I almost despaired leaving my blackjack table, but big Brother is taking us out to where he goes with the classmates, to Ocotal, where the monkeys are. Playa Ocotal is a small village and a big resort on the northern Pacific coast.
I knew the road to Ocotal to hardly be a definitive image of Costa Rica. It failed to paint the picture of the Savannah, the rain forest, the eastern marshes and the quiet Caribbean waters. But that is the way Costa Rica is - it is many places in a thumbnail image of a country.
Ocotal and the west coast are similar to central California geologically - Ocotal looks like Santa Cruz. The Gulf of Papagayo, which just about butts up to Nicaragua, is steep cliffs and long beaches,
We came here to visit big big brother Andre, because he was a student at the University in San Jose. He picked Hans and I up near the central square and said, "This is how they drive in Costa Rica." He took to an imaginary middle lane, between all the nearly stalled cars and trucks. The mirrors began a rat-tat-tat as we curved between two fruit trucks, and through the red light, and dashed down a steep grade.
Then it was off to Ocotal through cloud forest, hills, low-mountains, cow fields. Finally, coastal jungle. spider monkeys in the trees, emaciated cows in the fields. Shacks of aluminum, wood and thatch. "Why are there antennas coming out of every shack?" I said.
"Television. Everybody in Costa Rica has television," my brother said. "It doesn't matter if you don't own anything else, you have a television."
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