Coffee tour

 This quote by Che Guevara is in my room: "It is necessary to harden without losing tenderness." It is probably famous but I am not familiar with it.

I arrived by a handsome nice Uber driver early to take a tour of Britt coffee and stood with the free walking tour of San Jose for 10 minutes in the Morazán Park.  The guide asked for a group photo in front of the wings sculpture ("Alas de Mexico" representing peace and freedom) but I declined.

I also picked up a bit of litter, including an empty cigarette pack that had a misleading or incorrect health warning:

From what I researched briefly, they know that smoking is a factor in miscarriage (aborto espontáneo) but that they don't think it CAUSES it.

I went to meet the tour at the Holiday Inn but it was just a taxi driver and one very large young American, Thomas, and me. He didn't speak Spanish and was there working for Amazon, staying in the expensive area. 

Max's English was awful but he attempted to speak to Thomas and asked me to translate. I could barely turn my head to see him behind me. Max was friendly but by the time he was taking us back I was tired of his ingratiating manner. 

Masquerade is big here including El Diablo.

The tour was good but with my digestive problems the last thing I needed was coffee! I had a sip, that's all, what a shame. I was counting on chocolate samples but was disappointed.  The two tour guides hammed it up (Max said they are professional actors) and spoke  Spanish and English although Thomas was the only non-Spanish speaker in the group of 20 or so. I tried to make a joke about Starbucks but it fell flat. A sense of humor is the hardest thing to understand and doubly hard to make jokes!

Thomas and I had lunch together. The food wasn't great. He was surprised to meet a Quaker, thought they had died out, I guess, and seemed to think public libraries also weren't used much and would die out soon (he is 30 but has no kids yet so he hasn't been to a library since high school).  You can imagine my reaction...but he was very sweet, lived in Seattle and with the pandemic moved to live near his farming family in North Grand Forks, ND but on the Minnesota side. 

Max took Thomas back to the Sheraton in Escazu and then me to Barrio Mexico, a whole different world! I walked into a big family dinner: two wee ones watching TV outside my door, 5 adults plus Rita. One of the women was named Karla, Rita's niece. I had already met a daughter of hers named Karla! Even the Uber driver today asked me why I had a Latina name, said he had never heard of an American with my name! That's new to me!

I got back right before the torrential rain started. It's nice to be dry and my clothes and bag soaked from yesterday are dry!