Naturally, I was curious about the music here. The Costa Rican radio played mainly stuff from surrounding areas — some good stuff — Carlos Vives, Juan Louis Guerra, and lots of dopey cumbias (well, the lyrics are dopey.) Not much local stuff. We saw a live cumbia band in Liberia’s town square on New Year's Eve and the horns were so out of tune it seemed like it had to be a prank, or some kind of biological aberration — as if they couldn't physically hear how out of tune they were. It was painful, and loud too. No one was dancing. Maybe they would later. It seemed to be more an evening to parade and be seen.
So we went off the square to eat at a restaurant which had a large video screen playing Animal Planet. The show that was on featured cheetahs and leopards making kills. The next program was about the good dog catchers in NYC — they are a division of the ASPCA — who rescue abused and abandoned pets. It was sad and a gruesome subject, and a bizarre accompaniment to a meal.
Why hasn't Costa Rica produced more of its own music, art, literature? As maybe the most stable nation in the region one wonders once again if there is any truth to the adage that creativity is born out of repression, strife and suffering. Nicaragua, to the immediate north, produced its own music — I remember a lot of Nueva Trova coming out of there, naturally enough — it being the "protest music" of that generation. Nicaragua also produced famous poets and writers, and of course was also the site of a revolution and a bloody endless war, partly funded and extended by the U.S. (Oliver North, Bush 1, Iran-Contra.)
Panama, to the immediate south, boasts Ruben Blades as a musical, and sometimes political, son. Panama was created and "run" by the U.S. as a vehicle to protect the all-important canal, a strategic waterway that had to be controlled at all costs. Repressive and corrupt regimes were installed (Noriega was ousted when he stood up to the U.S.) and the appropriate people were paid off, and the canal remains secure. Hardly a forward thinking place, though, compared to Costa Rica.
Costa Rica famously abandoned their army many years ago — adding to the funds that could be channeled to education and social services — there is, it seems to me, less abject poverty than in their neighboring countries. And the tourism is, for the most part, small-scale, reasonable. There are few if any mega beach strips such as in Vedado, Cancun or Acapulco. Tourism has permeated the country, but it's not a lot of hulking behemoth hotels, at least. There are a few exclusive resorts tucked away here and there, but they don't dominate the landscape.
So, the country is a model in the region — but what about the arts? Does there have to be suffering and pain to produce art and music? Does one personally have to experience pain to feel driven to drive it out by creative means? Isn't this such a cliché that it's laughable?
I often wonder, though, if this is true personally as well. Hope not. Do we have to be unhappy, fucked up, out of balance, to be forced to deal with our demons through creative outlets? Isn't that an old idea?
Maybe it has something to do with history and geography. There were no big Spanish colonial cities in Costa Rica, and there was no node in the slave trade here, as far as I know. So the mixing or African, European and indigenous cultures never really happened here in the way it did in, say, Cuba or the Caribbean coastal towns of Cartajena or in Salvador do Bahia. The place didn’t have the massive Mesoamerican civilizations, either — there are no pyramids, temples and cities buried in the Costa Rican jungles. Those civilizations end to the north and south of the isthmus — it is as if the land bridge between continents that is Panama and Costa Rica formed after the big cultures were established.
Here is a frog on glass. It looks like it's been cut in half, but it's not. Those are its sucker toes — the little whitish blobs tucked under its blobby body.
Other frogs, called glass frogs in English, were tiny and semi translucent (no photo). They are so delicate that the guide said "they could be killed by a raindrop." This seems an exaggeration, but the frogs do shelter on the underside of leaves or the place where leaves join a branch, so who knows? And we think our lives are precarious.
Near Arenal Volcano there are two hot springs visible from the road. One has tour busses parked out front and a massive walled edifice. It is obviously connected with the luxury Tabacon lodge up the road. Through a gap in the wall one can see swimming pools. The other is down in a hollow and seems to be avoided by the tour groups — it's for the locals. It costs about 1/5 what the upscale one charges. We went there at night and though it doesn't have the rumored bar at the side of the hot pool we snuck in some beers. The upscale area also has a view of the volcano — and when it erupts, which it does regularly, they say one can see hot lava pouring from the summit as one relaxes with a drink.
The downscale springs are marvelously unsupervised, especially at night. The hot water cascades over little waterfalls and slippery jagged rocks — one woman slipped and really hurt herself. Further down there are rough concrete and rock artificial pools that Costa Rican families gravitate to.
Having watched the Tico dudes prove their manhood by disappearing under a waterfall of hot spring water in one area we did the same. You crouch, clamber in, grab onto some wet rocks and the waterfall goes over your head. Surprisingly you can breathe. It was like a sauna that was incredibly noisy.
