Culture War, Why Not Culture Peace?

Went to a beautiful exhibition of Da Vinci in the old Customs building last weekend. Rather short on actual Da Vinci works, but they had reconstructed some of his more ingenious gadgets and that was fun (especially his attempts to build tanks made of wood).


By chance, across the street was the annual Graphic Design Show put on by one of the local universities. One of the themes this year was Costa Rica-Nicauragua Friendship:

There are 500K Nicauraguans living in Costa Rica, representing about 10% of the total population. Obviously this creates some tensions; it's good to see some creative responses.

Later, I mentioned this to a Tico cab driver. He grumbled:

"The thing about the Nicas - it's like you're going somewhere, and a friend says 'hey, I'm going the same way' but he never pays for gas or offers to drive or anything. In the States you have a similar problem with the Mexicans, I think".

"They're absolutely essential to the economy. I believe the Nicas are too, working in agriculture and construction etc."

"Yes, well - the Nicas work hard but it's not enough. Plus some of them are quite dangerous. Why, just the other day they arrested a whole criminal gang."

"How many people?"

"Uh...three."

"All Nicas?"

"Two of them. That's still a majority."

It's Alive!!!

Kind of prehistoric, huh?

Lluvia, Lluvia, Go Away...

Is ten hours of rain a day enough?

Life's a Beach

Last weekend I took my first overnight trip in-country and went to Manuel Antonio, a strikingly expensive (and beautiful, when the weather is fine) national park and beach resort about 3 hours from San Jose on the Pacific coast.

Not too much to say about it, really - a beach is a beach. Sand, water, sky. Hot and muggy during the day, thunder and lightning all night long. To be honest I'd rather visit a volcano or rainforest.
I DIDN'T GET SUNBURNED. For anyone who knows me, this is a major achievement.

Back to Nature

Wheh. Now that the 4th of July is over, I can relax a little.

Step 1: get out of San Jose. I took the long weekend (American holidays apply to US citizens but not the local staff, alas) to take a '3-in-1' tour. Those 3 were:

- A slow ride down the Saripiqui River. We saw (but mostly heard) howler monkeys, numerous birds, lizards, and even a crocodile.

- A walk through the rainforest to admire all the flora (mostly primeval ferns and flowers) and fauna (including butterflies, frogs, and a number of snakes of varying deadliness)


- A 'conapy' tour in a gondola above the same rainforest.

Yes, it did rain in the rainforest. I was seated in the front row of the gondola so I got somewhat more rained-on than everyone else.

Costa Rica is one of the few places where eco-tourism is profitable enough that they make more emoney, even in the short term, by preserving the rain forest instead of tearing it down.