Home Sweet Escazú (by John)

We moved to Costa Rica from the U.S. 7 weeks ago. For the next year or so we are living in Escazú (San Rafael de Escazú) while we have a house built in a development called Bellazo near Nosara. Escazú is a suburb of the Costa Rican capital city, San José. Escazú is called the Beverly Hills of Costa Rica (also called the city of witches). We have decided to live without a car while living in the city but will need to purchase a 4 wheel drive when we relocate to Nosara.

We live in an apartamento in a complex called Escazú Village. Escazú Village is 4 levels of apartments on top of 2 levels of retail and restaurants on top of two levels of underground parking. There is also a connected office building. Restaurants include: Tap House, La Estación (ice cream shop), Spoon (our Costa Rican substitute for Bakers Square), Nación of Sushi, Taste of India, Johnny Rockets and Ili Vanilli (cup cakes / bakery). Retail includes two department stores, Universal and Yamuni, an iShop, a gym, a language school and a Harley Davidson dealer. The restaurants all have open air, covered eating space with a great view of the hills and weather that resides there. The weather is always perfect for open air dining even during the frequent rain events. We have yet to dine indoors at any of the restaurants in Escazú Village or Avenida Escazú. The temperature always seems to be perfect for open air dining as long as there is a roof to protect us from potential rain.

Walmart is conveniently located across the street and is even incorporated into our address inasmuch as addresses exist in Costa Rica – Escazú Village Residencias, Frente al Walmart de Escazú, San Rafael de Escazú, San Jose, Costa Rica. Street names and house numbers are not really a thing here. Addresses are given in terms of the number of meters away from some known landmark in a specified direction.

It’s difficult to convey the feel of a neighborhood but I will try to do so with the aid of numerous photos. The neighborhood we consider to be ours is the residential area spanning approximately 1 mile east-west by about 6 blocks north-south. It is the area between Escazú Village and Avenida Escazú, an upscale juxtaposition of shopping and dining in an area that you either love or loathe depending on your take on this “let them eat cake” part of Costa Rica. Our neighborhood is where I run and Cindy walks on a daily basis. What distinguishes our new neighborhood in Costa Rica from our old neighborhood in West Des Moines? Put into a few words – architecture, hills, climate, traffic, security, zero-lot lines, domestic help, sidewalks, wires and flora and fauna.

We live at a busy traffic intersection. We are at the crossroads of a very busy commercial road, some high tech office buildings including Microsoft and some much quieter by comparison residential streets. During rush hour the noise can be excessive when our doors and windows are open which is virtually all the time. Costa Ricans (Ticos) are very kind and gentle people… until they get behind the wheel of a car. The car horn is a utility device used far more frequently than turn signals.

Crossing the busy street we live on is quite a challenge and an art. Pedestrians may have some rights on paper but in practice they are merely impediments to a destination and, like stop signs, are generally ignored by drivers. I am sure Cindy will agree with me when I say women drivers here are the most dangerous to pedestrians, not because they lack driving skills, but because they seem to feel a sense of entitlement to the road. (From Cindy – yes, I hate to say it, but the women are the ones you have to look out for!) Keep in mind, most of the women driving in Escazú are affluent. The working class women tend to walk or take the bus. And while men (Ticos) will pretend to be looking the other way when they cut you off in a crosswalk, women (Ticas) will stare right through you as they veer at you in an intersection from the cockpits of their BMWs. They become cold-blooded assassins behind the wheel. The fact that cars are 30% more expensive here is the only thing keeping pedestrians from extinction. The more you look like you would leave a mark, ding or scratch, the safer you become. I recommend walking with a ball peen hammer and awl if you want drivers to give you a little space.

Traffic in Escazú is a mix of high-end, expensive cars, commercial vehicles / trucks and motorcycles. Motorcycles are everywhere. Many tend to be of the 250 cc and smaller varieties but what they lack in engine displacement they make up for with whine and horns. They zoom around and between lanes of traffic at will and constantly beep their horns so automobile drivers are aware of their presence during illegal maneuvers. Food delivery seems to be the number one industry in Escazú and it is done almost exclusively by motorcycle.

Once you traverse the busy street in front of Escazú Village you enter the residential portion of our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is characterized by upscale homes, expensive cars, tropical landscaping and beautiful flowers juxtaposed with zero-lot lines, crumbling sidewalks, electrical wires and every form of security imaginable – bars, gates, concertina wire, dog packs and guards positioned in front of residences in chairs and in small guard shacks.

Coming from the Midwest, zero-lot lines are sort of foreign to me with the exception of townhouses. I’ve watched enough HGTV, however, to realize that “semis” are a thing in many other areas. In our neighborhood they comprise most of the housing.

The photo above shows one of the residential streets on my running route. Traffic is light on these side streets. The weather is perfect and considerably cooler than Columbia, South Carolina where I ran for the past three years. The neighborhoods are hilly though so my heart gets a good workout.

Many of the houses have full or part-time guards and some have guard shacks out front. The guard shack shown above is one of the nicer ones. Some are not much bigger than a telephone booth. Some guards only have a chair and go shackless. Being a guard has to be the most boring job on earth. Giving a guard a chair is just asking for trouble as evidenced by sitcom plots for the Andy Griffith show and Seinfeld where the guard immediately falls asleep resulting in a robbery after a sympathetic character provides them with a chair. You always see a bicycle beside the each guard shack. I’m certain the guards can’t afford to live in this neighborhood and most probably don’t own a car so commuting by bike is probably their only option.

We’ve come to know (at least by sight) the guards on our normal walking/running route in the neighborhood and greet them with a buenos or buenas something or a simple hola. They undoubtedly recognize us as the gringos that walk everywhere and no longer consider us a threat. The guards tend to fraternize with other nearby guards on the street and with the domestic help that often stand outside the barred exterior of the homes they serve waiting for homeowners to grant them access.

Domestic guards are typically unarmed or have a billy club. Most seem to have cell phones to help keep themselves entertained and awake. The professional security people employed by Escazú Village and Avenida Escazú are well equipped. They ride bicycles, motorcycles and segways as shown below. Many have sidearms. Those on motorized vehicles often look like storm troopers with helmets, knee pads, and what appear to be bullet-proof vests. They mean business and, for the most part, do not show any friendly tendencies.

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Cindy and I were reprimanded not once but twice during the shooting of the photos for this piece. Moments after shooting the photo of the “GAP Hello Costa Rica” sign above that just happened to also include the guard behind the sign, we were approached by another guard and told in no uncertain terms that we could not take photographs there without written permission. We then returned to Escazú Village and were about to take a photo of our apartment from in front of the building. Before I could press the shutter we were again informed we could not take photos without written permission. I tried to convince the guard that it was okay since we lived in the building and were shooting our own apartment but, after conferring over the radio, he wan’t buying it. I have to admit we do appreciate the abundance of security people at Escazú Village and Avenida Escazú in spite of their anti-photo sentiments. (From Cindy – it didn’t help that John was using his digital SLR camera with an over-sized lens. We must have looked like we were doing surveillance.)

Aside from the climate, which I consider perfect for us, the flowers are the most amazing aspect of our neighborhood. Here is a collection of up-close photos I shot (most with a macro lens) during a recent walk around the neighborhood. Enjoy!

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