Crazy Taxi

Talk about a death wish...the traffic here is absolutely insane. The daintily hung traffic lights easily disappear into the background, becoming a mere suggestion. Some of the roads have potholes the size of a grown child and the drivers are accustomed to swerving around them in haste. I'm genuinely worried for my life every time I cross the street.

The other day I got to meet Mayra's son, Jonathon, and his family. He is super cool and athletic and works as a sports bookie. With Mayra's permission, he took me to his house for a bean soup lunch. Jonathon doesn't like to use main roads because they are way too crowded, so I got to go the local way ....not the frustrated tourist way, mwaahahaa. We stopped off at a hole-in-the-wall supermarket to quickly pick up some ingredients for his wife Adriana. There I was introduced to a fruit called mamón chino, It’s red and spiny like a sea urchin... but the spicules are actually way softer than they look. On the inside is this white eyeball looking thing, it’s very sweet and delicious!

When we got to Jonathon's house, I got to meet Adriana and their son, Santiago. Santiago is the happiest smiley baby, and he is going to grow up to be one cool kid with parents like that! Adriana is a lawyer and she is super gorgeous and high spirited. They were very hospitable, we started talking so much that we even forgot about the bean soup! I learned some Costa Rican slang from them; tuanis (twah-nees) means that something is cool. Then there is the saying Pura Vida, which means pure life...or hang loose bro! The overly used phrase 'dude' in our language, makes its appearance in Costa Rica as the word mae (mah-eh), everything is 'mae this, mae that'. Muy tuanis!

Pura Vida Amigos!