Paw-a Vida! (by Cindy)

The first time I noticed Escazú’s city seal on a sign, I did a double take. The town seal has a real witch on it!  It is a stereotypical witch – woman dressed in black with a cape, pointed hat, and riding a broomstick.  And just to be sure you understand, it is also clearly stated on the insignia as well, “Ciudad de las Brujas” which means, “City of the Witches.”  There are numerous witch stories in folklore associated with the city and the city seems to be embracing them.

You would think that with the natural association of witches and cats, that Escazú would also be the city of cats. Wrong! In the time that we’ve been here, I’ve seen a total of three cats. The first was on the prowl in the park where I walk every morning – only saw it once. I have spotted one staring from the window in an apartment across from ours in our U-shaped complex – have seen it twice. The third cat belongs to the owners of a small restaurant-coffee shop in old Escazú.  We’ve only been there once, but the cat is well-known there. It made itself at home on John’s lap after he petted it. Two of the three cats are black, which is only right in this city of witches.

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So, only three cats.  But the dogs?  The dogs are everywhere!

I can’t begin to tell you the number of dogs that I see or hear in my 45-minute morning walk.  And it’s not just one or two dogs per household. There appears to be no limit on the number of dogs that you can have in your home. For example, there is a house on the corner that we pass to get anywhere when we walk. This house has at least 5 dogs and one other large black one that shows up every once in a while, perhaps to visit.

When we first started walking (and in John’s case, running) by, those dogs would rush at us, in a barking frenzy.  Fortunately, there is an iron gate between them and us. After a month they have decided we’re no threat, because when we go by now, they’re usually laying down/sleeping, and barely lift an eyelid to acknowledge our presence.  (That is until I pointed a camera at them, and then they got all excited again. That little pug seems to be the ringleader. He’s the one that usually riles up the others. I call him the “pug thug.”)

There’s another house where there were dogs were behind a garage gate, and we counted at least six – those were the ones we could see!  Dogs for sure make their presence known when another dog walks by. You can hear the barking pass from one house to another.

I can tell what day it is by who is walking those dogs.  If it is a weekday, the dogs are walked by the “help.”  The help can be an official dog walking service. These (usually) guys are easily recognizable. They all wear floppy hats, fanny packs, a t-shirt with a dog-walking service ad, and of course, are hanging on to the leashes of multiple dogs.  The other day there was a dog walker standing by the front desk in the lobby of our apartment complex. Looked like someone had a doggie walking date.

The other weekday walkers appear to be the owner’s domestic help. They are also easily recognizable. They are women who wear comfortable shoes and the same style of shirt, V-neck with pockets. The shirts remind me of the shirts that dental assistants wear. They are always different colors and patterns, but you know what they are when you see them. Some of the ladies even wear aprons. They don’t appear to be too excited about walking the dogs but do seem to enjoy talking on their cell phones as they walk along or congregate with their other domestic help friends in the doggie park areas of the city parks.

On weekends it is the actual dog owners that walk the dogs. You can tell because they are wearing sunglasses and exercise apparel – yoga pants, exercise shorts, high-end sneakers, etc. And, they are carrying Starbucks coffees. A lot of them seem to know each other as they walk along and congregate, inconveniently blocking the sidewalks. They may or may not take their dogs to the doggie parks. If they do, it is more for their socialization than for their dogs’.

Truthfully, it is the doggie parks that made me realize what a dog’s world Escazú really is. There are two city parks within 100 yards of each other, Parque Buenaventura and Parque La Boa. They each have both an area for dogs and an area for children. The areas for the children contain one basic playground set that you might find in any suburban backyard in the US.

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But in the same parks, the doggie park area has a plethora of equipment! 

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I can’t even imagine what the dogs are supposed to be doing on all this apparatus. Apparently, the dogs don’t either, because when the dogs are left to their own devices in these parks, they are mostly just sniffing around the equipment, sniffing each other, lifting their legs – pretty much doing what dogs do. The only time that I have seen dogs interacting with any piece of the elaborate equipment was when the owners cajoled their dog into participating. One dog was coaxed to climb up one of the sloped boards. When he got to the top, he looked around with a “Now what?” expression.  The other dog was being sweet-talked by the owner, again going up a sloped board, so that she could film it with her phone. Those were the only two times that I saw any usage of the equipment by the dogs. (By the way, I have seen children freely playing on the playground sets without their parents commanding or cajoling them to do so.)

What the dogs seem to prefer is the open areas of the parks. Most of the owners will take the dogs there and let them off their leashes so they can run about as they please. The dogs seem to enjoy this much more than all of the equipment that was ostensibly set up on their behalf.

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Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that even the department stores cater to the dog lovers. Yamuni is a department store in our Escazú Village apartment/retail complex. It sells clothing, accessories, housewares, clothing and gifts. And, it doesn’t forget the family dog!

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Pura Vida is the Costa Rican motto – meaning simple or pure life. It is jokingly used to express many sentiments.

Pura Vida, sure, but in Escazú, it is definitely “Paw-a Vida!”