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Howler magazine serving the Gold Coast of Costa Rica
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The Howler
www.howlermag.com
TAMARINDOCOSTA RICA
February 2011Founded 1996
Volume 16, No. 2Issue No. 173
THE HOWLERCed. Juridica: 3-101-331333
Publisher, editor and productionDavid Mills
[email protected] Tel: 2-653-0545
All comments, articles and advertising in this publication are the opinion of their authors, and do not reflect the opinion of Howler Management.
www.tamarindobeach.netwww.tamarindohomepage.com
Howler advertisingThe Howler offers a wide range of advertising sizes and formats
to suit all needs. Contact David Mills • [email protected]
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For 12 months, paid in advance, two months are deducted.
Ads must be submitted on CD or e-mail attachment, JPG or PDF format at 266 dpi, at the appropriate size (above).
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Deadline for March: February 15
ELLEN ZOE GOLDENTONY OREZTOM PEIFER
JEFFREY WHITLOW
JEANNE CALLAHANKAY DODGE
JESSE BISHOPMARY BYERLY
CONTRIBUTORS
FEATURES
DEPARTMENTS
February Forecasts
Doctor’s Orders
Sun & Moon
Tide Chart
24
29
28
31
Doctor’s Orders
CD Review
Book Review
Yoga
5
10
11
22
Cover Caption: Love on the Beach. Wedding arranged by Jardín del Edén, photographed at Cala Luna point.Cover design: David MillsCover Photo: Images by El Velo Photography - 8835-8741 [email protected]
Getting OutFor those who need a visa renewal, or just like to travel to new places, this three-country trip is well worth the money.
16
Surf ReportThe Circuito Nacional de Surf starts up with dates in Jacó, Parrita, Nosara, Santa Teresa and Playa Hermosa.
15
Dining Out Great food and good music happen at Voodoo Lounge & Restaurant in the centre of Tamarindo.
8
Around TownOpenings, closings, parties, music. The Gold Coast has it all, and bar-hoppin’ David is in the groove.
14
From Passion to EnnuiIn the Month of Love, our columnist explains how the wooing game here does not always work out as in the movies.
23
Guanacaste Conservation AreaResearchers catalogue Costa Rica’s many species using genetic bar coding, and finds that there are many more than originally thought.
12
Love on the BeachWeddings are a big tourist attraction here. A wedding planner can make the Big Day a perfect event.
18
Surviving Costa RicaA beach bar with unforgettable ambience goes through a series of for-tunes and misfortunes before it finally disappears.
26
I have been asked by a reader to comment on the statement that “50% of Americans are on at least one prescription medicine”, according to the website Vitality.net. I Googled this issue and found that, as per usual in these mat-ters, the “fact” alluded to in the previous paragraph had been not-so-slightly misquoted. The actual stat, as taken from the FDA and CDC websites, is that “at least 50% of Americans have taken a prescription medication in the past year”. There is a significant difference between those two statements, as the first implies that half of Americans take a prescription medication on an ongoing basis for a chronic medical condition, whereas the latter statement includes not only those people, but also those who might take a short course of medication for an acute condition such as an infection, or occasionally for a recurring condi-tion or ailment, like motion sickness or seasonal allergies, to cite two examples. Those websites go on to say that the percentage of Americans who take a prescription medication on an ongoing basis for a chronic medical condition is between 25-31%. That number, while still high, is far less spectacular than the number quoted by Vitality.net, and is in keeping with the info that I have given you readers here concerning the effects of our poor diets on our health. Specifically, my experience and research have led me to conclude that, by the age of 50, half of Americans will be placed on a prescription medication for a chronic disease such as high blood pressure, diabetes, lipid disorders, con-nective tissue disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, or the myriad gastrointestinal diseases such as peptic ulcer disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and inflammatory bowel disease. Since only half of the population is older than 40, we arrive at the 25% number quoted by the CDC/FDA. Why is this so? In addition to the dietary factors that we have discussed and will continue to discuss in this space, there are two other main factors at work. Number one is that the focus of medical research and treatment is on the development and use of profitable patent medi-cines to “treat” disease, rather than on the use of preventative measures and natural treatments to cure these ailments. The reason why more of you have heard of drugs like Prilosec than digestive enzymes is that there is far more money to be made from patented drugs. Moreover, because of the way that insurers reimburse physicians, your doctor can’t get paid for the time it takes to sit with you to teach you the proper preventative measures. It is far better for his (and the drug company’s) bottom line to see you briefly and write out the “magical” prescription. And that leads to the second factor, which is the insatiable appetite for more that is the dominant feature of capitalist societies in general, and the American culture in particular. Why does Jay Leno own 100 cars? Why do corporate CEO’s demand millions of dollars in annual salaries? Because America is the land of materialism gone wild. In addition to its natural beauty and wonderful people, Costa Rica is so attractive to me because, in the main, materialism is not a part of your culture. True, there has definitely been a trend in that direction in recent years, but by and large the average tica or tico still lives a simple life, and I find that to be so refreshing. So please save a place in Guanacaste for me as I rejected the material world long ago. Hopefully, I have satisfied the reader’s curiosity regarding this matter, so we will return to our discussion of the healthy life next month.
Doctor’s OrdersJeffrey Whitlow, M.D.
Another Christmas season gone, and from all accounts it was a very profitable one for the tourism businesses. Statistics tell me that while Costa Rica enjoyed hotel occupancy of 68%, the figure for Guanacaste was 78% during the last two weeks of December. The town was packed, restaurants full night after night, beach crowd-ed, tours and hotels hopping. But we have a problem here in Tamarindo, Flamingo and Potrero.
Traffic!!
Just before Christmas MOPT came into town and wasted a lot of yellow paint putting double lines down the main street in Tamarindo, plus yellow sidewalks in no-parking areas. The double yellow lines supposedly prevent overtaking, total nonsense in a town full of buses and trucks, vendors walking their barrows along the street, pedestrians walking four abreast in the street. Fortunately, after painting the town yellow the transitos disappeared so there was no enforcement.
Undoubtedly there are major problems. It took me 20 minutes to enter the main road from a side street at Milagro; traffic jams were frequent and long with vehicles parked everywhere and anywhere.
We beg tourists to come to our town and spend their money. Without them we are dead, as many have seen in the past two years. When they arrive, they can’t drive or park. Walking is difficult due to our lousy or non-existent sidewalks. Tamarindo is not a user-friendly town. Is there a solution?
Over the past year or so we have seen many businesses close. Some, of course, fell victim to the economic recession, but how many died from bad management? I see so many examples of this here on the coast, the Pura Vida attitude in action. How can a tourist hotel let its telephone go unanswered for hours in the early afternoon when I know there is somebody at reception? Why do so few people answer their cellular phones? Isn’t it the purpose of a mobile phone to allow you to keep in contact away from home or the office? Why do so few people return calls when a message is left on their machine? One restaurant was closed on a day when it should have been open. “Oh, we weren’t doing much business so we decided not to open.”
It’s easy to run a business when times are good. When times are hard is when real management skills are needed.
Nice to see that the concrete berm has been removed in front of Super2001.
Congratulations to our back-page advertiser Los Altos de Eros, awarded eighth place in “Top 25 Hotels in the World” by Trip Advisor. Well done, Calvin and crew.
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The best horses on Guanacaste’s Gold Coast!
Casagua Horses
David MillsDining Out
A favourite spot of mine is the communal S-shaped table at Voodoo, great place for socializing and people-watching in the street. From here, you can also watch Chef Keilor Gutierrez – ex Bistro Langosta & La Posada - preparing the meals in the open kitchen. Alternatively, you can dine in the back room and watch a show or dance to a music event.
Nicolas Petry, ex-Taboo, serves good food for the palate and music for the soul every night. He takes pride in his meals and selects the finest products from around Costa Rica.
Mornings, Voodoo is Olga’s Café, then Petry takes over for lunch and dinner. His cuisine is fine dining with heavy emphasis on fish and seafood. Appetizers include six salads; tuna carpaccio; gazpacho and lobster bisque; tartare of tuna or beef; squid in garlic and wine; we ordered jumbo shrimps in teriyaki sauce and a big bowl of mussels mariniere, a pound of delicious mollusks with dipping bread.
Main courses include chicken tropical or with creamy spinach sauce; beef rib eye with choice of sauces or tenderloin with baked potatoes. I had a one-inch thick pork chop with pineapple, very piquant and interesting with gorgonzola sauce.
Mahi-mahi comes four ways: fajitas, filet in lemon sauce, with calamari, or with pineapple curry and Jumbo shrimps. Tuna is marinated in soya and honey; my companion chose it wrapped in chard in a spicy mayonnaise and pronounced it very tasty. There is also red snapper en papillote.
Lobster is served with garlic butter and special sauces, or in a seafood platter with mussels, calamari, tuna and mahi-mahi. Also as surf ‘n’ turf with chicken breast or pork medaillons or beef tenderloin.
T h e pasta menu includes ten dishes of ravioli, penne, spaghetti and tagliatelli in
various sauces.
Wine selection is from France, Italy, Chile and Argentina.
After dinner, we relocated to the back room to listen to Pikin and Nueva Setima playing live
L a t i n music. This room has its own bar and a stage f o r m u s i c events every night. Monday has jazz; Tuesday is Latin night; Open Mike Wednesday; Ladies’ Night Thursday with a DJ. The space can be reserved for private parties. Voodoo is a good night’s entertainment with fine dining.
Voodoo is on Tamarindo’s main street next door to Plaza Conchal. Open every day. Tel: 2653-0100; e-mail [email protected]. See ad page 25.
Tamarindo
Contact: Don H. at 2-654-4902
Flamingo Tuesdays: 5:30 - 6:30 pm (open) Fridays: 5:30 - 6:30 pm (open)
Location: Hitching Post Plaza Unit 2, Brasilito
Alcoholics AnonymousSchedule of Meetings
TamarindoSaturday: 10:30-11:30 - Open General MeetingMonday: 5:30 Open MeetingThursday: 6:30-7:30 - Open MeetingLocation: Behind Restaurant La Caracola
Contact: Ellen - 2-653-0897
Creating a movement of change that integrates equal opportuni-ties, belonging to a community, creation, consciousness and respect means a deep involvement of every human being in
the society. Every person at its own level can improve sustainable development, can take up a role in a network where we all participate as conscious and honest people creating shared power in resources. We all have the power and the ability to change, to make change and to adapt to change. Change is present in every action we take towards improving our lives and that of others. Changing is giving, sharing, and loving. If every human being participates in that process, society will change. Every man, women or child can share its skills, its love, its experience, its vision. Only then society will show its true meaning as a society that treats all people with dignity and respect.
Our society knows an increasing number of teenagers living in dif-ficult situations, from poverty, family problems and violence to school exclusion, delinquency and exploitation. We all can change that, only by being conscious of the existence of suffering young people and by undertaking actions to protect, fight or help them. The decision to better our society is in your hands, being a business-man, a teacher, a mother at home or a retired adult. Every single person can participate in the process of making this society more equal, more efficient and more sustainable. People participate in the non-profit organization CEPIA because they envision and make change. You can do the same. Just connect.
If you know in your neighborhood or in your family a teenager that dropped out of school, please let us know. Or if you want to volunteer and create change: [email protected] or 2653-8533.
Thank you for supporting the kids and teenagers of our community through CEPIA. Visit www.cepiacostarica.org
A Change in Society
10
CD Review
Justin James Rides into Town
Tony Orez
Just three years ago, at the tender age of twenty years old, Canadian-born Justin James stared down his
own mortality when a life-changing encounter with a tiger shark left him bleeding to death on a remote South American beach. Multiple blood transfusions and more than two hundred and fifty stitches later, James found himself depleted, bedridden, and bewildered for what was to become an agonizing year of recovery. It was during this harrowing stretch that an unlikely gift from his grandmother, an acoustic guitar, revived his longing for life and set him on his current excursion.
Known for his bliss-induced songs of love and living, Justin James now spends most of his days basking in the rays of his new lease on life: surfing and writing songs on the sun-baked shores of California and Hawaii, ultimately to share his music with his growing fan base across the globe. Justin’s songs have been exposed to millions of listeners. In 2010, Delta Airlines, McDonalds and Hollister Co. all used his music in their respective industries and all three have also become corporate endorsers. His songs have also made a huge splash on network TV, with Justin scoring several hit shows including: The Hills, Laguna Beach, Las Vegas, The Ghost Whisperer, Parenthood, and others. The independent success, which James has cultivated, honored him a best male vocalist nod at the LA Music Awards & led him to sign with Sony International. It also landed him in the studio with famed producers Mikal Blue and Andrew Williams. The first single off James’ album, “Perfect Sometimes”, features Hawaiian ukulele virtuoso & Sony label mate Jake Shimabukuro.
The “Summertime” single is already climbing the charts in Hawaii where it just broke the Top Twenty. In his short, skyrocketing career, he has also garnered endorsements from Taylor Guitars and D’Addario Strings, two reputable names in the business. He’s toured Japan, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Holland, U.K., Canada, the Caribbean, a half-dozen States in the U.S., and now Costa Rica. He’s opened for and/or played alongside such names as Jason Mraz, Switchfoot, Donavan Frankenreiter, Colbie Callait, and of course Jake Shimabukuro. Impressive credentials for an upstart...
Justin rolled into Tamarindo last November and played some memorable live shows around town before continuing his travels down the Pacific side of Costa Rica. He’ll be back in town next month so look for him at the local night entertainment spots. His persona and style come through from the first note to the last. And he will most likely be playing material from his new album, “Sundrenched”. Like its predecessor “Perfect Sometimes”, “Sundrenched” is a collection of infectious, finger-snapping music: modern pop and I mean that in a complimentary way. Justin understands how to create an up-tempo “hook” in a song that makes the tune move right along and he’s got a voice that is definitely suitable for his style. It’s a great combination. I can understand why corporations consider him marketable. Check him out, you are just about guaranteed to walk away smiling.
Book Review
Reincarnation of the Short Story
Over the decades, the short story has waxed and waned in popularity as, seemingly, each ensuing generation rediscovers this
literary form. Now, after a brief hibernation, the short story appears to be enjoying a resurgence thanks, in part, to the contribution of a fresh wave of new writers of that genre.
John Biguenet and Nam Le are two writers partici-pating in the Short Story Renaissance. Biguenet hails from New Orleans. His stories have appeared in Pushcart Prize and O. Henry Collections. His own collection of short stories, “The Torturer’s Apprentice” was released recently to very positive critical acclaim. The fourteen stories run a wide gamut: an agnostic experiences stigmata, a slave owner justifies his position, an art collector becomes obsessed with his newest acquisition, a masochist instructs her new lover, and three touching but very different pieces on fatherhood. It’s safe to say that John Biguenet takes chances. And he succeeds at bringing the audience in with his well-crafted stories and distinct style. The entire collection is full of bold risks, taken with intelligence and at times humor, in pitch-perfect narrative form. His pacing is impeccable, consistently entrancing, his endings defying formula. His characters and their situations are somehow simultaneously playful and very serious. And Biguenet has the capability of bringing down the hammer, delivering the roundhouse curve to end a story with a unique sense of poignancy.
Nam Le was born in Viet Nam and raised in Australia. He is a recipient of the Pushcart Prize and the Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award. His new collection of short stories, “The Boat”, has received overwhelming critical praise, and rightfully so. Together, the seven stories in this book are indeed a global journey: an aging New York painter about to reunite with his daughter after seventeen years; a young girl stranded with eighty other people on a boat in the South China Sea; a five-year-old daughter living in an encampment outside Hiroshima during World War Two; and my personal favorite – the fourteen-year-old hit man in Cartagena. Le’s stories are journeys, tinged with irony and blunt honesty, each main character dealing with a personal struggle. Like Biguenet, the pacing of the writing is an integral part of setting the tempo of each story. Le is a wordsmith, adept at turning an inventive phrase. His stories read like novellas, in painstaking but pleasurable detail.
Both authors show a propensity at economizing their words, as a good short story writer must: every phrase is essential to the story. And this pacing works well with the subject matter for both writers’ stories. The length of Biguenet’s works fits more into the traditional formula for a short story, whereas Le’s stories are lengthier, coming closer to resembling novellas. Both writers, however, seem to have found their own “voice” and unique style of writing. They may easily find themselves as the new standard-bearers of the Twenty-first Century short story. And judging by these authors’ talent, that’s really not such a bad thing at all.
Tony Orez
The box contained scores of moths, pinned so the colorful wings could be compared. Originally thought to be 2 different species, recently scientists discovered there were 9 different
species of moths. Costa Rica, although the size of West Virginia, was once thought to have 4% of the world’s biodiversity, but scientists may now find out through “genetic bar coding” our tiny country has even more. But that is the end of this story.
Just a few months ago, in December, the board of directors of the Wege Foundation, based in Grand Rapids, Michi-gan, held their annual board meeting in Costa Rica to visit personally the many projects fund-ed here by its founder Peter Wege. Peter vis-ited Costa Rica with a
tour group during Oscar Arias’ first term as president. Then over the next 20+ years, the foundation supported a variety of projects in land acquisition for parks and reserves, environmental education programs and tree-planting projects with schools and community groups. Of the many projects funded, two were the focus of the board’s visit. The board members were primarily the sons, daughters and grandchildren of Peter, who is 90, limiting his travel. The staff and supporters here in Costa Rica wanted to have the board members experience the tremendous impact Peter and the foundation has had here. The two major projects were the creation of the Guanacaste Area of Conservation with funding under the Guanacaste Dry Tropical Forest Conservation Fund (GDFCF) which was formed by renowned scien-tist Dan Janzen and the Earth College with campuses in Siquierres and Liberia, adjacent to the airport. I was very proud to have been a small part in introducing Peter Wege and his staff to Costa Rica, especially our contacts with Janzen while working with the Center for Environmental Study. Earth College is a study in itself, but I would like to focus on the amazing work to establish the Guanacaste Area of Conservation.
For many years Santa Rosa stood as a patriotic symbol for all Costa Ricans, being the site of two international battles. In 1966 the 1000 hectares surrounding the Casona were declared a national recreational monument, and in 1970 it became the 10,000 Ha. Santa Rosa National Park. Dan Janzen began what would be his lifelong work to study and preserve the habitats from Pacific Ocean Protected Marine areas, to the Atlantic side of the Guanacaste volcanic mountain ranges of Volcan Orosí, Volcan Cacao and Rincón de la Vieja.
Kay Dodge de Peraza& Terry McCarthy
Guanacaste Conservation Area
A supermarket of new species
(continued page 21
www.howlermag.com
Back from the ashes. Kahiki Restaurant, which burned down a couple of years ago, has reopened in the same location, 100 meters south of Super 2001 in the rebuilt
Iguana Surf building. Their other location, at Hotel Mamiri, has closed.
Sharky’s Bar, which burned down last November, has re-ceived all its permits needed to start rebuilding. Ben and Katie predict a reopening some time soon, hopefully before the end of hockey season. Saturday, January22, they held a heavily-attended Rock da Carcass Party to get people back into the mood for a reopening.
Welcome to famed surfer Robert August, star of “Endless Summer” and surfer in “Endless Summer 2”, who has finally decided that Tamarindo is the place to be. After years of owning a house and operating a business here, but living in California, he has moved here permanently.
Fiestas will be held in Potrero February 3-6, on the main road 150 meters from OkiDoki B&B. Food, drinks, music, fireworks and bulls. The fiesta kicks off with the “baile de cangrejo” Thursday night. Friday sees the beauty pageant for under-12s, and there is a tope on Saturday. Contact Vera Esquivel at 8705-0837 for details.
Gold Coast Women’s Group will hold a day of mini seminars on February 5 from 10 a.m. Topics discussed will be Costa Rican Law, Body and Soul Maintenance, Security, Costa Rican Cooking, Lunch and a wine tasting. Location is El Coconut Beach Club in Potrero (opposite Hotel Bahia. Call Anne Scalf at 2653-4062 for information.
Some readers remember when Bingo was the “in” game in town at Tamarindo Resort. Now it returns at Doña Lee’s Restaurant the first and third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. Each card costs ¢1,000 and is good for all ten games. Lots of good prizes and good fun.
Surf ReportStory: Ellen Zoe Golden
With competitive surfing already a year-round activity, the granddaddy of them all is about to start its 11th year. That is the Circuito Nacional de Surf, the country-wide contest
that draws out the best of the best of our surfers. Despite the fact that this year’s Circuito Nacional de Surf Ocean by DayStar 2011 will not make it to Tamarindo or the Caribbean coast, it still promises to be the biggest attraction among competitors who vie for rankings and ultimately spots on the Costa Rica National Surf Teams that travel to the international games.
The first date of the Circuito, called Torneo Britt Iced, was Satur-day and Sunday, January 22 and 23 in Jacó. Due to constraints of Howler deadlines, I can’t tell you anything about what happened until next month.
The complete calendar is:Torneo Britt Iced: January 22 and 23, Playa Jacó.Palo Seco de Parrita: February 26 and 27.Copa Quiksilver: April 2 and 3, Nosara.Copa Off!: April 30 and May 1, Santa Teresa.Gran Final Ocean By DayStar: June 10 - 12, Playa Hermosa.
What makes the Circuito so important is that kids begin competing when they are very young and start honing their skills while at a tender age. They improve each year and, by the time they are Juniors, they are groomed for the international contests that come each year. Many over the years have gone on to do very well coming from the Circuito system. The Circuito has grown from a small contest to a big, professional event with hundreds of competitors entering each date. It follows International Surfing Association rules and scoring.
This year, the rules of the game will have important variations be-ginning with the points that are attributed to each date. Instead of grading each beach with a variety of stars, each date will be assigned 6 stars and the winners of each category will earn 2,500 points at each (continued
page 20
stop. Surfers will then take the four best appointments—discarding the smallest score—to calculate their rankings toward the national championships.
If there is a tie between two or more competitors in a division, the champion will be decided by whoever advances in more rounds in the Gran Finals of the Circuito Nacional de Surf Ocean by Daystar 2011 in June in Playa Hermosa.
The Federación de Surf de Costa Rica also has implemented 20-minute finals in all categories, which has initiated the greatest change in the structure of the competition. Now only eleven divisions will compete in the Circuito. They will be: Open, Junior, Boys, Grom-met, MiniGrommet, Women’s, Junior Women’s, Grommet Girls, MiniGrommet Girls, and Longboard.
“We are very moved in the last two or three years of the Circuito, to have had an extraordinary level. Due to the new generations who come on very hard, this forces the elevation of experience of surfers in this country. Thanks to Ocean by DayStar and the other sponsors this year, Circuito 2011 promises to be one of the best ones,” said José Ureña, President of the Federación de Surf de Costa Rica (FSC).
The categories of Bodyboard, Women’s Bodyboard, Novices, Masters (over 35), Grand Masters (over 40) and Kahuna (over 45) will merge with the Open, Women’s and Junior of resident surfers of non-coastal provinces for the Circuito Metropolitano which will start its own dates in March.
The dates for the Circuito Metropolitano are:Playa Hermosa: March 12 and 13Boca Barranca: May 14 and 15Gran Final Ocean By DayStar: June 10-12, Playa Hermosa.
The last date of the championship for residents of Alajuela, Cartago, Heredia and San José (along with the national participants for the Bodyboard, Women’s Bodyboard, Novices, Masters, Grand Masters and Kahuna) is also the same date as the Gran Finals for the Circuito and all its divisions.
For the first time, the Circuito Gran Finals will distribute cash prizes for its winners as well as awards that will go to winners of strategic games such as the Tag Team surfing and an Expression Session.
The current Costa Rican national surf champions are Luis Vindas (photo) and Nataly Bernold, both of Jacó. They will defend their title during the Circuito season in a fight that will take place along with international commitments. For example, Bernold has the World Junior Surfing Games in Peru in April. It’s likely that Vindas and Bernold would find themselves on a national contingent that
Photo: Maripaz Chinchilla
Getting OutA new visa trip to three countries
Story: David MillsPhotos: Carol Lyn Phillips
Many of the extranjeros living in Costa Rica are obliged, quarterly, to take a little trip out of the country to satisfy visa regulations. For many, this is an unwelcome chore,
as the options are limited. The two main criteria for the destination of choice are ease of getting there and back; and cost. For most in the north of the country the choice is Nicaragua, either San Juan del
Sur or Granada; for the south, it would be Panama, usually Bocas del Toro. Either way, when you have done the trip four times a year for several years it becomes an inconvenient and expensive bore. Now, a quartet of Potrero residents has found an affordable and very pleasant alternative.
Taca Airlines on December 4, 2010, inaugurated its first flight from Liberia to San Salvador, and aboard were Sharon, Carol, Jane and Bill. The trip consisted of one night each in San Salvador; Copán, Honduras; Antigua, Guatemala; and included all hotels, breakfasts, tours of Mayan ruins, transport between the three countries and a knowledgeable English-speaking guide. The cost was $389 per person, plus $40 visa, which covered all countries. The quartet decided on another night in San Salvador ($100 extra).
Taca operates two flights a day, in the morning and afternoon. These pioneers took the afternoon flight (1:45 minutes), in a twin turboprop ATR-42. Arriving in San Salvador, a modern, clean and very quiet airport, they were met by Jorge, their guide for the trip, in his 8-passenger bus, who took them to their hotel. Jorge was their personal guide, even at night if needed.
Getting OutA new visa trip to three countries
Story: David MillsPhotos: Carol Lyn Phillips
Since the civil war ended in 1990, San Salvador has been almost completely rebuilt to a modern, clean, safe city. They walked around the city at night with no safety concerns, saw no drug dealers, der-elicts or drunks. The city has a very U.S. feel, with Sears-Roebuck, Pizza Hut and other familiar businesses. There are big malls, good highways and clean streets.
The second day started with a tour of the city and the ruins of Joya de Cerén. This is a Mayan village which was buried in 590 AD, without loss of life, by a volcanic eruption that deposited 14 layers of ash. The village, including half-eaten food, is very well preserved. After visiting the Centro Historico they drove to Honduras. The
border crossing took two minutes for the five people without even exiting the bus. (This was the same at each border; the inhabitants of El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua have a common cedula which gets them through all borders.)
Copán is a small town, old with cobblestone streets, near the ancient Mayan ruins. Jorge handed the quartet off to a local guide for the tour of the ruins. All guides were intelligent, knowledgeable and
multilingual. They stayed at Hotel Camino Maya in Copán for the second night.
(continued page 25)
uary and February are busy; in March, Donna is totally booked up.
Almost every bride brings her wedding dress from home. For best resuls, Donna advises they be taken aboard the aircraft
as carry-on and hung up. On arrival here, they should be steamed before wearing.
Not all Gold Coast weddings are on the beach. Some choose a garden or poolside location, such as Hotel Capitán Suizo, J.W. Marriott or Four Seasons. Others are limited by budget constraints and may settle for a Bed & Breakfast wedding with a reception at a local restaurant. Donna can handle it all, even to replacing the usual rehearsal dinner by moving the dinner to a sunset sail on a catamaran. A recent innovation is the line feed, whereby friends back home can watch the wedding live on their computers from a videographer on site.
Some wedding considerations are site-specific. A baker who makes a cake in San José must know that it is destined for Gua-nacaste and use fondants that will not run in the heat. Brides should realize that “foreign” bouquets with daffodils and tulips will soon wilt in our neighborhood and should choose local blooms.
Pura Vida Weddings works direct with the bride via telephone and e-mail over as much as a year in advance. Donna can also commu-nicate with individual guests in advance to clear up any dietary or other concerns, to free the bride from small details.
Guanacaste in general, and Tamarindo in particular, are ideally located for the tropical wedding – long summer, beautiful beaches, wide range of tours and dining – all situated one hour from the in-ternational airport.
“It’s a lot of hard, dedicated work,” says Donna, “but it’s all worth while when the bride, at the end of the day, gives me a big hug and says ‘Thank you Donna, for making my Big Day perfect.”
Pura Vida Weddings can be reached at 2653-0744 or 8388-5205. We b s i t e i s www.wedding-sincostar ica.com.
David Mills
The Howler has addressed beach weddings twice before, in March 2005
and February 2007. Since then, many things have changed about the Gold Coast, but beach weddings are still very popular, mostly with North Americans. Many couples come from far away to celebrate their Big Day on a beautiful beach at sunset. The Gold Coast has it all – warm, tropical skies, exotic flowers blossoming all over, great res-
taurants, fine, predictable weather, amazing sunsets – and wedding planners.
Beach weddings are a big tourist attraction in Guanacaste, and there are many wedding planners ready to help make the Big Day an event to remember. Some planners are haphazard; some are travel or tour companies who just want to sell their product; others are highly
professional, with experience and knowledge of all the components that go to make the perfect wedding – and all the possible pitfalls. Out of the hondreds in the country which offer “wedding plan-ning” there are only 5 or 6 completely dedicated to this business.
Donna Mickley, of Pura Vida Weddings, has been arranging wed-dings here for the past seven years, and has about 200 successful weddings behind her. She tells me that a professional planner must offer every possible service – attorney, minister (pastor, rabbi, etc), flowers, décor, hair and make-up, rental equipment, catering, music, photographer, videographer, tours, room blocks, transportation, cake – and must be well experienced in all.
For some couples, Costa Rica is the real, official wedding. A legal wed-ding here is legal anywhere in the world. Others marry somewhere else and come here for their “symbolic” wedding; yet others come for a spe-cial anniversary to renew their vows. Some want a Costa Rican wedding, with local traditions, music and food. Our summer months are, of course, most popular; nobody wants it to rain on their wedding. This year, Jan-
Love on the Beach
Love at first sight? I absolutely believe in it! Who doesn’t like the idea that you could see someone tomorrow and she could be the
love of your life? It’s very romantic.”
Leonardo DiCaprio
A few years ago I was given a Rottwei-ler puppy, a couple of months old. Cute little guy and affectionate as
Rotties are, but with just one defect. He was not totally func-tional. The b a c k e n d didn’t work
properly, due to hip displasia which he had since birth. This caused him to hobble badly, and was getting worse fast. Our beach walks got shorter; get-ting home up the long hill became a serious problem, until one day I had to leave him at the roadside and bring the car down for him.
At six months Lobo was a cripple. He could move only by walking his forelegs and dragging the back end along the ground. The look in his eyes as I set out for the beach with my other dog, Cariad, tore my heart out. As I walked the beach one day, a couple of friends asked me where Lobo was. I told them he had done his last beach walk. “Have you tried OL-Trans?” they asked. They explained that this is a miracle drug which seriously helps dogs thus afflicted, and took me to their house where they gave me a small bottle of the pink powder. “One spoonful a day sprinkled on food,” they counseled.
Sceptical, I started Lobo on the regimen. Within three days he could stand. After a week he was walking, albeit with a bad limp.
Miracle Drugfor dogs and cats
He improved from there, never achieving 100% mobility but certainly well over the 90% mark. He is a real dog again.
A friend’s Alsatian, Max, had had hip surgery, but it was a very intrusive, very expensive failure. I recommended OL-Trans and took some over. A week later Ron called me “David, I’ve got a new dog.” Max was walking!
Lobo is now seven years old, and takes his beach walk every day, firing on all
four and chasing fish in the ocean and rock pools. He even leaps up at the door when it’s time to go, chases iguanas all over the garden, kills snakes and climbs the stairs to the mirador. He still has a slight limp, but is in his best health ever.
I don’t know, or care, how it works, but OL-Trans (Holliday-
Scott) is a wonder drug and has saved this dog’s life. The label tells me it treats all types of joint
problems and helps heal fractures. The only petty drawback is that you can-not discontinue its use, but at ¢3,000 for a month’s supply that is no problem. Buy it at the local vet.
would be surfing in Panama for the Pan-American International Surf-ing Association World Surfing Games in June. Then there’s the World Surfing Games that will take place in Guadalupe Island in November. Finally, the Central American Surfing Championship returns to Costa Rica after five years. A date and location will be announced in the coming weeks.
And so it seems, this season, Costa Rica is bustling with surfing activity. At its center is the Circuito Nacional de Surf Oceans by Daystar 2011, what many consider the benchmark of Costa Rican surf competition.
Let’s not forget, once the Circuito finishes in June, the Federación de Surf de Costa Rica hopes to roll out its third edition of the Triple
Crown of Winter, that last year gave out more than 10 million colones in prizes. National Champions by Year 2001 Federico Pilurzu (Tamarindo). 2002 Alvaro Solano (Jacó) and Lisbeth Vindas (Jacó).2003 Alvaro Solano and Lisbeth Vindas.2004 Germaine Myrie (Puerto Viejo, Limón) and Lisbeth Vindas.2005 Gilbert Brown (Puerto Viejo) and Lisbeth Vindas.2006 Isaac Vega (Tamarindo) and Lisbeth Vindas.2007 Diego Naranjo (Jacó) and Nataly Bernold (Limón).2008 Gilbert Brown and Lisbeth Vindas.2009 Carlos Muñoz (Esterillos) and Lisbeth Vindas.2010 Luis Vindas (Jacó) and Nataly Bernold.2011: ¿?
Surf Report(from page 15)
That’s all I’ve got. Looking forward to hearing what you think. Keep those emails coming at [email protected]. Send your comments, information, errors or praise, because I can’t do this column without you, the real surfers.
Nataly Bernold Photo: Fábian Sánchez
Guanacaste...
(from page 12
Money was donated from several prizes awarded to Dan Janzen of over $500,000, large US Foundation Grants, the Nature Conservancy, foreign government’s debt swap funds in the ‘80s and ‘90s, resulting in the expansion to over 80,000 Ha. From 1988-2010 the ACG doubled in size, including 43,000 marine Ha. and 120,000 Ha. of government-owned and managed wild lands. In the next few years over $13 million dollars including donations from the Wege Foundation allowed for the purchase of most of the biologically significant properties, and then the task was to create an endowment to insure perpetual survival of the ACG. The government would provide 10% and the endowment fund the rest. Work is being done now to fully endow the ACG.
Dan Janzen and his wife and scientific partner, Winnie Hallwachs of the University of Pennsylvania, and a team of Costa Rican and interna-tionally researchers work tirelessly to study a tremendous biodiversity or the new biological corridor. Insect studies alone have found 450 species of caterpillars in just 77 square miles. Since the creation of genetically “bar coding” the 12,000 species have ballooned to 15,000 species. Dan’s goal was to preserve the highly endangered dry tropical forest and provide migration routes during the wet and dramatic dry season. Their goal is provide areas for research, ecotourism, educa-tion and many other environmental services, as well as protecting vital watersheds and water to local communities. Starting out by controlling wild fires, his work has allowed restoration, reforestation and protec-tion of intact forests.
Promoting genetic bar coding by submitting specimens for DNA se-quencing, Costa Rica and Canada now have over 100,000 species; lagging behind are the US, Mexico and Australia in the 10,000 to the 100,000 range with most nations having fewer than 10,000. The goal of the International Bar Coding of Life project is to dramatically accelerate the rate of species identification and dis-covery. Many species, when bar coded, have become actually many different species with similar appearance, yet genetically different. Biodiversity is even more diverse than we formally imagined. Although species (actually one of the legs of an insect being coded) is sent to a lab for sequencing, soon, according to Janzen, portable bar coding devices will allow bar coding on site. Suddenly, the world is much more diverse than was thought and will be the work of many young scientists in the future.
One man or woman can make a difference. Google Dan Janzen and you will soon learn what one person with goals and determination can do to help discover and preserve our fragile world, and we should be proud that he and Winnie are here in our back yard, discovering what a special place Guanacaste is.
The root of the word yoga comes from the Sanskrit “yuj”, which means to yoke, join, or form a union. One fun way to embody this in your practice is to do yoga with another
person, called partner yoga. In partner yoga two people come together to do poses, some-times using each other to deepen into a pose, sometimes using the other as a prop to support the pose, and sometimes one partner will do the pose, while the other adjusts them. Partner yoga helps us to understand the power of joining your energies, intentions, and efforts in a coordinated and balanced way, often finding an outcome you could not achieve on your own.
So find someone with whom you can do some poses to see if it can both deepen your practice and let you have more fun as well! Here are some pointers for practicing together:1. Find your breath together and keep breathing together as you do the poses. By breathing together in and out through your nose, you will harmonize your actions as you move together into and out of the poses. Try sitting for a few minutes back to back matching your breath at the beginning of your practice.2. Choose poses that work based on your sizes and abilities.3. Keep communicating. Talk with each other to let your partner
Now Begins the Study of Yoga
Mary Byerly is one of the owners and the yoga teacher at Panacea. An oasis of tranquility and health 10 minutes from Tamarindo.
Discover Paradise and Bring a Peace Homewww.panaceacr.com • 2653-8515
know how far to go, how much to yield, when you can deepen, when you need to let up, and when you need to come out of the pose. Once you have practiced together for a while, you may find this happens instinctively, but in the beginning, talk it up!4. Have fun! Doing poses with someone else is a whole different practice, so enjoy the depth and the lightness. Having someone to be joyful with is great!5. Honor each other. We use the word Namaste at the end of each practice to say “the light in me recognizes and honors the light in you”.
There is a great new partner yoga book by Lama Christie Mc-Nally and Ian Thorson called, Two as One: A Journey to Yoga. The photography and the message of the book are equally stunning. To quote from the website and press release for the book, “Two as One is a revolutionary concept which gives each partner the power to support and be supported; to open and be opened.”
It’s a great thing to try with your loved one this month, be it your partner, your dear friend, sister, brother, father, or mother. Support and be supported, open and be opened. Namaste.
Forward Bend
Warrior II
Gate Pose Child’s Pose/Backbend
Down Dog/HandstandBlossoming Lotus
From Passion to EnnuiLove in the lower latitudes
Tom Peifer
Growing up, my generation was bombarded with a non-stop stream of pop psychology-type commentary on that eternal topic--romantic relationships. All you had to do was turn on
the dial. AM radio spewed forth an endless series of suggestions on how to encounter, lure, hook, hold on to and even maintain the flame with that special someone.
Led by the legendary Sam Cooke, aspirants to the oasis of Love invoked mythical creatures with entreaties like:Cupid, draw back your bow,And let that ol’ arrow go,Straight to my lover’s heart for meNo body but me.
As guys, we were counseled to r-e-s-p-e-c-t our lovers, to give them “jewelry, and money too,” to “love them with all their faults.”
Maybe it’s just a case of selective memory, but it seems like women bore the heavier burden in keeping things goin’. Millions of stressed out homemakers received a syrupy-voiced ‘warning’ from Andy Wil-liams. Oblivious to the exigencies of running a home without a bevy of servants, Andy nevertheless crooned out the helpful advice that housewives should drop everything, morph into a femme fatale and “run to his arms the moment he comes home to you.”
As far as infidelity goes, “men will always be men,” but guys were cautioned against the likes of Runaround Sue, or shared the pain with Mr. Charles that “last night you were dreaming and I heard you say, ‘Oh Charley’, when you know my name is Ray.”
Pop music evolved over the years into hundreds of genres and spawned thousands of stations. Hidden away in the forest, I’m frankly out of touch. Still, it would be a shock if the billion dollar music industry is not still tapping into the mother lode of longing and insecurity that are so much a part of love—all the way across the spectrum, from Goth to gangsta’ and beyond.
Closer to home, along the Gold Coast, the mythological archer and the modern day crooners have their work cut out for them. In the words of Stevie Wonder, “Love’s in need of love today.” First, I’ll digress, then cut to the chase.
An approach to land use planning and agriculture, called Permaculture, places a special emphasis on the recognition of patterns in nature. First you observe, then you try to understand what makes it happen and finally see how it applies to your objectives. Patterns probably begin to form in our subconscious mind. Suddenly the rational brain begins to ‘get the picture’—like James Watson’s dream of spiral staircases helped unlock the double helix structure of DNA. Guys, pay attention.
I started seeing this pattern along the coast hereabouts. Er, how to put this delicately? Sorry, but to this impartial observer, there would appear to be scores, hundreds of women who are gorgeous, smart, educated, employed or owners of businesses. Women who are either single, eligible or whatever you may call it, but not in a relationship of substance. My rational brain clicked into high gear and I went in search of more evidence and then causality.
I started with the time-worn technique of the ‘man on the street inter-view’—OK, make that: woman on a dusty road. Then came e-mails, Facebook and Twitter. I even tried Google Earth to spy on one of my ‘single’ informants whose status had come into question.
Before going into the specific comments and observations which I encountered during my exhaustive research, there is an issue that might be called ‘structural’. One book on relationships cautions against ‘falling in love on vacation.’ People change when the ambi-ence changes and relationships are subject to new pressures. In some ways, that is precisely why so many people ended up single in the first place. I know a lot of ‘surf widows’, who moved here and over time realized that their partners were apparently content to chill out, smoke a fat one and get barreled. For the women, that didn’t always work “until death do us part.”
Depending on the area, after a while you know all the prospective ‘eligibles,’ and you start perusing the visitors. Sparks sometimes fly, but reality rears its head.
Whose income stream comes from where and who can or will relo-cate? Control over access to resources has long been a ‘reproduc-tive advantage’ for men and plays an important role in self-esteem. Dropping out of secure employment back home and—say—going to work in a restaurant that your lover owns down here may be a trifle harder to swallow than the sunset margaritas that helped fuel the romance.
One of my respondents said just that: “Guys are afraid of a woman who is making do just fine, all on her own. As soon as they get into the picture you sense in subtle—or not so subtle ways—they start maneuvering for control.”
Interestingly these comments resonate with an article that appeared in La Nación, penned by current Minister of Education, Leonardo Garnier, in 2004. Citing studies from England as well as personal experiences, Garnier painted the same pattern that my queries con
(continued page 28)
Understanding is the best thing in the world,between a boy and a girl, boy and girl and even a woman or a man,
It’s always better when you really understand---Ray Charles
Oct
ober
For
ecast
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ctob
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orec
ast
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Feb
ruary For
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s by Jeanne Callahan
Namasté
Visit Jeanne’s site at CelestialAdvisor.com
Aries: 21 March - 20 AprilWith the planet of optimism and abundance now in your sign, you should now be full of enthusiasm about starting something new and exciting. Be on the lookout for such op-portunities and don’t hesitate to take advantage of them. You can still make progress with your life now. Sometimes this means walking away from someone or something that hasn’t come to fruition. Good vibes for you on the 7th and 8th.Taurus: 21 April - 21 MayThis is a particularly good month for making progress with your career as planets are transiting your tenth house of professional endeavors. There may be someone from your past contacting you or a foreigner providing aid or needing your assistance. Be open to support and don’t try to do it all yourself. Good days for artistic and beauty pursuits are the 9th and 10th.Gemini: 22 May - 21 JuneThis is an excellent month for the generation of new ideas for your career, foreign travel and expanding the ways you can make money. You are full of enthusiasm and people respond favorably to this and want to assist your dreams and visions. If you are in sales, you can have a fantastic month. Don’t hesitate to plunge into something new. This vibration is particularly strong on the 11th, 12th and 13th.Cancer: 22 June - 22 JulyThis month continues a strong focus on financial security, changes in partnerships and a new twist regarding your career. Cancers always need to know where the next few meals are coming from to do their best work. Uncertainty drives them nuts. A reality check comes around the 20th regarding your career but then you can begin anew. A new partnership is on the horizon. The 14th and 15th bring in some good luck.Leo: 23 July - 23 AugustYour health and wellbeing, as well as that of your partner, is the central focus this month. While you may have the urge to travel, something may prevent you from going as far from home as you desire. If you do leave home, have someone look after your property as there’s a bit of a negative influ-ence in your immediate neighborhood. The 16th, 17th and full moon on the 18th are your best days this month.Virgo: 24 August - 22 SeptemberYou are looking to have a little more fun now as Venus enters your fifth house of amusement and love affairs. But with the stellium of planets in your sixth house of work, you might have trouble getting away from those duties. Still, schedule some gaiety in your life at this time. Your health is also a point of focus so don’t ignore any symptoms that pop up. The 18th and 19th are good days to enjoy yourself.
Libra: 23 September - 23 OctoberBenefits come in the form of new business or personal part-nerships. If an existing partnership seems to have stalled or stagnated, you need to try a fresh and novel or unconventional approach. There’s some intensity in your home around the 10th and the 21st may bring in some trouble with children. Creativity runs high this month and is favorable for you. The 20th and 21st are your best days.Scorpio: 24 October - 22 NovemberYour focus will be primarily centered around your immediate neighborhood, your home and family this month. There’s a possible move pending as something you’ve counted on as solid dissolves around the 21st. If something is leaking in your home, get it fixed immediately. Don’t panic, as there may be a financial upside to the event if you think creatively. Your most fortunate days are the 22nd and 23rd.Sagittarius: 23 November - 21 DecemberThis is a good month to improve your finances or improve your home asset. It’s like the light got turned on and now people notice how talented you are. Be careful in your neighborhood around the 21st as there could be some weird goings on. You may lose a friend this month but that’s OK; as people change so does their circle of influence. Take a trip on the 24th and 25th to renew your spirits.Capricorn: 22 December - 21 JanuaryMoney and assets are your primary concerns this month as some part of your income stream seems to be diminishing mid-month. You have a lot of personal magnetism and in-tensity going for you so you can attract the new talent you need to succeed. Good time to start any home improvements you’ve been holding back on. A new partnership is on the horizon. The 1st, 27th and 28th are your stellar days.Aquarius: 22 January - 19 FebruaryThis month has you more introspective than usual, as you do a bit of a life review. You project an intensity that is pronounced now and you will let go of something around the 21st that is unrealistic anyway. It’s a busy time and also a good time for undertaking a new course of study. The new moon on the 2nd ushers in this vibe and the 3rd may hold even more ideas. Take advantage of anything new that comes your way.Pisces: 20 February - 20 MarchNew ways to improve your income start to come in this month so take advantage of the ones that most suit your lifestyle. There is a lot going on behind the scenes with you so also take some time off for a personal retreat—by the seashore if at all possible. A female friend may prove to be more intense or controlling than you can handle around the 10th. It’s OK to say goodbye and let go. The 4th and 5th are your most positive days.
25
Day 3 was a drive to Guatemala, where they stayed in Antigua, the ancient capital of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. A fine colo-nial town, Antigua is full of mansions with big courtyards behind the walls. They toured the old city and cathedral ruins. Nighttime they walked over much of the city for great dining out, before retiring to Hotel Aurora (all hotels were first-class).
Next day the tour returned to San Salvador, where they enjoyed the evening watching families walking areven in the huge open plazas. There is a large presence of armed guards, not because there is so much crime, but because after the war 60,000 armed soldiers were released
from service. To avoid a huge unemployment burden, the govern-ment encouraged armed guards. Crime is very low, with a very low tolerance by the police. Transitos cannot be bribed. You commit the crime; you pay the fine.
On their last morning the tourists were given a two-hour tour of the city, including the Jade Museum, before leaving for the airport. Due to their recent history, all three coun-tries have had a scary reputation, but this is no longer justified. In all three countries the quartet talked with locals; there was no reluctance to discuss political matters, as in some countries. The travelers enjoyed the trip immensely, and will certainly do it again.
For information, visit www.tourinelsalvador.com/new2/mayantri-angle.php, or call Sharon at 2654-4404.
Getting Out...(from page 17)
I first heard about Papagallo Pierre’s on one of my first visits to this neck of the world back in the waning years of
the previous millennium. The picturesque restaurant-bar had been built by someone named Pierre in the (at that time) far-off beach of Playa Venoma which (at that time) could only be reached by four-wheel-drive vehicles equipped with amphibious appa-ratus ...or an oxcart. Heading in the general direction of the beach you eventually made it to Santa Serveza, made a left up a steep goat trail, crossing several small rivers filled with missing rental cars until you reached Papagallo Pierre’s sitting right on the beach nestled among the swamp mangroves.
Ol’ PP’s was a spot for only the hardiest restaurant aficionados of those days and its clientele reflected the “land of the wanted and unwanted” flavor of the times. The wa-lls included autographed photos of Pierre with the likes of Oliver North, Daniel Ortega and Charlie Sheen, various and sundry pirate and Viet-cong flags and a mounted collection of rusty machetes.
Pierre, an old Chinese gentleman, had mysteriously disappeared several years earlier and on our first visit to the joint it was still being run by his 22-year-old widow, Natasha, a local girl from Playa Venoma, who showed great pride in her little semi-bordello on the beach, which also featured a clothes-optional dining room, sadly frequented only by advanced middle-aged biker types. Ah, those were the good old days!
It was several years before we made it back to Playa Venoma, this time on vastly im-proved dirt roads removing the immediate need for an amphibious vehicle and cutting the travel time from five hours to less than four. As luck would have it we arrived on a red-letter date in the history of Papagallo Pierre’s.
We pulled into the surfside parking lot in time to witness its newest owner, an ex-SWAT team special weapons expert from Los Angeles (California) perched on top of his restaurant’s roof and taunting an ass-
embled group of Costa Rican Bulldozers and Bureaucrats who had showed up with the intention of removing his restaurant, it apparently being too close to the water. The new owner had been given a large “bribe” option, which he opted against, instead choosing to challenge the assembled might of the local canton of Chorizo.
Ten minutes later the new owner was pulled from the rubble. He then dusted himself off and walked over to another nearby restaurant and bought it, and was open for business that same night.
Time moves on. On came the next century and millennium and things got better and better here in the Gold Coast. Unforeseen luck came to Playa Venoma when the new Minister of Weights and Measures decided to invest in a new luxury mansion condo-minium right next to Papagallo Pierre’s and a four-lane superhighway was put in to facilitate his travel. It now took less than thirty minutes to get there from Tamarindo and Papagallo Pierre’s had finally made the big time.
Once again there had been a change in ownership after a visit from Interpol elicited a quick one-way trip to Thailand for the California SWAT guy, and the new owners from Austria quickly established a new regime. The restaurant now had a mascot in form of the owner’s prize 3,000-pound Brahma Malacrianza, whose onsite gorings of unruly customers soon became a popu-lar onsite event. The new owners tried live music and yours truly was one of the first - and last - mu-sicians to play there. The Banana Boys
were booked to play and we showed up, set up the amps and guitars and proceeded to do our thing. The new Austrian owner immediately started behaving in a very unpleasant manner claiming that the band was “Not Wunderbar!”. This didn’t sit well with our drummer José who leaped off his stool, jumped on the owner and started strangling him. I hit the owner’s wife on the head with a bottle of Guaro while our bass player just sat there crying, after which we got out of there as fast as we could. We were never asked back.
It soon became evident to the new owners that something was amiss in their business. People were showing up in droves, food and libations were being dispensed in record quantities and Papagallo Pierre’s had obviously made the big time, but at the end of the night there was no money. The owners sat down with their on-site managers who explained that the problem was monkeys who were taking the money off the tables before the waiters could retrieve it.
The next group of managers blamed the missing receipts on marauding gangs of Nicaraguans and Columbians, assuring them that it was not in the Tico nature to steal.
Indeed the next, and final group, of mana-gers was truly mystified by the continuous trend of missing money, implying that divine intervention might have something to do with it, and even applied for sainthood for Pierre.
I was saddened by my final visit to Playa Venoma and what had been a pivotal chap-ter of my life here in Costa Rica. As we pu-lled into the familiar parking lot we noticed that the parking lot was no longer there. Or the restaurant. All that was left of Papagallo Pierre’s was an empty shell completely devoid of tables and decorations. Finally, everything that could be stolen had been, and there was no longer any sign of what had once been a thriving civilization. We’ll miss you!
Story by Jesse Bishop
CSurvivinghapter CCCLIXCOSTA RICA
Another One Bites the Dust
From Passion...(from page 27)
firmed. Guys tend to shy away from the strong women, heaven forbid the successful ones, even worse, intelligent, and go for—he actually used the word— the more submissive ones.
The words of Mick Jagger come immediately to mind: “Under my thumb, the girl who once had me down.” Or, as one of my respondents put it bluntly, “The guys want women of the past. Women are waiting for the men of the future.” From the perspective of evolutionary psy-chology, it’s going to be a long wait. As the studies cited by Garnier seem to demonstrate, the urge to “stay on top” seems to cross both educational and cultural lines.
In my own area of interest, environmental work, I have personally witnessed couples, both of them trained and competent scientists, where the guys repeatedly contradicted their spouses, or went out of their way to demonstrate a superior command of the data, the theories, or whatever was up for discussion. What was not negotiable was, precisely, who was “on top.”
The danger with generalizations is that there are always exceptions. For plenty of couples there is simply no big issue. For others, they have developed ways to work it out. One of the couples I most admire seems to have a way of working out tensions over control in a kind of emotional ju-jitsu. Friction heats up, words fly and then it gets morphed into a playful tussle where they end up laughing, and even rolling on the sand like a couple of kids.
Always eager to help Cupid reach a few more hearts here in Guana-caste, I’d advocate a traditional approach. This Valentine’s Day you couldn’t find any better advice about romance than a beautiful ballad by Dionne Warwick back in 1967:“Just take me inside your armsAnd hold me tight,And always be by my sideIf I am wrong or right.”
When all else fails—guys--buy some flowers, chocolate and “try a little tenderness.” And, never forget, at least offer to wash the dishes.
Look for Wikileaks release next month of the 328 interviews with women which led to this article.
Tom Peifer is an ecological land use consultant with 16 years experi-ence in Guanacaste. Phone: 2658-8018. [email protected]
El Centro Verde is dedicated to sustainable land use, agriculture and development. http://www.elcentroverde.org/
F e b r u a r y 2 0 11( a l l t i m e s l o c a l )
1st -15th -28th -
rise 6:06; set 5:48rise 6:03; set 5:52rise 5:58; set 5:54
Sun
New1st quarter:Full:Last quarter
2nd
11th
18th
24th
8:30 p.m.1:18 a.m.2:35 a.m.5:26 p.m.
MoonThe sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a
great deal longer.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
When enough is not enough: Russian industrialist Mikhael Khodorkovsky, the country’s richest man, embezzled millions of dollars by stealing oil from his own company
and laundering the proceeds. Already in jail, his sentence has been extended to 2017.
AT&T and Vitality announce their “smart” pill bottles, which flash a light to remind people to take their medica-tion. If this is ignored, the bottle makes a reminder phone call. The bottle will also e-mail a weekly report on the patient’s health condition to the doctor
and a selected friend, and order refills from the pharmacy.
The president of Indonesia lodged a protest against Malaysia after this country’s supporters shone lasers in the eyes of Indonesian players during corner kicks during a soccer match between the two countries.
Britain’s solar-powered Zephyr aircraft has won the world record for longest flight after staying aloft over 336 hours, just over two weeks. The eighteen-meter wing is covered in paper-thin solar panels which drive the two propellers. The flight also broke the altitude record for its type, at over 70,000 feet.
The Saharan Cheetah,of which only 250 exist, has been pho-tographed for the first time in Algeria.
The British government is of-fering free nicotine patches to smokers who want to quit. The National Health Service has ordered 300,000 Quit Kits, saying that “smoking is still the greatest avoidable cause of early death in this country”.
A Michigan man could go to jail for five years for reading his wife’s e-mail on her laptop, which she claims is private. He says it is a family computer and she keeps all her passwords in a book alongside the computer.
3,000 redwing blackbirds fell dead from the sky in Arkansas on New Year’s Eve. Experts say they were probably disoriented by New Year’s Eve fireworks.
Fish prices up! A huge (340 Kg) bluefin tuna, caught off the coast of Japan, sold in Tokyo for a record $396,000, which equates to around $526 per pound.
Around the World( a news digest)
FEBRUARY TIDE CHART8.20.78.01.28.40.48.40.98.60.28.70.78.70.09.00.58.70.09.00.4
01:2207:4213:5920:0102:1208:2814:4420:4702:5609:0815:2521:2703:3609:4416:0222:0504:1410:1916:3722:40
1T
2WNewMoon
3T
4F
5S
8.60.18.90.58.40.38.80.68.10.68.5
0.97.61.08.21.27.21.47.8
04:5010:5317:1223:1605:2611:2517:4623:5106:0111:5918:21
00:2806:3812:3418:5801:0707:1813:1219:38
6S
7M
8T
9W
10T
1.65.81.87.51.86.52.17.31.96.42.27.21.86.62.07.51.47.21.5
01:5108:0413:5620:2602:4309:0014:5021:2403:4410:0715:5622:3104:5111:1717:0823:3805:5612:2018:16
11F1stQtr
12S
13S
14M
15T
8.00.87.90.88.60.18.80.19.2
-0.69.5
-0.69.7
-1.110.1-1.19.9
-1.410.5-1.3
00:4006:5413:1519:1501:3407:4514:0520:0802:2408:3314:5220:5703:1209:1815:3721:4503:5810:0316:2222:32
16W
17T
18FFullMoon
19S
20S
9.9-1.410.5-1.39.7
-1.110.2
-0.99.2
-0.69.7
-0.48.50.19.00.37.90.98.3
04:4510:4817:0823:1905:3111:3517:59
00:0706:2112:2218:4500:5807:1313:1419:3901:5408:1214:1120:39
21M
22T
23W
24TLastQtr
25F
0.97.31.57.71.37.01.97.41.47.11.9
7.41.37.41.67.61.07.81.2
02:5709:1915:1821:4704:0910:3316:3523:0005:2411:4617:52
00:0906:3012:4808:5601:0707:2313:3919:46
26S
27S
28M
1TMarch
2W
7.90.78.20.88.20.48.50.58.40.28.80.28.50.18.90.18.50.18.90.1
01:5508:0614:2220:2802:3608:4314:5921:0503:1309:1815:3421:3903:4909:5016:0722:1304:2410:2216:4022:46
3T
4FNewMoon
5S
6S
7M
