It has been a relatively quiet week, but we have managed to squeeze in some awesome things. Hiking in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Watching the US Team beat Ghana and then tie Portugal. Meeting some amazing new friends. Finding out it is in fact possible to make a career out of on-line poker. Learning why we should avoid hospitals in Peru. And getting an education about soccer matches in Mexico. While we have truly enjoyed every aspect about our time here in Santa Elena, it is the people that we have met that have really made the difference. We had some new neighbors at the apartment a few nights ago- Tonya and Jeff- both nurses who have traveled all over the world, sometimes for nursing, sometimes for fun. It is always so exciting to meet other people who love to travel. We both felt that we got some odd looks when we said we wanted to travel for months, for a year, indefinitely. But the more stories we hear and the more we get a chance to talk to people who also love traveling the more we realize it was the right choice for us. Not that there was ever much doubt. We met Tonya and Jeff while we were setting off to go to Bar Amigo to watch the US play Ghana (a game they won, 2-1). They pulled in as we were setting off; and when they heard we were setting off to watch the game they offered us a ride. We gratefully accepted and headed up the hill to watch the game. The game was intense but fun. The bar filled up quickly with other Americans, cheering on their team. It was nice to find other people supporting the US- after we won chants of “USA, USA” went up and there was a lot of cheering. Then, the lights went down and the music came up, everyone rushed to the dance floor. It had a crazy club vibe to it. We had to laugh when we looked at the time- it was only 6pm! But it gets dark so early here that it felt much later. The club scene at the bar only made it feel later. Before, during and after the game we got to know Jeff and Tonya and hear about their adventures. They have traveled so much more then we have and had great stories. They have been to so many amazing places, Peru, India, Mali, Turkey and all over Europe.We went out to dinner to Sabor Tico with them after the game. It was a lovely night, so we opted to sit on the patio. About halfway through our dinner the power flickered off. Not just at the restaurant, but thanks to our vantage point on the balcony, we could see it was off in the entire city of Santa Elena. After a few minutes, the waiters started lighting candles and setting them on tables for patrons in the restaurant. Since we were sitting outside, in the wind, it would have been an exercise in futility to bring a candle out to our table. However, they did the next best thing and set a candle in the window nearest to us and we enjoyed our dinner in candle light until the power came back on. We did wonder what effect this had on the dance party going on at Bar Amigo.
Jeff had been to Monteverde before with his family and remembered a restaurant called “Chimera” as being particularly excellent, so the next night we joined them in a quest to find the restaurant. We could not, but did find a wonderful restaurant called Sofia’s. We enjoyed our meal and then joined them on their patio and chatted and swapped stories until well after midnight (again, not that late but we had been used to going to bed around 9-9:30.) A wonderful evening!
Getting some quality hammock time!
Friday we went back to Bar Amigo to watch the second Costa Rica game- against Italy. The first one had been so much, especially since they won and we were excited to get to be in the crowd with the Ticos again. We arrived early, but still got a table further away from both the TV and the window than we would have liked. We later learned that by law in Costa Rica, the entire country gets the 2 hours during the game off so they can watch, which explained why it was so busy!
Goooooooaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllll!!!!
The game went well and Costa Rica became the first team in their group to move on (shocking- especially since England and Italy are both going home already! And what on earth happened to Spain?!?!) and when the game was over, the real fun began. Everyone was singing and cheering, and it didn’t take long for the party to spill out into the streets. We watched as a parade spontaneously broke out. Santa Elena is roughly in the shape of a triangle, cars and trucks draped in the Costa Rican Flag went around and around the triangle, with passengers waving, cheering, banging drums, using airhorns, and jumping up and down in the beds of trucks, at one point someone even threw candy. Everyone got in on the fun, buses honked and waved, even the police drove through with their lights flashing, waving and cheering. Ticos and tourists alike lined up along the streets, cheering and waving flags. We sat and watched for almost half an hour, and while things had slowed down by the time we left, we could still hearing honking on our walk home.
Fans, bus drivers, police and American school children celebrating the win in the streets of Santa Elena
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