[costa rica 2]


Costa Rica is a green country of four million people sandwiched between Nicaragua and Panama. Costa Ricans, or "ticos", claim to be the ham and cheese of Central America. But sometimes they're just the mustard.

When it comes to rainforest and beaches, Costa Rica is the ham and cheese. Monteverde Cloud Forest and Puerto Viejo beach are safe havens for large quantities of energy on Earth. To walk in the rainforest amidst the layers of ecosystem, howling monkeys, and inexplicably wild bugs and plants is misty bliss. It is like Alice in Wonderland, or rather it is the real wonderland which our Earth -- under all the cities and embarrassingly poor distribution of resources -- really is. 'Tis a reality that I don't want to add any mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, nor any other sugary flavored paste to.

The mustard in Costa Rica, smeared on the bread and housing a quarter of the country's inhabitants, is San José. The city is chaos. No one has an address and the streets do not have names. "Colones" are the currency but the U.S. dollar is accepted nearly everywhere. The Dalai Lama visited the University of Costa Rica in October 2004 and compared his country, Tibet, with Costa Rica. Both about the same size and without an active military. He also suggested that more people become monks as a cure for the overpopulation of our planet.