We have a very long layover in Dallas after a sleepless red eye, so here I posting digi-captures on the airport Wi-Fi while Christine takes a cat nap next to me. Someone on the PA keeps inviting us to a prayer service in the chapel by Gate D40. I saw someone in a Trump-Vance t-shirt. Airport ethnography is fun.
I left my higher-res digital camera at home to force myself to take more with film on this trip. But I do enjoy having this Powershot on me; I’m literally posting these shots while sitting across the same window in the first frame. This camera sort of expresses the whole vibe — light, easy, uncomplicated. That’s how I want this vacation to feel.
This Canon Powershot has a fun feature called “hybrid auto” that captures tiny clips in a “video digest” of BTS sequences for every shot you take. Here’s a couple I liked — with these reveals, you really get the full creepshot effect of “street” photography.
For better or for worse, travel always puts me in a contemplative mood. Maybe it’s all the empty time with nothing but your thoughts, or the undertone of catastrophic death that’s always rumbling in the background of any airplane ride, or the chapterization of life that comes of seasons of migration and seasons of rest — whatever the cause, I can’t help but look inward when I’m heading out there, somewhere.
This time, I really want to go with the flow. I want to embrace that pura vida lifestyle and get out of my own way (in my own way, of course). This doesn’t come naturally to me. In fact, the flow that often comes with travel can be painful to my whole body and brain, but that’s the challenge I wanted for myself this time. Pure living. It’s a novel concept.
The first test of my pura vida plans came early today; after eight exposures, my point-and-shoot decided to brick itself and I have no idea why. That means my hopes for a film-filled Central American summer are pretty much dashed, which is annoying, but I’m keeping it together — I retraced my steps and retook those shots with my digicam. We’ll pivot and keep this vida vibe purely pura.
With the disappointment of my analog shooter’s seppuku, I went overboard with the digicam photography today. Which is great, because we’ll be on the road for five hours tomorrow, heading south to a national park. I might not have time for many photos.
In any case, this is where we’re staying tonight. Josie’s the sweetest dog I’ve ever met, but so far it seems like Costa Rican dogs tend to be very sweet.
This region of Costa Rica seems to be booming with all kinds of resorts and housing developments cropping up all along the Pacific. Walking along this one street, every other house was under construction, and almost every face we saw who wasn’t working in construction was white. We’re told there’s a big concentration of Italians here too, but, frankly, everyone I saw was American.
One of the most delightful surprises upon landing in Costa Rica today was seeing literally hundreds and hundreds of Palestinian flags everywhere we went, even in the jungle boonies an hour from Liberia. It’s waving outside the airport and lines the whole highway, and here it is, on a flowerpot at a nearby beach as well. I don’t know how they do it or why, but my heart sang and is grateful that they did.
POSTSCRIPT: It turns out this flag is actually the regional flag of Guanacaste… DOH!
But that’s enough for now. Buenos noches from this hazy corner of the planet. Tomorrow is another day.