I'm here!

Yesterday I flew directly from Atlanta to San José. Seeing the city from the sky reminded of me of flying into Cuzco, Perú: a valley of colonial-style architecture mixed with modern, surrounded by green mountains. Maritza and her daughter Christina picked me up at the airport, and after arguing with a few taxi drivers who didn't realize that she's a) smart and b) native, we finally found one who would take us straight to the bus stop. All the others wanted to take us, as we say in Indiana, "around Charles' barn" and charge us more. Then we sat on the bus for three hours through a landscape that was less mountainous than the Andes, but equally beautiful, to arrive in Cañas.  Glad to be here during their winter, I think the rain must temper the heat that surely comes without cloud cover. Maritza is worried that I will melt without air conditioning, so she goes around putting the fan directly on me, which I appreciate.

I was really tired last night, and I slept so hard that I woke up tired.  After my first cup of coffee and a little moving about, I think I'm recovered from the fatigue of getting ready to be away from my family.  I left them with 100% clean clothes and perhaps 50% clean house.  They're on their own now.  We talked via Skype last night, which we plant to do often, so I don't really feel that far away, nothing like 25 years ago when I was in Madrid and had to wait a week for a quick phone call from Rob.  The internet is such a wonderful thing.

Once the daily rains let up, we plan to go out and about so I can see this place where Maritza grew up.  I'm sure there's more to see than if I took her to my childhood neighborhood, which would be "There's another cornfield. Oh look, this field is soy! And here's the creek where we caught crawdads."  I don't know what plans she has for me for these next few days, but I do hope she gets over the idea that I cannot even pour my own coffee.  I think I could never live up to her high standards of hosting people in my home.

So I have until next Thursday here, at which time I will return to San José to move in with stranger(s), whose home I will call my own for a month.  More on that later...