Last night we took Jackie to Pizzeria La Finca. It took us a little while to get there. Atenas is a bit of one-horse town and apparently at 5:30PM on a Friday the traffic system is overloaded.
We made the most of our 5 minute delay by giggling at the road signs.
El Guapo camine!
A thing that is common here is to have a 4″ PVC pipe on the top of your vehicle. We couldn’t figure out what that was for so we asked Cesar yesterday and he told us that it’s a water supply on the go. Sure enough when we looked more closely the next one we saw, it had a hose bib on one end. I assume they are black because they are coated with something to prevent the sunlight from breaking down the PVC?
At any rate, we made it to Pizzeria la Finca by about 5:50PM. The Friday 5PM ex-pat Happy Hour was as advertised and made for some great people watching. There was one long table with maybe 35 Americans and Canadians – median age maybe 75. The men seemed to be wearing a consistent uniform of some sort of logo t-shirt (I saw several Imperial beer t-shirts), khaki cargo shorts, and Teva-style orthopedic sandals with black crew length socks (except for the men who were wearing knee high compression socks to prevent thrombosis). The ladies were wearing what I think were called moo-moos back in the 1970s. Everyone seemed to be in a great mood and there was a great deal of laughter and camaraderie. They were finishing up their meal as we sat down at our table. Several of the people at that table were on the El Toledo coffee plantation tour I did with Jill’s parents this past Tuesday.
Our waiter was a guy named Max and he asked if we’d like to start with a glass of wine. Jill and I replied in Spanish that we’d like a bottle of whatever vino tinto they had on special. Max raised his eyebrows and said “You’re sure?” That should have been a tip-off, but, as I’ve said previously, it’s easy to get out over your skis when you’re doing live-fire exercises in a new language. We said “Yes, bring the bottle please.” Next thing we knew Max was delivering us a giant bottle of wine. .
Because we had a bunch of wine to drink and I was driving we tarried over a very pleasant dinner. After dinner we played three handed gin rummy and then shared a piece of tres leches cake with a passion-fruit glaze. Sounds odd, but it was delicious!
We’ve been telling Jackie about our new friend Frank and his restaurant. We are going to Frank’s place, La Trocha, for dinner tonight. I had a WhatsApp conversation with Frank in Spanish to secure us a slot tonight. Only after I pored over it when I got home did I realize he had asked me if we wanted the same wine we had last time or something “special”. I followed up with him this morning and told him we loved the wine we had last time. Jill and I get so tickled when we are able to have simple transactional conversations in Spanish!
This morning may have been the best sunrise yet. Credit to Jill for retrieving her phone from the kitchen to capture it.
Jill and I had coffee on the upper patio so that we wouldn’t wake Jackie (who has not been going to bed at 8:30PM for the last three weeks). I’ve been watering the potted plants on the upper deck every day and am now being rewarded by a very happy amaryllis.
As you may recall from yesterday, I forgot my physical driver’s license when we picked up our new rental car. For that reason, the first think on the docket today after breakfast was to drive to Grecia to present my license and get me officially added as a driver to the rental car.
I drove 45 minutes from Atenas to Grecia and then we swapped seats so that Jill could drive the last 200 meters, just in case they saw us drive up. It turns out that the swap wasn’t necessary because the Grecia branch of Adobe rental car is housed within the back office of an oil change shop and no one could see us from the office. Jill waited in the car and I went in, driver’s license and passport in hand. I had to wait behind one other patron and when it was my turn I told the nice man that I had forgotten my physical license yesterday and the person at the airport location insisted that I present my physical license so that I could become an authorized driver of the vehicle. He laughed and shook his head. I didn’t catch every word of what he said, but it approximated “I have no use for those people at the airport. You are certainly authorized to drive the car as you are the person whose name the car was rented under. In fact, in Costa Rica, the insurance goes with the car. If the car is insured any licensed driver can drive it. The real reason you should keep your physical license on your person is that the police may not accept a paper copy if they stop you and they are having a bad day.” He did go ahead and enter into their computer system that he had indeed held my physical drivers license in his hand. In summary, if you absolutely have to do business with Adobe Car Rental in Grecia, the guy who works the Grecia location is who you want to deal with. I thanked the man, hopped into the driver’s seat with renewed authority, and we were on our way back to our shanty!
We’ve seen many a traffic sign that has us scratching our head. Take the sign below. What would you guess that it means? Our best guess is that it shows the viable paths through the intersection. That mostly holds up in practice, but not always…
It is also common to see a stop sign at an intersection that also has a traffic light. What would you do if you were approaching an intersection with a green light in your lane of travel, but a stop sign at the intersection?
We are learning new things every day and having a lot of fun doing it. Even the unnecessary trip to Grecia was fun and educational. For example, there is a one mile stretch of road in Grecia that is lined with a bunch of used car lots. Each lot has maybe 4-10 vehicles. Fascinating. If we ever need to buy a used car in Costa Rica we now know where to go!
Jill and Todd in Costa Rica 