Costa Rica 2004:

Field notes

EJ: This is my first night in Costa Rica. The plane ride was long, but there was the best lightening storm out the window. Every thirty seconds the sky would light up among a cluster of clouds. When we flew in there was light coming from what appeared to be two major cities, one of them being San Jose. I am staying in a room with three beds. Angela, Amanda and I each have our own. The name of the hotel is Hotel Cacts. We went out for appetizers at a Columbian Restaurant. People drive incredibly fast along the bumpy roads here. We saw a bus leave the ground with its two front tires. We went to the mall to because Alfredo needed to buy some socks. The mall had a lot of American influence. The young women here like to dye their hair blonde. The buses are used much more often here than in the U.S. Fewer people here have their own cars. In the city people honk their horns all the time. If you walk out in front of a vehicle they honk their horn and speed up rather than stopping. When we ride in our bus it is hard to watch how close the driver comes to hitting things, especially pedestrians. There are few sidewalks.

Alfredo: It was good to be back in Costa Rica. I was very happy to see Jorge, our guide for the trip. After our hellos and introduction to the students, Jorge waved our bus that was to be with us for a better part of the trip. I was excited that it was a bus. "This is like being on the Magical Mystery Tour," I thought. Our driver, Gerardo, would drive us to Puerto Viejo, Sarapiqui and then on to Monteverde where he would leave temporarily as we explored that region. We spent the night at Hotel Cacts. It was past 9pm so most of San Jose was closed down for the evening. We were fortunate enough to find the Columbian Restaurant open. Actually, they had closed the dining area but reopened just for us.

The next day we went to INBio Parques. INBio stands for "Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad" (The National Institute of Biodiversity). The Parque is a park that offers displays of nature in Costa Rica. There was an area where several forest types could be found. There was a butterfly garden, a medicinal plant garden, domestic farm animals, and a pond teaming with birds and other wildlife, including a caiman which seemed to be frozen in the water. After lunch one of the employees gave us a presentation on the purpose and projects at INBio. It was informative and enlightening. After dinner we went to the mall to purchase some socks which I had forgotten at home on my couch. It reminded me of the malls me and my wife and son would visit in Venezuela when we lived there while I was doing my dissertation research. Amanda also purchased a lot of Hello Kitty stuff at the Hello Kitty kiosk in the mall. We went to the mall on buses. We got to see a tiny bit of the commercial area when we got off to transfer to another bus. Again, the place reminded me of Sabana Grande in Venezuela, the premier outdoor shopping area in that country. It was good to be in America Latino otra vez.

Now it's off to Puerto Viejo. Yahoo!

Saint Martin'sCollege