Our new town - by Kristen

Our Spanish teacher came for a visit and brought her adorable grandson.  He loved playing with T and felt very proud to be able to hang out with him in the pool.  T loves swimming.  Our pool here is heated for a few hours each morning unlike our pool in Atenas.  It's pretty nice and we consider ourselves very lucky to be able to swim outside when everyone else we know is dressed in winter clothes.  :]

I can't remember what this is called, but it's like a big meringue cookie.  However, it didn't taste like that.  We each had a bite and called it quits.  The baked goods here are very different from those in the U.S.  They are drier and less flavorful.  I guess I'm just not used to that.  It definitely has helped me cut down on my intake of sweets. That's never a bad thing!

The above photo is funny.  At first glance you would think you were looking at a pair of Ray Bans.  If you look really close at the sticker on the sunglasses it says, "Riy Don."

This is a gambling table at a street fair. Gambling is everywhere here. You can even drive up to a gamer on the street at place a bet while you're still in your car.   There are a lot of Americans who employ English-speaking Costa Ricans to work at their call centers and receive bets placed by Americans in the States.  It's a pretty big industry.  

We are really enjoying our new town.  It's much closer to everything.  We can take the bus if we feel like we need to go to a bigger city to shop, but we've only done that once.  We walk everywhere.  It's awesome.  It's definitely helped us rearrange our priorities when thinking about where and how we want to live and work next.  

We are getting a couple of visitors in the next month or so.  They will be our first since we've been here. They are coming at the perfect time.  It's high season here and the weather is only getting better.  We hope we can show them what we love about this country and discover new things to love while we explore the country with them.