Fifth Time In Costa Rica: Wrap-Up

Gentle Reader, I am back now in Vancouver, following a very successful time away in Monteverde. I am hoping that those of you who took the time to read some of my travel blog have found it interesting, entertaining, thought-provoking and educational. My whole experience this time in Costa Rica has been for me all of the above, and more. This has been a spiritual retreat. I found myself living much more in silence than what I am accustomed to in my ordinary life in Vancouver. Even though I had a small clock radio with me, I almost never played it, preferring instead the silence and the sound of birdsong in the day, and crickets at night. And there was no TV in my room. This was also for me a bit of a fast and I lost five pounds during the month I was away. Relying on my hosts to provide me with breakfast, and needing to take other meals and snacks in local restaurants and cafes made food all the less available for idle snacking, plus, I really wanted to keep a tight budget during my stay in Costa Rica. Consequently, I have come home with enough money to give me a bit more of a cushion than usual, and I am contemplating enjoying one or two extra weeks off from work as the weather improves a bit. I also enjoyed (well, not always enjoyed) a phenomenal amount of physical exercise, given the many steep and punishing hills to walk on in Monteverde. Eschewing the use of taxis and local transit (not just to save money but also on principal) enabled me to walk off a few extra pounds. It isn't as though I deprived myself. The breakfasts at the Mariposa were always substantial: eggs, pancakes, fresh fruit, toast, beans and rice, you name it, and I never went away hungry. Likewise the restaurant meals. However, I ate very little of my problem foods such as cheese and peanut butter, and also exercised better than normal portion control. I am already taking up the challenge of trying to maintain this new discipline, while still enjoying my food. This has also been for me an unusually socially intense vacation. I found myself almost every day meeting and enjoying becoming acquainted with people from France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Mexico, Belgium, Italy, the US and even from our own dear little Canada! I also met and had some wonderful conversations with a good number of local Ticos, the Costa Rican people, especially the hosts in the Mariposa where I stayed. I was challenged to question and shelve certain negative stereotypes I have had about some nationalities. Back in Alajuela I even got into a very enjoyable conversation with a Democrat-hating Republican from Texas. He was staying with his big dog at the bed and breakfast on my last night in Costa Rica. When he mentioned something about shooting Democrats I introduced myself as a Canadian whom, if I was American, would likely vote Democrat. We actually became fast friends, and this is also motivating me to really start to seek common ground more with those whom I disagree with and to really consider living more in a spirit of good will and reconciliation, at least as far as possible. I also think that in many cases this can be done without having to compromise on core values and ethics, but it does take flexibility and receptivity and time will tell if I'm equal to the challenge. Speaking of which, receptivity and interdependence have both become for me a kind of twin theme for this trip: staying open to others and to the many new and spontaneous experiences and lessons along the way, and also this prophetic metaphor about interdependence, as evidenced in the complex web of interdependence among the huge diversity of plant and animal species in the Monteverde cloud forest. I also had another look at some of the Americans who decide to live and settle in Costa Rica, this time with a more compassionate and less jaundiced eye. In each case, I was told that somehow they had either run out of options, or there was simply nothing to return home to. In some cases there was a sense of people who had been really wounded and bruised by their lives at home, and were needing a fresh start. Regardless of their ability or lack thereof for integrating into Tico society, they still should be praised for the courage it must have taken to make this kind of transition. This doesn't change my perspective about consumer immigration, by the way, but it is always good to get more of a compassionate scope on why people make some of the choices that they make. I did okay flying home, despite the overcrowding and cramped space on airplanes these days, but that is a First World Problem. Arriving in Vancouver and seeing rain I nearly took a cab home, but before we left the parking lot, I found out that I would have to pay up to sixty dollars for the ride, or nearly double what I was charged last year. This appears to be a scam, and I am going to ask the airport authority to look into it. So, I took the Canada Line home instead, reloading my Compass Card for the month on one of their machines. I walked about a half mile from the station downtown to my home, stopping on the way at Shoppers Drug Mart to buy milk, bread, eggs and cheese for breakfast the next day, and had an enjoyable chat with the check out staff, a very friendly and welcoming face from the Philippines. At home, though exhausted, I restarted my computer, emailed a friend and unpacked, had a snack of some cooked frozen vegetables and Parmesan, then went to bed at midnight. I slept well, about six and a half hours and have been enjoying getting reacquainted with my city following a month's absence. During a couple of long walks today, I was watching all the signs of our delayed spring this year, noting how much subtler and gentler is the natural beauty of my part of the world compared to the sensory-overload of colour, form and diversity in tropical Costa Rica. Very distinct forms of beauty, yet equal in wonder. I cooked and ate my first meal today, and I think I still know how to cook. I had an enjoyable coffee visit with a friend, bought groceries, and also had a pleasant chat with one of the assistant managers of my building whom, it turns out, also speaks Spanish and half our conversation was conducted in the Language of Cervantes. I am still strongly and starkly aware of the dramatic, almost strident beauty of Monteverde, and the image and memory superimposes over my enjoyment of the awakening spring of Vancouver like a loving and luminous shadow. It is nice to be home. It will also be lovely to return to Costa Rica and especially Monteverde for another visit.