San Rafael de Escazu: Pampered Pooches in the Land of Luxury

We decided to stay a little longer in the city; we were enjoying the ease of getting around, getting ingredients and being able to cook, plus we wanted to visit some more of the areas and attractions. Our next stop was San Rafael de Escazu and it was only after booking that we researched the area finding that it was an upmarket district of the city! What exactly this meant we weren’t sure of; the Lonely Planet described ‘high-end car dealerships’ along with luxury shops – it didn’t exactly sound like our cup of tea.

As we arrived it was immediately apparent that this was very different to Heredia. The houses were all very big with well kept gardens and even the streets looked like they were kept by gardeners. Our driver commented on the area as we entered saying that he didn’t have anything against wealthy people as they were able to maintain beautiful places like this. Again, not exactly to my tastes. Aside from the change in the kinds of houses there were more expensive cars given extensive parking space on big driveways. However, the most noticeable characteristic was that there seemed to be no people! This was a real contrast to Heredia which although far from being a bustling urban centre it was obviously space that was in use – here in San Rafael de Escazu, either everyone was out somewhere else or they were quietly remaining in their houses. The other thing which stood out was that the only people we did see were security guards. This was totally odd and foreign to us. Outside many of the houses were booths large enough to house a guard; some of them were inside the booth but most were stood outside. Seemingly they were stood guarding vacant houses in empty streets. It was odd; even more so given how quiet the place was – it didn’t seem like a crime hotspot!

We were staying in a small gated community of about 8 or so houses. This was also new for us – we’d never stayed in a gated community, it’s not really something that exists back home and yet they are everywhere here in Costa Rica. At first it seemed a little weird, not least of all because we had security guards whose only job seemed to be opened and closing the gate, which we could do ourselves. After the first day or so another view of these little gated communities occurred to me which was that perhaps they did create a sort of micro-community within an area. I don’t know if this is the case or not. The same potential for community is apparent to me in an apartment block but it often seems to be the case that although living in close proximity, people end up having little to do with one another and hardly know the people they live only a few metres from. Nevertheless, looking through the gates and fences into many of these little communities they at least look as if that could happen, it would just require the right mix of people.

The house we were staying in was really beautiful. Maria, the owner, worked in art and consequently the house had lots of pictures on the walls. More than anything it had a good feel about it – a house which had been lived in and the kitchen was also really well stocked. It was going to be a good house to cook in but moreover was somewhere we felt immediately comfortable and at home. Following on from the house in Heredia we were on a good run.

The first morning we were there we’d been told that the feria was on in nearby Escazu so we took an uber to try it out. It had a really good selection and we took a little more time to look around and get a broader selection of fruits and vegetables to sample. We had juices like at the previous feria and found a stall where they were selling homemade paletas (ice-lollies) which were delicious. We set off for home with a lot of goodies to play with.

We got stuck into the fruit straight away. The one which really stood out for me was the caimito (star apple) which is in the Sapotaceae family, not one that we have in Europe. The outer skin is leathery and produces latex making it extremely bitter; you scoop the flesh away from the skin and then it’s best served slightly chilled. The texture is soft and jelly-like, and the consistency reminded me very much of turkish delight. I’ve not yet found a good way to describe the flavour – plum is the closest we thought of but that doesn’t really capture it as it has none of the acidity of a plum.

We’d also bought some Cas – an acidic fruit used whole to make a refreshing drink. After washing the skins, cut them into quarters and the whole lot goes into the blender with a little water or ice. The result is slightly grainy and acidic but is used diluted and sweetened according to your preference. It was only after making and tasting the fresh juice that I realised that the ice lolly I’d chosen at the feria was made from Cas with the addition of mint – really refreshing!

Finally we got around to the passion fruit. They have a hard outer skin which you cut open and scoop out the flesh and seeds within. It’s much more acidic than the related grenadilla and generally the seeds are harder too so they are best removed. Just how well stocked out kitchen was became apparent when I discovered a moulinette (a food mill), something which I’d used in the past to remove the seeds from rose-hips. So the passion fruit went into the moulinette. The handle turns around and the pulp gets pushed through the holes by the rotating blade leaving us with a tasty concentrate. I sweetened it slightly and we had yet another fresh, fruity drink to dilute over the coming week. It was a good harvest.

One of the things that we’d most been looking forward to at this house was having a large oven and Rachael had planned a lot of things to bake. Sadly, when we went to use it something had gone wrong with the control panel. Maria was unable to get someone to come out and repair it during our stay. This was a shame but it prompted more innovation; necessity is always the mother of invention. Rooting around in the cupboards I found something which none of us had ever used before: an air-fryer. Once again, we were having adventures with our ‘domestic infrastructure’; continuing to develop and build a flexible repertoire of recipes. Our first valiant effort was Rachael’s determined attempt to make a cake. It was a good effort but I think that air-fryer cakes probably require a bit of practice and only later in the stay did I work out how to dismantle and remove the old oil; if I’d done that first it probably would have turned out much better. Two things that we found it was really good for were chips and chicken nuggets. Ordinarily they probably fall under the category of ‘junk food’ but I’m going to make a concession for us because when the chips are made from freshly cut potatoes and the nuggets are made from fresh chicken breast and home-made breadcrumb they’re totally different things from their pre-made frozen counterparts. So we were at least able to feed our girls some healthy junk food and that’s often a good place to start with kids.

One day when we were heading out in an uber we spotted a park just around from where we were staying on a route we’d not yet walked. When we got back that afternoon having made a note of the location we set off for the girls to play in the park. We walked through the green space leading up to the park, past a group of teenagers and through the gate. There were no other children in the park but given how sparsely populated the area seemed to be that didn’t surprise us. I noticed a big sign to the left as we went through the gate and I was pointing it out to the girls, the first thing I’d noticed before reading any of the text was a big picture of a dog. A moment later I looked more thoroughly at the play equipment in the park. It suddenly dawned on me that this was in fact a play park for dogs! There were see-saws, tunnels and little jumps – all for dogs. Laughing at ourselves and how stupid it must look that we’d just taken our two daughters to a canine play park we made our way back past the group of teenagers and played it cool.

This was yet another example of the huge differences between rural and urban Costa Rica. In the countryside dogs live a free life; wandering around the streets or just lounging around outside their house. They are rarely enclosed or kept on a lead and, as I mentioned in the previous post, they seem to have a more traditional diet of scraps and whatever else they can find for themselves. In the city this relationship has been formalised. Dogs are enclosed and generally inside the house. This was the first place where we saw people walking their dogs which is something that never happens in the countryside. The absolute pinnacle of this was the specialist dog park which we had just discovered. Even more interesting was that this was one of two dog parks within walking distance of our house when we still hadn’t found a play park for the children!

In the second half of the week I walked in a different direction to go to the shops and discovered a park on the way which was popular with local families. I sent a picture to Rachael and by the time I was on my way home they we’re already in the park so I met them there. It’s a funny thing to mention but it ended up being a significant part of our stay. If you’re travelling as a young couple around Costa Rica this kind of thing means little to you but as a family it becomes important; especially as in this instance we were back in an urban environment rather than out in the countryside. I remember that one day whilst Rachael and I were sitting in the park watching the girls play we were discussing how this was similar to the dog parks. In a rural environment the children are able to play in streams, follow ants along a trail and often (like the dogs!) are out playing in the street; in an urban environment play also has prescribed forms and even places which are specifically designed and designated for play. One more general theme to draw our here is that in the urban environment life has been designed to a much higher degree and in this respect there is a much greater sense of freedom in rural areas.

Thinking back over this week in San Rafael de Escazu it was very full. Perhaps because we were in the city and so we were able to go to more places with fewer and smaller journeys? One day we made our way to the Children’s Museum in San Jose which was a really good day out for the girls. The museum is set in the old prison on the outskirts of the city and it’s really fun. There are a lot of rooms which focus on all manner of themes: space, dinosaurs, recycling, egyptians, light, parts of the body, history, electricity, etc. It was an experience which was very similar to going to a museum back home – the focus was not specific to the tropics or to Costa Rica. Nevertheless, it was a great educational day which they both enjoyed very much.

On one of our last days in the area, Zia and I went off to the other side of the city to visit a friend of a friend. When we were back in the UK visiting my brother in Dorset we went to see a lepidopterist friend of his as my nephew is really into moths and they had become good friends. We told him about our approaching trip to Costa Rica and he put us in contact with his friend Tom who has been here for over 20 years now. Zia and I headed back up to the North East of the city to San Isidro which is close to Heredia but we’d not managed to visit when we were there. We arranged to have lunch with Tom after having a walk around his property, going along the river that runs through his land and all around his gardens which are planted up with nectar providing plants for butterflies and various food plants for caterpillars. As soon as we entered there were butterflies all around. Costa Rica is a wonderful country for butterflies and here there was a real concentration of them. Tom showed us around his little nursery where he was breeding a couple of species of swallowtail and a very impressive owl butterfly!

It was a great day out and another educational one for Zia to see from start to finish the process of raising butterflies. I always think it is interesting for our children to witness and experience the incredible variety of things which you can do for a living. It wasn’t until much later in my own life (after leaving university) that I was made aware of the diversity of potential jobs that could exist; such as breeding butterflies or harvesting wild food for a living. Sadly I’d been exposed to a rather limited list when I was at school and I wonder if I would have chosen to pursue different things had I been exposed a little more to the wealth of ways in which you can earn a living before making those choices. People often say that you should pursue the things that you love which is really good advice because the truth is you probably can work in that area if you want to, whatever it is. As parents I think it’s part of our role to make sure that we are supporting that in our children and avoid telling them that something they are doing is a waste of time or that they’ll never make a living doing it. In fact, none of us can know what the job market will be like in 15-20 years so we don’t have anything on which to base our opinions anyway.

We caught an uber home and once again it turned out to be very interesting. To begin with I was making the usual conversation with our driver and at some point she asked what I did for a living back in England. I explained that part of my work is in sustainable construction and she seemed interested, asking if I was an architect, but I explained that I worked more on the practical side of things. Later on in our conversation I was asking if driving was her sole occupation or if she had other jobs as we’ve often found to be the case. It turned out that she was a forestry engineer! I started to explain to her about Rachael’s work in REDD projects and she immediately said she was familiar with that framework. As the conversation went on she told me that as part of her PhD she had focussed on research into wood as a sustainable construction material and that was another area that she continued to work in, looking at treatments to help prevent attack from insects, fungus, etc. It was interesting to hear her describe how here in Costa Rica wood is still looked down upon as a construction material. The problem seems to be two-fold; firstly that people have an idea that wood is not durable and so they opt for plastic and metal instead. I was definitely surprised to find that buildings here are mainly made from metal and concrete and the carbon footprint must be staggering. The second part of the problem is a complicated one because she told me that people have an idea that using wood is bad because it involves cutting down trees and, having tried to hard to reverse the impacts of deforestation, this idea seems to be stuck in the collective consciousness. However, given the massive carbon footprint and destructive activities involved in the extraction, production and transport of metal and carbon this is simply bad thinking. What was really fun was to speak with someone who bridged and connected the worlds that both Rachael and I have worked in. I took her card just in case we have reason to reconnect in the future.

At this point we were almost at the end of our stay in the city and ready to begin heading back out of town. It had been an interesting experience. We had been to some good places but we had also been to a few which are really not our kind of thing. Around that area there are some big expensive shopping centres which have come about in recent years and there’s really nothing interesting or distinctive about them. They have a lot of glass and polished marble walls and floors. There is a lot of aspirational marketing around them. There’s a lot of money. Really the thing is that they are the same no matter where you go in the world and that’s rather boring.

One final adventure (or trauma?) which deserves a mention was a trip to Walmart. We were going there to look for facemasks which had been surprisingly difficult to find in regular supermarkets. I had never been to a Walmart before and was curious to see what one was like. First thing we noticed was that it was entirely built around car ownership – entering on foot didn’t seem to be something that had really been designed for and it took a while to find the entrance. Inside was everything distasteful about mass consumerism. Endless amounts of useless plastic on repeat. Standing there thinking that this was just one of many such supermarkets around the world, each one repeating the same overload of unnecessary products makes the mind boggle. It’s a depressing and sobering thought.

We were definitely ready to head back into a rural area where life was a little less prescribed.