We have two cats. KatytheKat and Sasha are nine and eight years old respectively. Usually it has been Katy who has had emotional problems.

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Mainly she has had food issues. In humans it is called bulimia, in cats it’s eat and puke. For once, she is not the problem. Not only has she readjusted to Costa Rica and chasing the Carmella the Bouncing Poodle around she has made friends with the entire family. This is a cat that makes friends with only an honored few. All her life she has been a one-man cat.

One of the reasons I married my wife is Katy was impressed with her from the beginning. Katy even liked my wife’s mother! I was sucker punched by a pretty cat and a beautiful woman.

This time our problem is Sasha. He has refused to eat since Silvia brought him with her three weeks ago. We tried everything from hand feeding Abalone Tuna (that is the really good stuff) to taking him to the vet. The vet said he was depressed. I knew that! Thankfully this is Costa Rica and his fee for the physical and injection of fluids was 11,000 colones or $19.50.

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When Katy was eating and puking I took her to our vet and it cost a car payment. Sasha missed our home in Washington. We have been trying to keep him hydrated with ejections only to have him get really mad. How does a cat get mad you ask? How about taking a dump in the middle of our bed MAD? Not once mind you but twice! We have learned the hard way. It cost 6,000 colones ($10.60) to clean a bedspread.

Tonight, we took him to our enclosed rancho for his treatment and left him there. After two hours locked in “jail” I opened the door only to have him rush by me and drop a dead mouse in the middle of the living room. I dropped kicked the mouse across the street. Sasha looked confused when the mouse went flying. When I returned from mouse football I heard Silvia tell him that he was a good boy. I could have sworn he smirked as he walked away.

I have been working hard in the rancho (enclosed yard) to clear out the accumulated growth. Our grass situation was growing desperate. While we have been gone my “suegra” or mother-in-law has had a man come and cut the grass.

We called and he arrived at 7:30am with various gardening tools tied with a string to a beat up bicycle. He began weeding outside our 10 foot high fence.

About 9:30am I went out to help and found him cutting the grass with a machete! When I wrote earlier about needing a machete I was only joking. Little did I know! I went back inside thinking how much this man’s life would improve with a lawnmower. I returned to the rancho at 10:30 where he was pulling weeds.

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I had other things I needed to do in the yard. I wanted to transplant plants and flowers. I learned quickly that I was taking part of his responsibility away so together we began the projects. We worked side by side. I dug and he planted. At 1:30pm we finished. I asked him how much I owed him. He said 12,000 colones or $21. That is $3.50 per hr. As he tied his tools of trade to his bicycle I wondered how far he ridden?

I have always enjoyed “tipico” food. Costa Rica is not known for its cuisine. Ticos (Costa Ricans) are meat and potatoes folks. Not big on beef but fish, pork and chicken are excellent.

We have no preservatives or chemicals in our foods so shopping is done for only a few days. When Silvia and I returned to the U.S. it took us one month to adjust to gringo food. Like everything the cost of food in Costa Rica is determined by whether it is produced here or imported. Fruit and coffee are national treasures. We make our own fresh squeezed orange juice.

A bag of 20 oranges cost 2,100 colones or $3.70, lettuce is fifty cents… you get the idea. We buy our coffee from Café Christina. Linda and Ernie have been here for years and produce some of the best coffee in Costa Rica. We buy the coffee that is not for export. It is what Ticos drink… $2.12/lb. With that said, there are some things that you must try if you come or live here because we have nothing like them in the U.S.

Manon Chino is a fruit that looks like a strawberry with spines that has been on steroids for five years. You would expect to see it on a National Geo program about underwater discoveries. The spines are soft and are more like thick hair.

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The Manon Chino is cut open with a knife and split in halve then peeled. Inside, a thin layer of meat surrounds a nut the size of an acorn is deliciously sweet. I ate three after dinner the other night and wanted more.

Then there is the granadilla. I was introduced to eating this fruit many years ago. I think Silvia wanted to test my manhood. I will try most anything once. This is a green fruit the size of a small apple. You break it open with a knife. Inside is a cup filled with a substance like green jelly mixed with dark brown seeds. The meat is sweet. Silvia and her mother love it. I ate it once. The fruit tastes good but…it is one of things you eat with your eyes closed.

It is like over-cooked Instant oatmeal. The jelly like substance reminded me of being offered monkey brains in China. Maybe it was in the cracking of the skull. I claimed I was full of baked carp (I almost gagged) and diplomatically passed on the experience. I will never forget the table of Chinese delicacies… ever.

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Written by Ken Beedle who is a landscape photographer and retired Television Sales/Marketing Executive. Ken first visited Costa Rica in 1998 and later lived here for a few years, married a Tica and returned to the USA to take advantage of a business opportunity however, he promised to come back to Costa Rica and now he and his wife live in Cartago.


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