07/31/2013 Zarcero

                                          "The Church in Zarcero"

Just got back from visiting a married couple also in the Peace Corps. Jameson and Emecha are serving in the town of Zarcero. It's a town about an hour NW of San Jose. Talk about beautiful! It reminds me of that "hills are alive" scene in the Sound of Music. It sits at about 6000 feet and is known for it's cheese and milk products. We went for a little walk in the mountains on the first day with Carlos who works for the local government. By little I mean 15 kilometers up one side of a mountain and down the other side. The park was  Juan Carlos Blanco national park and it was gorgeous except for the rain, and the slippery rocks.
Emecha made hambergers for us. It was a heavenly taste of the US to celebrate our second week here. We also had these delicious Costa Rican milkshakes that are made with tropical fruit. So far we've had the opportunity to try momachinos which in the Philippines are known as Rambutan. It's one of my favorites. Imagine a grape wrapped in a porcupine.We've tried Cas which are little green fruits that taste like a weaker, sweeter grapefruit. We haven't had guanabana (doo doo doo doodoo!) but we will soon. If you come down we suggest the mangoes, mora (like a blackberry) and pina (pineapple). We got to see them teach an English class to young entreprenures who want to serve as guides for local agriculture and park tours. J and E have had a lot of success creating biodigesters and starting a business based around them. (If you know what a biodigester is you know why being around them isn't awesome.) The church was awesome as well. There is a park in front of it made by a local artist. All sorts of animals and shapes are carved in the bushes. The artist was supposedly recruited by Disney but he turned them down because frankly, who wants to leave Zarcero?  In any case we really enjoyed our trip and it has given us a lot to think about with respect to our future work site. Zarcero has no problems with bugs and a mild climate. It's also safer than some other towns and has a lot of local business work in agriculture. I'm personally still leaning towards a site with more tourism but a site like Zarcero is amazingly beautiful.

                                              "Our amazing hosts Jameson, Emecha and Karma."

                                         "Makes the church back home feel a little smaller."

                 "Look an ice cream shop two doors down from another ice cream shop... for an economist it's a failure to differentiate products... for me an my wife it is... FREAKIN AWESOME!"

"Your not tripping. This gardener is just that cool."

                                                   "How did the artist know we would be here?"

                                       "The hands of the master."

                                          "The rain in Spain falls mainly on me."

                                           "Selfie."

                                        "I've been asking my wife for years to stop and smell the flowers."

"10 miles in the mountains we hiked. It was like Lord of the Rings. This was prior to the impenetrable forest."

                                             "Carlos the energizer bunny and our wives."