Giving thanks for no chicken
I have to say that the weather really kind of sucked the whole time I was in Puerto Viejo. I heard there’s supposed to be great beaches and lots of surfing (not that I surf, but I’d like to watch some…I had a glimpse of a few guys having a go at it). Well, it was cold and rainy the whole time I was there. Now, cold means something like in the 60s, so I understand that it’s nothing like in Chicago. But, when you’re used to the 70s and 80s, hot, humid, and sunny, well then 60s and rainy is cold.
After my hike in the woods, it started to rain some more…my clothes had already dried from fording the river, but I was starting to get wet again in the rain, and it was cold. After taking the bus back to town, I ran into one of the first restaurants I saw to seek shelter from the rain. I have started a beer label collection, where I collect beer labels from all the different beers from all the different countries (I only started this in Honduras, so I’m missing a few from there, all from Guatemala, and well, there’s only one beer in Belize, and I don’t have that one either). I realized that I hadn’t yet collected any from Costa Rica, so I’d better get to it, and I told the lady to just start bringing me beers of Costa Rica down the list (there aren’t too many, and I don’t necessitate trying all different types from one brand, i.e. Miller, Miller Lite, if those were actually beer labels I would collect). Well, I must have been sitting there looking rather, well, I guess bored, because the guy at the next table asked me if I looked bored. We started talking and I think I recognized that familiar, fun, slightly silly accent…yep, he was Dutch. His name was Harm, and he was an awful guy. Just kidding. I wrote that because I know he’s reading this to see what I write about him. 😉 Actually, I don’t think the name suits him very well in English; he seems of rather mild character, definitely not harmful or dangerous in any way, but then I only just met him…
We got some drinks here and there, and made plans to find a proper Thanksgiving dinner the next night. The next day, Thanksgiving, I was planning on taking a bike ride down the coast to check out some of the nicer beaches, but the weather was still kind of crap, so I decided against it and did pretty much nothing. I scoped out the turkey dinner scene, and there were a number of places offering something. Figures, given that this place is teeming with American tourists. There was one place that was offering chicken, and I was thoroughly offended, for a number of reasons, but the last thing I wanted was chicken. I had been doing my best to avoid chicken at all costs, and I surely didn’t want it for Thanksgiving. There was a nice place I had lunch (Indian food – samosas…mmmm.) that was setting up a huge grill for their turkeys. It was kind of expensive at $10, but sometimes you just gotta splurge a little, especially for a good turkey dinner.
I met Harm later, and we did indeed go for the dinner. It was really nice…turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and some sort of baked squash with your typical autumn-y spices. All over a nice bottle of wine. For dessert, a sweet potato pie with walnuts, or something like that. I was quite full by the end, but not quite to that totally disgusting full that I’ve experienced all too often on Thanksgiving. During my scope-out on the town, I noticed one place that was having ladies night with all you can drink for free. All night. Well, that’s where we headed next, but I have to confess being almost too full to take advantage of it. After that, we headed out to another club in town, also having a ladies night, which we were sadly too late for. A few drinks later and it was almost 3:30 by the time I got home…the latest night I’ve had in awhile.
The next day, the weather was nice. It was hot and sunny, and I was hungover. But, that didn’t stop me from heading on to the next destination, a place I hadn’t even considered going to, and I was very excited. Come on folks, sing with me, shout it out, as I did crossing the border…that’s right. PANAMA! Oh yeah. Sing it. PANAMA-A.
Tags: Costa Rica, Tag Index
Tania
December 8th, 2005 at 2:59 pm
i thought i told you to stay out of Harm’s way
December 12th, 2005 at 12:57 pm
No harm done.
December 12th, 2005 at 12:59 pm
If you stare at a beer bottle for 10 minutes while very delicatly trying to peel of the label your either bored or a very fanatic beer label collector. I’ll stick to bored.
If you mis Costa Rica (unfortunatly no photo of a casado con pollo) look at http://www.hijgemann.com/photos/costarica/index.html
Greetings Harm.
Ps. Harm in Dutch meens hero (of the army).