thirteen years ago, i spent three months as a volunteer tour guide at the monteverde butterfly garden in costa rica. those three months were life changing.
i learned so much - about rain forest ecology, the butterfly life cycle, and the culture of this small town without paved roads. in the 1950s, a group of quakers from the u.s. moved into the area because of the immense beauty and the fact that costa rica has no military. the result was monteverde - this mixed culture and bilingual town where preservation of natural surroundings seemed a unifying ideal.
every morning when i was there, i woke with the sun. by the time it went down around six o'clock, i was exhausted by all the walking, humidity, and adventures of the day. i felt so integrated with the natural rhythms and so in tune with the rich wildlife and nature around me, and as life has gotten busy and far from nature at times, i've treasured my memories of monteverde.
last week, i returned to monteverde for the first time, and this time with my husband and daughter. i was so excited to share this place with my daughter. she loves nature movies, and it felt like giving her the chance to be in one of these movies for herself.
not long after we arrived, it became clear that monteverde had changed. after years of resistance by some of the locals, part of the road had been paved. a flurry of new development occurred, and things felt much busier in the town.
one of the first things my daughter wanted to do was walk on the suspended bridges through the canopy. remembering the bridges to be peaceful and a beautiful perspective of the forest, i signed up through our hotel. the next morning a bus decorated with lizards and other forest creatures picked us up.
we were delivered to a rain forest theme park where herds of people lined up for zip lining, canopy bridges, a butterfly garden, a hummingbird garden, and a serpentarium. we got our tickets for the bridges, and it wasn't a long walk before it became obvious that the wildest animals we'd see were the ones painted on the side of the bus. after walking over a bridge being painted and filling the air with an awful chemical smell, i felt queasy. this strong sense of judgmental self-righteousness came over me. this wasn't the monteverde i loved.
for the next couple hours i felt trapped in the park until the next bus would take us back to town. it felt wrong being there. it felt like an exploitation of the rain forest for a profit, and i felt sure that these huge structures and all this development was impacting the delicate ecosystem. and, my hotel had sent me here when i asked about bridges and the butterfly garden, but these weren't the ones that i went to thirteen years ago. i wondered how many people were being siphoned to the park, and away from smaller and older businesses that had been the heart of eco-tourism before.
but as the week went on i learned that the monteverde i loved was still there. at the end of the pavement, the old dirt road continued, and it went past stella's bakery, and the local craft co-op, casem. then on past the monteverde cheese factory, where we walked to get fresh ice cream everyday. we also discovered a new and lovely place, yoga studio/community center, rio shanti, where we met wonderful people and had a chance to peer into a local family's life. the road went on, all the way down to the monteverde biological reserve. little paths took us off the dirt road on to raised walkways through the trees, and everyday, as we walked these paths, we saw the real treasures of monteverde: the amazing creatures that fill the luscious forest.
one morning as we trekked out with the hope of finally seeing a sloth, we didn't even get 100 meters from our hotel before we saw this gorgeous one hanging out a few feet from the bridge where we walked. as my daughter leaped for joy saying "thank you, thank you, thank you!" i felt reconnected to the magic of monteverde, the magic that enchanted me years before.
as our week in the jungle came to a close, the two different tracks through monteverde were apparent: one enjoyed by the locals and the lucky few that stumble upon it, and the one that can be packaged up for one all-inclusive price and experienced in a day and a half. but as i contemplated the two, it occurred to me how very far i was from rumi's field. i was caught smack in the middle of wrongdoing and rightdoing, seeing my way of experiencing monteverde as the right way, but on the web, i found tons of raving reviews from people that absolutely loved the day they spent at the theme park. for them, it was the right choice of how to spend their limited time in the rain forest.
i was so attached to the monteverde i knew. i suppose that i secretly hoped monteverde was frozen in time, just like it had been in my memory. but i learned some things about change during my time studying the butterflies that also apply to the transformation in this small town.
during the chrysalis phase of the butterfly life cycle, the entire body of the caterpillar is broken down. this transformation is a death, but in this death a beautiful winged creature that spreads pollen and inspires awe is born.
in the same way, monteverde has gone through a transformation and that small town that i remember is gone in a sense. in its place, there is a well-tread path that sees thousands of visitors each year, many of whom only stay for a day or so. but each of those people then have the opportunity to carry a little bit of the rain forest with them, a sort-of spreading of monteverde's pollen out into the world.
and then, some that go there do see monteverde, my way. they walk the magical pathways along the dirt road, and they encounter the hidden treasures. this monteverde is still there, thriving and growing in wonderful ways, but now it's just as though there's a highway that passes close by with a hidden sign to the subtler treasures.
monteverde - like any place - can be that field beyond wrongdoing and rightdoing. embracing many perspectives juxtaposed upon eachother, instead of just feeling attachment to my way, there actually is enough space for all these realities to exist together. this co-existence is the foundation for peace; allowing the differences and even conflicts is the only way toward a diverse world free of violence.
so now, my work is just convincing my ego that holding this field is more valuable than being right about everything. we'll see how that works out.
