Fifth Time In Costa Rica, 30

I am in Alajuela, the airport town. Tomorrow morning I fly out to Vancouver. As usual, I didn´t sleep well the night before. The owners of the bed and breakfast were kind and made me a full breakfast at 5:30, my usual at the Mariposa, pancakes, fried eggs, fruit and orange juice. They called me a cab (no, they didn´t tell me you´re a cab). At the bus station I ran into the couple who helped me when I got lost on their property last year when I was on a hike in the área. They are expat Americans who raised their kids largely in Monteverde. I ended up sitting with the wife on the bus and we had quite an interesting and enjoyable conversation about Costa Rica, Monteverde, and perspectives around immigration and integrating into new cultures. It got particularly interesting when the subject of voluntourism and western arrogance came up. You know, the notion that the West has all the solutions to the world´s problems, even down to painting their bathrooms for them because we think we can do a better job of it than they can. Our eyes tend to glaze over when we are told that they are perfectly capable of solving their own problems with their own resources and ingenuity, because since it is their country, they are going to have the best possible ideas and insight into what is needed. The long, narrow, steep and winding dirt and gravel road that goes down away from Monteverde is a rough drive of almost an hour and a half, This place is really remote and travelling that road is not for the delicate. Just like last year I was feeling nauseous from mild motion sickness, and when we stopped at a local restaurant for a fifteen minute pitstop I felt hugely relieved to be standing on firm and stable ground again. The drive down is not a pretty sight in the dry season. This road isn´t paved, and there is a greyish-white coating of dust on everything, plus, a lot of the trees and shrubs appear defoliated or almost defoliated, rendering a bleak and very apocalyptic vision. And very different from what we would expect to find in Monteverde. I dozed lightly for the next three hours or so on the bus, got out at the airport, where I took a cab to the bed and breakfast. It has been very hot today, around thirty or warmer, but I managed to get in a good four mile walk or so, taking me into a wealthy subdivisión, with big ugly houses and nice quiet streets. Even though the architecture and buildings here tend to be on the shabby and uninspiring side, the flowers and tropical foliage really beautifies the place, but in such a way as to render this place truly beautiful. If the place was already beautifully done up with lovely buildings and suchlike, the tropical flowers and foliage would simply make the place look pretty, which is rather different from this startling effect of beauty that I see here. I otherwise haven´t done much. I spent about an hour or so in a café where I finished a drawing walked around a bit more, then had an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant. I already feel ready to start unwinding, even though it´s just five-sixteen, but I´m going to be up at around four am, if I want to get a decent start on the day. A hug from Alajuela.