The Roads and the Rain

I've been in Costa Rica over a week now. The time goes fast. The people make it easy. Every developer here makes a point of shaking hands when they arrive in the morning and again when they leave. There's a level of personal contact that's encouraging. They've been quick to include me in activities including a Trax vs. Trax futbol game tomorrow night. We'll see if I can do USA proud (don't count on it). I look forward to getting to know all of them much better.

My drive to work is beautiful. The highway winds around steep hills and I can't soak in enough of the green. Speaking of soaking I didn't see the sun once during my first week, but on Saturday the clouds parted and it was bright most of the weekend. I spent Sunday driving a bunch of roads between my condo in Escazu and the office in Heredia, learning the routes and memorizing the landmarks. I love navigating by instinct and that's a requirement for getting around here. There isn't much in the way of signs, and just because you know the name of the highway doesn't mean you can count on where it will take you.

As much as I enjoyed my long Sunday drive the weekdays are more trying. It's not the roads that make driving in Costa Rica stressful. Well, the potholes do contribute and the steep gutters will leave you for a tow truck. Certainly, the uneven lane widths make things interesting, but it isn't the roads. It's also not the other drivers. At least this morning when I was driving down a one-way street the taxi driver who turned onto it the wrong way had the courtesy to turn on his hazards. Frankly, they don't cut me off, swerve, or honk nearly as much as I was led to believe and I might just choose them over the entitled drivers of Scottsdale.

If there's anything to fear on Costa Rican roads, it's the pedestrians. They walk on the highways. The average speed is roughly sixty and there are no shoulders to speak of. They sit on the concrete medians. The designers of the highways encourage this by placing bus stops on the highways themselves. The buses stop not just at the designated stops, but anywhere that two or more are gathered. You would think pedestrians would fare better off the highways, but on smaller roads the situation becomes much worse. There's more of them and they'll take over at any time. Must they pull their children out on the road in front of me? Don't they know I've been driving in Scottsdale for over five years? We drive fast, and pedestrians there live in mortal fear of a cell-phone-impaired Escalade plowing through at any time.

I've been working long hours. I get up early because the condo is next to a busy road and there's hardly anything in it to absorb sound. I leave late because the traffic precludes leaving at a reasonable time anyway. I look forward to what the next six months will hold. We're going to get a lot done, there's tons to see, and I'm just getting to know the people.

I appreciate all your prayers. There's a lot of stress in adapting to a new situation, and I want to be a good steward of this opportunity.