Dateline – San Jose, Costa Rica

Today was dreary and full of rain. Which worked out nicely as we had little to do other than make our way back from Quepos to San Jose. Fortunately, the roads were not crowded, the bridge under constant construction which could cause delays of up to an hour was crossed without issue and we were back at the Radisson San Jose where we began a week ago by midafternoon. When we left, the Radisson was full of teenagers here for some sort of youth soccer tournament. This time, it’s full of bowlers here for major bowling competition happening over the next week. The teens were less rambunctious.

The highlight of the drive back was the sighting of a pair of scarlet macaws in a coastal tree which led to an unscheduled stop. I used to have a fantasy of owning a scarlet macaw as they’re such gorgeous birds but having now seen them flying in their natural habitat, I could never do that. I’m becoming a softie in my old age. After a nap and a walk, the group gathered one last time for a farewell dinner – at a Vietnamese restaurant in a Latin American country. The food was quite good. I had a rice noodle bowl with pork meatballs. The organized tour may be done but I’m up in the morning to catch a puddle jumper at San Jose airport to the town of Liberia on the North Pacific coast for my few days of R and R in Conchal at the Westin.

The news out of DC is stunningly bad. Using the shut down as cover, the administration more or less gutted the CDC last night pretty much eliminating the teams that keep the food supply safe, track epidemics and infectious disease and let the health system know about what’s happening, assist foreign countries with serious outbreaks so that nasty diseases over there don’t spread here in this age of global travel, monitor respiratory viruses like the flu and help understand mutations and changing strains so that things like flu shots remain effective etc. etc. I can think of only a few reasons why these moves were taken. 1. They believe that if there is no information available regarding public health issues, that they won’t need to respond. 2. There’s been a calculated decision to knock out the supports that allow us to live long and health lives so that there will be fewer outlays for support in older age by the government. 3. They’re somehow conflating other public health initiatives with vaccine policy and they’ve decided destruction of public trust in vaccines is good short term politics. 4. They’re feckin’ idiots. It’s likely a combination of all three.

The consequences that are coming are: a) there will be a resurgence of childhood diseases previously conquered and children will die needlessly. I’m really expecting a polio outbreak with kids in iron lungs within the next five years. b) there will likely be a collapse in the ability of the population to access protection against seasonal respiratory viruses of all stripes after this coming year. c) some really nasty bug will arise in Asia or Africa and will come to this country and we won’t have the tools to contain it and it’s not going to limit itself to ‘othered’ populations.

Today is October 11th. It’s National Coming Out Day. I came out many decades ago in a totally different world where there were very real risks to my career, social standing, finances and various other things. But it was a necessary step in my evolution as an authentic adult. Besides, there was no way Steve, who came out at age 14 in high school in the early 60s when such things simply were not done, was going to allow me to not be who I am once we became a couple. For a while there, with the Windsor and Obergefell decisions and enormous shifts in the culture, coming out became less of a big deal. But we’re in a different time now where LGBTQ people are being ‘othered’ by powerful forces at a rapid clip. Books are being banned. Symbols of LGBTQ life are being erased from the publc square. Business is afraid to openly support us for fear of running afoul of the government. I made it through the 80s as a gay man so I have full battle armor, psychic and otherwise and am not afraid to use the skills I’ve learned.

Speaking of Steve, today is also the 57th anniversary of the first service held by Troy Perry founding what would become the Metropolitan Community Church, the first religious denomination created to specifically tend to the spiritual needs of the LGBTQ community. 20 year old Steve was one of the 12 attendees at that first service in Troy’s living room making home one of the 12 apostles of MCC. (He was there because he was the window display guy at the Santa Monica Sears where Troy ran the notions department). This means that Steve, were he still living, would now be 77 – he would not be thrilled. Troy is now 85. I’ve met him a few times over the years. As far as I know, he’s still doing OK.

The Saturday after I get back is the No Kings Day protests. I am going to go to the Birmingham gathering at Railroad Park as I take my first amendement rights of freedom of speech and freedom of peaceful assembly and protest very seriously. Will there be trouble? Unlikely in Birmingham. But I do expect the administration will try to goad violent action in some other locales. I hope people are smart enough not to take the bait. I have a couple of notions regarding a specific message I want to send. One is to show up as the Ansager from Politically Incorrect Cabaret with a sign regarding how PIC stands for freedom of speech and expression. The other is to show up in my plague doctor get up with a sign about how the whims of kings keeps me in business. The time for standing on the sidelines is rapidly passing. I’m in a position where I can put my body on the line for the good of the nation if necessary. No one depends on me and my working life is more or less ending.

It’s raining again. I can hear it outside the windows. I love lousy weather when I’m comfortably inside looking out.

Dateline – Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Today was a day for nature watching and walking and swimming in the sea. My schedule is adjusting to Costa Rican rhythms which revolve around the sun. Everyone is up earlier around 5:30 or 6 as it’s cool and the light has returned. As this is the tail end of the rainy season, sunshine tends to last until early afternoon when the clouds blow in for afternoon and evening rains which range from mist to gullywasher. The sun sets suddenly around 6 pm so everyone scrambles home for dinner and everything is quiet by 8 or 9 pm. No nightlife to speak of – at least in the smaller country towns. San Jose is different but I wasn’t really looking to be out drinking and carrying on to the wee hours when there. I have one more night there tomorrow night so things could change but somehow, I doubt it.

After breakfast, the bus took us the few miles to the entrance of Manuel Antonio National Park, famed for its forests, beaches, and fairly good chances of getting up close and friendly with the wildlife. The town of Manuel Antonio is a bit like Gatlinburg on the way to Smokey Mountains National Park in Tennessee. Tshirt and souvenir stands, inexpensive restaurants, motels, barkers trying to get you into their establishment and then wham, it all stops at the park boundary. It’s off season so the park, while well populated, wasn’t crowded. Apparently in high season (January – March) it gets so full that they have had to go to a ticketed reservation system to limit the number of people in the gates at any one time. The park naturalists are fiercely protective of their charges and there are significant rules about what can and cannot be brought in side the grounds. Nothing that would cause the animals undue stress such as drones, or loudspeakers. No outside food at all (and what is available within the park must be kept within a caged cafeteria). Apparently they were having significant issues with simian diabetes from people feeding the monkeys inappropriately and this has straightened that issue out.

Our guide took us for roughly a mile walk through the heart of the park that’s easily accessible. (Most of the acreage is deliberately undeveloped and left in as pristine a natural state as possible). Capuchin monkeys. Both two toed and three toed (the cute ones) sloths. A raccoon (very different from its US counterpart). Lots of uncommon bird species. We ended up on a very nice beach and were left to our own devices for some hours. I got some sun, swam a bit in the surf, and moseyed on back to town for lunch in a beach front restaurant accompanied by a couple of key lime martinis.

I decided to make like the sloths and move slowly and do little this afternoon. For the first time in several days, it did not rain after 2 PM so I did some hanging by the hotel pool, did some reading, and had a nice nap. After dark, when the rains finally made their appearance, the group headed into the town of Quepos and we had a group dinner in a very nice and breezy restaurant close to the shore. Dining out is about 1/3 to 1/2 of what I would expect to pay in the US so I don’t feel the least bit guilty about ordering coffee and dessert. We don’t have to be on the bus for San Jose until 10 tomorrow morning so I plan to have a very leisurely sleep in and breakfast. If I wake up early, there’s plenty of time for a walk and to see if I can spot the last of the Costa Rican monkey species. (I’ve seen Capuchin, squirrel and howler. I’m missing spider).

Haven’t commented on US politics much the last few days. The good citizens of Portland, having dressed up in various inflatable animal get ups in front of the ICE building are making the feds look somewhat ridiculous. Men in heavy tactical gear facing off with a pink care bear, several inflatable frogs, and a lolloping unicorn just doesn’t project the image that Kristi Noem thinks it does. Chicago could take a page from this playbook. Maybe it will keep the feds from shooting members of the clergy at prayer.

The big story of the day is the Qatari air force arriving in Idaho. There has been a lot of screaming from both sides about this so I did a little fact checking. This stems from a deal struck in 2017 (Trump’s first term) when the Qatari air force bought a bunch of F-15s from the US. There is no facility in Qatar appropriate for pilot training in such aircraft. The decision to allow the Qatari to train in the US was made around 2020 and was worked on through the whole Biden administration. It’s just now coming to public notice due to Hegseth’s need to be in the news spotlight. It’s not payback for the Qatari golden jet. It’s not caught up in the Israeli/Hamas conflict. Qatar isn’t being ceded any territory or building its own base. The base remains under American control and American law. Now, I still don’t think it’s the world’s best idea given that the Qatari have long been the bankers and funders of most of the jihadist organizations out there but money talks. If nothing else, many more eyes will be paying attention to Mountain Home, Idaho and the Republicans have handed the Democrats a convenient wedge issue which can be easily exploited to split the right.

Still have to tackle healthcare politics. All I can do is roll my eyes when we have a Health and Human Services secretary who would have failed 8th grade biology.

Dateline – Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Today was a bit of a travel day. Up early to catch the bus in lovely sunshiney weather and then off to the Pacific Coast. The first hour or so were the descent from the mountain heights of Monteverde to the coastal plain near the ocean. The road was the usual wriggly two lane mountain track but they seem to have been paved a bit more recently on this side of the range and it wasn’t quite the strap in and hang on that we’d been experiencing for the last few days. We eventually emerged onto the Pan American highway – really only a two lane route at this point in its course through Latin America. We turned left, and headed south and, when the Pan American turned inland toward San Jose, we headed off on smaller roads following the coastline, eventually reaching the port of Quepos.

Quepos was founded in the early 20th century by the United Fruit Company as the port for shipping bananas from its plantations to Pacific destinations such as the west coast of the USA. The history of UFC (later rebranded as Chiquita Banana in an attempt to ditch some of its more unsavory past) is highly unpleasant and full of exploitation of the Costa Rican people and land. It’s worth looking up if you don’t know about it as it’s full of the very worst of American capitalistic excess, something we seem to be trying to get back to. Most of the rest of the world has left it behind for better ways of being. The banana plantations are long gone, replaced by palm oil which is run in a much more environmentally friendly manner. Just outside of Quepos is Manuel Antonio National Park and we are staying in the town of the same name up on the bluff overlooking the ocean at a very nice hotel.

On your own lunch was at a Costa Rican food court across the street as the rooms weren’t ready yet. The view was nice. The temperature was perfect and the ocean breeze chased the humidity away. I crossed back to the hotel, got my room key, unpacked, and the rains began, pouring the rest of the afternoon. This is not unexpected. It is the tail end of the rainy seaon on the Pacific coast. Being a good Seattle boy, I didn’t let it bother me. I took a walk, had a swim in the pool, and tried not to kill myself by slipping on the hotel walkways which are a very nice tile but the mix with rainwater is a bit tricky.

For the evening, the group headed back down into Quepos and a bit beyond for night tour of the river and the mangrove swamps. I’ve been in mangroves before, but never after dark, and floating through them when you can’t see is a bit unnerving. The guide and boat captain seemed to know what they were doing and we didn’t lose anyone. Lots of nocturnal or sleeping bird sightings. A few bats. A sloth at the top of a very tall tree. A four eyed possum (which is much smaller than the North American variety) scurrying along the branches looking for nectar. The monkeys were all asleep. I spotted a number of monkeys in the trees around the hotel but they were all curled up and sheltering from the rain so no pictures. A very good home cooked dinner and then back to the hotel for relax time before bed.

I’m still mulling over some health politics pieces in response to the idiocies coming out of the federal government but I probably won’t get around to writing them until this next week when I go from phase 1 to phase 2 of Costa Rican vacation. We return to San Jose on Saturday and the tour officially ends with Sunday departures. I, however, am not returning yet. I am off to Guanacaste for an additional four nights at a fancy all inclusive with no agenda other than to decompress and return next Thursday. I’ve felt an absolute need to have some time to do nothing if I so choose. Maybe things will start flowing there.

Dateline – Monteverde, Costa Rica

Today was eco-tourist day. I got up early to lovely weather, low 70s and no humidity here in the mountains of the cloud forest and, after breakfast (more delicious pineapple), got on the van with my fellow travelers for a trip up the now familiar unpaved and minimally graded roads to the Monteverde Cloud Forest reserve. There, a delightful nature walk and a climb up an observation tower to Lake Arenal far below and the volcanic cone in the distance. Mammals spotted included a tree dwelling porcupine taking a nap and an agouti out for a morning stroll. Most of the other spottings were birds – no toucans or quetzals – and a very large tarantula. Bouncing back down the hill and over to the Monteverde Ecological Institute for a talk on the natural history of the area, some minor help with a reforestation project which consisted of filling small plastic bags with earth in preparation for oak seedlings followed by lunch.

After lunch, some time to explore the large local town of Saint Elena – not so large that it couldn’t be seen in an hour followed by a nap as the alternate plan of zip lining again was again stymied by the threat of thunderstorms. I was going to stroll back into town for dinner this evening when the heavens finally opened and it poured for several hours. That nixed the idea of wandering off the hotel property so it was dinner at the hotel restaurant with fellow travelers instead. The rains broke after dinner but I’m not pushing my luck.

What I learned about modern Costa Rican history. From the 1920s through the 1980s, Costa Rica, like most of the rest of Central and South America deforested much of its land taking it from nearly 100% forest cover down to less than 30% and based its economy on agriculture. In the 1980s, the government and the people realized how unique they were with the mountain range between two major oceans and how biodiverse and how many microclimates and ecosystems they had in such a small land area. (4% of the world’s species in 0.03% of it’s land). There was conscious effort to move away from agriculture towards a more harmonious balance between the population and nature. They began an aggressive reforestation campaign (things grow quickly with their rainfall) and now nearly 70% of the land area is covered with cloud forest, rain forest and other woodlands. They are working diligently to become carbon neutral with nearly all of their power coming from renwables. They are now becoming a leader in tech and tourism. With no military budget, the growing economy is plowed back into education, health care and support for the people. I wish we would take a few lessons from them regarding how a society should work. And the US health care system and the Costa Rican are practically tied on the WHO list of best health care systems. The US is number 37 and Costa Rica number 38.

I feel the need to write a bit of a history of American health care and partisan politics given some of the more lunatic beliefs out there regarding the current federal shut down. But I don’t think tonight is the night.

Dateline – Monteverde, Costa Rica

This evening’s travelog will be relatively short as I don’t have the energy this evening for a long essay about anything. Not a lot happened today anyways. Had to get up and have breakfast at an earlier hour than I might have liked in order to get on the bus for the next leg of the journey, back over the continental divide from tropical rain forest (Caribbean side) to cloud forest (Pacific side). Given topography, this would normally be a four or five hour drive over rough mountain roads but, clever tour companies, a short cut has been found. We drove half an hour to Lake Areanal near the base of the volcanic cone on the opposite side from La Fortuna and boarded a boat. The lake, the largest in the country, is formed by a hydroelectric dam on a river and meanders a few miles to the west. Much sighting of lake birds including egrets and a whole passel of cormorants fishing away. (I looked up the correct collective for cormorants just now – it’s a gulp or a swim. Personally, I would vote for an insatiate after a particularly affecting speech in Richard II). There were also a few howler monkey in the trees but they weren’t making a lot of noise.

After landing, onto a different bus and up into the mountains. As the climate had changed, these reminded me a lot of the coastal range of the San Francisco peninsula (the wet side facing the Pacific) in terms of feel and vegetation. The roads are better in California, though. I could swear that the one we were on was last graded by oxcart sometime during the Fillmore administration. A stop for snacks and then we pulled into town about 12:30. The hotel here is much nicer than the last one, lots of little bungalows terraced up the hillside with manicured tropical plants and winding concrete paths to connect. The plan for the afternoon was zip lining again, this time in cloud forest. We trekked on out to the place but thunder and lighting moving through derailed that plan. Small metal platforms high in the trees are probably not the wisest places to be during a thunderstorm and I wouldn’t want to have to explain Kentucky Fried tourist to the authorities. So, back to the hotel and I did some reading.

Dinner in the hotel restaurant was surprisingly good (fresh mushroom soup and shrimp fettucine in a tomato/cream/basil sauce). And then it was time for a night time nature hike. As I stumbled up and down woodland paths in the dark, my mantra of ‘ground hard, fall bad’ was pounding in my brain. I did not fall, a minor miracle given the mild peripheral neuropathy in my feet. I am happy that I bought the boots with good ankle support the week before this trip just so I could have proper footwear for an occasion such as this. Kinkajous frolicking in the trees, frogs, a sleeping rainbow toucan, and a much closer encounter with a venomous pit viper than I cared to have. Up again in the morning to visit a cloud forest nature reserve.

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.

Dateline – La Fortuna, Costa Rica

And off we go from the urban sprawl of San Jose and into the wilds of the country. Costa Rica, as a nation, is only a bit larger than my VA housecalls catchment area or about 40% the size of the state of Alabama. However, given its unique topography with a high volcanic mountain chain separating two major oceans, neither the roads not the climate is straightforward. La Fortuna, where I am for the next day or so, is only about fifty miles as the crow flies from San Jose. To get here requires about four and a half hours of drive time over windy mountain roads and across the continental divide. We went from urban center (warm and humid), to relatively temperate mountain heights (much cooler and drier and perfect for coffee, strawberries, and dairy cattle), to tropical rainforest (warm, wet, and much more humid), each with their own types of vegetation.

The climb up the mountains to the east of San Jose was an exercise in maneuvering a small bus around roads originally designed for oxcarts and therefore narrow and winding with the contours of the land. They were built for the coffee industry in the early 19th century and were simply paved over in the 20th. the bridges, in particular, are pretty much one lane. Our driver seemed adept and no major mishaps occurred but the skills, acquired in San Jose, of checking carefully both ways, and then dashing across the street to avoid the driver that appears out of nowhere and comes careening through continue to serve me well. We had two stops up in the mountain heights. The first for snacks and potty break for those in need and the second at a working coffee processing cooperative, Mi Cafecito. It’s a small operation, a cooperative for local growers which puts out a relatively small amount of quality product. As it was Sunday, the plant was not in operation so we could climb all over the various machines used to process the berries and then the beans, followed by a taditional Costa Rican lunch.

After lunch down the mountains on the Caribbean side including a stop at a particularly scenic waterfall and then, as our sharp eyed driver spotted a sloth, an unscheduled one to watch mama sloth at the top of a tree cuddling her baby. We also passed a tribe of howler monkeys in a food coma but we didn’t stop for them. I’ve been informed there are many more simians to come. A sloth in the wild was my goal for mammals this trip so I can tick that off (also saw a white nosed coati that was staring inquisitively at passing traffic). On the avian side, I’m hoping for toucans (again) and a quetzal. No luch so far, just a flock of green macaws in the distance making a hellacious racket.

We are staying in the town of La Fortuna tonight and tomorrow night which is at the foot of the Arenal volcano. It’s like tourist resort towns anywhere. T-shirt shops, inexpensive restaurants, ice cream places, souvenir and trinket stands. I’ve booked a couple of outings for tomorrow. (More on that later). In the meantime, I wandered around town (which didn’t take long – it’s not very large) and then it was time to get back on the bus for dinner. Dinner was up in the hills at a private home which prepares meals for tourist groups – La Cocina de Dona Mara. Dona Mara herself was a lovely motherly woman of about sixty who had us make her own tortillas and bake them on her wood fired griddle before treating us to a delicious dinner of spicy shredded chicken, black beans, rice, carmelized plantain, some root vegetable I didn’t catch the name of, and a sort of stir fried vegetable medley. it was all delicious. I flunked tortilla making 101 when mine stuck to my hand when dropping it on the griddle so it came out as a lump rather than a flat piece of dough and had to be scraped off and remade.

Fully fed and, as there isn’t a whole lot of night life, in rural Costa Rica, I’m going to do some reading and go to bed relatively early.

Dateline – San Jose Costa Rica

I let myself sleep in this morning to make up for the prolonged travel day yesterday but I was still up and out by 9 am (we’re on Mountain Time here so I’m stirring earlier than I might otherwise). Breakfast was typical upscale hotel breakfast buffet but it did have fried plantains (which I do enjoy) and the pineapple was fresh and juicy which is always a treat. You only get really good pineapple in the tropics as they have to cut it early for shipping purposes and it’s never quite as good in more temperate climes.

The weather was reasonable after thunderstorms last night so I took a long meandering walk through town to the city center. Costa Rica has a reputation of having somewhat terrible drivers. I learned very quickly that the best way to cross a street is at a dead run as they tend to barrel forward at high speeds, no matter what color the lights may be or what the street signs may say. I still have all my limbs intact so so far, so good. Tomorrow we have five hour drive on mountain roads. We’ll see how that goes.

I ended up in the central plaza downtown and proceeded to explore the museums. First stop was the National Museum chronicling the history of Costa Rica from neolithic times through today. It’s located in the old national army barracks up on a hill with a nice view of the city. Costa Rica got rid of its military in the late 40s after World War II, preferring to put its resources into bettering the quality of life of its people. I don’t see that happening in the US soon. There is a national police force to keep order but the country has been politically stable for decades, unlike most of the other Central American states, and there isn’t a lot for them to do. The exhibits, consisting mainly of artifacts and drawings or photos of various historical periods are well presented but it’s not that different from dozens of other museums of its type that I’ve been too over the years. It is, however, the first history museum I have been to where the main entrance is through a butterfly garden.

After completing the National Museum, off across the square to the Jade Museum which covers pre-Columbian cultures and artifacts (many made of jade, hence the name). It’s a modern and spacious building well thought out and designed with exhibits both for adults and children. Lots of stone metates, ocarinas and other musical instruments, and various adornments in jade, copper and gold. I found myself puffing a bit on the stairs going up and wondered why until I remembered that we’re at about 4,000 feet here, not at sea level and it’s been a while since I’ve spent any time at elevation. More wandering through the city and ending up at the Gold Museum, which is more pre-Columbian artifacts and antiquities, this time focusing on the gold which brought the Spaniards and caused them to name the area Costa Rica (rich coast). This one is also quite modern, only you descend into subterranean depths and pass through vault doors to enter. I guess they’re trying to keep conquistadors from running off with what remains. Warrior adornments in gold were fascinating but I think they would be somewhat impractical as protective armor.

More wandering, a bit quicker this time as it was starting to rain, and eventually back to the hotel for a quick nap before meeting the tour group I am joining. This is going to be a very different group than my usual. Often, I am at the young end of the age spectrum represented by my fellow travelers. This time I am older than everyone else by a good twenty years. This will either make me the sage or the old guy that everyone expects not to be able to keep up. Forty years of medicine and twenty years of performing on top of that have given me significant stamina. I think they’re going to be surprised. The group comprises of a family of four with two teens from Florida on their first international trip, a mother and teen son from Nashville on fall break, young newlyweds from Virginia, a young lady from Germany who has done eight other National Geographic tours and loves them, and a forty something year old birdwatching woman from Scotland. We got the intro to the week from the guide and then had dinner together. I think we’ll all be compatible.

Have to be up early to catch the van for tomorrow’s trip to the Caribbean side.

Dateline – San Jose, Costa Rica

And I’m back in travel mode. It hasn’t been the most interesting vacation day as it was primarily devoted to getting here and, as I was up past midnight completing everything that had to be done for work before I left together with having to get up at 4:30 AM in order to catch an early morning flight, I’m a bit on the tired side and am lolling around the hotel room before going to bed early. The tour I am on (sponsored by National Geographic) begins tomorrow evening. There appear to be a dozen of us in total. I’ve been with groups of that size that have bonded (Spain/Portugal in 2021) and that have definitely not (Ireland 2025). No clue what this group will turn out to be. It’s usually a mixed bag. As this is more of a jungle adventure trip than a lets see the cathedrals and museums trip, I expect it to skew a bit younger. I’ll find out soon enough.

Alarm at 4:30 AM. In the Uber at 4:50 AM (would have been sooner but my driver was very confused by the entrance to my complex and drove up and down Arlington past me a couple of times). At the airport at 5:05 AM. Cleared check in and security at 5:35 AM. Boarded first flight at 6:10 AM with Starbucks venti caramel macchiato in hand. Take off 6:35 AM. Landed in Atlanta 8:10 AM (time change forward one hour). Disembarked and headed to the next gate arriving at 8:40 AM. Boarding flight to San Jose 9:40 AM. Take off 10: 20 AM. Landed in San Jose 12:20 PM (time change backward two hours). Cleared customs and immigration and found hotel shuttle 1:30 PM. Arrive hotel and collapse face first on rather comfortable king size bed 2:40 PM. Just a bit over eleven hours in toto. It could be worse. It could have been a redeye.

I haven’t got much of a feel for San Jose yet. It’s rather sprawling across a number of low hills and river valleys at the foot of some volcanic mountains. The weather is warm in the low 70s, without being hot. Unfortunately, it’s accompanied by 110% humidity and low clouds making it feel like it will start storming any moment. (It did this evening, fortunately after I was alreday in). The hotel (the Radisson) is in the Northern part of the city which feels a bit like Guadalajara or Mazatlan. I’m not picking up the European vibes of a Buenos Aires or Mexico City and, as the country is much smaller, it doesn’t have the veneer of wealth one finds there with the aristocracy – or at least I haven;’t run across it yet. After a bit of a nap, I wandered around the piece of the central city closest to the hotel and, as the weather was looking fearsome and darkness comes early in the tropics, I headed back for a bite to eat and hopefully a long comfortable sleep.

This latter may be an issue this trip. Earlier this week, my left shoulder began to ache in the way it did last year and which took a facet joint injection in the neck to resolve. I did not bring my fluoroscope with me so that isn’t going to happen until after I get back. I will make do with Tylenol, Aleve, and good hot showers. This last shot lasted for roughly a year which is a reasonable run for such things. I’m resigning myself to the fact that I’m likely going to have to go through this once a year or so for a while. There might be a more permanent surgical solution but I’ve seen far too many disasters following elective neck surgery to really want to go that route.

As I was sitting around airport waiting areas for some hours, I had time to dive into the news and do some reading on current events from perspectives on both sides of the aisle. If I am reading the tea leaves right, based on current events in Portland, Memphis, and Chicago we are heading into a heap of trouble. ICE appears to be operating unchecked by norm or law with some backing from the National Guard. The raid on the Chicago apartment building where everyone (mainly citizens) was taken into custody while their homes were trashed put me in mind of the sequence in Schindler’s List with the girl in the red coat. The only reason I can find for it was as an exercise in raw power of the ‘look what we can do to you and you’re next if you don’t submit’ variety. And most of us will stay quiet. But we’re getting to the point where abstention is becoming complicity. The good people of Portlandia are reacting in the way that population does, with general weirdness which appears to be taking the shape of a naked bike ride in protest.

I am not one who likes conspiracy theories or unsupported interpretations of events but I did pick up on something regarding the gathering of the generals earlier this week. That the true purpose was not the photo op or the messages delivered from the podium, but rather to study the reactions of senior military leaders and begin to determine which ones might be willing to obey unlawful orders from above regarding use of military force on American citizens in Democratic leaning cities. I read one piece claiming that there are new AI tools that can pick up and interpret even small facial reactions and infer emotional states and thought processes and that these will be used on footage of the audience. I would really like to disbelieve this one.

A dangerous trend that is well supported by fact is coroporate media owners, of both print and televised news, are coming down hard on reporters and news rooms to spin the news in ways that will be looked upon favorably by the administration. There have been a number of high profile resignations of journalists due to these trends and, if this continues (in clear violation of journalistic ethics and likely the first amendment), there’s not going to be a lot of quality investigative and independent reporting left. And most Americans will be blissfully unaware that what they’re being fed is a combination of propaganda and a single side of the story.

I think I’ll take my news from the Costa Rican press the next couple of weeks. It may be in Spanish (a language in which I am in no way fluent), but it’s likely to be a more honest appraisal into what’s going on in the world.

Another day, another mass shooting in a public place. I wll admit that this one, at a waterfront bar in North Carolina, is the first time I’ve heard of a float by shooting. The perpatrator, surprise surpirse – a cis-white male with mental health issues. If we really want to profile people in this country for general safety, white men should be allowed nowhere near firearms, also automobiles and ladders according to national statistics. Of course, correlation is not causation but higher levels of testosterone and less regard of risk do seem to travel together. Someday we’ll get over our worship of the second clause of the second amendment while completely ignoring the first, the one about a well regulated militia. Until that time, we will continue to pay the price in mass shootings to satisfy the Moloch of the NRA and affiliated groups. Of course we could adequately fund a robost mental health system as an alternative but we seem to be hell bend on destroying health care in general so that’s going to be a non-starter.

I leave the country on Friday for two weeks in Costa Rica (cue the travelogue). It will be interesting to get out of the pressure cooker of modern American life and times for a bit and see what’s going on through other perspectives. It was healthy when I did it in May and, at least through my personal lens, we’re worse off than we were thenso I assume that I have even more that requires venting. I used to have a T-shirt reading ‘Danger: Contents May Explode Under Pressure’. I may need to get another one the way things seem to be ratcheting down.

What’s going on this week? The continued collapse of civil society. I knew we were long past civil some months ago but the final nail in the coffin is the President of the United States telling his political opposition to ‘go fuck yourself’ on camera. Now I know that’s an old word that’s been part of the language for 1500 plus years but most politicians are wise enough to avoid it. Especially the representative of the party that’s sending its shock troops out to ban books from schools for ‘lewdness’ and threatening to pull network broadcast licenses based on speech issues. It also represents the intellectual level on which many of our leaders are now operating when they can’t come up with something more clever than a 5th grade playground remark.

The occasion of said remark was a question about the impending governmental shutdown which begins on Wednesday unless congress begins to do its job. As it hasn’t really been too keen on this since the days of New Gingrich, I’m not holding my breath. Those behing project 2025 are breaking out the champagne as they see this as a way to dramatically downsize the government by mass firing workers and closing government agencies (rather than keeping everyone on and paying them their arrears once the budget issues are worked out legislatively). Can’t say what will happen but don’t be surprised when there are closed signs at the national parks, you can’t get assistance with your taxes or social security, and your medical bills that flow through government programs are unpaid. Most Americans are savvy enough to recognize that the Republicans control all three branches of government currently. There will try to be a spin that ia shutdown is somehow the fault of the Democrats but I don’t think it’ll stick. But then again they’re still trying to spin the January 6th insurrection as some sort of picnic and capitol tour. If so, I’d pay to see video of that group’s visit to Disneyworld.

Trump has taken off the gloves when it comes to persecuting political enemies, firing lawyers who won’t indict those he doesn’t like on non-existent or flimsy evidence. Most attorneys who like having a license and shreds of a reputation seem to be avoiding getting involved in these shenanigans so a real estate attorney with no prosecutorial experience is trying to take down James Comey. I don’t think any judge worth his or her salt, no matter who may have appointed him or her, is likely to let that case get very far. Various White House apparatchiks have been circulating lists of other prominent Democrats who are on the enemies list. The big issue here is their attempting to criminalize ‘antifa’ or any sort of organized protest against current policy and weaponize it. We haven’t started marching members of congress off to political prison yet but that’s where that goes if left unchecked.

And here’s where things could get very dangerous indeed. After a couple of test runs, the administration is sending the military into ‘war ravaged’ Portland, Oregon. This is very deliberate as there has been more organized anti-ICE protest in Portlandia than in most other cities with a lot of of-nonviolent protests over the course of the summer being met with escalating response by ICE and federal officers. (The last arrests of protestors stepping over the line into violence was in July). I’m betting that the stage is being set to goad the more radical fringes of Portland into something that will trigger a major response. Whether that will be a Jallianwalla Bagh, galvanizing a society into viewing a situation in a completely different light or a Wounded Knee where the government gave out double the Medals of Honor they gave out on D-Day to try and cover up general thuggery time will tell. I can’t help but wonder if Hegseth’s summoning of all of the senior military commanders before the president on Tuesday, the day before shutdown, isn’t tied in. Will they be charged with a loyalty oath to the administration rather than to the constitution. Will they be required to prepare military force against the citizenry within the country in violation of constitutional principles and the Posse Comitatus act? Given the character of those in charge. Anything is possible. I guess we’ll all know in a few days, or will we?

I’m looking forward to writing about jungles and volcanoes and beaches and sloths and quetzals for a while.