What Did That Monkey Say?

Today, Tuesday, December 23, got off to an ignominious start.  We were advised last evening that we'd be changing time zones and that we'd need to set our clocks back an hour.  "No problem" I asserted as we both have iPhones and surely they'll set themselves back.  Oops.  They didn't.  When we got up at what we thought was 6:10 a.m., I thought I'd better just check what time it really was.  First, the TV told me it was 5:10 a.m. - uh oh.  Then, I thought I'll just call down to Guest Services to doublecheck.  Sure enough, it was 5:10 a.m.  What good is it to have a feature on the iPhone for automatic updates to time zone if it doesn't actually do that?

Anyway, we didn't let that little snafu dampen our enthusiasm for today's trip to the Veragua Rain Forest.  And, Cheryl got in the mood right away as we left the ship in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, taking up the position of guest dancer for the band playing on the dock (3 guys with guitar, conga, and bass).  She picked up the maracas they had and, with their encouragement, shook it on down.  I always wanted to marry a cheerleader/go-go girl and that's what I got.

Not only did she do this as we were leaving but decided she just had to do a reprise when we came back.  They told her she was the only one who volunteered to dance all day and they were all smiles because of it.  Of course the few dollars in the tip jar that we added also made a good impression on them.

Our trip to the Rain Forest took about an hour to get there from Puerto Limon.  The drive went from a four lane road, to a paved two lane road, to a barely-one-lane gravel road that we were on for at least half an hour as we climbed into the mountains.  What was particularly interesting was both the visual of "houses" along that latter stretch as well as the dialogue of our guide, Porfeiro (Porfy).  In terms of the houses, they were increasingly representing the relative poverty of their occupants, although poverty is indeed relative.  

Costa Rica is classified as a "developing" country.  Porfy told us that 20% of Costa Ricans are poor, 20% wealthy, and 60% are "middle class" (upper and lower).  The slice of it we saw on our way to the park was slanted more toward poor.  Nonetheless, we saw a lot of children in the yards of these houses, most smiling and waving and yanking their arm up and down to encourage our driver to honk his horn - just like in America.  One thing I've learned from our extensive travels is that people are the same all over the world.

My enduring thought about these people and their houses is they're probably very happy with their standard of living and that we, in the US, have far too much at our disposal.  You do become accustomed (and satisfied in our case) with the land of plenty in which we live.  A second thought was based on Porfy's discussion about their education system: 96% of Costa Ricans are literate.  Education is free, including college if you are able to perform well enough in high school to earn a scholarship.  Again, that is one of their government's largest expenses and something enviable, I think, for the United States.  

Their tax system (which doesn't include supporting a military) is based on a system of "needs vs. wants".  A need would be food and basic clothing; a want would be a pair of Levis or Timberland hiking boots.  There are Costa Rican-made "need" items for which the tax is 1%.  "Want" items are paid at a rate of 15% and up (e.g., a Jeep Cherokee would have a 100% tax - sounds a little like Trump's silly tariffs!)

The Veragua Rainforest, though, was the star of the show.  First it offered spectacular views of the Talamanca Range (the beginning of the Andes mountains).  For three hours, we explored the rain forest, its animals (monkees, spectacular butterflys, Tucans, and sloths although we didn't see any sloths), its various plants and trees (with expert analysis by our guides).  An aerial tram took us from the top of the rainforest to its bottom, with the temperature declining by 1 degree C for every 100 feet.  It was definitely cooler at the bottom although the 80 degree day was already cloudy - not a drop of rain in the rain forest, at least today.

They're doing a ton of research there, too.  We had a short lecture from a Costa Rican PhD. candidate who was an expert on bats.  Turns out that this park has 50% of all the bat species in Costa Rica and it is his job to find out why it isn't 100%.  All of the staff we interacted with were very knowledgeable about all the flora, fauna, and animals.  It was interesting to be among those who make this kind of work their life, and time passed quickly.  On our way out, we finally saw a bunch of monkeys with a mother monkey trailed by 3 of her little ones (we think they were Howler Monkees . . . what an appropriate name!).  The mother was making cacophonous noises as if she was telling them to hurry the hell up.  We were told that, whatever we did, not to get directly beneath them because they apparently take joy in dumping their bowels or urinating on unsuspecting visitors.  We steered clear.

It was really a spectacular visit.  One other thought was stuck in my head, though.  My father spent several years before WWII in the army in the Panama Canal Zone and, when he caught me at a young age with marijuana, told me that guys in his regiment were curing it (since it grew wild there), smoking it, and wandering off into the jungle never to be heard from again (and, after seeing these jungles in Panama and here in Costa Rica, I understood that).  I guess he thought, though, that would scare me straight but I was smart enough to know that we had no jungles like these in Central Ohio!

Tomorrow (Christmas Eve) is a day of sailing before our next port of call in Roatan, Honduras on Christmas Day.  Probably not too much to say about a day of sailing as we intend to sleep in, get in some pool time, and a good nap at the very least.  Since the next post, then, will likely be Christmas evening, allow me to say Feliz Navidad!