Travels of the Bay family and the Yoda Van

After 26 days and 13 hours the in-laws went home again. And let me tell you something: They were ready! When we got up at 6 in the morning they were both fully dressed waiting with their luggage less than 20 feet away from the Yodavan and honestly, Allison and I were ready, too, even though right now 10 hours after we dropped them of at the airport the apartment is strangely quiet and empty and we do miss them.

Overall I must say we had an awesome time. Yes, we did have a few blowouts, but personally I think that if you live together with your in-laws (or parents) for almost one entire month and there are no arguments, something is wrong. It has also been an incredible time for the kids. Dan and Joyce brought a suitcase full of present for them. It was like an early Christmas. They also got more candies in the last 4 weeks than on our entire trip, they watched more TV and DVD’s than I would ever have allowed, but I agree that it is the grandparents duty to just the spoil the kids. So during the last 26 days (and 13 hours) I constantly had to be the bad guy who had to say “no more candies” “that’s enough TV” etc. On the other hand, it was nice to see how patient Joyce is with both of the kids. She kept reading books with them, made oatmeal in the morning, taught them counting and just spent an incredible amount of time with them which was great for us, because we had time to do things like visiting local karaoke bars.I am also sure that they had a good time, but the next time they will visit us on our trip (we don’t know where yet) they probably will not stay for almost one month. I also think that they have been happy with the accommodations we found.  Before they came we had discussions about whether they should book something over the internet, or let us try to find an equally nice place for (hopefully) a fraction of the cost by just asking around once we got to Costa Rica.  We also convinced them not to rent a car for their visit, but instead have faith in the Yodavan which turned out to be the correct decision. They didn’t admit it, but I am sure they also fell in love with the Yodavan. I am happy that things worked out the way they did, because there were times when I was a bit nervous if we would find places to stay that they would enjoy which were still within our budget.I think that in previous blogs we must have mentioned that Allison’s parents were all but happy about our trip.  Even after they saw us here being happy and healthy they said that they still don’t feel any different about it, but after a few too many discussions about this subject I am positive that they are happy for us and that they even started to like our adventure. They just have a strange way of showing it. And if I am wrong about this Dan will have a chance to say other ways on the blolg entry he said he was going to write for us.  We hope he’ll be the author of our next guest entry.I want to thank them again for visiting us and I am already looking forward to their next (shorter) visit (maybe on Yucatan).

 

 

If you are following our blog regularly, you might have read already that I had another awesome Central American experience.

During our travel in Central America we have always made a point to not drive or go out late at night. We can’t really go out late, because we are traveling with kids who need to go to bed way before there is potential danger in the streets. The apartment we rent in Alajuela is all fenced in with no contact to the outside world and that’s too bad, because there is a lot of life on the streets outside of our fence, especially at nights. There are a lot of people of all ages (many kids as well) hanging out and having a good time. 2 days ago when Allison’s parents (the in-laws) were asleep already and Allison was busy reading, I decided to check out the nightlife on the other side of the fence.

Almost every day we heard loud music from somewhere nearby, so I figured I’d just follow the noise and see where I end up. Once on the other side of the fence, there was no more music, but many people in the street seeming to have a good time. I walked a couple of blocks and saw a beer sign, indicating either a bar, tavern or restaurant. It really looked more like someone’s garage, but I went inside anyways. It was a tiny tavern with a small bar and 2 tables. Inside were about 10 to 12 people singing karaoke. I didn’t recognize any of the songs (all in Spanish) and some of the singers were pretty awful, but everyone seemed very friendly and I enjoyed being there. It didn’t take long until the bartender asked me where I was from, how I liked Costa Rica and of course she also asked me to sing a song. I agreed, but only if she had a German song. I felt pretty confident that they wouldn’t have any and if so that it would be some German beer drinking song or maybe something like Nena (99 red balloons). Never in my life would I have expected what was coming next. They played “Rammstein” for me!!! If you know Rammstein I’d be willing to bet that they aren’t the group you would choose in a Latin American karaoke bar. If you haven’t heard of them, Rammstein in the most hard core heavy metal band in Germany I know. They are actually pretty popular in the states and in South America as well. If you are into heavy metal, odds are you have heard of Rammstein, but if not, here are some samples for you on Amazon.com where you can also buy the album for $12.99. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/music/wma-pop-up/B00000I7L4001001/ref=mu_sam_wma_001_001/104-8424277-2032720) Normally at Karaoke you can read the lyrics on a TV screen, but not when they play Rammstein in Latin America. I had no idea what the lyrics were and I figured should start out with some head banging and soon thereafter half of the people in the bar (all of them were in there 40s and 50s) were banging there heads, too.  The bartender insisted that I sing as well, so I just started screaming German words (no sentences) in the microphone to the sound of crazy guitars and drums. The song never seemed to end, but while I was screaming I remembered that the day before Allison cut my hair to 2mm length making me look like a real skin head or a big bad German.  The longer the song lasted the closer I felt to being a part of Rammstein. After the song was over everyone at my end of the bar was talking to me and buying me drinks and now I am wondering if this could be the beginning of a new career.

 

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