Jeff In Costa Rica - July 2nd & July 3rd
July 2nd :
A few days ago my client bought a puppy (she’ll be living here, more or less, so she bought a house and a puppy, and will be buying a car soon too), so I thought I’d put some photos up.
The dog literally licked my eyeball in that photo actually. If the camera went off a few tenth of a second earlier it would have caught the disgusting moment. And as you can tell by the big noticeable red spots on my face, there are mosquitos in Costa Rica. The rest.. well. Do I need a facial or something?
The dog’s name is Bella, and she loves the new place.
At night, our good friend Jose, who is in charge of driving us while we’re here (that’s right, I have a maid and a driver! muhahaha), took me out to the bars while the rest of the group did their own things. We went out about 15 minutes away from where our house is at, and checked out some bars.
I tried talking to some Latin girls but my Spanish is still weak so I had no luck. But then I met some beautiful girls from the USA. Here they are :
From the left : Dori (I hope my memory is correct), Jose-Migul, Myself, and Kristen. Odd thing : Vancouver’s area code (aka my area code) is 604, and Kristen, who is from New Hampshire, USA, has an area code of 603. I wonder how area codes are distributed anyways…
July 3rd:
On July 2nd, we picked up our friend, Sukh Dhaliwal, who happens to be a Canadian Liberal Party MP (Member of Parliament… US equivalent would be a Congressman, if you don’t know what that position is) in the Greater Vancouver Area. Today we picked up our friend Jag, who is visiting and is interested in buying property in Costa Rica.
Our friends Carmen and George (in espanol, pronounced “Hor-Hei”), who are local developers of fine condos and beachside properties, as well as the above mentioned parties, and our friend and driver, Jose-Migul, who is a 23 year old local guy who knows his way around, went out for dinner. We went to a place that is supposed to be one of the top places in Costa Rica for steaks.
From the left : Sukh Dhaliwal, Myself, Carmen, George, My client, her friend, and Jose-Migul.
The veal steak I had was delicious, but it’s pretty common - a steak, so I didn’t bother taking a picture of that dish. However, there is this thing called “Palmito”, although I’m not sure if it is spelled that way. It’s the center of a palm tree trunk, and it is a delicacy in Central America. And, apparantly it’s illegal, and not served in too many restaurants. But it’s a country where you can get off with $50 US if you get pulled over after drinking and driving - for a restaurant of this statute in this country, they could serve up Pandas and get away with it!
It’s a very soft, tender appetizer, and it had an interesting taste to it - a very clean and mild one yet with some sort of taste. It was served with that sauce (I believe it’s a special kind of tomato sauce) and other vegetables such as avocadoes on the side. It was quite an experience.
The best part of this :Â dining out at one of the finest restaurants in San Jose, Costa Rica, cost us only $125 US. A meal like this in an exquisite restaurant in Vancouver for 6 of us, with drinks, would have easiliy blown $1,500!!! How?
Well, the bill came to about $250 US, or, 104,918 colones (Costa Rican currency), but MasterCard is running a promotion in this country with select restaurants, where they burden 50% of any food bill on Tuesdays and Thursdays! So it came out to $125 or so, plus tip.
It was quite a dining experience. And, once again, the veal (baby beef) steak - so freaking delicious!!!
That dog seems like a lot of fun! Man, you gotta love traveling to places where you can really stretch your dollar!
The pup! Too cute.
Don’t quote me, but I read once that area codes were assigned according to some sort of population-based priority. look at a big metro areas like NYC (212). That is a quick area code to dial on a rotary phone, which is how we all dialed out not too terribly long ago.
The dog is too cool… What breed is the pup? Yeah now i’m going to planning a trip that way, a few weeks back from Florida and i already want another vacation… man see what you started.
Hey Jeff
Do you mind elaborating on why you’re in Costa Rica?? Also why is a Vancouver MP there…is this some goverment project that you’re involved in??
We need gov’t support for this. We already met with the gov’t officials of Costa Rica as well.
You guys from Vancouver have some kind of fetish about taking pictures and writing posts about your food.
What the frig are you doing in Costa Rica would be a more interesting series of posts. Crazy Chinese Canadians.
Haha yes I’m doing the similar stuff to John Chow..
I’ll talk about the project shortly!!! In the meanwhile, I have more photos of HOT HOT HOT Costa Rican models that partied with us the other night…
Oh by the way : Korean Canadian for me! John’s Chinese.
Oh c’mon Jeff…you know the old saying. You guys all sound alike. I have spent some time in Asia. So, don’t tell me I don’t know what I am talking about, or that I am a “cracker” or something like that.
I have a great photo of me standing next to a Ferrari outside the Capital Hotel in Beijing.
A ferrari in Beijing? you sure it was real? LOL
Once you get to know the Asians better you can start to tell them apart.
I was at the airport one day waiting for somebody and there were a lot of foreigners going by. And when it came to Asian people/families, I started playing a game with myself (I was so bored), to guess where they are from when they are walking up from far away, and by the time they reached my vincinity I would hear them talking, and confirm whether my guess was right or not.
I was mostly right, and it was a surprisingly entertaining game.
To me, most Europeans look alike… sometimes I can tell a heavily french-looking or heaviliy Italian-looking person apart, but I still need practice. But people who have lived in Europe for long can tell apart those people!
It can be judged by the way they dress, talk, facial expressions even, as those small traits are all cumulative results of a cultural upbringing!
Play that game sometime - you’ll love it.
If a Canadian mp breaks the law in Costa Rica (like eating Palmito) is it considered criminal?
Serving it is illegal - not consuming it!
Whoa baby. Kinda like smoking dope, but not inhaling.
Don’t serve it then