“Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”

Part I: Our House and Neighborhood

By American standards, we live in a very small house, maybe 800 feet square. There is a 6 foot by 16 foot “yard” in the back, adjacent to the cuarto de pila (laundry room) and another 50 square feet of grass beside the front gate. The major attraction for us was the large, tiled garage (which I like to call the courtyard). This is the kids’ main play area. Thomas rides laps on his tricycle at high speeds and Claire pushes around her walker (until she grows bored and moves on to Thomas’ Matchbox cars).

The house has three bedrooms and two baths (which is one of each more than we were expecting). The owner installed cabinets in the kitchen and wardrobes in the bedrooms (both rarities in Costa Rica rental homes). Thomas and Claire each have their own room (and for this, we are very thankful!). Each of bathrooms has a shower with an electric water heater. This is a heater connected to the shower itself. Water runs through electric coils before is falls from the head. Now that may seem somewhat dangerous, but it’s perfectly safe (as long as you do not touch it while the water is running).


As I’ve written before, our house is in a newer section of an established neighborhood, Villas de Ayarco. Villas is about 20 minutes from downtown San José on the main highway to Cartago (the old capitol city) and Panama. It is a working middle-class area, nearly self contained with a grocery/hardware/clothes/shoes/housewares store (Pasoca), countless corner shops (pulperías), two panaderías (bakeries) and a few restaurants.

Charging a fare of 155 colones (30 cents), the local bus winds slowly through the neighborhood, picking up passengers headed to San José. The buses stop near the center of the capitol city and then turn around after collecting the passengers on their way back to Villas. The buses are clean and great view from which to watch people and learn the area.

Every Saturday morning, the main street is closed off for the fruit and vegetable market. Everything from bananas, watermelon and green beans to exotic fruits (that I still do not know the name of), is sold by farmers from the surrounding countryside. In general, the prices are cheaper than in the stores. This morning, among other things, I purchased 10 bananas for about 29 cents!

For less of a cultural experience, HiperMas is just on the other side of the highway (about a twenty minute walk from our house). HiperMas is like Wal-Mart in Spanish. There you will find everything from ovens, to clothes, to groceries, to fresh tortillas. And just like a Wal-Mart in a small town, it is community meeting place on Saturdays and Sundays. On these days the lines are like long trains of carts, many full to overflowing with a month of food.

Villas is a friendly neighborhood. People are quick to say good-day or smile. Since we do not exactly look the same as everyone else (we have not seen any other gringos around), many people have kindly asked if we were new to the neighborhood. Everyone speaks Spanish, so our language skills are continual stretched and, hopefully, expanded.

We look forward to the rest of our year here. The last two weeks have been excited and new, but not been easy. Nothing is convenient. Everything takes a longer than you expected it would. However, this is all part of living in another country and culture. It will be an adventure and this house and Villas de Ayarco will make a great home base.

Stay tuned for Part II and Part III, on Costa Rica and on the ministry we are working with.

Paz