We arrived in Costa Rica yesterday after smooth but long travels (generally easier than getting to Europe for a west-coaster.) We drove Saturday PM to Huntington Beach, spent Sunday with the Hamanns, and caught a ride to LAX at 9 PM for a red-eye to Atlanta, followed by a 4+ h flight to Costa Rica. A taxi driver managed to get us to the apartment we are renting about 3 PM local (= US central standard) time. The address is something like “200 m west of the end of the boulevard of Rohrmoser.” (There are no street addresses in San Jose, apparently! Maybe none in Costa Rica!) The taxi driver needed to call our landlord on his cell to get detailed directions on finding the unit.
Anyway, the arrival has been something of a culture shock. (I should have known better, but my prior experience in Latin America was limited to a week in Brazil, a week in Puerta Vallarta, and various visits as a boy to Baja California.)
The good news. We have a very nice apartment, with an interior of comparable quality to those we’ve rented in Denmark, albeit with a thinner supply of kitchen equipment for cooking. The climate is quite pleasant, with warmish afternoons, strong breezes, and cool evenings and mornings. (I’ve not changed into shorts. Humidity level is remarkably low.) The people we’ve interacted with have been uniformly friendly and well mannered. The internet connection (wireless) has worked well, not quite so crisp as at home, but without fail so far and sufficiently fast. (It slows in the afternoons, but was quite quick this morning.)
The not-so-goods. Really, there are three. Security is one. Noise is the second. The third is the general state of San José city as a place for an extended visit.
On security, here is a nugget. On arrival, our landlord handed us a key ring with 6 keys, all color-coded. This set was not three copies × two keys, but one single set of keys for the apartment. We are in a 4-unit complex, which has a wrought-iron fence and locked gate, perhaps 12 feet tall, topped by a roll of razor wire. The unit has a completely gated porch, floor to ceiling, at the front entrance. The front door has a key. So, there one has three keys. Two additional keys enter the picture when a security company (sometimes) padlocks/chains the two iron fences/gates. (The purpose of the sixth key is, as yet, unknown.) In addition, we have an electronic alarm that we are supposed to set when we leave. A video camera monitors the front gate from our bedroom window. Here is a photo of our apartment from the outside; ours is the front of the two units in the building shown.
Again, inside, it is quite nice, two story, with two small bedrooms upstairs, 1.5 bathrooms, a laundry room, a pleasant living room/study/dining room/kitchen area downstairs, with a skylight for illumination. The mentality of intense security for households pervades the city so far as I’ve seen. And there are lots of stories about property theft, including some pretty brazen stuff (like breaking through windows of occupied cars at stop lights to snatch a purse!). It is disconcerting. I suspect that one learns to live with it. But so far: not fun. Noise. Well, the good news is that we live on a (relatively) quiet street. The bad news is that this is “relative” to urban Latin America, not to our (quiet) house in Oakland or silent Lyngby, Denmark. Our apartment is right on the street which does have some traffic, including buses. There is little vegetation streetside to muffle noise. Barking dogs are common, late into the night. Things were quiet enough during the main part of my workday today to not bother me much, so I think this will be okay.
San José is — so far — not a very attractive or interesting city. I don’t know that Ingrid and Daniela will be able to keep themselves engaged for the month we’ve committed to be here. (Although they love the adventure and are probably up to this challenge.) Even for my daily walks, it might get difficult to maintain interest and enthusiasm, judging from yesterday and today. The city traffic is moderately heavy and not too well behaved. There is lots of litter. There are sidewalks, mostly, but not in great shape. And then there is all the building security. Iron gates and razor wire is not my idea of pretty! The parks I’ve seen are untended and untidy patches of grass and trees. I guess the good news from this is that I won’t find it hard to stay focused on work. I took my camera on my walk today (hidden in my pocket for security) and only managed one “pretty” shot, which is posted here.
We’ve booked our apartment here for one month and then plan to move on. Our current plan is to get up to Monteverde, in the cloud forest. We have a lead on a place we might rent there for our second month. After that, we have about 2.5 weeks, possibly to rent a car and travel to some more distant parts of the country.
1 comment:
At least your artistic eye really came a long way from this day at the beginning. I think your photography really benefited from all your experiences, as well as probably your open-mindedness and your understanding of yourself. It's kind of nice how, even when you don't notice it in the thick of things how much you are learning, but learning is happening nonetheless.
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