Living In Costa Rica – Tales of Strange People

Some weeks its community events, birds or bugs that provide the entertainment but this week, its funny folk (that British for strange people). For pictorial interest, I will add some pictures of the garden – greening up nicely after a burning-up dry season, and our bumper crop of Malay apples.

Well, we did have a nice sign at the gate – Casa de los Celtas with ‘B&B’ hanging below. The B&B bit disappeared last year, more fool us for thinking it would be safe hanging on tightly closed hooks.

We were left asking ‘why’ – but this week we’re even more mystified – another night marauder and we’re reduced to ‘Casa de …’ and the los Celtas has either stoked a fire or is languishing in a coffee plantation up the valley! Somebody had to pull pretty hard to split the wood in half, really weird. To be sure, the next one is going to be glued and screwed and chained… another job to be done!

We’ve only had one intruder before ~ last month when we discovered someone had broken into the cabin. There at the front door was a neat pile of glass – the slats carefully removed from a louvred window frame.

Someone had cut the netting, removed the panes, and entered through a space of 15″x18″, over 4′ off the ground – had to be an adult using a child? Nothing was stolen – our intruder merely took ice cubes from the fridge, put them in a jug with two tea bags, heaps of sugar and made himself an iced tea!

With my lovely cleaner to pad out the Español, we went to tell the village policeman so he knew what was happening on his beat. Surprisingly, he decided to come and ‘investigate’ – he mused over clear finger prints on the glass; surveyed the kitchen scene and concluded some wanderer just needed a ‘fresco’.

Then, passing John’s garden store, he picked up a heavy mallet and suggested we use if he came back! Phew, officially sanctioned violence… but I can’t really see us sitting ready and waiting!.

The other funnies were on two visits to the supermarket. First, a father and son fastidiously peeling every layer of brown skin off a load of onions before putting them in their plastic bag! Dad clearly had no intention of paying for what he couldn’t use.

Here, people can buy a single stick of celery and that makes sense, and its quite common to see shoppers discard the damaged or outer leaves of vegetables that will be weighed – but peeling your onions first ????

Then there was an elderly man busy at the eggs – with four boxes open, carefully selecting all the large ones he wanted and replacing them with the small ones from his box! Ingenious, but there’s a moral here – look before you buy!

Lord, I love these Ticos but I’m not sure who I admire most – the wily shoppers or the supermarket staff who simply watched with amusement on their faces. Ticos don’t do confrontation – try these dodges back home in the UK, and you’d be out the front door pretty fast!

Like London buses, the ‘manzana de agua‘ all come at once – a bit astringent to eat raw but they make a great pie with sultanas and cinnamon. We take our excess fruit to the old people’s home but right now, the ‘chicos’ across the road think its Christmas!

Written by VIP Member Sheelagh Richards. Sheelagh is originally from Scotland and her husband John who is from Wales are two inveterate British travellers who fell in love with Costa Rica, the beauty of the Talamanca mountain range and the perfect climate of the Rio General valley where they have established a small Bed & Breakfast called Casa de Los Celtas.

You can see a free online video interview with John & Sheelagh Richards here and read glowing testimonials here.

You can see more about John and Sheelagh’s affordable B&B accommodations outside San Isidro with their location detailed here.

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.