12/5/11 Costa Rica

Wow!  Costa Rica is such a cool place!  In addition to being warm, green and gorgeous, Costa Ricans have decided to protect their natural environment by setting aside huge amounts of land as National Parks, thereby protecting their impressive biodiversity. They've also chosen to invest in their people by providing free education to all persons instead of funding a military. As a result, 96% of the population is literate, a much higher rate than is seen in the USA. Unfortunately, poverty does still exist in Costa Rica, but is much less prevalent than in many of it's neighboring Central American nations. 

We went to a cloud forest one day, and hiked up to the crater of an active volcano named Poas. Unfortunately, it was raining and very cloudy (duh!), so we were not able to see into the volcano crater. We did see many coffee farms and learned about the arduous process of producing coffee. The scenery that day was just gorgeous. Another day we hired a cab driver to show us around. He took us to the property of a lady who feeds the multitude of monkeys that live on her property. Therefore, they are accustomed to people, and allowed us to hand feed them and touch them. Some had tiny infants on their backs who did not fall off (miraculously) when their mothers abruptly leaped between trees. We bought both cookies and banana slices to give them, and some were picky. Some preferred bananas and would squawk at us impatiently if we tried to feed them crackers, unless crackers were all we had. It was great fun. Then we went to a bridge where we saw about a dozen crocodiles hanging out in the river right below us. They are such freaky, prehistoric looking creatures.

About that time, I got called back to the ship to care for a shipmate who had fallen off a horse and broken her arm. The fracture was of a type that needs surgical fixation, so I went with the patient and her husband to a hospital in San Jose, about 1+ hours away. She had surgery that night. Luckily she was able to return to the ship the next day and did not need to fly home to deal with her situation. I was able to return to the ship as soon as I got her all settled in at the hospital that evening.  Costa Rica has become a big medical tourism destination and the health care in San Jose is excellent and much less expensive than in the USA. If you have to have surgery while circling the globe, Costa Rica is a lucky spot to get injured. 

My biggest regret about Costa Rica was that we did not have nearly enough time to explore that amazing place. It is on the top of my list of places to which I hope to return.