Page 50 - issue
P. 50
HOWLER MONKEY THE GROUNDS OF THE ARENAL
MANOA HOTEL WITH THE
VOLCANO IN THE BACKGROUND
COSTA RICATheTinyParadise
SLOTH IN MANUEL ANTONIO IGUANA IN MANUEL ANTONIO
Tby Sam Finkel ing to think about taking off my heavy winter coat and walking
he first time I gave thought to Costa Rica was after view- around in short sleeves, wading through a thick jungle with
ing Jurassic Park, a 1993 science-fiction adventure film screeching monkeys swinging on vines from tree to tree over
about a wildlife park of cloned dinosaurs. The setting of my head, and watching the sun set in magnificent colors over
Steven Spielberg’s movie seemed so balmy, so pristine, the ocean.
so lush with greenery, that it was only natural that
dinosaurs could survive there. It was supposedly on an Costa Rica is part of Central America. It is bounded by
island off Costa Rica, although I found out only while Nicaragua on the north and Panama on the south, and stretch-
writing this article that it was actually filmed in Hawaii! es between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It has four million
Wherever it was filmed, the impression created was of a para- residents, with one million living in San Jose, its capital. There
dise of totally unspoiled nature. are another one million illegal immigrants who fled from cor-
rupt, war-torn Nicaragua. They do all the hard manual work in
◆◆◆ the country. Costa Rica has no army! That allows it to sponsor
free compulsory education, which stabilizes the country and its
Winter hit Israel, and I was catching every new virus float- democracy.
ing in the air. I shivered from the cold and wet that seemed to
penetrate the walls of my old apartment in Rechavia. One day, Looking again at the itinerary, I saw that the tour would be
an email from a kosher tour company caught my eye. They spending a few days in the Lands of Love Hotel, a few hours
were going to Costa Rica, of all places! I checked out the itin- north of San Jose, in the Monteverde region, between the cap-
erary: volcanos, waterfalls, and parks with abundant wildlife, ital and the Arenal region in the north. The hotel had a vege-
birds, and exotic plants. Costa Rica lies in the tropics, between tarian restaurant run by Israelis. I was curious about the
8 and 11 degrees north of the equator (about 880 miles), and kashrus, so the tour company connected me to the tour guide,
I learned that the weather in January – the driest month (it an Orthodox Israeli who lived not far from me in Jerusalem. He
rains a lot) – was in the seventies and eighties. It was tantaliz- told me that he knew the owners (who weren’t religious) and
42 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
MANOA HOTEL WITH THE
VOLCANO IN THE BACKGROUND
COSTA RICATheTinyParadise
SLOTH IN MANUEL ANTONIO IGUANA IN MANUEL ANTONIO
Tby Sam Finkel ing to think about taking off my heavy winter coat and walking
he first time I gave thought to Costa Rica was after view- around in short sleeves, wading through a thick jungle with
ing Jurassic Park, a 1993 science-fiction adventure film screeching monkeys swinging on vines from tree to tree over
about a wildlife park of cloned dinosaurs. The setting of my head, and watching the sun set in magnificent colors over
Steven Spielberg’s movie seemed so balmy, so pristine, the ocean.
so lush with greenery, that it was only natural that
dinosaurs could survive there. It was supposedly on an Costa Rica is part of Central America. It is bounded by
island off Costa Rica, although I found out only while Nicaragua on the north and Panama on the south, and stretch-
writing this article that it was actually filmed in Hawaii! es between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It has four million
Wherever it was filmed, the impression created was of a para- residents, with one million living in San Jose, its capital. There
dise of totally unspoiled nature. are another one million illegal immigrants who fled from cor-
rupt, war-torn Nicaragua. They do all the hard manual work in
◆◆◆ the country. Costa Rica has no army! That allows it to sponsor
free compulsory education, which stabilizes the country and its
Winter hit Israel, and I was catching every new virus float- democracy.
ing in the air. I shivered from the cold and wet that seemed to
penetrate the walls of my old apartment in Rechavia. One day, Looking again at the itinerary, I saw that the tour would be
an email from a kosher tour company caught my eye. They spending a few days in the Lands of Love Hotel, a few hours
were going to Costa Rica, of all places! I checked out the itin- north of San Jose, in the Monteverde region, between the cap-
erary: volcanos, waterfalls, and parks with abundant wildlife, ital and the Arenal region in the north. The hotel had a vege-
birds, and exotic plants. Costa Rica lies in the tropics, between tarian restaurant run by Israelis. I was curious about the
8 and 11 degrees north of the equator (about 880 miles), and kashrus, so the tour company connected me to the tour guide,
I learned that the weather in January – the driest month (it an Orthodox Israeli who lived not far from me in Jerusalem. He
rains a lot) – was in the seventies and eighties. It was tantaliz- told me that he knew the owners (who weren’t religious) and
42 u www.wherewhatwhen.com u
