Mike n' Lisa's quest blog: January 2013

In early November, 2012 Lisa and I decided to go to Costa Rica for a week or so after learning that we had Kin over there We also wanted to look at the Medical Tourism story. At this time in our lives, health care is kind of scarce for us and If possible, I refuse to be held hostage to the horribly high costs in the United States. What I learned is kind of limited. A complete listing of medical practitioners is available at he US Embassy in downtown San Jose. No mention is made of their reputation. I did price a few things however, (Root canal for $125.00 and I got some dental Xray Panoramics for $30.00) Long story short, we discovered that a Cousin had been living there for several years. We contacted him by email and accepted his invitation to stay. We had an excellent time in San Jose and surrounding area for twelve days. We stayed in an area on the outskirts of San Jose called Salitral.

Driving in San Jose is just short of suicide. Stop signs say "Alto" and cousin Ben informed a sure way to get pulled over by local PoPo is to stop at one. Apparently its just there for show. There are speed limit signs but it looks like everybody drives about twenty over. In order to cross an opposing lane of traffic it is necessary to turn in front of said's opposing traffic. Otherwise you'll probably be there all day as the traffic can be so thick. I really didnt see anybody get all that offended when this occurred. Ben's seats and Dash have funny pinch marks where I was sitting however.

We took the following video of Driving on the outskirts of San Jose. It has it's humorous spots but just mostly gives some insight into the City. Note the high walls on either side of the street. Many are topped with razor wire or some type of ironwork to keep people from climbing over them. Home invasion robberies are a big issue here. A large part of the city is drug infested urban poor. Police in this Country are more of a resource after the fact but largely unable to affect the crime. Strong arm robbery is only treated as a misdemeanor.

This is the view of the back yard of Ben's family home.

Snapper and other awesome fish, purchased at the local fish market for about fifteen bucks for a couple of pounds. Enough to feed five people with leftovers, grilled in Banana Leaves..

Another Shot. Notice the mountains in the background.

The

Damien, Ben and Blanca's son digging up Queen Cutter Ants.

Black is slimming

More shots of the hood.

The following pics are of Morazan Park in the center of San Jose. I included the picture below because the shed is about a quarter inch steel and was ripped open. Thievery of all kinds is quite popular here.

En route to Jaco, a little tourist Beach town, we stopped at a bridge to view these guys. Saltwater Crocs can get up to 24 feet in length. They hang out here because people feed them. Hilariously, just next to the river are pastures full of cattle. I don't think any of these approached twenty feet but I would bet several were in the fifteen foot range. Costa Rican police have a presence here now, legend holds because Drug, (I hate to say Cartel's) but I guess offenders for now have been known to get rid of bodies here. Also one tends to notice that the old safety rail that is about four feet high, has been damaged in several areas and is altogether gone in others. I watched several people leaning way over. Unfortunately, if you did go over accidentally, the fall wouldn't kill you, but not much chance of getting out.