Observation of the day, 1/28

The radio on the bus was blaring "Billie Jean" on the ride home this evening.


Who says globalization isn't great?

Are you feeling lucky?

This weekend, Avalon and I decided to stay in San Jose. It's been pretty low-key, which allows me to finally catch up on blogging about what we did last weekend.

Last weekend, we were able to enjoy the biggest perk of interning at The Tico Times: hotel reviews. That's right, we get to go stay at a sweet hotel somewhere outside San Jose, eat the food, meet the people, then come back and write about it--all on the Tico Times' dime. Our first destination? Lucky Bug B&B in Nuevo Arenal, a few hours northwest of San Jose, by Lake Arenal and the Arenal volcano.

I had my choice between Lucky Bug and a hippie-ish hotel down in Puerto Viejo. While we are jonesin to get down to PV (probably will next weekend) hippie-ish turned out to be some full-fleged "spiritual experience" retreat. Then, when I saw that the owners of Lucky Bug had moved to Costa Rica from Mt. Shasta it was no contest. We were feeling lucky.

"Why would anyone leave Mt. Shasta?" I wondered aloud. Costa Rica is amazing, yes, but Mt. Shasta's pretty amazing in its own right. Then, Avalon responded: "Why don't you ask your parents?" She had a point.

But I digress... Getting to Nuevo Arenal proved to be an experience in itself. Once again, we (I) dropped the ball by not getting bus tickets in advance, and we had to stand or sit uncomfortably on the floor of the bus for most of the four-hour journey. And that only got us to Tilaran, where we had to wait and take another bus to Nuevo Arenal. We decided when we come back to this area, we're renting a car.

But once we finally got to Lucky Bug, our discomfort and anxiety from the by then five hour journey went away fairly quickly. We were treated to a lunch by the incredibly kind and generous owner, Monika, who chatted with us about Costa Rica, Mt. Shasta and life between helping customers at Lucky Bug's art gallery and cafe. There's an incredible amount of art there, both on sale at the gallery and in the rooms themselves. Much of it is animal-themed iron and tilework done by one of Monika's triplet daughters. It lends a warm, creative ambience to the place that vibes well with the jungle around it.


We were, however, disappointed a bit that the weather was off-and-on cloudy. That, combined with the difficulty of traveling the area without a car, meant that we never got a chance to check out the volcano. We also went 0-3 in our hopes to see the turtle in Lucky Bug's private lake, or the monkeys and sloth supposedly inhabiting the adjacent rain forest. (The icing on the cake was when a downpour began the minute I left the dock while taking the kayak for a spin in the lake, see picture above).

But shortly before we left on Sunday, our luck took a turn for the better: one, then two, then three toucans showed up outside the cafe. First, they were perched in a nearby tree. Then, one by one, they flew over to a feeding post that had some banana peels and other fruit scraps. Avalon and I, just a few feet away, were speechless. I'll let the photo say the rest:

Picture of the Day

Protectionism? Or unjustified putdown of 90s r&b superstars?

Shoutout from Rick Steves

Anyone who has traveled with the Fitzgeralds knows our affinity for Rick Steves (or, as he was known during one European vacation, Rick James). While Steves is excellent an excellent source for advice, he almost exclusively sticks to Europe when it comes to travel guides. Thus, I was intrigued to see that his column in the Seattle Times recently mentioned a trip to Costa Rica:

When I want to take a vacation, I don't go to Europe. I work in Europe — so I try to take vacations elsewhere. This year's Christmas gift to my family was a week in Costa Rica. I'd never been to Central America to simply relax, and I was clueless about Costa Rica. I just signed up for the best eight days that my friend's tour company could offer.

Click the link for the whole thing. He also has a second column here, that, while chronicling his entire trip, lacks much in the way of substantive details or suggestions. While it was interesting to get Rick's impressions of Costa Rica, I was a little disappointed. It's clear Costa Rica isn't his main gig, and when traveling here he is a mere mortal like the rest of us.

Where were you during Obama's inauguration?

I was at La Luz restaurant, in a hotel outside San Jose, reporting a story for the Tico Times. An American owns the place, and put on an event for expats and interested locals wanting to watch the festivities on a big screen. An interesting group, including the American ambassador to Costa Rica, who, despite being a Bush appointee, seemed genuinely moved and excited about the day's events.

It's not the complete version (won't be out until Friday) but here's an excerpt:

A couple minutes past noon Eastern Standard Time yesterday in Washington, D.C., Barack Obama placed his hand on the Bible and was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States of America.

Cheers erupted from the approximately 75 Ticos and U.S. citizens gathered in La Luz Restaurant outside Escazú, where the inauguration was projected on a giant screen.

“Personally, I just felt it was a very terrific moment in our history,” said Timothy Lattimer, regional environmental officer at the U.S. Embassy in San José. “It marks a new beginning, and I think that it sets a great example of how our democracy can renew itself.”

Some grew emotional at the sight of Obama, the nation's first African-American president, assuming its highest office. Obama acknowledged this feat briefly in his inaugural address, noting that a “man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.”

“For me, as an African-American, seeing this opens a world of possibility,” said Gregory Toussaint, from Miami, Florida. “It shatters the highest glass ceiling.”

For many throughout the world, the inauguration also highlighted anticipation for a new era of relations with the United States.

President Oscar Arias told the daily La Nación Monday that the new president must close the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and step up its efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.

For many Ticos, though, yesterday was largely business as usual. While millions around the world sat glued to their television screens to watch the ceremony, San José was much more subdued, with patrons casually glancing at newscasts in sodas over lunch.

“We just have to wait and see if there will be any change,” said Jaqueline Malegro, a waitress at one corner restaurant. “We don't know anything yet."

Pura vida, without complications

Avril would do well here. While Costa Rica's semi-official national slogan is pura vida, or "pure life," it could very well be simple vida, or perhaps keep it simple, stupid, were Ticos to be so rude (and other than some cab drivers, they aren't). For, a lack of street signs aside, Ticos eschew all things "complicated." Indeed, as far as I can tell, complicated is synonymous with bad.

Take our hostel owner, for example. When we asked about an area of town in which we were looking at an apartment, his description was, "Well... it's a bit complicated." I expected further elaboration. None came.

Similarly, when trying to figure out a time to meet with our landlord, he told us Monday would be complicated. I guess he could have easily been busy, but it's something more than that. And it's not like Ticos don't work hard, or that difficult is bad. It's more that, well, simple is best.

Unless, of course, you're trying to take the bus out of town. (More on that, later).

Cuatro mil palabras (Four thousand words)

Due, to popular demand, I've decided to post about our trip last weekend. Since it was our first weekend outside of San Jose, we decided to make a simple 2.5-hour trip to the beach down by Manuel Antonio on the Pacific Coast. As we pretty much just hung out by the ocean all day, I figured some pictures would tell the story better than words. You know how the saying goes... enjoy.


This was the view from our spot on the sand

This was our hostel, Hostal Buena Vista, meaning "good view." An apt name, considering the following picture, taken from this balcony...


For more on our trip, check out Avalon's post on it here. She's got a good one (with pitures) on our apartment/house/villa here. Hasta luego!

Another Bus Experience (or two, or three)

I went out to Escazu the other day to do some reporting at the MultiPlaza Escazu, a giant mall which apparently expreiced some chaos during the quake last week (they did). To get there, since its a pretty nice suburb outside of San Jose (Avalon's going to be working out there, so I expect she'll blog about it) I had to take a bus. While I've seen some guys bring guitars on buses and perform, there was an old man on the Escazu bus who took mass transportation entreprenurship to a whole new level.

He got on with a variety of stuff, ranging from Dora the Exporer stickers, to sewing needles, to children's pencils with the big, fancy erasers, to some sort of toolkit. Then, he gave some long schpiel which I couldn't really understand. But, surprisingly enough, the Costa Ricans loved it. Or at least liked it enough to purchase some of his wares. I guess he had something for the whole family.

It may be a cultural thing. I remember in Chile, whether it would be kids who came and performed some odd tricks in the middle of traffic, or simply an old woman begging for spare change, my host mother would always give some monedas. It could be the strong religious affinity for helping the poor, or simply the realization that their governments don't provide much in the way of social welfare--or maybe they're just entertained and figure these people provide some sort of service. Either way, I've yet to hear a Costa Rican yell, "Get a job you lazy bums!"

Speaking of bus experiences, yesterday, I went out to the airport for an interview (and I won't get into the fact that once I got there they told me I needed my passport to get in, and once I finally came back with my passport, they didn't even check for it...).

Also, I took the wrong bus home on Monday, and, while we passed by my neighborhood, I couldn't tell because, well, I'm still new here and the bus was filled with people so I couldn't really see out. Long story short, the bus simply stopped in some random place and everyone got out. I had no idea where I was, but luckily a nice family approached me in English, told me I wasn't far from my destination, and pointed out a nicely-lit corner to wait for the next bus or cab. See, not all bus experiences are bad!

Rumble in the Jungle

A flag flies half mast in front of Costa Rica's Supreme Court. Just like it took me a few days to blog about the quake, it took Costa Rica's president a couple days to finally declare a state of emergency and begin an official national mourning period.

By now, many of you have heard about the earthquake that hit Costa Rica last week. I'm fine, thanks to those who have asked. I would have written more about it sooner, but, of course, working at a newspaper means that when there's a crisis, there's a lot of work. And then it was my first weekend in Costa Rica, so Avalon and I obviously went to the beach.

But I digress. Simply put, the earthquake was a surreal experience. At first it felt just like a large truck driving by, then things kept shaking... and shaking... and shaking. For some reason, the earthquake lesson that flashed into my head was to get under a sturdy door frame. Apparently the head editor at the Tico Times scrambled under his desk (which is the right thing to do) in about half a second. That must have been a sight...

While we were shaken up a bit, the office was entirely unscathed. Some parts of San Jose had small bits of damage, but I haven't seen much first hand. We did see scores of Ticos out in the streets for hours afterward, using the quake as a good excuse to take the rest of the day off. I would have, too, except when you're in the newspaper business, an earthquake means more work.

For the first day, I mostly helped out two of the staff reporters get updates online. The paper only comes out once a week, but we knew that with an event such as this that makes world news people were going to be interested. Then on Friday I worked on a short story about how the internet has completely transformed the way news of the quake broke. I know these stories are a bit cliche, but it was fascinating watching the dynamics on Web sites such as Twitter and Facebook, as people turned to the Web to share news and get info when traditional means, such as phone lines, were down after the quake. For now, part of my story is online here. The rest should be up Friday.

Today, I went up to a mall in Escazu, a slightly more well-off suburb of San Jose, to report on the earthquake's affects there. We had heard rumors that the place had been a mad house, with people panicking like crazy. Turns out that the rumors were mostly true. Several shopkeepers I talked to had stories about people dashing out of the Food Court, leaving their meals steaming at the table, taking no heed to the "don't panic" rule, and ignoring broken glass from windows and skylights. A man who worked in the movie theater even told me about some parents abandoning their kids in the frezy; he said he had to help the kids find their parents afterward.

That story's not out yet, and may not even be a story--some quotes may be fed into the larger earthquake piece, and some quotes may simply be part of a sidebar. This is my first real professional experience doing team coverage and it's been fun. Even if the couple hours I spent reporting at the mall turns into a paragraph or two that simply add color to the main story, then it's still worth it. I'll post more stories of mine when they come out, and keep checking The Tico Times for general updates.

El Autobus de Moravia a San Jose (The Bus from Moravia to San Jose)

While living in the suburbs is nice in terms of comfort and safety, it's not much for convenience. Today, I made my first commute by bus downtown to work. The following is a summary:

1. I walk the few blocks from our casa to the bus station. There are several bus stands in a row, and there's a congregation of several people standing by one of them. That's probably the one to San Jose, I assume, since most everyone's commuting downtown, right? Wrong. A bus putters around the corner and pauses at a stand further down the street. Este bus va a San Jose? "Does this bus go to San Jose?" I ask a man next to me. Si! I scurry down the street and climb aboard.

2. I ask the bus driver if he's going to San Jose and how much the fare is. He nods and mutters something that sounds suspciously like "as much as you have." I hand him a 1,000 note to be safe... and get a ton of coins back in change. Well, at least it's going to be a cheap commute.


3. Six blocks in, and we've made about a dozen stops. This may take a while.

4. The man in front of me, probably in his late 20s or early 30s, sporting a black T-shirt and dark sunglasses, begins crossing himself. I wondier if we're passing through an exceptionally dangerous neighborhood. Or perhaps by a church. You never know.

5. A larger, cleaner-looking bus cuts us off and motors past. Why couldn't I have gotten on that one. (Note: Costa Rica has a number of private bus lines, but no primary public ones. So you never really know what you're going to get)

6. The little old lady sitting next to me gets off, and a much larger man takes her seat. Are there trade backs?


7. Looking around, I notice we've entered San Jose proper, and I'm actually close to my stop. This wasn't so bad after all. The rest of my commute is simply a 5-10 minute or so walk from a park, down a nice pedestrian walkway (see picture), past the main judicial buildings, to my office, which looks something like a house (see below).

As for my first commute back from work, it was relatively uneventful, except for the fact that I was not exactly sure if I was on the right bus (it said Moravia, but you never know) and there was traffic, so it took longer. But I saw several interesting places between San Jose and Moravia (our suburb) that I'd like to check out, including a dance theatre that apparently offers breakdancing lessons, a boutique that looked like it only sold man-thongs, and a Taco Bell (I'm just happy to know it's there, if/when I need it).


That's all for now. Expect a post on our casa to come soon...

Guide to visiting: Bargain hunting

I plan to post often with tips/suggestions for visiting us because, we'll, we're encouraging visitors! For starters, here's a brief story I came across on when looking up "Costa Rica" on Google News:

From the Dallas Morning News (click link for more):

I believe we'll see bargain fares for at least the first few months of the year, except during spring break. Don't expect deals to all destinations, and flexible fliers will save the most. If Costa Rica is No. 50 on your travel list and you see a round-trip fare of $149, it should move up to No. 1.

Costa Rica should obviously be #1 on your list already, but if you need any more encouragement, this article's promises of bargains should be plenty!

Where the streets have no name

Oh, Bono. You do all your wonderful work in Africa, but your legacy truly lives on in Costa Rica.

It's almost been four whole, official days here, and I'm starting to get my lay of the land in San Jose... well, starting to at least. The city has a very complex way of navigating things. All north-south roads are "calles" while "avenidas" run east-west. All are numbered, except that north of the "avenida central" the avenidas are odd numbers, south of center they are even. Similarly, the calles west of "calle central" are even, while those east are odd. Eventually, you can figure this out. Then everything's bien, no?

Well, to make things worse, street signs are few and far between, and few cab drivers know streets by their number. Instead, directions are often given by distance from a certain landmark (our hostel, for example, is 225 m north of Parque Morazan). So, once you finally figure out the grid, the moment you get into a cab you must unlearn what you have learned. For a country that eschews all things "complex" (more on that later), I found this system puzzling to say the least.

45 hours in...

7: 02 PM: Avalon: I miss Woody

(Editor's note: This is the first thing Avalon has said she's missed.)

No army does not = no guns

(Disclaimer: I hope this post doesn't scare anyone. I feel completely safe, and it's just a funny thing I've noticed. Mom, I'm fine, don't worry.)

Other than its beautiful beaches and pristine rain forests, one of Costa Rica's unique traits is that it has no standing army. Apparently fed up with the violence of its civil war in 1948, the government disbanded the military, and declared itself officially neutral. Apparently this has worked, as, unlike its neighbors, Costa Rica has not suffered a civil war since.

One thing I've noticed during my first day and a half here, however, is that no military does not equal no guns. We've seen plenty of police on the streets (and that's not a bad thing, they're helpful enough and not entirely intimidating, actually seeming to make people feel safer), but there are a lot of private gun owners, too. More interestingly, a lot of shops have private, often undercover security guards. "That guy was definitely strapped," Avalon observed after we walked past one cafe with a burly man standing guard outside.

The most extreme example so far, however, would have to be the guy standing outside a gas station as we were hailing a cab back to our hotel last night. He spotted one for us, and asked if we wanted it. Completely helpful, friendly, and nice--if you can get over the large rifle he had slung over his shoulder.

For more background, check out this article from one of my co-workers (well, I technically start Monday) at the Tico Times. And again, Mom, if you're reading this, don't worry about me. While I've heard some horror stories about crime in San Jose, I've felt really safe so far.

Para comenzar (to begin)

Dear readers, I'm now settled in a hostel in charming downtown San Jose, and of course my primary concern is getting the blog up and running. While I was tempted to continue my old travel blog (fitzinchile.blogspot.com) I thought it may be confusing to have Chile in the address while I'm in Costa Rica. Thus, I now present, patfitz.blogspot.com. Easy to remember, and a blog I can now keep my whole life (while I reclaim my name from this fellow). I'll do my best to update constantly with pictures, anecdotes, and observations from my Costa Rican adventures. In the meantime, feel free to comment and add suggestions, whether about Costa Rica (there's a lot of you who've been here already) or blogging. I look forward to writing, and hopefully you look forward to reading. Hasta luego!