Hola!

I made it to Costa Rica! It has been wonderful thus far with much more to come.

As I boarded my plane in Boston on Tuesday morning, I looked over my shoulder at a group of teenagers and an adult at the check-in counter. The man looked familiar, so I took a second look. Sure enough, it was Shane. Shane played guitar at our friends´ (Chris and Erica´s) wedding this spring. As if that wasn´t coincidence enough, he too was on his way to Costa Rica (the kids are students). AND if that weren´t coincidence enough. he is also going to be in San Luis while I am there! (Consider that San Luis has 350 people in the entire village)

The flights were rather uneventful (thankfully), and I was able to make it to the bus terminal in downtown San Jose without much trouble. I really enjoyed the descent into San Jose. The terrain reminded me of some Californian hills - poetically flowing with accents of scrub bushes and a scattering of adult trees (pines, fruit trees, etc.). The main differences - no ocean and the land cleared in San Jose is mostly for agriculture, not sprawl.

I took a two hour bus ride from San Jose to Zarcera, a small farming village in the hills. On the ride, I sat next to a Tico (Costa Rican) who rides the bus for two and a half hours each way everyday to work. I stumbled with my Spanish and probably answered questions quite different from those that were asked. ("How long are you going to be in Costa Rica" "At 1:30") I kept asking the poor man question after question... "Where do you live" "You travel everyday" "Are we in downtown Zarcero yet" "Is this downtown Zarcero" "Zarcero is close, verdad"

Zarcero is a wonderful town that doesn´t see many tourists. Terraced fields climb the steep hills and there is a wonderful church at the town center. In front of the church, a man back in the 1960s began to sculpt the hedges Edward Scissorhands style... hugging friends, a boy on a bicycle, dinosaurs, etc. I walked around in the evening and grabbed some food at the Pizzeria Cubana.

A young man was working at the restaurant and was very patient with my poor attempts at Spanish. We talked for about ten minutes about his university, life in Costa Rica and the U.S., and music. His favorite "musicians" in the U.S. - Britney Spears and Eminem.

One thought that lingered in my mind for the afternoon was this - Why is Costa Rica so insignificant, unimportant, powerless, poor, etc. in the eyes of the U.S. when it has so many renewable land resources_ As I pondered the question, I realized that I need to take off my rose, blue, and white colored glasses and consider another frame, another paradigm. And that is what I hope to do.

As I sat on the balcony outside my room overlooking the town of Zarcero, sharing the evening with Orion and Cygnus, I considered myself quite fortunate to have the financial advantages of an upbringing in the U.S. and felt infinitely blessed to have the eyes and breath of a human being.

Some tips from Day One:

- The Hotel Don Beto is a sweet little spot in Zarcero if you are willing to shell out $25 for the night (www.donbeto.com)

- Chacos are quite foreign in Zarcero and a dead giveaway that you are from the U.S.

- Before you think that adolescent boys are being rude to you because you are a Gringo, check your fly!