27/09/2010

Outtakes, San Jose


Hello pandemonium of parrots. Hello Costa Rica rainy season. Hello all day at the dentist. I go back again tomorrow. I am having some crowns redone and we are stuck here until the work is finished.

Sorry. No photos for now. The camera I have with me this trip is too conspicuous plus, at the moment, the rain is nearly endless and I don't want to risk ruining it. I should have kept my phone. I could have taken stealth pictures with it but that didn't occur to me until this afternoon. The day before we left Florida we mailed our phones, GPS, some clothes and a bunch of sea shells etc. back to Nevada to lighten our load as we are traveling only with carry on luggage. But I could have used the phone. Oh well. Writers write, right?

We took a cab from the dentist's office to the bus terminal tonight. Generally we'd walk but after six most shops are shuttered and locked turning colorful streets into grim alleyways after dark. Through the window of the cab I saw people wrapped in plastic and cardboard lying on the street in the rain and on a side street a dead guy lying on his back, hand palm down on the asphalt, a white plastic bag covering his body from the waist up, a yellow police tape stretched over the entrance to the parking lot and one cop car, lights flashing parked in the middle of the otherwise deserted street.


7 comments:

Roy said...

Safe trip. Safe vacation.

You paint a grim picture.

asha said...

Grim is the word, even without corpses lying in the street, the endless goddamn rain is enough on its own.

Mr. Donut said...

Costa Rica noir.

Kimberlee said...

Mis amigos cuidado!

Especially with the rain and the dead body it still seems like such a surreal place, maybe not beautiful. My friends living there were very adamant about not carry cash or wearing jewellery when we went downtown but the gold museum downtown is fantastic!

I hope your jaw doesn't hurt too much:(

asha said...

Mr. Donut: indeed.

Kimberlee: Gracias, my amiga. Hoy estábamos en casa por tres. Sí, el museo de oro es fantástica. También el Museo de Jade.

And thanks for reminding me not to wear any jewelery. I have been fudging that with cheap earrings.

But there is beauty here. It's just that it is so closely entwined with horror and decay.

Kimberlee said...

Amiga su espanol esta muy bien hoy!

asha said...

Oh no, mi amiga. Traductor de Google es muy bueno. ;)