A look at Moma and Baby. Both doing well although in need of a bath after rolling in the mud.

Yesterday we took the bus to San Ramon @ about 1:00 p.m. to do a little shopping.  On the way down, Don ended up sitting with Donillo's brother and had a nice chat. The bus is fun as we always seem to meet people we know and make new friends.  It's amazing the number of silly things you need that you don't have--except for in storage.  We went to a hardware store, department store, discount store and, of course, the grocery store.  It is quite a challenge riding the bus with 15 eggs, milk, bread and numerous other essentials!  Coming home it was so foggy we couldn't see far enough ahead to buzz for our stop and pulled the cord too early.  Fortunately, the bus driver knew we were the gringos and where we needed to get off and didn't stop!  The bus actually stops right in front of our house!!  We had fun wandering around and found almost everything we needed and have already started a new list.  We are both looking forward to Saturday market and lots of fruits and vegetables!

These are various times of day and the variety of weather conditions we experience.  The sky is constantly changing and yesterday we even felt a few rain drops.

Today at 3 we have an "appointment" with the bank to try to open and account.  Norm, a friend here in Berlin, is taking us to town and helping us through the process.  We have been advised to bring our HUD from selling our house, 1099 from Social Security and our Passports!  Norm also mentioned that appointments here aren't like in the states and there is no guarantee of getting an account!

On the 6th of November we need to be at an appointment in San Jose @ 6:45 a.m. to be fingerprinted for our Residency Requirements.  We are meeting  Mayanye there, who is the sister of the man handling our Residency paperwork, Javier.  Tuesday morning we will get the 6 a.m. bus to from Berlin to San Ramon and then take a bus to San Jose.  As there is no way for us to get to San Jose at that early hour of the morning we will be spending the night in San Jose.

While we are there, we will be meeting with Joe Tursi, also from NC.  If possible, we will attempt to apply for our drivers licenses.  Joe has sent us a list a mile long of paper work and steps we need to go through to end up with a Costa Rica drivers license.  

The last 2 mornings I, Sharon, have been walking about 4 miles up and down the hills with 2 Maria's. One is the friend we stayed with our last visit and the other is her friend.  Today they are going to church and we won't be walking.

HOLA!  HOLA!  We've just been interrupted by a couple young men with a truck full of vegetables! What fun!  We bought sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, papaya and a pineapple for $8.00 and it was   just outside our door!  They said they come by every Friday, we love it!!  Now we don't have to carry so much on the bus when we go to the Saturday Market in San Ramon on Saturday!!

One sad note!  Upon arriving in Berlin we learned that our close neighbor, also a North American, Mark, had been killed on a motorcycle just ten days before.  There are many motorcycles here as gas is expensive.  We see many young people here riding motorcycles with no helmets and we worry about their safety.