I love latte's

I decided to let Doug sleep in today. This room is musty so he was stuffed up and sneezing all night.

We have learned that there are several different exchange rates:

-       at the exchange counter at the airport  the rate was $1Cdn = 392 Calons

-       at the ATM $1Cdn = 456 Calons

-       the rate as listed on-line $1=473 (there is no Bank of Canada Rate)

-       when purchasing in Costa Rica $1US = 500 Calons

So what this boils down to is that “the best rate” that I was given at the airport cost me about $35. Lesson learned. Also when dealing with many things in Costa Rica like rent, entertainment/attractions etc. they will always quote you the price in US dollars. If you choose to pay in Calons they will convert it using their selling rate (which of course assumes everyone deals in US currency). For example my B&B bill was $100 he converted this to $50,000 however I took my money out of the bank at a rate of 456 so by paying in Calons this transaction cost me an extra $10 (ignoring the crazy airport rate but using the ATM rate) I found my rent worked out the same way.  So the Cdn/US exchange is costing me about 5% but the other 5% is a loss based on the different exchanges ie converting Colons back to US dollars. CRAZY and I can only withdraw Calons from the ATM not US cash so I can’t even try to fix this.

The easy part of the currency is that the colors are in my favor:

The $10,000 colon is green and is worth about $20. Like our Cdn dollar

The $2,000 colon is blue and is worth about $4 (similar to our $5)

They also have a $1,000 which is red and a $5,000 which is yellow

Douglas and I discussed attempting our goals while we are in Costa Rica. One of mine was to establish a regular workout routine. He liked this idea and put it as one of his own goals. He has been doing push-ups and plank several times a day since we arrived. I told him at 2PM every day we should come back to the room and work-out as this is when the rain typically hits the hardest. You can pretty much count on it. I will give him credit, he does not put anything off. I myself was waiting until we found a home, the hill climbing has given me enough aches and pains.

2PM also seems to be a good time for homework because the Internet is really too slow in the morning.

We are moving again!!! We have now decided that the bigger house is in fact better. After talking to many of the locals and getting to know our way around this seems like the better option. We are just beginning the rainy season so it seems we will be spending most of our mornings outside enjoying the sun and our afternoons indoors. In this case we will want a bit more space so that we don’t kill each other J I am also anticipating that Douglas will meet other kids and they will need a place to hang out.

        

We found a nice but expensive place to have coffee (25% tip built into the bill.) The Treehouse Restaurant, it is built around a tree. Eric our server was very helpful. I’m sure we will be spending more time there in the future. Actually everything is expensive here, groceries the other day were $80 and all I bought was the fixings for PB&J, Grilled cheese, eggs & toast, bananas, grapes, crackers & cookies.

The tree is right in the middle of the restaurant and check out the designer latte's.