San Jose, Costa Rica

SAN JOSE - The theme of the lonely Tico is a popular one in Costa Rica media. The last time I checked, the Teatro Nacional had commissioned an original play called ‘Un Tico A Pesar’, (a Tico to pity) which was produced at the flagship theatre’s secondary venue in downtown San Jose. 

The theme was an ordinary Joe who takes a vacation but gets into trouble because he is so unaccustomed to having time off he doesn’t know what to do with it.

In the last episode I watched as they all went to the beach for a weekend (I think it was Jaco, on the country’s mid Pacific coast) and unhappily ended up in adjoining rooms, where their individual character flaws led them into the usual peck of trouble. (Incidentally I couldn’t help but notice the main difference between La Pension and Melrose Place - and especially On the Buses  - lies in the sexiness of the two youngest female members of the cast, who look especially fetching in bikinis. They have a genuine sexiness, unlike their U.S. pseudo television counterparts)

But it was interesting to note that unlike the retirees and PT’s (perpetual tourists) and assorted extranjeros who coagulate at places like Jaco, the characters in La Pension seemed more or less indifferent to their exotic surroundings. In fact, they seemed incapable of going out and enjoying it.

The net result is a kind of alienation felt by many young people, articulated recently by a young friend of mine went he confessed he ‘feels like a stranger’ in his own country.

Anyway I usually believe the opposite of what I hear from my own countrymen here in the Center of the Americas. This stems from an experience I had years ago when I visited Puerto Vallarta without a hotel reservation, and while I was enroute by collectivo to the city centre from the airport my seat neighbour advised me, in an almost conspiratorial tone, that he believed the hotels got more expensive the closer one got to town. It was the opposite of course, and I concluded later that he was either the owner of a hotel that existed on the outskirts, or someone who had been led astray by one.

So instead of going to the most popular destination in South America, I decided to visit the most maligned: I bought a cheap flight to Bogota, Colombia. I didn’t know much about Colombian culture, only what I’d seen from their telenovellas (soap operas) which are both numerous and popular throughout Latin America. A few years back it was quite vogue to watch Betty la Fea (Betty ‘the ugly one’), a comedy about a rather plain office worker who more or less controls the hearts and minds of everyone in her immediate surroundings.

Lately, it’s quite chi chi to be able to chat knowledgeably about Pasion de las Gavilanes (passion of the seagulls), which is a sort of modern Colombian western, and not unlike the ‘60s TV drama The Big Valley (remember Lee Majors big break?).