Dia de la Independencia (Independence Day in Costa Rica)

On September 15th Costa Rica celebrated it's Independence, 193 years of Independence to be exact. The holiday has its history just like any other nation gaining its freedom. Here's a link with a short and sweet, condensed version of the whys and wherefores of the holiday. http://costarica.com/blog/independence-day-in-costa-rica/

We woke up early (6:00 a.m.) to join the throngs of "Ticos" on the streets. The main event of the day is a parade featuring children who represent their schools by wearing their school colors.

Students from Colegio Metodista carry the Costa Rican flag 

We were invited by the school our boys attend,(more on their school in a later post) to meet at a certain location to enjoy the festivities. We've been here a little under 2 weeks and walked or taken the bus to what we think are pretty straightforward destinations. We knew we'd have to take multiple buses to get to this pre-determined meeting spot, so we opted for a taxi, our first one since living in San Jose. One of the reasons we haven't taken a taxi yet, is there are five of us, and most of the red cars with yellow triangles that whiz past us, (honking to let us know they're available) can only hold 4 passengers. 

Official Costa Rican taxi


Our plan was that Richard would run out to the corner, hail a cab and ask him (I've yet to see a female cab driver) if he could call (our phones have yet to work properly) the company and have a van taxi (we've seen a couple) to come pick us up.Well, of course this guy wants our business, he's having to work on Independence day after all when most people have off. He tells us he can fit all of us, so much to the offense of my delicate, safety conscience sensitivities, we all pile in with Richard in front and Wesley on my lap. Only half of us are wearing seat belts, including the driver. 





Needless to say, we all made it to the parade safely. I'm really glad I brought my "real" camera with me as we viewed the Independence Day celebrations. So far I haven't wanted to chance taking my bulky Cannon as it just screams "rob me, I'm a tourist!", but 1/2 the Tico population had cameras around their necks today so I didn't feel too out of place.  Here are the results of taking that chance:

school girl holding a "lira"

These last three photos highlight a Costa Rican instrument called a lira. I've seen so many of these over the past 2 weeks being carried by school girls, as they walk to and from school. Carson commented that the most common instrument played in the parades were drums. That's all we've heard through our open windows these past two weeks, as kids out in neighboring school yards gear up for this parade.

For those who have more time on their hands, I'll post some of my favorite parade pics. 





The Costa Rican Boy Scouts




This is the school that the boys attend

These are the older students from Colegio Metodista. We would see them practicing this dance in the parking lot after school. Here the girls are the boat and the boy is rowing.










Wes in his Independence Day hat. The emblem is of a typical "carreta" or cart that Costa Rica is famous for.


To end the day we went to downtown San Jose to catch a bus to Cartago, which is the old capital of Costa Rica. This is the farthest from home that we've traveled since we've been here. The ride took about 45 min. and cost us each 575 colones, (just a little over a dollar one way) 

everyone was gathered at the basilica

 http://www.govisitcostarica.com/blog/post/costa-rica-celebrates-virgen-de-los-angeles-day.aspx

The drums were deafening until they started started throwing them up in the air, then we got a little respite.

We're always on the lookout for a good soda (a soda in Costa Rica is a small family operated restaurant with good, cheap, home cooked food) This one was literally a hole-in-the-wall, but so clean and the food was surprisingly good and the cheapest we've found yet. It cost a little over 8,000 colones ($16.00 for our whole family).

Reynolds enjoying fresco natural de sandia (watermelon juice) at Soda Gladys

A typical "casado" rice, beans, chimichurri (a salad like pico de gallo) and maduros (fried sweetened plantains)

Wesley pretty much orders a hamburger everywhere we've gone. Hopefully by the end of our trip his tastes will expand, but in the meantime this was one of the better looking hamburgers we've found here and the cost couldn't be beat. 500 colones for the hamburger (just under $1) and 500 colones for the fries. 

Leave it to me to end this post talking about food. I'll try to get better at posting more frequently and thus, not have such long posts. Thanks for sticking with me to the end. Hasta pronto! 

For those who may be interested in what we've been up to in Costa Rica.

This is the first of many posts about our adventures in Costa Rica. Today's post will be short and sweet, since I've spent all my time fussing over layouts, titles and font size, a test run if you will. I'll make my once private blog public for a short time, so that those who find the little ins and outs of living in a different country fascinating, can follow along. Within these posts I'm not going to promise pristine beaches and leisure laden days, but rather the day to day culture, noise and city life of San Jose. It's been such a learning experience so far for our family and we'd love to share our adventures for those who want to read along.

The photos that you're viewing in this post, are that of the eucalyptus deglupta or rainbow eucalyptus. Richard and I went for an exploratory walk on the campus of Universidad de Costa Rica and came across these glorious specimens. I had seen some pictures of such trees when researching Costa Rica before we left for our trip. I had assumed that the photos I saw on the web must have been digitally enhanced, that someone had turned up the saturation so that the colors appeared more vibrant. Well let me tell you, orange, green, pink and purple are the tree's true colors. The outer bark is shed revealing a bright green that when exposed to the elements, and time, change to produce maroon and orange, and even blue! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_deglupta What a creative Creator we have to come up with such an imaginative display.

In the mood to WRITE the wrong

Guilt is a great motivator. At times (like now) it is a necessary evil. I have been admonished to write about my life, and I've only ever been sporadic at best. If someone was to actually read my collected works they would wonder if I ever found life beyond being a mooning love-struck teenager. Finding the time is really not the problem. I waste enough of it on trivial pursuits. I always have a running dialogue in my head anyway, and I might as well capture some of it in black and white so that I can touch that someone in a future generation that will receive solace, laughter, strength or all three in my words. That all sounds very self promoting and egotistical, but I'm going to try to pry back a little bit of my filter so that some of how I really feel can come through; and that is how I really feel, egotistical or no.

    I've also struggled about what the premise of this blog should be. Most blogs I've read by mom's in my circumstance are about family milestones and everyday. I love reading up on how my friends have planned and prepared, traveled and traversed. This blog will alter from that path slightly, again at the risk of being self-gratifying these entries will primarily be about me and the natural flow of how my family completes the pieces of who I am. This in no way means that I view my family as a tiered pedestal with me at the pinnacle, no I believe we're all on the same cake stand...but I can't always speak for them, and they don't always get to hear me over the loud roar of the everyday, "timetowakeup-eatyourchores-brushyourhomework-practicetimeforbed-didyouforgetyourframeofmind". Here is a place where, at their leisure and when they want to, they can find out who I am and what I think of them. I do love them that much.

  So, here we go. Get ready for me. I'll be making selected appearances.

Valentine for Richard 2011

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Round Three Anyone?

I'm already starting to wonder when I should start round three. There's just too much temptation out there. I better go get myself a bowl of ice cream and do some contemplating.

Merry Christmas to you 2009

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Foliaged Again!

The Trees have been ablaze with colour* this year! Despite my sickly state, (H1N1 has reared its ugly head at our house) I put Wesley down for a nap and took a walk down our street, capturing some of the fire that was alight in our neighborhood trees. I was afraid that in the days to come the vibrant shades would begin to fade. Heavenly Father does amazing work!



I always try to capture our street, alive with fall's color, every year.

It always amazes me that our trees turn from green to yellow in a matter of days.

This is looking up into the trees in our yard. I warmed the color up just a bit, because the camera just didn't seem to capture the sun-drenced yellow that was streaming through the branches. This I think, barely does it justice.

* colour-I wanted to use this spelling, because in this case I felt "color" just fell flat from the richness of hues I was trying to express.