Happy “Good Friday” folks! Hope you and yours are enjoying the holiday weekend. Costa Ricans are mostly Catholic so here Easter is a week long celebration called “Semana Santa” or Holy Week. Several things go down for “Semana Santa”, you still have all of your typical religious ceremonies, but there are some things that one may not expect.
1. There is a mass exodus to the beaches! Now I am not quite certain why everyone heads to the coasts but San Jose and pretty much all of the central valley becomes a ghost town. I’m pretty sure that Jesus isn’t in Jaco walking on water, but something is drawing everyone!
2. Be sure to have all of your business taken care of! Most of the banks and Government offices are closed after Wednesday but some are closed for the entire week. If you need cash try to get to the ATM’s as early in the week as possible. You wouldn’t believe how long the lines get!
3. If you want to “get in the spirit” with the “Spirits” that come in a bottle you better get to the liquor store early! Depending on what municipality you live in there is a “dry law” in effect from Wednesday to Saturday. We learned this the hard way our first year here. We went to grab some groceries and “liquid refreshment” from Auto Mercado only to find the entire liquor isles sealed off! We had to sulk home without our bottle of Patron.
4. Got niños? Well if you do, don’t forget there is no school. Better figure out some stuff to do to keep them occupied & entertained! I stocked up on bubbles and made sure the “Slip N Slide” was good to go.
5. The bus schedules are reduced so if you have somewhere to be check the schedule before heading to the bus stop. I would hate for you to be hanging out at the bus stop waiting for a bus that won’t ever come
6. Have you seen “The Hunger Games”? If you haven’t go check it out. Most of the movie theaters are still open for their regular hours.
7. Lastly, please don’t waste your time looking to buy an Easter Basket. For the second year in a row I fooled myself in to believing that Wal-Mart would have plastic grass and chocolate eggs galore. Alas they didn’t have a damn thing! This really surprised me because they have a nice selection for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentines Day. I ended up tapping into my right brain and hooked up a “basket” using a beach pail & shovel set. I filled it with candy, bubbles, and little toys. Kids loved ‘em.
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