28.
There are lots of Costa Rican girls attending the school learning to be bi-lingual secretaries or perhaps more sophisticated women of the world. They like to practice English with me and I enjoy speaking my simple Spanish with them. I also meet some interesting men: pilots, lawyers and businessmen studying English and become a little bit involved in the social life of the city. My new Costa Rican friends like to dance, party and practice English and so do I.
Because I am an unattached young American male I seem to be a threat to some of the local bachelors. They share the illusion that all North Americans are rich and because of my exotic appeal—blue eyes, brown hair and American passport, the local ladies are at least curious. Their curiosity inflames the jealousy of their boy friends and it seems the threatened men react by proposing marriage to their canny girlfriends. The comparative sexual freedom presently enjoyed by European and North American people is not acceptable here. Marriage is the ONLY option for “proper” men and women. So I find I am leaving more happy marriages than broken hearts in my wake. That’s cool.
People have been suggesting that I visit the “Hawaii of the Caribbean”, San Andres Island and since there is no way for a solitary traveler to follow the land bridge between the continents through the jungles, swamps and mountains of Panama, I decide to fly to San Andres and then fly the short hop to South America.
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