I Like Escazu
Wednesday am, 8:30 or so. I signed up for Spanish classes yesterday for two weeks starting this Monday. They are across town in San Pedro and will be a bitch to get to every morning, but I figure it will put me back in contact with the rest of San Jose instead of just putzing around Pavas. My goal for today is to hit at least one of the camera stores in town that I found on the internet. It's still hard to find out things locally, speaking only English, especially when addresses don’t exist here, and you need to describe where you're going using landmarks that only the locals know.
I went to Escazu the other day, and I think I like it there (I like saying the word too. Try it. It's fun Ess-ka-zoo). It reminds me of some places in the US that try for just a little bit more; with hills and winding roads to drive up to get home. There is a bunch of construction going on as you ride up away from the main streets. I went to a little compound where some friends rent some small apartments and met a journalist with a crazy American accent speaking Spanish to the landlord. The landlord (born in the Belgian Congo and speaks French) told him he prefers English.
He (the journalist) is on his way up to Nicaragua to take care of some business and then on to Panama, for what I don't know. He says he's been in Latin America on and off for over thirty years. Listening to him rattle on about some ecological concerns I assumed him to be quite the lefty, so I had my fun and told him I was from the other side of the aisle. Not so fast. He spent a considerable amount of time in El Salvador and said that cured him of most of his leftism. I hope I run into him again.
