In Country
I slept. On the plane. There's light out there beyond the shade, I've got it cracked, no, now it's open. Typing for me is no natural ability; typing on the plane is another level of difficulty, bumpy plane, first thing in the morning before first cuppa. The iTunes play list so far, Ken Layne 'I Lose Again,' Kyu Sakamoto with 'Sukiyaki,' and Los Serafines De Valme with 'No Lo Beses En La Boca.'.
The fastest way to fly is asleep. I had almost gotten the above written and it was all "put away your stuff, we're there." No Lo Beses is up again on the juke box. It's now noon and I've just got around to this, because…wait for it..A Protest! In front of the American Embassy! I got pictures of the knuckleheads and the flags and the bored cops.
Watching the anemic protest turnout this past year for lefties of all stripes I was not surprised to see only a couple hundred people; with the inevitable Bush puppet, banners and skeleton masks. The issue ostensibly is a free trade agreement just signed or about to be signed between the US and Costa Rica. According to Marisol there was supposed to be some kind of meeting yesterday between the unions and the American Embassy staff, which was called off, thus today's event.
From what I could gather of the signs and the involvement of the unions the agreement involves agriculture. The culmination of efforts today was to deliver a letter to the Embassy whereupon a bunch of red, white and blue balloons with some kind of message attached would be released in the air. Choke a bird-save a tomato I guess. I'll be attempting to interview someone at the Embassy this afternoon and then hunt down the protest leaders.
After the letter delivery and balloon release the crowd split in two and marched off to the incoming President's house, who was called a 'puppet' of the Americans by some itinerant protestor, but whom Marisol said is foursquare against the US. We'll see. Now, a shower and a nap. Airplane sleep may make the trip go faster, but it sure ain't all that restful.
