It feels like a lot has been going on lately, and I haven't had much time to write on this ridiculous blogospherewebnet thing. I'm in Londres now, on a farm called Finca Amanecer, but I still have some stories from Sierpe to share, so I'll track back in my journal and work my way to where I am now.
3/6/09
By the sweet grace of god, I've somehow managed to find the Celtics down here in Sierpe. I was bumming about missing the Celtics' bout with the Cavs, albeit without Papa Bear Kevin Garnett, so I thought I'd walk down to a nearby hotel to see if the Celtics could possibly be on ESPN International, and sure enough, they were! After spending a month in the mountains on a farm, I am really enjoying some aspects of being in a town, like the Celtics tonight, and champions league on tuesday and wednesday. Ok, I guess all I really missed in the mountains was sports.
3/7/09
Yesterday I was walking from Don Jorge's house, where after being blown off three consecutive times I had plans to give english lessons to his son, Santiago, I finally got to sit down with this pudgy little kid to practice some english. Approximately ten minutes into our lesson, I was told that his little highness had to go somewhere, so I was back on the street walking to Las Vegas, the local bar/restaurant/ecotourism outfit of Don Jorge. I was fascinated to see a man talking to another in the middle of the road, one of whom was holding a hose, just watering the road. I had glimpsed him from a distance when I had entered Don Jorge's house, but I figured he was just watering some plants I couldn't see. As I walked past, I watched in fascination as the man continued to carry on his conversation, while very purposefully watering the dirt road.
Today I found the man who the road waterer was talking to an asked him why that guy was watering the road. He laughed and said matter of factly, "el polvo." All of a sudden I realized that whenever I walk by a car on the road, I cover my face so it doesn't get filled with dust, which must devastate the houses on the side of the road. Here I was reading a new yorker article that Mr. Cho gave me about how theres not enough water in India for people to drink and bathe, and how our planet is literally running out of clean water, and I'm realizing that most everyone in town waters their roads for a while each day. Bummer.
3/9/09
Almost two months into my trip, and I am seeing rain for the very first time. I can almost hear the earth breathing a sigh of relief, as the water soothes its thirsty and cracked soils. This is some of the best rain I've ever seen, right in the middle of the hottest part of the day. I've been shvitzing my cohones off for the past two hours inside, and I just walked outside to be greeted by the freshest air. Yesterday I went to the Isla del Cano by boat, down the winding rivers through the mangroves, out of the delta, and into the Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful trip, I snorkled and saw a meter and a half shark swimming creepily by, two beautiful rays who looked like magnificent silver birds underwater, a ton of colorful fish and the coral reef they were feeding on, and a big old turtle from the boat. While I was snorkling, something caught my eye at the floor of the ocean, my eyes were instantly drawn to this perfectly round, black and yellow... wheel. I did a double take, theres no way there could be a golf cart wheel at the base of the ocean off the coast of an island off the coast of a peninsula off the coast of Costa Rica. I stared at the wheel for a while thinking about Jeffrey Sach's glowing reverence he pays to the Industrial Revolution in his book, The End of Poverty. I'm sure you could imagine... haha. On the way back, we saw a bundle of monkeys that loked like mini gorillas in the tree tops, some mini bats on a tree, and a host of caymans on the banks of a little inlet we explored.
Sierpe felt a lot different today after the rain. I felt like birds were coming out to sing for the first time, and that everything looked greener than ever. Juan Luis (the father at La Iguana) told me that it used to rain every so often during the summer, but for a few years now, nothing at all. At least I can content myself knowing that no one will have to water the street today.
Looking around Sierpe it's good to recognize some of the good parts of town. Bicycles everywhere, a single daily bus that carries tons of passengers to Palmar. Some cars, some motorcycles, some boat traffic, and even a guy on horseback every now and then. Now that I think about it, Sierpe was probably one of the most diversely transported to places I've ever been.