Quepos, Costa Rica

Hola amigos. Estoy en Quepos, Costa Rica.

What a trip. I'm not feeling particularly funny or insightful. Mainly I'm feeling full of yummy local food, and pretty sleepy.

I figure every Blog entry doesn't need to be a masterpiece. So I'll just see what comes out and share some thoughts.

My 5 days mainly alone in the jungles of Osa were very rich - more to come on that in a few days. It took 3 prop plane flights yesterday (totalling 2 hours 25 minutes, including the 2 layovers) to get me from there to here.

Quepos is a town of maybe 5,000 (?!) on the Central Pacific Coast. It's very warm, quite humid, rather poor, and the people are friendly and kind. Basically typically Costa Rican I'm discerning, except that it lies 4 miles from the nation's most visited National Park, so there's a lot catered to tourists here. Easy enough to avoid, but leaves its mark of course.

Yet the town feels raw and real to me. A lot of concrete. Open street gutters for the rainwater. Sloowwww pace. Teenagers on bikes and scooters. Locals at restaurants, walking out of churches, getting ice cream. And tons of small shops: pharmacies, drinks, ice cream, restaurants, motorcycle / moped repair shop, eye glasses shop...

It feels surprisingly amazing to be in a third world country. How's that for a profound statement? ;-)

Really it's my first time in maybe 10 years, when I visited Jordan briefly. Incredibly, for someone who traveled a lot as a kid, this is actually my first time out of the country in 4 and a half years!

So third world countries. This isn't news to some of you, but wow. The innocence of people. How men smile here like children in the US. People have so much less than us materially yet seem far more in a flow, more relaxed, content with life, in closer knit families / communities. And of course almost everyone is some darker shade of brown than me, and a foot to half a foot shorter. I like how different it feels, yet we're all human.

The innocence strikes me most. Like we age too much in the US, or really, we harden. Less so here it seems. I'm thinking of future travels and the thought of melting into some Laotian village seems quite appealing. Like there would be a love and basic welcoming there that you just don't fully get in America or another "developed" country.

I'm happy to be finding that I feel rather comfortable in places like this. I'm sure my time in Israel as a child helped with that: Israel is far wealthier than Costa Rica, but the poor neighborhoods look quite similar to here, and there is also a raw, unpolished feel to the country. And people are browner, though not much shorter ;-)

I'm enjoying just strolling the streets here at night. I feel safe. I notice my racism creep up and I don't like it. And of course, like anywhere, there is a valid reason to be cautious too.

But I feel safe, and I enjoy strolling around slowly. Going to a local restaurant. Speaking Spanish where ever I can. Another very useful thing I find easy: trying and picking up other languages. I'm fluent in French and Hebrew, and I've learned a lot of Spanish in my week here. People in Costa Rica are happy to indulge and speak Spanish with you, which helps.

Some local slang I've picked up: Pura Vida, of course, which I take to basically mean, "It's all good." And then twanis (not sure on the spelling), slang for "cool," literally from the English "too nice," a Rasta Caribbean influence I'm told. And mucho gusto for thanks rather than the Spain spanish "De nada".

And buenas. Every greeting. No need for the dias or tardes or noches. You can add those, but just buenas will do.

In terms of activites, this is a big change from Osa. Osa was mainly solitude, on beaches and in the jungle. Now I'm in a pretty full hostel with internet access in a small city.

Today I did the tourist thing and flew down ziplines through the rainforest canopy. Dude, it was fun.

On the way back I struck up a conversation in Spanish with our 32-year old van driver, and after dropping everyone else off, he drove me to a hillside trail and said in spanish, walk down there and you'll get to a great beach. Oh and on the way he stops suddenly, backs up, and points out a tree sloth. Wow. Of course the beach was awesome.

Tomorrow I'm going to Manuel Antonio National Park, which is supposed to be a gem, though a small one. Rainforest spilling into the ocean, monkeys, spectacular beaches - it basically sounds like Pt Reyes meets Jurassic Park. Sounds good to me.

Wednesday morning I'm taking the bus to San Jose, a city everyone has said to avoid, but I feel attracted to it, again for its rawness. I plan to visit the central market, get some lunch, walk the streets some, and in the evening I'm meeting a friend of a friend - German (pronounces, hehr-MAHN) - who is awesome and is taking me to a Costa Rican soccer game! Yes! I love going to soccer games in foreign countries. We might also go dancing.

Thursday morning, I'm off, back through Atlanta to San Francisco and into the arms of two dear friends, who I will hug like crazy, because contact / touch just ain't something you seem to get a lot of on the road, at least not most of the time.

There's a lot more to say, and you'll get it in my next post, along with pics and video. One thing I've been working with is cultivating that "at home" feeling no matter where I am. It's something I've been working on now for quite some time in my life in general, and travelling, especially open-endedly, really brings that up. Like soon, can I go to my room and though I am a few thousands miles from Fairfax, and the weather and language and smells and architecture are so different, can I feel at home? And mostly, thankfully, the answer is, "yes".

Bueno, hasta pronto,
pura vida,
besos y amor!
Roni

OK, OH MY GOD, literally, right now, I hear the Staw Wars theme music in the background. Time to go to the communal movie lounge here at the hostel!!!

Damn it that wasn't Star Wars. It's Michael Moore's sicko. But it's all good, the almost full moon is rising and the night is perfect!