Not all's rosy in the tropical garden



After a night in a very basic house with a non working fridge, no hot water and 8 beds we moved into our 2 bedroom, ground floor, apartment.  It's really sweet, and I now realise as large as (or larger than) many Costarian village houses, which is a real eyeopener.  However, it was filthy when we took it over - which I think is far more to do with the young landlord and previous western student tenants than Costarican living standards - I'm continually amazed to see beautifully dressed children emerge for school from small wooden houses with tin roofs.

After a day's deep cleaning the apartment is so much nicer - and I'm possibly the only woman down this dirt track with a nice new pair of marigolds!  We spent time in the local supermarket trying to understand the different types of cleaning products which then needed decanting from the plastic bags they're sold in to one of the many empty plastic bottles we've been saving - as we have no sellotape we've tied labels round the bags to remind us of what is what.

The fridge in this apartment is really good however we still have no hot water. This isn't anything to do with an interuption in service but is a permenant situation.  I have to say my initial reation was that I was not sure how long I could manage with cold showers, but it's amazing how you get used to it, particularly in a climate where it never gets cold - there are only 2 seasons, wet and dry but both hot.  Having to heat water on the stove for washing clothes and dishes is a pain though, and suddenly these practical necessities take up so much more time than they used to.  Once we start our TEFL course we're going to have to be really organised and get all this done after/before college which is apparently 10am to 7.30!

Apart from being cold the shower is also nothing but a pipe coming out of the wall.  This works though, and interestingly is exactly the same arrangement as many locals so isn't simply down to having a rubbish landlord.

We don't have an oven at all, just a couple of (rather effective) gas rings.  However, this does limit the cooking possibilities (any suggestions for good meals on the top of the stove would be gratefully recieved)!  This and the fact that the typical, and cheapest, local mainstays are beans and rice have led Dave to complain that we're now living on 'student food' - he's been spoilt by living in France for too long.  France is a country with a different cheese for every day of the year whilst here the cheese is almost entirely tasteless and appears to come in two varieties - white or yellow!

The fruit is wonderful though (and good value). You can't beat being brought fresh papaya whilst lying in a hammock, particularlly if accompanied by a glass of cold white.  Unfortunately the high cost of wine is something else we're having to get used to - although we've just had some great local advice pointing us to good quality wine boxes at 2,400 colon /approx £3/3.8 euros/4.8 dollars a litre, these obviously need to be investigated.

Biting things are also an everyday problem to be dealt with, within an hour at a beach bar something had decided to treat my leg as lunch.  To be honest I appear to react particularly impressivly to bites, Dave is also bitten and itchy but his bites just don't look as good.  The ones shown here are far better than they were initially and are getting lots better already - however, am now covering myself with insect repellent when we go out in the evening.  I may look ok but I smell rubbish!