Monday, 2/14/05
I was just getting over a nasty flu and Arthur may (but I hope not) be coming down with it. Our 5-week run of Our Town ended the day before yesterday, so we've had no time to pack. Manon and George Ruben stayed with us some of this past week - they were out for Andrea Ruben's wedding. They left this morning around 7:45a and we left at 8:30a. Met up with Kerstin and Leonard Trawick in Dallas, TX, and then on to San Jose, Costa Rica. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the Gulf of Mexico it had gotten too dark to see anything, but the sunset was gorgeous. You know how US cities at night from the air look like spider webs of foxfire, that luminescent fungus of rotting wood? Well, the lights of the outskirts of San Jose were different. Instead of ordered spider webs there were strange jagged fragments of tentacles of light. I learned later that was because of the steep terrain and huge gorges that surround the city.

Lynn & Nils Ekfelt got in to San Jose eary, and took the following pictures of San Jose street scenes

still Tues, 2/15/05
After breakfast (with gallo tinto- a black beans and rice mix and with maduros- ripe plantains) we went to the Museo Nacional. It had been a fort for Spanish soldiers, and then was given to make a museum. It has art, but also has a lot of the archeological treasures thjat have been found, including huge granite balls - some as big as 7 feet in diameter - that were found in ritualistic groupings, some about the size of extra-large cannonballs, some as small as oranges, and everything in between. No one knows how they were made or for what purpose, or how they were transported far from the granite source. The Museo also had burial packages of bones. The bones were arranged in square groups, with the long leg bones defining two of the sides, the other leg and arm bones inside, and the skull placed on top. They were found usually in groups of two, (I wonder if that is husband and wife?), but occasionally as sole burials. Apparently after a person died they were left to have the soft tissue rot away, and then after a year were packaged into these squares and ceremoniously buried. The Museo also had lots of pottery, and many lava or granite matates, which is a 3-legged very short stool carved from lava or granite on which the Indios would grind corn with a granite cylinder. You would tuck one of the legs of the metate between your knees for stability and would roll the granite cylinder over the corn in the metate. The Museo also had shaman masks and many dioramas of pre-Columbian indian life.

still Tues, 2/15/05
After the Museo we walked through the main street to the central plaza of San Jose and to the Teatro Nacional. On the way we saw a building that looked much like La Fortaleza, and was, indeed, a fort left over from the Spanish.

still Tues, 2/15/05
The Teatro Nacional was built around 1897 the European style. Because of the lighting, the photo doesn't show it, but the overwhelming impression is of brilliant red velvet. Upstairs we went through the Presidential drawing room, used for visiting dignitaries.

still Tues, 2/15/05
After the Teatro Nacional we drove to a nice lunch where I bought Pasta de Guayaba and Dulce de Leche for everyone.

still Tues, 2/15/05
We drove over the Cordillera Centrals, through the Braulio Carillo rainforest, to the town of Santa Clara and then to Puerto Viejo. On the way we saw coffee trees. the best Costa Rican coffee grows in areas between 2,000 and 3,900 feet above sea level. Coffee flowers last 3 days. From flower to harvest is 9 months. We also saw palm trees. You can get about 3 feet of heart of palm from the appropriate palm tree. You then have to boil it for about 3 hours, then peel it. On this route through the Cordillera Central there were gorgeous plants and birds and falls… and tremendous traffic. It turns out that this 2-lane road is one of the very few routes across the central mountains on the north. Luckily, once in awhile it had a passing lane.

still Tues, 2/15/05
After we got over the main part of the mountains and were mas-o-menos on a plain, we stopped to see a bunch of howler monkeys up in a tree.

still Tues, 2/15/05
On to our eco-lodge, the Sarapiquis Centro Neotropico near the town of La Virgen beside the Tirimbina Biological Reserve. It was truly beautiful.

still Tues, 2/15/05
After we checked in we went for a tour of their museum of pre-Columbian ethnic groups that were still indigenous to Costa Rica. They had a display of shaman articles. When consulted on an illness, the shaman comes to the house of the person who is ailing, drinks a hallucinogenic drink, whispers to his male (flat) and female (round) stones while brushing them with his fingers and rolling them in his hands. He then paints a stick with the figures and bad spirits he saw while under the trance that were causing the problem. Then the stick is burnt, which is supposed to complete the cure. They also had displays of pots and woven bags and marvelous masks. Some of the bags were macramed from strips of plastic grocery bags! Then to dinner and Arthur to the bar … and to sleep.