Costa T+12 Thursday
Thursday was spent in school, doing homework, taking a taxi from Cenna Plano to Santa Elena, having a nice lunch in a local restaurant, shopping and chatting with a local.
In school, we chatted for a few hours – both students struggling to put words into the proper tense for each sentence (present & past). My travel to San Joaquin was finalized with the B&B reservations and a end of class survey was presented to me.
I stopped by my Tico casa and dropped off my books and backpack and grabbed a taxi from Cerro Plano to Santa Elena – a little over a mile away. There I ate at a recommended restaurant named Restaurante Maravilla. It was full of locals and there was a waiter there who looked exactly like one of the zip cable guides from yesterday. I asked if he worked at both places and was met with a your crazy look. Then he admitted he had a brother that worked there. I asked what was good and went with his selections for entre and drink. Grilled chicken con mashed potatoes and steamed mixed vegetables. To drink, a papaya smoothy. It was primera bueno – a new expression learned in class – Excellent. While eating I met an older couple from Nova Scotia, another 2 girls from Atlanta, and a young couple from Dallas.
Next was the shopping for trinkets – a coffee cup and t-shirt were on the list. I checked every shop in Santa Elena searching for something with Pura Vida tastefully placed on both items. Eh, I settled on a cup and t-shirt and started looking through the art galleries for something to be displayed in my home. 5 galleries later and nothing jumped out at me within my price range. I found a few items, but they were over $1k each. Most of the items in my price range were nude sculptures, not my taste.
I searched for a taxi, none were around, so walking back to Cerro Plano was the next action (future tense rocks, I can’t wait). Along the way, I stopped for a famous ice cream at the local creamery. The ice cream is made locally by the relocated Alabamans who fled here from military service during the Korean war, or so the story goes here. Anyway, 2 very rich scoops later and I was sitting outside on a bench to catch the breeze.
As I sat down, a young girl also sat at the table and started speaking Spanish to me. We had a long chat, my Spanish was better than her English, sad, I know. We talked about ice cream, her school and my school, and where we both lived. As the ice cream was finished, so was our conversation and we each headed home. That little chat showed me how much my Spanish was lacking. I’m good for transportation and food, not general conversation yet. It will definitely take more time to bring my vocabulary up to conversational levels.
Home to do some homework and enjoy my last night in Monteverde. Mucho tarea tonight before the big test tomorrow. Spelling and writing is fairly easy. Listening is hard and speaking is nearly impossible for me still. I´m functional in an airport, bus or probably a subway provided they have a good ear for what I should be saying. And best of all, I can order in restaurants and not be surprised with what comes out – Well, any more than I am in Atlanta.
