Living la vida LOCAL!

“The happiest business in all the world is that of making friends, and no investment on the street pays larger dividends, for life is more than stocks and bonds, and love than rate percent.” - Unknown

Oh my gosh, I am totally a local. Well, maybe that is going a little too far, but I am tan, eat gallo pinto for breakfast… and something very exciting happened today which significantly upped my "local" status.

I have been going to downtown Quepos a lot recently because the internet has been down at Las Palmas, so I have had to work from the internet café. (On a side note, the fact that they call it a café is mind boggling to me because they don’t serve or sell anything other than broadband...which is actually quite valuable in these parts… but no coffee, no muffins, no sandwiches, no water, no diet coke, nothing. But they have internet fast enough for me to upload monkey videos, so no complaints here, I just fill up my water bottle and pack some snacks.)

In an attempt to describe this “café” to you, it is called Artnet, and is a small basic “shop” downtown where the owner (who is originally from Brooklyn) has about 10 computers and a couple spaces for those of us who just hook up to his wireless and byoc. In addition to the computers, he also has some jewelry for sale, and maybe some lamps… though I have not yet determined if he is actually selling the lamps, or just didn’t take the plastic and price stamp off the lamps shades he purchased. While that may not seem likely, if you saw the owner, or the café, you would realize that details are not his strong suit… though he is friendly and great with computers, which frankly is what he is needed for.

Joe (the owner) will turn on his air conditioning unit if it is above 82 degrees... I am not sure how he came up with that number, but as it is above 82 degrees by 9:00 every morning I am not going to complain (though frankly based on the amount I sweat when hiking/crossfitting, I think it is 82 degrees by 5:30 every morning). Additionally, his place has a clean bathroom by Costa Rican standards, though on the floor around the toilet is contact paper in the pattern of little tiny red bricks. The floor below the fake-brick contact paper is just cement (as are most floors downtown), so I am not sure why he felt the need to put this contact paper down, but as you are probably predicting, I have come up with various theories, including, but not limited to: someone was killed there and they can’t get the blood stains out of the cement. Not totally unrealistic, while during the day it is safe, this is not an area of downtown where you want to stroll after dark, as it is right across the street from an old drug house that is now partially burned down.

I have been at the internet café almost all day for the past 3 days, and have consequently gone to a local soda for lunch each day (as a reminder, sodas are the little restaurants that serve delicious native food at amazing prices). Today, on my 3rd day at the soda, the waitress smiled and gave me a real welcome when I walked in, one of those “we know you” greetings, not just the “great another gringo to serve” kind of greeting. I felt pretty happy about that, and I think they like me, partially because I can get by in Spanish… while it may not be good Spanish, I can certainly get my point across and order correctly.

And on a side note, at Gringo Mas, the people who work there are now nice to me too, and no longer ask for my ID when I make credit card purchases. They even ask me how I am and have a short chat with me. You have to understand what progress this is, the employees of Gringo Mas are generally not chatty with the gringos… guess they figure they are only here for a week and there is no need to be nice… whereas they have now seen me every week for 2 months. So while I am pretty sure they think I am an alcoholic, they think I am a kind alcoholic… and that is what counts.

Ok, back to today and the excitement of becoming a local; when I left the café, I headed down the road back to the bus station. As I got to the corner, I looked across the street, and who did I see… Enrique, German’s friend whose farm I went to. While this may not seem very exciting, you have to understand I have never seen anyone I knew downtown who wasn’t a student at the school. He saw me about the time I saw him, and waved me across the street.

Wow, I had a friend in downtown Quepos!

So I crossed the street to talk to him when another of German’s friends (the superintendent) walked out of the bank (where I previously spent 2 hours with Mitzi during our fieldtrip), saw me, yelled “Becca” and came across the street where we all chatted. I couldn’t believe it, there were two people, on the streets of downtown Quepos, who I knew and had a full conversation in Spanish with. I felt like a celebrity. But the best part was, after I finished talking to them and headed on my way to the bus station, all of the Ticos around seemed to smile at me a little differently.

Now don’t get me wrong, the Ticos are very welcoming and are some of the nicest people you will ever meet, but all of a sudden, in downtown Quepos, I had an “in” because I was clearly friends people who had lived in this area their whole lives. And, their pictures were on my blog long before our encounter today… so clearly this is legit.

I have arrived, people, I have arrived!