Today is the first birthday, or maybe it was yesterday, for this blog, Content Under Pressure. Since there have been no takers for my invitation for guest bloggers I will celebrate the birthday with selections from my varied travel journals, beginning with a couple of selections from my trip to Costa Rica in 2008:
Hi everyone. It must seem odd that I haven´t even slept one night in San Jose and already I want to tell you about it. Let me begin by mentioning what obstacles I have been having to face by simply boarding an airplane, and this has nothing to do with difficult customs officials. I trace it back to the destruction of the World Trade Centre in 2001. The hype and the way our governments quickly cashed in on the fear and paranoia and how they have tried to drag us all into their cesspit with them I think has left a shadow of fear on all of us. This disaster occured while I was early in my mental health recovery and for me was a huge setback for a while. It wasn´t until I realized last night at Vancouver International Airport that I really wanted to just go home and forget about Costa Rica. I had become afraid of air travel. So, this feels like a push forward for me. The overnight flight to Mexico City was exhausting, and I slept poorly. I waited around for over four hours at the Mexico City airport and nearly missed my connecting flight because I had been given the wrong flight information and I had gotten thoroughly confused about what to do with the landing form they give everyone to fill out before they can enter a country. One official nearly punished me by making me miss my flight to Costa Rica, but then relented at the last minute. On the next plane I was sitting next to a former Vancouverite who now lives and works in Costa Rica. He seems interested in staying in touch so this might be a good first connection. At the airport in Costa Rica, two or three different cab drivers tried to convince me that my driver from the hotel where I am staying wouldn´t be showing up and that one of them should drive me the 25 km to San Jose instead. In Tico, or Costa Rican, style I hedged and delayed and said that if he didn´t show in ten or fifteen minutes I would go with one of them. They would not leave me alone and I kept putting them off with sweet little promises. Eventually my driver did show up, they backed off, and Bob´s yer uncle. My driver and I had a great conversation in Spanish all the way into San Jose. I have been in total Spanish immersion, it feels like, since I boarded the Mexicana jet in Vancouver, but I have been asking for this so I am getting it.
San Jose, on first impression, is quite a jumble, and a jungle. It´s largely quite gritty and grubby, most areas suggest Commercial Drive hybridizing with the corner of Main and Hastings, only way more vibrant and full of life. Dealing with traffic here is a blood sport. I just had a cheap, but good meal at a vegetarian restaurant nearby. My hotel by the way is a dump, but a charming dump. My room is tiny, more like a closet with a a small window, with bare walls. But it´s clean. It is not at all hot here by the way. It´s been overcast today with a little rain. Very much like Vancouver in June. Well, I´m exhausted, I´m going to bed early tonight, once I´ve unpacked a bit.
I think that I've mentioned that this is rainy season in Costa Rica. Today's deluge was like walking underneath a waterfall. I have never seen such rain in my life. I got caught in it. I had just shopped for groceries at a local supermarket, kind of like a small to midsize Super Value. When I got out the heavens were released, and in my ensuing panic I lost my way back to my hotel, so I got wetter. Fortunately I wasn't cold. The thunder was nice too. The Ticos take it all in stride. Later I was exploring downtown and it was like Robson Street for the crowds. I never would have guessed that so many people live in San Jose. Don't let the reports of the good life, or pura vida, deceive you however. There is a lot of poverty here and people often seem desperate to survive. This I have heard is due mostly to migrant Nicaraguans and Colombians and people from other Central American countries, many who have come here as refugees. Everywhere downtown there are sad looking individuals hawking cheap goods on the sidewalk.
This entire city is shabby, and almost everything seems to be in a state of chronic disrepair. You have to watch your feet because in many places there are manhole covers missing and one careless step could lead to a broken leg. The churches in this city are beautiful, Baroque style architecture and comparable to the cathedrals of Europe. I visited three today. The stained glass alone in each took my breath away.
Even in San Jose there are lots of beautiful birds, and wild parakeets abound especially downtown in the park in front of Metropolitan Cathedral. The Ticos don't seem to notice them but I noticed one North American touristy couple really noticing them and I was trying my best to notice them without making it obvious that I was noticing them. Everything wants to grow, despite the city, and there is lush greenery and flowers everywhere.
I don't think that I'd like to live here. Vancouver, I think, will always be home to me.
Aaron |
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