Costa Rica - Known Strangers

The sun sets on our last day...

Our last full day was quiet - we snagged another beach massage and at some point I went souvenir shopping, but overall mostly just spent the day enjoying the pool and ocean and my book :)

I’m mildly amused as always about how we “name” people we don’t have names for, and I always wonder what names others may have for us.  For example, on our block I know for a fact that we are either “Sasha’s people” (I’m used to that one) or “the ones w the yard” 😂. That last one surprised me cause it never occurred to me people would notice or care that.   

At the resort we’ve had a few we branded.  The ones I’ve enjoyed the most are “the tall family” lol - Mom, Dad, and 3 teenage girls.  I sat next to Dad and the oldest daughter on the plane, Mom and the other two were one row ahead.  Somehow we run into them often - at least once a day, sometimes more.  Our massage was right after theirs, one day we were at the same restaurant at the same time, today I bumped into them in the souvenir shop, etc.  I’ve genuinely enjoyed them.  But of the 5, know only one name.  So together they remain The Tall Family lol.

Then we have the Insta-Quartet which Chris branded.  Four women who dress in the same colour each day, who I wonder if might be doing a bachelorette type adventure, but always together, always wearing the same colour and general style, and generally always taking selfies.   

Similarly we have the Purple Family who we met in the airport - they literally branded themselves by wearing purple shirts that said “family vacation, Costa Rica, 2025” 😂 We chatted w them for a while.

There were originally “the good parents” so named unironically because I was impressed by how their young children were behaving and how they interacted w them and allowed them to be kids in a way that wasn’t interfering in any way with the adults around them.  They were rebranded the “Fonthill family” though after talking to them cause, well, one guess where they live (which is all of 15 mins from where we live).

The “wild child” who I adored but don’t envy her parents and she was 100% off on her own adventure every few moments and maybe 3 years old?   😂 her poor parents never got a chance to pause but was highly entertaining from the sidelines and again - not disruptive to anybody except her parents.  I think they’ve prob gone home as I haven’t seen them in a bit.

Big Mama named herself - she sold us the drinks at Conchal Beach and those were the only English words she seemed to know.   She and Chris bonded cause he gave her a tip that she turned into a beer ;).  At the same time as I was chatting w Big Mama to acquire our lovely pineapple drinks, Lobster Guy who had zero English but was working really hard to sell Chris, who has zero Spanish, a lobster ;)

So yeah - just some randomness I’ve enjoyed.  I’ve always enjoyed stories about people I consider “known strangers” (eg - the person you wait next to on the train station platform every morning, or the cashier where you buy your daily coffee, etc etc) - it’s always amusing to imagine what their lives might be, but also - whose known stranger might you be and what is your key identifying feature?

Gratuitous Moriarty picture stolen from the auto-feeder
after he hid from the friend who came to check on the cats