Semana Santa (Holy week)

Easter lasts a whole week here in Costa Rica. It's serious business. Not too long ago, all shops were closed for the whole week leading up to Easter Sunday. Nowadays, some stores remain closed, but most others stay open up until at least Thursday. And then Friday, the towns are deserted... and after four years, you'd think I'd remember this pattern, but I never do. Holy week is also the business week for hotels and restaurants. If you don't book well ahead, you'll be out of luck.

As we said goodbye to Emily and Jaxon, we were delighted to welcome our lawyer and good friend Diego and his wife, Fer, and her brother Mauro. We hadn't seen them in two years so we were long overdue... there was much to catch up on. They decided to catch seven trout to bring back to share with their families.

We decided to drive into San Jose on Thursday to get Kevin a new charger for his laptop, not thinking that stores might be closed. It didn't even occur to us that they wouldn't be. Totally forgot. We went to three malls and they were all closed. Then we stopped in on Diego and Fer since they invited us to come see their new house. It's a beautiful grand place nestled in a gated community in San Jose. Fer's family arrived soon after and we had a lovely lunch together... of the trout they had caught just a few days earlier at our place. They wrapped it in foil and cooked it on the bbq. It was delicious!!

We told Diego that we couldn't buy the laptop charger and he said he'd pick one up for us and send it back with his mother... we can pick it up in San Marcos at the end of this week. Nice!!

We also welcomed Nathan and Caroline from Belgium. After the bombing this week, they had to change their flights to a different airport, but they managed to get to Costa Rica as planned. Nathan speaks English well, but Caroline prefers to speak French so I get to practice speaking with her. Today, they caught their dinner and ours! Tomorrow they go horseback riding.