We Brake for Water Buffalo!

Watch out for the water buffalo!

We’ve been back in Costa Rica just over a week now and it sure is good to be here. This is the first July we’ve spent in country and we can understand why it’s called the “green season.” In the six weeks we were gone, the trees have filled out in lush splendor, flowers are in bloom everywhere -- even more than usual -- and the air is alive with butterflies. On our first walk last week, we passed a large roadside patch of zinnias and the number of butterflies of every description, large and small, black and yellow, brown and orange, red and white, was just astounding! I recorded this video and hope that you can spy all the wings fluttering from blossom to blossom. The musical background is the neighbor’s radio. Talk about abundant flora and fauna!

A local cornfield

Local gardens are bursting with the bounty of fruits and vegetables as well. It seems like the corn stalks increase a foot or two every day and huge squash leaves spread wide across the ground. Banana trees are majestic with their large new leaves and still-green fruit. If this is the rainy season, it’s not too bad. Most days the rains don’t start until mid- to late afternoon and mornings are sunny and nice.

Of course, for our own pantry we hope to get back to buying from the local organic cooperative market, now run by our friend Nathalie on the model of community markets in her native France, offering small or large size baskets stuffed with the week’s best buys. In addition to the veggies and fruits, she sells organic goat cheeses, Swiss cheese, jams, chicken and fish, eggs and dark chocolates. Yum!

Atenas recycling in action

And while we’re on the subject of organic farming and other important environmental issues, I recently wrote a column for The Costa Rica News about a relatively new effort here in Atenas to collect and recycle tons of materials, such as plastics, glass, paper, cardboard, to prevent them from ending up in landfills. Señor Alfonso Quiros V, chief of operations of W. Recicladores, CR, S.A., has recruited dozens of local volunteers to help his small staff in gathering and sorting recyclables the first Wednesday of each month at the Central Park in Atenas. He’s providing the same service twice a month in Grecia, the larger town up the hill from us. Such efforts are so important in protecting the amazing biodiversity and beautiful ecology here in Costa Rica. As Señor Quiros said to me, “It will take some time to educate the public and our youth on how critical this is, but we will continue to work toward that goal.”

Such projects are extremely valuable in helping Ticos understand the long-term value of preserving their magnificent country’s fragile environment. But one of the most promising developments in ecological progress here is the creation of a new political party focused on protecting Costa Rica’s vast biodiversity and ready to move the battle into the political arena. Formed in 2004 by reporter Carlos Arrieta and retired English teacher Rodrigo Arias, the Green Ecological Party has set its sights on winning a seat in the National Assembly representing the Cartago province where they got their start and have their strongest support. The party has put Arrieta forward as a candidate for office twice before, in 2006 and again last year, but failed to win a seat. He and Arias are optimistic that as Ticos’ political awareness of environmental issues grows, voters will demand strong governmental policies to protect Costa Rica’s ecology; party members hope that 2014 will be their year for a win. 

One of the main planks in the Green Ecological Party platform is banning plastics in certain Costa Rican industries in favor of biodegradable materials. They support mandatory environmental education programs in schools as well as the creation of an environmental “police force” to guard against litterers, polluters, illegal loggers and others whose activities degrade the environment.

 

On a lighter note in closing this post, I’ll mention a couple of funny animal incidents we observed lately. The second rider’s unusual mount is a water buffalo! As we were walking down the road, we saw this fellow along with two horseback riders jogging down the sidewalk then crossing the highway to continue along a side road. I’m sure my horse would have been freaked out to share the road with this creature but the Tico horses seemed less concerned with him than with a rough place in the sidewalk.

Roscoe and Layne socializing on the deck

Vicious Bassett Hound

And finally, meet Roscoe, the landlord’s young pit bull who often comes to visit us as we relax on the front deck in the late afternoon. He gives the breed a good reputation with his lovable nature. In fact, he’s so easy-going that a neighbor dog, an elderly Bassett hound that seemed an unlikely attacker, got the best of poor Roscoe on our back patio recently, biting him in the butt. Hard to imagine but the old guy gave the pit bull puppy a sore tail end!

Pura Vida!

Spoiled Americans

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Without a schedule to stick to on this blog, time does pass and things do happen without being recorded. Biggest news: We moved. After two pretty miserable nights, we found that the apart-hotel just didn’t quite cut it for our “spoiled American sensibilities,” as Layne put it on Facebook. I suppose that is accurate for the most part, although I’m a little embarrassed by it. But with Layne beginning to suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning (seriously!) from the endless train of cars, buses and motorcycles, all lacking the most basic of mufflers, plus with a “suicide” shower to contend with, no restaurants close by and a few more unpleasant challenges, we bit the bullet of more money and moved to the much nicer property owned by the same company.

Now this is more like it!

It’s really a house, set inside a park-like gated street with only 10 homes on it, mostly occupied by Gringos, it seems. So far we’ve only met one neighbor, a retired Canadian schoolteacher (science and art, of all things) who left minus-59 degree weather to come here! I’ll bet that was an easy decision. He says there’s a professor on sabbatical, and two constitutional attorneys in houses across from us. Other than that, we have no idea who the other residents are, although we have seen several children at play and have been visited by a well-fed grey cat and a cute grey kitten, both of which simply walked in through our open doors. The yards are full of flowering plants and trees, in shades of deep fuchsia, bright yellow, orange and pink. We have a few squirrels in the neighborhood and many birds. In contrast to our earlier digs, this place is quiet and peaceful and feels like the tropical paradise we were hoping for.

Our small backyard shares a fence line with a pasture containing some unusual-looking cattle. The larger white ones have massive backward-curving horns and a semi-hump behind the neck; the smaller brown and beige ones are short horned. I’ve managed to befriend a couple of these creatures, including the largest one. Out of curiosity, I suppose, he approached the fence where I was standing (and whistling) and when I felt I could safely reach through, I scratched his forehead and ear. He seemed to like that a lot. Layne kept warning me of the enormous horns but the big beast appeared quite gentle to me, his big brown eyes softly gazing at me as I talked to him.

Imagine our surprise yesterday when we went for an afternoon walk down a dirt road on one side of our villas and confronted our neighbor cows walking calmly up the street toward us, being gently herded by a man with nothing more than a small stick. The cows had obviously made this walk before because when they reached the top of the hill, the largest one leading the herd made a right turn as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Sadly, we had not brought our camera on the walk so we missed a great photo op, but we suspect this is a regular route for them and hope to still get that shot.

My Spanish is improving daily, out of necessity as much as effort. The Palm-based program I bought several years ago for only $9.95 has proven to be invaluable. With both Spanish-to-English and English-to-Spanish translations, I have been able to buy laundry detergent, Splenda, baking soda (for Layne’s “no-poo” shampoo needs) and salt and pepper, along with known items such as milk (leche), bananas (uh, bananas) and cerveza. Muy importante!

Today we will have lunch with our old friend and real estate guide from previous trips, Jean-Pierre Pfleuger, a charming German man married to a Tica woman. (BTW, for those of you who have asked, Tico is how the local people refer to themselves, with Gringo being the non-pejorative term for us foreigners.) We hope to learn from Jean-Pierre how to find good rentals in other areas that we wish to try, such as Grecia and possibly towns in the drier Guanacaste province up north. For my taste, this town, San Rafael de Heredia, is rather too cool, being situated at about the 4000’ elevation. The days are sunny and beautiful but not warm enough for me although the nights cool down nicely. But it’s quite a trek from here to the beach or the airport so we hope to find a more conveniently located city for our longer-term needs.

Mostly the people we see on the streets respond to our “Buenas” greeting with a friendly smile and a nod. On our walk through the park yesterday, an older Costa Rican gentleman smiled and said “Good morning” as we passed, stopping us in our tracks. He introduced himself as Fernando and we chatted with him for a few minutes, in both my broken Spanish and his limited English, and learned that he had spent six years in the United States. His niece is married to a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton and he also has relatives in New Jersey. He apparently had taken a cross-country trip from the east coast to the west and raved about what a beautiful land the US is. We hope to see him again on our strolls through the central park, which as in most Central American towns, is directly across from the huge white stone Catholic church.

Tomorrow we will go to this park for the weekly farmers’ market, where we hope to buy onion, papaya, mango, avocado and whatever else suits our fancy. Food is so inexpensive here, it helps to stretch our money considerably, thus allowing us to stay in this higher priced rental. Still, we hope to cut our costs when we move at the end of the month-long stay here.

The most troubling aspects for me so far are the hazardous sidewalks, which have unexpected holes here and there, including treacherous gutters one or two feet deep. We keep our eyes on the ground as we plot our course through town; a misstep could spell disaster. I am also distressed by the lack of care Costa Ricans show for keeping their beautiful country clean. The small river behind our villas is cluttered with trash, plastic bottles, old tires - even a computer monitor was visible from the bridge on our walk yesterday. Perhaps we will find a group in which to volunteer that is working to educate the population on the importance of trash disposal, recycling (of which there is precious little) and care of the environment. The government makes some efforts in these areas but apparently the message has yet to reach most people.