Old Friends, New Faces

On our first full day in Costa Rica we managed to see a lot of old friends and meet some new people. We went to our old neighbourhhood where we lived in 1991. Here is a picture of our old house.

Our next door neighbour, Dona Nisida, is 92 years old and was expecting our visit. She is in good spirits with a sharp mind and still gets out to see the neighbours. She quietly told us she uses a cane when outside the house.

We passed the girls' old school. It looked the same although Sabanilla, the town, has grown a lot with a big Mas x Menos supermarket (now called Mas x Menos / Walmart) and an even bigger branch of the Banco Nacional.

Andy and Javier visited the university and met Gabriela Marin, the director of the graduate program in computing. Javier mentioned that we plan to spend the year in Arequipa. Gabriela said "Con Ernesto?" ("With Ernesto?"). How did she know?? The director of the department where Andy will work in Peru is Ernesto Cuadros.

Last night we went to the home of Michael Josephy. Michael is a Canadian who went to Costa Rica years ago as a CUSO volunteer. He stayed, married and now has 3 children. Andy and Michael knew each other when they were both grad students in mathematics. His two oldest are both in college and the youngest and liveliest kept us well entertained. She wants and deserves to be taken more seriously.

Today we are off the the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. The link to the hotel is a bit is in the previous post.