san jose-quepos

I have been here 6 days. It is hot but comfortable.  The beaches are quite beautiful. The jungle is my heaven; waterfalls, monkeys, birds, bugs, green.  I can feel it as deeply as anything I have ever felt in my life.  And as I dive deeper into the local culture, I keep questioning, what does Pura Vida truly means. Pure Life.  But the country is so overwhelmed with tourists and gringos that the purity of local life here has shifted and given way to a large majority of oppertunistic hustlers and cheats. Pure life is the moto here, so I ask, what and where is it?  Before I arrived in this country I translated pure life to mean simple, pure, a preserved innocense, essential... now I translate it into a varition of intended meanings, Pura Vida: wild, national pride, sleep/eat/drink, tribal, hustle, take, the law of the people not the rules of government, pure life, not to be confused with a pure life. So needless to say, the polotics here have caught my eye.  Which leads me to mention that I have met some pretty disapointing examples of gringo tourists. There are many good north americans living and traveling here, but the tourist route its pretty much the epitomy of why we are internationally seen as ignorant and with little merit other than walking dollar signs.

Thises and thats: I have made several friends; a few americans living here, a swiss girl studying and volunteering, a grumpy old lonely but funny and helpful canadian drunkard and a really cute little Tico kid that asked me to teach him english. My spanish is improving much, though I am far from fluent. I can communicate and get around.  I am learning but my conversation skills are in good need of improvement, I just smile and laugh alot. I have been offered a little work making beds, I may take up the offer and extend my travels a few months. Also, I am looking for a volunteer position but the best farms to "volunteer" at all cost about $400-500 a month!  Other options will be good for room and board, so I keep looking for the right option for me.  Today I head from Quepos to Dominical, continueing onward to Osa, then north to Volcanos.

One Love,
Aisha