Lunch in Alajuela

On Saturday, the extended family planned a spontaneous trip to the beach for Sunday, but we had already committed to having lunch with Marta and Jose Pablo in Alajuela. Early Sunday morning, Wito and Maritza headed off to the beach with the others, and after a late start, we left for Alajuela around 11:15.

Marta is a longtime family friend and related to Cristina in some convoluted way that I can never remember. Whenever we visit Costa Rica, there are a few people we always visit and Marta is one of them. Marta’s husband is Jose Pablo, and two of their adult children joined us, Marta and Andrea (and her daughter Emma). They also have two miniature Doberman Pinchers which Bella and Alex took an immediate liking to.


At one point, we were shown Jose Pablo’s “man cave,” a little house in the backyard where he has his computer, stereo, and guitar. Cristina told them I played, so Jose Pablo invited me to play his guitar. It was a nice one, a sweet classical made in Spain. It felt good and looked fantastic. I felt a little self-conscious playing it, but Jose Pablo declined the offer to play it himself. He’s just taken up the instrument and isn’t ready to play in front of an audience. He has a computer program that he’s using to learn how to play. He showed it to me. Pretty cool. I gather he’s more interested in learning the traditional classical guitar type repertoire. It will be nice to see how he’s coming along the next time we visit.

Fun with magnifying glasses

Lunch was linguine with a creamy mushroom sauce. Jose Pablo once owned his own restaurant (which we ate at in 1994) so the food at their place is always good. But I have to give credit where credit is due: the younger Marta made the pasta and sauce.

After lunch we went back to JP’s man cave and showed them all some of our videos from my blog. The younger Marta likes Queen, so she particularly liked Sofia’s Bohemian Rhapsody.


Emma wasn’t feeling too outgoing, so Bella couldn’t play with her much, even though they are close to the same age. But Andrea let Bella watch one of Emma’s DVDs. Bella picked The Backyardigans. It was getting late, so she only watched one episode. Andrea gave us a pirated copy of Bolt to take with us.

We headed home around 6, but stopped at Lida’s house to see if she was home. Lida is another friend/distant relative. Her daughter Nelly lived in Gainesville for a while and we became quite close to her. Nelly is currently living in France (her husband is French). Lida was home, but she was in the middle of a physical therapy massage, so Cristina just said hello and told her we’d come see her another time.

At home, we got the kids fed, let them watch the first 30 minutes of Bolt (in Spanish because I couldn’t find the DVD remote) and then put them to bed. Cristina, Sofia, and I chatted around the kitchen table with Wito until late. We watched a little bit of TV, then fell asleep around midnight.