My First Trip to Ebais

All expats living in Costa Rica have to join the Caja. That's the nation's socialized medical program. For a monthly fee, about $42 in my case, I get unlimited medical coverage.

Today is the first time I have used the Caja since I joined six weeks ago. When I arrived in Barcelona on May 18, I got a cold. It started in my throat, worked its way down for a couple of days with coughing and a sore throat, then worked its way up with sneezing and a head full of mucus. The cold mostly went away after I got situated back home in Santa Ana.

But my throat remained sore, rough and red. I had to keep clearing it of phlegm or else drown. The more I cleared my throat, the rougher it became.

So this morning I went to my local Caja office, called an Ebais. I got there at 6:30am to stand in line to get an appointment to see a doctor later in the day. There were already 22 people ahead of me, so my appointment was for 11:15.

I left, went on my morning walk, came home for breakfast and a shower, wrote some emails, then went back for my appointment. I was taken right away. First a nurse took my vital signs, using old-fashioned equipment: a pump blood pressure cuff, a scale with weight balances, and a watch to count my resting pulse. Plus I had to stand against the wall without my shoes on to get measured for height. Yes, I am still short.

Then I sat outside the doctor's office for just a few minutes. When she ushered me inside, she took a brief medical history since this was my first visit. Everything was conducted in Spanish. How do non-Spanish-speaking foreigners get through this system?! I wondered.

She looked at my throat and concluded that I needed antibiotics for my virus. No no no, I said. I do not do antibiotics anymore. I told her about the antibiotics I took in October for bronchitis that caused all kinds of yeast and UTI infections. So she backed off and wrote me two prescriptions for allergies medications.

Allergies?! I rarely am affected by allergies in this country, and when I am, it usually happens in October when it's really rainy. But then I thought about it. It was extremely dry in Spain, so much so that my skin puckered up. Then I came back to humidity and rain here in Costa Rica. Maybe my immune system was a little depressed from traveling.

I had to return to the Ebais for a third time today, at 2:30pm, to pick up my prescriptions - free of charge. So I'll try these meds and see if they help.

Getting health care here is a full-time occupation.

Susan's Birthday and Despedida

There sure are a lot of tico birthdays in April and May. So many that I wasn't sure that we'd be able to celebrate Susan's early (May 6) before she left for Canada for 2-3 weeks on April 28. But our tico friends came through.

The night before she left, Susan and I were scheduled to have our (almost) weekly dinner at Chaka's, a restaurant that serves very good and cheap typical Costa Rican food. Our favorites are garlic shrimp or breaded fish with salad and rice.

So we were sitting at our regular table when in marched a bunch of tico friends singing Happy Birthday (Feliz Cumpleaños) in Spanish. She was totally surprised, and I have to admit, I was a little surprised, too.

For two weeks I had been telling our friends that I wanted to have an early birthday and going away party for Susan. Yalile, our ringleader, said there were birthday parties scheduled for every day, and she didn't know when we could fit in Susan's. Yalile herself celebrated her 45th birthday over the four days leading up to Susan's party. Her big party at a local stable, El Picadero, complete with tables with tablecloths, her brother, Alex, playing keyboard and singing, dancing, food and much merriment was a lot of fun.

So it looked like it was just going to be Susan and me at Chaka's on Tuesday night. Until I called Yalile at 4:30 to ask (again) if she wanted to join us. She said that everyone had been asking her if we were going to have the party for Susan. In the space of three hours, she called a dozen of our friends, some of the friends got gifts (or maybe they already had them), one friend bought a cake, and they piled into cars to arrive at Chaka's around 7:30.

Our group took over the place, asking to listen to ranchero music instead of the heavy bass teeny bopper music they were playing, and being our boisterous, fun-loving selves. Susan is very well thought of in this Spanish-speaking community, and her friends turned out to wish her an early 51st birthday and a safe trip to and from Canada.

Turning 60

Me with birthday cake frosting on my face



How could this be happening? Turning 60 means I'm old, right? Wrong!

My 60th birthday celebrations have been the best in my life. Starting on April 8, I had dinner at my favorite restaurant in Costa Rica, Lubnan, which serves middle eastern food. Some of my Cariari friends and I got together to celebrate three April birthdays: mine, Sima's and Carolyn's. Ada and Joy celebrated with us. The food was very good and there was a belly dancer there that evening.


Carolyn, Joy, me, Sima and Ada at Lubnan's



The biggest party was held on Sunday, April 11. Susan, my Canadian friend, organized a big birthday bash at our favorite Sunday restaurant and bar, El Coco. She put up decorations and made food (with the owners' permission). There were about 35-45 of us - all ticos except for Susan and me. I felt very honored to be accepted by these wonderful friends. Hugo played music, and we danced, ate, drank and partied. What a blast!


The Birthday Queen wearing her crown






On Monday, I had lunch at Brad's Grille with Patty, Maria, Sharon, Fermina and Suzanne. This is the fourth birthday get-together that this group has celebrated.


Patty, Suzanne, Sharon, me, Fermina






April 13, my actual birthday, was spent teaching students I love. Then at night Indio and I went to Los Cebollines for dinner.


Indio and me






On Wednesday, my scrapbooking group - Lisa, Marilyn and Corinne - plus Bethea and I went back to the Cariari Country Club for a pool day birthday celebration. They gave me a huge gift basket full of gourmet foods.


Marilyn, Bethea, me, Lisa, Corinne






And finally, on Friday, my Thursday lunch group, which has been reduced to my scrapbooking group, Bethea and Pilar got together at Bethea's condo complex and enjoyed another pool day. Thank you, Pilar, for the bottle of tequila and shot glasses for my birthday!


Me, Bethea, Pilar, Lisa, Marilyn, Corinne




I am about partied out now. But my final celebration will be the 60th birthday present that I am giving myself: a 20-day to Spain. I leave May 5 and return May 20. I wanted to celebrate this milestone birthday in a spectacular way.

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.

Marilyn's Birthday Pool Party

Our Thursday lunch group, the Bruhos, celebrated Marilyn's birthday in her back yard. The invitation read, Come to a birthday pool party. Bring your bathing suits, towels, and pool toys.

When we got there, the pool turned out to be an oversized inflatable wading pool. Avram, Marilyn's husband, had blown it up for us. It may have been small, but it was just the right size for getting wet and playing.

It was a cool and cloudy day, so most of the dozen women didn't want to brave the water. But Lisa, Corinne, Bethea and I dove in. Well, stepped in is more like it.

Lisa led us in water aerobics - she takes a class, while I couldn't help myself with the little yellow rubber ducky that was floating in the pool. I filled it with water and got great joy out of spritzing Lisa, Corinne and Bethea.

The birthday cake was an orange cake from Robin's. Happy Birthday, Marilyn!


Bathing Beauties: Lisa, me and Corinne

Academy Awards Party

It dawned on me the same time it dawned on Patty - I should have an Academy Awards party at my house!

I have been seeing a lot of movies lately. Joining me are Patty, Lisa and Corinne, and sometimes Marilyn, plus Bethea makes noises that she wants to come with us, but she hasn't made it so far. So we all had opinions about which movies and actors should win Oscars.

Most parties here are potluck, so I made chili and provided some wine and beer. Patty brought olive tapenade on bagel chips, Sharon made melted cheese on yummy bread, Barb and Rich made corn bread muffins with bacon, and Bethea brought three desserts: chocolate candy with candy cane pieces on top, banana bread and M&M brownies. We ate so much we about burst.

I handed out ballots that I had printed from the Internet, so we could keep track of which of our favorites won.

It was great fun watching the show, eating, and talking. What a surprise that The Hurt Locker beat out Avatar for best movie! We were all glad that Kathryn Bigelow won the best director award.


Patty and Sharon

Party Weekend

Frank and me



Costa Rica is such a party place. Last weekend I went to two and had one of my own.

Friday night was Frank's birthday party. My friend and former student turned 45, and invited many people to his home/beauty salon to help him celebrate. For the occasion, I made peppery cheese sticks using puff pastry for the first time. They were yummy!

I spent the evening talking with a Belgian, Peter, who has lived in Marbella, Spain, for the last 25 years. He was staying at the Cariari B&B, and the owner, Laurie, who is Frank's best friend, brought him. Since I am going to Spain in May, I was very interested in learning what Peter had to say about Spain.

On the way home from the party, about 10:50pm, there was an earthquake - not a bad one, just about 4.4, but it was felt throughout the Central Valley. What I felt in my car was just a little something, like a bump. I saw a van in my rear view mirror and thought it had just barely kissed my bumper. It wasn't until the next morning when I read about the earthquake that I realized what had happened.

Then on Saturday Diane had a going away party for her Yvonne. I had met Yvonne at Diane's last party, so that was reason enough for me to go.

Someone had brought a red wig and people were taking turns posing with it on. It was the source of great amusement and laughter.




Also at the party, I saw Shell for the first time since I won our SuperBowl bet.


After Diane's party, I put on my dancing shoes for the first time since I broke my little right toe four weeks earlier and headed over to Coyunda's. It felt good to dance again, although the toe still hurt.