We’re hittin it, baby.

THE MORAL OF THIS MOVE is that everyone harbors some fear of other countries.

“Whoa, you don’t want to go to Central America,” said my pal Alex, a shopkeeper in Zamora. “There’s so much poverty there.”

What do you think they say about Mexico? I thought.

My fruit vendor warned me that everyone in Argentina is gay. Check.

But the best was a friend from the butcher shop in the Central Market, who warned me that Guatemala was dangerous because it was full of gangsters.

I chortled at this, and conveyed to him that someone from Michoacan looking down on Guatemala for their gang problems is like someone from northern Alaska looking down on the Yukon Territory for having a snow problem.

And so we set off, into that great unknown of Central America - Costa Rica, to be precise. The next stop in the Peter Rice roaming tour is that tropical paradise, reputed to be filled with pristine rivers and all sorts of strange wildlife.

Zamora treated me well, and many friends are left there. I’ll probably be back one day. Leaving was hard, but it’s a big world out there, and after a year in Mexico, it was time to see more of it. 

I hope you’ll continue to follow the blog, despite the sudden change of subject. I’ll be working on a farm in the very tropical and lush southern part of the country, a part the Lonely Planet series says is not very touristy, so I’m confident that the new location will be lacking for story fodder. 

As always, feel free to talk back to the blog via the comment section. We’ll see you on the road.

 -Peter