living outside

       I love, love, love everything about living in the jungle.  The weather is warm. Well ok, it's hot.  Really hot and humid, but I like it that way.  I love the foilage everywhere with huge thick leaves and beautiful, exotic flowers. I love the animals and birds of the jungle. I love the beautiful sun that is out every single day and I even love the rain which comes every night at this time of year.  What I have come to realize is that in Costa Rica, we live outside.  Houses and buildings are all open air.  It's not like our homes are all closed up and when a creature comes in they've invaded our world.  We, in fact, live in their world.  We are the intruders.  We live outside so we adapt to the environment, and Ticos are very resourceful. If you are at a restaurant and an iguana strolls in you don't shoo him out, you just take pictures and finish your meal.  At home when the highly vocal geckos crawl over the walls at night and make their funny noises you don't try to catch them and take them outside.  You just live in harmony.  You're in their world.
       My tico house, and others I have gone into, are always spotless.  You could almost eat off the shiny tiled floor.  As soon as any food was served at a meal it was immediately put away, the counters were wiped down, and dishes were washed.  I just thought they were a little obsessed with cleanliness, and maybe they are, but I learned it was because of the outside creatures that they kept such a tidy home. For instance, these little miniature ants come, in only a few seconds, like a call has gone out and they were just waiting in the wings.  They are almost microscopic and can only be discerned when they march in a line like tiny soldiers. They also like to hang out in the bathrooms near the toothpaste, so that is kept up as well.
       When it rains here it is not a mist like in Seattle. It is a down pour, and everything just stays wet all the time. When you wake up in the morning and get dressed you are immediately soaked in sweat from the heat and you just stay wet all day.  But I still love it. Then the rains come. I brought a nice rain coat with me so I would be ready, but I learned the first time I put it on that it is way too hot to wear a jacket.   Everyone here just carries an umbrella, which they put up and go right along with their day.  Umbrellas are everywhere.  People buy the cheap ones because you leave them, lose them and give them away in a downpour.  If you see one that's abandoned you just pick it up and take it with you, because someone has found yours in the back of a taxi.  There is a steady flow of umbrella trading depending on where you are when the rain hits.   And because it rains so much and humidity is high, things never dry, and the fight against mold is always an issue.  Most people keep important items in the refrigerator, so raiding the fridge here can be a treasure hunt.  It might produce things like 2x2 photos with a bunch of numbers. Passports.  Seriously. If you don't keep your passport in the cold environment of the refrigerator it could be covered in mold and useless.  There is a saying here that says you can put a broomstick in the ground and it will grow, and I believe it's true.  Something will grow all over it. Workers can be seen every day scrubbing the walls and sidewalks of hotels to keep the moss from taking over.
       With all the heat and rain, us gringos go back and forth between being stinky and muddy.  The Ticos are neither!  Somehow they always smell good and their clothes are clean, even their white clothes are unbelievably white.  I wondered with awe how they accomplished this and learned that they use a lot of bleach to combat the mold, and they do their laundry very often.  Many people have washers, but not dryers because they use a lot of electricity which gets expensive. Every day there are clothes outside drying in the sun before the evening rains.
      One day some friends and I went to lunch and I took my leftovers with me in a styrofoam "to go" container.  We went back to the Academia because Mauricio, the school's groundskeeper, was going to show us the way to a new beach for the afternoon as a field trip.  I asked him if I could just leave my container there until we got back.  He said, "Si, ven conmigo." Yes, come with me.  I followed him in silence all the way past two classrooms, down the stairs, around the building and into what functions as an eating area in the school. I wondered why we were here for a simple "to go" box.  Maybe he didn't understand my spanish.  Mauricio dug through the cabinets until he found what he was looking for.  A great big disposable casserole pan.  He went to the sink and filled the pan with one inch of water.  What was going on? He took the "to go" box from my hands and set it in the middle of the water, in the pan. "Por que?" Why? I asked.  He grinned as he pumped his arms in big circles and said the only words he ever said to me in english. "Ants can't swim."

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A "monkey bridge" is created with rope, where tree removal for roads have prevented their safe passage

the iguana's favorite cafe

a dryer