And we're back...

Tuesday was an easy day, and our return went as well as could be expected. We had a few errands to do in the morning, and we stopped by to see Michel and Ricardo on the way to the airport, took the little Yaris back, and got to the airport about an hour earlier than we actually needed to just in case we had trouble with Mum's emergency passport.

The Costa Rican exit guards found it acceptable, and indeed they probably see many of them.
Charlotte Airport was not quite as easy. Rob had the very back seat on the plane, and was therefore the last off, and we were in the visitors line at US Customs, which takes the longest, and we were the last through. Then Homeland Security needed to verify Mum's documents, and by the time we did the route march to our check point, it was closed, and we had to dash back to a different check point, then back the other way to our gate, and by the time we got there they were already boarding. But we made it.

The in flight bits of the trip were uneventful - as air flight should be - although due to the storm systems in the US we were in moderate turbulance for all of the 6 hours of flying time, so were unable to get up and move around. Mum and I have a system now. If the flight gets too boring, we order hot tea. This is sure to cause an impromptu weather mass to attack the plane and liven things up.

In conclusion, although this was a business trip, we have fulfilled the purpose and have serious negotiations and finalities and things in the hands of our lawyer for the purchase of Pacific Pulbishing....and we did manage to find time for some firsts...

Mum had never had a pedicure, ridden on a motorcycle, or in 55 years of world travel, been pickpocketed.

I had never seen a crocodile or a boa constrictor outside of a zoo, crossed the continental divide six times in 3 weeks by car, bribed a cop (as DJ so indelicately yet accurately puts it), seen a live volcano, or experienced a tropical storm.

And neither of us had been involved in a high-speed chase!

So back to the world of the mundane. Of soccer games and business meetings, of bills and groceries and laundry. And planning for my next trip in late July or early August.

Aska Banana!

Monday.

I was very proud of our Canadian Embassy today. On Friday, Mum had made a phone call to the emergency number for foreign affairs in Canada, and had been assured that a file would be opened, and that the Embassy in CR would have it first thing Monday morning.

We had a bunch of banking and stuff to do first thing, but we drove into San Jose as soon as possible, and got to the embassy at around 10:45.

Not only did they have a file, but they expressed their opinion that Mum had definately "been through enough" and they did not want to trouble her any further, so they had taken the time to fill out all the forms she would need before we arrived, using the information from her records.

So Mum signed in five or six places, a pleasant gentleman came in and took her picture with a digital camera, and they suggested we go and have some lunch, and come back in an hour or so.

An hour or so later, we came back, and they handed Mum her new emergency passport, good for one trip only, but perfectly acceptable to get us home.

So we made it back to Atenas in plenty of time to meet with our lawyer and have dinner with friends at La Trilla.

All the businessy stuff is now taken care of, so we can relax tomorrow and concentrate on getting the car back, and getting to the airport on time.

Oh, another first for today - I saw a live and free boa constrictor. The gardener at Colinas Del Sol was fishing it out of one of the potted plants on the patio in front of our room. Here is a poorly focused picture of him trying to squeeze the life out of a metal rod. The gardener walked him to the far side of the driveway (about 8' away), and shook him off on the other side of the curb, right next to the stairs we take to get breakfast. The boas, he explained, are good because they eat mice and other pests, but the guests are unhappy if they get to close to the rooms. This one is a baby. Apparently Mama, who we didn't get to meet, is 2.5 metres long.

Kareoke, Costa Rican Style

Los Mangos #2 is...imagine a very large tin-roofed shed, open on three sides, built on a hill in a field. It has a concrete floor that rises with the slope of the field in stages so that there are different levels; there is a bar in the middle, and tables and chairs everywhere else. Ominously, at least in retrospect, there is a massive widescreen projection TV on the back wall of the highest level. As we sat down to order, there were Spanish words on it, turning from yellow to blue as someone sang them.

It is kareoke night.

Spanish songs...I will rephrase that. Songs in Spanish that I have heard sung in Costa Rica, and there are not many, all seem to be slow, sentimental things about love. Or at least the few words that I can get, or translate when I see them, suggest that this is true. There is a guitar or two in the background, gently strummed. And so it was here.

Kareoke in Atenas does not require that the participant get up on a stage; rather a wireless microphone is brought to one's table, and from the comfort of one's chair, one has at it. In the dimly lit, open shed in a pasture with rain drumming out of the night, you cannot always know in whose hands the microphone has been placed. Perhaps relative anomynity confers courage.

Before I say anything else, I must point out that my own skills at singing are non-existent, and that I could not do even half as well as what followed. But at least I know that I cannot carry a tune in a bucket.

Someone had been indifferently wringing the pleasure out of a song and hanging the remains up to dry when we arrived, but not obtrusively so. That ended and we ordered. After some time the man working the kareoke machine got up and passed the torch to some burly Costa Rican men in trucker's caps seated around at table covered in food and beer bottles quite close to us, and it occured to me that we might accidently offend someone. I opened my mouth to say that whatever happened next, we should not laugh; the words never made it out of my mouth.

Afterwards, Jane said that at least, he did manage to hit some notes.

He didn't just hit them, he smashed them bloody to the floor, kicked them while they were down, then backed up and drove over the corpses two or three times. The rest of the time he let sheer volume and toughened vocal cords exuberently beat the thing into submission. He OWNED that song, and never let it forget it.

It was a ballad.

Picture a bull charging out of the gate into the bull ring and straight for the matador, a juiced-up wrestler grabbing his opponent the instant the bell rings and never letting go, a back-alley settling of a gangland feud... and then give up, because this does not do the carnage justice.

Of course I laughed.

I started laughing the moment he slaughtered the first word with a bellow and only stopped some time after he did, my back to his table, shaking, breathless and paralysed. As he sang, I tried to stop when I could focus on the effort; I probably would have bitten my lip through except that he would find a new way to mangle a note and start me off again. He wasn't just handing in a merely adequate performance, he was pouring his soul into the microphone, like Frank Sinatra trying to impress God, but without the humility.

It was worse than laughing in church or at a funeral, unless they have taken to serving beer at either.

If I had a thought, it was mostly about how hard this was going to be to explain in the three or four words of Spanish that I know, that I wasn't laughing AT him, but WITH him, before he gave up clubbing the notes and started in on the bystanders.

Lord he was bad.

I know that as a guest here it is not my place to do anything but avoid Los Mango Dos on kareoke night for the rest of my life, and believe me, this will not be hard. (The food is so good I would gladly eat here any and every other night) The gentleman has every right to sing in any off-key manner he sees fit, and his willingness to do so in public is probably to be commended rather than censured. I don't think any of the other patrons nearly had embarassing accidents while listening; in fact there were others there equally willing to perform as poorly, if without the verve. Sometime afterward, a woman sang, and Jane informs me that that she was musically more incompetent. Perhaps this is true; I lack the skill to judge. She only marginally reminded us of a cat pulled by its tail though a knothole in the barn wall. But at least she wasn't as loud.

Sunday

Sunday...

So we are now at today. A travel day mostly - although Geoff took Gran for a spin on his bike before we left.

We arrived in Atenas after a pleasant but uneventful drive, only to find out that the hotel we had arranged to stay at was no longer a hotel.

This wasn't a problem, as we went to the (only) other hotel in town, now the only hotel in town, and got two great rooms on a hill overlooking the valley. Due to the aforementioned thunderstorm, we haven't yet seen much of what we are overlooking, but there is always tomorrow.

We went out for bocas at Los Mangos Dos, a little bar on the other side of town, where we all ate to capacity for less than $20. I am going to leave it to Rob to describe, as a guest writer, the entertainment at LMD.

The rain has mostly stopped now, Geoff has gone off to Sharyn and Mike's place to stay, and Mum and Rob have both headed for bed. I can hear what sounds like a waterfall somewhere, and there is some sort of a plant nearby which has a fantastic perfume. There are crickets and night birds, and the water on the leaves across the driveway is sparkling like Christmas lights.

I have just been joined by a Gekko. It is about 24 degrees. Sometime, I suppose, I will have to go inside and go to bed, but for now, I think I might just sit outside and enjoy the night.

Saturday

Not as crazy as Friday. Gran was interested in seeing the nearby community of Guaitil, where Rob and I had been on our last trip to buy some pottery. The local people in this town are still making things using techniques passed down for thousands of years. We were given a demonstration of the continuous process of making the pottery by a woman and her niece, and picked up some nice pieces.

On the way we stopped in Filadelfia, and took some pictures of the massive iguanas that live in the parque. Some of these guys are as big as a medium sized dog!

In the afternoon we introduced Lincoln and Deanna to Ocatal, a nearby beach with a little more shade than Coco and some cool looking sand. We lazed around in the water for a few hours and enjoyed the sunshine and perfect temperature.

We ate supper at our studio then went back to La Vida Loca for drinks (soft for most of us) and pool and table tennis. Then back to our place for a late night swim.

I wonder, as Geoff often says, what the rich people are doing.

Friday

Disaster strikes. We started the day calmly enough with grocery shopping and banking. On the way back from the bank we stopped at a fruit stand to by sandia, pina y tamate all fresh from the field.

Mum wanted to take a picture of Lincoln and Deanna buying produce at the stand, so she took her camera out of her purse and tried to line up a good shot. Unfortunately it seemed that everywhere she went there were two women blocking her way. She finally got her picture, but as we were walking back to the car, she realized that her wallet, passport and change purse were all gone from her purse.

She raised the alarm right away, and pointed out the women and their car, which was pulling away as she spoke. I would like to say we dived into the car and took off at high speed, but what really happened is that we fumbled around for a few seconds, with me unlocking the car door with the key from outside, while Rob helpfully locked it again from the inside, decided Lincoln should drive anyway, shifted seats, and THEN took off at high speeds.

In fairness to the little Yaris, it tried its level best, topping out at 145 kph but was no match for the RAV4 which contained the miserable little theives. We kept them in sight for quite a few kilometres, dodging in and out of traffic, but a bus stopped on the road and a number of vehicles coming the other way gave it an opportunity to get ahead, and eventually we lost them.

Lincoln, I must say, has missed his calling. He should have been James Bond. Very few people would have been able to follow that car and keep up as long as he did.

"Well!" says Mum, "Now I know what it's like to be in a high speed chase!"

So the rest of the day was filled to capacity with a visit to the police station, and far too much time on the phone with various credit card companies trying to get things cancelled.

The final tally? All of her credit cards, all of her debit cards, her drivers licence, health card and passport, and just short of $200.

A phone call to foreign affairs in Canada and we now know that we should be able to get documents from the Canadian Embassy tomorrow that will allow us to get home on time.

We ended the day nicely with a BBQ, a walk on the beach, and swimming at Geoff's pool in the rain.

Today we introduced Lincoln to Ruth, who is looking for a database programmer for her children's book project. We also made agreements which will become a formal purchase of her publishing company. Bonnie, Ruth's Mom and business partner fed us coffee and cake (again) and we headed out, feeling like a great job had been well done.

We decided to take the southern route through the mountains to the coast and avoid the San Ramon/Esparza construction, so we stopped in Atenas for lunch, and to try and find a cable for the ipod. We ended up leaving Atenas later than we would have liked, so we had only made it about two thirds of the way back before it got dark. With the darkness came the torrential downpours, of course, so I got to drive once again in a pitch black waterfall on unfamiliar roads that often don't have lines painted on them. I had loads of fun!

We got back in time for a BBQ at Geoff's, and a swim. Rob and I moved out to our own place. Sadly a horribly dirty room at Ruby's with visible mold growing on the bathroom walls and a bed that felt like a slab of concrete with a blanket on it. Yuck.

We had originally planned to stay for three nights, because it was supposed to only be $30 per night - but one night was enough. On the way out, they told us it was actually $40, because there were two people. That was really the last straw. "Nope" says I, "We were told 20 dollares, no 20 mil colones. And that was that.

Lincoln and Deanna have rented a studio apartment at the Green Forest, and we had been told we could stay in one ourselves for $50 per night. Turns out it was actually $35. Beautiful!

This has been a most interesting few days. I am currently sitting outside on the little deck in front of our hotel room that overlooks the mountains. We are in the middle of a thunderstorm, and the lightshow is spectacular. An almost ethereal way to end the day.

Since I am trying to summarize quite a few days, I am going to break this up into shorter posts...

Wednesday morning I left Playas del Coco at around 8:00 a.m. to drive across to San Jose. Rob, Lincoln and Deanna were flying in at 1:40, so I had plenty of time to make the drive, even allowing for a couple of stops. The majority of the drive was wonderful. I elected to take the "back road" down the peninsula and across the puente that crosses the gulf of Nicoya when it is still really a river mouth. It is a fascinating view, and seemingly one place where you could get both a sunrise and a sunset over the water. Rejoining the highway of the Americas after about an hour and a half slowed my pace somewhat - but the scenery is unbelievable and the weather was perfect.

Turning in from the coastal highway to go east into San Jose I ran into a bit of a snag. At this stage the highway crosses the first half of the continental divide, so the roads are winding and steep. The highway about halfway up had been narrowed to one lane for construction, so it took me about an hour and a half to cover the 42km between Esparza and San Ramon.

Just past the contstruction I was pulled over for speeding. Wow. To pay a speeding ticket in Costa Rica, you must first take the ticket the next day to the Banco de Costa Rica in the capital city of the province that charges you - in my case Puntarenas. Then, the kind officer said, you must take the ticket, stamped by the bank, and drive the 120km to San JOse, to have it validated by the Court of Justice. All of this, of course, was explained in Spanish.

"No,no,no" says I, "No puedo ir a San Jose la manana mismo, voy a Guanacaste!" (I am unable to go to San Josa the day after tomorrow, I'm going to Guanacaste). After a few minutes of confusion, I asked if I could just give the money to him, and have him look after it.

"Of course!" says he. "If we do it that way, I can give you a discount!" Quite the bargain, I think. I paid half as much for the ticket, he took care of the red tape by not ever taking it off the spool , and he gets some extra cash to feed the family. Possibly as much as he would normally make in three days. I like this system. The purpose of the ticket, which ostensibly at least is to get everyone to slow down, is fulfilled, I don't have to waste the rest of my trip running after a ticket, and the officer gets a well deserved bonus. Everyone's happy!

The rest of the trip went without incident. I made it to the airport one minute before their plane landed. The heavens opened and produced a wonderful thunderstorm for my entertainment while they were going through customs and immigration, and all was well.

We ended the night at Michelo's again, where Rob, Lincoln and Deanna got to meet Michel, Ricardo, Carla, and, of course, Max.

Not too much going on today. We did some banking and a little bit of shopping. Lazed by the pool a bit, watched a silly movie, and I managed to get a couple of hours of work in.

For a change, we went out for dinner at La Vida Loca, which is a great little restaurant and bar right on the beach. The food is inexpensive for Coco, and really good. The view of the sunset was from the restaurant.

There is something very pleasant about sitting in the open air, eating Mahi-Mahi and watching the sun go down. As Mum says, you could be in the Tropics! Er...

After dinner, we headed for the games area for some table tennis. Mum is far better than me, and actually did quite well against Geoff. Hopefully we will get back there to play again before we go.

We left Geoff there and came back for a quiet game of Scrabble. A much more sensible game for this weather.

Hasta Manana

Sunday was a nice quiet day. As we have mentioned before, Sunday here is considered a family day. The grocery store closes at noon, and the other stores are generally not open at all.

Mum and I went for a drive to see some of the rural areas around Coco. The Four Seasons has a lovely grounds just a little north of here, with beautiful views of the bay.

Unfortunately, they were part of an action to ban access to "their" beach to the people who live in the area, and have been going there all their lives. It is people like the Four Seasons that make for unpleasant relationships between ticos and foreigners like us. Life would be so much easier if everyone could remember that this is their country, and we are the guests.

After seeing the sights and watching the wild ducks, we headed down to Panama (the village, not the country) and went for a walk on the beach.

Soon after we got back the rain started, and kept it up for most of the night.

Our meeting with Ruth went very well. They are a super family and we had lots of fun.

We had great weather heading back through the mountains and made really good time coming home.

The pacific coast still shows the signs of the flooding. Roads are covered in dirt, occasionally there will be the remnants of trees or rocks on the side that had been washed across the road, rivers and streams are still quite high. Overall though, things are back to normal in the Coco area. Power and cable are back, and the water is running again.

We had a quiet day at home today, mostly because Geoff left right after lunch with the keys to the Condo (again) so we couldn't lock it to go anywhere. I spent most of the day alternating between the pool and the reclining chair beside it. It was too hot to be indoors.

Tonight Eddy, Ruby (Eddie's dog) and Mike came over for a BBQ, and we ate in the Rancho. Geoff makes fantastic burgers, Eddy brought cake and icecream and Mike brought watermelon and sulfite free wine! Yum.

Hasta manana!

Unprepared.

It was still raining when we went to bed last night. Watching the news in San Jose we are starting to get a real idea of what this storm has done. Hanging around off the Central Pacific coast for a couple of days, it has dumped enough rain on us that there have been neighbourhoods flooded out, and many major roads closed.

Rivers are overflowing their banks and rising right up to the bottom of bridges. The road to Atenas from Jaco was closed a couple of hours after we drove on it due to a flash flood that washed a section of it into a river. A chunk of the road to Manuel Antonio from Jaco (a trip we decided not to make because of the rain) was washed into the ocean yesterday, and the town Quepos, built below sea level, was floating in water past knee level. The storm finally made landfall yesterday afternoon, around 45 miles north of Coco, and should now move north and loose impact as it moves across land.

We will be having our meeting with Ruth this morning, as last night's weather was too nasty to go driving around in, and then we are heading back to Coco, where the forecast over the next few days is rain, rain, rain and thunderstorms.

Pura Vida.

Another day in Paradise.

It has been raining steadily now for 24 hours. Our goal of researching Jaco, finding the competition for our little publishing company and getting a feel for the place has been a bit difficult to reach - but we have done a lot under the circumstances.

We met Daphne today - a wonderful person who has lived and worked here for 13 years. It would have been a far more comfortable meeting if I had not literally been dripping wet, after slipping off a curb and landing in an inch and a half of water, but overall it seemed to go well. I am a bit nervous, because first impressions are important, and I think she is one of the company's most reliable and loyal customers - but not much to be done about it now.

We are in the middle of a tropical depression, and a "Yellow Alert" has been issued for flash floods and so on causing dangerous driving conditions. Dangerous here could mean that your car is in danger of being washed off the road into the ocean, as happened to one young family a few days ago. In any case, our research for the day has left us full of anticipation and excitement once again. This looks like a well established and wonderful little business, and we are really looking forward to meeting Ruth and getting down to the final discussions tomorrow.

Aska Banana!

Jaco

Of course, one of the things to consider when travelling to Central America, is that the infrastructure is not always...well, structured.

Our day yesterday began with a big panic job for a client for me, and a morning of golf in the rain for Geoff. We had to meet up with our new friend (and we hope client ) Daphne, so we had a strict timeline, to work, pack and do all the householdy things that need to be done before you leave a place in the tropics for a few days - like take out the garbage, for example.

Half way through the morning, in the haze of my panic, I noticed Gran heading up the stairs with a pop bottle, and a coconut water bottle. Both filled with water. "???" I asked... "There's no water upstairs" says Gran. And I went back to work.

Shower time for me. The water was on and my work was done and all was well with the world. So I hop in, get all lathered up, but Shampoo in my hair, and the water stops. "Um." I said intelligently. It is really amazing how much water a pop bottle holds. I was only somewhat sticky with soap when I got dressed.

The plan included us picking up Geoff at the golf course on the way out of town. This plan was thwarted by our inability to find the keys to the condo, and therefore our inability to lock the door. I went off to get Geoff by myself - therefore delaying us by 40 minutes or more, only to find he didn't have the keys either. Turns out he had left them in the laundry room door.

Our very strict 1:00 leaving time became 2:30 by the time we finally got away, meaning we arrived in Jaco in the dark. And the pouring rain. The approach to Jaco being a two lane road from the mountains to the ocean.

Daphne's daughter met us in town, and led us to Ruth's house (the other complete stranger that is becoming a good friend). We have never met, but she has generously let us have her house for a couple of nights. Unfortunately her house comes with two cats, and Mum and I are now in a hotel.

Jaco

Tamarindo was a lovely drive from Coco, and is a much more developed area with a boardwalk and sidewalks on the streets. It is well known for its good surfing. The internet cafe was very nice - updated computers and little air conditioned rooms for private international phone calls.

A lot of competition though, we saw 4 other internet cafes in our walk and drive through town. Once we were back in Coco, we decided to take a walk down to the beach to see the sunset. For about half of the year the sun sets behind the hill. Of course it's rainy season now, so we often don't get to see the sun set at all. The clouds filled in before the sun got close to the horizon. That's it for today, early call tomorrow.

The Weekend

Over the weekend we have been relaxing and enjoying the area, playing Scrabble and watching eighties music videos.

Friday we did very little. I worked all day while my faithful staff lounged in and by the pool. Excitement for the day included buying and cooking fish for dinner. Later on we wandered downtown and took a walk on the beach, ending up at La Vida Loca. The fantastic little restaruant and bar owned by Jimbo. Getting there requires a walk across this excellent little bridge.

Saturday we went into Liberia to check out the market and pick up a few things. We were routed about 20 minutes out of our way by a peaceful protest. Apparently the municipality is laying water lines from the nearby town of Sardinal, and the people who live there are afraid that they will be short on water in order to provide it to the greedy Gringos in Coco. On Thursday their protest had turned a little nasty, and Saturday there was a sizeable police presence.

Today we took a short trip to Playa Hermosa, and Geoff and I went for a swim. Sunday is family day in Costa Rica, so the beach was well attended by entire families, Grandparents to toddlers, all out enjoying the sun. It is currently rainy season, and as is predictable the clouds moved in in the early afternoon. Eddy and Geoff treated us to supper out tonight at the Coco Palms restaurant - a beautiful place with a large pool in the back and bountiful flowers for the hummingbirds. As is typical, the restaurant only has one wall so the breezes can come in from the ocean. I had teryaki chicken - Gran ordered the fish.

Tomorrow we are off to Tamarindo to see a few small businesses, including an internet cafe.

Travel Day

Today our goal was to drive across the country to the North Pacific coast, and we decided to take the opportunity to see parts of the country we hadn't been in before. This was most definately the scenic route, and the slightly less than 200 km trip took us nearly 7 hours.

The sample of road to the left is fairly representative of most of the drive, with deviations being only those of slope, and degree of curve. We had weather ranging from hot and sunny to black clouds and torrential downpours.

I found Volcano Arenal fascinating. It is an active volcano, and if the weather is right you can see the hot lava blowing out of the top. Today the top was in clouds, but the lush green vegetation on one side and black barren surface of the other were enough to make me plan to go back with a camera during dry season. Mum, of course, has seen Mount Etna erupting, so she was not as impressed.


We drove around the lake and then out to the coast. On one side of the mountains we were in a rainstorm, then over the top and into sunlight. In the shot on the left, we are still under the dark clounds, but you can see the light on the valley below.

We are now in Playa del Coco, and will be taking the next few days to map out the itinerary for the rest of the trip.

Missed Opportunity

Welcome to Hotel Michelo. Undoubtedly one of the best kept secrets in the San Jose area. There is no website for you to look at (although we will be discussing that with them soon), but we have attached a couple of pictures for you. It is very small, only 5 rooms, but with a large pool and an entertainment room that can accomodate 45 people for a party or event. Michel has done a fabulous job converting this large house to a B & B, and originally we were looking at it with the goal of buying it, but our new friend Ricardo jumped in a few days ahead of us. Tonight we are enjoying their hospitality.

Sadly Michel is heading back to his native Quebec next week, after completing the sale of the hotel, but we will be meeting up with Ricardo on the way back through.

We have had a couple of panic moments during our travel today. Somehow we managed to leave my purse in the concourse of the Charlotte Airport, and I made a mad dash run off the plane after boarding had been completed. I had visions of our trip ending before it started, as all my money, credit cards and ID (except my passport) were in it. Thank goodness for Good Samaritans, someone had turned it in, totally intact, to the boarding desk. After aging about 10 years and gaining some new grey hairs, we were on our way again.

Aside from a drunk man pouring coke all over my dress and shoe, the rest of the flight went very well. The car rental happened without incident, and we were here at Michelo's by about 4:30. Michel and Ricardo met us at a local Supermercado, and led us back to the hotel. They had offered to come and pick us up at the airport, and would have been pleased to do so had we not been renting a car.

So here we are. Drinking excellent Costa Rican coffee, eating a quickly home cooked meal (marvellous), tasting Michel's unbelievable soup (muy buena)....

...and getting pedicures.

...and they're off....

So, here we go again. Back to Costa Rica.
Full of expectation and excitement. Before we even arrive we have been offered the hospitality of two complete strangers. It feels good to be back, and we haven't even left yet.

So not much tonight, we have an early call and a shuttle to catch. Our plan for the three weeks is simple. We are going to travel the country in our rented Yaris, and look for investment opportunities. Inexpensive investment opportunities.
Aska Banana! (That's Wendy-speak for see you tomorrow.)