With the preparations for this trip, I am starting to think back a lot to South Africa, my internship in 1998. Arjan and I are going to visit my supervisor from back then, Thelma Mahlobo, in December. I am in regular contact with her daughter Nokukhanya and look forward to meeting them and showing Arjan South Africa. Back then, I was torn between South Africa and Costa Rica. I chose South Africa, and my classmate Thessa chose Costa Rica. While I returned to the Netherlands, Thessa ended up in Costa Rica. For love, for the country, and for work. In the meantime, she has been living in San Antonio Escazu – San José with her husband (Warner) and 3 children for years, and we follow each other on social media. When Costa Rica was added to our itinerary, I reached out to Thessa for tips and, of course, to see if she would like us to meet. On the last day before we leave Costa Rica, we are going to visit Thessa.
We take the local bus to Escazu, a canton (village/region) of San José. And despite Thessa’s clear explanation, we still miss our bus in the parade of buses. But no worries, because the Uber takes us to Thessa’s mountain.
We drive through beautiful Escazu and see a completely different side of the valley compared to the center of San José. If you are staying in San José for a longer period, it is recommended to go here. It is very beautiful and very different from the center of the big city. San José has 2 million inhabitants. Costa Rica has a total of 5 million. There isn’t much high-rise development in San José, but it spreads out beautifully in the valley from one mountain to the next.
Thessa welcomes us with open arms and we are invited to join her for a delicious breakfast. We talk about what has happened to us in the past 26 years, since we last met in person. It brings back many memories for me, and I have great respect for the life Thessa has built. Thessa has had to organize many self-evident ‘Dutch’ things all by herself.
After dinner, we are going for a walk, which Thessa also always does with her mother. 1.5 hours across wide open spaces. Very nice, because we can keep chatting. At work, Thessa walks with local residents a few times a week for sport, nature, and training. Warner is a mountaineer, a national celebrity, because he was the first Costa Rican to climb Mount Everest in 2012. And with Pico Tours, they organize different mountain climbing trips every time. And climbing the mountain is tough, and so is the training! It is very nice to see that Thessa still works fully as a Community Worker in practice.
We are walking in beautiful surroundings, where the vegetation is different again from what we have seen in the country. We see where Thessa walked this morning and in what beautiful surroundings she works.
Thessa’s stories are wonderful to hear. We hear a bit of the ‘behind the scenes’ of touristy Costa Rica from her. And we feel privileged to be walking around with such a private guide today.
Escazu also has a very nice story and a beautiful holiday, Día Nacional del Boyero. If you go to Costa Rica, keep an eye out for this. Because the land, situated against the mountains, is difficult to cultivate, humans and animals have worked together for generations. In the form of oxen and their ox carts. They have turned this into a national holiday, featuring a large parade of ox carts from the region in Escazu. I believe this is a really cool event to experience. On the square in Escazu, there is also a beautiful wall depicting the story of Escazu and the oxen, created by an artist. We are mostly talking about it, so we forgot to take a photo. Fortunately, Arjan takes one last beautiful picture of Thessa, me, and a statue of the typical ox cart. Thank you, Thessa, for your warm welcome, wonderful stories, and delicious food!
Reply