What About She?

The adjectives that come to my mind to describe Costa Rica are the same as they were when I traveled here in 1998: easy and beautiful. It is easy to get around, to communicate, to find delicious and clean food. And despite the immensity of the tourist industry, this country remains incredibly beautiful. I was last here for my 19^th birthday. At that time, Costa Rica was the perfect introduction to the start of a three-month trip in Central and South America- my first time traveling outside of the United States. Now, it’s a lovely break after an intense couple of weeks of interviewing for academic jobs and being in New York City. And it’s a perfect beginning to the third segment of our big trip.

So far we have seen a pair of sloths and a pair of toucans, several tiny Poison dart frogs, a Jesus Christ lizard (we are not sure why it is called that, but we’ve had fun imagining), endless colors and sizes of butterflies, and we have heard Howler monkeys, who give the impression that we are surrounded by a forest filled with roaring beasts, perhaps dinosaurs. The frog sounds at night are like a synthesizer gone wild.

It rained all night in that tropical way- as though someone had rent a hole in the awning of the heavens and the water just came pouring through. This morning, the jungle is dripping around us, the sky is grey and blustery, and the ocean is seething. We are amazed at how much water the earth can absorb. I left my book outside last night and now it is a swollen, pulpy mass. I’ve come out to the beach to read, but everything is damp, so I’ve set it to dry on the log beside me and the wind ruffles through the pages.

There are coral reefs here just offshore, but the waves have been too high the last few days to try snorkeling. Today will not be the day for it either. It’s been sunny, though: humid and warm and we have played in the waves with the Costa Ricans who flock to this beach on the weekends and the other white tourists and local kids who are here during the week. The kids yell back and forth to each other over the waves in a mixture of Spanish and a Jamaican-style Creole.

In the late 1800’s, many Jamaicans were recruited to work on the railroads and banana plantations of this coast and the Afro-Caribbean culture is strong here. Yesterday we ate jerk smoked chicken at Miss Edith’s Restaurant in Cahuita. It was truly one of the best meals of my life. When Sage walked over to the ocean to wash out a spot of jerk sauce from her shorts, Miss Edith came over to take away my plate. I ordered a ginger cake for dessert and she gestured to the empty chair, saying, “what about she?”

The darker skinned folks all seem to speak in a patois to each other, and in Spanish to everyone else. Though the patois is based on English, it is impossible to understand, but very very cool to listen to. At the bar in town the other night we felt invisible – which was kind of cool – so we tried to listen to the conversations around us at the dominoes table and around the bar.

The last few months of travel through Southeast Asia have been fast-paced and exciting. We’ve traveled to places neither of us had ever been in countries whose languages we don’t speak and with whose cultures and food we are largely unfamiliar. Now we begin a different kind of travel. We will be visiting friends. We will be staying places longer- settling in a bit and developing a routine. One or the other of us will be familiar with the languages. We will be visited by friends.

Though our time in New York was made stressful by job interviews and conferences, it was made rejuvenating by friends. It was the first time since we had been in India that we really had anyone to talk to besides each other. It was the first time since we left home that we got a chance to talk with people who truly know us well (both in person and on the phone). We look forward to visits from friends in the upcoming months. We both left New York feeling incredibly blessed by the friendships we have in our lives.

--Kacy and Sage