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Lair Davis (Our Man in Costa Rica) |
| February 18, 2005 |
Of Snowbirds, Seasons, Bugas and Biodiversity This time of year, the snowbirds have arrived and are settled into their cottages and cabins scattered in the hills above my little town in Costa Rica. They come from British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Seattle, upstate New York, Wisconsin. They will be here for a couple or three months — as they are every year — joining us in the morning in the Parque Central where we share our yesterday’s events and plan today’s. As we sit on our benches — a bunch of happy folk from up north but living in Costa Rica — we watch the tourist buses arrive and unload. Folks with cameras begin to pose in front of our magnificent church. It is easy to play “spot the gringo.” They seem to be enjoying themselves, but very few smile. It is also very easy to play “expat living in paradise.” We smile — a lot! ---------- This is a very small country on a very small isthmus of land between two great and wondrous oceans. Weather of all kinds flies over this spit of land and seldom stops. One minute it is beautiful and sunny, two minutes later it is rainy and cold, one minute after that it is hot and sunny, and in ten minutes it will be misty and cloudy. Get the picture? That is in a single location. Down the road — a mere ten kilometers — it can be drastically different. How different? Well, the city of Alajuela and the city of Heredia are 11 kilometers apart. December is the rainiest month of the year in Alajuela. December is the driest month of the year in Heredia. Then there is altitude. Travel 18 kilometers from San Jose to the airport, and you have arrived at an entirely different altitude. That can mean a difference of 10-15 degrees in temperature. From the cloud forest high in the hills at Monteverde you can look down and see the coast about 20 kilometers away that lines the great Pacific Ocean beyond. It is cold up there. It is very, very hot down there. Chances are good that when visiting Costa Rica, you will experience beautiful weather — “rainy” season or “dry” season. We who live here pay little attention to ”seasons.” ---------- Every gay bar I’ve visited here had included many lesbians among its customers. Gay men and women seem to be genuine friends. Quepos is the most gay town outside of the capital city of San José. There are several places in Quepos where gays are welcome, and a few where gays are visible. There is a gay nude beach as well. Ticos have told me of gay bars in other towns, but more likely they are similar to most Costa Rican bars: “gay” only very late, after the women have gone home. Gay Ticos express no fear of police. Many gay Ticos have urged me to spread the word that gay men and lesbians are welcome and safe in Costa Rica. Bar owners say they do not fear their businesses being publicized as gay. Gay Ticos are as friendly as other Ticos. They seem to genuinely like and be attacted to older people, unlike the youth-oriented gay cultures of so many other countries. This is not to say that there aren’t gay hustlers in Costa Rica; there are! Some of them, I am told, son serpientes! (are serpents!). In Spanish slang, buga refers to a straight man who happens to fancy guys, not gals. Los cacheros are guys who say they are straight but sleep with guys, too. There are lots of bugas and cacheros in Costa Rica. If a gay man should tell the average Tico that he is gay, the Tico will assume that he chooses a sexually passive role with other men. The Tico also will be baffled as to why the gay man finds it necessary to disclose such a private matter. If you want to communicate that you take both active and passive roles sexually, then describe yourself as an internacional. Latin gay men frequently refer to themselves as gente de ambiente (men of ambiance). Gay women prefer the term gay to lesbiana. Don’t call gay women tortilleras, tractor (butch) or las locas. Un(a) militar is a nongay person who is open-minded about homosexuality. ---------- Of the approximately 116 life zones on earth, 12 are found in Costa Rica. They are named according to forest type and altitude. Thus there are dry, moist, wet and rain forests in tropical, premontane, lower montane, montane and subalpine areas. Within a life zone several types of habitat may occur. Costa Rica has a huge variety of habitats, each with particular associations of plants and animals. An attempt is being made to protect them all.  Among the 150 species of amphibians
in Costa Rica are tiny tree frogs,
brightly-colored poison-arrow frogs and giant marine toads.Over 850 species of birds have been recorded in Costa Rica, more than in any one of the continents of North America, Australia or Europe. Among them are the resplendent quetzal, the three-wattled bellbird, the scarlet macaw, the harpy eagle, 6 species of toucans, 15 species of parrots, 50 species of hummingbirds, 75 species of tanagers, 29 species of antbirds and 19 species of cotingas. Over 35,000 species of insects have been recorded here; many remain undiscovered. Among the most beautiful are 10 percent of all the butterfly species in the world (nearly 1,000 identified species). Also observed are many types of ants, including leaf-cutters, as well as moths ranging in size from gigantic to infintesimal. Over 200 species of mammals have been recorded, including four monkey species (howler, spider, white-faced capuchin, and squirrel monkeys), two species of sloths, three species of anteaters, and armadillos, agoutis (large rodents), peccaries (wild pigs), kinkajous, coati raccoons, tayra weasels, skunks, otters, foxes, squirrels, bats, ocelots, jaguars, pacas, tapirs and manatees. Snakes make up over half of the 200-plus species of reptiles. The most feared is the fer-de-lance, which is very poisonous but fearful of humans and seldom seen. Lizards include the ameiva, with a white striped down its back, and the bright-green basilisk, which sometimes is a meter in length and can run across water (thereby earning the nickname Jesus Christ Lizard). Other reptiles includes 14 species of turtles and several of crocodiles and caimans. Over 10,000 species of plants have been described, and more are being added to the list every year. There are over 900 species of ferns, more than in all of North America. Species of heliconias (birds of paradise) number some 30 species. Over 1,400 species of trees have been recorded. There are five species of mangroves thriving along the Costa Rica’s shorelines. These land-building trees form a stabilizing tangle that fights tidal erosion and reclaims land from the water. Over 1,200 species of orchids are recorded, including the national flower, the guaria morada. If you stand in one spot in a Costa Rican forest and look around, you’ll see scores of different species of trees, but you often have to walk several hundred meters to find another example of any particular species. This incredible variety generates the biodiversity in the animals which live within the forests. |
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(6.25)
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Col 2 (7.02) |
Col 3 (7.09) |
Col 4 (7.16) |
Col 5 (7.23) |
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Col 7
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(8.20)
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(9.03)
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(9.10)
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(9.17)
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(9.24)
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(10.01)
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(10.08)
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(10.15)
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(10.22)
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(10.29)
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(11.05)
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(11.12)
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Col 22 (11.19) |
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(12.3)
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(12.10)
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(12.17)
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(12.24) | (12.31) | (1.7) | (1.14) | (1.21) | (1.28) |
| (2.4) | (2.11) |
