Costa Rica - Day 3/4

Sorry for the delay in getting my day 3 post up. I was so tired at the end of the day and knowing that I had to wake up in 4 hours to go home, I figured I'd update it when I got back (or at the airport).

So Friday started out like the others.. Wake up and have some breakfast at the hotel. Huevos, queso, arroz con frijoles, agua. Then we embarked on the drive to Palmares to finish up our business. We decided to take a shortcut that we had taken on the way home the day before that had saved us 15 minutes or so. The problems is that there wasn't a way for the shortcut to go the opposite direction. Because of some barricades and one way streets we got pushed way out into BFE (or is that BFUSA) just to get turned back the right direction. We spent 20 minutes just to get turned back the right way.
I neglected to mention before that the family we were visiting to do business with had a chicken in their backyard. I had asked one of the guys if they used it to eat eggs or if it was a pet. He wasn't sure and thought that it was his grandpa's chicken, probably for eggs. I asked if it had a name, and he just laughed. We'll come back to the chicken in a moment.
When we got to their house/business, we immediately started back with the training. We quickly dived in and made some good progress before lunch. We had some other meetings we wanted to go to in the afternoon, so we were trying to leave before lunch. I'm glad that we didn't. The day before, the wife of the business owner had overheard Steve talk about how (on his mission) he loved arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) a flagship dish in Costa Rica. Because she overheard them talking about it, she decided to make some for us! Oh man. Amazing. We had the Chicken and Rice dish with a nice green salad, refried black beans (my new favorite), fresh squeezed passion fruit juice, and homemade (virgin) pina coladas! Best pina colada I have EVER had. It was made with fresh coconuts and real coconut milk. Simply amazing.
After lunch we were talking about where she had gotten some of the ingredients and as it turns out, their "pet" chicken that we saw out back was the main course! At least, that's what I think. When the chicken out back was mentioned, everyone laughed because I had asked about it the day before, and I swear that I couldn't see the chicken out in the cage anymore. Because I don't spean spanish, I'm not 100% sure that it really was the chicken or not, but either way, it was pretty funny
One thing that I noticed about Costa Rica is that there are dogs EVERYWHERE. Every restaurant that we went to there was at least 1 dog there that just waits around for scraps. The dogs are surprisingly well behaved, however. They weren't aggressive, and they didn't approach you at all. I wonder if rabies is a problem down there.
After lunch, we finished up training within an hour or so, and the business discussions were at a breaking point, (plus Latin Americans like to leave early on Fridays) so we decided to go and explore a bit. When we were leaving Palmares, we decided to stop at the local Catholic iglesias and take some pictures. I will post all of my pictures in a seperate entry later today. The stained glass windows were breathtaking.
When we were driving back to the hotel, we passed a huge "flock" of what we initially thought were turkeys. They were huge! There were about 15-20 all black "turkeys" that were all gathered at this one point. As we passed them, I noticed that they were all gathered around a dead horse. They were not turkeys. They were vultures. Then the smell of rotting flesh entered the vehicle. Wow. Gag.
Fernando then told us a story of a friend and he driving through another part of Costa Rica years ago on a long road trip. They were driving and saw a vulture on the road eating roadkill of some kind. The friend (who was driving) thought it would be funny to try and run over the bird. He sped up and aimed the car at the bird. The bird, being large, attempted to fly away, but couldn't get enough lift and smashed into the windshield, it's head breaking through. They slammed on the breaks in fear (and because they couldn't see). The bird then opened it's eyes and vomited rotting meat onto the driver, pulled its head out of the windshield and flew away. The guy was covered in it, and was puking continually for the remainder of the 3 hour journey.
When we got back, we chilled at the hotel for a bit. Fernando checked out that morning because he was going to spend the night at his sister's house, so he chilled with me in my room until Steve and I left. Fernando, being the trixter he is, left me a couple surprises that I discovered upon my return later that night. He ripped up a bunch of tissues and stuffed them in the air conditioner, so when I turned it on, bits of tissue flied everywhere in the room. He also made and original smiley face drawing in the bathroom. I'll post pictures later today.
Steve and I left to go to the flea market in central San Jose. On the way to the flea market, we stopped to see one of his Missionary companions. We visited him at his business, which looked like a home, but was strictly for business. He is an accountant.
As we were driving around San Jose, I saw my first brothel ever. It was a "gentlemen's hotel." There were several that we saw throughout the city as we were trying to find the flea market. I also saw several prostitutes. I had never been to a place that I could say, without a doubt, that the girls were prostitues. We eventually found the flea market and found a parking place. We walked a few blocks to the flea market and went inside. The place STUNK. There were parrots and parakeets everywhere and a couple butchers. So, the combination of smells was not pleasant. I got a couple presents for Trisha (flip-flops, 2 t-shirts, and a little puzzle/jewelry holder). I also got my brother a shot glass (I get one for him everywhere I go) and a little hand carved warrior guy to match the ones I got in Mexico.
We got to the flea market at about 5:15, and they close at 6 PM. During our parusing, we got seperated. We didn't explicitly set a meeting point. They started closing everything down at 5:45. I was basically done at that point, so I walked towards the street corner where we had entered the market. The door was already closed and padlocked, I walked around for a few minutes until I found a door that the security was closing. They let me go out the door there, but at that point I was a bit turned around. I knew that the market was an entire street block, and figured that if I stayed on that block, there would be no problems. I stood at the corner for a few minutes and realized that I wasn't on the right street corner. I walked around the block (there were THOUSANDS of people walking everywhere). When I got the far side, I saw that there was 1 door that they were ushering people out of. I figured that I'd see him come out this door at some point, but it was kitty corner from where we had entered. I waited there for 5 or so minutes and the sidewalks started to clear a bit as the busses were leaving the area. I decided to walk around the block one more time to make sure that he wasn't on the far side where we had entered. He wasn't there. I waited there for about 10 minutes and eventually a guy that had helped me at one of the shops came and told me (in spanish) that my amigo was looking for me back at the "exit" corner. I walked back that direction and we found each other. While I wasn't scared that anything would happen to me, or anything like that, it was still a bit unnerving being there amidst thousands of people not understanding a word they were saying and not knowing if I had made a wrong turn somewhere and being in the wrong place. In the end, he did go to the corner where we had entered, but because I was a bit turned around, I was 1 corner away from the right corner. Then he went back in and searched inside until they made him leave.
As we were walking back to the car, we passed an icecream shop called Pops. We went in to get a treat that Steve talked about on his mission. Coconut icecream. Holy crap. I have a new favorite ice cream flavor. Of course, even if I could find it in the US, it wouldn't be as good as there because of the amazing fresh flavor. It was amazing. I would seriously take it over Haagen Daaz now. So good.
We got back to the car, and tipped a kid who was trying to sell stuff on the street for "watching" our car.
After the flea market, we went to have dinner with another one of Steve's missionary companions and his family. We met them at a grocery store in San Jose and then followed them to their house. Their house was beautiful as well. Apparently, when the Costa Rican temple was built, he spent his life savings remodeling their house to have it ready so visitors could stay with them during the dedication. In the end, no one stayed with them, but they've had the opportunity to host some members since then. We got to their house and I met their family. The father's name is Esteban. The wifes name is Veiria [sp?], pronounced Bee-ree-uh. They adopted 2 kids 8 months earlier. They are great kids, Andres and Diana. They really were a great family. She cooked us a homemade meal of arroz con pollo (rice with chicken (like we had for lunch)), platanos (fried plantaines), picadillos (a soft shell taco), and a cole slaw with cilantro type salad. We had fresh squeezed lemonade from lemons in their back yard. The platanos with the arroz con pollo was my favorite. It was SO good! She made us a traditional spice bread for dessert.
We met with them and they caught up on their lives. I couldn't understand much of what they were saying, but I picked up pieces along the way. Andres loved my iphone. I played games with him on it for a while to keep him occupied. Diana wanted me to read to her from a book about flowers. I did my best to read the words in spanish, even though I didn't know what they meant. At the end of the meeting, Esteban told me (with Steve translating) that I would always be welcome in his home and was grateful that I could eat dinner with them. I really had a good time there and would love to visit them again.
After we left their house, Steve drove me around to see the local chapels there and where the mission home was located. It was dark, so even though I could see them, I would NEVER be able to find my way to where they were. Then we went back to Pops and had some more coconut icecream. Mmmm..
We went back to the hotel and I packed my things and called Trisha on the phone. I was SO tired and had to wake back up in a few hours, so I went right to bed.
I woke up at 4:45 and finished packing and got ready for the trip home. I went down and had breakfast (same thing as before). We left the hotel, dropped off the rental car and went to the airport. There was more of a line than we expected, but we made it to our flight without any real problem. I had a crappy middle seat on the way home, but the lady next to me was nice enough to let me put the arm rest up so I wasn't as squished. I watched the rest of Incredible Hulk and some arrested development.
I wasn't looking forward to the 5 hour layover that we had in Dallas. There was an earlier flight leaving, but it was very close to leaving when we landed. We ran to make it through customs and security and barely made the flight home. I got an exit row with an open seat next to me. I watched more arrested development on that flight. I absolutely love that show.
So, that was my trip to Costa Rica. I found out this morning that I will probably be returning there sometime in the next month or 2. That should be fun!