Setting up Camp in Costa Rica

It was a monumental feat to get ourselves packed up, our house ready to rent, and leave the country for our year in Costa Rica, but we did it thanks to so many friends who helped us with kid care, dinners, and interim accommodations, as well as so many other favors--thanks for helping make this possible!

On the road to Turrialba, a town of 27,000 east of San Jose in the central valley...

For the first two nights, we stayed at a lovely little lodge up the hill from Turrialba called the Turialtico. This is the room we stayed in . It had a nice open air restaurant with great views looking down onto Turrialba.

Our first few weeks were working on getting ourselves established in the most basic ways: , telephones, house, car, internet, school, bank account. All of this work required long, hot days dragging poor Zena around from place to place, line to line.   Often during this time of climbing the lower rungs of Maslow's ladder, we ate lunch at a soda (mom and pop eatery) recommended by our friend Rebecca. It quickly became a favorite with generous portions of zesty local food, especially their "casado", a combination of rice, beans, your choice of meat, salad, a side vegetable, and fried plaintains. Eva would sit at the counter and watch telenovelas (soap operas--at least in Spanish) drinking red pop (organic food preferences out the window at the time.)