Well said, Ben. I definately feel very distinctly a white person down here, which is quite appropriate considering what a gringo I am. I wasn´t trying to draw any lines between myself and anyone else in the last post, just observing the effects of my culture on a foreign country. I suppose the reason it interests me so is the culpability that I feel, even though I´m not trying to do anything wrong. I´ve been with plenty of great whities down here, which brings me to a story...Sunday night and I´m walking back to my house to read for a while when I hear a voice calling out from behind me. I turn around to see a tall, older, white guy with a long white and blond beard, and long hair of the same color. He asks me how I´m doing and we start chatting about what we´re both doing in this little town of Sierpe. I had seen him a few times in town, and I soon learn that he is the owner and builder of a magnificent catamaran that I had seen anchored in the river when I had traveled out to an Island off the coast earlier in the day. He walks down to the side of the stream and lets out this birdcall down the river, which is sooned returned by something that sounds like an owl from off in the darkness. As he waits for his friend to come pick him up in a little dingy, he helps some Ticos get a boat out of the water, while I stand there uselessly. When his friend pulls up in the dingy the guy turns to me and invites me out to the boat for a beer. I had nothing to do, so after asking him not to abduct me, I hop in on the dingy and am paddled off into the darkness.
The boat turns out to be quite a production, which these two friends, about my parents age, have built from scratch by themselves. I learn that they both have families of their own, have been living in Costa Rica for twenty years, and have been traveling the coast living in this boat for the past two months, shuttling from surf spot to surf spot. They were two of the funniest middle aged hippies I´ve ever met, and I was glad to have met them and checked out their boat. Definately an inspiration to make some stuff with my hands, hopefully under the supervision of Dave this summer.
Anyway, the extent to which I am judged down here for the color of my skin makes me all the more conscious of not judging other whities for being white, although I still am interested in looking into our affects on this country. Also, just as Ben´s post said so well, what is it with the tourist´s aversion to tourists? That still cracks me up, but I think the first step to being ok with it is the acceptance of how much of a tourist one is. With that in mind, I can enjoy the company of many different people while I am here, which has been one of the best parts of my travels here.