Aqui en Monteverde!

Monteverde, Costa Rica

Sunday, June 4^th; it’s raining again. But then, this is a cloud forest, and clouds and rain kind of go hand-in-hand. I’m now three days in Monteverde, and things are beginning to fall into place for the year. And I suppose it’s time to start putting things down on paper, or burned onto plastic discs as the case might be. The year is beginning with many unknowns, but this is perhaps more of what I’ve hoped for in a sabbatical year than I might have gotten with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed. As each of my proposals for traditional “academic” sources of funding has fallen through, I’m now in a position where I have no choice but to reinvent myself, which is really more of what a sabbatical is supposed to be. Things at the university at home have definitely gotten a bit routine, and this year is supposed to provide an opportunity to find renewal.

For the next 10 weeks, I’ll be on pretty familiar ground, teaching 11 students in landscape architecture, architecture, and planning about sustainable design in our “Sustainable Futures” course at the Monteverde Institute. After that, I’ll have 40 weeks to see what rocks I can turn over and find whatever interesting things I can to make this more than a unfunded academic’s vacation in the cloud forest. There is certainly no shortage of need for design & planning work here, and as a volunteer, I’m sure my skills will be in high demand. As a paid professional, we’ll see… It’s been a long time since I’ve actively tried to be a designer for hire, but the prospect is kind of exciting. And while I’m a bit uncertain as to some of the more practical aspects of design practice here in Costa Rica, I’m also not the same designer I was 20 years ago when I last plied my trade full time. I actually feel like I know what I’m doing now, and perhaps more importantly, why I should do something a particular way in a particular situation. Teaching is good for that; you learn to question more than the mechanics your students’ use-- you need to probe their underlying reasoning and rationale in each aspect of their designs.

Well, enough of my philosophical ramblings for being here, at least for now. So… what’s life like here? Pretty ordinary in many respects really, but still very different from a day at home in New York. Living alone has something to do with this, as Norma & Niall won’t join me for another 5 weeks. The first few days have been a whirlwind of getting things settled in… flying down with 200lbs of gear, buying a car (more on that later), moving into our rental house & furnishing things (it’s partly furnished, but there are always plenty of things that need buying, getting finances set up, etc.) When everything’s unsettled, even the most mundane things can be frustrating, like finding an ATM that our bank card works on. This year, for the first time, a new local ATM actually WORKS! (after our trip down in March, when we flunked being good travelers and didn’t find a single ATM that worked with our new bank cards, this was a major concern). In the past day or so though, I’ve settled into the beginnings of a routine. Up at 5:30 or 6:00, breakfast and coffee (LOTS of coffee here) with the binoculars, then out and about by 7:00. Prime time to enjoy the wildlife, etc. This morning it was a group of Toucans in the trees uphill from the house. Most days, I’m then off to the Institute (about 3 miles away), where class starts at 8:00. We run studio until 5:00pm, then it’s back home for dinner. It’s dark by 6:00pm, and with no TV, one tends to hit the hay pretty early. It’s usually lights out by 9:00.

Getting around right now means lots of walking, as our car won’t be ready for a couple more days. It’s the victim of the more notorious side of Latin America’s love for bureaucracy. An appointment could not be arranged for a safety inspection during the two days after I purchased the car in San Jose on the day after my arrival, so it had to be put off until this coming week. Consequently, I’m on foot until at least Tuesday. Even then, I’m not holding my breath until the car is here and the keys are in my hands.

Buying a car here makes for an interesting exercise in patience, faith, and immersive Spanish language practice. To begin, cars in Costa Rica are generally MUCH more expensive than in the US, largely because of an outrageous duty charged on all imported cars (which is pretty much all cars!). Combine this with a common Tico knack for mechanical ingenuity that borders on McGyver-like cleverness, and the result is a thriving used car market, as everyone is determined to wring every potential kilometer out of every car once it’s here. Unfortunately, while this makes for lots of choices, not all the used cars out there are what they are made up to be. There is a huge problem with newly imported used cars from the US, many of them insurance company “totals” with odometers backed-up and major mechanical problems band-aided for sale or cosmetically disguised. For a green gringo seeking a car, this can be a bit daunting. Fortunately, I stumbled onto a service provided by an entrepreneurial American and his Tico wife- Russell and Katya Martin. Russ is a web-based marketing consultant, and has lived in Costa Rica for over a decade, and Katya is a native from the San Jose area. Together, they have put together a website marketing selected used car dealers who have met their expectations for integrity and customer service. For a small fee, Katya spent the day driving me from one dealer to another, checking out various cars, test driving, and eventually helping to make a deal. She even patiently assisted with putting my name, address, phone number, and passport number on the back of dozens of travelers checks at the bank! In the end, we’ve become the proud owners of a ’94 Hyundai “Galloper,” a very popular 4x4 SUV here in Costa Rica. In Monteverde, I swear, every third or fourth car on the road, including most of the local taxis, is a Galloper. This seemed like a good sign to me, so even though Hyundai has never imported them to the US, I immediately liked them. They seem to be fairly reliable, and I’m told they are relatively easily worked on and parts are inexpensive. We’ll let you know in a few months if this proves true or not… The one we’ve got was recently imported used from Korea. The idea of buying a used Korean car may be lost on some, but the logic goes something like this- Korea is a small country with good roads, ergo, cars driven there get light duty, with low yearly mileage. That’s theory anyway- another thing we’ll verify a few months down the road!