If you like pina coladas... and getting caught in the RAIN

This morning Roseline and I went to the market. It's a very busy street bustling with vendors, locals and tourists alike. It's also a wonderful place to practice your spanish and gain familiarity with the local "colones" (money). It's much easier to deal in the local currency versus American because you will always pay the real price. When you give them American, you risk mis-calculation of the exchange rate.

I had to get money out of the ATM before going to the market and let me tell you... when the bank balance is quoted in colones, I'm a millionaire! It's very cool to see it in print! lol Basically 500 colones is equal to $1.00. So browsing the grocery store, you will see a bottle of salad dressing with a price sticker of $1,650. You freak out at first but if you just divide by 500, it's pretty easy to do the math and quickly decide if you want to buy the item.

After we came back, I found I still didn't have enough of the essentials to start out with so I ventured back to the grocery store to pick up a few more things on my own. After everything was put away, I decided to take a walk around the Avalon complex. Unfortunately I didn't get too far.

The skies opened up and I soon found myself sitting on the concrete under an overhang at the side of a building. It poured for a good 8 minutes and then let up enough for me to find my way back around the building to the front door. I was still soaked!! Hopefully I'll be able to venture around here this week to get a better feel for the grounds.

I'm making dinner tonight but upon perrusal of the kitchen cupboards, I found not one frying pan; only pots for the stove-top. Wish me luck!

Erin