It’s hard to really describe how different everything is here. First you have the standard things, like getting used to new currency and new units of measurement (darn the US public school system for never teaching us the metric system properly!), a new language, a new climate, new bureaucracy, new driving habits, etc.
But then there are other, only slightly more subtle differences, like the birds and other critters. At our house in Hilton Head we were awakened to the sound of cardinals, herons and bluebirds. Here, it’s Clay-colored Thrushes (the national bird of Costa Rica), parrots and toucans. In South Carolina, a squirrel might run across the road as you’re driving or walking along; here, it’s an iguana or a Common Basilisk (also known as a Jesus Christ Lizard). A couple of weeks ago, our friend Ricardo saw a jaguarundi run through our yard, and apparently they are not common cats to see.
Just going grocery shopping is an adventure. I used to loathe grocery shopping in the States. I took my little list and crossed everything off and if I was lucky I might have one or possibly two new things in my cart from the last thirty times I’d been. Now, everything is new and exotic, and going to a grocery store (or three) becomes a treasure hunt where you have no idea if you will be successful or not. Today, one of our new friends and neighbor was nice enough to take us to the San Isidro Feria (farmer’s market), which is such a big production that it takes a day and a half to do it. (We didn’t stay the whole day and a half, mind you, but it really does take place over a day and a half.) Instead of our usual farmer’s market picks we were getting pineapple and papaya and coconut queque (Costa Rican for “cake”). And peanut butter. I had read online before moving to CR that good peanut butter (i.e. the kind without sugar and other junk in it) is very difficult to find here, and very expensive. Even Jiff and Peter Pan is pretty prohibitively expensive, and not very good, frankly. We found some reasonably priced natural peanut butter today at the feria and it was like the sky opened up and the angel choir was singing. (It’s the little things.) Then we went to two different grocery stores (one of the several Co-ops in San Isidro and this funky little place called Luferz) and got more exotic treats like fresh coconut, a coconut-pineapple vinaigrette and locally-sourced coffee. (Now Sean gets to try his hand wielding our new machete on the coconut!)
Unfortunately, one of the downsides of all this treasure-hunting is that as hard as it is to find all our favorite things (which we knew in advance and prepared for pretty accordingly), it’s ten times harder finding all the buddies’ favorite things. Luckily, Fancy Feast is a constant (one of the two food components that used to go into the kitties’ nightly mush routine), but their other favorite wet food is not available here. We were kind of “between” dry foods when we left, but we’ve been warned by other expats not to get too excited about finding particular cat foods here because the next time you go to the store, they won’t have it anymore. This had always been a challenge for us in the States as well, because you’d think you’d found a hit, and two weeks later everyone was bored with it, or this one liked it but this other one didn’t, or someone was projectile-vomiting it all over the living room…that kind of thing. Now, the buddies will have to get used to eating what’s available, just like we do. It’s hard to be okay with that sometimes, because, let’s face it, Sean has put a TON of energy into researching the best food for them, the best litter, etc., and now all of that time and attention has gone right out the window.
But, there are positive trade-offs for them, too. The cats are hearing bug and bird sounds they’ve never heard before. We have several very curious and fearless species of birds (Great Kiskadees and Palm Tanagers are a couple of notable examples) who will come right up to the window and peck. The other night, a giant locust was hovering right outside the screened-in porch and had all the kitties hypnotized. The darn bug was nearly as big as Maynard, and it could FLY. Not to mention the giant hummingbirds (relatively speaking), about twice the size of our South Carolina Ruby-throats, which pretty routinely will hover by the screened-in porch and take us all in. And what we think was probably a coatimundi, rooting around in our garden in the middle of the night looking for pineapples and other tasty snacks, who had the cats all on high alert as they tried to figure out what that exciting new smell was. Clearly, we’re not in Kansas anymore, as they say. Speaking of which, also a cow (or maybe a Fasciated Tiger-heron–who knows?) that’s been giving Stella fits by lowing mournfully in what sounds like the bottom portion of our property.
It’s all just so darn different. And, equally, so darn awesome. Which, I guess, is why we came here in the first place.
