Chocolate factory

 

There’s a cemetery just down the road from our apartment that we walked by every day, it’s full of above ground graves. Like all places, we needed to wash our hands to enter. I suppose it’s good that Costa Rica is taking public health so seriously, even if it’s much too late for the people we were going to see. They also wanted to inspect our bag afterward. We did not steal any bones. 

Toucan Rescue Ranch is an amazing nonprofit outside of town that works to rehabilitate animals like toucans, parrots and sloths. They also house a pack of rowdy monkeys, very reminiscent of these guys. The tour guide hates the monkeys and the monkeys hate him. One guy on the tour got a little close and could have lost his phone or hat. The monkeys made faces and showed us their butts over and over again. I now hate them too.

The National Museum of Costa Rica filled in some history for us. It’s housed in a former military site, but since they disbanded their military in 1948, it now has a butterfly pavilion and a nocturnal animal exhibit where the jail once was. 

From there, we made chocolates. The Tapir Chocolate Factory hosts small groups to learn how to make chocolate. The history of cacao is fascinating, who knew chocolate comes from a fruit!? Our hosts took us from fruit to finished bar over two hours, walking us step by step through the process. They were patient with our mistakes, which came often, and we each walked out with four personalized bars.

We’ve figured out that Uber is not nearly as illicit as we were led to believe, which is good because we needed to cover more ground. We also needed to get rescued in a torrential downpour. Things ended where they started, with the same Uber driver taking us back to the airport. Like a slightly smoother drug deal, he made us take off our masks and pretend like we’re friends when he dropped us off. This wasn’t hard, he’s our friend in Costa Rica that we’ve known the longest.

Good thing we washed our hands for this crowd

What a jerk

Sloths

Parrot

A museum like a fort

Fruit or an alien heart

Chocolate bars, not monkey poo

Where the streets have no name and the pools have no heat

 

There aren’t any addresses in Costa Rica, everything is in reference to landmarks or other buildings. Things seemed a bit off the last few days, but it didn’t really set in until we were booking our COVID tests to return home. The testing site is on Rohrmoser street just down from Scotiabank. It doesn’t show up on Google maps, but their website says it definitely exists and they’ll send the full address after you schedule and pay. As promised, the email says it’s 150 meters west of Scotiabank on Rohrmoser. At least the street has a name, not all of them do. We saw a long line outside the Post Office, apparently you go there to get mail in a land of no addresses. 

We went to the Jade Museum yesterday, which I would put among the top museums in the world. It was surprisingly wonderful. Key fact: people have been drawing and carving funny faces since at least 1000 BC. 

Today we went to the Children’s Museum. The building used to be a prison, and from the looks of it, former inmates live on the streets all around it. We knew this was not going to be a zip lining resort trip, but the walk in felt borderline unsafe - to the Children’s Museum of all places. 

Since we survived the perp walk, we celebrated with a trip to the pool at the apartment. It’s a really lovely pool if you’re a penguin in Antarctica. 

Fight or flight response?

I know right where to find the guys who walked out these doors

Monkeys look like they want bananas

Kids look like they fall from balconies

Mirrors are fun

Danger zone

It’s been over two years since we’ve traveled internationally as a family, sidelined by the coronavirus. We used to be good at this, but it was quite clear today we’re out of practice. Watching Rick Steves watch Rick Steves episodes on Zoom during lockdown was not as helpful as I thought it would be.

We left for San Jose, Costa Rica last night. This was the replacement trip for what should have been an amazing adventure in Peru in 2020. Since the kids are all older now, we only gave a general list of how to pack and left it to them. Since we didn’t monitor this at all, it was a bit disconcerting when Dinah’s bag was pulled by TSA - we had absolutely no idea what she might have put in there. We were relieved, and the agent was amused, by the mound of stuffed animals that poured out for closer inspection and explosive testing. Dinah clearly followed this pro-tip from her brother on how to pack.

The flight through the night was mostly uneventful. Very little happened, including sleep. But in our grogginess, we thought we had things dialed-in at the airport. Rather than rent a car, we heard the Uber is fast, easy, and now the way to get around in Costa Rica. The airport is clearly not set up for ridesharing apps, but we thought this must be because it’s new. The swarm of police eyeing us while we turned away taxis and stared at our phone made us think maybe something else is going on. Then the taxi driver who yelled “Uber is illegal” in broken English really gave it away. We had heard this, but didn’t quite realize it was that illegal. Meeting our driver ended up looking more like a rookie drug deal from Breaking Bad when he too realized they were on to us. 

From there, naps and walking around San Jose made for a decent first day. The Museum of Costa Rican Art is near our apartment. Formerly the old airport, it now houses a small but wonderful collection. The walk to lunch included a treacherous pedestrian bridge - even with no railings and rebar threatening to impale us, somehow this seemed less dangerous than walk-in across the street.

We’ve been working on our Spanish, but the Spanish comes at you fast here. Our lawbreaking Uber driver, when he wasn’t dangerously blurring the lanes and driving too fast and close, pointed out that we should say we speak “poquito español” rather than “pequeño.” But ours feels right, we speak small Spanish.

Don’t slip

Used to be an elevator for those afraid they might slip

Nothing to say here, I just like this

Art that implies it might rain here

Fluffy flower

The view from our apartment

Island in the sun

 

Since we left you last, Daniel and I have packed in a lot!

On Saturday, we were able to help paint part of the CARD (Casa de Amparo y Respuesta a Desastre) House offices. Having forgotten to pack proper footwear, I protected my plantar fasciitis by wearing shoes, and I protected my shoes by wearing plastic bags over them. Daniel and I worked with our hosts, Ashley and Courtney, to paint doors in the offices. After several sweaty hours, the doors were completed and the office space is one step closer to its final design.

Saturday evening brought a time of fellowship with the Mayagüez congregation, and Daniel and I were able to partake in the weekly bonfire, dinner, and discussion time. Singing songs around the campfire made Daniel homesick for his beloved summer camp, LVR.

On Sunday, we were blessed to be able to participate in worship services at both locations. In the morning, we attended the service in Mayagüez, and quickly discovered that neither Daniel nor I are proficient enough in Spanish to quite keep up with a real service. After that, we traveled to the urban church in Ponce, where Daniel was able to participate in Sunday school (in English!) with the missionary family’s children, and I attended the adult Bible study. After that, we participated in the church service and were pleased that we were better able to keep up in Spanish the second time around. We’re still not pros, but we’re getting closer each time!

After service, the Lehman family (the missionary family living in Ponce) invited us and our hosts to their house for dinner. We were treated to a delicious Puerto Rican meal, and a power outage created some nice ambience for us. After wonderful conversation and plenty of playtime for Daniel, we headed back to our beds to prepare for what would be Daniel’s most eagerly-anticipated day of the trip: Beach Day!

Monday we spent at Playa Buye, a lovely quiet beach with calm waves and perfect shade trees lining the sand. Daniel played for hours in his new favorite location. We applied sunscreen regularly...but may have missed some spots. Coincidentally, his new nickname is Candy Cane.

After the beach, we were again hosted for dinner by another family. Cindy, the extremely talented cook, showed me how to make some ridiculously tasty Puerto Rican comfort foods. Now with full bellies we sit and reflect on the time we’ve spent here.

I suspect that even though we did a little work to help, Daniel and I were truly the ones who will come away the most blessed by this trip. Learning about the mission here, its challenges and blessings, meeting wonderfully open and inviting people, and of course, eating great food and playing on the beach, has been an experience we’ll remember fondly. Here’s hoping we use these experiences to shape the way we look at others in the future, with more empathy, compassion, and invitation than ever before.

The Mission

Daniel and I arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico two days ago, looking forward to the mission opportunity God had provided us. Our missionary hosts, Ashley and Courtney, picked us up and drove us to the west coast of the island, to Mayagüez, where we would be stationed for the week. 

The mission church we’re working with, Iglesia Luterana Principe de Paz, has a house for disaster relief and housing short-term missions teams. We gratefully fell into our beds that night. 

The next day we were able to get a taste of missionary life by helping organize and sort books for the church library, revamp the bulletin filing system, and declutter some no longer needed items. 

On Wednesdays the church hosts a meal followed by fellowship and Bible study. We were wholeheartedly welcomed and everyone graciously spoke English to us when they realized our Spanish wasn’t quite where it should be. During the Bible study, we both experienced the feeling of wanting desperately to be able to understand someone, but not being able to. It’s an experience that gives us both more empathy to people who speak English as their second language and how they must feel on a day-to-day basis in the States. 

Today we were blessed to have a tour of Mayagüez with one of the local church workers. We also got to see how the team makes their twice-weekly radio show, Cafe con Fe, and got a shoutout on the radio. During today’s tour, William gave us not only a geographical tour, but also a rundown on the town’s history and, more importantly, a gastronomic tour! 

Below are some pictures of the delicious foods we gorged ourselves on today. Surprisingly, the corn and coconut ice cream wasn’t our favorite even though it was amazing, but the pastelón de papas (sort of a potato-based lasagna) and beans won best food of the day for us. Everything has been terrific so far, and we’re looking forward to getting to know the people of Puerto Rico (and their food!) better.

Garlic yucca (yuck, uh not among the delicious food)

Radio heads 

Delicious food

Corn and coconut ice cream, more delicious food (surprisingly)