Greetings from Costa Rica
¡Hola!
First, I think it's very cool that Google and Blogger have automatically detected that I am in CR (based on IP address, I'm assuming) and both immediately loaded in Spanish instead of English. So I am in "Crear" instead of "Edit" and when I want to see my blog, I click on "Ver blog." I guess it's not really surprising that there's no Spanish translation for blog. ;)
The country is absolutely beautiful. Very green and lush, and not hot at all (it's been in the 70's all week). Humid, yes, but not hot. We're staying in an apartment-hotel about 15 minutes from downtown San Jose. It's very nice and modern. Reminds me a lot of Spain. The building we're meeting in is the old AID building. When Costa Rica started doing well enough, the AID left, and they left a huge bunker-like building, which has been taken over by the National Advanced Technology Center. It's named for Franklin Chang-Diaz, a Costa-Rican who was the first Latin American astronaut.
Tonight our hosts took us for dinner at Nuestra Tierra, a restaurant that serves traditional Costa Rican food. It took an hour to get there from the meeting site because of the traffic -- and it was only about 10 miles. Apparently the traffic in San Jose is so bad that they determine who can drive downtown at rush hour based on the last digit of your license plate! The food was very good.
Here's where I kick myself because I should have stayed a few extra days to be a tourist and see the country... where else can you find the jungle, a volcano, and beautiful beaches, all within 120 miles? But no, I have to go back on Thursday. Ah well. I'll go buy some coffee and chocolate to bring back to the office.
(No pictures yet, haven't been tourist-ing.)
First, I think it's very cool that Google and Blogger have automatically detected that I am in CR (based on IP address, I'm assuming) and both immediately loaded in Spanish instead of English. So I am in "Crear" instead of "Edit" and when I want to see my blog, I click on "Ver blog." I guess it's not really surprising that there's no Spanish translation for blog. ;)
The country is absolutely beautiful. Very green and lush, and not hot at all (it's been in the 70's all week). Humid, yes, but not hot. We're staying in an apartment-hotel about 15 minutes from downtown San Jose. It's very nice and modern. Reminds me a lot of Spain. The building we're meeting in is the old AID building. When Costa Rica started doing well enough, the AID left, and they left a huge bunker-like building, which has been taken over by the National Advanced Technology Center. It's named for Franklin Chang-Diaz, a Costa-Rican who was the first Latin American astronaut.
Tonight our hosts took us for dinner at Nuestra Tierra, a restaurant that serves traditional Costa Rican food. It took an hour to get there from the meeting site because of the traffic -- and it was only about 10 miles. Apparently the traffic in San Jose is so bad that they determine who can drive downtown at rush hour based on the last digit of your license plate! The food was very good.
Here's where I kick myself because I should have stayed a few extra days to be a tourist and see the country... where else can you find the jungle, a volcano, and beautiful beaches, all within 120 miles? But no, I have to go back on Thursday. Ah well. I'll go buy some coffee and chocolate to bring back to the office.
(No pictures yet, haven't been tourist-ing.)
Comments
hawaii. and don't forget snow on mauna kea.