Liberia To Change or Not to Change

Hi Friends!

I´ve decided to start my own little blog about my 2nd big adventure in Latin America. I´m starting in Costa Rica to visit friends, and plan to travel to another country to find work with an organization or to teach English. Although I haven´t brought a computer with me, I plan to visit the internet cafes, and add posts weekly (or at least I´ll try). Also, excuse me if I miss or add punctuations, but I´m still getting use to the keyboards again. Then again, I was never so good with punctuation!

I was here a few years ago from Nov. 04 until June 05 teaching English mostly in Liberia, the capital of Costa Rica´s Northwest province, Guanacaste. As the guide books claim, Liberia, a large city by Guanacastean standards (about 35,000 in population) is dotted with colonial clapboard houses, where you can still see old couples sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of their patios. Because the province is so sparely populated, there are plenty of farms and ranches, and a cowboy culture that features two big fiestas each year, including rodeos and a Miss Liberia cowgirl contest. The province is surely steeped in tradition, and proud of their unique history, celebrating their independence and annexation from Nicaragua each year.

However, there´s another side to Liberia, and the province in general, that at times overshadows some of the cowboy customs of the past. Since the Costa Rican tourism boom, Liberia has been the portal to the best beaches in the country. Of course, with tourism comes a lot of change and Americanism. When I was here three years ago there was plenty of tourism to go around including hotels, restaurants, and tourist souvenir shops. Now there are inevitable changes, like a new shopping plaza complete with ¨Jumbo Market,¨ bar and lounge, a Mexican and Peruvian restauraunt, and three more surfer clothing stores (Do we really need any more Roxy in this town?). Liberia now sports a small casino, ironically the windows are decorated with blow up shots of Liberia´s past from the 1800´s rodeos to the 1950´s building of the Liberia airport (which sat unused for a while until the tourist boom).

Liberia now hosts the only place in the world where you can see Africa for about a third of the price of the ticket! Since I´v left, Liberia has a zoo called Africa Mia (My Africa), owned by a guy who now owns the soccer team called Liberia Mia. ¨But the animals are really free, not in cages¨ says my friend Gustavo. Although I haven´t been yet, I imagine lions and zebras running amongst the grasslands of Guanacaste, which do often resemble parts of Kenya that I´ve visited before. Clearly it was primarily built for tourists as a way to offer one more excursion to their package. I haven´t been to Africa Mia yet, but then again zoos usually make me sad.

Now, not to say that all of this change is bad. Costa Rica and Guanacaste are what they are, and tourism provides employment opportunities for the locals in so many ways. With tourism, comes new faces, new ideas, where both tourist and tour guide are forever changed. Now, I can enjoy the new Panaderia Paris in Libera (Paris Bakery) owned by a crazy French dude.

Speaking of change, I drove by the school where I used to work, Universidad Central, to sadly find it occupied by another business. It was a small building with two classrooms, and more of an adult learning center than a University, with very little materials and organization to speak of. So, alas, I asked around and made my way to the new UC about a quarter mile outside of town in a beautiful facility with five classrooms, brand new curriculum and materials, and a brand new director, my former secretary Yessenia. Now at only 25 years old, she promotes and manages the entire school. She toured me around looking quite mature and adult-like with her braces off and a new engagement ring. ¨Todo ha cambiado¨ (everything has changed), she said. But to mix the old with the new, she asked me to come back and teach some conversation club courses that they´re starting. I said I would think about it. We´ll see where the winds of change take me..... Enjoy the photos. I´m still figuring this out, and the computers are slow, so you´ll have to view them through my link, but please be sure to read all the captions! I hope it works.

http://picasaweb.google.com/laurenb1981/Liberia