Costa Rica 3 – The End of the Trip, Random Thoughts.

Daniel Walker and Nancy San Isidro, Heredia, Costa Rica

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Two Weeks in Costa Rica

I woke up this morning at 5 am as I have most morning here in San Isidro, Heredia, Costa Rica. There was a hard rain early on, but in spite of that, Luis, the gardener wearing a heavy raincoat was in the yard, lovingly caring for its plants, an expert in his field. Nancy is still sleeping. Carol, a habitual early riser is up and about. Daniel, who usually sleeps in later is up, preparing for an online English language class he teaches in the early morning.

Nancy and I are at the end of a two week vacation in Costa Rica; an enjoyable, stimulating time where we reconnected with old friends, saw a country and got an initial taste of its people previously unknown to us, got away from local issues both personal and political, and ever so cautiously tested our foreign traveling skills – or lack thereof. Of course there was one issue that – as they Supremes put it – “there is nowhere to run from, nowhere to hide” – the  Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, that organized evil of genocidal proportions, on a scale we have only read about in books.

We thought about it, talked about, tried to follow it every day, both more generally speaking and what is happening in Colorado (our historic effort to get the Denver City Council to pass a ceasefire proclamation).

Still, it has been a vacation and one we both have appreciated.

What made this trip possible at all is the fact that old friends, Daniel Walker and Carol Friesen offered us a place to stay and were generous hosts taking us around and introducing us to this magnificent country. Unable to speak Spanish and approaching 80 years of age of age I understood that I needed to be cautious in how I travel. Nancy is diligently (Nancy does EVERYTHING diligently) learning Spanish. She practices every day that helped some. Besides which I am – as Nancy noted – “a picky traveler”, very selective both with whom and how I travel, where I go, stay. Still I have no illusions, we ARE tourists in the end and any idea that somehow we escaped “the tourist trap” (well we did sort of) is an illusion.

So the personal connection – Daniel and Carol have lived in Costa Rica for seventeen years now – was a part of it. It is winter in Colorado and while there are colder places than Denver – actually the winters there are generally mild but still it’s winter – we wanted to go south. In the past, we have traveled and lived abroad a fair amount but not for a long time. One part of the world foreign to us is Central and South America. We’ve had some experience in Mexico (myself more than Nancy), and one trip to the Caribbean. I’d like to return to Mexico – it is an endless journey from a historical, natural evolutionary point of view and there is a chance we will. As for the Caribbean, with the exception of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic/Haiti I have no interest: too much blood in the soil as Alex Cockburn put.

Overall it was a fine trip to Costa Rica. The nature (animal, plant life) is, in a word breathtaking. I hope to study it more seriously on our return (today) to Colorado. A country with a varied topography (mountains, the sea, extended high valleys), with a unique flora and fauna, during our stay here I got a small glimpse of what Darwin and Wallace experienced in the tropics: explosive diversity, a virtual laboratory for evolution. Indeed, I intend to open my “On the Origin of Species” once again once back home too. One example: although being super cautious I didn’t take my camera equipment along, using “Merlin Bird ID” with a special download of the birds of Costa Rica, in the short period we were here (a little less than two weeks) the “ap” was able to identify more than 43 new bird species (most of them one morning in a two hour period near Sarapiqui). At this point all I have is a list of birds most of which I heard but did not see but I’ll follow up on that too.

The limitations:

I am 79 years of age, Nancy 72. Although at one point between us we have lived abroad for more than a decade, that is long ago, far away. It takes stamina we have less of, getting over creature comforts – we’ve done that previously, but now it’s harder. We met very few Costa Ricans and were implanted it seemed to me in what I would call the U.S expat community here, some 70,000 strong or there abouts. More on this last point in a moment. Not knowing anythng – really nothing – about the history or politics of the place makes me feel uncomfortable; I don’t like finding myself in “bubbles.”

Part of travel is breaching those bubbles. It can be exhilarating, stimulating but at the sae time so we must push ourselves, show a little courage, a bit of boldness to break down those barriers … even on vacation.

And that we did – or at least tried to do.

I will write more about Costa Rica and our experience here. For all its limitations in time and space (our connection to both the land and people), it was quite enjoyable, my head filled with thoughts, insights, inevitably, I understand, quite shallow as we have hardly scratched the surface of the place … but still, a beginning.

More soon.