From the Sound of Bushehr’s Damam and Ney-Anban to the Music and Coffee of Latin America
San José, for me, was never just another busy Latin American capital.
It felt like a city breathing through music.
From the very first mornings, sitting quietly in the warm little café of the hotel and tasting a traditional Costa Rican breakfast, I realized this city was not built merely from streets and buildings — it was built from sound.
The hotel carried a deeply human and familial atmosphere;
a place where peace had not yet lost its meaning.
After the heavy sorrow of my mother’s passing, this gentle space slowly began calming part of the exhaustion and chaos inside me.
The hotel manager was an exceptionally kind and cultured woman who had even chosen her name from an opera programme — something that, by itself, reflected the artistic spirit of the place.
In the café worked a warm-hearted Colombian man with an extraordinary knowledge of coffee.
Every question opened another world:
from the varieties of beans to roasting methods and the aroma of mountain coffees from across Latin America.
Language was sometimes a barrier,
yet Google Translate occasionally became like an old friend building bridges between people.
The simple but beautiful arrangement of the breakfast table carried the feeling of home;
not a specific home,
but the feeling of one.
The people of this city felt hardworking, calm, and strangely familiar — as though I had known them for years.
Music lived in the streets.
Statues of musicians stood across the city, and even a statue of John Lennon had found its place there, as if San José itself wished to say:
“Perhaps music, coffee, and kindness can still help humanity resist the violence of this world.”
And Khalo…
amid all the movement and noise, I sometimes felt that a distant Shervah — my mother’s mournful southern song from Choghadak near Bushehr — could still be heard.
Across oceans and continents, it had not disappeared into the smell of coffee and the rain of Latin America.
And I remembered those dear friends from Bushehr who, sadly, could not continue the journey.
So I carry on this road alone now — with the memory of my mother, and with the memory of all those companions.
— Naser Kamali
9 May 2026
Costa Rica
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