Juggling lemons: The first few weeks

It felt like we had barely landed and we were whisked away to our first appointment. Liz who was our contact for the rental, also took it upon herself to make sure we got everything done and also to educate us in the ways of the Ticos.

We arrived at our house late Saturday and Monday morning we had an appointment with the immigration guy.

But first we had to get 4 passport-sized photos for the application and also several copies of each document.

There is our taxi. The white car.

We were then taken to Juan's place. I expected an office, maybe in a building in town, but Juan Flores operates out of his home. I couldn't believe when the taxi stopped in front of this place.

Yes, this is the front of his house/business. Thank God the man knows what he's doing and that he was very meticulous (we were there for hours).

Here I am at his "desk". That man with the beard is Juan.

We then ate at a soda where they serve (all of them do) a basic meal of rice, beans, salad, and meat for 1,000 colones which is roughly $2.30 CAD. It's a big meal with large enough portions and quite good. Liz also showed us around a bit - translate that we walked a lot. Told us how some pharmacies have a doctor that will see you for free and the fact that you don't really need a prescription for most drugs except pain killers. I ended having to get antibiotics for a UTI - I seem to always get one when we reach our destination - and the "doc" didn't even ask for a urine sample, just gave me the drugs. It's very different here.

After we were done with the residency application Juan asked us if we wanted to get married the next day. OK, let's do that.

The bride getting ready. Yes, my jewelry is in a ziplock bag!

A selfie before we leave.

Glen went all out and wore long pants. Thank you Glen!

Here we are in the very romantic lawyer's office. Richard came as a witness along with Liz.

You may kiss the bride (or that's what we understood from the Spanish and the gestures)

Making it official.

The lawyer is the guy in the black T-shirt, wearing jeans and sporting his sunglasses on top of his head.
So official!

Liz decided that we just had to go to the Feria which is the weekly farmers' market. Good deals she said! Well it's not so cheap when you decide to buy everything you see! It was exciting to taste so many exotic fruits we had never seen before. I have forgotten what most of them are called but when I now see them at the supermarket I know what they are. So we piled up in a taxi and headed for San Isidro's market.

This is Liz.

So it's all under a roof so perfect during the rainy season. Most of the fruits and vegetables are local but some sell imported goods to bring variety. The merchants are really nice and will gladly let you taste their products. Liz, who is very pushy and a bit crazy, basically ate something from every stall. I think it was her lunch. She sometimes even grabbed two or three pieces to eat while shopping. I was a bit embarrassed and mentioned that basically what she was doing was stealing but it didn't faze her at all.

This fruit is filled with what looks like snot to me. It looks so disgusting but is actually quite good. But after eating some I kept feeling nauseated by the thought of it and decided to never eat it again.

We don't have a dog but the neighbour's dog, which lives in the apartment below us, comes to visit regularly and since we often leave the front door open, she will just come in, say hello to each of us, then plop herself down where she often stays for the whole afternoon. She does return to her owner when he whistles for her. She is very sweet but is very stinky which makes me reluctant to pet her too much. Her name is Maddie.

We also had to get fingerprinted at the police station. We all piled into one taxi - Liz in the front seat, Glen and I and Juan (who is a bit on the large size) squeezed into the back seat.

That too took an eternity. You can't be in a hurry in Costa Rica. After a million questions and the police officer, looking up from his computer to look at me as if checking to make sure my eyes had not changed colour since my passport photo was taken, I finally get fingerprinted. But there is nothing to clean your hands with and the bathroom doesn't have soap. So we left with black fingers.

There is Juan in the background. He's always on his phone.

These errands were all done in the first week! We were so exhausted and I was trying to get over a cold that I most probably caught on the plane. We told Liz we needed time off to rest and I basically slept for 2 days. My cold lasted for 3 weeks which made me cough and blow my nose until I would end up with a mountain of used tissues! I was too tired to get up to throw them out as they were used.

Meanwhile, we did see some birds around our house from our balcony.