Not that I didn´t love San Jose, in some ways. In fact, it did serve, as many suggested it would, as good practice for navigating Latin American countries. But not because it was Latin America Light. Quite the contrary. Much to my surprise, I found San Jose, and Costa Rica in general, to be quite challenging indeed. But I´m getting ahead of myself.
What I haven´t mentioned yet, because I´ve been WAY out of the technological loop, is that I had my backpack stolen on a bus the other day. But that´s the good news.
Okay, that´s actually really crappy news. But it was also a miracle of sorts--because I DIDN´T lose anything majorly important--no passport, no money, no camera, none of the stuff that really would have taken the wind out of me. Rather, I lost a bunch of clothes that I probably shouldn´t have brought anyway, and a couple things that will be a pain in the butt to replace, like my computer power cord (I used my last 15% of battery power to upload the photos you see here...not sure how soon I´ll be able to upload more). Oh, and I also lost three months of malaria meds and some photocopies of documents that I´m crossing my fingers won´t get into intelligent hands.
So, the good news is the fact that I DIDN´T experience one of those nightmarish thefts where you´re left alone in the middle of nowhere with no money and no ID and no believes you are who you say you are, and you end up in a Third World jail essentially forever.
But there´s another little silver lining to the whole ordeal. And that is simply that it has made me worry less. I´m traveling lighter. I´ve had to let go of a few travel comforts and that has made me sink in ever further to the places I´m visiting.
It´s funny. I haven´t intentionally maintained a distance from my surroundings. And yet, I´ve been a little bit preoccupied with maintaining my own personal comforts--keeping my computer charged so I can take advantage of the occasional wireless connection, making sure I´ve got my own little coffee kit in case (heaven forbid) I go anywhere where people prefer tea-- and yet, suddenly, all of those little doodads are gone, and I am still here, alone, and I still have clean underwear and a toothbrush, and all of my necessary identification. And there have plenty of people around to help me find what I need (and plenty of people back home to help me iron out a few emergency details :). In general, it made me feel closer to Costa Rica, and now to Ecuador, to have to rely on people a bit more.
But I digress. I´d really like to dedicate this entry to my darling homestay family at EcoFinca Andar. I stayed with this family for only two and a half days, and yet, they truly made me feel like home. And that home just happened to have a bathroom constructed from cinder blocks, a kitchen with fences instead of walls, and about 15 inhabitants, not counting chickens, dogs, and cats, all coming and going at every imaginable hour.
First, there was my homestay mom, Mora, who stole my heart with her soft but wrinkled hands, always moving, usually cooking, and then my homestay sisters, Marialuz, Marisela, and Gisela, all of whom were totally fascinated with the little hairdo I do with my bobby pins, and then there was little Priscilla, daughter of Marialuz, who just loves the little red poison dart frogs she calls "Pantalones" because they have blue legs.
Then there was the ever-energized Farmer Julio (says it´s all the sugar cane juice), and his dog, Brisby, who has given birth to virtually every dog in town, and also my homestay family´s dog, who barked incessantly and enjoyed squaring off with the antagonizing neighborhood rooster.
And of course, there was my favorite mammal for the week--this goofy sloth we saw hanging from a Mandarin orange tree. Now seriously, sloths are just ridiculous--they look like Muppets, for crying out load--Really long fur, slimy little noses, big round eyes, and slow as hell. If they could talk, I have no doubt they would have low, dopey voices, kind of like Eor, if you know what I mean. And boy, someone should really tell them to try the actual oranges on those trees--they only eat the leaves!!!
Also highly worthy of mention is the fabulous group of American students I ran into at La Finca Andar. They were on their semester abroad, with (I think) the Institute for Central American Development and, most of them being from liberal arts colleges, they brought with them an inquisitiveness and sense of humor that was, to say the least, incredibly refreshing, and comfortingly familiar.
One thing that kept coming to mind as I got to know the group (over our two days working on the farm, we harvested nonies together, raked ditches together, sorted oregano, drank Chicha, looked for monkeys, and talked about that everpresent question that seems to hover over 20 and 21 year old Americans..."What do I want to do with my life?") was just how goshdarn different it is to be traveling solo than any other travel I´ve known before.
Study abroad, in my opinion, is incredibly rich, and I would insist that any student given the opportunity absolutely leap at it. I think I learned more during my study abroad semester than I did during my first 3 years of college. And when I look back on my four months in Australia, and one in New Zealand, I of course remember an assignment here and there, but what I really recall are the experiences that sort of came with the package--staying with an aboriginal community in Broome, studying deep ecologists in New South Wales, learning about hydroelectric development in Tasmania.
And yet, at the time, I didn´t have to think about how to get from place to place, or how to develop a good relationship with an aboriginal community, or how to avoid the tourist track but still get a chance to see the jungle and the incredible wildlife. Much like the wakeup call I experienced short after I graduated from college, when I suddenly realized that there were all sorts of invisible expenses that had made my life possible thus far and that now I was going to have to take them on, I´m realizing now that the study abroad experience of travel depends upon a certain invisible infrastructure, and it looks a lot different when you take that away.
Which brings me back to the many sides of Costa Rica. I had pictured Costa Rica, ecotourism hotspot that it is, as a big jungle full of brightly colored frogs and birds, with all sorts of deluxe huts for Westerners to come and inhabit without sacrificing the comforts of home. And it is that, if that´s what you want it to be. You could easily sign on to a 10-day package tour of Costa Rica, and see all the sights, and get picked up at your hostel and dropped off at the national park trailhead, and you´d probably go home thinking, "Boy, those Ticos are wonderful, friendly people" because the only Ticos you met were your taxi drivers and the hotel staff.
Or, you could spend two weeks in el campo, staying with an extremely poor, mostly illiterate, traditional family, and go home thinking, ¨Boy, those Ticos are nice and everything, but geez, I could never live there," or "Wow, there´s a serious machismo problem in this country."
As for me, I don´t know if I know Costa Rica at all. For me, Costa Rica was green mountains and toucans and monkeys and sloths, and also extreme poverty. It was theft, and it was "ecotourism" at its most ironic. It was kindness and tradition. It was a paradise of fresh fruit. It was a labyrinth of complicated buses. It was breathtaking beaches and it was really expensive to call home. It was many things to me, and is probably not the same to anyone else.
I´m excited about Ecuador. I´ve got at least a full month here--3 weeks at La Hesperia reserve in the mountains northwest of Quito (beginning Wednesday or Thursday), and then ten days with my darling fella, Eric, who´s coming to visit at the end of March. And then I have one month more, to do whatever (and wherever) strikes me. I have no doubt there will be many adventures between now and then. Let´s hope none involves my passport.
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