08.31 Musings Part #1 - The Ox-Cart Guy vs. The L.A.-Style Mega-Homes

In an earlier entry I talked about how we were having some questions about our choice to live “up the mountain” rather than in town. After a few weeks, yes…there are still times where it seems crazy (lack of good cell and internet coverage, having to leave a few extra minutes every time you leave the house in case the cows are being walked up or down the road, etc.).

But we have grown to very much appreciate the house and the area. Most Americans living around the Central Valley head for Escazu or even further west. That area feels super-American and generally more cosmopolitan (that is where you go if you want to hit The Gap or Justice, go to Sky Jump trampoline park, find a good Italian or French restaurant, etc.). This area is just plain "more chill" and less developed as you head up into the hills where we are. But once you work the kinks out of your flow a bit (where to get haircuts, which hardware store to use, where to find tennis for Jack, where to find a good coffee shop, etc.) it's quite nice around here. I'll take the organic coffee at "El Mercadito" (our local organic food store and café) over an Escazu Starbucks any day of the week now!).

As the kids settle into more of a pattern at school (classes, after-school activities, etc.) I think they like knowing that coming home at the end of the day means getting away from the hustle and bustle. Last week, Liadan had a friend over and they spent hours just roaming around the little neighborhood lane with a pack of neighborhood dogs (literally…it’s a lane like the one with the little boy in the nursery rhyme who for some reason merits one of the three coveted bags of wool from baa-baa-black sheep). Etc.

Playing with neighborhood kids on the trampoline.

And once late november hits and the “visitor phase” begins (i think we are now up to 14 different sets of visitors currently booked…and counting), this will definitely be a much more fun place to host and entertain than down in town or over in Escazu (we are friends with the previous renters and as they put it…”you look down toward the valley from this area and you get to say ‘ahhhh…now THIS is Costa Rica!’”).

Above all, I think we have an appreciation for the fact that we are catching this area before the wave of change overwhelms it. Yes, there are already a bunch of nice houses up here. BUT it’s 2014 and there is still a guy who goes up and down our road with an ox-cart. I have NO idea who he is but five minutes away from here I don’t think anyone has seen an ox-cart in decades. He is a living anachronism.

Then there is Juan Pablo the horse guy (takes care of a bunch of horses for his dad) who seems to be the pied piper of the roving pack of dogs. And the very fact that none of the cell and internet companies bother to offer good service up here yet. BUT all of this is changing and changing FAST. There are a bunch of houses under construction on the road — some of which are MASSIVE and look better suited to the hills over L.A. than the mountains of Heredia.

And there are "land for sale" signs on big chunks of the remaining dariy-cow pasture (meaning that more mega-houses are coming).

The cows across the street from one of the new houses...blissfully unaware of the "land for sale" sign on their fence...

Sadly, in the battle of old and the new, I would say that the ox-cart-guy’s days are numbered. : (