31 January 2015

Friday afternoons in the barrio

A Friday ritual is becoming very popular with the local expat crowd here in Atenas. It started out with just two or three folks meeting at a local neighborhood bar on Friday afternoons to grab a couple of cold drinks, chat for a bit, and then head home before dark. The place is called German's Bar, and it is located in Barrio Mercedes, just at the Y intersection where you turn off to San Isidro and Morazan.

This is a family run business and German (pronounced "Herman") is a friendly fellow in his 60's. He always makes it a point to stop at every table and greet his patrons. This bar is the same place we went to watch, and cheer on, our amazing Costa Rican fútbol team at the World Cup last year.

Some friends of ours, that live just up the road from German's, love to dance. So, they downloaded all the best dance music you can think of from the 1960's up to the 2010's, onto an iPod. This eclectic mix of music includes selections from Santana, Grateful Dead, Shakira, Michael Jackson, Adele, Eagles, etc. They spoke with German and he agreed to let them plug their iPod into the bar's sound system. This gave our friends a great place to dance and enticed German's other patrons to get up and DANCE with them.

Word started to spread amongst the expat community and this Friday afternoon ritual went from just a few folks unwinding on a Friday afternoon, to a full blown party every week. Yesterday there were almost 40 people in attendance. We've been going there regularly for a couple of months, and it's lots of fun to catch up with everyone. The weekly get togethers somehow got named, "FUF," and we'll just leave it to your imagination to figure out what that means.

One of the regular attendees of our Friday get togethers is German's dad, Don Carlos. Don Carlos is now in his 90's 100 years young (He celebrated the centennial in June), and he loves to get out on the dance floor with the "younger" crowd. (UPDATE: Don Carlos passed away in his sleep in January, 2016. He will be missed.)

I thought about taking pictures of the packed house yesterday, but decided it might be best to just say, "What happens at German's, stays at German's."

6 comments:

  1. Nice! Sounds like a "Happening!" Is this the former La Fortuna that used to have Kareoke on Fri nights? I think German better get ready for NEXT Friday! Party, party,party. Enjoy!

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  2. Yes, it used to be called Bar La Fortuna, but German changed the sign a few months ago.

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  3. My husband and I are coming to check out Atenas at the end of April to see if this maybe where we want retire (we live in Florida) and was wondering if the expat crowd still seems to go to German's on Friday afternoons? We would love to get a chance to meet some expats living there. Thanks

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    1. Cari, you can always find some expats between 2 and 5 PM at German's. Sometimes and few as 6, but usually there are between 10 and 30 dancing and visiting. Come join in when you are here next month.

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  4. I am looking to buy a home in Atenas. Not sure if we are retiring, but I want to escape all the chaos of the US. My husband and I are in our 50's, are there people there our age? It sounds like a beautiful place and we are coming down to look at homes in a month or so.

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    1. Like any town, there are folks of all ages.

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