Costa Rica

After 90 dagen in Panama, we had to leave for three nights. After that, you are allowed to enter Panama again as a tourist. With a neighbouring country like Costa Rica this is not much of a problem. This first time we did not go too far. Just over the border, at Ciudad Neily, we turned to the interior, to San Vito, which lies in the foothils of the Talamanca Mountains. San Vito lies at an altitude of about 800 to 1000 m., so it was a refreshing visit.

Kees had chosen San Vito because there is a botanical garden close by (Wilson Botanical Gardens) with lots of birds and, of course, lots of trees and plants. We hoped to learn a bit more about reforestation and also about tourism in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is, after al, supposed to be far ahead of other countries in the region.

The botanical garden was beatiful, although not quite as good as the Vumba Gardens. But the shop had a good selection of books about plants, trees, birds and animals. Most books are poublished in Costa Rica. We did buy a few books because the Costarican flora and fauna are not that different from that in Panama, especially western Panama, where we are located.

The Costarican books are much more practical than there Panamanian counterparts. The Panamanian books place a lot of importance on taxonomiy, while Costarican books tell you more about the uses (modern and traditional) and occurence. Where a Panamanian book would note under comments that a particular tree is the only one in its genus with hooked hairs on the underside of its leaves, a Costarican book would tell you that the wood is excellent for carpentry and that this tree grows easily in former grazing ares and is thus good for reforestation.

Kees also had a good look at the birds flying around in Costa Rica. Bird life in the Wilson Grardens is not very different from that in western Panama, but we had not looked around at this altitude before. And the Talamanca mountains (which stretch into Panama and are protected by the transfrontier park La Amistad) are a region with huge biodiversity and alarge number of endemic birds and plants. Unfortunately we did not have the time to enter La Amistad, although the botanical gardens are also part of the park.

Anyway, I recognised four species of hummingbirds, although 30 species occur. Identifying hummingbirds is always difficult, they are all green and they fly very fast through the rather dark undergrowth. This makes it difficult to see whether the lower bill is black or dark grey. And when a hummingbird hovers in front of you for five seconds, you are too surprised to have a good look.

We did not think that tourism was that much more advanced in Costa Rica than in Panama, at least not in San Vito. True, there is hot water everywhere and accomodation was slightly cheaper, but that is about it. It looks like Costaricans are just better at selling their country as a holiday destination than the Panamanians. It is mostly marketing that is doing the trick. But, please believe us when we tel you that Panama is at least as beautiful as Costa Rica, safe, and it has better surfing. And, even better, please tell this to everyone you know.

Soccer

In the framework of our integration in the Panamanian society, we went to see the local soccer team Atlético Veraguënse (VA) play at home against Plaza Amador, the leader of the competition. VA is fourth, so we were going to see one of the more important matches of the Panamanian soccer competition. This was quite obvious because all around the stadium people were sitting on the roof of their house to be able to see the match without paying the entrance fee. Watching the match from your own roof has the added ‘advantage’ that you can smoke. Because although the stadium is in the open air, it is a public building and in Panama smoking in public buildings is prohibited.

Now, the biggest stadium in Santiago, which is also the only one with artificial lights for evening games, is actually a baseball stadium (baseball is much more popular than soccer). And this was the stadium where the mach was played, to everyone’s dissatisfaction. The baseball players are unhappy because they claim that the soccer players damage the grass and the soccer players complain because it is difficult to play in a field that contains a pitcher’s hill and four bases connected by gravel pathways. But the supporters were happy because there was more place for them to watch the match. The atmosphere in the stadium was excellent, perhaps partly because half the spectators were women in love with the captain of the home team (the captain apparently excels in other physical activities as well).

Plaza Amador won the toss and choose the goal at the side where the bases and pitcher’s hill were situated. They hoped that the attacks of AV would be hindered by all the irregularities in the field. This turned out to be correct, but on the other hand, the defense of Plaza Amador was at least twice surprised by VA attackers suddenly appearing from behind the pitcher’s hill (Panamanians aren’t very tall). So, yes, VA dominated the first half, almost continuously attacking and pushing Plaza Amador into the defence. But although they had at least three good chances, they did not manage to score.

Plaza Amador managed to break out of AV’s grip only three times. The first two times they created two good opportunities from these counters, but AV was lucky. A large puddle in front of their goal changed two low hard shots into balls that harmlessly floated towards the goal keeper. But the third time the attackers from Plaza Amador cunningly aimed for the upper corner of the goal and in doing so managed to score a psychologically important goal just before the interval. The player even had the guts to do a little victory shuffle, but since everybody supported AV, he didn’t get much response. Loes didn’t quite realize that a goal was scored because she was in an animated discussion with her neighbour who showed her pictures of his amateur gymnastics club.

AV started the attack with renewed energy and courage, but the defenders of Plaza Amador stood up to the pressure for a long time. Finally, in the 75th minute, did AV manage to somehow get the ball behind the keeper of Plaza Amador in a very confused situation with at least 19 players within the penalty area. The players of Plaa Amador contested the goal hotly and at great length. I am not quite sure why, but according to the fans they only tried it because the referee was from the same city as they were and they hoped he would rule in their favour (the fans of AV do suffer a bit from an underdog syndrome).

AV was not satisfied with a draw and continued to attack, enthusiastically and loudly encouraged by the fans. And yes, in the 85th minute they scored another goal. And what a beauty it was! They got a free kick which went into the left upper corner of the goal, Ronaldinho would have been jealous, had he seen it. The keeper didn’t stand a whelk’s chance in a supernova and actually only started to react when the ball was already in the net. The fans were delighted of course and proceeded to shower everybody with beer and everyone was hugging everybody else. Because of all these showers, we didn’t see much of the remaining five minutes, but apparently no more goals were scored.