Day 2 - Mario's Family and Perez

Note: Due to the lack of internet and great times these entries are written after the fact.

The night was a noisy one! There were people in the park until the wee hours of the morning.

It was kind of cool sleeping with the noise of the city. I live in the burbs of Pa, so this may be a normal occurrence for a night in the city. The church bells also sounded marking every hour, lol I don't know why I thought they wouldn't go off in the night. We woke early and I went down to breakfast in the café. I thought that the coffee would be delicious since they grow it here, but it really was no better than the coffee we have at home. I am not really a coffee aficionado so maybe there was some subtle difference. The bacon was incredible though, I don't know what was different but it was really good. I also had pinto de gallo for the first time and I really liked it, though you need to like cilantro since that was a strong taste in the dish.

After breakfast we went to church, the church is the main feature in downtown San Isidro. Everything centers around it. It is a beautiful church and I liked that it was humble, not filled with gold. The area is not a rich area and it always bothers me to see poor people and rich churches. The church was beautiful but not ostentatious. The ceremony was really nice, they sang and prayed and there was a reallllllly long homily, and at the end all the children run up to the priest and he blesses them. Really sweet. We had me Mario's parents at the entrance to the church, they are really nice people and seemed to like me as well. What a relief! We also met his brother Juan for a few minutes. We packed up and followed them to their house in the Los Angeles suburb of San Isidro, about 15 minutes from the center of town.

The roads were fine getting to the house, paved and in no worse condition than here. The people drive pretty crazy, they pass whenever they fell like it, curves, mountainous roads, rain, whatever. Mary did great though and we made it to the house.

The house is beautiful, it's weird they tile the patios, outside. We had a great dinner that his sister made and we spent the afternoon talking and looking at the pictures we had put on the digital frame. I met his niece Tatiana, her husband, Walter, and their baby, Angelica. Mario's sister Surlai (I hope the spelling is right) and her husband were there too. We saw Mario's house, it needs repair but I know I can cute-ify it. The neighborhood was run down and definitely on the poorish-city side, not my kind of neighborhood, here or there. We are talking about living there for a short time and looking for a place more in the country.



After we visited for a while we left and went to visit Mario's sister-in-law, Marta. Her house was very beautiful too. Much more modern and americanized. She was justifiably proud of herself for fixing it up. We spent a short time with her and her family because it started to pour and we had to make it to Hacienda Baru that night. We had a great visit though and it was nice to hear her perspectives on living in Costa Rica since she is a successful single mom.

We then took off for a hair-raising ride through the mountains again. I don't know how Mary was able to drive with me gasping and whimpering in the passenger seat. The road to Dominical was paved and nice but really curvy and steep and the rain made visibility poor. We made it though! The GPS was a godsend! It got us right to the front desk at Hacienda Baru. Jack Ewing the owner greeted us much to our surprise. I don't know why I figured he was a man behind a desk in the back room but he definitely was not! He is a really nice man and makes Hacienda Baru a wonderful place to stay. He called for Maricio from the kitchen (he's one of the chefs) to escort us to our cabin, and they gave us umbrellas so we didn't get wet. The cabin was incredible! 2 bedrooms, mine had a double bed, Mary's had a double and a single.

There was a bench and a chair on the front screened in porch and a bathroom with a shower with hottish water.

Really clean and cheerfully painted. We had a sitting room and a kitchenette too. The price is really incredible for all you get and breakfast is included, not continental breakfast, real eggs and meat or a casado breakfast. Just wow.

We settled in, changed and went for dinner. As we were walking down the path we heard something behind us. We turned and this really scruffy little dog froze in his tracks. We walked, he walked, we turned, he froze, lol we were hooked. Mary named him Sam, and of course we brought some dinner back for him. 

We settled in, changed and went for dinner. The restaurant was cute, al fresco so you need bug spray. The food was good and reasonably priced. We ate well and were exhausted so we returned to our lovely cabin, sat outside with Sam for a while and then went to bed at around 10, not the wild woman vacation we had planned but really nice.