Saturday, August 30, 2003

 

my last full day in costa rica. tomorrow i must catch a plane at 8.50am to newark and then another plane to gatwick. here i am in la fortuna, all alone, four hours from san jose. my bus leaves later this afternoon and i am not sure where it goes from or even if the times are the same on a saturday. also i have lost the reservation number for the hotel near the airport where i intend to stay tonight. o well as usual i stumble my way through central america, one step away from falling flat on my face. a police car just went past followed by hundreds of men on quad bikes, i dont know why. anyway so last night i was caught in a storm whilst trying to view the lava flowing from volcan arenal and i received more mosquito bites last night than i think i have received in the rest of my trip altogether. it would seem that central america is making one last attack on me. will i make it to the airport? will i find my bus? will the bus fall apart before it gets there? (most likely) will i manage to get a room for the night? or will i be sleeping in the airport chapel beneath the giant crucifix? i do not know but what i do know is that i am excited to be coming back. i will be glad to see family and friends again. I am excited at the prospect of having familiar things around me again, the feel of carpet underfoot, proper tea and marmite on toast, english weather, jumpers, perfume (cant wear it here, it attracts mosquitoes - not that they need any help), traffic lights being obeyed, normal sized gutters that you dont have to leap across praying that you reach the other side, duvets, cold milk, books and films in english. But i will miss the hummingbirds as common as sparrows in the garden, the wonderful fruits, the crazy driving and the crazier people, the relaxed atmosphere and attitude towards tasks (it will get done, we run on tico time here), the chicken buses (dear God let this bus get me there safe and sound), the volcanoes, the rainforests, the dancing, their insistence on serving rice and beans with everything even though you ordered spag bol or pizza, and i will miss being on the move with always the prospect of new places to see and new people to meet. so my next trip...new zealand of course, i must go out and see est once she is there but apart from that where should i go (when i have the money)? i have been thinking about vietnam, anyone want to come?

posted by Brianne 5:20 pm

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

 

if all goes to plan i shall arrive in gatwick 6am monday september 1st. where did the time go? how did seven weeks and five central american countrties flash past me so quickly? "hello? time? where have you gone?" i cannot imagine being anywhere but here. it will certainly be strange the first day waking up in england just as it was that first morning in guatemala. i will probably go through culture shock the first week back.

anyway i am in san jose for the night (feel free to break into song at this point) and i have just bought a very nasty looking hunting knife as a gift for my brother. i also went to a nice vegetarian resturant where the friendly but altogether too serious waiter try to sell me every flavour of chescake under the sun " o yes i will have the cappuchino flavour thankyou...er no i dont need another, one will do...yes i am sure the grape is lovely...and the orange but one will do...know i dont want the caramel!...o ok you are giving it to me anyway for free, you must really want me to have some more cheesecake" then whrn i asked for chocolate caliente (hot chocolate) it looked deeply into my eyes and with a very serious look on his face answered "claro". for a moment i wondered if perhaps instead of asking for a hot chocolate i had accidentally asked this young man to lay down his life for me and he with the utmost sincerity had answered "definitely, this i will surely do".

in the crafts market i was bombarded by costa rican men eager to sell their wares (and i hope that was all) they charmed me until i was ready to buy out the whole place. "o you are a beautiful and wise young woman you recognise good things and will understand what a good price i am offering" another one came up saying "¿hable español, ingles o aleman?"

my experience of costa rica will be tinged with sadness, the plight of the turtles seem hopeless. numbers are dropping rapidly and on the beaches where i have been working poaching is high. must of the nests are poached and the project has no power to stop them. we could only hope that we would get to the nest first so that we could move them to the hatchery. but the poaching of the nests wasnt the worst of it, it was the killing of the adults when they got caught in the shrimp nets. time and time again dead turtles washed up on the beach, one died at my feet.

so where do we stop? when do humans stop destroying the planet? we having a lovely time rearranging everything removing animals and unique evironments so clearly God must have got it wrong when he created the planet, and we will make it the way we think best and it will be so much better, right?

rant over, sleep well children dulce sueños.

posted by Brianne 2:35 am