Shannon Costello

A pick-up truck approaches an intersection.  The young adolescent boy in back notices the police officer and immediately ducks down.  The truck turns left through the intersection as the police office walks past the truck in the opposite direction.  The kid sits back up with a grin and looks back…

Perhaps the officer was distracted by the funeral procession.  A half dozen men carried a coffin down the street with maybe a hundred people following behind. 

Meanwhile, I was in a bus, hanging on for dear life (squashed standing room only) and hoping against hope that I was on the right bus heading back to the right town. 

My big adventure for the day was Zoo Ave.  Everybody uses the abbreviation.  I tried avenida del zoológico and got lots of funny looks.  I had an escort down to the zoo.  The college-age son of the hotel owner was heading that way, so we took the same bus- I just got off a lot earlier.   We walked around town while waiting for the bus, so I had lots of opportunities to ask questions.  I reiterate that my favorite way to see a foreign country is with a local. 

The zoo was pretty nice.  I´m not as good at spotting animals in unknown vegetation.  I probably enjoyed the most ordinary (from a Costa Rican perspective) things most- the variegated squirrels- right size and shape, but with brown and gray and white.  The iguanas were also fun.  Big and fat and alert-looking.  And as I ate my meat and potato empanada a peacock came up hoping for a handout.  Finding no inclination for such on my part, he went over and robbed the woman at the next table, who was NOT expecting him. 

You cannot just stand at a bus stop and look forlorn.  You have to hold out your arm vertically and do this funny little wave.  I had been told that, but was too intimidated to try, and the bus roared right on by.  I wondered how long I would be there.  The next bus stopped without my having to wave but the sign did not say Alejuela.  I asked if that was where he was going and he said yes.  Then after I got on the bus I became worried that perhaps he was referring to Alejuela province and would he really stop at the town? 

The bus was crowded when I got on.  It got so much worse that the bus driver eventually stopped picking people up.  His gestures to that effect were un-interpretable to me.  I was right in the front, but that meant that I was right behind him.  The people that were really in front were standing with their backs to the open door as we sped down the road…or else wallowed in traffic.  When the bus finally stopped I didn´t recognize where we were, but the driver assured me we were in Alejuela…

I´ve been in a couple of book stores.  The first is a well-known bookstore run by an American.  It has an interesting atmosphere….you walk in and several people (one of whom turns out to be a mannequin) are sitting around discussing Central American-American politics from a very American perspective with a fair sprinkling of Spanish words (spoken in heavy American accents).  I managed to get a copy of the book I was specifically looking for in the second store, where the American guy sent me when he didn´t have the book I wanted.   It is a novel about the banana plantations.  I just happened to see a mention of it somewhere before I left.  Other than that I did not do any kind of work to identify good Costa Rican novels.  But I also picked up an anthology today.  I also found a book by a Spanish author whose short stories I have enjoyed. 

I went to the Juan de Santamaría museum today.  He is famous for helping rid Central America of William Walker and his army.  I had developed a very negative impression of Walker, but today I learned that he spoke several languages.  (That reminds me that most of the hotel guests here appear to speak French, so I have gotten to say Je parle un piu de francés (sorry about spelling) at least twice.  There were two execution paintings, one of a guy that Walker had executed and one of Walker himself getting executed five years later.  There was a primary source description of the first execution but none for the second.  Walker did not look too happy, but maybe that was because he was not blindfolded.  And his hands were not folded in prayer like the first guy.  The question in my mind is still whether or not Santamaría actually did the heroic deed he is famous for (setting fire to the building where Walker and his fellow tough guys were holed up).  I think the museum exhibit concluded that it does not really matter. 

I looked in the telephone book for a church, and there were approximately five baptist churches listed- none in Alejuela.  The phone book was for all of Costa Rica.  I dedided I had better to to the libería metodista and ask around there.  Sure enough there is a United Methodist church meeting there at 10 tomorrow.  I thought I was going to have to go to a Catholic Mass and I was scared.  I´ve never even been in English…or latin for that matter. 

Other than that I´ve been roaming around town, looking at grocery stores and taking pictures of signs.  And the cemetery.  I have seen several and they are so different…and yet the same. 

I think I´ll head to the Cafe de las Delicias for something like dinner and then spend the rest of the night reading the paper.