Images from American sunscreen advertisements and “Pirates of the Caribbean” gave us the idea to travel to the end of the world, between the two Americas, where about half a millennium ago Columbus’s Santa Maria ran aground and radically changed the image of the world as we still know it today. The Silk Roads and the countries of the Middle East and Southeast Asia were slowly covered by dust, and later became an official firing range for testing American and Russian arsenals. Europe became the meeting point of East and West, the once-developed Mediterranean a tourist destination for its wealthy visitors, while the countries of Central America with their nearby pirate islands became a promised land for American retirees and the rich, who somehow forget that they are descendants of people who left what was then backward Europe as refugees and criminals, bringing with them diseases that decimated the indigenous populations of these paradisiacal lands and destroyed almost the entire colourful spectrum of life. We decided to avoid the overcrowded parts of the world occupied by Americans (Bermuda, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Cuba, the Caribbean…) and the countries supplying those lands with white gold (Colombia, Panama…), and instead travelled to Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago, which in the distant past formed part of South America and Venezuela respectively.
Costa Rica is a peaceful country; 50% of its territory consists of national parks, fifty years ago it gave up its own army, it developed education and social healthcare, and tourism is its main economic sector. The northern part, much like in other tourist-oriented and relatively safe countries of this beautiful part of the planet, has been bought up by Americans, while the southern part bordering Panama remains considerably more “Costa Rican”. The warm tropical sun rises on the Atlantic (Caribbean) side and sets on the Pacific, where even warmer sea waves whisper memories of pirates who still occasionally kidnap some naïve sailor. The most beautiful national park, Corcovado, which we reached by large boat through the delta of the great Serpiente (Snake) River, is adorned with primary rainforests, home to great parrots, some of the most venomous frogs and snakes in the world, jaguars, pumas, three-toed sloths and thousands of insects that even the strongest repellents cannot drive away. We travelled a considerable part of the route to the main Corcovado station, where rangers live and which occasionally receives a few tourists who have to sleep outdoors, along Pacific beaches together with dolphins, whales, turtles and whale sharks. These were unforgettable moments that, I hope, our descendants will also be able to experience if we are capable of putting our greedy heads together and beginning to live in a way appropriate to the “most intelligent” species on the planet. Costa Ricans are pioneers of “ziplines”, descents along steel cables, and we also treated ourselves to one of the longest in the world. The “flight” above and through thousand-year-old tropical forests is worth fifty dollars per person and is not merely a cheap tourist trick; it is an experience that cannot be had anywhere else. The hanging bridges, swaying in gentle tropical breezes at the level of tall trees and bringing a completely unique ecosystem close to the visitor, are another Costa Rican attraction of which the locals are proud. Preserving natural sights, a clean environment, untouched nature and flowing drinking water available everywhere is a characteristic of a country that, if it is within our power, we will visit again.
Trinidad, in the immediate vicinity of politically unstable and impoverished Venezuela, is the southernmost island of the Lesser Antilles, where the pirate islands come closest to the Equator. The black stripe on its red flag is the trace of the liquid wealth that the country pumps from beneath the seabed. The friendly locals are, during carnival season, which they themselves “invented” and which reflects their ancient superstitions, somewhat “different” because of overly loud soca music and nights without sleep. The country is safe, although moving around alone in the middle of the night during this period is discouraged, because many masked revellers look too deeply into the glass or inhale too many intoxicating substances.
Its small political brother, northeast of its economic and governmental centre Trinidad, is a tourist gem, in places almost uninhabited, covered by rainforest and surrounded by sandy and rocky beaches. Hummingbirds, parrots and hundreds of other bird species circle thousands of different kinds of trees and flowers; at night they are replaced by fruit-eating bats that feed on papayas, mangoes and bananas until the beautiful sunrise. The island’s roads are paved, but narrow and extremely steep. The whole island can be circled in a few hours, although at a cyclist’s speed, while from the high points the view reaches endlessly across both oceans and over countless tiny islands scattered like pebbles everywhere. Tobago is a destination where even today we can taste images of paradise as it once was, in the time of pirates, Christopher Columbus and perhaps even Adam and Eve, whose idea reached the island with the books of the bloodthirsty Christian Spanish masters, followed by the English, Dutch, French… Today’s inhabitants are mostly descendants of slaves from India and Africa, who now earn quite enviable amounts of money from tourists arriving from the countries of their former masters.
Costa Rica is a peaceful country; 50% of its territory consists of national parks, fifty years ago it gave up its own army, it developed education and social healthcare, and tourism is its main economic sector. The northern part, much like in other tourist-oriented and relatively safe countries of this beautiful part of the planet, has been bought up by Americans, while the southern part bordering Panama remains considerably more “Costa Rican”. The warm tropical sun rises on the Atlantic (Caribbean) side and sets on the Pacific, where even warmer sea waves whisper memories of pirates who still occasionally kidnap some naïve sailor. The most beautiful national park, Corcovado, which we reached by large boat through the delta of the great Serpiente (Snake) River, is adorned with primary rainforests, home to great parrots, some of the most venomous frogs and snakes in the world, jaguars, pumas, three-toed sloths and thousands of insects that even the strongest repellents cannot drive away. We travelled a considerable part of the route to the main Corcovado station, where rangers live and which occasionally receives a few tourists who have to sleep outdoors, along Pacific beaches together with dolphins, whales, turtles and whale sharks. These were unforgettable moments that, I hope, our descendants will also be able to experience if we are capable of putting our greedy heads together and beginning to live in a way appropriate to the “most intelligent” species on the planet. Costa Ricans are pioneers of “ziplines”, descents along steel cables, and we also treated ourselves to one of the longest in the world. The “flight” above and through thousand-year-old tropical forests is worth fifty dollars per person and is not merely a cheap tourist trick; it is an experience that cannot be had anywhere else. The hanging bridges, swaying in gentle tropical breezes at the level of tall trees and bringing a completely unique ecosystem close to the visitor, are another Costa Rican attraction of which the locals are proud. Preserving natural sights, a clean environment, untouched nature and flowing drinking water available everywhere is a characteristic of a country that, if it is within our power, we will visit again.
Trinidad, in the immediate vicinity of politically unstable and impoverished Venezuela, is the southernmost island of the Lesser Antilles, where the pirate islands come closest to the Equator. The black stripe on its red flag is the trace of the liquid wealth that the country pumps from beneath the seabed. The friendly locals are, during carnival season, which they themselves “invented” and which reflects their ancient superstitions, somewhat “different” because of overly loud soca music and nights without sleep. The country is safe, although moving around alone in the middle of the night during this period is discouraged, because many masked revellers look too deeply into the glass or inhale too many intoxicating substances.
Its small political brother, northeast of its economic and governmental centre Trinidad, is a tourist gem, in places almost uninhabited, covered by rainforest and surrounded by sandy and rocky beaches. Hummingbirds, parrots and hundreds of other bird species circle thousands of different kinds of trees and flowers; at night they are replaced by fruit-eating bats that feed on papayas, mangoes and bananas until the beautiful sunrise. The island’s roads are paved, but narrow and extremely steep. The whole island can be circled in a few hours, although at a cyclist’s speed, while from the high points the view reaches endlessly across both oceans and over countless tiny islands scattered like pebbles everywhere. Tobago is a destination where even today we can taste images of paradise as it once was, in the time of pirates, Christopher Columbus and perhaps even Adam and Eve, whose idea reached the island with the books of the bloodthirsty Christian Spanish masters, followed by the English, Dutch, French… Today’s inhabitants are mostly descendants of slaves from India and Africa, who now earn quite enviable amounts of money from tourists arriving from the countries of their former masters.
