Hasta luego Tamarindo!

 
Friday night the 1^st of February, Pedro took the kids and me to a fair in the nearby crossroads of Huacas.  For those of you from Winston-Salem, aka the Tre-Fo, who are used to the Dixie Classic, this wasn’t exactly all that and a bag of chips… EXCEPT FOR THE BULLFIGHT!  Now, for those of you from España, who are used to the grand, deluxe mega-stadiums, this wasn’t exactly all that and a bag of chips…EXCEPT FOR THE RINGSIDE NOSE-TO-THE-FENCE SEATS!  And finally, for those of you from Pamplona, who are used to running with the bulls, well, this WAS all that and a bag of chips because you could go in and out of the ring as you pleased!  So naturally, being Uncle Pete’s nephew, I popped right out there (brought Pedro with me) and waited for the first bull to come out, a wild thang named Ferdinand, and I tell you what, I know what the children’s book says but he was no friendly bull!  He came out of the gate mad as a hornet and bucked his rider in about 2 seconds flat before lowering his head and barreling toward the nearest sabanero, the cowboy type Guanacaste is famous for.  The thing about the fence encircling the ring is that it has horizontal beams so you can climb it like a ladder, which is exactly what the sabaneros do when the bull charges them.  Even so, el Señor Bull almost gave that first sabanero a good horn in the pantaloons!  Well after witnessing that, lemme tell you I skedaddled my little hindparts out o’ that ring just as fast as my skinny legs would carry me, Pedro right behind me!  After all, the bucket list item “be in a bullfight” doesn’t specify for how long!  We watched the rest of it with María José and Daniel from a great vantage point right at the fence, sometimes just inches from the bull, and then finished off the night with hot churros!

María José got the seat belt…

On Saturday, while Pedro was at church for a baptism and Kid’s Café (I think), the rest of us decided to rent a surfboard and shred the gnar gnar for a couple hours, taking turns and helping each other.  But I'm not sure what was more thrilling - the surfing itself, or the ride there.  Because Pedro had taken the car into town for the baptism, we were left to wait by the side of the road until someone picked us up.  In this case, a man driving his own car (Guanacaste is the one place in Costa Rica where people feel safe taking unofficial taxis), and car is putting it nicely.  The Allen family is known for driving old cars (until recently, I was driving a car older than David), but this car made my family's fleet look like a scene out of Fast & Furious.  Upon entering the car, the first thing we noticed was a pair of crutches, which I think looking back was a sign: if you ride in this car long enough, you're gonna need 'em!  For starters, as soon as we were all in, the dude didn't even check to see if cars were coming, just backed up right into the main road to Tamarindo.  Then when five cars started honking at him, he nonchalantly stuck his head out the window and I didn't catch everything he yelled in Spanish, but it was something like "chill out, if you're in that much of a hurry, just pass me!"  That's when we noticed the dashboard was falling off and best of all there was only one seat belt in the back!  Suffice it to say we prayed a lot in those 15 minutes to the beach...

We arrived safely!  Didn’t fare quite as well without our surf instructors, but all four of us got up multiple times.  By far the most entertaining surfer was Daniel, who decided it was too complicated to try to figure out exactly when to stand up, and instead decided to just remain standing up on the board constantly.  So a wave would catch him and he’d surf it, and then the funniest part was when it was washing back, he would stay up and actually SURF BACKWARDS until he caught the next wave forwards again!  Now I don’t know much about surfing, but I’m pretty sure you belong in the big leagues if after one surf lesson you can already surf backwards!  

That weekend, Caroline’s study abroad program concluded their first week of orientation in the remote mountains of Monteverde, and moved in with their host families in Heredia for a second week of orientation.  Caroline LOVED Monteverde – the greenness all around (Monteverde translates to Green Mountain), her wonderful host family - a couple our age and their ~15-month-old son, her open-air classroom, and just generally being in the mountains (kinda like Sewanee).  So moving from that idyllic setting to the big, bustling city has been somewhat bittersweet… But the good news is that she loves her host family here too!  They are a thirty-year-old evangelical couple with a 16-month-old son, and very kind and thoughtful.  The other good news is that in Heredia she has a phone as well as more frequent internet access, so we actually got to talk some during my second week in Tamarindo!

First day of school!

I took the week off from Spanish classes, instead helping Pedro and St. Paul’s By the Sea.  I had a blast updating the website, helping plan our Saturday park clean up day, tagging along with Pedro to order metal signs for the church to put all around Tamarindo, accompanying Pedro and the kids first to Santa Cruz for back-to-school shopping (above is Daniel's Michael Jackson impersonation in the department store) and official documents, and then to Playas del Coco to hand out and post flyers about the church.  I even got to go to the opening day ceremonies on the first day of school for Daniel and María Jose!  One day while we were out obtaining documents for the school, Pedro accidentally drove one wheel over a poorly-located drainage pipe, and the response was amazing: within about a minute two skateboarding teenagers had come over to help push, and another man had positioned his car right behind Pedro’s, tied the cars together with a rope, and then pulled him right out!  Speaking of Pedro's car, I've come to a much greater appreciation of Latino music after listening to it every day while we drive.  My favorite song he played is called "Esta Vida," by the Colombian artist Jorge Celedón.  I highly recommend it!  Grrr this website is frustrating, sorry bout the weird picture placement.

One of the new signs around town.  In Tamarindo you don't need
permission from the municipality, you just put signs wherever you want!

Getting the car unstuck.

On Saturday morning, we had a great time picking up trash and straightening up the park right next to the church (picture above).  And at the Sunday service, there was a crowd, including two new ladies!  Pedro had specially prepared an interactive children’s sermon based on the fishers of men Gospel, and the kids enjoyed going “fishing” with a paper clip hook for paper fish on the floor, which had questions on the back we all answered.  After the service we had the customary cookies-and-coffee social time, which is always fun.  What an encouraging service and a special way to end my two weeks in Tamarindo!