Notes From Central America

By Tom
San Jose, Costa Rica

Julia and I are now back in San Jose. We leave tomorrow for a night in New Jersey followed by a week in London before heading to Asia. In our blog posts so far, we have tried to give a sense of our travels through anecdotes on specific topics rather than just giving a summary of our day-to-day itinerary. We hope that this makes it more interesting and colorful for the reader and paints a picture of what we are experiencing. We talk about beautiful mountains and beaches and fun adventures but we have seen much more than that during our travels.

First, we have seen the great contrast between the obvious poverty in Nicaragua and the relative wealth of Costa Rica. Nicaragua is the second poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere; only Haiti is more impoverished. This makes it a convenient country for a couple of dirtbag travelers such as Julia and myself to explore, but it can at times be emotionally difficult to observe such poverty. We were without electricity for probably 60% of our time in Nicaragua. Part of this time was while we were in La Biosfera, where we were essentially camping at the ecolodge that is under construction. But the rest of the time the electricity was out of order in the village or it was only turned on for the afternoon and evening. Over six weeks in Nicaragua, we showered with hot water only 3 or 4 times. A couple of those were hot afternoons at La Biosfera, where water running through black plastic tubes from the nearby stream were heated by the sun and gave us a hot shower for maybe 30 or 40 seconds. People's houses frequently have only dirt floors and furniture is often limited to just a few plastic chairs of the cheap variety available at Wal-Mart. Most clothing comes from donations from developed nations; either second-hand clothing or factory seconds with obvious imperfections. People walk around wearing t-shirts sporting slogans in English that were obviously never translated to them, things like "Impeach Bush!" or "Talk To The Hand."

The going wage for labor in Nicaragua is 75 cents an hour. When we were at La Biosfera, we were working along side a couple of local Nicas. Because we were volunteering, Julia and I were given a discount on our accommodations; from $8 each a night down to $5 each. With our $10, Suzanne employed a man named Orlando and his young cousin, paying them $5 each for a full day's work of construction. It seemed unfair that they were working so hard for so little money, but the alternative to working for Suzanne is to not work at all. The desperation for money was obvious every time we got off a bus or a boat when we were flooded with touts trying to get us to ride in their taxi, eat at their cafe, or stay in their hotel. Even bus stations have touts trying to get you to ride on their bus, which seemed strange to me as I've never arrived at a bus station unsure of where I wanted to go, only to be persuaded into a destination based on someone shouting it at me over and over.

It is difficult to get Nicas to care about the environment. This is most obvious in the ubiquitous trash. Roadsides, rivers, and lawns are all littered with trash. I was dumbfounded watching people throw plastic bottles or bags out the windows of buses or off the side of a boat. Many homes have garbage heaps on people's lawns, porches, or sometimes even in their living rooms. It is a mindset that is impossible for me to relate to; to not care about the piles of plastic in constant view along with the stink of rotting garbage. Environmental initiatives may be improving as more forest is set aside for conservation now that Nicaragua is beginning to see some income from eco-tourism. However, on the initial bus ride from Costa Rica to Nicaragua, we spoke with a Nica family that has been living in Boston for decades. They return to Nicaragua to visit family every few years, and according to them the trash is a relatively new development that has been getting worse the last couple of times they returned to Nicaragua.

When we crossed back into Costa Rica earlier in the week, the contrast was stark. While Costa Rica is not rich by Western standards, it is still much better off than its Central American neighbors. From the windows of the bus, there was a conspicuous lack of trash and most homes look like lower-middle class homes in the United States or Western Europe. All were illuminated with electricity and many have satellite dishes on the roof of their house. There were shopping centers and private cars, both of which are rare in Nicaragua. Apparently, the difference in wages between the two countries has led to a large influx of Nica workers migrating to Costa Rica which has caused problems with immigration similar to those in the U.S. It seems strangely backwards to me to think about a Central American country dealing with an inward flood of migrant workers. Another big problem in Costa Rica is Americans buying up much of the land and many businesses. Real estate agents will sell to the highest bidder and while Ticos are wealthy by Central American standards, they cannot compete with the average upper-middle class American interested in putting up a second home in a tropical paradise. Resort towns with store signs and restaurant menus written in English and gated communities of retirees are becoming common in many areas of Costa Rica. This in turn drives up the relative price index of the country making a dinner out at a restaurant or land ownership out of the price range of local Ticos.

Neither Nicaragua nor Costa Rica have what I would call a "food culture." People eat rice & beans with either chicken or eggs three meals a day, seven days a week. The only exception to this are areas along the coast where seafood is mixed in sparingly, although most seafood is caught as a source of income rather than a source of food for locals. There is no effort to add any spices or flavoring to meals and unfamiliar food is looked upon with suspicion among many Nicas and Ticos. As a traveler, it can get rather redundant to only eat the local fare. One could point to poverty as the answer; rice and beans a cheap meal and chickens can exist on worms and bugs. But other very poor places such as India and Thailand have vibrant food cultures that have been exported to the rest of the world. I would suspect that the difference is that those areas have had thousands of years to develop their food culture. Different herbs and spices have been bred and cultivated to withstand local growing conditions and recipes and flavors have been passed down from generation to generation. People have found a way to make flavorful and interesting dishes at very low cost. By contrast, Central America combines a very young society with a very poor one. While this may explain the lack of interest in culinary expression, Cuba and Mexico are both young and poor but have vibrant food cultures which leaves the mystery intact.

While poverty is obviously a problem in Nicaragua and to some extent in Costa Rica, it does have some positive outcomes. The small homes and lack of resources brings families closer together, both physically and also in terms of working together and depending on each other. Ticos and Nicas say that they feel lonely and isolated when visiting the relatively huge houses families inhabit in the U.S. Community members pull together to provide services for each other that they cannot afford or that the government cannot provide. Neighbors help neighbors, creating a tight-knit society. While globalization has hit Central America to some extent, with teenagers wearing knockoff designer clothing and television shows and movies imported from the U.S, they have yet not been overwhelmed by chain stores or multinational corporations. Restaurants and hotels are all privately owned and are frequently in private homes which creates a more personal and authentic experience. While touts can sometimes be aggressive to travelers, most people are friendly and helpful. Central America may not yet experience the benefits of wealth, but it also doesn't have many of the pitfalls that comes with it.