Hello from San Jose, Costa Rica!

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March 4th 2008

Published: March 4th 2008

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Hilarywinter2008

Susan and Harry's house in San Ramon los Tres Rios

Well, I arrived in Costa Rica safe and sound on Saturday and have been staying near here since then at the home of my friends, Susan and Harry Liang, whom I met at a party in Paris about five years ago.

I couldn’t believe the number of tourists -mostly Americans--at the airport. Apparently, 2 million people visit this country a year, whereas the total population of Costa Rica is only 4 million! I had to wait about an hour in a long, slow-moving line just to show the immigration agent my passport. Luckily, my friends had sent Marvin Alvarez to pick me up, and when I got out of customs and immigration,I found him among the mobs of people with signs and the numerous, shouting taxi drivers. The airport is to the west of San Jose, and Susan and Harry live up in the hills east of town, so Marvin drove me for about 35 kilometers to San Ramon los Tres Rios where they have a house on top of a hill. As we drove through the center of the city, Marvin pointed out the sites of the capital, and I was able speak to him in Spanish.

another part of the house

This made for a very pleasant trip.

Susan and Harry’s house is absolutely beautiful, as you will see on the photos I’m posting. It is surrounded by fantastic tropical vegetation and has a lovely view of the Central Valley below. Harry’s hobby is making stain-glass windows, and many of the windows in their home have been done by him. Harry is a former General Manager of Xerox who worked in Central America, New York, Casablanca and Cairo. He was born in Guatemala but also has American citizenship. Susan is American. An actor (the “P.C.” word for “actress” these days, it seems), journalist and former teacher, she was an editor for many years at the Tico Times (where Harry is still the business manager), the largest English-language paper in Central America. She’s now very involved with the Little Theater Group, both as an actor and director. In fact, she took me to a performance of “Hysteria”, a play she directed, the first night I was here; and last night we attended their monthly meeting, which was preceded by an excellent, short, musical comedy performance. It was very interesting for me to observe and meet some of the English-speaking expat colony

Susan's patio

here. A lot of the group are people who were involved in the theater in the U.S. and are very talented.

On Sunday, Susan dropped me off in town, and I spent several hours walking around the center. I particularly liked the National Museum, which is now housed in the former army barracks. As you probably know, Costa Rica no longer has any armed forces. They were abolished after the 1948 civil war. Although there are a few nice buildings, on the whole, San Jose is not a very attractive city. There is none of the charm of Antigua, for example—no inner courtyards, cobbled streets, lovely churches and ruins. Instead, it’s a hodge-podge of cheap clothing shops, American fast-food restaurants and quasi modern buildings. Everyone’s in jeans - no native dress as in Guatemala. As a matter of fact, the indigenous people here are only about 1% of the population, with most people being of mixed blood. On the Caribbean coast, about 3% of the population is black.

I think I’m a bit “citied” out, so I’ve been relaxing here before starting out on the road again. Plan to take local buses and visit some of the countryside