Saturday, August 10, 2024
After one lovely day in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, we have been enduring the rain forest. Actually, I would not call it a rain forest, since the hard rains are only occasional. Rather, it is a humidity forest, a damp cloak over everything, all the time.
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San Jose’s pleasant weather, among other things, helps keep it off The Economist’s list of the least liveable cities in the world. The top of that list (really the bottom) of 173 locations is occupied by Damascus, Tripoli, and Algiers.
Tel Aviv saw the sharpest decline in standing in the past year, understandably. Hong Kong saw the largest upward move, in spite of its precarious political position.
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This morning, we went to Campesino Vida, La Fortuna, a family-owned farm which supplies produce for its restaurant. It also conducts tours of the abundant vegetation. We were told that the focus would be on medicinal plants, but neither marijuana nor magic mushrooms were to be seen.
At lunch, we got to make our own tortillas, although the provenance of the exact tortilla on my plate was cloudy.
Sunday, August 11, 2024
While the liveability rankings above were on a global scale, most of you dear readers are in the lower 48. Your retirement plans, if any, would probably focus on the good old USA. Here is a look at destinations, supposedly the best and the worst.
It turns out that Joe Biden was prescient; Delaware is listed as the best retirement location. On the other hand, Florida’s high position at #8 hasn’t convinced the former president to pack it in at Mar-a-Lago.
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We moved quarters for the third time today. Unlike the previous one or more hour shifts, we drove four hours to the Pacific coast, climbing up and over 7,000 feet. Fortunately, we stopped three times for relief, the third time including lunch followed by a cruise on the Tarcoles River looking for crocodiles. Of course, the secret is to see the crocodiles before they see you.
Monday, August 12, 2024
When you go on a trip with your grandson to explore another country, say Costa Rica, you shouldn’t be surprised to find yourself in an outrigger canoe, paddling along the Pacific coastline to a beach where a picnic lunch is served after you have splashed in the water for awhile. Would you have it any other way?
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
The New York Times announced surprisingly and unwisely that it will stop endorsing candidates for state and local office. Its reasoning never made it past fuzzy.
This is one of many changes to the newspaper that have distanced it from readers, local readers especially. It has eliminated television listings, stock market prices, athletic league standings, local team reporting, the bridge column, and the chess column, while adding color and many more photographs. It now has more than 10.8 million total subscribers, of which 10.2 million are digital-only subscribers. That means the typical reader is no longer the typical reader. She doesn’t turn pages, but plays Wordle. He needs another lining for his birdcage, but shares Maureen Dowd effortlessly. She doesn’t need a pencil for the crossword, but frequently needs a password.
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The Gotthelf Moving Airport Gate Syndrome is alive and well at San Jose’s Juan Santamaría International Airport, with a twist. We checked into Jet Blue and proceeded to Gate 16 as notified by a message received mid-morning and printed on our boarding pass. Once there, we found ourselves alone. Looking at a nearby departure board, we saw that our flight was now at Gate 2. This was not just a few slots down, but the end of another wing of the terminal where the numbers descended. At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Palazzo di Gotthelf has moved to Hoboken.
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The T-shirt worn by the headless model below is the only thing that I purchased for myself on the entire trip, except for some chocolate candy and a few Coke Zeros (Coke Zero has apparently replaced Diet Coke throughout Costa Rica).
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The diligence of my young bride gave us one victory in the Airport Wars on the second leg of our flight home, Ft. Lauderdale to New York. We were scheduled for a four-hour layover, cruel and unusual punishment in my book. However, Madam stepped up to the plate, the counter really, and offered a better plan, getting us on a 6:35 PM flight to LaGuardia Airport that landed at the time that the flight to JFK that I originally booked was taking off.
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Nothing, thankfully.
Things are returning to normal today. I planned for lunch at a Chinese restaurant with Paul Bergman, Esq., distinguished defense attorney and CCNY graduate. We aimed for Din Tai Fung, founded in Taiwan in 1958, now open at 1633 Broadway. Well, it was not to be. The joint was fully booked with reservations 30 days in advance. Mind you, this is customary for those fabled hangout with names beginning Le or La, but unheard of for a real Chinese restaurant. The receptionist found my lecture on the subject only mildly interesting, so we went around the corner to Urban Hawker, 135 West 50th Street, the aggregation of Singaporean food stalls. I had a rather ordinary plate of chicken prawn paste fried rice, the fried chicken strips cooked either too long or too long in advance, from Mr. Fried Rice ($16). Paul, new to the venue, was delighted with an oyster omelette from Prawnaholic Collections ($20).
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While I am happy to be home, I have far richer memories than I expected of birds and plants and reptiles and Costa Ricans and my fellow American tourists, adult and youth.
Welcome home! I didn't realize that Costa Rica has not had a war in my lifetime.
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