costa Rica.  It's hard to believe it's been 2 years already!

Sorry Brock, you'll probably get the room with the view of the Gloden Orb while Mom and Dad get the ocean view!



We have some interesting dillemmas here.  We have no cell phone, no car, and we're in the middle of nowhere at an elevation of about 1400 feet.  Our neighbor is just a 2 minute walk away but we wonder.....if he was hurt or disappeared for some reason what do we do?   My only solution right now, is to try and reach Jeff and Wendy via Facebook (above) in Portrero and ask them to call someone (or drive 6 hours) to come help us.

It truly is wonderful here but we are well aware of the risk of snakes, spiders, bugs, etc. etc. and your mind can play tricks on you. 

The other day, as I was walking down the half lit staircase at night, I caught, out of the corner of my eye, the palm tree emblem shown to the right.

Instinctively I swatted at it several times in panic with the speed of superman, convinced it was a tarantula!  I just hope that someday, I don't end up with a real one there and ignore it!



So in summary for this post, part of the arrangment we have during our stay here is access to horses.  Today they are actually bringing three of them up to our house (for free) so we can go riding today at noon. 

We are looking so forward to this as the last time we rode was here in Costa Rica two years ago.  Hopefully mine is nicer than the last one who seemed compelled to drag me through the tree branches so the fire ants could bite me! 

More to come........