Travel Log - Costa Rica (7/14-8/1)

I arrived in San Jose on Sunday morning. The air was heavy with moisture and hot. Carlos, our program driver, picked me up and dropped me off at the Hotel La Amistad (“Friendship”) where I was to meet the rest of my classmates. I basically slept all morning until a few more of my classmates trickled in slowly and thought it would be a good idea to go to town to check out what San Jose had to offer. We did the usual touristy stuff – souvenir shopping, lunch at KFC (I refused to eat at McDonalds), more shopping and walking and of course people watching. San Jose is filled with young people all down their great national past-time, surfing. You can see young ladies in Roxy and boys donning skater shoes and baseball hats everywhere. They have a lot of style, a lot more than I did looking like a hobo the first day I got in. Anyway I spent the next few days there attending lecture in Agriculture, Anthropology and Conse5rvation Biology and meeting the rest of my classmates. There are 12 girls and a single guy who talks like an almanac. We wonder whether it was a good or bad fortune that he turned out as the only male. Our program director is a man named Luiz Diego Gomez. He was highly involved in setting up the National Park system in Costa Rica and convincing the government and international non-profits to sponsor their efforts.

Next we went to Palo Verde, a protected dry forest in the north of CR. Of all the places we’ve visited in CR, I liked this place the least. There was nothing wrong with it of course, just that sometimes I’d look down at my legs and see ten mosquitoes swarming around my ankles. By the way, I think I have close to 100 bug bites on my body which has really been the only downside to this whole trip insofar. In PV we had more intense lectures on Ethnobiology by this one dude named Kifa, an Arabic-Costa Rican whose got the strangest Brit/Arab/Costa Rican accent. Being that he was one of the only guys who spoke English who was with us, I’m pretty sure this girl Abby had a crush on him.

A couple of days later we stayed in an ecolodge in La Coter, a town surrounding El Lago Arenal, an immense lake in Northern CR. They had horse-back riding, hikes, canopy tours and a lot more to do there, but we were basically cooped inside all day long for class. We learned a lot of linguistics and more on ethnobiology field techniques to prepare us for our first day in the field with the Maleku indigenous tribe. Indigenous people have been long suppressed in Latin America since the arrival of Columbus to the Americas. In a countr4y with so much land the original inhabitants of the New World have been robbed of their land and traditional ways of life. For example, the Maleku traditionally lived in raised homes made of wood and roofed with waterproof jatata palm leaves. However the government forced them to move into homes made of pink and beige stucco, not unlike out houses in the US. Furthermore hunting is strictly forbidden in that area so the people are forced to purchase meat from the market although most of them cannot afford it.

Amazingly the Maleku are not bitter or even dissatisfied with their lives, which reminds me that people who are the most gracious are ironically those who have the least. I remember Janet and I were talking about how we worked so damn much this summer but we had nothing to show for it. I think its because our spirits are freer and happier that way. Even though they had so little, when asked about her future a little girl told us that she wanted to stay in the land she was born forever and she didn’t want anything to change. I reflected on how I live in one of the most prosperous cities on Earth and yet my heart is still dissatisfied with everything that I own and have, and why is it that I feel that I can only find myself on the other side of the world? Our dance teacher Henry grew up in New York but moved to Columbia and says that he cannot return. He explained to me, “America just doesn’t have what my soul needs.”

From La Coter we stopped in La Selva biological station for the night. There were a whole bunch of students there from all over studying the tropical rainforest that surrounded the station. Some girls were setting up nets in the jungle to catch bats, others were working in the river studying algae, and still others were uncovering the mysteries of bracket fungi. I was glad to be among people other than the same 12 that I had been with for the last 10 days. I met a forest engineering student named Pablo who was hot but spoke as little English as I did Spanish. I can’t seem to remember the names of the other folks I met… but over these two weeks me and my classmates have boded a lot and I totally enjoy all of their company. Okay, maybe not all of them… but regardless of whether everyone here likes each other or not, the group is pretty close with one another.

So my favorite part of the trip starts after La Selva. From there we took a three hour long boat ride to Tortuguero, a place I have to take you guys to because it is just the most remote town on Earth. Like I said, you have to take a three hour long boat ride to this place. The town is basically a strip of land that is no more than 200 meters wide and is bordered on one side by an expansive river and lagoon system and on the other side by the Atlantic Ocean. The sand is a sparking black color with forceful waves that come crashing up the dunes under a canopy of palms. The boat ride there passed by a number of cool wildlife including crocodiles, anhingas, perching ducks, kingfishers, deer and dense, impermeable forest all around. Think of Disneyland’s Jungle Safari but a million times more immense and real.

Anyway when we got there we were greeted by the Tortuguero researchers that worked with the giant sea turtles that laid their eggs at night on the beach. It was too good to be true. These guys were fine, they had dreadlocks, nice bodies, big fat smiles and bloodshot red eyes. Then it occurred to me; I had finally made it to the Caribbean! Birthplace of the rastafari and “No worries mon.” To make things even better the researchers asked us we wanted to go work with the giant sea turtles that night. At 8pm a young woman by the name of ingrid led us out onto the beach. As we walked south, to my left was the full moon lighting up the horizon of crashing waves for as far as the eye could see. I will never forget the scenery that night. It made me feel like I was in the last, most beautiful place on Earth, the kind of beauty that could make most people from the Untied states get on their knees and cry. Who was I before I knew such beauty existed? In a sleepy town of 500 people, along a remote isthmus isolated from the rest of the world. That was where the sea turtles chose to lay their eggs.

The next day was relatively free compared to our hectic schedule of days before. Of course it was a perfect day to take my second brownie of the trip. I got really high while playing in the ocean, and really really high while my teacher was leading a class discussion. After a bit of work me and some of my classmates decided to go a club that night with the researchers. Me and my classmates shared another brownie and went out. We got there and after throwing back a couple of beers I got this feeling that Anthony, this guy that worked at the station, wanted to dance with me or was interested or something. Of course I completely lost my cool and started to ignore him. His friend told me that I should dance but I told her that I didn’t know how to dance to reggae. In any event, another girl told everyone to go out on the dance floor and they all did but left 2 minutes later leaving Anthony and I alone. But then at some point I realized I could dance to reggae and somehow I ended up impressing everybody as they were beginning to discover just that day how wild I really am. While we were walking back from the dance club, Patricia started making fun that Anthony like me and he turned around and said, “hey, what’s the problem? I am a man and she is a woman!” I could have died he was so cute. Anyway we got back to the station and he asked me if I wanted to smoke and I said no. Then he asked if I would hang out with him at 4 in the morning when he got back from working with the turtles. I didn’t say no but I didn’t say yes, but I did say goodnight. I don’t know what the hell was my problem. Maybe I was too overwhelmed with all the beauty but it’s no excuse. If a fine guy from the Caribbean asks you to kick it with him at four in the morning, who says no? But I did which makes me think I must have eaten too many of those brownies for my own good.

After that we went to Puerto Viejo, another beautiful beach town on the Atlantic. Nothing too special happened there, I just did some souvenir shopping. And now I’m in the bus, driving away from that last beautiful town to San Jose again. I hate traveling sometimes because sometimes when you find a place you really like you want to just stay there forever. Like Rome. But we just keep on moving. I love Costa Rica more and more every day. It won’t be weird coming back but I know when I get off the plane I’ll have to let an immense sigh. Does the united States have whatever it is that my soul needs?

Last night after dance class I looked up at the sky and saw millions of stars. i stared into the black emptiness of the sky and watched the stars dangle there. Small and immense as they were, my mind became lost in contradiction and suddenly I found myself looking inside. I felt as empty as the darkness before my eyes. I searched for something substantial in my soul but could find nothing. Tears came rushing down as I lay there. It was just so damn pretty.