Life in Costa Rica: And it's only 11:00am.

Emilio and I were talking about the feria last night. I said I wanted to go this morning and get strawberries and bananas and mora and whatever else hit my fancy. He said he likes it better early and I said how early. He said 8:00am but I know early isn't your thing. I said just because I don't like it doesn't mean I can't do it. I said I would take the 7:45am bus and meet him there. There is a different feel at the market earlier. All the stands are full and no one is bushing and hurrying. I loved it. Definitely worth getting out earlier. Usually I walk the whole place before I buy anything but I did stop at the bread booth. There were two young men there and I pointed to a loaf and asked what was in it. They said higo. I didn't know what that was so I started saying no raisins, dates and before I could say more they pointed to a basket filled with figs. They then asked me how you say it in English and we had a little lesson. Higo and figs. Got my bread and Emilio showed up and off we went. I got strawberries, bananas, mora, and lemons but they may be limes as they are green inside. Then, since I hadn't had breakfast we went to the empanada stand and they had meat, chicken, potato and bean. I asked for one of each but it turned out we got 2 chicken and no bean. I got coffee and Emilio had a coconut and we sat in the park to eat. They were really good, fried crispy on the outside. I had 1/2 a chicken one and the potato one. I will definitely do that again.

We went on to a shop to look for pool toys for the girls but didn't find anything.

Emilio headed home to finish his school work and I went back to the feria. I got some mango and was very tempted to get guayaba to make jelly but my bag was getting pretty heavy. I did get a bunch of beautiful flowers and a plant to add to my planters.

Next stop was the Maxi as I wanted to get Nutella and they didn't have any here in Orosi. No luck but I did find a few other things to buy. I tried the Super across the street but no luck there either. I did get a small pail with beach toys. I gave up and headed to the bus stop. The bus was very full but I got a seat in the front row.

There is a children's party here at 2:00pm until 6:00pm so I will spend my time inside getting ready for Heather's visit. Tomorrow or Monday I will make strawberry banana bread and some of my peasant bread. The peasant bread is one thing Heather requests. Emilio said didn't she ask for meatloaf. I said not yet, she loves Casados so I don't cook a lot when she is here.

As we are going to a baby shower with the craft ladies next Thursday. I am going to make a small dreamcatcher for the baby. I don't know if it is a boy or girl so I will make a generic pastel one.

Gerardo said it would be fine - in fact perfecto - for us to set up Katherine's pool here for the girls to play. I would love to have it on the grass right in front of my house but I am concerned about the grass dying so we will probably set it up on the grass carpet in the courtyard. It sounds like there aren't any parties for several months after the one today so I won't have to take it down all the time. I do need to get a tarp to cover it.

That's it folks. The refrigerator is well stocked, as are the shelves. The cleaning will be done and fresh linens on the bed, all ready for my hija.