May 13
Today started out as pretty mundane, but did not stay that way!
As planned, after breakfast we went out to do some shopping. I bought two t-shirts, or camisetas as they are called in Spanish. I also finally videoed one of the cross-walk signals that I have enjoyed so much.
Lunch was Middle Eastern food at a little food court across from our hotel – it was quite good.
In the afternoon, I felt like relaxing, so I read while Mick went out to find the AutoMercado to buy coffee filters. Not long after he returned, there was an earthquake! The hotel shook a lot for about 10 seconds, and didn’t really stop until after about 30 seconds. I checked some of the local twitter accounts I’m now following, and sure enough there was a link to the USGS site that told the strength and epicenter. It was a 6.0 that happened about 16 miles (25 km) away. Fortunately, there were no aftershocks that we could detect, and no apparent damage here in SJ.
For dinner, we went to a Venezuelan restaurant. The thing I love about Central and South American food is that they take such simple ingredients and give them wonderful flavor. It’s been a long time since I had so much healthy and delicious food other than what I cook myself.
After eating, we strolled over to the Avenida Central, which is the pedestrian mall I have mentioned before. At the square by the Theatre Nacional, a man was playing guitar quite beautifully, and we stopped to listen for a while. It was so pleasant, with the music and all the people walking around, I just videoed some of it to share with you.
When I went to put some money in his guitar case, I saw that he had a sign there with a link to his Youtube videos, so I will share that as well: http://www.youtube.com/fermanguitarra.
Then we were off in search of dessert, which turned out to be Mocha Cheesecake. And a glass of papaya juice, which tasted like they had just squished the fruit right into the glass, it was that fresh. Perfect.
So now we are starting to get packed up, because tomorrow we head for the beach at Tamarindo. Sun, sand, and salt water, here we come!