On the top of my husband Murray’s wish list when he retired from his job as an economist was to spend time in a Spanish-speaking country, living with a host family and studying Spanish in a school. At that time I had no interest in learning Spanish, as I am not good at learning languages and had had some Spanish in college. In fact, it was one of my languages for my Ph.D. All that meant was that we read a book in our field and took it into a professor and he opened it to a page and we translated. That wasn’t hard, as those of us in the theatre department passed around a book on theater history in Latin America. Anyway, I liked the idea for a different reason. While Murray was in school I could spend the time working in pastels.
After much research we selected two schools for what was to be the first of five winters spent in different Spanish-speaking countries. For our first month of our first year, 2005, we selected a school in Costa Rica in the Monteverdi rainforest area. Then for the second month we would travel to Antigua, Guatemala.
I carefully researched the best way to travel with pastels and purchased a box to carry them in that fit in my backpack. I also cut paper the size that would fit in my medium-size suitcase along with enough glassine paper to protect my paintings and bring them home.
Our departure to San Jose did not go smoothly. Leaving from Tucson, Arizona we were supposed to make a connection in Los Angeles. The plane was late but the United ticket agent thought we would still have a chance to make it. We had to transfer from one terminal to another for the international flight. I remember a crazy mad dash with a porter across the airport and by the time we got to the counter the airplane doors were closed. They decided the best option was to fly us to Chicago where we could then get a flight early the next morning to San Jose. While it was a long trip going north to then go south it ended up being relaxing from that point on.
I remember a very bumpy ride from San Jose to our host family in the town of Santa Elena. Our host was a teacher in the school and we would be provided with breakfast and dinner each day. The school was a short car ride away or about a 20-minute walk. It was a very comfortable house and a lovely family. Our room with its own bath was small with a typical Costa Rican matrimonial bed (a double bed), which was a bit of a surprise for us as we were used to sleeping in a king-size bed. Our motivation was high to enjoy this experience so we made up our minds to make it work… which we did. While many of the family members knew English, the goal was to speak only Spanish around us. That was a big challenge for Murray and me but somehow we managed to communicate what we needed. While they pushed Murray to use correct grammar they were very forgiving with me, and if I came up with the right infinitive of a verb it was accepted.
Each morning we rode with the teacher to school. Murray would go off to class for the next several hours and I would have a wonderful time painting in the school’s garden. They also arranged a place for me to leave my easel, pastels and paper so I didn’t have to carry them with me each day. At lunchtime when Murray was finished, we would walk to a place to have lunch. There were quite a few choices along what was then a dirt road into town. There were also some fun places to sightsee nearby and one of our favorites was the Monteverdi Butterfly Garden. Murray took some wonderful pictures and when I got home I did a painting from one of his pictures which is still one of my favorites.
Pastel Painting from a photograph that Murray took at the Butterfly Garden.
One weekend day we hired a guide to take us through the famous Monteverdi Cloud Forest Biological Preserve. Of course the highlight was getting to see the Quetzals. Our guide knew where there was a nest and sure enough we saw both the female and the amazing resplendent male! What a treat. While pictures didn’t come out too well as they were high up in a tree, my memory is very clear of seeing them. Following our time with the guide we wandered on some paths and were awed by the abundance of trees and flowers, including a huge number of orchids. While waiting for our taxi back, we sat in an outdoor patio area where there were many hummingbird feeders and the most hummingbirds I have ever seen in one place, with a unique jewel-like appearance.
Photo taken by Murray Tucker while waiting for a taxi and admiring the hummingbirds!
Another weekend we left on a Friday afternoon and went with a small group to the hot springs and Arenal Volcano area where we spent two nights. Although it was fun, the ride was much too long and we were happy to just keep exploring locally after that!
View of Arenal Volcano. Picture taken by Murray Tucker
By the end of the month our love for the country of Costa Rica had grown. We had visited once before in the 90’s spending a week at Rara Avis, one of the first eco tourism lodges, and loved it. At that small resort with individual cottages and communal dining we had met mostly tourists from Europe. The long tractor ride up a muddy trail and back down was particularly challenging to Murray although we were both glad to have had the experience. I remember so well the beautiful blue butterflies at a waterfall!! We also had our first experience with learning about how clever ants are, as we watched various parades of ants carrying leaves to the queen ant! Following the week at Rara Avis we traveled south to the Osa Peninsula and stayed in a resort with a beautiful view of the ocean, where we enjoyed hiking down to the beach below and being amused by the various antics of the monkeys. From a very positive impression of the country during that first trip and then again during the month in Monteverdi it is no wonder that when we decided to move from Santa Fe in 2019 and strongly considered moving out of the United States, Costa Rica was at the top of our list. And move we did, at the end of January 2020, to Atenas in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. And that is where I now call home.
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