Bullicioso

The blog title is one of the Spanish words for loud/noisy. I love it, mostly because it's long enough that you can make it louder as you say it, to really get your point across. 

Most of the time, on most days, life here in Costa Rica tends to fit the peace part of the Peace Corps job title. As I've tried to get through, Costa Rica is a pretty laid back country, both in people's attitudes, the speed of customer service at the banks, and people's movements about town. This is amplified for most Peace Corps volunteers, as we live in the country. Many of my coworkers live in towns of less than a thousand, where life is generally quite calm. Yet, for me, there are three things that tend to disrupt the tranquility of life out by the edge of Puerto Viejo. The first is a good disruption. The national government has put some priority to getting a road established along the northern border-where it has recently had some border spats with Nicaragua (essentially related to the Nicaraguan election-but a bit more complicated). While I'm a good distance from the border, I think it has motivated the county government to improve the road that heads north from my town. I live about 500 meters from where the paved road turns to gravel road, so, all the trucks full of the gravel to resurface the existing gravel road and build more north go by the house all day. I can deal with that noise, it's the sound of progress. 

(car alarms or a young ne'er-do-well on his motorcycle can quickly ruin this calm, bucolic scene)

Sound number two is the opposite of progress. I've never understood what turns girls on about a guy taking his muffler off of his motorcycle and then incessantly revving his engine and speeding up and down the road. Of course, I've never understood much about what turns girls on. Needless to say, that I don't understand some of the local girls, because they seem to be impressed and some even cheer as some young fellas ride up and down right in front of my house, their motorcycle engines blaring. Living across from the high school comes with this cost. And, yes, if you're wondering, the engines are so loud that teachers have to stop talking as the motorcycles blast by. Loud engines don't seem to be one of the laws that the traffic police enforce, so I think this is a problem I'll be dealing with for awhile. I've tried to explain to some high school girls who lend me their ear about how ridiculous and unattractive revving your muffler-less motorcycle is, maybe I've changed some minds. Change takes a long time, and the social acceptance of this behavior has to change before I can call these guys the misguided punks I think they are: I'm doing my best!

Disruption number three comes in the sound of car alarms. Now, car theft is a real threat. Prosecution of criminals and justice isn't Costa Rica's best suit, and definitely not Central America's, so I'm all about prevention. Having said that (great Seinfeld episode), car alarms drive me up the freaking wall. Those who know me well know that I can get pretty amped up about things, well, this is one of them. I have to use two hands to count the number of times I've seen a car owner take more than 10 seconds to turn off the car alarm. Here's my simple question: when you, dearest Costa Rican car owner, got your car alarm installed, did the mechanic really not tell you how to turn it off? Furthermore, did you really not ask? This is a disruption that I'm unwilling to accept, how can people not know how to turn off their own car alarms. My worst case of suffering was watching a woman set off her own car alarm trying to lock her car, then take 2-3 minutes to figure out how to turn it off. 

So, now you know what waves (type: sound) are abounding around Sarapiquí. And you've read an entire blog post that was nothing but a rant, I apologize, I'll try not to do it too often. To reward you: here you can find out how many words are in the US tax code. And here you can see the amazing (if tacky) power of free markets and free minds.