Reply #212: No = Remember Costa Rica won Nobel Prize: No standing army

[seventhson]

best environmental record in the western hemisphere in terms of preserving the rainforests.

BEAUTIFUL National Park system.

Monteverde Cloud Forest where you can go look for the wild Quetzal (bird) , Toucans, troops and troops of howler, squirrel and capuchin monkees. Iguanas all over the place guzzling mangoes and pineapples and avocados and burping out the seeds.

Caribbean and Pacific Coasts are only a few hours drive apart. People in Cahuita and Eastern Costa Rica speak English (lots of Jamaican immigrants for the coffee plantations for many generations).

Black Volcanic Sand beaches.


Volcanoes.

Great University city in Alajuela (near San Jose).

WONDERFUL people. VERY civilized and also kind of European/Spanish architecture and very "old-worldy". People are activists and had little tolerance for the NordAmericanos supporting the contras -- but were so liberal that some baddies got away with too much since they were left alone (though ultimately busted by the government who wanted neutrality).


Me and my wife stayed at a little place near Manuel Antonio National Parque (SW on the Pacific side) called Plinio's where we saw three-toed sloths (close up too). toucans and peccaries in the wild. Hung out in our hammocks on the deck outside our room near the bar where they served fresh seafood "a la planka" (smoked on caribbean wood kinda like hickory over an open fire), and fresh fruit (pineapple, mango, papaya, strawberry guava, aguacate) and cheese and espresso and cuban bread for breakfast. About a half mile in the mountains up from the wild Pacific.

I would go there in a heartbeat if I had fifty grand and enough money to rent a place and work.

I would probably go to Canada first, though, because I am not ready to make my kids learn a new language and totally leave more than a roadtrip away from their friends..