new beginnings

Today marks the end of my first week spent in Costa Rica. I am living here for (at least) a year on the Pacific Coast in the Guanacaste region.

Costa Rica is an absolutely beautiful country; flying in to San Jose involves descending into misty, lush mountains which you can see from almost everywhere in the city. The unit of money in CR is the colon; about 520 colons are worth one dollar, which means that most everything is cheaper here. Last Saturday I made the 200 mile trek (which took about 6 hours due to traffic and one-lane roads) across the country to reach Guanacaste, where I've been since.

The Pacific Ocean and a beautiful white sand beach are about a 10 minute walk away. One inevitable aspect of Costa Rica is the wildlife: some of this has been great so far, like the monkeys perched in the trees at a little roadside stand as I travelled cross-country, or the vivid green chinche (stinkbug!) that I saw at dinner-- harmless and so cute in shape and color that it didn't scare me. An unfriendly surprise awaited my return home my first evening when I entered my room and saw not one, not two, but five spiders. After disposing of the first (smaller) four, I begged a male neighbor to kill the largest (about 3 inches across). His reply? "Why do you want to kill him? He won't bite you. He'll eat the scorpions and other stuff." Which, as you might guess, did not make me feel much better. However, the profusion of creepy-crawlies here in Guanacaste is something to which I'll have to become accustomed, and I am definitely thrilled to be living in a foreign country again.

Lastly, my first impressions: Costa Ricans, as a whole, are extremely friendly and extremely polite. Costa Rica is a nation in transition: while most of the population earns the equivalent of $2000-$3000 annually, there are $1 million condos in San Jose, and expensive, beautiful five-star hotels here on the coast. At once there is the construction of a brand-new high-end shopping center alongside aged 'tico' buildings and small businesses that families have operated for years. I will be interested to get to know more of the locals here in Guanacaste to see how they feel about the boom of expatriates and foreign retirees in their country. Moreover, every Costa Rican I have met has been delighted to help me practice my Spanish, which is a huge plus, as I will be working in an English-language environment.

Lastly, the most amusing thing about Costa Rica is that they have no street names. Addresses are written using landmarks; for example, my hotel in San Jose was "400 meters west of the second cemetery". Needless to say, it makes driving an adventure, especially since the rainy season is in full swing.

Hopefully the future entries will be a bit more lively than this introductory post, and I look forward to any readers helpful hints about blogging.

All the best for now--