Costa Rica 6, Fifteenth Day In Monteverde

Hi Gentle Reader. This is the Dumb Tourist Edition. If you are American, please do not read this post, or if you do, and I know who you are, consider yourself exempt from this sweeping generalization that I am about to make, since I also am aware that you and a lot of other Americans are actually pretty well-informed about things, even if they happen to be in my own dear Canada. So, to get ready for this post, please start by playing this little clip from YouTube, or Rick Mercer Talking to Americans. It is a little bit dated, but still hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZREHsC6eNM Now, on with the show! I got a few things done this morning, changing bedsheets and towels and doing my laundry. I have already mentioned that I am doing almost everything here, short of meals, that I do for myself at home. As well as aleviating the work burden for my hosts and their staff, it helps me feel more at home here, given that I am here for a month. Then, I did a walk to the Cafe Monteverde, where I was joined by a mother-daughter act from Rochester, New York. Very nice, well-educated people, and like many Americans, shockingly (or maybe not so shockingly) ignorant about us, their loyal neighbours to the north. We got into quite an interesting conversation about a lot of different stuff, and for me it was nice having some time to practice my English a bit, since the daughter doesn't speak a lot of Spanish and her mother doesn't speak any. We somehow got talking about Venezuela and the difficult situation there. The daughter (I think she'd be getting on for forty) appears to have swallowed the Koolaid about the problems in Venezuela being all Anerica's fault. I did caution her that, while my own values are very much on the left, that I also see the situation there as being very complex and it is easy for an administration as irresponsible as that of Victor Maduro to play the blame America card, which is only too convenient given how much they stick their nose everywhere it doesn't belong. I didn't bother going further into it because, quite honestly, Gentle Reader, I am here in Monteverde to give my brain a rest from all that. I did not mention to them my friend who is from Venezuela and had returned to Vancouver, this time as a refugee, thirty pounds lighter, and that was weight she did not need to lose, so please let's not blame America for everything, even if they do often deserve it. They do, of course, have some culpability, but the Maduro administration is not exactly innocent, either. We got talking about our own dear prime minister. They didn't even know that he is Pierre's son, nor that his dad was prime minister for most of fourteen years spanning from the late sixties to almost the mid-eighties. Sheesh! I was a complete gentleman about it, and gracious, and took great care not to roll my eyes, not even once, nor to affect any sarcasm or irony in my tone of voice. It wasn't easy, and I think I deserve an Oscar or at least a Palm d'Or for my performance. Then there was that other, presumably American, tourist just outside, seated on a near lifesize statue of a horse, and wearing a Santa Claus hat, surrounded by four or five of his buddies, all of a certain age, which is to say, not much younger than me. I said to them first in Spanish "¡Valgame Dios! ¿Están emborrachados?" or, Oh my God, are you guys drunk? They insisted, laughing, that they were not, but I don't really believe them. Later on while seated on a bench at the lookout point, a young Latino couple joined me and we had a nice little chat in Spanish. I could tell by their accent that they are not from here, and it turns out they're from Mexico and El Salvador, and they think their accents are better than the Costa Rican, though I don't think so. We did agree that the Cubans are scarecely understandable, and that a lot of Spanish people should be ashamed of their horrible Spanish, given that they claim to be God's appointed custodians of the Spanish language. So, it's been kind of a fun day, not without irony, and, really, I ought to cut slack for other tourists, given that I as once an inexperienced traveller myself, and boy, was I ever dumb. I'm sure that none of you are surprised to hear this, duckies.