Semana Santa 2010

Susan, Nano and me



During Semana Santa, the Holy Week leading up to Easter, ticos take off work and head to the beach. This is a good time for gringos to stay put in the Central Valley and enjoy driving around without traffic jams.

The holiest days (and thus least worked) are Thursday and Friday. On Thursday Indio (my beau of two months) and I started out at 9am for a day at the beach. I was driving and planned to take the new toll-road highway. As soon as we got on the highway in Santa Ana, the backup started. Uh oh. I got off quickly and aimed for Plan B, the old highway going through San Jose and the mountain area of San Ramon. That was also a non-starter, as we were waved off the highway at an early exit. I thought there had been an accident, but it I learned later that the road was plugged up with motorists.

Plan C came to me in a flash. We wanted to go somewhere cooler than where we were. It is summer here, and the dog days in the sun are draining. I headed southeast from the capitol, where the weather comes in from the Caribbean side and tends to be cooler.

We drove through Cartago and into Paraiso (Paradise). I knew of a beautiful, free park there, El Mirador (the view), and that's where I pulled in. We spent a lovely day under a big shade tree, picnicking and napping. There was a small group of men piloting RC (remote control) planes, which was fascinating to watch.

Friday's plan to accompany Dolores to the tattoo artist fell through as the artist realized at the last moment that it was Good Friday. His cancellation made for a relaxing catch-up day for me.

On Saturday, Susan and I headed out past Cartago and Paraiso to Orosi to visit a friend of hers, Nano. Orosi is a lovely little town in a beautiful valley. We parked the car at the bottom of a mountain, and hiked up a very steep incline for 45 minutes. I am still sore three days later. Nano is a mountain man who subsists on growing coffee beans, giving tours of a waterfall, and with the help of visitors who come from all over the world and bring him things. We brought him rice, juice, bandaids, and a few other things.

We spent several hours visiting with Nano, who is a jokester and gracious host, and three other ticos who were visiting him. Susan had brought a pasta salad and we dined well, al fresco.

On Sunday I went to a pool party. There are four of us (Corinne, Marilyn, Lisa and I) who pal around together (it's our scrapbooking group, although interest in this hobby seems to be waning), we converged at Marilyn's, along with another woman from our Thursday lunch group, and their spouses. We played in the kiddie pool and ate a delicious pasta meal that Avram (Marilyn's husband) prepared. My peppermint patty brownies were a hit, too.

The last hurrah was going to the Cariari Country Club as Corinne's guest. Lisa, Corinne and I swam in the olympic-sized pool. Well, Corinne did a lot of laps; Lisa did some, and I went up and back a couple of times then pooped out. Corinne, who is married to an east Indian, helped Lisa plan her October trip to India, while I read People magazine, smug in my already-set plans for Spain next month.

I got to spend time with a lot of my favorite people, and I also had enough down time to make me happy.