Today the family arrived, albeit a lot later, or should I say earlier, than expected.
The morning started with a late rising on my behalf and I stayed at home while the family went out for church. When they got back, we were off to Sarchi with the grandparents.
We all piled into the van and headed off to buy a traditional wooden cart model for our family. When we first arrived in Sarchi it was lunch time, so we found a place to eat and did just that. While we were eating we saw a squirrel just running along a nearby fence. This one was different to others that I had seen by the fact that its fur was a lot darker than the others. Also, one thing about the drinks here, because they are so sweet and delicious I drink them very quickly. It is impossible for me to have a drink still by the time my meal arrives.
For lunch I had prawns done in a garlic butter with rice and salad. Guisella on the other hand had a mixed ceviche. She reckoned because of the amount of lettuce that was with the ceviche it was more like 'lettuce with ceviche' rather than 'ceviche with lettuce'. She even told the waiter this.
After lunch we started the search for a cart that balanced price, with size, with look. Souvenir shops are dangerous for me, because I just want to buy absolutely everything. I even told Jose that I shouldn't have brought my wallet with me.
When we had found the one we wanted, I also found something that I wanted, and something that everyone except Jose and Jorge wanted too. The Sarchi version of a Churchill dessert. This one didn't have ice cream, but other than that it was the same, and very delicious at that. The most awesome thing about it though was how the guy on the street selling them, made them. It was truly shaved ice that he used as he had a big block of solid ice which he used what was actually quite a sophisticated tool to shave the ice off into a little cup before transferring it into the cups for us. It was very cool to watch.
After the cart was all wrapped up and paid for it was put in the car. Back at the car, Guisella had struck up a conversation with these two people. It turns out that the wife was the sister of the husband of one of Guisella's cousins. I think. And they lived in New Mexico but were just here for a holiday with their two children.
We then headed back to the home. Once there Jose and I immediately went off to Walmart to grab some ingredients to make two things, scones and cajetas. Cajetas are a very sweet mixture of simply milk powder and condensed milk. They are amazing. I had tried them yesterday as the little food that came out with the bill for the meal on Turrialba.
Back at home I wrapped the Christmas presents I had brought for the family before getting stuck in to making the scones. The family was supposed to be arriving in only three hours from when I started as it was already 6pm. I did use the grandmothers oven, just because it would be safer, after what happened to the pavlova. One time when I went to check on the scones, the kitchen was filled with smoke and there was Oscar, the grandfather, just standing there. I was given such a fright by the smoke and rushed to the oven, but then Oscar told me that all was ok. It was just the stuff on the bottom of the oven that was burning up. Phew. I returned a little later, after realizing the oven had been turned off and turning it back on, and they were ready, and I must say looking pretty spectacular.
A bit later, Jose and I made the cajetas. Boy did we have some fun. At one point Jose made me put my whole hands into the mixture to mix it up, but all that did was transfer the mixture from the bowl onto my hands. We were in stitches laughing. Once they were all rolled into little balls and in the fridge, Guisella was left to clean the bowl, with a spoon and her mouth. She loves sweet food, like me.
Jose and I then just chilled waiting for the time to come when we were going to need to pick up the family. However, that time ended up coming much later than first expected as just after finishing the cajetas, Jose received a message from Nicola saying they were in Houston. At first both Jose and I thought that they must be using the WiFi that American Airlines now offers, and they were flying above Houston, but no, turns out there plane had taken a diversion and landed in Houston. There had been a fault with one of the hydraulic systems and while that particular one wasn't utterly necessary, the pilot wasn't comfortable landing in Costa Rica with only 2 of the 3 systems in place. So, they had make an emergency landing in Houston with a full emergency procedure activated on the ground with firefighters and police following the plane down the runway.
They ended up waiting quite awhile on the tarmac before waiting a bit longer in the airport. After hoping to fix the plane quickly and continue with the flight, they decided to bring an empty plane down from Dallas to pick them up and bring them to Costa Rica.
As a result of all this drama, they ended up arriving at 3:30am in the morning of the next day. Jose and I had pretty much stayed up the whole night waiting, lying around a bit, watching YouTube videos and dozing off at times. But at 3:30am we were there at the airport receiving the family, minus Guisella who had decided to sleep with the knowledge that she would have to be the first one up that day to get a breakfast prepared. It was very nice to finally have the family here, especially now with all the worrying that their little drama caused. All the luggage was piled into the back of the van and we headed home with the rest of my family. As we arrived home Guisella popped out of her room just for a second to say 'Hola' before returning to bed. The family had showers and a bit of a catch up with Jose, despite it not feeling like 2 years had passed, before heading off to bed after 5am.
It was a strange feeling for them to finally be here in the place that I had been staying at alone with Jose's family for the last 5 weeks. Strange but awesome.
I went to sleep happy to have all the families together at last. What a magical thing.
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