Arena Trek or "American" Graffiti

This weekend was a pleasant surprise. First of all the G-Men didn't choke in the first round like every other year...which is nice...but more importantly we finally got back out and hit the CR roads for a little adventure. The trip this weekend was spurred by none other than the looong trek for sand (Arena) to complete the kiddos sandbox.

Instead of the usual trip down to Pioneer Landscaping Material in the long lost green truck...the preparation started mid-week. I needed to consult with a few colleagues to even figure out WHO sold good sandbox sand. We finally decided that it would be best to try SICORSA/VICESA. Haven't heard of it before? Doesn't roll of the tongue quite like Home Depot? Well maybe because it is the glass company that makes all the glass bottles and containers in Costa Rica. As luck would have it...it takes pretty high quality sand to make decent glass...so off we went. The directions go something like this: Take the southern San Jose bypass, go through all the roundabouts until you get to Zapote. Take the Zapote road and make your way to the highwat to Cartago (it is marked). Then go up the big hill and down the backside of the hill. There will be a major turnoff on the left for Cartago...don't take that...go straight. Go 2.5km (although my original directions said 1.5km which was the first reason to stop for directions) until you see the El Guarco gas station. Turn right. Go 3.5km until you get to Quebradilla (ya know...the unmarked town). Turn right when you are in Quebradilla (you actually want to turn at the Sarcovi sign but no one told us that gem), go 2.5km down that road and it should be at an intersection across form a school. That final road was a mix of road and dirt and lots (I mean lots) of local looking at us with a high degree of "you don't belong here - are you lost?". Jen was getting nervous....kids getting restless after the 1 hr drive! Unbelievably we made it to the place and after about another hour of really bad Spanish and a bit of $$ haggling...I managed to score 8 sacks of high grade stuff! Turns out the guy who loaded the 50kg bags (yes that is 110lbs) was from New Jersey...but my Spanish was better than his English ;-(

Anywho - with success under our belts we decided to continue on our adventure (since we were so close to Cartago) and picnic at the long fabled Orosi Valley. Now the drive to Orosi is remarkably easy by Costa Rica standards. Once you are in Cartago there are signs to Paraiso and from there signs to Orosi. We stopped at a picnic/view park which was perched on the South side of the valley. It really turned into a nice break for us all as it really was very pretty and the weather was spot on. The kiddos and I even got a little playtime in before we made the trip back over the hill towards San Jose. Oh yeah...I actually went into San Jose by accident and it took me about 20 minutes to get us back out...huge props to Santa who just happen to leave 2 compasses in our stockings this year! Way to go Santa...you may have just saved our marriage....seeing as how it is not a very good feeling being lost in San Jose!

We finally get home and I lug the 110lb bags (with Kade's assistance of course since it is not ergonomically correct for one person to carry 110lbs) back to the sandbox. In they go...and I did not see the kiddos for another hour. Money well spent if I do say so myself! Tonight after the Giants game we decided to make the sandbox a real Costa Rican fixture....so I grabbed the spray paint cans and we really made it look local!! Maybe I can convince Pefi to buy it as a work of art ;-)

PS: Jen, I did not download the pictures from the camera...I just grabbed a few. Don't worry, I understand that I am still not allowed to download any pictures to your computer ;-)