Costa Rica, 2010, 1

 Friday, October 15, 2010, 8:10 PM

I woke up at two this morning, couldn{t get back to sleep so I got started and left before 5 am for my flight.  I had to go through US customs this time because I was flying American airlines.  Armed guards everywhere, it was just like a day on the Skytrain. Smooth flights where I spent most of my time snoozing or looking out the window.  Seeing the landscape from thousands of feet is always something amazing, I think.  One can get a sense of how small we and our planet really are.  From this sort of height of course you cannot see anyone.  We would be like microbes, perhaps bacteria or viruses that only leave their visible mark.  I suppose one could go many places with this metaphor.  All the signs of human activity, the cultivated land, the tiny buildings, the roads and highways are like symptoms perhaps of scabies?  A fungal infection.  Or a rash. Well, it goes without saying that we are not very kind to dear mother Gaea.  However, the colours, the shapes the forms of the mountains, the forests, the fields and the deserts as viewed from 37,000 feet.  I won{t even try to describe the impact. I am now in a private room in a hostel in downtown Alajuela.  No frills and no breakfast, so it aint the Four Seasons but the place is clean, my room is nice almost the size of my apartment, I have my own bathroom and Im paying thirty-five dollars per night so I{m not complaining. At the Dallas Fort Worth Air Terminal, where I stopped for two hours, they have these wonderful floor mosaics that are about fifteen to twenty feet in diameter.  People walk over them, but no one seems to notice them, really.  So sad that so many of us get so caught up in our grind or our desperation or exhaustion and worry that we can{t even look for the beauty that lies around us.  For example, the sunrise I saw from the departures terminal at the Vancouver airport this morning.  No one else seemed to notice the living golden fire that was soaking the walls inside and everything outside as the sun rose. What{s wrong with us! My first day in Alajuela so far is noneventful.  Remembering the lay of the town now so it is getting easier to find my way around.  Sat inside the beautiful cathedral at about eight am.  It is quite large with gorgeous ceiling murals and some but not a lot of beautiful stain glass.  Then I had breakfast at one of the local sodas as they are called.  Kind of a no frills diner run by an older couple.  Very nice people and curious about Vancouver .  The breakfast was great and substantial, pinto gallo (black beans mixed with rice) and scrambled eggs and cheese on the side with warm baguette slices.  Earlier I bought a couple of huge tangerines in the central market.  In many ways this town is like a small version of San Jose , very shabby and run down in most places with lots of bright colours, broken and dangerous pavement and razor wire everywhere.  The traffic is truly frightening. Tropical flowers are abundant.  The locals seem to have a good natured tolerance for visitors but I wouldnt say that they{re in love with us. On my second outing, after discovering that my umbrella had been bent out of shape by the airport workers I had to buy a new one. They don{t have big umbrellas here, which is odd given the heavy rains that occur.  One of the hotel staff mentioned that its probably a blessing that my umbrella is ruined because the steel tip makes it a lightning rod, and they get a lot of electrical storms here, so who knows, maybe the carelessness of those workers will have saved my life for me? I just had a delicious batido con fresa, like a strawberry milkshake in a restaurant at a local mall.  Very refreshing. I plan to return for dinner later this afternoon, even if my waiter was a bit hungry for a tip  (I have light skin and blue eyes and therefore I have diamonds falling out of my backside!) It was starting to rain when I was on my way back to the hostel and the umbrella though small has some use. Went back to the restaurant for a pasta dish and dessert.  It{s just a mall and it looks like it could be anywhere in North America , but the restaurant is nice and affordable and the food isn{t bad either.  I am spending too much money but it can{t be helped.  This place no longer offers breakfast where I{m staying and I wasnt expecting to have to buy a new umbrella.  It{s five-forty-five and already dark.  Beautiful sunset on my way back to the hostel and I can{t stay out after dark because I{ve been warned that there is quite a bit of violent crime in this area after dark.