Saturday in San Jose

Staying in San Jose this weekend, to save some money, organize my final 2 weeks of travel plans, run a few errands and get caught up on my sleep so I don’t get run down and get sick over these last 3 weeks. So I slept late Saturday morning – around 10 am, then went to the farmers market in Pavas with Rebeca and Sol (as Maximo left for El Salvador early in the morning and Liza had BBQ plans with her boyfriends family). The farmers market was amazing; held on this km long street that was essentially a Big U hill…we started at the top on one side, walked down, and back up the other side…then repeated on the way back to the car. There was every kind of fruit imaginable, and some I never even imagined were possible…limes, oranges, strawberries, mangos, coconuts, guanabana, bananas, plantains, avocados, jack fruit, bread fruit, watermelons, prickly Chinese grape type things, and many more whose names I don’t know or can’t remember…there was also an unlimited amount of vegetables…corn, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc..ect…fresh herbs of all types…and even a few small stands where people were cooking treats to eat while at the market. Rebeca and Sol stopped for a ice cold coconut – to drink the milk; and I picked up a salvadorean papusa for me an sol…which is a type of corn meal dough filled with cheese, beans and pork then cooked on a griddle until brown and crispy on both sides…delish. I also picked up the ingredients to make some fresh salsa from scratch – nice ripe tomatoes, onions, garlic, a chili pepper, lime, and cilantro. I was also the only grino at the market…with well over a few thousand people, and a lot of the women (young and old) were saying things in spanish I didn’t understand but Sol was translating them for me – basically consisting of amazement over my long, blond curls, how tall I am, and how nice I was being to Sol as we walked around…lots of smiles all around. :o)

After heading home to drop off all the food, Sol and I took the bus into downtown San Jose and headed for the center of town, Avenida Dos, and all of the different shops and markets. We walked all around the markets, scouting things out, getting a feel for pricing, and the layout of stuff, and getting ideas of little gifts I can get for my parents, sister and friends. We stopped for lunch at a little soda in the middle of the market to refuel, and then began shopping in earnest. The only thing I can mention here (cause I don’t want to spoil anyone’s surprises), is that I got myself a nice little hammock chair, that I will be attaching to the central roof beam of my DC apartment and using for the copious amounts of reading I know I will be coming back to as my second year in grad school starts in less then a month. Actually a second thing I can mention is that I looked into buying cigars…and found that predictably Cubans are out of my price range – around $200 for a box of 12…so I negotiated prices on a box of Costa Rican cigars…and eventually made the decision to buy one and try it before making the commitment to a box. After we finished shopping we walked all around the streets just to people watch and for Sol to show me some of downtown landmarks…like the National Theater Building, various statues and monuments and other points of interest. Eventually we got sick of walking and hopped back on the bus and headed home.

When we got home we headed down to the “chino” to pick up some beers to go with the pork loin Rebeca was cooking for dinner and we bumped into Freddy and Chappy – my two Tico poker buddies. So instead of heading straight back home, we parked it on a picnic table in this little strip of park at the end of the street and drank the beers there, and I smoked my Tico cigar – which was really good. Which also brought me to a theory – that it is easy to tell the difference between a good cigar and a bad cigar…but only a discerning connoisseur (which is not wally) can tell the difference between a great cigar and a good cigar. So in an effort to save a little cash, avoid prosecution for illegally importing Cuban cigars, and supporting the tico economy, I will be bringing home a box of 20 Tico stogies to share with friends and family.