Costa Rica 6, Twenty-Second Day In Monteverde

It's really starting to feel like it's time to begin wrapping up. I return to Vancouver next Thursday, in less than a week. After I did my laundry today, I packed all the clothes I will not be needing for the rest of my stay here. Sleep has been a bit sketchy the last three nights or so, but still better than when I'm at home, so I am getting the rest that I've been needing. Nothing terribly unusual to report today. I stopped in the Cafe Monteverde and enjoyed chatting with some of the staff. We were comparing currencies and we have agreed that Costa Rican and Canadian bills are equally pretty. When they saw the Queen on a twenty they thought it strange that Elizabeth would be the queen of Canada, a fully independent country, as well as the queen of England. I could only agree, but since that is not the focus of this blogpost, perhaps I will leave it for you, Gentle Reader, to give youselves a headache over this little matter, should you so choose. Then I was joined by a couple of ladies of a certain age from California. They are part of a hand-drumming circle and they have been here in Monteverde for the past five days. One of them was also very apologetic about President Dump and the way he is impacting our dear little Canada. I told her Prime Minister Trudeau's (the elder Trudeau, I mean, against whom his dear little son is but a feather weight, and a bit of a feather brain) description of Canada being like a mouse in bed with an elephant (the elephant being the USA) so that everything that happens in the US is going to also strongly impact the True North Strong and Free. We also agreed that California, along with Oregon and Washington State, seem to have more in common with BC than with the rest of the US, and I am not taking that idea any further, at least for today. I did mention to her, in passing, that Monteverde is not about the Quakers, it is about the Ticos. The reason I said this is that the Quakers who first came here get a lot of the credit for the part they played in helping create the community here, and they do deserve some praise, and their influence has been positive, or at the very least, benign. That said, they are still foreigners, and even if they are benevolent Americans, they are still Americans, and even if unconsciously and with the best of intentions, they still carry perhaps unconsciously something of American Expansionism and I can't help but suspect that, even unwittingly, they have brought with them here a kind of, shall we say, innocent cultural imperialism. But when I first visited here in 1994, with practically no Spanish, I was at first seeing Monteverde through the lens of the American Quakers, and that's when I knew that I would have to learn Spanish, to speak it properly and fluently, so that I could return here one day and learn some of the stories of the actual Ticos, the Costa Ricans who have lived in this place for generations. I have not been at all disappointed and getting to know some of the local people here has really broadened and enriched for me my perception of this wonderful place. My awareness of Monteverde has also been somewhat demystified and disenchanted, but I think in a good way, because for me Monteverde, San Luis and Santa Elena have really been humanized, now that I have a little more awareness of the complex family and kinship networks that make up this fascinating community. And the American Quakers have truly added something, especially those who have intermarried with the local people, not to mention their many other economic and cultural contributions, with the cheese factory and the Quaker school, for example. It's been an unusually hot day today, but walking has still been enjoyable. I think I am becoming so spoiled by all the cool and interesting local people and visitors I have been meeting and talking to here, and it might be a bit of an adjustment returning to Vancouver and having to acustom myself again to being ignored by everybody.