Residency in Costa Rica

This Fourth of July was a very interesting day for us this year. Immigration scheduled our appointment for Costa Rican residency on that day, in San Jose. It meant a two and a half hour drive one way and a hotel stay because you never know how long you will wait in the government office. San Jose has a lot of Gringo bars, international dining and everything you could want in terms of museums and shopping. So I got excited and booked us in a hotel that wasn’t a hostel and looked in the guide book for museum hours.
Our appointment was quick and painless which meant we had the rest of the day to celebrate. We went to a bar that we knew of that had the only draft beer that is brewed here in Costa Rica. The bar is run by a Panthers fan from N. Carolina and has a Mississippi boy serving up the drinks. Being that it was the Fourth they had started partying early and every song playing had “America” or “U.S. of A” in it. It was kind of weird that we were celebrating our new residency while listening to that Boot in your Ass song accompanied by 3 air guitarists. *Interesting Fact-oid* In CR they have an Independence Festival in which they re-enact the battle with the Spaniards (Columbus claimed CR for Spain a long time ago) and change the outcome so that the Native Indians defeat the Spaniards and send them on their way (kind of like a Civil War re-enactment in the States in which the South wins). In the States we get to remember telling the British to go to hell and they went back to England. Imagine if our history was always something we wish we could have changed. After two delicious brews we went to get some Persian food.

Here is Kimba, our new Golden. We had named her Jolene but after ordering her dog tag we spoke with her previous owner and found out her name is Kimba. She listens a lot better now but still doesn’t understand why she has some other dogs name tag.

Here are Smokey and Kimba playing nicely together.

Here is our new gate at the road. It makes us look rich, doesn’t it? We will put a roof on it and varnish it next week.

We had a visitor for three weeks. Andy spent some time on the farm, went to the Pacific for some scuba and to the Caribbean for some snorkeling and great seafood. He brought us 2 bottles of Montgomery Inn sauce, skyline chili, goldfish, nutter-butters and a chocolate cake mix for my birthday! This is Andy getting on the bus to leave. Anytime you want to help me squeeze limes come on down.

Lastly, here is a picture of our new favorite restaurant, Sol Y Luna or Sun and Moon. They are located on the main road from San Jose to Limon and are trying to get tourists buses to stop there so they make their menu in English and Spanish. The translations on menus are always entertaining because you are always left wondering why they just don’t ask a native English speaker before they go to print. Check out the Gordon Blue chicken. I guess that is officially a mistake in French.

All in all we have had great weather here due to rainy season and are enjoying ourselves immensely. This is our new address:
Kimberly Beck or Barry Hovland
Apartado Postal
05-7251
Bataan, Costa Rica