Saturday and Sunday Feb 6+7, 2010

This carved stick was a gift to Gabe from Milagro's family.   it won't fit on the plane so we will have to mail it.  Saturday morning Gabe and I went with Luis up another mountain.   The pictures of him in the water were because he wanted to show a Costa Rican car wash:)    This is Luis in his car -Gabe is in there too.  when he was in the U.S.Beth went thru a car wash.  They don't have them here.   Here there are places where people washthem by hand.   This, then, was a joke.    

Lava means wash the H is for horario which means when they are open from lunes (Monday-sábado (saturday)

This house was up the mountain.   I snapped it to show another side....  As poor as this house seemed it had a dish for satellite t.v.   Luis said the chances were good that they would have a big flat screen t.v.  The contradictions or life.  This se vende sign (for sale) was on a car.   

This sign was on the hardware store.   It was very similar to ours. I will add severale. is Oak parquet flooringTo the left are wooden doors -they use beautiful

wooden doors here

These are cement sinks

 elections were yesterday.   They are a HUGE deal here.  Jorge, his wife, 2 daughters and their 2 boyfriends spent most of the day voting.  Voting happens in the schools.   Every school is used.

They all had to go to a different school.  I show pictures of the cardboard divider you vote behind.   You stuff your ballot in a cardboard box.  I tried to get a picture of Jorge voting but they had a fit and wouldn't let me.   By the afternoon there were thousands of people in the streets and most cars had the flag of their candidate.  One pickup went by loaded with people in the back every person had a different flag.  The custom is for cars to drive by a honk - there was constant honking.  Laura Chinchilla (who was vice president to the current president) won.  It is interesting that in the mid 80's when I was in Costa Rica this current president, Oscar Arias was also president.  It was when Reagan was fighting the communist regime of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua through the anti Sandinista forces called the Contras.  Anyway, Arias forged a peace agreement and won the Nobel Peace Prize.   Eight years ago when I came to Costa Rica for the first time with Jorge, we visited Oscar Arias' Peace Foundation because Angela Atkinson Duina was good friends with the director - someone she had gone to Boston College with, I think.  (Angela was the Dean of Students at Poland for a few years).   In 2006 Oscar Area became president again!  Below are pictures from election day.  It is interesting that Daniel Ortega is once again president (after 25 years) in Nicaragua.  

one of the 4 top candidatesPeople waiting line a a public school to vote

a group of young people wearing Otton (another candidate) shirts eating their lunch.  Candidates spend tons of money - a few even rented vans so people could get the the voting place free of charge.

Ballots are stuffed in these boxes

a sign tell how to voteyou vote behind this cardboard

Jorge, his wife, daughters Meli and Laurita and Meli's boyfriend took Gabe and I to the childrens museum in San José.   It was formerly a maximum security prison.  It was huge and great and my batteries died so all the pics are on gabe's camera.  I will add those later.   Also the pics of us at McDonalds having lunch.   All for now.   I will post again tonight (Monday 2-8)