Costa Rica, 2010, 13

Wed., Nov. 24, 2010 at 5:49 p.m.

Well, that´s where I was today.  Wandering between the towns of San Angel and Coyoacan and back  again.  These are two beautiful towns that are now suburbs of Mexico City due to urban sprawl.  If you close your eyes and ignore the traffic you might even get a sense of the kind of ambience that must have persisted in these places over the last four centuries or so.  But don´t close them for too long, otherwise you might never open them again!  This place is full of quaint colonial buildings sequestered behind high walls festooned with bougainvillea, and cobblestones.  By the way the cobblestones are on the street.   There are art galleries, cafes, restaurants, bookstores, churches, cobblestoned streets, flowers, mainly bougainvillea and orchid trees, and I saw maybe two tourists altogether, a couple of Japanese girls photographing each other in front of a church.  I really love the bougainvillea.  The colours of magenta and red are so outrageously loud and strident and  I can´t look at them  long enough.  I stopped in two differrent cafes, one that I used to visit during my first stay here last year.  It is called La Mucca.  It is small with metal wire chairs and round tables.  The wooden seats of the chairs and the table tops are all original paintings, some feature cows, some are abstract, some are just outrageous.  Afterward I walked in los Viveros, which is a huge park with trees and a nursery with lots of walking trails crisscrossing the place. Then I returned to the Zocolo or main square of Coyoacan where I sat in an Italian cafe for an americano.  I was the only customer present.  The place is huge with lots of comfy seats and armchairs.  I chatted afterward in Spanish with the waiter who seemed a bit concerned about the reputation Mexico has for violence.  I replied that as  far as I know, the only homicides involving Canadians all were accompanied by some very stupid behaviour by the victims,  staying out late in places they didn't know well, drinking in  excess, often using illegal drugs.  But the fact of the matter is, I told him, that a lot of tourists seem  to leave their brains in their suitcases, in which case they should not even bother to pack them.  They should stay home.  In the bookstore nearby I made  quite an ironical purchase.  I bought a Spanish translation of ¨Voltaire´s Bastards¨, a book originally written in English by Canadian author and thinker, John Ralston Saul.  Well, it´s been on my list for some time and now I get to read it in Spanish.  I later looked in a bookstore in  San Angel, and nearly bought a very slim and overpriced volume of some stories by Carlos Fuentes, but the wait at the cashier was way too long, so I left the book and bailed.  Also I easily get put off by the strong security presence in some of these stores, such as this one, and the guard in this store seemed like a particularly disagreeable goon, so no thanks.  Less than a block away I came across a street vender with a really nice selection of books.  His prices seen pretty good and he looks like he could use the support, so maybe on Friday when I hope to return there I ´ll buy something from him.

The presence of poverty is pretty obvious.   The organ grinders, and musicians are  present and desperate.  There were three of them, two with snare drums and one with a trumpet playing outside the cafe in Coyoacan.  They were quite good but I had already exhausted my budget for giving alms.  Then when I was on my way back to the  bed and breakfast there they were again on the same block.  Again I came across families of indigenous people begging or busking for alms.  You really see the impact of poverty and chronic malnutrition in them as well.  They tend to be short, gaunt,  and very crushed looking.   I was able to give a little, and it´s  hard not to feel badly that more isn´t or can´t be done.  As if we don´t have enough of these problems in Canada.

But we do have things pretty good here compared to a lot of other parts of the world.  Still, I always cringe whenever I hear anyone using this as a rationalization for accepting and dismissing our increasing problems with poverty and homelessness.  It isn´t that we don´t have a lot to be grateful for.  We do.  But we should also be aware that we are already slowly starting to lose these things that we tend to take for granted, and do everything we can to see that the wealth of our country is evenly and justly distributed so that poverty and homelessness can become a nightmare of the past.  This is what I felt like saying to a nice, older Vancouver couple also staying in this bed and breakfast right now. Like so many comfortably off Canadians they just don´t have a clue of the desperation at their doorstep, and outside of a couple of vague remarks I had to take care not to lecture them about it.  Anyway, they seem like nice people, even if they did  love the Olympics.  But why diss  them for it, since I was about the only Vancouverite, save for one or two, who didn't  get seduced by our government´s bread and circuses spin.  Also we were drinking wine at the time.  I´m already combative  enough without the influence of alcohol so I cut myself off after one and a half glasses and went up to bed early.  Well, here I am back in front of the computer and nursing yet another glass of red.  I just had a chat with a lady from  California who works in  health insurance. She thinks the US should have a public health system like Canada.  I replied that Canada should have a system like Cuba´s.  No, I am not a communist, I am a nonviolent anarchist, but really, if more North Americans got over their irrational fears about socialism we would likely be living in a much more just and egalitarian society.  This wine is rather good! 

Costa Rica, 2010, 12

Tue., Nov. 23, 2010 at 2:12 a.m.

Well, it´s ten minutes to 4 am and I am waiting for my ride to the airport.  I have been in transit since yesterday afternoon, though getting ready in the morning, it was almost like waiting for someone to die.  The bus ride down the mountain was a bit torturous and a couple of times the driver had to go in reverse in order to accommodate oncoming trucks. I´ve already mentioned that the road is narrow and muddy.  Then I was quite nervous at times about missing my stop because the driver had quite a quiet voice and it was hard to hear him make announcements so I had to change my seat a couple of times to get nearer to the front.  I could lush on in purple prose about all the green scenery, but to tell the truth I´m feeling a bit jaded towards the colour green these days, and green is the colour of jade, after all these weeks of seeing so much of it. As awesome as the natural beauty of Monteverde is, and as slummy as Alajuela where I am right now is, I am enjoying this transition time.  I managed to get around five hours sleep last night, in spite of the noises from the street, and had lots of dreams about travel next year and the year after anyway, so let´s not be surprised if I keep on doing this for a while longer, but in different locations.  I still feel drawn back to Mexico City, which I would also like to us as a base for some of my future travels in Latin America.  Next year, if I´m able to keep all my ducks in order, I´d like to visit the Mayan ruins in Palenque in Chiapas, the southernmost state in Mexico.  I expect to limit my travels to Latin America for a few years anyway because I need these times for Spanish immersion, and it´s also reasonably affordable.

It amazes me the amount of self-discipline and flexibility that one must have in order to travel well, especially on a budget.  I like to think of this as aging well. 

I´ve also had to be fairly inventive about food in the last twenty-four hours because of lack of time or availability for eating in retaurants.  So I packed some bread and cheese and left over Nutella and ganola bars which have been sustaining me since yesterday though I would like to blow a wad on a decent dinner in Mexico City today.  I´ve done well with my budget and may have up to a thousand dollars left over to reinvest in my bank balance.

At this point I´m looking forward to returning home.  I know it´s cold and Vancouver has just had early snow and a cold snap but six weeks away is long enough for this duck anyway.

Tue., Nov. 23, 2010 at 5:01 p.m.

Actually the only thing that has not gone right today has been my level of energy, and small wonder, given that I´ve been up since 2:30 this morning, though I did spend most of my three hours on the plane sleeping, when I wasn´t eating breakfast, well, part of the breakfast since the main course had chicken in it and I´m vegetarian so once again someone either forgot, or just didn´t get the message that there would be a vegetarian on board of Flight 657 Aeromexico at 7 am today.  I was careful not to make  a fuss and the flight attendant gave me an extra  serving of fruit and a croissant so I was still happy.  As far as food idealism is concerned I really often wonder how far I should go when I´m travelling (pun absolutely unintended, but do whatever you want with it!).  So far I´m pretty determined to avoid meat, but also  not to get  cranky just because the cheesecake I ordered has Jell-O on it or whatever.  I did not ask my hosts at the Mariposa if the eggs they were feeding me were free  range (I don´t buy them  at home, too expensive), nor at the grocery store did I try to find out if the avocadoes or the tomatoes I was paying for (here come those damned italics, again) were  grown organically,  or within one hundred miles of the store.  It isn´t worth it.  And forget recycling.  It isn´t done in Monteverde, so I just prayed an extra mea culpa for every can and glass  jar that I contributed to the local landfill.

It is really nice to be back  here in Mexico City.  Not really like coming home since I could never live here, but like seeing an old friend.  The owners and manager of the Red Tree House, where I am again staying welcomed me very warmly and also invited me to the American Thanksgiving dinner they are preparing for their many American guests here this Thursday.   Well, why not.  No one thought of inviting me for Canadian Thanksgiving.  And yes, I told them I´m vegetarian, so no turkey for me but I  can have all the potatoes I want.  I spent most of four hours walking all over and then my knee, the one that I sprained last summer, started hurting, so I should probably take  it easy, but I´m still going  to walk.  I  stopped at the organic place where I used to eat when I was here for a month last year.  Both the waiters knew me right away and welcomed me.  This area, Condesa, of Mexico City, is very beautiful, with lots of trees and cafes and restaurants and also a couple of pretty good bookstore/cafes.  It  is warm and sunny, but there is lots of smog right now.  Right now I´m sipping a lovely glass of red wine (courtesy of the house).

Costa Rica, 2010, 11

Sun., Nov. 21, 2010 at 3:24 p.m.

 This bed and breakfast has turned into Little Amsterdam.  That´s right, we´ve all gone Dutch.  There is a Dutch family of four and a Dutch couple, so being neither Dutch, nor travelling with a family or partner, it made breakfast this morning a little bit lonely.  I wish at this bed and breakfast, which is a wonderful place and I do want to return here, they would just have one big breakfast table so that we all would have to interact and talk to each other more or less, but this place is really more geared for couples and families, but la familia Vargas es maravillosa, or the Vargas family is wonderful and I do hope to enjoy their hospitality again sometime.  The only thing that really did annoy me was when Daddy Amsterdam was playing his radio at the family table from his laptop, thus somewhat dominating and controlling the atmosphere.  Usually there is nice soft music playing here in the mornings.  So, I asked Esteban, in Spanish, because I already know that they don´t speak it, they have only talked to him in English so far, if he could turn the music on.  He sort of acknowledged and ignored.  Then again I said to him ¨no estan la unica gente aca, ¿tal vez toque la musica?¨ (they´re not the only people here.  Maybe you could turn on the music?)Same response.  I have acknowledged that Ticos do passive-aggresion rather well.  Also, there is a kind of unspoken heirarchy of value when it comes to people here.  Families rank on top, couples in the middle and single people somewhere at the bottom.  No matter how much they might otherwise like you.  So, I let it go and kind of glared at Mommy and Daddy Amsterdam.  They likely assumed that it was their kids I didn´t like.  Not at all true, two well-behaved little girls, maybe ages four and seven.  The kind of kids who are able to play, have fun and laugh without behaving like shrieking little savages.  No problem at all.  Eventually the English talk-talk-talk on Daddy´s laptop gave way to some music.  I liked the music (it was techno) and decided to enjoy it and let it go. 

At the Cloud Forest Cafe (actually named Cafe Colibri, or Hummingbird, and this is where they have all the hummingbird feeders and of course the lovely little hummingbirds) I sat down at table with my friend, Alejandro the owner, who was reading a newspaper.  I announced to him that I am leaving tomorrow, then went and got my coffee.  When I returned to the table he basically ignored me and continued reading, so I dug out a book and did likewise.  I am assuming that this could be his way of digesting the news that I am going to be gone and perhaps he might be a little pissed off that I´ve spent so little time in his cafe.  Just guesswork on my part I suppose.  But I knew not to leave the table till after he did, then I went to sit on the love seat, which was a bit awkward because this young man was resting his butt on the back of the seat while waiting for his order.  So I said to him, ¨con permiso, chamaco¨.  (excuse me, buddy) He didn´t move.  Twice I moved the loveseat forward to reach the table easier (ha-ha).  He still didn´t budge.  So, I got over it and just hoped he didn´t have any problems with gas if you know what I mean.  Oh well, you know I´m at the age where it is so easy to turn into a grumpy old man, and I read recently that most men in their early fifties usually start to turn into old grouches, so I am doing everything in my power to resist this trend.  I love a challenge...  And also, these visits to Latin America really do challenge me to be more tolerate and flexible with others.

I had cheesecake at the cafe, only to discover when I sat down to eat it that it was covered in a Jell-O glaze.  Well, I´m vegetarian and Jell-O is made from, of course, gelatin, which is a meat product.  So, I decided it wasn´t going to kill me, it didn´t taste bad, and I just thought of when I was an innocent child and how nice it was to have it for dessert.  Being vegetarian and trying to eat ethically is one thing but there are limits and sometimes one has to decide that it´s not worth making a fuss over.  By the way, I also wear leather shoes, and a leather belt.  And I don´t buy free-range eggs.  Such a hypocrite.

The clouds are really peeing on us today so I haven´t gone very far.  

Even though I´m sure I´m going to miss the beauty of this place there is something about being home for the winter that makes spring worth it.  Also, there is something about winter that I still feel I need to experience every year.  Kind of like a stripping down, a cleansing and purging of nature.  The death that comes before rebirth.  After a while too, all this tropical beauty becomes a bit vulgar and garish.   I kind of like to be away from Canada during Remembrance Day, because instead of being a time to honour, respect and thank the war veterans (and pacifist that I am, I do!) it has in recent years turned into such a pro-military propaganda exercise that I want no part of it. 

I just saw the most glorious sunset ever here, the sky was awash in brilliant golden orange and Luz Mery, the lady who owns the bed and breakfast, watched it together and chatted.  I have promised her that I would recommend her place to others and I am doing this right now.  If any of you ever want to visit Costa Rica and are interested in Monteverde please feel free to talk to me.  Tomorrow afternoon I leave for Alajuela, where I´ll be spending the night, then in the early morning I fly to Mexico City.

Costa Rica, 2010, 10

Sat., Nov. 20, 2010 at 2:57 p.m.

Since I am leaving here Monday I am psychologically preparing for the huge change of environment I am going to encounter in Mexico City.  Though in some ways I could remain here in Monteverde for longer, much longer, it really feels as if my time here is done.  Concerning what I came for here, I´ve got all my ducks are in a row now (I love that expression.)  Following a night full of wind and rain I went walking today out into the sunshine and drizzle, doing the coffee shop hop.  I began in a bakery cafe I´ve never sat in before.  The young man serving didn´t have a clue of what I meant when I ordered, in impeccable Spanish, decaffinated coffee, and then tried to speak to me in English.  I replied ¨Ya has escuchado que mi español es bastante bueno y que puedo hablar mucho ingles en mi pais.¨(You have already heard that my Spanish is pretty good and that I can speak as much English as I want in my own country.)  It turns out that he had never heard of decaffinated coffee before, so I got a hot chocolate instead.  Then, near Santa Elena I stopped in a luxury hotel, the Monteverde Lodge where they have an elegant cafe paneled in tropical hardwood with windows overlooking a lovely tropical garden. They respected my desire to communicate in Spanish, and served a lovely cup of decaf espresso.  I was the only customer present.  When it came time to pay it turned out that they didn´t have any Costa Rican currency (only American, go figure!) so they gave me my coffee on the house.  This is a bit interesting to me because the last time I sat in there, 2008, the waiter (a different one) for some reason also gave me my coffee free!  Once again, on my way back I stopped at the Cafe Cabure, for the sixth day in a row for a cup of coffee and their Brownie Dinamita.  I met and chatted a bit with a nice family group from Alaska and no one even thought of mentioning Sarah Palin, which is even nicer!  This cafe seems to have all the features that I love about a cafe: it´s elegant, but the owner and staff are completely unpretentious, it commands a beautiful view of the surrounding nature that can be enjoyed from their terrace, it´s quiet, the prices are reasonable, and the deserts and chocolate and coffee are out of this world.  The only drawback is that from time to time a customer on the terrace might light up a cigarette.  Fortunately I haven´t been assaulted by second hand smoke.

I have mentioned previously that one of my reasons for this trip is spiritual retreat, and I would like to expound on this a bit, if I may, with all due respect to those of my readers who are atheists (just grit your teeth and bear it, this won´t be long).  I have come to realise through this trip just how much and how profoundly my Christian faith has come to influence my life and my activities.  For example, the interest I have in the people as well as the natural beauty of this place seems to spring out of my love for Christ, and the influence of his love influencing me to love others.  This is also why I seem to do well in my profession as a mental health peer support worker, it is this presence of love that seems to be increasingly suffusing my life and the things that I do.  This isn´t to say that I don´t respect other faiths, I do, actually to the point where I feel rather like an honourary Sufi (Sufiism is a kind of mystical Islam.  Whereas orthodox Islam states that there is only one God, the Sufis say that there is ONLY God.)  It is my belief that anyone who loves or lives in a state of love has also been somehow touched by Jesus Christ, making them like honorary Christians, I suppose.  Just like when I am meditating it could make me an honorary Buddhist, or if I am praying five times during the day, an honorary Muslim, or if I am struggling and arguing with God (as I often do), an honourary Jew, when I am perceiving God in Nature, I´m an honourary pantheist, when I am focussing on humanistic values perhaps I´m even an honourary atheist.  I am not a synchretist (someone who believes in the unity of all religions.)  To me each religious faith is something distinct and unique.  However I also believe strongly that we all have things that we could learn from other religions.  I also believe that every religion, especially my own Christianity, is a poor and in many ways inaccurate and misleading reflection of its founder. 

Okay my atheists, that´s all the religion you will hear from me for a while, anyway, and now you can relax and breathe easy.

By the way, my offer of a free small bird painting in exchange for dinner out together is still valid for all who qualify!

Costa Rica, 2010, 9

Aaron Zacharias <pajarohermoso@yahoo.ca>

To:pajarohermoso@yahoo.ca

Mon., Nov. 15, 2010 at 4:20 p.m.

Yesterday I wandered into a part of Santa Elena that I hadn´t seen before.  Except for yours truly and a Gringo couple seated at the one outdoor table of the soda (cafe) where I was sitting with a cold drink and writing in my journal, the place seemed the most authentically Tico part of Monteverde that I have yet seen.  I found it by accident.  There is this very steep road where I stayed at a bed and breakfast during my last stay here that I decided to explore and the road just wound and meandered this way and that till I didn´t have a clue where I was.  But eventually I found my way back to where I am currently staying.  Today I sat in Cafe Argentina which is also a bat museum.  There are guided tours to see live bats of Costa Rica but I probably won´t bother since they are not among my favourite flying things.  The cafe is very elegant and situated on the third floor of the building with a huge covered terrace and a view.  Since I´ve been very good with my money so far I am starting to indulge a bit more.  Later I walked over to Hidden Valley, the reserve where I went last week.  The fellow who works there, it turns out, is a cousin of the family that owns the bed and breakfast where I am staying.  It seems that almost everyone here is somehow related and the family ties and links of kinship are very strong in this society.  He showed me a troup of Capuchin monkeys in the trees next to one of the buildings.  They are very tame and trusting around humans.  They look very, almost disconcertingly, human themselves and they seemed very comfortable with us standing just two or three feet from them.  Suddenly one of them started shrieking like a demon in hell and then we saw that he was looking in the window where he had seen probably for the first time his reflection.  Kind of like us, eh?  The walk was lovely, looked at birds and yet more leaf-cutter ants.  Saw another cow parade on my way back and then a perfect stranger (an ex-patriot New Yorker who has lived here for the past five years) was kind enough to offer me a ride the rest of the way back to my bed and breakfast.  Yesterday I saw an oriole.  The one featured below may not be the correct species but it´s pretty close to what I saw.  The bird was elusive and hard to see, but this is to be expected.  They like to feel safe and the way some bird-watchers will go to any extreme to look at them borders on being creepy.  It´s not like they´re going to flash their bling to anyone who wants to see them and sing out ¨Look at me!  Look at me!  Aren´t I beautiful!?¨          Here´s another beauty that I saw today:     This a Baird´s Trogon.  It isn´t the greatest photo and even the one I saw today wasn´t in the best light to show the beautiful iridescent green in the dark plumage. And now here´s the deal.  This is for anyone on my mailing list who lives in the Greater Vancouver area and has never been given a painting by me (though you might have bought one.)  If either of the bird images you have just seen, or any other colourful (and yes it has to be colourful or I´m not likely to paint it) bird of Costa Rica is something you´d like to see represented in one of my paintings I would be glad to do one for you, small, say, no bigger than 11¨x 14¨.  Or check my website, http://thesearepaintings.googlepages.com and see if there´s something already there that you like.  The cost?  Almost free.  You get to take me out for dinner (not McDonald´s, please, I will choose the place and I promise it won´t be too upscale).  I will even pay the tip.  Yes, this is a serious offer! Thu., Nov. 18, 2010 at 2:53 p.m. This morning I eavesdropped over breakfast on a conversation between two couples who are staying here.  By the way I finally met another lone traveller at the bed and breakfast.  He´s an older fellow from the Canary Islands, named Angel  We had a couple of nice chats but I think he´s gone now.  No one, it seems, wants to stay here longer than three or four days, max.  So one of these two couples was  young newlyweds, likely American, the othe an older, late fifties I would imagine, couple, a British man married to an American or Canadian woman.  I was invisible, as I speak only Spanish here at the bed and breakfast, unless I meet English-speaking people that I really like, so I imagine they assumed that I don´t speak English so weren´t going to waste any time on me (I know, I don´t look Latino, but I could pass for Argentinian or perhaps even Spanish, since not every Spaniard has dark hair and brown eyes.)  Anyway, the English chap was complaining loudly and vocally about being stopped and fined for speeding by Costa Rican police, protesting loudly, indignantly, and one might say, embarrassingly, his innocence.  After this he got on his cell phone and in a loud voice complained to the car rental company about the cell phone they had leased him getting stolen.  Remember, it is assumed that I don´t speak English, and therefore I am invisible.  Afterward he complained about this equally stridently to Esteban.  After they left I asked Esteban for his opinion, and he didn´t seem sure what to believe and we both agreed that since we don´t know the police´s side of the story, maybe we should decide that the jury´s out.  By the way, before I even heard this guy open  his mouth I could have sworn that I was getting really bad energy from him, but that might be simply because his holiday was ruined and he was just upset, so who knows.  Just the same, I warned Esteban that by this guy´s accent I could tell this man is English and that the English for the most part are notorious liars.  And when they are outraged about something they lie even more.  Believe me I know this from lots of experience with the British.  Who knows, maybe this guy just got careless and lost his phone, but is already convinced that Costa Ricans are swindlers and thieves out to fleece him of his precious dollars and pounds sterling?  And this is the kind of attitude some people seem to bring with them here and to other countries.  But I will also give him the benefit of the doubt.  Perhaps he was swindled by the police, and maybe someone did steal his cellphone.  And maybe he already has rather a sour and bitter attitude, which we all know, can make one all the more vulnerable having to misfortunes with others. Anyway, this leads me to expound here about    AARON´S BASIC RULES OF TRAVEL:   1. Leave your ego at home.  If you travel with an attitude of humility you are going to learn more, appreciate more, enjoy more, meet some awesome people, and perhaps even make a few new friends.   If you don´t have humility, then you are likely going to learn it on your trip!   2. Prepare well.  Give yourself at least six months in advance to make up your mind and do extensive research on the places you want to visit.  Create a realistic budget.  Try to get flight and hotel reservations done at least three months in advance.  Search the Internet both for traveller reviews and to learn as much as you can about the culture, the political social and economic situation, and the risks of where you want to go.   3. Try to learn at least a bit of the language.  The longer your stay, the more you are going to need this skill.  People will respond better to you and will respect you more if you try to meet them on their ground.   4. Think of yourself as a guest in someone else´s home.  Wipe your feet before you come in.  Treat every person who lives here as if they were your host.  If your expectations aren´t met, have the dignity to not whine about it.  If you are a male, treat women and children with respectful distance.   5. Don´t flash your bling.  Dress modestly, leave expensive jewelry, watches and clothes at home or at least in your suitcase.  When eating out or taking a cab tip generously but not excessively.  I think fifteen per cent is adequate.  That´s what I try to tip when I´m in Costa Rica or Mexico City and no one has batted an eye so far.   6. Leave your wallet, credit and debit cards, travel documents, and all but the cash you need for the day, in the hotel safe.   7. Behave yourself.  If you drink alcohol do it in moderation and if you like to go out in the evenings try to be back in your hotel before midnight.  Limit your intake, to no more than three beers, or, two glasses of wine, or one highball.  And whatever you do don´t use illegal drugs and stay away from other travellers and locals who do use them or sell them.  And absolutely do not try to sex up the locals.  Not only is it tacky and ungracious but it can carry all sorts of other risks that I´m sure I don´t need to elaborate on here. If you want to get laid, then travel with a significant other, or with a bff (best friend with benefits).  Or hit on other tourists (just make sure that they´re already single and interested.)   8.  Don´t travel in a pack.  The place where I stayed in San Jose two years ago was overrun by a locust horde of young backpackers from Austria.  There must have been seven or eight of them.  They took over the place, were loud, obnoxious, and everyone smiled when they were finally gone. Try to travel in no more than a group of three, unless you are going as a family.   9.  Remember, that people live where you are.  They´re all going about their lives, their work, their families and their education the best way they can.  Be aware of them and cut them lots of slack.   10.  If you want a really authentic travel experience, then stay away from chain hotels, all-inclusives and cruises.  Try to stay in bed and breakfasts or private homes if you can.  You will meet more local people and if you can leave your consumerism at home you will likely have a very rich experience here.  Try to avoid tour groups if you are able and walk as much as possible or use local transit.

Costa Rica, 2010, 8

Tue., Nov. 9, 2010 at 6:07 p.m.

Hmmm...I knew that would get your attention.  Actually, I´ve been ruminating lately about how I seem to be the only solitary traveller I have met in this bed and breakfast.  The rest are all couples, and this is so unlike my experience of Mexico City last year where I met tonnes of lone travellers as well as couples, groups and families.  It makes me wonder what it must be about this bed and breakfast where I´m staying, or maybe it´s a feature about Monteverde and the Cloud Forest.  Sort of like a romantic get away and what can be more romantic for some people, I suppose, than the jungle?  Think Tarzan and Jane...and Cheetah? Nope, better leave him offset for a while.  Reward him with extra bananas.  Boy, too.  Most of the couples here seem pretty wrapped up in themselves and each other and of course I would not dream of disturbing them, as long as they do their couple thing quietly and don´t otherwise frighten the horses, or the sloths, or the parrots or the monkeys. This all works for me because I´m here essentially for solitude.  This trip has taken on the dimensions of a retreat, as I expected, and I feel that in some essential ways I am getting my ducks all in a row here.  I sometimes wonder, too, if this is why so many people who come here, come here for only a short time, perhaps three or four days at the most.  Once they´ve seen the jungle and the lovely birds and strange animals there really isn´t much else to do here, unless you want to really know this place and the people who live here.  And if you are willing to give the extra time to know yourself and where you are going in life.  Not easy, and small wonder few of us are usually equal to the task.  But, speaking for myself, it needs to be done and it´s getting done. The weather is hugely improved by the way, sunshine today and yesterday, nice temperatures. Thu., Nov. 11, 2010 at 2:54 p.m. I walked into Santa Elena today to buy nail clippers.  While the rain was falling nonstop the humidity was so intense that the ones I brought here with me disintegrated.  I had to cut my nails with my hair-cutting scissors (for those of you who didn´t know, I have been cutting my own hair for the last twenty-eight years.  I bought the scissors in a drugstore in Edinburgh in 1991.  One of the best investments I ever made.)  I stopped in the Ranaria, or the Froggery, as I call it, which is basically a frog museum and information centre in Santa Elena.  I unfortunately didn´t get beyond reception.  First of all they wanted twelve dollars for the privilege.  Well, if I want to look at frogs I could always go to Quebec.  Ooh, that was a bit politically incorrect, wasn´t it.  Reminds me of my first visit here to Monteverde in 1994, when I was sharing a table with a variety of folk in a cafe.  Two of them were from Quebec.  A visiting Mexican innocently asked what part of Canada Quebec is in.  I not so innocently replied, ¨Oh, somewhere in the centre.¨  The Quebecois girl went ballistic and I had to tell her not to worry about it, since I´m from Vancouver where we don´t really worry about Quebec and separatism and where the second language is Cantonese, not French.  Anyway, back at the froggery, I mean the Ranaria, where I decided to pay anyway, and offered the fellow a ten thousand Colon note (equivalent in value to a twenty dollar bill)  He didn´t have any change.  All I had besides was three thousand colones, leaving me short by four hundred colones (confused yet?  Don´t worry, so was I for the first three weeks here).  He tried to speak to me in English, assuming that I´m a unilingual American.  I replied in Spanish until he figured it out, then he suggested I go somewhere to find change and come back.  Twelve bucks to look at a bunch of frogs?  Don´t think so.  I went for an extended walk instead to see parts of Santa Elena I hadn´t before (italics not intended, blame this computer) Lots of hostels, cheap tourist hotels and guest houses lining the rubble roads here.  I ended up in the pharmacy where the pharmacist appeared perplexed that I was speaking to him in Spanish but I finally got a nice pair of nail clippers for the equivalent of eighty cents. They just finished playing on the stereo next to this computer ¨One Night in Bangkok Can Make a Hard Man Humble.¨ Hmm...I wonder if there´s a message in this for me. Yesterday I visited another forest reserve.  This is the least expensive, only five bucks Canadian, and worth it and more.  Saw lots of leaf-cutter ants carrying their little bits of green leaf pieces like proudly hoisted banners in a parade.  Fascinating creatures.  I believe I explained in my previous visit here that they take the leaves back to their colony where they all chew it up together and grow this lovely lace like fungus that they eat.  God, Nature, Evolution, what ever you want to call it (I use all three names, myself) is something marvellous, eh?  I really felt nervous with the poor little ants because they were everywhere and I didn´t want to step on any of them, leaving me feeling like a neurotic Janist (a Hindu sect that regards all life as sacred and they certainly go out of their way not to step on ants).  On my way back, on the road I saw what appeared to be a moving drawing of tributaries of a river delta, then I realized it was an ant colony migrating.  Fascinating, there must have been seven columns of them and they looked rather like a map of the Nile Delta.  Today, on my way back to the bed and breakfast, I saw some howler monkeys, three of them crossing the road by means of the tree branches overhead.  I tried to watch from a discreet distance, as they have been known to urinate and defacate on people and throw branches at them.  Pretty grumpy, eh?  They´re bigger than Capuchin monkeys, less agile and kind of ugly if you ask me. Well, this is all I´m going to bore you with for now. Fri., Nov. 12, 2010 at 3:11 p.m. Today I went back to Santuario Ecologico, one of the smaller reserves that I visited previously last Monday, since I only had time and energy to explore half of it the first time.  It did not disappoint and I sat for a while at an improvised picnic table overlooking the forest and the valley writing in my journal.  There are lots of agoutis (a large, beautifully coloured rodent, sort of like a cross between a rabbit and a deer, but with small ears, no antlers  and maybe a bit bigger than a rabbit.  They are a rich golden brown colour and quite timid.  Lots of coatimundis as well.  I think I already discribed them, like a brown raccoon with an extra long tail and extra long nose.  After a while the silence was kind of ruined for me by the sound of snare drums in one of the schools nearby.  Then I reminded myself that I am in their country and that I have no right to expect that things are going to ordered specifically for my enjoyment.  I learned afterward from Esteban that there are a few student drum bands in the area and they are likely practicing for some celebrations next month, likely related to the Christmas season.  I also visited the Butterfly Museum again, first time since my last stay here in 2010.  A young American woman from Oregon who is here studying environmental sciences gave me a very extensive and informative guided tour, showing me live tarantulas, a small scorpion (apparently they have infrared vision so that to each other they are a bright lime green colour, which is how they show under infrared light.  I learned about the asthma bug, a small bug that has been successfully used in the treatment of asthma.  Apparently over a course of several days or weeks you put a couple in a glass of milk and drink it. You do this every day, gradually increasing the dose, and the antihistimines that they release is supposed to treat the asthma.  They have a strong, peppery taste which is why birds avoid eating them.  She invited me to taste one but I declined because I´m a vegetarian.  I saw again the giant hercules beetle, which is one of the world´s largest insects, about five inches long with a huge horn growing out of its head.  Apparently the mails use their horns in combat over females and will use their horns to slice off their combatant´s head.  I learned more about the leaf cutter ant.  They have a colony on the premises and I saw the fungus that grows out of the leaves that they chew up.  When they are walking with their pieces of leaf, smaller ants often piggy back and inspect the leaves for quality control, and any leaf that is flawed or blemished they will discard before it reaches the colony.  Also they are so interdependent that if the queen dies, the entire colony dies because the many pherenomes that she releases helps keep them alive and oriented.  I again saw the beautiful jewel scarab beetles, which are pure iridescent gold in colour.  She then took me out into their four butterfly gardens with a couple of containers with butterflies in them that had just emerged from their chrysalis indoors, and I got to release them into the gardens.  I could swear that I could see joy in their flight as they flew into their new freedom.  I learned more about the blue Morphos, which are kind of like the rock stars because of their huge size and their stunning iridescent blue colour.  They´re alcoholics!  They feed on rotten fruit and the alcohol content makes them all sozzled so they have this wonky kind of flight, kind of like they´re staggering in the air.  I wonder if a twelve-step program would help. On the way back I saw a cow parade on the road, some thirty or so dairy cows walking from one pasture to another, carefully avoiding cars and pedestrians.

Costa Rica, 2010, 7

Thu., Nov. 4, 2010 at 4:01 p.m.

11 highways severly affected by rain...Quepos Hospital is incommunicado...CCSS will send personal to the zone affected...Rain has damaged Hydroelectric Plant Pirris... There are funds available to take care of emergencies, assures IMAS...Government will seek resources for the emergency using an emergency budget...OIJ emphasizes the importance of improvising a morgue... Landslide takes three persons in San Marcos de Tarrazu. Anexos Galería de imágenes de los sitios afectados Vanessa Rosales, de la CNE, explicó que la mayoría de los evacuados están en la zona del Pacífico, además de la emergencia que se presentó en Escazú, en San José. “Estamos preparados y en alerta porque sabemos que no va llover y habrá que ver como transcurren las próximas horas”, dijo Rosales en conferencia de prensa. En la Comisión se encontraba la presidenta de la República, Laura Chinchilla, quien firmó la declaratoria de emergencia nacional. Para la tarde la CNE informaría de más acciones para atender a damnificados y para evaluar zonas en alerta.   Vanessa Rosales, of the CNE, explained that the majority of the evacuees live in the Pacific Zone, moreover the emergency also exists in Escazu, in San Jose. ¨We are prepared and on the alert because we know know how long it is going to go on raining and we are going to have to wait and see what happens in the following hours¨, said Rosales in a press conference. Laura Chinchilla, the president of the Republic, was also present in the commission, where she signed the declaration of national emergency. For the afternoon, CNE will inform of more actions that will be needed in order to aid victims and to evaluate zones on high alert.   This is a rough translation of the toll the weather is taking on Costa Rica right now.  We have had almost nonstop heavy rain for the last two days and it is expected to continue for the next day or so.  I went out anyway, to see if I could further penetrate into the mystery of Sendero Tranquilo, that private reserve that no one seems to know anything about.  I spent about an hour there taking one trail that seems to go on almost forever, hugging the mountainside with an amazing view at one point from a wooden platform.  The vegetation is dense and tangled, and the trail is reasonably easy to navigate but very muddy from all the rain, and probably not entirely safe right now.  I´m going to try again when the weather improves. Sat., Nov. 6, 2010 at 10:18 a.m. The weather seems to be improving.  It has been windy, all night and all morning.  The winds here are fierce and savage and even though I slept alright I could not escape the feeling that something, some preternatural force was trying to make its way into my room.  Strange feeling.  And the dreams.  I generally dream vividly but since coming here it´s been almost like 3-D.  I am starting to write down some of them because many of them suggest change and transition, which doesn´t at all surprise me given that one of my purposes for being here in Monteverde for five weeks is spiritual retreat.  Yesterday was a bit odd.  I got really soaked in the rain while walking back from Santa Elena, actually more from persperation, and my rented apartment was cold in the afternoon as the rain persisted, so it was almost impossible to get properly dry.  Everything stays damp in this climate. So, I put on my discman and while listening to a CD of baroque choral works (mostly Vivaldi, Bach and Handel and ending with the Hallelujah Chorus) I slipped into a lovely nap on the couch after doing some work on a painting.  When I woke up I painted a bit more then went to the main house to pick up my laundry and check e-mail on the computer.  Someone was already on it and was going to need it for a while so I went back to my cabina to discover that my clothes from the laundry were still damp and that one of the straps of my canvas backpack which had been washed had come loose as well as still being wet (I have to launder my backpack and knapsack regularly here because the smell of accumulated sweat makes them quite unbearable). I was unable to rehook the strap because of the duct-tape that I had wrapped around the hooks to keep their sharp points from ruining my clothes (put a hole in one sweater and destroyed a favourite shirt of mine).  The knives in my kitchen weren´t sharp enough so I had to go to Esteban for assistance, who managed to cut through it with utility scissors.  Later I borrowed some of their electrical tape to re-wrap the hook.  I had seriously considered bringing my own duct tape from home but I was worried that if they searched my baggage and found it they might think I was going to use it to make a bomb or something, so I didn´t bring any. He also took my clothes back for a second round in the dryer.  Apparently they are training a new chamber maid here who has not yet figured out that you don´t fold and return laundry that is already wet.  In the meantime I still didn´t get on the computer because nearly a half-dozen prepubescent boys, friends of the youngest son here, were playing games on it.  So I went back to my cabina, made dinner, ate (delicious, by the way), cleaned up, then returned to the main house, this time just ahead of another guest who was also after the computer, and who wanted to know how long I would be on it.  I replied that I had already been waiting for it for two hours, so give me maybe twenty minutes.  He seems nice by the way, he is here with his wife from Colorado and they both speak Spanish.  And I got my finally dry clothes back okay. There haven´t been a lot of other guests so far, since it is still the off-season.  We had another young Spanish couple, and I think I´ve previously mentioned them.  They seemed very nice but there was no opportunity to chat with them a bit.  And yesterday there was a young Swiss couple at the next breakfast table but they didn´t seem interested really in talking to anyone, not even much with each other, which I understand is very typical of a lot of Swiss people.  The nicest guests I´ve met here so far were here at the beginning, that young couple from Nanaimo, so, so far my best encounter here with other guests has been with Canadians (we´re still number one!!) This morning I got out of here early to do a shopping trip in Santa Elena.  Katie, who is involved with the Quaker group here, stopped and gave me a ride when she saw me trudging along the road, then stopped to pick up a family.  The young husband, I believe, is American, and his wife is Costa Rican and they have two young children.  He teaches here, and has been to Vancouver.  On the way back from Santa Elena Katie stopped and gave me another lift partway to the Mariposa.  She´s lived here for most of the last thirty years.  She is from Michigan, in her fifties, and like a number of older Americans who live here now she gives the impression of someone who really enjoyed the sixties, if you know what I mean... She seems very nice, and is married to a research biologist here.  She calls herself a community organizer. I think I´m finally cured of my fantasies of living here one day, though that could change when I reach retirement age.  Still this is a wonderful place to visit and I think perfect for a retreat. Mon., Nov. 8, 2010 at 4:32 p.m. I went again to the Quaker meeting today.  A lot of American visitors, some tourists, others active in environmental work here in Costa Rica.  I skipped potluck and went back to my bed and breakfast because I wasn´t feeling sociable (I am on retreat, after all), and had lunch by myself.  Later, I returned to Sendero Tranquilo to further penetrate the mysterious trails there.  On the trail once again I was surprised by a swarm of butterflies.  They look rather like Monarchs, but they´re dark brown instead of orange, and they flew out at me like a swarm of bats.  Kind of disconcerting.  I must have spent almost two hours there.  The weather has changed, it isn´t raining but the wind is still quite strong.  Later I stopped at Stella´s for a batido (a kind of milkshake) and to write in my journal.  The young woman on duty was a complete write-off.  I came in and sat down, as there is no clear protocol as to whether you order up front or wait at your table.  Seeing me, she decided to give preference to a young American couple who came in a few minutes after.  When it seemed clear she was determined to keep ignoring me I let her have it, but in Latino style.  From my table I called ¨¡Hola! ¿Me ignoras? Me gustaria ordenar algo.¨In English, ¨Hello! Do you think I´m invisible?  I want to order something.¨ She reluctantly approached my table and in a very stern and pissed-off voice I said, ¨Lleveme mora en leche.¨  or Bring me black mulberry in milk.  I glared at her and she looked like she had just been slapped.  Very promptly she returned with my order and I had already meticulously counted out the change for her.  (¿Cuesta mil colones, si?  ¿Esto es suficiente?  or it costs one thousand colons, right?  Is this enough? She timidly and nervously counted out the change, said it was enough then walked away.  Neither of us said thank you, and of course she didn´t apologize, but I´m sure she got the message.  I might have mentioned before that Ticos are notorious for being passive-aggressive. On the way back to Mariposa I bumped into a lady from the Quaker meeting.  She and her husband are both from the US but have lived here for the last twenty years raising their kids.  She mentioned that she still speaks very little Spanish and I suggested to her that someone here might want to try language exchange as we do in Vancouver.  I asked her about the Sendero Tranquilo and she replied that it´s owned by a wealthy American who just uses it for his guests, which probably is why I never see anyone there.  Still, I don´t exactly feel like I´m trespassing so I will continue to explore this amazing place.   Monday I tried to return to Sendero Tranquilo only to be encountered by two workers and their dog and I was informed that it is private property and no one´s allowed there, so I will not be returning there it looks like.  I did check out another reserva and paid ten bucks to get in but it was worth it.  Long winding trails, many hugging the mountainside with huge views of the mountains, the canyon and the Gulf of Nicoya.  I have noted that it is impossible to get into any of the reserves or parks without paying an admission, which kind of sucks but in a way it´s understandable.  Costa Rica is a relatively poor country and they likely would never be able to collect enough in tax revenue to pay for these things so this is what they rely on tourists from rich countries to do for them.  They don´t seem tol realize that not all the visitors who come here are rich, but as they say, money doesn´t just talk, it screams.