Sept. 8.

When we woke up we were still feeling pretty sick so we decided to have an easy day wandering around. We first wandered towards food, and found a great place, Mi Chorizo, that serve up two orders of juevos rancheros and two coffees, plus two refills, for about 1,100 colones (about $5 total).

Costa Rica is very very hot in the morning so we often stopped in little sodas for drinks. In one of them, we encountered a new form of solicitation: young guys with stethescopes around their necks, offering to take our blood pressure for a "donacion." We declined, even though they very forcefully argued that their services would benefit our health.

We were hoping we'd get better so we could ride our bikes up to Volcan Poas, which is billed as one of the most easily accessible active volcanoes in the world. It's about 31k from Aljuela. Cecilia had tried to dissuade us, saying the road was too dangerous. She wanted us to go in a taxi--her taxi.

But Carlos, the owner of our hotel, was encouraging. He said he rides his bike up there sometimes, and it takes about two hours. I told him he must be very fast, and he said no. So I thought maybe it would take me six hours (I knew Eric could make the ride faster without any problems, but out of kindness, he always lets me set the pace). As you'll see later, I was very wrong.

We spent the rest of that day wandering around shops.

But the real adventure of the day was changing money. Eric and I had read how difficult it can be, so we decided to change a lot at once. We thought about changing $400, which would be nearly 100,000 colones. But we settled on changing $200. We went to the Banco Nacional, a large bank near the Parqueo Centrale (the town square).

There was a sign on the teller window that said it was forbidden to have two customers talking to a teller at once. So Eric sat down while I talked to the teller alone. I gave her $200 in traveller's checks and $20 in cash. She made out separate receipts for the cash and checks, and even entered my $20 bill's serial number into her computer. She gave me a receipt that showed the changed amount was 98,000, some-odd colones. It sounded right to me. I counted the colones, thanked her and left. Eric said it seemed like a lot but since I knew it was right I didn't pay much attention to that criticism.

Later, when we were walking in the market, a man tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and he asked something about the Banco Nacional. I thought he wanted to know where it was. I started to tell him, but he stopped me and pointed to me and said, Ustedes, Banco Nacional? I gathered he was asking if I had just been there. I couldn't imagine why he wanted to know, unless I had lost something. We hadn't lost anything there, so I figured he was maybe trying to con me out of money he saw me change. So I cut him off, saying, No comprende, lo siento (I don't understand I'm sorry).

The mystery was soon solved back at our hotel. I got a phone call, and it was from the Banco Nacional (they had asked for my phone number as well as passport number as part of the money-changing transaction). They explained mostly in Spanish that the teller had made a mistake. It turns out she gave me $400 worth of colones instead of $200. Right then I wished I had been out of town, so they couldn't have called me. But since they had me on the phone, and the teller probably would have had to pay restitution from her own salary, I agreed to hurry back and give them the money. Our friend Ana had told us the night before that by working as a chemist for one month, she could earn 75,000 colones. I guess a teller might earn about half that, or 40k colones in a month. The teller had paid me 47,000 colones too much--probably more than her monthly salary. They were glad to see me back at the bank. They didn't even make me wait in line.

That night, while trying to find an open restaurant after 7 p.m., we stumbled on a bingo parlor. I had wanted to play back in British Columbia, just for fun, but I didn't think Eric would go for it. Here in Alajuela, I sold him on the idea by telling him it was a chance for us to learn our numbers. We played several games of three bingo cards (200 colones, or less than $1 for five games). I played two cards and Eric played one. We got most of the numbers, but with a little help from the friendly bingo worker, a young guy named Jorge. He stood near us and helped translate. One problem: he kept saying Fifty when he meant Sixty. We eventually figured out the problem and worked around it.

Eric won one game. But he was so busy trying to figure out if he had gotten the right number that he didn't realize he had won until Jorge called out "Bueno" for him. I think we ended up 100 colones ahead on the night.

After that, we took a taxi to Cecilia's. We wanted to see the family again and give her three-year-old, Pamy, a little gift, a Viewfinder with Pocahantas reels. Cecilia was very pleased with our present. Pamy wasn't thrilled, but hey, that's the breaks. Ana was busy with a friend, and was going out to a restaurant. So we got to hang out with Erica, Anna's 17-year-old sister.

Erica spoke less English than Ana, but somehow, with my Berlitz phrase book and Ana's English-Spanish, Spanish-English dictionary, we managed to communicate a little. Ana said she is studying mathematics and wants to be a professor of mathematics. She said her younger brother, Jose, plans to be a doctor. (Since when did all these teen-agers know what there careers would be so young?) Unfortunately, Erica had been sick for two years (I didn't have the vocabulary to ask what the sickness was), so she was two years behind. She has three more years til she graduates from high school.

Erica showed us a poem about friendship that she and a friend of hers had written and signed, as if it were a contract. I couldn't read a bunch of it, but I did read a bit, and it said that friendship is a very strong feeling that cannot go away--not in richness or poorness, etc. It was a bit like marriage vows. It was a little sentimental but Erica took it very seriously. She also showed us similar poems that she and her friends had written to each other when they were little children. At the end of our conversation she said that it had been muy lindo (very beautiful) to talk to us.

Next: Cecilia forces us to change hotels.

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