Volcanoes in Costa Rica

It is not possible to go to Costa Rica without the proper music! Actually at the Caribbean Coast that should be Bob Marley, but since everything goes, and there is a good blend (like, right now I listen to Indian music at Cafe Rico (where I have eaten the best Indian food outside India!), by the former named coast by the Caribbean Sea), I take a chance on Yeah Yeah Yeahs, because I just think that the girl is cool, and they will always remind me of CR.                                  

Unfortunately Costa Rica is not the most cheap place, it is like living in Europe, and with bad salaries. I do not really understand how people get along here, and how they can buy stuff. The cost of living is expensive, even in the super marked food is priced like Europe. But for all I know it is probably a small group in the population that do all the shopping. It is the most developed country since Mexico, and it is also statistically the most dangerous one. There are more crimes being done here than the rest of Central America, or so I have been told. I will check it out. It is very influenced by USA, it seems to me that fruit companies and fastfood chains has taken over a lot (I see something that is USA everywhere). I hope that in the future tourists will not find a MacDonalds on top of a volcano or in another tourist friendly national park. I HOPE they will be able to live up to their slogan: Pura Vida, because they are doing so far (apart from all the US fastfood). But the pressure from tourists that really need their air conditioning on their 2-3 weeks visiting CR, in their summer homes or in hotels (to gawk at the bountiful nature and the animals), is big, and so pristine rivers are in danger of being dammed to produce the electricity needed. In the meantime, a Tica (Costa Rican) lives his hot, humid life without air con. I have visited a home here, they are hot, but made with high ceilings, and underneath the ceiling it is open space with just a net to provide air throughout. This is the mahogany tree houses, they are similar to what I saw in Belize, I do not know how the adobe houses are, but I imagine they are similar to those I have seen in Mexico.                                

My 3rd day in CR I decided to go to see the volcano Irazu. It is a big volcano with a main crater of 1 050  m. in diameter and 300 m. deep. It is the highest volcano in the country, 3 432 m., and it is possible to see both the Pacific - and the Atlantic Ocean from here on a clear day. I could not see anything for the rain and the fog. Irazu means "thunder" in the native language of the natives that used to live by it. A catastrophic eruption in 1723 destroyed a city, then capital of the country, Cartago, and an eruption in 1963 covered San Jose in a thick layer of ash. People used to think that Irazu blows every 30 years and was called "the deadly keg of powder".

 In CR there are more than 112 volcanic formations. They belong to the Pacific Rim of Fire, and 7 are considered very active. The volcanoes are responsible for the very fertile soil that covers the territory of CR. They have all caused some major damage in the past. The most active volcano is Arenal, and Poas has the widest crater of  diameter 1.5 km, the 2nd widest in the world. In 1950 it was decided that the land around the volcanoes should be protected, so many of them are within a national park. Irazu has its own national park. The CR volcanoes are stratovolcanoes, which means that the magma that fuels them is thick, viscous, and so filled with gasses that when they erupt the magma blast violently into the air. In the eruption of 1963 the clouds of smoke erupted, and ashes kept showering over San Jose and other parts for 2 years. People had to go out with a hankerchief and every day 13 cm. of ashes was swept down. 24th of August 2000 Arenal erupted, killed 1 person and injured 2. 600 people were evacuated from their homes.

To go to Irazu you can take a bus from where the National Theater is. It leaves 08:00 in the morning and you go back with the same bus 12:30 so you will want to buy a round trip for 4000 colones (US$ 8 (much more than you pay to travel in Nicaragua. The bus ride takes 2 hours. On top there is a small cafe that sells pretty good hot latte (you will need hot coffe because it is really cold up there. At the coffe shop they sell different suveneirs, among other things a note book made from banana paper. I think that this paper would be better to use to spare the rainforest. Under; a lonley, familiar dandelion has found its way to the top of a volcano in CR.

A crazy border crossing

It was hard to decide to finally leave Ometepe. The old man at Hostal Central was an interesting person to talk to, and we discussed a lot of the things I like to discuss. Happy that I am not the only person thinking the way I do. He told me about his travels all over the world. Quite amazing that he has traveled so much considering that he is born to a tribe on the Island. That is what he claims any way. He knows a lot of secrets on the Island as well, and he was willing to share some.I went to a small museum (there are many of them), to see some of the things that farmers have encountered here while working on their lands. The items below are 2-3 000 years old vessels used for burial and food. They were beautifully decorated with images of animals, such as the jaguar, the monkey and bats, and painted with bright colours.

I woke up early to take an early ferry to the mainland again so that I could cross the border to Costa Rica early. I saw the ferry called Che Guevara lying there and thought that I was going with that one. But I returned with the same ferry as I came with; Ferry I. I ate my breakfast at Cornerhouse to say good bye to Gary and Sara, and have a last iced latte. Then I went to the ferry where I talked to some local boys while I waited. And soon the ferry had emptied the cars (an amazing number for a tiny ferry like that) and was ready to return to the mainland. The ferry loaded on only 2 trucks and we were off. It was a little bit rocky on the way over, but I was standing outside in the front and got some last pictures of the island from the ferry.

We reached the other side after an hour and the ferry was stormed by people looking for customers for their taxis. There was a bus to Managua on the dock, but no buses to Rivas or the border in sight. I made a deal with a taxi driver to drive me all the way to the border so that I could get there early. We were off right away and got to the border before noon. On the picture under is Ometepe from the mainland as the ferry docks.

 When I came to the border it was very confusing. I had to go to one little booth to pay a fee and then bring a ticket for further inspection. I walked a few meters with people around me shouting; this way, that way, here, over there, everyone pointing me to the right direction of immigration, as it was far from obvious where I should go. My passport had to be shown to some guy, along with the ticket that proved  that I had payed the fee. Then some walking again and I was at the immigration (on the Nicaraguan side) where I had to show my passport yet another time, get it stamped, show the proof that I had payed the fee, and then pay a fee again. Since it is a good km. or more to walk to the Costa Rican border I hired a tricyckle taxi. A young boy was working his way with me and my stuff on the seat on the front of the tricycle. As I sat there, already flustered and sweating from the heat and ordeal, a man came walking towards us complementing me on my beauty (something that made me laugh because my hair was plastered to my head, and my garments were sticking to my body), another man pased with a: "hola linda!" and after a few more meters a young man smiled and winked. At that I almost bended over from laughter, and made the young boy who got me to the border, laugh as well. Bless these men for trying to make me feel like an attractive woman even in my darkest moments! He stopped by a lot of small shacks and buildings and told me that here is Costa Rica and he could not cross. Again, after putting on my backpack and gathering my things, I had to put everything down again right away when I was requested to show my passport, AGAIN! Then I had to walk, and I walked, and I walked. Maybe a km. or something.It was far to the immigration. I was very nervous, because you should show a ticket out of Costa Rica to enter, something I did not have. I had not even filled out one of those white papers with questions of where you are from, purpose of visit and next destination and so on.I was dreading the worst when I said that I did not have the white piece of paper, but the clerk just waved his hand, took my passport and asked; "so, Linda, how long are you planning to stay in Costa Rica?" I said that I was only staying for a few days before moving on to Panama. He stamped my pass and sent me on my way. Then I walked to a booth, bought a busticket to San Jose, and waited an hour for the bus. (San Jose on the pictures below)

 

It is only 300 or something km. to San Jose, and it should take 5-6 hours, at least with the speed the youngster that drove the bus was going. I was sure at certain points that he was on a mission to kill us all. I was used to tranquil Nicaragua and Honduras with much less traffic on the roads. So the first experience of CR was a bit disturbing. The traffic in CR is very heavy and the roads are as narrow, and underdeveloped as the almost carfree (compared to CR) Nicaragua. It took had us 9 hours to get to San Jose, and by that time I was really tired and had been tested on my patience. We had had to stop a couple of times for 20 min. because of work on the roads, and we had a 10 min. stop to go to the toilets and get some food at a truck stop by the road. It was dark and late when we came to San Jose. Dazed and hungry I took the first taxi i could find to Backpacker Hostel Tranquilo in the heart of San Jose. I shared the room with a man from Chile that workes in San Jose and 2 women from Germany that where on their way home to Germany. After a good nights sleep I went out exploring San Jose. It was a bit weird coming to a big, busy city after the quiet Nicaragua. But I liked it. I found some cafes with organic food and vegetarian food. San Jose seem to have a lot of great shopping, but do not expect to get things cheaper than in Europe. I visited the cathedral while there was a sermon with some priests dressed in their most magnificent and expensive robes. In CR everything is Pura Vida. It is a very ecologically aware country, the only thing that is a pity here is that I was back in the land of Pizza Hut, Taco Bells, MacDonalds and Burger King. Hardly anyone will agree that these 4 food companies have anything to do with Pura Vida (a Pure Life), but still they are plentiful here.

Human tragedies - Human trafficking

Prostitution is not ilegal in Honduras but still sex tourism is not as obvious as in the Dominican Republic or Costa Rica. In these countries there are dosens of websites advertising sex-tour packages. The prefered victims in Honduras are children, and in 2006 a 58 year old man from Florida was arrested by the FBI for arranging trips to Honduras for men interested in having sex with underaged girls. The man was a navy commander in the US Navy Children`s program. He was teacheing young people the navy values of honor, courage and commitment. In 2004 a pediatrician from Brooklyn was sentenced to 21 years of jail for having tricked chilrdren in Honduras and Mexico into sex. It has been reported that between 8 000 and 10 000 children are involved in sex work in Honduras alone, as Honduran teenagers are among the most frequently trafficked children in Central America. Most of them are going to brothels and resorts in Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador, where the patrons are American, European and Australian men. Groups like Casa Alianza have worked to raise awareness of the problem, which in their opinion has grown in the wake of of crack downs in Thailand and other Asian countries that have been known for a long time for their pedophilia rings and prostitution. The Casa Alianza had to fire their own director in Tegucigalpa in 2004 when it was known that he himself had paid a 19-year old to stay in a group shelter for youth to have sex. The director was a British citizen, well known as a children`s advocate. He had even won a medal of honor for his work with homeless children. The Order of the British Empire Medal. That was in year 2000.  In year 2000, also, the USA was pressured to pas a law against human trafficking. The law has been particularily effective in Asia where trafficking rings have been broken up, and the victims returned to their homes. Latin America has been slower to respond, but Honduras has now trained 7 000 police, prosecutors and judges, and 10 000 students have been trained on Human trafficking. Due to corruption the law can be hard to enforce.


http://www.blog.polarisproject.org/2011/07/21/graphic-meth-ads-and-their-similarities-to-human-trafficking/

blog on Meth ads and their similarity to human trafficking

http://www.polarisproject.org/what-we-do/client-services/survivor-stories

More about sex and labour trafficking in USA.