Dateline – La Fortuna, Costa Rica
I did not book an early morning excursion, in case I wanted to sleep in, but I was up and out at 7 am anyway to find a picture postcard perfect morning of blazing sunshine and the Arenal volcano in full view looming over the town. It’s currently dormant but it’s most recent eruptive phase (1968-2010) is not so far in the past that erosion and other natural processes have altered its classical conic shape. I am told that seismologists are constantly monitoring what’s happening below the mountain and that we’ll get plenty of warning if Haephestus or Pele or any of the other forge and fire gods decide they need to let off a little steam while I’m in the area.
I had a leisurely breakfast and then was picked up by a shuttle and driven around to the other side of the mountain to see what I could see. There I was introduced to the joys of zip lining through the jungle canopy. (That’s zip lining, not zip tying which has been much in the news of late). The years of flying trapeze lessons paid off, I had no issues with throwing myself off various platforms or looking down at a river several hundred feet below while suspended from a harness around my thighs. I was also the only one in my group willing to tarzan swing upside down and without hands. As I said to the others, he may be getting on in years but he’s not dead yet. No picutres of zip lining or being suspended upside down yet. I did not take my phone on the tour as, with my luck, I would have had it fall out of my pocket into the jungle while careening along. The tour took photos. I’ll post some of those when I get them. Most of the jungle animals had the good sense to avoid tourists hurtling through the tree tops at high rates of speed but I did see two different species of toucan so I can cross that off the list of sightings in the wild for the trip. I really would like to see a quetzal but I’ve been told those are quite rare.
After returning from the jungle canopy, I went in search of lunch and found a decent plate of fish followed by a visit to a local ice cream parlor where I had their specialty – a large goblet of creme anglaise and tropical fruit with ice cream in the middle covered with caramel and ground pistachios. Vacation calories don’t count. But it did make me long for an afternoon nap and I treated myself to such. Late afternoon, another shuttle, this time to a hotel/resort much ritzier than the one we’re staying at and an evening in their various pools. Due to the volcanic activity, there’s a myriad of hotsprings and several fed the pool complex so there were a variety of options for temperature. I spent a good deal of time in the ones like warm bath water hoping it will do some good for my cervical spondylosis. (It’s gone in the mornings and then comes back through the day due to the effect of gravity on my cervical vertebrae – trip to the pain clinic on return). After bathing, a nice risotto before returning to my room and some writing before bed. Up in the morning to move on to Monteverde and the Cloud Forest.
As it was a somewhat slow day, I had time to catch up on the news from home. Some thoughts: the administration is champing at the bit to use the Insurrection Act to consolidate power but they’re going to have a hard time getting the population to buy into this. Our society knows what war looks like and what ciites in the midst of warfare or insurrection look like. We’ve been subject to photojournalism of pretty much every atrocity perpetrated by humans for well over a century now. And a couple of dozen protestors led by a guy in a chicken suit with an inflatable frog in front of ICE headquarters in Portland isn’t an insurrection in anyone’s book. And, so far, the left isn’t taking the bait and offering violence, no matter the provocation.
Another thought, we’re nowhere near to disaster as Germany was in the 1930s. What saves us is our pluralism. Most European societies, especially in the early 20th century, were homogenous. We never have been and, because of that, it’s very difficult to get Americans to agree on anything. The administration will only be able to truly assert authoritarian control by neutralizing the two thirds of Americans who don’t agree with them or live lives structured on their ideals. Stephen Miller might want to reduce the population to 100 million (and there seems to be a social media campaign, mainly using images from TV commercials of the 70s through the early 80s stating that that’s the society such a reduction of population would create). Fact – the US population in this period was well over 200 million. We were at 100 million during World War I. Fact – removing 2/3 of the population would lead to societal collapse. The only time such a thing has occurred within recent millennia was the Black Death in Europe which only took about 40% of the population. Even World War II, the most destructive event of the 20th century, only killed about 4% of the population of Europe at the time. The administration is only going to get everything they want if we give it to them by allowing them to take it.
In the words of the notorious RBG – I dissent.
Life, The Universe, and Everything 