Travelling for Work

Up early today, as Minor Rodriguez – the construction specialist for Central America and the Caribbean region for Habitat (the guy I report to for my 2 projects), picked me up at 7 am. We got on the Pan American Highway (which essentially extends the Route 101 that hugs the Pacific coast from Washington to San Diego…down through Mexico and all of Central America to the Panama Canal) and headed out to San Ramon. The hour long drive was filled with interesting Spanglish conversation about Habitat, our families (his 2 sons are baseball fanatics and his wife started her own flower delivery service), fun facts about Costa Rica, and interesting tidbits about stuff we were passing by.
When we reached San Ramon we found the local Habitat affiliate office and met with Manuel, the director of the local affiliate. He hopped in the back of Minor’s SUV and we tooled around the countryside for a few hours stopping at different Habitat build sites, in different stages of construction. At each site I got the chance to speak with the foreman, sometimes through a translator, and ask about safety issues and materials waste in the construction process. I had a chance to meet volunteers and homeowner families, and take photographs of each of the sites, noting specific examples that would be useful for my projects. After visiting four different sites, and basically circumnavigating the backroads of the city, we headed back into the city proper and stopped at the main market.
We pulled up stools to a counter that was essentially a mini diner, and ordered café con leche (coffee with milk – a staple of my diet) and a small snack – I had a bean and cheese empanada, and upon Manuels recommendation something I had no idea what it was when I ordered it, but it thankfully turned out to be a slice of custard pie :o)…oh the games we play with our stomachs in another country…when you order something and you don’t know what it is…it always feels like the 1950’s muscle car games of chicken driving head on towards each other…you could end up crashing (getting something served to you that you wouldn’t touch, much less eat) or having the other guy swerve out of the way and you ride off into the sunset victorious (getting something that turns out to be better then you could have had any right to expect.)
After parting ways with Manuel, Minor pulled me over to a fruit stand before we hopped back in the SUV…and he grabbed 2 green things about the size of a granny smith apple, with a duller skin. I forget the name of fruit, but it was pretty good. Minor borrowed the fruit guys knife and chopped them in half exposing a white, fiberous inside with a cluster of tiny white seeds in the middle. The seeds were hard, but were eaten along with the rest of the fruit, skin and all, and it was actually calmly refreshing.
As we had some time before our next meeting in Esparza, we ran an errand for Minor’s wife (the flower business), and headed to the crazy greenhouse in Las Palmas…see the pics and comments in the posts below. Minor purchased 3 plants from the greenhouse and they got added to the back of our car, to accompany us for the rest of the day. On to Esparza. Esparza is over the mountains, and close to the Pacific coast (we could actually see the ocean from the tops of some of the mountains, and the Highway was challenging in that it wound round like a hiking trail as it gained and lost elevation. And the thing that really kept you on your toes was the fact that people are insane behind the wheel down here. When big 18 wheelers chug up the hills slowly, small cars and motorcycles try to pass, but like I said, the whole thing is curves, so you end up turning the curve and are faced with the chicken situation I described earlier – as a pickup truck is trying to pass and is headed straight towards you, in your lane, paying no attension to the double yellow line in the middle of the road. This must have happened 3 or 4 times on the hour drive to Esparza.
When we arrived in Esparza, I got to meet Rafael Angel Vargas, who is the new National Director of Habitat Costa Rica. We picked him up at the Esparza Affiliate office and did the same thing we did with Manuel, drove to one of the local Habitat build sites (aside: Habitat Costa Rica is struggling with money, and with the fact that some affiliates – like esparza – are only building 2 or 3 homes each year…so the internal debate to consolidate these is going on right now). When we got to the build site, I saw why they were struggling – the Foremen and his men were sleeping soundly in the shade of the sign that marked the site as a Habitat build. Ridiculous. We walked around the site, talked a bit about the things we saw, and we felt could be done differently. Saw a hilarious example of what NOT to do (see the safety pic). I listened in on Minor and Rafael’s conversation about the struggle to decide what to do with the underachieving affiliates who were draining money, but not producing much.
We then saw a second site, where construction was also delayed – because they were waiting on the delivery of the windows – so they could be installed, before the next stage of construction could begin. After we dropped Rafael back at the affiliate office, we took his recommendation and headed to a local Chinese food place for lunch (smile henry ;o) We ate fried rice and lo mein and watched the Brazil vs Japan soccer game on a big screen tv. Lunch was yummy, and knowing what to expect, and getting it was comforting. So with full stomachs we hopped back in Minor’s SUV for the 2 and ½ hour drive home.
Along the way we stopped at a couple of local farmer stands, as Minor informed me that this region of Costa Rica was famous for their avocados…because the elevation and the climate were ideal. So I bought 4 avocados, (2 for Maximo’s family and 2 for me), and Minor got a few and also some mangoes and some homemade smoked cashews (which were outstanding). I also tried this tiny little yellow fruit that is usually placed in Guaro or Vodka and allowed to ferment…it was pretty bitter and they all laughed at the face I made when I ate it.
The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful except for the deadly accident that occurred on the other side of the highway when we got close to the Airport (about 15 miles from SJ) . It backed up traffic for 5 miles, and Minor said they were waiting for a judge to come down to certify the body and notarize the accident report. When I got home, I went out for a run, in the cool weather right after the rain…and had a lazy night at home, watching the end of the sox game on ESPN Deportes, transferring and organizing the photographs from the day, and getting caught up on my journal entries. All in all an outstanding day at work, getting to explore Costa Rica and the culture, try new foods, practice my Spanish with Minor, and make some progress on my two projects for Habitat.