BFF / Costa Rica Trip '08, Part IV

We sang a strange song today in church; some of the lyrics were along the lines of "God calls me friend."  I suppose it's kind of strange, but it really struck me as bizarre.  Can we be friends with God?  I don't really think so.  I quoted a passage from Lewis's The Problem of Pain three posts ago in which he makes analogies to differing aspects of God's love.  Maybe it's just a semantic argument, but I don't think friendship is what God has in mind for us.  Can creatures be friendly with their Creator?  

Think about your friends for a moment.  They're probably people you joke with, drink with, spend a lot of time with... but also people you consider your equals, at least in some regard.  As anyone who has spent a few moments around organized religion knows, we can never be equals with God.  We are, by nature, separated by an infinite moral gulf - one which is reconciled through Christ, true, but that doesn't mean we can be like the Most High.  In fact, I'm pretty sure someone got in some trouble for that.  So, distilling everything to a point: I don't think most of the sane people out there consider themselves on par with the Supreme Reality Himself, but you may save yourself from some wrong thinking if you avoid singing or saying, "God calls me His friend."

7 April

--The Long Leg--

Well, today's completion marks what should be the most strenuous part of our excursion.  If the signs are to be believed, we did 17 km in 7 hours, which was just what I had predicted.  We had heard that it takes anywhere from 6 to 10 hours [from Los Patos to Sirena], so I guess we did alright.  We had been under the impression that the trail would be downhill or flat - lied to again!  The first part was up and down a lot, and steep, to boot.  To the credit of whoever told us that, the trail did eventually level out.  Regardless of the slope, my everything hurts again.  I am very pleased (and thank God) that I made it today.  That we made it today.  Wildlife roll call: lots of monkeys, an anteater, a bird that looks like a little emu, ants that make their own roads (!!), a poison dart frog, lots more Jesus lizards, and hopefully some tapir tonight.  The anteater was in a tree - I didn't know they do that!  We also got to see a sloth before leaving Los Patos.  Very cool.  They do everything in slo-mo.  Later in the day, we heard what we think were howler monkeys - very intimidating sounds.  The other monkeys that we saw tried to chase us off by throwing sticks and leaping between branches.  Not quite as scary as the howlers.  And as I sit and write this, seven spider monkeys are climbing into a bare tree in the distance.  Settling in for the night, I suppose.

--The Lodge--

Sirena is very pretty.  Like Los Patos, it's basically been hollowed out of the forest.  It is much bigger and even has its own airstrip (which coincidentally leads to a beach).  I imagine there are even a few trails - we'll find out tomorrow.  We're being buzzed by bats again!  (1711, April 7)

Recent Eventings / Costa Rica Trip '08, Part III

Housewarming party last night!  And it was a good one, in my opinion.  As inconsequential as it may sound, my expectations for the event were changed twice over the course of the day: once in the grocery store as we were making preparations, and once again when the party had gotten underway.  Initially, I thought this was going to be a pretty tame, family-and-friends affair.  I then came to find that no family was invited!  Shock!  Then I began to mentally prep myself for something of a wild night, which exacts a certain mental toll when its beginning is mere hours away.  Once the guests started to arrive, with the relaxing tones of AC/DC in the background, I began to steel myself against the ensuing flood of loud music and tons of people.  This, too, causes some brain stress, especially when you're surprised that none of that happens.  Long story short: it was a quiet and enjoyable evening in with some pretty cool people.

Through the inevitable course of the introductory talk, I was reminded yet again of the stark contrast between my life and a "normal" life - a stigma which reverberates through the last four years of my life as I often and fervently wished for a "normal" college experience.  I love my life.  I'm not sure there's a cooler way for a young, single guy to live.  But it can bear down unfavorably on conversations with nine-to-fivers, and I guess I can understand why.  Stories tend to monopolize the discourse, sometimes salary comparisons arise...  Meh.  I had fun last night, and I think our guests did, too, but sometimes things just weigh on you, y'know?

6 April

--Into the Wild--

We started our rainforest trek today.  We got warmed up in the forest surrounding Danta.  A nice couple of hours, and we saw so much: a monkey (!!), a toucan, all sorts of lizards (including the aptly-named Jesus lizard, which I've just learned is actually a basilisk), frogs, birds and of course a whole mess of trees.  Wouldn't be much of a forest without them, after all.  We got some awful directions from a woman from Minnesota and lost an hour of time with wrong turns.  One of these was basically straight uphill and 100% mud.  So we wore ourselves out on that and were tired and sore for the rest of the day.  The walk, once we found the road, was just gorgeous.  Huge trees practically bursting with vitality.  We saw some scarlet maccaws and more toucans.  The pictures really say more than I can.  There was one tree that stuck me as particularly beautiful.  It was white, with no bark, and a very smooth trunk.  There were no leaves until the top, when it spread out like an umbrella.  I don't know why it struck me so deeply.  I wanted very badly to touch the trunk, but the base was very overgrown.  More's the pity.

The hike from the trailhead to Los Patos was just a grueling as our unintentional detour earlier.  So even now, hours after the hike's end, my feet and back are screaming at me and I am chafed like I've never been chafed before.  I really hope I'm up for tomorrow.  We met a very nice couple from Gatlinburg whose itinerary is identical to ours.  They invited us to hike with them, but I think we'll be going ahead on our own.  I hate to turn down such a generous offer - they're paying for a guide - but it would spoil what we came here for.

And now, I think I'll stop writing.  The tent is very hot, as is the flashlight I'm holding.  Tomorrow's hike will be twice as long; hopefully there will be twice as much to write.  (1955, 6 April)

Costa Rica Trip '08, Part II

3-5 April (cont.)

I write now from the Autotransportes Blanco station.  We are on our way... or will be soon.  The taxi ride through San Jose reminded me that I wanted to write about the traffic here.

I am amazed that people here get around with - apparently - no accidents.  Through all the unbelievably dangerous driving we've experienced so far, we haven't seen a single accident.  Thinking of it now does make me shudder at the prospect of the bus ride.  Like our other automotive forays so far, I'm sure we'll arrive safely at our intended destination.  On the traffic itself, though: there seem to be no traffic laws to speak of.  There are no lanes, only a few lines, and not many more traffic lights.  Yet somehow, it all works.  It's like the "ordered chaos" you always hear people talking about.  That's also the phrase I use to describe my room, coincidentally.  So my room is as structured as San Jose traffic...?  Oddly appropriate.  (On a side note, we are apparently waiting for the bus directly opposite a woman scientist.  She looks like a scientist.)

So, ordered chaos.  I don't feel uncomfortable admitting there's a strange sort of beauty in seeing such a mess work so perfectly.  Maybe it's the ever-emerging engineer in me.  Somehow the idea of being able to fit anywhere from one to four lanes of cars in the same space makes me smirk and giggle to myself.  Maybe it's part mild culture shock and part novelty. I don't feel culture shocked, though.

[...]

And now we are well and properly on our way.  We've been on the bus for nearly four hours and, with the exception of the city we just stopped in, the landscape has grown progressvely wilder.  I snapped a few pictures, but I'm afraid they won't come out.

More later - bumps making writing tough. (1550, 5 April)

--On the Bus / Nightfall--

More erratic writing - still on the bus.  The bus is interesting.  It's quite a bit nicer than expected, since we expected an old American school bus.  But no, we have fairly comfortable seats and, although the engine is loud and the windows rattle, it's not a bad ride.  When someone wants to pass the bus, [the bus driver] checks the oncoming traffic and waves them on it's safe.  The acknowledge eachother with a honk - ours is a great goose-sounding honk, more than loud enough to stir me from any napping.  We stop for everyone.  Some of them are vendors with food, some are people just getting a leg up on the trip home.

Jesse said it best earlier: "It gets prettier every time I open my eyes."  As profound as it sounds, he was actually talking about waking from a nap.  But either way, it's absolutely true. The scenery here takes my breath away.  The stars ay be the only greater testament to the power, flory, and aesthetic taste of God.  (1756, 5 April)

--At the Lodge--

Finally free from that rickety bus ride!  The last hour or so was more stressful than the rest since we had no clue how far we were from anything.  The original plan was to spend tonight in Puerto Jimenez, but that would have required a long and expensive cab ride back to the trailhead in La Palma.  So instead, we disembarked in La Palma, resolved to walk the 1.8-ish miles to the lodge if necessary.  Thank God we were met at the stop by a taxi driver!  The ride itself was taken in the back of his pickup, allowing us to see clearly the numerous times we would have risked mugging by walking.  It seems at every turn that the Lord is protecting us on this journey.  I look forward to witnessing the splendor of His creation in the days to come.

But for now, I'm relaxing after a long day of travel.  The lodge we're in tonight is made totally from wood, and what's more, wood from trees that were already and naturally felled only.  Not a single tree was cut down to build this place.  And it's magnificent!  Already, since our arrival, we've seen lizards hunting and playing, heard monkeys in the nearby woods and seen a bug literally as big as my head, although Jesse thinks (and I now agree) that it's probably a bat.  There's so much life here!  Even just sitting here in what I'll call, for want of a better word, the living room.  The constant chirruping of the crickets is punctuated now and again by the croaking of frogs the likes of which I've never heard.  Now if only we could do something about that awful music from the fiesta...  (2100, 5 April)

PS - It's definitely a bat.  We just got buzzed.

Jiggity-Jig!

I am home again, but I'm afraid I've bought no pigs or hogs.  The trip.  Was.  AMAZING.  Never have I felt so constantly and completely connected with and integral to Creation.  I know that may require a second glance.  Sorry 'bout that.  The rainforest was everything you ever learned in school.  Compared with my expectations, we were practically accosted by monkeys.  We saw an anteater, a sloth, a pizote, a saino (no, I didn't know what those were before the trip), toucans, macaws, parrots, parakeets, and ants that build their own roads.  I was floored, and delighted to be there.  The flora were vibrant; everywhere were vines, moss and flowers covering the already-vital trees.  It rained every day for at least a few hours, usually in the afternoon.  We were constantly surrounded by the sounds and smells of life.  It was... awesome, in the truest sense of the word.

I also kept a pen-and-paper journal of my trip, from which I will be copying in part for your viewing pleasure!  I can almost guarantee you won't get the full version here.  C'est la vie.

Costa Rica Trip '08

3-5 April

Unfortunately, I left the notebook I meant to use at home. Not a big deal, but it does translate to a lag between thinking and recording.  Today, Jesse and I are headed to the deep south of the country, to a town called Puerto Jimenez.  It's supposedly between 8-10 hours, so we'll see how that pans out.  We worry quite a bit about item placement, vis-a-vis mugging.  Jesse instructed me in the ways of the dummy wallet.  Clever yet simple, and something I hadn't even thought of.  Even after living in New York for four years, I don't do well with defensive thinking.  I started The Great Divorce on the plane and finished it this morning.  Not good, since the only other book I brought is The Problem of Pain, which is no thicker.  Anyway, observations:

--San Jose--

At once a lovely and ugly place.  It also depends on where you are in the city.  There are little parks everywhere, and one big one on the western edge of the city (also where the US Embassy is).  There is no shortage of plant life, with varying amounts of visible vitality, but there is also no shortage of poverty and its entourage.  I had a young boy hit his knees begging me for money yesterday, right in the middle of the sidewalk.  Even in New York, I never saw someone really beg like that.  I didn't give him anything, a fact which still bothers me now.  I know we're called to charity, but so many beggars are either liars or will simply use their "earnings" for booze.  It also seems to me an all-or-nothing philosophy - either give money to every beggar or to none.  Otherwise, on what criteria does one base their judgment?  Essentially, it's like saying you can tell who's lying and who isn't, and that your decision of who is deserving is the right one.  Still, perhaps erring on the side of charity is better.

More later. (1007, 5 April)

"You asked for a loving God: you have one.  The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the 'lord of terrible aspect,' is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for his work and despotic as a man's love for his dog, provident and venerable as a father's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes... it passes reason to explain why any creatures... should have a value so prodigious in their Creator's eyes."

--CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Time for Adventure

Funny how things run away with you.  Here, I started this shiny new blog and totally meant to jot down all my insights, and it's been some time since my last post.  Apologies all around!

As you may or may not know, I leave for Costa Rica in but one short day, and for two weeks which are bound to be too short by far.  It has occurred to me several times since undertaking this epic journey that this is probably the most adventuresome thing I've ever done.  Thanks to the help of my stalwart friends, I know how to ask about both bathrooms and parties in Spanish.  Apparently, this is all I need to navigate the country.  :P  But honestly, several of you have passed along important words to know and I want to assure that they are well and properly committed to memory.  And I do appreciate it, an awful lot.  And if it puts your mind at ease at all, it seems my biggest worries are packs of wild pigs.  My shots are up to date and I'm well-stocked with provisions, so I figure if I can find room in my pack for a pork cookbook, I can intimidate the pigs into leaving me alone.  I may have to teach them how to read first.

I'm moved into my new home in Texas and, aside from taking all of my money, the area's been good to me so far.  My housemate and I found a good church, there's plenty of everything in the area for just about anything I could conceive of needing, and it's 80 degrees in March.  My tune may change come July, but on the other hand, we've got A/C and I'm a certified tech.  Sweets!

Fair winds, following seas, and STAY FROSTY.

"Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and enkindles the great."

--Roger de Bussy-Rabutin