It was with extra excitement that I turned to
Michelle Nijhuis’ article on hitchhiking, “The Last Ride,” in the
Oct. 29, 2007 issue. This means of travel brought me out
to explore the American West for the first time 32 years ago, and
led to my settling there. I’ve met people, gone places, and done
things that I certainly never would have, had I not chosen to trust
my luck and the world on my multiple cross-country hitchhiking
trips in the mid to late ’70s.
Now I am having my first
hiatus from life in the West, living the past seven months in Costa
Rica with my teenage son, who is going to high school here. And
here is something that’s a little remarkable – people hitchhike.
Not just kids, who may have more daring than brains, but older
people and women of all ages. Perhaps they hitchhike here out of
necessity: Personal vehicle ownership is growing, but the majority
still don’t have cars. The bus system is reliably unreliable,
always running late. So why not stick out your thumb and see if you
can get a free ride? Well, in the U.S., for all the reasons
Michelle shared in her story – we’re scared, we’re angry, we’re
isolated. Why is Costa Rica different? Does it have anything to do
with their strong democratic traditions? Their abolishment of their
armed forces in 1948? Their reasonably functional social security
system (at least compared to ours), including national health care,
higher literacy and lower infant mortality rates than the U.S.?
Maybe having a president who is a Nobel Peace Prize winner? Having
a national policy called “Peace with Nature” as opposed to “War on
Terror”?
Who knows – it could just be frustration with
the bus system. But I prefer to imagine it has something to do with
people trusting people, expecting that, if you ask, someone might
actually be happy to help, and certainly not assuming your ride is
going to harm you or steal from you. Maybe Costa Rica is just an
innocent and young place, and with another few decades of
development it will become like its brethren to the north, where
people lock themselves inside their own vehicles and speed past the
pathetic carless on the sides of the road without even a look. I
prefer to imagine that evolution may actually be moving in the
other direction. With a few decades of embracing a democratic
ideal, shifting priorities from armies to citizens’ health and
well-being, and having a few presidents more famous for Nobel Peace
Prizes than crimes against humanity – perhaps sharing the ride, and
a lot of other things, will become a normal everyday event in the
land of the free.
Jon Becker
Boulder, Colorado,
and Tamarindo, Costa Rica
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Catching a ride in costa rica.
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