Lair Davis (Our Man in Costa Rica)

Remember Lair Davis? He was the founding editor of several queer newspapers including the San Diego Gayzette (1982), Gay Times (1988) and Gay/Lesbian Nation (1990). Lair moved on to other community challenges in San Diego before moving to Santa Cruz. In June 2004, the award-winning “Lair About Town” columnist retired to the tropics of Costa Rica. HillQuest is tickled and proud to return Lair to San Diego every week to share his views and ideas. Feel free to email him.

April 29, 2005

The Ten-Month Report

For ten months now I have lived in Costa Rica. A ten-month report might be in order. It will turn out to be more a valentine than a report.

I cannot remain so infatuated, can I? The honeymoon will end, won’t it? Already, there are bits of life here that irritate me. Ah, but they are so few. I am still so much in love! Need evidence?

Exhibit 1:
Two little La Liga fans walk barefoot down the road to the pulpería.

I suppose you might need translation. La Liga (The League) is the name of the most popular soccer team hereabouts. Many folks, adult and child alike, wear jerseys exclaiming their support for these “New York Yankees” of Costa Rican soccer.

A “pulpería” is a small mom-and-pop grocery store. They are found on every other corner in the country.

I am cast back to my own childhood, when I would walk down to Mrs. Smalley’s store to gaze longingly at the chocolate malt balls (I called them mothballs), until she would take pity on her penniless and barefoot would-be customer and with great ceremony place two of those coveted morsals — never more or less — in his gratefully cupped hands.

Exhibit 2:
Down the street someone left a full head of lettuce on the grate next to the drainage pipe where the huge iguana lives. Yesterday, someone had placed a couple of bananas there. Many of my neighbors, it appears, have adopted this magnificent reptile as a community pet.

When the taxi drivers bring me home from my excursions into town, they carefully drive on the wrong side of the street not to endanger our ugly beloved. He enjoys sunning himself on the hot pavement. I fear he grows so large that no longer will he fit inside the pipe.

Exhibit 3:
Canteloupe, watermelon, pineapple and banana. Every day.

Canteloupe, watermelon and banana are three of the most beneficial foods humankind can ingest. Incredible nutritional value in every one. Look it up!

I don’t know about pineapples, but, wow, are they delicious fresh off the tree!

There is hardly a day goes by that I don’t eat every single one of them! They are piled up high in the stalls at the community market just waiting for me each morning. I’ve had to learn to buy enough only for one or two days. It is not as if the growing “season” will end in this extraordinary place!

Exhibit 4:
The drumming has ceased.

After more than a week of hearing the sound of drums somewhere in the distance no matter where I was throughout the entire area, it is quiet today.

Most Costa Rican schoolkids, as everywhere in the world, long to be members of the band. Schools here can afford few instruments and even fewer musicians to teach, however, so marching bands tend to consist of bunches of clean and spiffily dressed, beaming youngsters, each with a single drum, with only a few privileged students playing glockenspiels to accompany the din.

Wednesday was the 167th anniversary of the founding of the town of Grecia, where I live. Don Abel paid a visit, and the kids in the bands at every school in the cantón (county) have been practicing for this honored occasion. (Don Abel is the President of Costa Rica. All in Costa Rica, including the children, are on a first-name basis with this 71-year-old gentleman. To refer to a president in any other manner would be considered “putting on airs.”)

What festivities! Where were my earplugs?

Exhibit 5:
It happens every day. Someone tosses one of those incredibly guileless smiles my way, and my heart and soul melt.

Not everyone in Costa Rica smiles all the time. Some have taken up the customs and manners of that dominant culture in the north. They scurry about hardly noticing their fellow beings, with little time to speak a civil word, much less present cordiality with a smile. Pity them for what they have lost.

Most Costa Ricans have not lost, however. They still enjoy the moment — this very moment! Not some uncertain future moment. This one! Right now! This moment is just fine, gracias a Dios! So they smile at you and share their joy of it.

“Hace calor,” the taxi driver says. “It’s getting hot.” He says it not with dread, concern, disappointment, disgust. He says it with a smile that communicates best what I love most about Costa Rica.

The national slogan of Costa Rica — unofficial as it can be but absolutely on everyone’s lips throughout the days — consists of two words: “Pura vida.”

Simple enough. Just right. “Pure life.”

# 1

(6.25)

# 2
(7.02)

# 3
(7.09)

# 4
(7.16)

# 5
(7.23)

# 6
(7.30)

# 7
(8.06)

(8.13)

(8.20)

(8.27)

(9.03)

(9.10)

(9.17)

(9.24)

(10.01)

(10.08)

(10.15)

(10.22)

(10.29)

(11.05)

(11.12)

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(11.19)

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(11.26)

# 24

(12.3)

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(12.10)

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(12.17)

# 27

(12.24)

# 28

(12.31)

# 29

(1.7)

# 30

(1.14)

# 31

(1.21)

#32

(1.28)

# 33

(2.4)

# 34

(2.11)

# 35

(2.18)

# 36

(2.25)

# 37

(3.4)

# 38

(3.11)

# 39

(3.18)

# 40

(3.25)

# 41

(4.1)

# 42

(4.8)

# 43

(4.15)

# 44

(4.22)

Interested in your own trip to Costa Rica? Get off the “tourist trail” while $aving time/money with your own travel consultant. Lair would love to help you plan your holiday of a lifetime. He’ll even be your guide in his tropical paradise! Email him to discuss your trip.