HOWLER ECO TOURISM CAN
SAVE US FROM OURSELVES?
july 2018
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F E AT U R E D Cover Story
10
Costa Rica Ecotourism
OSA PENINSULA
18
CAMINOS DE OSA
22
SARAPIQUI ROAD TRIP
26
DIAMANTE
70
Where the Wild Things Are
Featured Adventure
ECOTOURISM TRAILBLAZER Rafael Gallo
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Cool Places
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Being Green Matters
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CO N T E N T S 6 Up Front
6 - Editorial 8 - Community Services 10 - Eco Sustainable Special Intro 12 - Cover Story - Costa Rica Ecotourism 14 - Ecotourism Trailblazer - Rafael Gallo
SURFING COSTA RICA
39
CARLOS HILLER
52
RESPLENDENCE
60
Mini-Mag
18 Travel & Adventure 18 - Cool Places: The Osa Peninsula 21 - Eco Sustainable Special: Indigenous Insights 22 - Featured Adventure: Caminos de Osa 26 - More Cool Places: A Road Trip to Sarapiquí 30 - Off the Beaten Path: Off-the-Grid Eco-Stays 32 - CR History in Photos: Poás Volcano 34 - Creature Feature: Elephant Beetles 36 - Featured Event: Presidential Flamingo Fishing Rodeo 38 - Travel & Adventure Directory
39 Surfing Costa Rica - Mini-Mag 40 - Competition Results: Copa Los 40 41 - Tide, Sun and Moon Chart 42 - Profile: Leilani McGonagle 44 - Surf Spot: Playa Guiones 46 - Waves You’ve Missed 50 - August Odysseys: My Time with Robert
Spotlight
52 Arts & Entertainment 52 - Spotlight: Carlos Hiller 54 - Arts & Entertainment Calendar 56 - Dos Locos: The Times They’ve Been a Changin’ 57 - Simply Spanish: Random Words 58 - Locos Dos: The Boys Visit Mexico City
60 Lifestyle 60 - Behind the Image: Resplendence 62 - Fashion Flash: Look Fabulous for Less 64 - Spanish: Pronunciation - Spanish Easy Street 66 - Wellness: Superfoods - Bee-autiful Beets 65 - Eco Sustainable Special: Going Ever-Greener
Behind the Image
70 Community 70 - Feature: Diamante - Being Green Matters 72 - Building CR: Sustainability Certification 74 - Pet Care: Another Chance for Your Pet? 74 - Simple Spanish: Pet Talk 76 - LegalEase: Fraud Prevention Updates 78 - Eco Sustainable Special: Greener Living 79 - Community Directory 82 - Contributors Flip Over to Dining Guide Mini-Mag #s earchf indh owl
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EDITORIAL
HOWLER T r o o p
E
co is a prefix that is sometimes misused in a deceptive or imprecise manner, even while drawing worthy attention to legitimate environmental protection concerns. As humans, we cannot help but make an impact on the environments we invade day in and day out, from the moment we wake up. Just as it’s impossible to have no impact, it is challenging to make our impact less obtrusive through mindfully responsible choices and actions. What I have said before about being stewards of the environment bears repeating. Our duty to be eco-conscious in traversing through each day goes deeper and wider than the footprints we leave. It extends to our interactions with others and their own ecological impact on the shared wider world. It encompasses our willingness to dig deeper and hold others accountable when eco-promises prove false or fall short. I’ve cited examples previously of property buyers in Costa Rica being duped by seemingly reputable developers touting their green-friendly building initiatives in slick marketing brochures. Whether it was a future project phase that failed to materialize or fabricated claims about an existing installation, unsuspecting clients had no reason to doubt the printed word until it was too late. The language of ecotourism may have more subtleties and leave more open to interpretation. There’s no question Costa Rica has done a wonderful job portraying to the world its greenness. Airplanes arrive full of tourists eager to see the wonders and be a part of something truly special. In large measure, as portrayed in this Howler issue, there can be sustainable winwin propositions for travelers, tour providers and local Costa Ricans alike, as well as the country’s flora, fauna and natural resources. Trailblazers of sustainable ecotourism in Costa Rica have set the bar high when it comes to the settings and styles in which naturally and culturally authentic experiences can be enjoyed from coast to coast. I have explored many of these places and seen how proud the people are to be involved on a local, regional or national scale. Visiting Monteverde, for example, I was so amazed listening to our guide explain the elements of nature in our midst and its
July 2018 Vol. 23 No. 07 PUBLISHER / EDITOR-in-CHIEF John B. Quam BUSINESS DEVELOpmENT Martin Svoboda M A N A G I N G PA R T N E R S John B. Quam Martin Svoboda D i r e c t o r o f O p e r at i o n s Marynes F. Chops
importance to our lives and our planet. Yes, certain aspects of Costa Rica’s selfproclaimed greenness are not deserved, and the changes needed cannot happen overnight. But on the whole, this is offset by the level of awareness and commitment to walking the talk. Costa Rica’s new president has emphasized the importance of environmental responsibility, including moving towards the goal of being a zerocarbon nation. It will be interesting to see over the next many months how much progress will be made. Some ecotourists are adventure seekers who ultimately decide to move here for their experience to last longer, maybe even for a lifetime. Education is the way we can all impart to the world what puts Costa Rica in an eco-league of its own. We also have a voice when eco-realities fall short of that ideal. We have a responsibility to give credit when it’s due while seeking answers when it’s not. On both counts, awareness and curiosity give power to our message. If hints of being greenwashed crop up midway into your socalled eco-adventure, no one is suggesting you jump off the raft or clip the zipline cable right then and there. By all means, finish your experience, ask more questions and give feedback on what was done well or could be done better. Then use your social media voice to praise and encourage, as well as convey disappointment. Spread the word in a way that promotes positive change and takes the conversation among like-minded ecotourists to new levels.
Trailblazers of ecotourism in Costa Rica have set a high bar
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E d i t o r i a l S ta f f Debbie Bride - Production Director Marian Paniagua - Admin Director Karl Kahler - Staff Writer Jessie Rowan - Intern Graphic Design Team Martin Svoboda - Art Director Debbie Bride - Design Consultant M. Alauddin - Design Layout Marian Paniagua - Photo Procurement WEBMASTER Maria Focsa Cover Design by Jose Chops C o n ta c t John Quam: headmonkey@howlermag.com Martin Svoboda: martin@howlermag.com Editor: editor@howlermag.com Advertising: info@howlermag.com CR Office: (506) 4701-5942 US Office: (720) 507-7596 (leave message) Howler Magazine Costa Rica thehowlermag The Howler Gold Coast CR S.A. Ced. Juridica: 3-101-725213
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors in this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of The Howler organization or its advertisers. Copyright © 2018 by The Howler Gold Coast CR S.A. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to: info@howlermag.com The Howler Magazine does not assume responsibility for the content of its advertisements
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COMMUNITY SERVICES
AMBULANCE, HOSPITALS & MEDICAL CLINICS EMERGENCIAS 2000 +506 8380-4125 GULF OF PAPAGAYO AMBULANCE +506 2670-0047 LIBERIA AMBULANCE +506 2666-7666
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POLICE & LAW ENFORCEMENT
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TAMARINDO +506 2653-0283 VILLARREAL +506 2244-6173 PLAYAS DEL COCO +506 2670-0258 SANTA CRUZ +506 2680-0136 LIBERIA +506 2665-0609 LA FORTUNA DE SAN CARLOS +506 2479-9689 NUEVO ARENAL +506 4001-6911
TILARAN +506 2695-5001
FIRE UNIT 1118 FILADELFIA +506 2688-8733 HUACAS FIRE STATION +506 2201-9079
SAN JOSE AMBULANCE +506 2233-7033 TAMARINDO, FLAMINGO, +506 2675-0167 POTRERO AMBULANCE CARTAGENA RED CROSS AMBULANCE
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HOSPITAL SAN RAFAEL +506 2666-1717 ARCANGEL (PRIVATE) LIBERIA NICOYA HOSPITAL +506 2685-8400 SAN JOSE HOSPITAL +506 2257-7922 PLAYAS DEL COCO CLINIC +506 2670-1717 LIBERIA CLINIC +506 2666-1887 SANTA CRUZ CLINIC +506 2680-2222 HUACAS CLINIC +506 2653-9911
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS TAMARINDO | Waves of Sobriety Mon / Thur • 5:30 pm | Wed / Sat • 10:30 am Behind the Tamarindo circle, through Pedro´s Surf Shop Ellen 2653-0897 / 8484-1360 ellenzoe@aol.com Jacqueline 8332-5540 jacqueline.haskell@yahoo.com VILLARREAL (Español) |Vida Real Jose Chops 8720-1984
(CONCHAL) FLAMINGO / POTRERO | Beach front Serenity Group SANTA CRUZ +506 2680-0090 Tue / Fri 5:30 pm Upstairs Costa Rica Saling Center OIJ CONFIDENTIAL +800 800-0645 Craig 8699-0254 LIBERIA +506 2690-0128 +506 2690-0129 PLAYAS DEL COCO SANTA CRUZ +506 2681-4000 Monday / Wednesday / Friday - 6:00pm LA FORTUNA DE SAN CARLOS +506 2479-1553 Sardinal Beach TILARAN +506 2695-8475 Centro Plaza Sardinal(50 mts east from police), store N. 6. SAN JOSE +506 2295-3851 Max 8917-2222 or John 2672-1163
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ECO-SUSTAINABLE SPECIAL
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“Ecotourism is sustainable when everybody wins — tourists, local people and animals alike.” Gregory Basco
Deep Green Photography Foto Verde Tours
I
ecotourism
. - \ - - 'turnoun eco·tour·ism \ e-koi-z m, e-ko' ' e
ecotourism: the practice of touring natural habitats in a manner meant to minimize ecological impact
f only the subject were as pure and simple as this Merriam-Webster definition makes it sound. Inferences about ecotourism being synonymous with sustainable tourism can be misleading and limiting. When commercial interests are factored into the Mother Nature/ human nature equation, neither label tells us enough about people’s green-friendly choices of travel lifestyle or livelihood. How well do they measure up to being economically as well as environmentally beneficial? Can “eco” and “sustainable” encompass the same yardstick of success in the tourism sector? There are many indications in this Howler issue that the answer is "yes." Sustainability and responsibility are intertwined themes in the various ecotourism stories and perspectives featured. If ecotourism offers infinite ways to soothe our souls, can sustainable tourism save our species?
Photo: Gregory Basco
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by Jenn Parker
Ecotourism:
Where the Rubber Doesn't Hit the Road
COVER STORY
Tortuguero sunrise. Photo: Gregory Basco
C
Off-grid, ecofriendly visitor experience is Costa Rica’s new norm 12 | #searchfindhowl| online
osta Rica has long been recognized as an environmentally conscious country whose leading industry is ecotourism. Since its inception, the term ecotourism, which is often interchanged with sustainable tourism, has been used and misused to inspire travelers to visit destinations with bountiful natural and cultural diversity and wealth. With the rise of technology and the accessibility of international modes of transportation, there are few places that are completely out of reach. As curious travelers we want to have unique experiences that involve authentic natural and cultural encounters. It is this wanderlust-driven desire that makes ecologically rich and less-visited places prime targets for increased tourism. Getting placed on the tourist map draws attention to once sleepy destinations and in so doing, there is the risk of wildlife and indigenous population exploitation, mismanaged infrastructural growth, environmental destruction and the misappropriation of resources and profits. The Economist commented in a Mar. 17, 2018 article on the politics of conservation in Colombia: “At the moment, those involved
tend to throw into the pot anything that might vaguely count: ecotourism; wild fruits and nuts that can command a premium price; cosmetics made from forest products that appeal to the virtue-signalling middle classes.” Fortunately, through ever more rigorous sustainability standards, practices and certifications, many countries, communities, tourism stakeholders and travelers themselves are ensuring that the negative impacts that tourism can inflict on a destination are reduced if not eliminated. “Broadly speaking, ecotourism can be evaluated at the destination level or down to an individual tourism provider,” says Leon Mach, a resident lecturer in sustainable tourism at the School for Field Studies in Bocas del Toro, Panama and co-owner of SeaState, a university-level sustainable tourism study-abroad program that visits Costa Rica. “And it encapsulates social, environmental and economic impacts of tourism service delivery.” Ecotourism is more complex than many of us probably realize. According to the World Conservation Union, ecotourism possesses the following characteristics: “conscientious,
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low-impact visitor behavior; sensitivity towards, and appreciation of, local cultures and biodiversity; support for local conservation efforts; sustainable benefits to local communities; local participation in decision-making; and educational components for both the traveler and local communities.” It is through conscious ecotourism that both the traveler and the local providers (tour operators and guides, transportation companies, lodges and other businesses) can do more than just mitigate the negative impact of tourism; they can actually promote a positive impact. Ecotourism can produce income-generating opportunities for individuals in places where those options were previously limited. It can also generate funding for conservation efforts and the protection of natural areas and resources. Ecotourism also has the power to promote invaluable education, nature and cultural awareness, and activism for more sustainable practices and conservation initiatives. Many of us are beginning to realize our vital individual and collective role in protecting our planet and all living and non-living natural entities. For this reason, many of us are opting to explore the world with a greener mind and approach to travel. There are far more eco-options these days than ever before. As a traveler, it is wise to understand what makes a tour, activity, accommodation or business eco-friendly and to understand what you can do personally to be a responsible and ecoconscious traveler, whether you are in Costa Rica or another incredible destination on our beautiful planet. In Costa Rica, there are two prominent certification programs, the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) and the Blue Flag Ecology Program, that businesses and coastal towns can earn for their dedication to the environment and local communities. ”Certifications help level the playing field and reduce greenwashing by evaluating
and comparing providers using specific criteria under several categories,” Mach says. The Certification for Sustainable Tourism evaluates all sectors of the industry in Costa Rica. According to the United Nations, “the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) is one of the first systems, if not the first, to achieve the integration of the principal elements of sustainable tourism, analyzing good management practices, the environmental and social impacts of services, as well as the client's perception of image and the congruence between the service offered and the product's promotion.” There are almost 400 tourism companies in Costa Rica that have received this five-level certification. In 2016, according to the Costa Rican Tourism Board, more than 70 percent of tourists who visited Costa Rica spent some time on the beach. The Blue Flag Ecology Program is a certification that is awarded to coastal communities. It's divided into 10 categories: beaches, communities, neutral weather, education centers, community health, micro-drainage basins, sustainable homes, special events, protected natural spaces and climate change. This prestigious award is one that has inspired beach towns and businesses to work together to take care of their environment while at the same time sharing it with international visitors. While Costa Rica, like many other eco-conscious countries around the world, isn’t doing everything right yet in terms of protecting the environment and maintaining a completely sustainable approach to tourism, inspiring progress is continually being made. It is not only the country and the tourism providers that are responsible, though — it is all of our responsibility to tread lightly and consciously and make decisions that not only enrich our personal experiences but benefit the places we visit.
“As curious travelers we want to have unique experiences that involve authentic natural and cultural encounters.”
Photos courtesy of Caminos de Osa
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Rafael Gallo
Use It, Don’t Abuse It by Karl Kahler
TRAILBLAZER SPOTLIGHT
Whitewater pioneer believes in keeping Costa Rica green
H
ow do you open Costa Rica to millions of visitors a year while protecting and preserving the natural beauty that draws
“We’ve been at it for 33 years, before ecotourism was even invented as a word.”
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them? “We’ve been at it for 33 years, before ecotourism was even invented as a word,” said Rafael Gallo, founder and president of Ríos Tropicales, one of Costa Rica’s largest whitewater rafting companies. Gallo, who for 10 years was the president of the Costa Rican Network of Private Reserves, is a longtime champion of conservation and sustainable tourism in this country. The Howler spoke with him about striking a balance between welcoming the world to Costa Rica yet keeping it clean, green and pristine. “We started in 1985,” he said. “Our initial mission was basically protecting the Pacuare River from a dam, which led to the purchase of land and private conservation, which led to getting our neighbors, the Cabecar, to build our first huts. So basically, we were practicing ecotourism from our heart and then it got defined later on.” Gallo was born in New York, grew up in El Salvador and enrolled at the University of Tennessee in 1978. There he learned to kayak, and met the man who ran Costa Rican
Expeditions, one of the first rafting companies in Costa Rica. “Then for some reason we had a permit to go down the Grand Canyon in 1983, and that became my stepping stone to knowing what I was doing, which was camping for 18 nights and doing all the planning and cooking,” he said. “And I just knew I had it in me. I headed to Costa Rica, and having paddled lots of rivers in the U.S. and Canada, the Pacuare was like paradise.” Gallo has lived in Costa Rica ever since. He started Ríos Tropicales on the Sarapiquí River. “I had done a lot of exploration of other rivers in Costa Rica, and I did several first descents, going down the river for the first time ever in a kayak,” he said. “It was wild enough then that we could run rivers that nobody had ever run.” Ríos Tropicales soon gravitated to the Pacuare, which is generally considered Costa Rica’s best river for whitewater rafting. Today he offers river adventures as well as accommodations at the Ríos Tropicales Lodge, located at the mouth of the Pacuare Gorge where the Class 4 rapids begin. “We cater to students, high-end adventure thrill seekers and nature lovers,” he said. Gallo ended up doing well, but he found his calling in doing good — specifically, in
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championing the conservation of the environment in Costa Rica and elsewhere. “We were keeping poachers away from our land, we saw hunters and kicked them out, we stopped illegal fishing,” he said. “That’s kind of how we’re the protectors of this river and many other rivers we’ve explored.” In 1997 he founded the International Rafting Federation, which led to trips all over the world to advocate for recreation and preservation. “We’re pretty well known worldwide for our ecopractices and the example we have set,” he said. “We have 2,200 acres under our protection, private land, and part of that is a restoration project where we’re planting native trees, mainly the almendro de montaña, the tree the green macaw eats, so we’re getting a lot of the biodiversity back.” Gallo says his organization has planted over 29,000 trees in the past 20 years or so. “We’ve done two carbon-neutral projects, certified by Earth University,” he said. “One was in 2011, when we carbon-neutralized a world rafting championship that was held here in Costa Rica on the Pacuare. We made it carbon-neutral by planting 2.58 hectares of trees, and compensated for the emissions of 600 different athletes that came from all over the world, including their flights. It was like 1,050 tons of carbon emitted into the atmosphere.” He did the same thing again in 2018 by “neutralizing” an adventure travel summit held in Anchorage, Alaska. “We compensated for the emissions of all flights by all the people who participated by planting 5,000 trees here in Costa Rica,” he said. Last year Gallo stepped down as president of the Costa Rican Network of Private Reserves, an organization dedicated to the protection of wilderness areas under private ownership, but he remains a member. “It has a great mission, lobbying for private conservation efforts in Costa Rica,” he said. “It got started in 1996 by a guy who had one of the first ecolodges in Costa Rica. National parks were not going anywhere, so we were buying land to protect it and ended up having land next to national parks and having housing for people interested in nature, birding and whatnot.” When asked how he would define both “ecotourism” and “greenwashing,” Gallo said, “Greenwashing is everything that you say you do with ecotourism and you really don’t. Many people are using the concept of ecotourism to market themselves because they have a beautiful waterfall, but they’re not treating the water correctly and they have the wrong policies. “It’s difficult for me to define ecotourism, but it’s basically being honest and being proactive about environmental causes and being an educator of the tourists that visit you. If you’re a real eco-warrior or Opposite page: Rafael Gallo enjoying the beauty of Costa Rica. Aerial shot of rafters on the Pacuare River. Right: Rafters navigating past Huacas Waterfall. Photos courtesy of Ríos Tropicales
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 15
eco-friendly company, you’re trying to share with everybody so that it’s a domino effect, the need for the protection of the planet. When you say you have an ecolodge and you have no idea what kind of forest you’re in, you’re losing a lot of pieces of the puzzle just by calling yourself eco.” Gallo is not a big fan of the Certification for Sustainable Tourism, the authority that awards one to five leaves to hotels and other ventures in Costa Rica based on how they manage their resources. He thinks some places get the certification just because they fill out the paperwork right. There may be
establishments with five leaves that have some dubious environmental practices, and others with no leaves that are doing everything right. But Gallo believes tourism will generally have a positive effect on the environment if managed correctly. Tourism is Costa Rica’s cash cow, and people come to this country for its natural beauty. “Anyone that travels to Costa Rica ends up doing some kind of eco-destination,” he said. “If it’s well done, there’s probably a positive impact, if the company, for example, invests the money back correctly.”
But if a landowner has a small network of trails and floods it with thousands of tourists, he said, it will have a negative impact. “If you have controlled usage of your land and your ecolodge and the operator reinvests in the environment, then it’s going to be positive,” he said. “In our case, we’ve had a positive impact because we were able to purchase forest and plant trees and employ people from the community to take care of trees. We could go the other way and invest our money in fast cars and to heck with the environment.” Ríos Tropicales Lodge. Photos courtesy of Ríos Tropicales
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WOOD FIRED OVENS Now Available in Costa Rica
Custom Designed
Freestanding or built into existing construction. Same design concept used hundreds of years, but now improved with state of the art materials and perfected by science.
Pizza
Bread
Roast meat Vegetables Desserts
For more information: Call Jim 2695-8567 (shop), Cel: 8887-7175 About the builder: Jim Aoki, a master builder from Alaska, “retired� in Costa Rica doing specialty construction projects. Started building wood fired ovens here in 2015. Bakes sourdough bread that he sells at the local Farmers Market in Guanacaste
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TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
by Karl Kahler
The Osa Peninsula
Where the Wild Things Are
COOL PLACES
T
Corcovado is invariably called the “crown jewel” of Costa Rica’s national park system. 18 | #searchfindhowl| online
he storied Osa Peninsula, one-third covered by Corcovado National Park, is the wildest place in Costa Rica that is actually accessible to visitors. It deserves most of the soubriquets it has gained over the years: Costa Rica’s Wild West, its final frontier, or as National Geographic famously described Corcovado, “the most biologically intense place on earth.” My brother, Paul, first visited the Osa in 1985 and has lived there nearly full-time since 2000. A cousin of mine built a house here around 1991, my father moved here in 1993, and I first visited in 1994. Paul started an Internet cafe, travel agency and real-estate company in Puerto Jiménez, where he lived in a beachfront house with a swimming pool on the roof that became a home away from home for my entire family. Over a period of 24 years I got to know the Osa well, flying into the national park and hiking out, going waterfall rappelling and ziplining, riding horses and doing a chocolate tour, staying at most of the major lodges and nearly drowning in a rookie surfing mishap. This is not Costa Rica “lite” — this is a real wilderness. But for dedicated ecotourists, the Osa is as good as it gets, and not just in Costa Rica. There are few places in the world, even in the heart of Africa, that could compete with the Osa for sheer biodiversity, lush tropical beauty and extreme adventure by land or by sea.
Photo courtesy of Caminos de Osa
Corcovado National Park The Osa’s primary attraction is Corcovado, Costa Rica’s largest terrestrial national park, at 164 sq. mi. (The La Amistad International Peace Park, which is shared by Costa Rica and Panama, is much larger, but it’s almost completely inaccessible to tourism. The Las Baulas National Marine Park also protects a larger area, though it’s mostly in the ocean.) The rugged Corcovado is invariably called the “crown jewel” of Costa Rica’s national park system because of its incredible biodiversity, which is in part a result of its remoteness from civilization. There are no roads in the park, so the only way to get in is by foot, on horseback, by boat or by air. There is a small landing strip at Sirena, the ranger station in the middle of the park, where accommodations and food are available. I’ve been to Corcovado a half-dozen times and was always amazed by how much wildlife I saw — tapirs, sloths, peccaries, coatis, agoutis, anteaters, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys, raccoons, squirrels and bats, to name some of the mammals. Most of these are well habituated to human beings and don’t mind if you get too close. Exotic birds also abound, including toucans, scarlet macaws, trogons, antshrikes, hawks, egrets, manakins, woodcreepers and
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herons. There’s also no shortage of crocodiles, lizards, snakes, spiders and of course insects. I even saw a bull shark once, loitering at the mouth of the Sirena River waiting for his lunch to swim to him. (Sharks and crocodiles, in fact, can make crossing rivers at high tide dangerous if you’re hiking along the beach.) South of Corcovado, there are several ecolodges catering to nature lovers and adventure seekers, clustered around the town of Carate and farther south along the unpaved coastal road. Most of these come by their eco-credentials honestly — air conditioning and television are taboo, Wi-Fi is rationed and carbon footprints are small. The dirt parking lot between the village of Carate and Corcovado park is possibly the most remote place you can drive to in Costa Rica from the capital. It’s literally where the road ends.
Drake Bay North of Corcovado, on the “neck” at the top of the peninsula, is the little village of Drake Bay, so named because Sir Francis Drake is said to have sailed into it in 1579. This beautiful bay is home to a small town, properly named Agujitas, that relies almost entirely on tourism. Driving here requires a 4x4 vehicle and a spine of steel, as there are several river crossings and one very scary bridge with two planks for your tires. In the rainy season driving can be impossible, but the town does have a small landing strip. Probably most visitors arrive by boat from the inland town of Sierpe, south of Palmar Sur, via the Sierpe River. There are some beautiful ecolodges south of town, most of them also reached by boat. All offer boat tours to Corcovado and snorkeling or scuba diving trips to Isla del Caño, an uninhabited island once used as a burial ground by indigenous groups. This island has a great beach, and the snorkeling and diving here are among Costa Rica’s best.
Matapalo Surely the Osa doesn’t offer all this and surfing too? Hold onto your rash guard, because the Matapalo region at the southern tip of the peninsula has some of the best surf in the country. There are strong right breaks at Playa Matapalo, Backwash Bay and Pan Dulce — the latter is a bit gentler and a good place to take a surfing lesson. By the way: Be careful! Knowing nothing about surfing, I once paddled out into the ocean with my 12-year-old son on one surfboard, launched him onto a wave, and then thought I would die swallowing water from the pounding waves that quickly overwhelmed me. I survived when I ducked under and found that I could touch bottom and hop/swim my way back to safety. Drowning is shockingly common in Costa Rica. Matapalo and its outskirts are home to a string of ritzy ecolodges, including the luxurious Lapa Ríos and Bosque del Cabo. There are multiple other lodges and vacation rental homes along Matapalo Beach Road, a rutted, rocky track that is not for the faint of car.
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FACTS ABOUT
OSA
300
2.5%
140
PENINSULA
of the planet's biodiversity
species of birds
species of mammals
80%
of the territory is protected under varying types of conservation
10%
of mammals in the Americas
12
endangered species of trees
7
Biological Reserves
Osa Peninsula data and photo courtesy of Caminos de Osa
At the end of this road you can take a free or guided hike through primary and secondary rain forest to the 110-foot King Louis Waterfall. A company called Everyday Adventures (also known as “Psycho Tours”) offers waterfall rappelling, a thrilling and scary adventure. You can also strap on a harness and helmet and climb a giant matapalo tree, ring a cowbell at the top, and then do a terrifying Tarzan swing to the ground. The wildlife viewing and birdwatching here are sublime, with monkeys frequently spotted swinging through the trees. One tour guide here told that on a random night hike with his girlfriend, he saw a tapir, a pack of peccaries and a couple of giant rodents called pacas fighting for turf. Matapalo is a town with no town there, lacking stores or other services, though there is one restaurant nearby, the popular Buena Esperanza. For this reason most of the lodges here are all-inclusives, but if you rent a vacation home here, you should buy all your food and drinks in Puerto Jiménez.
Golfo Dulce The Golfo Dulce (“Sweet Gulf”) got its name from the large number of rivers that empty into it, reducing its salinity. (“Osa,” in case you’re wondering, means “female bear” but apparently got its name from a native chief, as there are no bears in the Osa.) The most enduring myth about the
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Golfo Dulce, courtesy of ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, is that it’s one of a handful of “tropical fjords” in the world. This is totally false, as a fjord is a deep, narrow inlet formed by glaciation, and the Golfo Dulce was formed by tectonic uplift. But that doesn’t stop every tour guide and travel writer (and Wikipedia)
The wildlife viewing and birdwatching here are sublime. from repeating Cousteau’s gaffe like gospel. The gulf is unquestionably deep, over 200 meters in places, and is a popular hangout for dolphins, whales and whale sharks. Boat tours of the gulf often feature sightings of these breathtaking creatures, in addition to snorkeling and visits to the Osa Wildlife Sanctuary, an animal rescue center with a cool menagerie of injured and orphaned animals. Inshore fishing is another popular activity in the gulf, with opportunities to catch roosterfish, yellowfin tuna, snappers, groupers and jacks. You can also take a boat out into the Pacific to hook a marlin or swordfish.
Puerto Jiménez Jiménez, the Osa’s biggest town, thrives on supporting all of the ecotourism mentioned above. There
are banks, grocery stores, pharmacies, clothing stores, souvenir shops, restaurants, bars, a gas station, a bus station and a small airport. Lodging here ranges from very cheap hostels in the middle of town to considerably pricier accommodations on the outskirts. The Crocodile Bay Resort, a top fishing lodge, has long been working on its ambition of building a world-class marina anchored by a Hilton hotel, the Botanika Osa Collection, Curio Collection by Hilton. Travel agencies here offer tours to any of the places mentioned, and can line up required permits and guides to visit Corcovado. You can also take a kayaking tour into the abundant mangroves and out onto the ocean. I once saw a mother dolphin and her calf swimming in a lagoon while I was kayaking in the mangroves. Jiménez can be a fun place to stay, eat, party and stock up on supplies, though the town has a few rough edges. Yet it’s also full of pleasant surprises, including raucous scarlet macaws that are so numerous they’re practically pests. And every day at sunset, hundreds of green parrots can be seen and heard flocking to their nests in the mangroves. The Osa is not close, it’s not convenient, it’s not easy and it’s not Manuel Antonio. But if you’re looking to experience Costa Rica at its wildest, and you’re willing to invest some sweat equity in your adventure, the Osa is the place to be.
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ECO-SUSTAINABLE SPECIAL by Jenn Parker
Indigenous Insights
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n important aspect of ecotourism is centered around the impact on, and involvement of, indigenous communities. Costa Rica is still home to several indigenous tribes, including the Bribri and Térreba. Spending time at one of many indigenous villages is a unique way to not only learn about the traditions, cultures, and way of life of Costa Rica’s first inhabitants, but also support these native communities.
Cultural Center of Bríbripa bribripakaneblo.com The Cultural Center of Bríbripa is located on the Bribri Salitre Territory outside Buenos Aires. A variety of tours are available to make your time in this captivating community memorable. Different aspects of the Bribri people’s life and culture are highlighted, including their worldview and history, deep-rooted connection with nature, use of medicinal plants, traditional dances and ceremonies, and ancient mythologies.
Stibrawpa enstibrawpayorkin.wordpress.com In 1992, three women of the Bribri tribe from the village of Yorkin formed the Association of Stibrawpa in an effort to improve the local quality of life through income-generating projects. Related goals were to preserve the Bribri culture and language, protect their natural resources, and promote sustainable development within the community. Stibrawpa offers Yorkin visitors a choice of one, two or three-day tours as a rare opportunity to learn about Bribri life in the village, in the rainforest, and on the river.
Térraba terraba.org Térraba is an indigenous group, territory, river, and town in southern Costa Rica. The Térreba tribe is matriarchal and deeply-connected with Mother Nature. The community is self-sufficient and lives almost entirely off the land using agricultural practices that have been passed down from generation to generation. Térreba visitors can learn about the local environment, food and agriculture, plant medicine, and traditions. #s earchf indh owl
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TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
Caminos de Osa by Karl Kahler
FEATURED ADVENTURE
Costa Rican Tourism That Helps Costa Ricans
F
oreign, well-to-do business owners tend to dominate the tourism landscape in the Osa, but an innovative project called Caminos de Osa is trying to change that by empowering local “microentrepreneurs” to claim a bigger piece of the pie. Launched in 2015, Caminos de Osa offers tourists a multi-day immersion in the authentic Costa Rica with visits to small communities, nature tours led by local guides, a sampling of traditional foods and humble lodging, sometimes in the homes of local families. “Caminos de Osa is an association of tourism entrepreneurs to develop
sustainable tourism as a tool to achieve sustainable development in the region and to improve the lives of each one of the members,” said Pablo Marín, executive director of the organization. He noted that much of the Osa is untouchable national parkland or forest
80 percent of the proceeds go into the pockets of local families.
reserve, limiting the opportunities for local families to better themselves. Caminos de Osa trains rural people of modest means to tap the potential of tourism to earn an income that would otherwise be out of reach to them. Four primary tours are offered, all of them lasting four or five days, with all lodging, meals, tours and guides included for one price. Camino del Agua, focused on water, takes visitors from Sierpe to Estero Guerra to Drake Bay to Isla del Caño, spending nights with local families or in small lodges. It includes hikes, horseback riding, cultural tours and adventure activities. Photos courtesy of Caminos de Osa
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CAMINO DE OSA FEATURED TOURS
COSTA RICA DINNER ADVENTURE
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View crocodiles, birds, monkeys and more
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 23 Tel: 2653-0975 Email: frontdesk@hotelbulabula.com
Camino de la Selva, focused on the jungle, visits the communities of Dos Brazos del Río Tigre and La Tarde, on the border of Corcovado National Park. It includes hiking, horseback riding, a night tour to see creepy-crawlies, a visit to a waterfall and a kayak tour of the Golfo Dulce. The strenuous, five-day Camino del Oro, focused on gold, starts with a tour of the museum at Finca 6 near Sierpe that showcases pre-Colombian stone spheres. There’s a boat tour in the nearby mangroves, a hike in the forest, and an artisanal gold tour that shows how miners extract gold from rivers, plus a visit to an indigenous community, a kayak tour and a horseback ride. It concludes with an all-day hike from Dos Brazos to Carate on the Pacific coast, where guests stay at the elegant Luna Lodge. And there’s the Osa Elemental, which involves riding in a 4x4 more than walking. It includes a visit to Dos Brazos, the El Tigre entrance to Corcovado, an indigenous reserve, Playa Blanca and Rancho Quemado, with a gold tour, a demonstration of how to make products from sugar cane and a horseback ride to a waterfall. Prices range from $740 per person for Camino de la Selva to $1,362 per person for Camino del Oro for a minimum of two people. Lower prices are offered for larger groups. Marín said 80 percent of the proceeds go into the pockets of local families. Caminos de Osa is supported by Stanford University, Fundación Crusa, the Inter- American Development Bank and SINAC, the National System of Conservation Areas. Speaking of the providers who host these tours, Marín said many of them are former gold miners in places where gold mining is now against the law. “We try to get them out of illegal activity and get involved in tourism as a more responsible way to earn a living,” he said. “Some have managed to go to university, and some don’t even know how to read. All of them are offered the same support.” Photos courtesy of Caminos de Osa
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 25
Río Sarapiquí. Photo: Martin Svoboda
TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
by Tom Schultz
The Other Side of the Mountain MORE COOL PLACES
A Road Trip to Sarapiquí
S There is much to see and do in this northernmost part of the province.
A tapir comes into a Sarapiquí lodge for some of its fine foliage. Photo: Tom Schultz
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arapiquí is an ecotourist’s dream — a vast expanse of tropical rainforest teeming with animals, bursting with vegetation and mercifully spared from the megaresorts and hordes of tourists found in many parts of Costa Rica. It’s renowned for its unspoiled forests, wild rivers and environmentally friendly ecolodges. Situated northeast of the Central Valley, the canton of Sarapiquí is not as well known as Guanacaste, Arenal, Monteverde, Manuel Antonio or even the Osa Peninsula, except among knowledgeable whitewater rafters and serious jungle researchers. It has in recent years become more popular, especially as a day trip or weekend destination for people in the Central Valley. We had heard there is surprisingly much to see and do in this northernmost part of the province of Heredia, so we set out on a grand circle tour that took both roads to and from Sarapiquí. Leaving the always overcrowded highways of San José and Heredia, we drove north through the increasingly open and less crowded towns on route 126, which cuts between the Poás and Barva volcanoes. At the bottom of the La Paz Waterfall is a new and rather ugly bridge, which along with the scars on the mountain slopes is a reminder of the terrible 2009 earthquake that destroyed this area, killing at least 34 and leaving some 64 people missing. Near the top of the rise we stopped, and you should too, at the Cinchona Café Colibrí. The current structure is rebuilt on what was left after it was destroyed in the earthquake. The family that owns the restaurant has for many years put out hummingbird and fruit feeders, and the spot has become renowned in birding circles. From there we started the long descent to
the plains of Sarapiquí. The road roughly follows the border between Alajuela and Heredia provinces and the Sarapiquí River, which forms in the heights of Poás and gives the area its name. Looming to our right and covering almost all of southern Sarapiquí and the Barva Volcano is Braulio Carrillo National Park. We continued to drop out of the mountains on the Caribbean slope and entered the La Virgen section of Sarapiquí, where the region’s first big attraction is located — rafting and kayaking. The moderate Class III rapids are ideal for novices and families and offer plenty of opportunity for wildlife viewing on the calm stretches between thrilling rapids. There are several operators —Sarapiquí Outdoor Center (www.costaricaraft.com) is a good one. If you want to make this the end of your first day in Sarapiquí, we can suggest the wonderful SarapiquiS Rainforest Lodge (www. sarapiquis.com). The next day we continued up through La Virgen and headed toward Puerto Viejo (not to be confused with the Puerto Viejo on the south Caribbean coast). Along the way we stopped at one of the more curious attractions in the area: Dave and Dave’s Nature Park (www. eco-observatory.com). The father and son U.S. expats who own this small reserve have worked it for years, restoring the forests and promoting second-growth forests. They have an interesting story and a tour that is not quite like those you usually find: You sit, you talk, you walk the trails, you drink coffee, and you photograph frogs and birds that you’d have a hard time seeing in other places. It’s a quirky and great way to spend a morning. We continued north to Chilamate, where Route 140 ends and Route 4 begins. It has very recently become an even more important
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Popular boat tour of Río Sarapiquí. Photo: Martin Svoboda
intersection with the new Chilamate-Vuelta Kooper highway. Years in the making, it is to be a shortcut for trucks to pass from Limón to the northern border crossing at Los Chiles. It also provides a much faster trip to get to Sarapiquí from places like Upala to the west. It had just opened when we were there, but the first rains of the green season caused it to become something closer to the Costa Rica intercontinental ship canal. The drainage issues have reportedly since been corrected. Now heading east on Route 4, we arrived at Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí. The heat quickly made us realize we were not in the mountains anymore. In fact, as far inland as it is, Puerto Viejo is only about 40 meters above sea level.
Puerto Viejo is a functional town, not all that shiny or touristy, in the Northern Plains of Costa Rica. It’s hot, flat as a pancake and filled with pineapple plantations as far as the eye can see looking north and east. The Sarapiquí River continues north and empties into the Río San Juan, the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, which spills into the Caribbean. This has made the port a center for shipping bananas and pineapples since colonial times. Puerto Viejo is known for its rafting, but there are other reasons to go there. The huge expanse of Caribbean rainforests here provide the major attraction in this part of the country: the jungle and all its plants, insects, birds and
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 27
Photo: Martin Svoboda
mammals. This region is also home to the critically endangered great green macaw, which is found primarily in the northern part of the Caribbean coast. While its numbers are slowly increasing, the loss of habitat, mostly to agriculture, has made its recovery far less successful than its cousin, the scarlet macaw of the Pacific coast. Green macaws are rarely spotted in the wild. There are a couple of way to experience the Caribbean rainforest. One is by boat on the smooth and calm Sarapiquí River. We had our two-hour tour arranged through our hotel, and the trip provided ample views of aquatic birds, crocodiles, peccaries, monkeys and other wildlife. Another way to see this amazingly biodiverse area is to go to the largest and oldest attraction in the region: La Selva Biological Station (www.tropicalstudies. org). La Selva (“The Jungle”) is a large, functioning, research center run by the Organization for Tropical Studies. In operation since the 1960s, it is one of the
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most important and well-known research center in the world on tropical biology. You must call in advance and get reservations if you want to actually stay there alongside the scientists, or take a day or half-day trip to see the butterflies, insects, frogs, birds and plant life. To arrange a tour, go to www. threepaths.co.cr/laselva_activities.shtml. As birdwatchers, we focused on birds, but
Sarapiquí is filled with pineapple plantations. there are tours here of interest to all. We continued east on Route 4 as it curved to the south around Barva Volcano and started our way back home. Route 4 ends in the infamous Route 32, the highway between San José and Limón. It’s probably our least favorite road in all of Costa Rica, so be careful and remember the movie “Death Race 2000” every time you come to a passing zone!
We decided to make one more detour to visit Rainforest Adventures (www. rainforestadventure.com/costa-ricaatlantic). This is a one-stop shop for a jungle experience: hiking, ziplining, an aerial tram, guided birding tours, restaurant and huge gift shop. We were there on a weekday in the off season, so we had it almost to ourselves. There is a lot to see there, but for us the highlight was seeing a mother and daughter tapir. The tapirs have been around for years and no longer fear humans, so you can get uncomfortably close to them. We were expecting a tapir to be the size of a small pig, not a hippopotamus. We got back in the car and drove up over the mountain, with several scary death races, and crossed the border back into San José, completing our circumnavigation of Sarapiquí. We loved it. If you are looking for something off the beaten path and full of wonderful activities and prices that are reasonable, take a long weekend to explore Sarapiquí.
Photos: Tom Schultz
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 29
TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
by Jessie Rowan
UNIQUE OFF-THE-GRID ECO-STAYS OFF THE BEATEN PATH
Isla Chiquita. Photo courtesy of Grupo Islita
A
leading contributor to ecotourism growth in Costa Rica is the luxury to be able to disconnect and enjoy sounds other than the ring of a cellphone or the loud voices coming from the television. Throughout the country, there are many ecolodges offering sustainable accommodations that cater to a wide variety of travelers fitting personal interests and thrills, but only some are actually off the beaten path. Located in natural environments and relatively small — typically fewer than 20 rooms — ecolodges tend to be in remote areas. Ecolodges emphasize environmental responsibility while minimizing negative impact by using renewable resources, ecofriendly supplies and locally grown food. The number and range of choices for ecoadventurous tourists throughout Costa Rica speaks to the ways in which small luxury comforts can still be enjoyed while remaining unplugged and environmentally conscious. The Howler has reviewed several off-the-grid sanctuaries with a view to individualistic appeal and sustainable integrity.
Isla Chiquita: An island adventure
Photo courtesy of Finca Bella Vista
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Isla Chiquita is a “glamping” ecolodge located on a small island off the coast of the Nicoya Peninsula. Developed in unity with the idyllic surroundings, the island retreat embodies an unwavering commitment to cultural authenticity and environmental protection through greenfriendly initiatives. Existing rustic structures were
refurbished during the lodge’s construction to house the reception office, Donde Tía Nora Restaurant and Harry’s Bar. Water is heated by solar panels, tents are cooled by natural ocean breezes aided by ceiling fans, and dining options highlight the best of regional seafood and agricultural goods. Local employment and engagement with nearby communities are a priority.
Osa’s off-the-grid beauties
Roughly 400 kilometers south lies the Osa Peninsula, which offers a different range of ecotourism activities and sustainable accommodations. Within the AMISTOSA wildlife migration corridor that connects the Talamanca mountains and the Osa Peninsula, Finca Bellavista is a charming and modern yet off-the-grid treehouse community. This rain forest canopy anchorage has an adventurous allure for ecotourists seeking wellness immersion at a high level, from waterfall hikes and swimming to ziplines. Finca Bellavista’s farm harvests organic produce available year-round, creating a localized, farm-to-table food culture at its restaurant. The future goal of having a 5-mile food “radius” is to better support local farmers and continue on-site food production. Unlike conventional home construction, the building process at Finca Bellavista never starts with “breaking ground.” Instead, a fundamental aspect of site preparation is the creation of access points such as trails, bridges, and other unique features. Home bio-digesters are installed to
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Photo courtesy of Grupo Islita
Photos courtesy of Finca Bella Vista
convert decomposed table scraps and other waste matter to renewable energy. Other equipment provides water storage capacity for this treehouse haven. Wifi at Finca Bellavista? Yes, but be sure to bring your hiking boots, as it is only available in the chic community base camp. Tucked away among the palms bordering Corcovado National Park is Casa Corcovado Jungle Lodge, a 170-acre private reserve comprising beach and rain forest. There are no roads to the lodge, only access by boat. This enhances the in-depth jungle experience visitors enjoy in harmony with nature. Eco-consciousness is reflected in the hotel’s approach to acquisition and use of materials, including biodegradable liquids and solid substances. On-site treatment of all waste waters with septic systems ensures the environment remains uncontaminated. #s earchf indh owl
HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 31
TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
1925
Poás Volcano by José Gerardo Suárez Monge and Karl Kahler
A passion for historical photos
The massif of Poás Volcano, with the main crater visible at upper left, Botos Lagoon at center upper left and the huge, central “Zone of Death.”
hotos are provided courtesy of José Gerardo Suárez Monge, author of “San José: 280 Years of History.” Suárez is a professional photographer and graphic designer with a degree in electrical engineering from the Tecnológico in Cartago, but his passion is collecting and analyzing historical photos — he has over 14,000. He has seven books for sale, which are available at Librería Lehmann and the University of Costa Rica bookstore, or by calling 7062-3086 or 8794-7679.
CR HISTORY IN PHOTOS
In the northern sector of the crater there used to be a lava dome 30 meters above the level of the lagoon, which was full of extremely acidic and hot water, 300 meters in diameter and 40 meters deep. This dome was formed in the eruptions of 1953. In early 2017, several volcanic explosions led to the disappearance of the dome.
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Between the dormant volcanoes Platanar and Porvenir in the northwest and Barva to the east is one of the most visited summits of the Central Mountain Range, Poás Volcano, one of Costa Rica’s natural wonders. Poás Volcano has an altitude of 2,708 meters and is a complex stratovolcano of irregular subconical shape.
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The Poás massif. In the foreground is the principal crater, and the green hill in back is the Von-Frantzius Volcano. Variants of the indigenous name Poás first appeared in 1663 as “the pastures de Púas,” referring to lands west of the Púas River, between Alajuela and Grecia. Around 1782, what’s known today as the city of Grecia (“Greece”) was known by the name Poás.
Book Release by Jose Gerardo Suárez Monge
A photographic history of Costa Rica from the time of its geological inception to the present. Declared to be of public interest by the Costa Rican Presidency and Ministries of Culture and Education Available in all Lehmann Bookstores Contact the author: 8794-7679, costaricaantigua@gmail.com
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efore it closed last year because of volcanic eruptions, Poás traded places with Manuel Antonio from year to year as the most visited national park in Costa Rica. It’s a spectacular, active volcano that, when open to the public, offers views of an immense crater with an acid lake. It’s also easily accessible, with a paved road leading to a wheelchair-accessible trail to the crater. The eruption of Poás in 1910 flung a column of gas, ash, rock and mud 8,000m into the air. A second eruption in 1953 produced a 6m ash cloud and gave the crater its current shape. The national park closed in April 2017 because of eruptions that posed a danger to visitors. Costa Rican authorities are working to reopen the park, which is among the most lucrative tourism venues in the country.
1925
One kilometer south of the active crater of Poás is another volcano with an altitude of 2,708m. It has a crater 750m in diameter that is occupied by a lagoon 400m in diameter with an area of 10.3 hectares. Its maximum depth is 14m and the water temperature remains between 10 and 14 degrees Celsius. This crystal-clear lagoon is called Laguna de Botos, named after the indigenous Botos. Cono Botos was formed about 8,300 years ago.
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 33
TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
ELEPHANT BEETLES CREATURE FEATURE
by Vern Veer
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Only the males have horns, which they use to combat other males during mating season.
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he elephant beetle is an exceptionally large, herbivorous insect species. Most of its time is spent in trees, feeding on decaying wood, sap and fruit. As the name implies, these creatures are elephantine in size compared to other beetles, ranging from 2.5 to 3 inches long and weighing up to 100 grams when mature. The male elephant beetle’s large horns bear a striking resemblance to its namesake. Only the males have horns, which they use to combat other males during mating season. Females have small bumps in place of horns. Elephant beetle eggs are deposited arboreally in decaying plant matter or unused birds’ nests in trees. Larval beetles will
consume three or more pounds of organic material during the two to three years before reaching maturity. Once mature, they will spend from six weeks to three months in the pupal stage before developing into adults. Elephant beetles only live one to three months after maturity. Survival of the species is threatened by rainforest destruction, indigenous medicinal uses, the pet trade and use in making charm necklaces and other adornments. In studies conducted by University of California at Berkeley, researchers working with the Pentagon implanted electrodes into elephant beetle pupae, allowing some control over the insect’s flying behavior after maturity.
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# earch ind owlJack Osborne Fritz Mayr Pennye Wheeler Donna Osborne John Logan Alvaro Marvez Chantal Batter Wally Beck fritz@overseas.de pennye@overseas.de jack@overseas.de donna@overseas.de john@overseas.de alvaro@overseas.de chantal@overseas.de wally@overseas.de
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TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
2018 Presidential Flamingo Fishing Rodeo by Joan Vernon
FEATURED EVENT
The third annual event highlights great fishing in northern Costa Rica
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he hottest fishing tournament of the season returns Aug. 10-12 for the third year in a row, sponsored by the Flamingo Marina development. You like to catch billfish, dorado, tuna, wahoo? You’ve come to the right place. New this year, the 2018 Presidential Flamingo Fishing Rodeo offers prizes for catch-and-release marlin and sailfish, with a $500 entry fee per team. And the Funfish Division offers prizes for dorado, tuna, wahoo, snapper and roosterfish, with an entry fee of $100 per team. Organizers say this is a familyfriendly tournament perfect for anglers of all ages and levels of experience. It’s
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Photo courtesy of Presidential Challenge Charitable Foundation, Inc.
the second leg of the Billfish Tournament Series of Central America. Last year’s 56 anglers, fishing on 14 boats, released 91 sailfish and four blue marlin in the two-day event. Among the participants were seven family teams, five junior anglers and three lady anglers. Team 360 Splendor del Pacifico, fishing aboard Wet Ass II, emerged victorious, and the team is returning this year to defend its title. The Presidential Flamingo Fishing
Rodeo benefits several important charities, including Abriendo Mentes, which assists Guanacaste residents with employment opportunities and continuing education, as well as the Billfish Foundation, which promotes conservation in Central America and throughout the world. The event is sponsored in part by the Marina Flamingo development, which is set to begin construction on a new marina soon.
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SEA BIRD SAILING EXCURSIONS #1 Boat/Water Tour on TripAdvisor! Half day, full day, group or private sailing and snorkeling tours, with photos, open bar & snacks included Playas del Coco Hours and rates on website 8880-6393 SeaBirdSailingExcursions.com
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SURFING HOWLER
COSTA RICA
Surfer: Nicolas Fisher of Argentina getting covered May 26th at Terrazas, Playa Hermosa Photo: Jorge A. Russell
July
2018
COMPETITION RESULTS: Copa Los 40 TIDE, SUN & MOON CHART PROFILE: Leilani McGonagle SURF SPOT: Playa Guiones AUGUST ODYSSEYS
h o w l e r m a g . c o m | #SearchfindHowl #s earchf indh owl
HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 39
SURFING COSTA RICA
Copa Los 40
July 6
May 28, 2018
COMPETITION RESULTS
A
nthony Fillingim Abarca, 2016 national champion, won the 40 Cup of the Kölbi National Circuit 2018, which presents INS Joven and Adrenaline Rush. This puts him on the list of favorites to win the title of the season in less than two months. Fillingim’s performance in the Santa Teresa competition was simply huge. His two highest combinations of the category were 15.50 (8.00 + 7.50) and 17.50 (9.00 + 8.50), in the final and in the semifinal respectively. Thus, Fillingim who had made the title less than two years ago and Jason Torres, less than one year ago, joined the championship fight that will close in Hermosa in July as usual.
Junior - Girls
Results:
Minigrommet -Boys
Open • • • •
Anthony Fillingim (Santa Teresa) Jose López (Jacó) Jason Torres (Jacó) Alberto Muñoz (Esterillos Oeste)
Open - Female • • • •
Valentina Resano (Nicaragua) Candelaria Resano (Nicaragua) Rubiana Brownell (Avellanas) Valeria Ojeda
Junior - Boys • • • •
Aarón Ramirez (Jacó) Malakai Martínez (Tamarindo) Steven Arauz (Limón) Gabriel Córdoba (Puerto Viejo)
• • • •
Rubiana Brownell (Avellanas) Valeria Ojeda (Jacó) Paulina Summers (Hone Creek) Camila Summers (Hone Creek)
Boys • • • •
Sam Reydi (Dominical) Aaron Ramirez (Jacó) Isauro Elizondo (Panamá) Darshan Antequera (Jacó)
Axel Castro
Anthony Fillingim
July 12 New Moon
Girls • • • •
Rubiana Brownell (Avellanas) Valeria Ojeda (Jacó) Valentina Resano (Nicaragua) Candelaria Resano (Nicaragua)
Grommets • • • •
• • • •
Axel Castro (Limón) Leonardo Apreda (Jacó) Tosh Talbot Ethan Hollander (Dominical)
July 19 Candelaria Resano
1st Quarter
Leonardo Apreda (Jacó) Teo Galé (Panamá) David Monge (Jacó) Ulises Rangel
Minigrommet - Girls • • • • •
Candelaria Resano (Nicaragua) Bree Smith (Bejuco) Rachel Agüero (Jacó) Máxima Resano (Nicaragua) Ericka Berra
July 27 Full Moon
Sam Reydi
illingim
Anthony F
Photos courtesy of
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3 Quarter
Men's Open podium
Source: surfingcr.net
JULY 1 JULY 31
5:22 AM 5:28 AM
JULY 1 JULY 31
6:04 PM 6:02 PM
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TIDE CHART
JULY 1 - JULY 31, 2018
DAY
HIGH TIDES
LOW TIDES
HIGH TIDES
LOW TIDES
HIGH TIDES
1 Sun
4:56am 8.50 '
10:51am 1.32 '
5:03pm 8.64 '
11:14pm 0.57 '
2 Mon
5:34am 8.46 '
11:31am 1.39 '
5:43pm 8.42 '
11:50pm 0.75 '
3 Tues
6:14am 8.37 '
12:11pm 1.50 '
6:23pm 8.14 '
4 Wed
12:30am 0.98 '
6:54am 8.26 '
12:55pm 1.63 '
7:05pm 7.84 '
5 Thurs
1:10am 1.24 '
7:36am 8.16 '
1:41pm 1.73 '
7:51pm 7.56 '
6 Fri
1:52am 1.46 '
8:20am 8.11 '
2:29pm 1.78 '
8:41pm 7.35 '
7 Sat
2:40am 1.63 '
9:10am 8.14 '
3:23pm 1.73 '
9:37pm 7.28 '
8 Sun
3:34am 1.69 '
10:04am 8.27 '
4:21pm 1.54 '
10:37pm 7.37 '
9 Mon
4:32am 1.61 '
11:02am 8.53 '
5:21pm 1.20 '
11:37pm 7.66 '
10 Tues
5:32am 1.38 '
12:00pm 8.90 '
6:19pm 0.74 '
SURF
11 Wed
12:37am 8.12 '
6:32am 1.01 '
12:56pm 9.34 '
7:15pm 0.21 '
12 Thurs
1:33am 8.67 '
7:30am 0.57 '
1:52pm 9.78 '
8:09pm -0.31 '
13 Fri
2:27am 9.24 '
8:26am 0.13 '
2:44pm 10.13 '
9:01pm -0.73 '
14 Sat
3:19am 9.72 '
9:20am -0.21 '
3:38pm 10.33 '
9:51pm -0.98 '
15 Sun
4:11am 10.06 ' 10:14am -0.39 '
4:28pm 10.33 '
10:41pm -1.03 '
16 Mon
5:01am 10.21 ' 11:08am -0.38 '
5:20pm 10.11 '
11:33pm -0.86 '
17 Tues
5:53am 10.14 ' 12:00pm -0.18 '
6:14pm 9.71 '
18 Wed
12:23am -0.48 '
6:45am 9.89 '
12:56pm 0.18 '
7:08pm 9.16 '
19 Thurs
1:15am 0.04 '
7:39am 9.50 '
1:52pm 0.62 '
8:04pm 8.57 '
20 Fri
2:09am 0.64 '
8:37am 9.06 '
2:52pm 1.05 '
9:04pm 8.01 '
21 Sat
3:07am 1.21 '
9:35am 8.65 '
3:54pm 1.39 '
10:08pm 7.60 '
22 Sun
4:07am 1.68 '
10:35am 8.35 '
4:58pm 1.57 '
11:12pm 7.39 '
23 Mon
5:09am 1.96 '
11:35am 8.20 '
5:58pm 1.56 '
24 Tues
12:12am 7.39 '
6:09am 2.06 '
12:29pm 8.19 '
6:54pm 1.42 '
25 Wed
1:06am 7.54 '
7:03am 1.99 '
1:19pm 8.29 '
7:40pm 1.20 '
26 Thurs
1:54am 7.79 '
7:51am 1.82 '
2:03pm 8.45 '
8:22pm 0.94 '
27 Fri
2:38am 8.07 '
8:33am 1.60 '
2:45pm 8.62 '
9:00pm 0.71 '
28 Sat
3:16am 8.35 '
9:13am 1.36 '
3:25pm 8.75 '
9:36pm 0.52 '
29 Sun
3:54am 8.57 '
9:51am 1.17 '
4:03pm 8.81 '
10:12pm 0.42 '
30 Mon
4:30am 8.73 '
10:29am 1.03 '
4:39pm 8.78 '
10:48pm 0.42 '
31 Tues
5:06am 8.79 '
11:07am 0.98 '
5:17pm 8.64 '
11:22pm 0.52 '
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SURFING COSTA RICA inner's nger to the w Left: No stra d internationally an podium here nd has agle's backha Right: McGon ntion of the WSL te caught the at
by Ellen Zoe Golden
PROFILE
LEILANI MCGONAGLE
L
eilani McGonagle has quite a collection of trophy hardware. Her stash includes team gold, and individual silver, bronze and copper medals from numerous International Surf Association (ISA) World Surfing Games from Costa Rica to Japan. She’s won a national Women’s and three Junior Women’s championships, team and individual gold medals from the firstever Olympic-sanctioned Central American Sports Games. She’s also been the World Surf League’s (WSL) North American Junior champion. And if you were to bet on McGonagle being on the Costa Rica national team that travels for surfing’s debut in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, your wager would probably win big money. On the WSL Qualifying Series circuit, the prestigious contests
Photo: Autumn Hays
42 | #searchfindhowl| online
that determine by top 6 ranking who competes in the Women’s Championship Tour (CT), McGonagle is having a banner year. In the recent Barbados Surf Pro QS3000 at Drill Hall Beach, she copped her first-ever Women’s QS victory by selecting only two waves in the final — the second one coming in the final seconds — for a score just big enough to overcome Hawaiian competitor Summer Macedo. “Leilani's style is very fluid and she adapts to the conditions at hand very well,” says Andrew Nichols of the World Surf League, describing McGonagle’s performances in the international arena. “Her backhand is powerful when she gets the right section and her forehand carves are some of the best among the QS women when she's in rhythm.” McGonagle currently sits at no. 21 out of 345 in the WSL QS rankings. This places her in the higher rounds to begin her work competing at the exclusive Athlete: Leilani McGonagle QS6000 events. Sport: Surfing “2018 has been a big learning Age: 18 curve for me,” says the Pavones About: native, who was raised on that Born in Pavones to parents renowned, beautiful left-handed from England and California, wave. “I’m eternally grateful for all Leilani is a superstar wave the experiences I’ve lived through rider, powerful and driven, with this sport. It brings me such joy! a humble and beautiful soul. There have been so many highs and lows. It’s difficult sometimes to keep Sponsors: Rip Curl, Carton myself emotionally in check with Surfboards, Mango Surf Shop, early losses, but I just try to reset FCS, Kolbi and take everything I can from them. Being 21st with this win in Barbados just makes me more motivated to get better and surf harder!”
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 43
SURFING COSTA RICA
by Jenn Parker
SURF SPOT
PLAYA GUIONES P
laya Guiones is a harmonious and eco-conscious beach community midway down the Nicoya Peninsula in the province of Guanacaste. Famed for its seemingly endless waves, yoga retreats and a truly environmentalist approach to development and community, Guiones is a utopia for all levels of surfers, yogis, beach walkers, nature enthusiasts and peace-seeking individuals. Often called Nosara, even though the town of Nosara is 7.3 kilometers inland, Playa Guiones has flourished into a thriving and inviting Blue Flag coastal community.
How to get there
Playa Guiones is easily accessible by road or by air. There is a small domestic airport in Nosara where Sansa Airlines flights arrive at least once a day from Liberia and San José, and more often during the peak season. There are two routes that you can drive, the main road and the coastal road. The main road starts in Nicoya and takes you through several small towns before reaching a fork in the road near a gas station. Take the right turn toward Playa Guiones instead of continuing left toward Samara. The coastal road runs the length of the Nicoya Peninsula and involves crossing several rivers, so it’s safer to avoid this route during the rainy reason. You
44 | #searchfindhowl| online
can always opt to hire a private driver or take a group shuttle to Playa Guiones if you don’t want to drive yourself.
Where to surf
What makes Guiones a unique surf spot are the waves for novice surfers and experienced wave catchers alike on almost any given day. The bigger and more powerful waves tend to be farther out, while the softer green waves can be caught
The ocean floor is a mix of sand and rocky reef, but pretty deep.
Photos: Marcel Freitez, Shaka Media
on the very inside. You can almost always find your own peak if you are seeking a bit more solitude in the surf. Depending on the swell direction and wave size, different areas of the beach will hold a bettershaped wave or produce more consistent sets. It’s easy to tell from just standing on the beach and looking out. Playa Guiones can hold a lot of size with open waves sometimes peaking in the double overhead range. Guiones favors both south and northwest swells and easterly winds. The waves typically break at all tides but are usually best around the mid-tide. The ocean floor is a mix of sand and rocky reef, but pretty deep; you are unlikely to touch bottom unless surfing at a much lower tide and in the inside zone.
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Photographer: Marcel Freitez Company: Shaka Media About: Venezuelan-born Marcel has been in Costa Rica since 2014. Nature and surfing are his primary interests.
Local companies
Guiones is host to an impressive selection of restaurants, hotels, shops and services. If you want to take a surf lesson, attend a yoga class, indulge in spa treatments, embark on a tour or pick up some one-of-a-kind souvenirs, Playa
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Guiones has you covered. You can also just cool off with a fresh-pressed juice, refuel with a healthy meal, grab a cocktail or just kick back and relax in this home away from home. There are accommodation options for nearly every budget, from the Harmony Hotel to Olas Verdes to Nomadic. Exquisite dining choices include Rosi’s Soda Tica,
Northern Guanacaste. Office at Shaka Foods, road to Tamarindo 8330 5436 shakamediainfo@gmail.com @shakamedia @Shakamedia Beach Dog Café, Nosara Burrito Company, Enigma Nosara and Al Chile. Ola Alais, Nosara Tico, and Moana Surf Resort offer surf lessons and coaching for all levels and for those who want to improve their surfing out in some of Guiones’ famously fun waves.
HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 45
SURFING COSTA RICA
Ollie's Point Secret Spots - Guanacaste
Secret Spots - southern Guanacaste June 2, graced a secret spot in southern Guanacaste with some pumping surf and an empty line-up. Reese Wilkins getting some backside spray on a perfect Ollie’s day
Juan Diego and Allan Campos paddling out. There’s nothing quite like surfing with just your buddy at a secret spot, especially on a day like this.
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Secret Spots - Guanacaste
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Ollie's Point
Malcom Hill doing a hard bottom turn. The swell might have been reading three to four feet, but Ollie’s Point lit up on May 19 with clean overhead sets.
by Jenn Parker
WAVES
YOU'VE MISSED
N
ow in the midst of the swell season, the Pacific coast of Costa Rica has received numerous proper south and southwest swells. Most of the swells this past month fell in the range of three to four feet, but several days pumped quite a bit bigger. Standout spots like Ollie’s Point, Playa Negra, the Avellenas river mouth, Playa Hermosa and a few hidden gems in southern Guanacaste saw well-overhead waves on multiple occasions between the middle of May and the middle of June. Several rainy afternoons also provided dreamy glass-off sunset sessions that were complete with rainbows and emerald green seas. There were only a few days that weren’t ideal for surfing,.This was mainly because of onshore winds and stormy weather, not for lack of swell.
Photos: Marcel Freitez, Shaka Media
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Photos Jorge A. Russell HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 47
WAVES YOU'VE MISSED ... cont'd Terrazas, Playa Hermosa
Photographer: Jorge A. Russell About: A native of Spain, Jorge has been an avid photographer since he was 14 years old. He has been making a living as a professional photographer in Costa Rica since 2004. Based in Jacรณ 8836-6475 jorgerussellphotographer@ gmail.com @fotografodeaccion
Valeria Ojeda from Venezuela showing raw girl power,
48 | #searchfindhowl| online
Photos JorgeJune A. 5Russell in Terrazas
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SURFING COSTA RICA
Carlos Muñoz landing airs with control and style in Playa Hermosa
Carlos Muñoz's powerhouse moves on a wave-filled day, June 5 Sharon Vargas from Costa Rica does a bottom turn with grace on a glassy face
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 49
SURFING COSTA RICA
by Jessie Rowan
My Time with Robert AUGUST ODYSSEYS
I
twiddled my thumbs for a good 15 minutes, thinking how to possibly describe Robert August shortly after our interview at Witch’s Rock Surf Camp — all while sipping smoothies and watching perfect right-handers at Tamarindo’s main peak. Then it clicked. While I could describe Robert as a world-renowned surf pioneer and famous shaper of Robert August Surfboards, what better way to describe this intelligent, witty and talented 73-year-old legend than… “At our last high school reunion, I told my seat partner, Noah Bailey (we sat alphabetically all through school) that I certainly spent more time with her than any other women in my entire life,” he said. That’s Robert August for you. Surf, fishing, beer and women Back in 1991, Robert discovered the sleepy town of Tamarindo — now a lively, captivating and frisky beach town. A peculiar, burly Florida fisherman named Russell had approached Robert at the 1990 Surf Expo in Orlando. “I know who you are. I’ve seen that ‘Endless Summer’ thing. I don’t surf, obviously, but I know what it’s about,”
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said Russell in his twangy accent. He went on to inform Robert about a recent trip he took seeing some of the finest, yet deserted, waves in a town called Tamarindo. In just a few weeks, Robert and his friends were on their way to see what
“I certainly spent more time with her than any other women in my entire life.” Costa Rica had to offer. Roads? Maybe. Surf? Yes. Robert went on to educate me as to how different Tamarindo is now, as well as the entire country of Costa Rica. You think driving the Tico roads today is hard? Try back then, with no GPS, cellphone or paved road — just a pure wild ride through the jungle all the way from the San Josė airport. Yes, that’s right. Liberia airport did not exist then. Finally making it to Tamarindo, Robert and his friends quickly
discovered just how untouched the area really was. “It barely had any place to get food. Thankfully there was Nogui’s, the only restaurant to get a bite to eat after hours in the scorching sun celebrating the world-class waves … all to ourselves. No one surfed here in Costa Rica,” Robert said. A birthday surprise After a long surf session, Russell ask Robert if he wanted to look at some properties in Tamarindo. “I remember thinking, ‘What properties?’ But I went along with it. It was my birthday and I'd had a couple of beers,” he said. Robert is sure happy he reluctantly agreed. “We got in the car and headed up this extremely sh**ty road, but the property was breathtaking, with incredible views of the entire surf. It was priced at $10,000,” he said. Robert took the deal right then and there. To this day, Robert calls that same piece of paradise his home, where he raises his daughter and lives a truly "pura vida" lifestyle.
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 51
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Carlos Hiller Artist on the Move
SPOTLIGHT
by Karl Kahler
C “My music professor said, ‘You're good at painting.’”
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arlos Hiller steps onto the stage barefoot, dressed in white like a house painter, and he sizes up his easel and arranges his paints. A live band is playing and an audience is watching. Carlos dances in place a bit, shakes his blond ponytail, squeezes paint onto his hands and starts spreading it on the canvas. It’s hard to stop watching this performance, even if it goes on for an hour or more. Carlos starts with his hands because it’s faster, and then he switches to brushes, but he never slows down. A sky, a sea, some trees appear, and it’s astonishing that he can paint them so fast and make them look so real. It turns out there’s going to be a stunning jaguar lying at the base of this landscape.
Using no reference but the imagery in his mind, Carlos paints a perfectly proportioned cat that looks exactly like a jaguar, from the color of the spots to the details of the eyes, ears and whiskers. “I start with color,” Carlos told me. “I’m not good at drawing. My thing is color.” Performance art meets visual art in Carlos Hiller, who is the consummate maestro of both. He’s done this at the National Theater in San José and lots of other places, and I’ve seen him do it twice, at the Wyndham Herradura in Heredia and at the Hard Rock Cafe in Playas del Coco. I didn’t ask what he charges just to show up, but he said the painting usually sells for around $800. Good work if you can get it. Hiller is from Argentina, with great-
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grandparents from Germany. He just turned 46 and he lives in Playa Hermosa. He’s something of a local celebrity, and he comes by his cred honestly. He hitchhiked all over South America as a boy of 15, 16, 17. He devoted eight months to studying marine biology in Patagonia, but he spent all his time painting. He came to Costa Rica because he had uncles here. “My first paintings, I sold some in San José,” he said. “I had arrived in Costa Rica, of course I had no papers, and I didn’t like San José. I had a few paintings in my backpack and I framed them and sold them on the street. But I sold them really cheap.” Then he came to Playas del Coco, where he started a business painting signs. He ended up painting murals and boats too, and he became a certified scuba diver through Rich Coast Diving, which he paid for with a single painting. “One day after having traded the painting for the dive course, I thought, that’s great, I really loved that painting I did,” he said. “I’m going to do more. I did seven, eight paintings and I put them in the Puerta del Sol on exhibit. “I put them there, went home. The phone rings, you’ve sold a painting. Two hours, you’ve sold another painting. In two days, I had sold them all.” His next gig was with a 5-yearold piano prodigy. A local girl named Daniela Navarro, who plays piano at an international level today, needed money to go to a competition in France, where she ended up winning first place. Carlos says he raised $14,000 for her in one night. Meanwhile, a musician pal named
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Oscar posted on Facebook that he was playing at the Vida Loca, a nowclosed bar in Coco, and was hoping some friends would join him. Carlos asked Oscar, “What do you think if I come to paint?” Oscar was all for it. “So I show up with my easel, Oscar plays,” says Carlos. “There were maybe 10 people. It was magnificent, the perfect music for me. I concentrated, did a nice painting and when I turned around, everyone was super-happy.” Before long, Carlos was living at the Four Seasons in Payagayo, where he was the resident artist for a season. He is one of those rare people who make a good living doing something they love because they love it. Wanting to know more about the juju in his mojo, I asked Carlos how he paints a perfect jaguar from memory. “When someone draws an animal a lot, in this position or that position, you make a 3-dimensional image,” he said. “For example, there are animals like the whale, the dolphins, manta rays, sharks, jaguars, lots of fish — I know them well enough that I see them in my head, and it’s like those 3D programs on the computer. I can do that. I see it and I draw it.” “When did you start painting?” “I always painted. All my life, since I remember as a child, I’ve been painting. My mom always gave me paper and pencils.” “Do you dance when you’re painting in your studio alone?” “Yes, I always put music on. In the moment of painting, yes, I’m always dancing. That thing about moving in front of the wind came out in a very natural way. I’m a musician, a frustrated musician. “My music professor said, ‘You’re good at painting.’”
HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 53
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT M
Music
Events
T
ONDAYS
LUCY'S Happy hour, 4-6pm 7/23 SHARK WEEK check Lucy's social media for special announcements! 7/30 International Friendship Day LANGOSTA BEACH CLUB Club day pass, happy hour, 4-6pm CRAZY MONKEY Happy hour, 4-6pm $4 margaritas & daiquiris COCONUTZ Daily happy hour until 7 pm Margarita & tequila specials ZI LOUNGE Daily happy hour, 11am-7pm DJ, 9:30pm-2:30am
Food & Drink Specials
W
UESDAYS
EDNESDAYS
COCONUTZ Daily happy hour until 7pm Karaoke night, 7:30pm Beer bucket $14 ZI LOUNGE Daily happy hour, 11am-7pm DJ, 9:30pm-2:30am MARINER INN Happy hour, 4-6pm Daily special: Margaritas and tacos—50% off tacos with margarita purchase LUCY'S Taco Tuesday - c500 tacos Happy hour, 4-6pm 7/24 SHARK WEEK check Lucy's social media for special announcements! LANGOSTA BEACH CLUB Club day pass, happy hour, 4-6pm Live music, 7-9pm CRAZY MONKEY Happy hour, 4-6pm $4 margaritas & daiquiris
TAMARINDO/LANGOSTA
Langosta Beach Club Beach Club, Restaurants and Bar All you need in one spot: restaurants, bar, beach access with ocean activities, spa and fitness center. The perfect place for a perfect day. Restaurants always open to the public, facilities require a day pass. Beachfront, 400m from Pacific Park Daily, 9am-10pm 2653-1127 / 8372-7244 info@langostabeachclub.com langostabeachclub.com Daily: Happy hour, 4-6pm, 50% off selection Day pass for all facilities 9am-6pm Tue: Live music, 7-9pm Thu: Sunset music, 5-7pm Fri: Live music, 7-9pm Sun: Live DJ, 2pm-sunset Activities: Pool, spa, beach, kayak, surf, 54paddleboard | #searchfindhowl| online
Happy Hours
MARINER INN Happy hour, 4-6pm Daily special: 1/2 price wine when paired with ceviche CRAZY MONKEY Happy hour, 4-6pm $4 margaritas & daiquiris LANGOSTA BEACH CLUB Happy hour, 4-6pm LUCY'S Happy hour, 4-6pm July 4th live music, Fireworks 7/25 SHARK WEEK check Lucy's social media for special announcements! ZI LOUNGE Daily happy hour, 11am-7pm Live music, 6:30-9pm DJ, 9:30pm-2:30am COCONUTZ Daily happy hour until 7pm Live music, Will Matthews House whiskey specials, 6:30pm
TAMARINDO
CRAZY MONKEY RESTOBAR Bar, Restaurant & Night Club Boasting spectacular ocean views, great pizza, a huge pool, waterfall and a swimup bar. Great for groups and birthdays! Inside the Best Western Tamarindo Vista Villas Daily, 7am-2am 2653-0114 ayd@tamarindovistavillas.com CrazyMonkeyBarTamarindo Daily: Happy hour, 4-6pm, $4 margaritas and daiquiris Fri: Our famous ladies’ night, live salsa music and DJ free drinks at 9pm Sat: All you can eat pizza and salad $10+tax per person, 5-9pm Sun: Afternoon pool party, noon-6pm
Karaoke
T
HURSDAYS
ZI LOUNGE Daily happy hour, 11am-7pm Live music, 6:30-9pm Ladies’ night, 9:30-11pm COCONUTZ Daily happy hour until 7pm Vodka lemonade specials LUCY'S Happy hour, 4-6pm 7/5 Cinco de Drinko 7/26 Trivia Night w/ Abriendo Mentes @ 7pm - SHARK WEEK check Lucy's social media for special announcements! MARINER INN Happy hour, 4-6pm Daily special: Loco Thursday, 10% off all food and beverages CRAZY MONKEY Happy hour, 4-6pm $4 margaritas & daiquiris LANGOSTA BEACH CLUB Sunset music, 5-7pm Happy hour, 4-6pm
BRASILITO
Lucy's Retired Surfers Bar & Restaurant Beachfront restaurant and bar originally from New Orleans and famous for our frozen drinks and coastal fusion dishes Main corner, Brasilito Mon-Fri, 11am-midnight Sat-Sun, 10am-midnight +506 8529-4438 LucysCostaRica costarica@lucysretiredsurfers.com Daily: Happy hour 4-6pm Tue: Taco Tuesday, c500 tacos all day, 1/2 off Margs Events: 7/4 Fourth of July live music and specials + front row seat to area fireworks! 7/5 Cinco de Drinko 7/13 Friday the 13th drinking games and prizes! 7/22-7/29 SHARK WEEK bonanza check Lucy's social media for special announcements! 7/26 Trivia Night w/ Abriendo Mentes @ 7pm 7/30 International Friendship Day - BOGO frozen margs when you come with a friend howlermag.com
CALENDAR F
A weekly glance for the month
RIDAYS
LANGOSTA BEACH CLUB Live music, 7-9, happy hour, 4-6 MARINER INN Happy hour, 4-6pm Daily special: Wings & brews, a free beer with your order of wings CRAZY MONKEY Happy hour, 4-6pm $4 margaritas & daiquiris Ladies’ night, live salsa music DJ, free drinks at 9pm LUCY'S Happy hour, 4-6pm 7/13 Friday the 13th drinking games and prizes! 7/27 SHARK WEEK check Lucy's social media for special announcements! COCONUTZ Daily happy hour until 7pm Live music, bucket of 6 beers, $14 ZI LOUNGE Daily happy hour, 11am-7pm Live music, Latin Trio, 6:30-9pm
S
ATURDAYS
ZI LOUNGE Daily happy hour, 11am-7pm Live music, Charly Lopez, 6:30-9 COCONUTZ Daily happy hour until 7pm Live music, Flor de Caña and chiliguaro special CRAZY MONKEY All you can eat pizza & salad $10+ tax per person, 5-9pm MARINER INN Happy hour, 4-6pm Daily special: Sangria Saturday 4 sangrias for the price of 3 LANGOSTA BEACH CLUB Happy hour, 4-6pm LUCY'S Happy hour, 4-6pm 7/28 SHARK WEEK check Lucy's social media for special announcements!
FLAMINGO
MARINER INN Hotel, Bar & Restaurant Across the bridge in Flamingo Tue-Sun 4pm-10pm, closed Mon 2654-4156 themarinerinn@gmail.com marinerinn.com themarinerinn Daily: Tue: Wed:
Happy hour 4-6pm Margs & Tacos 50% off tacos with margarita 1/2 priced wine when paired with ceviche Thu: Loco Thursday - 10% off food and beverages Fri: Wings & Brews - get a free beer with your order of wings Sat: Sangria Sat - 4 sangrias for the price of 3 Sun: $20 chef’s special & glass of wine
S
UNDAYS
F r e e
CRAZY MONKEY Afternoon pool party, noon-6 MARINER INN Happy hour, 4-6pm Daily special: $20 chef’s special with a glass of wine
Must Present to Server.
LANGOSTA BEACH CLUB Live DJ 2-sunset, happy hour 4-6 LUCY'S
Coupon Valid for 1 Margarita. Ends August 1, 2018.
Happy hour, 4-6pm 7/22, 7/29 SHARK WEEK check Lucy's social media for special announcements! COCONUTZ
Margarita
506.4702.0826 MAIN CORNER, BRASILITO lucysretiredsurfers.com
Daily happy hour until 7pm Sports all day ZI LOUNGE Daily happy hour, 11am-7pm
PLAYAS DEL COCO
COCONUTZ Restaurant & Bar The iconic bar of Coco Beach. Always cold beer, entertainment, sports and good food. Avenida Central, across from El Coco Casino Mon-Thu, 11am till late Fri-Sun, 9am till late 2670-1982 pete@coconutzbar.com coconutzbar.com Daily: Happy hour until 7pm; all TV Sports Mon: Margarita & tequila specials Tue: Karaoke, 7:30, bucket of 6 beers, $14 Wed: Live music with Will Matthews, 6:30pm, house whiskey specials Thu: Vodka lemonade specials Fri: Live music, bucket of 6 beers, $14 Sat: Live music, Flor de Caña and chiliguaro specials Sun: Sports, all day
PLAYAS DEL COCO
ZI LOUNGE Restaurant and Sports Bar Food, drink, entertainment and the longest happy hour in town. Avenida Central, 200m from beach Daily, 11am-2:30am 2670-1978 info@zilounge.com Zi.Lounge Daily: Happy hour, 11am-7pm DJ, 9:30pm-2:30am Tue: DJ, 9:30pm-2:30am Wed: Live music, 6:30-9pm Thu: Live music, 6:30-9pm Ladies’ night, 9:30-11pm Fri: Live music, 6:30-9pm Sat: Live music, 6:30-9pm
TTZ (T
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
ico Time Zone)
by Johnny Lahoud
DOSLOCOS
The Times They’ve Been a-Changin’
O
ne of my favorite things about Costa Rica is how culturally diverse it has become over the past 25 years. When I first arrived here and paddled out in Jacó almost that long ago, only a handful of gringos were living in the area. Most were surfers or expats with a lame cover story to hide the fact they were running from something. Costa Rica was a weird mix of eclectic journeymen who all seemed to relish the state of living in total anonymity. As for my own crew, we were a bunch of surf-starved Rhode Island boyz who only wanted to surf, eat, rinse and repeat. The local surfers were a bunch of guys our age wanting to share their culture with anyone willing to live the pure life in Costa Rica. It was like no place I’d ever seen. Everyone was open and laid back. No one had an agenda. Get barreled and assimilate with the local fauna was all that I cared about. As they say, “Surfing is life; the rest is details.” I figured that somebody had to live here so it might as well be us. Back then, Jacó was a completely different animal. There were no condos or high-rises. Just a few mom and pop tiendas, two surf shops and one disco called “La Central.” The only thing taller than two stories were the waves at Roca Loca. A former tourism campaign slogan
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about Costa Rica really fit back then: “No artificial ingredients.” After the honeymoon was over, I left Jacó and headed up to Playa Grande to live. It was an area experiencing new growth. Besides the consistently empty surf and offshore spots, one other thing stood out — culturally diverse transplantations were starting to bloom here as they were all over the Gold Coast. Walking down the streets, we would
We have that mix of cultural flavor in abundance. notice a French restaurant that wasn’t there before or a Spanish café. Next time it might be an Italian pizza place or a Canadian sports bar … perhaps an Asian fusion place and, of course, a German bakery. Ultimately, I figured I would open an American — specifically, Rhode Island — supermarket and deli. Hell, I thought … it couldn’t be that hard given the lack of local competition. Laugh if you will, but there was a time when we had to go all the way to Santa Cruz every week for a full
shopping and supply run! So that’s how I started “Super Pura Vida and Cabinas” in 1998. The diversity of the area was evident right away. All types of people came into the store. We all had a part in building a new community together in Playa Grande, so we all had our own stories to share about the mutual daily grind in paradise. There’s a saying here, “poco a poco.” It means you have to learn to take things slow and never forget “they” let us live here. We did take it slow over the years, while sharing our cultural stories, our foods and our idiosyncrasies. By morphing them with the notions of “Tico time” and “pura vida” we emerged as an amazingly diverse and courageous type of new age explorer. It takes all kinds of ingredients to make a great soup, and we have that mix of cultural flavor in abundance here. I am the proud father of a Costa Rican daughter, and sometimes can’t believe I was granted a cédula and allowed to live here. I thank God every day for all the blessings bestowed on me. I’ve never stopped being amazed at all the cool people, places and things that make Costa Rica a multicultural wonder of the world. I hope and pray this international blue zone will forever keep evolving as the place I like to call Puravidaville!
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SIMPLY SPANISH by Karl Kahler
Random Words ahora/ahorita — now/right now. Yet these words are often used to mean not now, in other words later, in a while, in a little bit, and in many cases, maybe... maybe not... but definitely, NOT now. “Quieres una cerveza?” “Ahorita” — “Do you want a beer?” “A little later.” “¿Quieres comer ya o ahorita?” — “Do you want to eat now or later?” andar — “to walk,” and other meanings, but used in Costa Rica to mean that you have something with you on your person. “No ando efectivo” — “I’m not carrying cash.” bicho — an animal of any kind, but often used of a bug. “¡Hay muchos bichos!” — “There are a lot of bugs!” coco — “coconut,” sometimes used of the head. “Ponga un casco para protegerte el coco” — “Put on a helmet to protect your head.” ¡Cuidado! — Careful! As in English, an expression often used when it’s too late, right after people hurt themselves. duda — “doubt,” but often used to mean “question.” “Cualquier duda, llámame” — “Any questions, call me.” fresco — cool, like a cool breeze. It also means fresh, like newly made bread. Spanish speakers often make the mistake of thinking “fresh” means “cool.” “Fresco” is also a fresh fruit drink often served with lunch. jale — Let’s go, or you go mañoso — mischievous, but also used of someone who is picky about food nop — “nope.” Occasionally heard in Costa Rica in place of “no.” ocupar — “to occupy” or “take up,” but used in Costa Rica to mean “to need.” “Ocupo un destornillador” — “I need a screwdriver.” sip — “yep.” A formation that mimics “nop.” trigueña/o — dark-skinned person, darker than the average Latino but not as dark as a person of African descent.
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 57
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
SURVIVING Costa Rica
by Jesse Bishop
LOCOSDOS
The Boys Go to Mexico City
M
y friend Michael (crusty old surfer) Mazzoni and I had been planning a trip to visit the Mexican pyramids for quite a while. It’s no mean feat considering my weird music schedule, among other things … like wives, visitors and good waves. We were therefore very proud of ourselves when we actually secured a date, some good Aeroméxico flights out of San José, and a booking for three nights at the Hotel El Salvador in the historic district of downtown Mexico City. A couple weeks later found us landing there and looking for a taxi for the 40-minute ride from the airport to the hotel. The fare would be $200. What you may not know is the (gringo) $ sign is also used as the symbol for the Mexican peso, which meant the actual cost was only about $11. Pretty cheap compared to what you’d pay in Costa Rica. This was our first of many taxi experiences in Mexico City, with varying degrees of success. Some drivers were better than others, and quite a few, but not all, were pretty honest. After checking into our hotel, we went out and flagged down a very cheerful and helpful guy who charged us what we later learned was quadruple the usual fare. On our return trip later that night, the driver had no clue where our hotel was. Ditto, the guy who took us to the National Museum of Anthropology, quickly went from being not really sure where it was but nonetheless headed in the right direction to being hopelessly off course, with the police rerouting him this way and that.
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We finally arrived at the museum about 50 minutes later. To compensate, driving back to our hotel took about 15 minutes and our return trip to the airport 20 minutes. According to plan, we signed up for a tour the hotel arranged to the Pyramids of the Moon and Sun during our first full day. Michael and I joined a group of German, English, Dominican, French and South Carolinian fellow adventurers and headed out for the pyramids, about an hour from Mexico City with a few stops en route. We had a great guide who gave us her
It now hangs in our bedroom and scares the hell out of the maid. “Aztec” name, Uixtochihuatl, but said we could also call her Anne. Our first pre-pyramid stop was for a silver jewelry demonstration, after which we were invited to hang out for another 30 minutes in case we wanted to buy something. I told Uixtochihuatl I was more interested in finding a painting for our new house so she took me around the corner to another spot, where indeed I was able to purchase an “almost” Frida Kahlo portrait. It now hangs in our bedroom and scares the hell out of the maid. On we went to the pyramids, while Uixtochihuatl regaled us with heartwarming stories about how babies
were sacrificed to the rain gods because their crying was especially effective for bringing rain. We finally arrived at Teotihuacán, where the pyramids of the moon and sun were built about 1,900 years ago, way before the Aztecs adopted them for their own. The pyramid of the Moon was somewhat smaller than the Pyramid of the Sun, which is the third largest pyramid in the world. Michael and I climbed to the top of the Moon and considered ourselves lucky not to have died on the way up. We could see the much larger Sun pyramid in the distance and decided it might be prudent to skip that one. Just being next to it was fabulous enough. The pyramids were built for constellation-related religious rituals. It wasn’t until much later after Aztec assimilation that they were used for the more historically familiar purpose of human sacrifices. Uixtochihuatl and her associates, as well as Mexican citizens generally, take great pride in the long and varied history of the pre-Spanish Indian civilization. They share an equal disdain for the Spanish and the very unpopular Hernán Cortés. The next day was spent at the aforementioned anthropology museum. I could spend at least another 500 words describing this trip highlight, but I’m already over my Howler word allotment. Suffice to conclude that a good time was had by all, we made it back home safely and I’ve finished this column!
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 59
BEHIND THE IMAGE
LIFESTYLE
Local landowners take obvious pride in helping to protect the quetzal species.
by Gregory Basco
RESPLENDENCE N
ature photography is often a solitary pursuit. The end result more often than not involves self-fulfillment or personal achievement when our photos are acclaimed or published. For me, there’s nothing wrong with that; photography is my business. Awards mean prestige and lead to more sales. And more sales mean I can pay the bills. For true nature photographers, however, both professional or amateur, I think the initial passion springs from an already existing love of nature. I studied conservation and biology before falling into photography. Various photo projects I work on currently support habitat conservation, and I also run photography workshops in Costa Rica and other Latin American countries. This particular type of nature tourism can benefit local people as well as species/habitat conservation. That’s ecotourism at its core, and it’s just such a program that has allowed me to photograph resplendent quetzals in the Costa Rica highlands.
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The scene Resplendent quetzals are the Holy Grail for birders and bird photographers visiting the American tropics. The males are adorned in shimmering green and red feathers, sporting very long secondary covert feathers (anatomically not tail feathers, but certainly viewed as such). Finding a male in great condition, on an open and attractive perch with a good background, is an amazing experience. A few years ago, I was scouting a cloud forest lodge for my photo tours in Costa Rica’s Talamanca mountain range. In conversation with the family owners of the lodge, they told me about their idea of involving local farmers in showing tourists the resplendent quetzal. I thought that sounded fantastic, and headed out with them that afternoon to visit a local farm where these birds were coming to feed on a wild avocado tree. With a bit of patience, I was rewarded when a beautiful male perched at eye level only 30 feet away from me. My company, Foto Verde Tours, now collaborates with this lodge to provide photographic opportunities for our own international clients and other photographers from around the globe. The lodge’s business has grown, and that’s been good for the quetzal.
Camera settings Since quetzals move around quite a bit, I usually opt for handheld techniques when photographing them. Even though I’m using a pretty big lens, the stability that a tripod offers is offset by the time it takes to set it up quickly on uneven ground. For all the shots here, I used the widest aperture that my lens offers, usually f/2.8 or f/4. Those apertures let in more light, so I can
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usually get a fast enough shutter speed to hand-hold my lens, even in the relatively dark cloud forest. The other benefit of wide apertures is that they offer shallow depth of field. I can get my subject sharp but have my background fall out of focus so that branches, leaves and trees behind the subject don’t become too distracting. I see many bird and wildlife photographs with poster-board smooth backgrounds — just a solid wash of color. While that certainly sets off the subject, I’m
Quetzal photography as ecotourism
M
not a fan of these kinds of images. I prefer backgrounds that give a bit of context to my subject’s environment. Of course, there’s a fine line between including interesting background elements and having them detract from the subject. I’m constantly looking to straddle that line when using a big lens to photograph birds or wildlife. The backgrounds in the quetzal images showcased here succeed in that regard.
y photo tour clients always value their resplendent quetzal images for two reasons. First, these birds are rare and seldom apt to pose in great spots (being out in the open makes them vulnerable to red-tailed hawks). Obtaining a good image of a quetzal involves skill to some degree, but luck is actually much more important. The second reason these images are special is that our visits to farms where we photograph the birds directly generate supplemental income for landowners in this relatively poor, mountainous area of Costa Rica. It has even changed some of their farming decisions. I always take the opportunity to chat with the local landowners, who take obvious pride in helping to protect the quetzal. How do they do that? Because the supplemental income stream from tourism is tied directly to the birds’ continued presence and well-being, these farmers now take the quetzal into account when deciding where to plant a new field. If there is a quetzal nesting or feeding every year from a certain wild avocado tree, that area of the field is left unplanted, to give the birds some space. Previously, these farmers might have cut down trees on farmland that they now consider untouchable for the quetzal’s sake. Ecotourism is sustainable when everybody wins — tourists, local people, and animals alike. This lodge's project to protect the resplendent quetzal is a perfect example of how nature photography can become ecotourism.
HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 61
LIFESTYLE
Try new things but stay true to your personality
FASHIONFLASH
by Patricia Sterman
T
hese are five great tips to look fabulous dressing on a budget.
Plan well in advance Everybody is looking for party dresses in December. Why don’t you shop for yours in May? Or buy your school uniforms in December and Halloween costumes in January. The crazy seasonal demand is what makes things expensive and hard to find when you are looking at the last minute. Dive into the sales You can find amazing stuff on the sale racks. That perfect dress at the perfect price is yours to discover. It might be the last extra-small or extra-large size left, or that trendy color nobody appreciated last season when it was too far ahead of the curve.
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Buy the classics Kathryn Finney, author of “The Budget Fashionista,” recommends this 70/30 rule for keeping your wardrobe closet in balance: 70 percent should be classic pieces, like a great white top and awesome black handbag. Fun pieces like the orange skinny jeans make up the other 30 percent. Know your body The key to building an inexpensive and functional wardrobe is to focus on finding pieces that work for your body and your life. Try new things but stay true to your personality. Shop with a friend A friend will help you consider your options and move towards a balance between fashion and price.
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 63
LIFESTYLE
Pronunciation Spanish Easy Street
SPANISH
by Sylvia Monge
I
f I had to single out one crazy-difficult thing about learning English, it would be pronunciation. It’s as if the language had a drunken grammar fairy who burped and erratically waved her wand to create gems like “read” and “read.” How else but during a bender would she just randomly assign different sounds to the same vowel pair for past and present tense scenarios? In reality, we can thank the French for this particular example of madness in our spoken word rules. But English is littered with so many others that make the drunken fairy explanation seem more plausible. What about “bomb,” “tomb” and “comb”... can you hear her mocking cackle? To all the longstanding sufferers of English language-induced PTSD seeking to learn Spanish, I say, take heart. When it comes to pronunciation, you’re on easy street. With just a couple of basic rules to get down, you are almost good to go.
sounds involve variations. Some of the same English rules apply, including the pronunciation of “c” or “g,” depending on the vowel it precedes. The “c” is hard (“k” sound) when paired with “a” (casa, house), “o” (corazón, heart) or “u” (cuchara, spoon). But it’s soft (“s” sound) with “e” (celular, cellphone) or “i” (cielo, sky). Similarly, the hard “g” precedes
Another Costa Rican quirk is that “b” and “v” have the same sound, and it's always "b."
Vowel and vowel blends
English vowels on their own have three sounds each, but vowel pairs or that dastardly silent “e” can cause all sorts of havoc. Spanish has no such madness; there is simply one sound for each vowel and nothing more. Hold on to your boots — that means no vowel blends … none, zilch. In fact, pronunciation rules in Spanish overall are steadfast, with few exceptions. Pronunciation is phonetic, which means pronounced the way it looks.
c
Consonants aren’t so constant
While vowels have only one sound in Spanish, consonant
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g
“a” (gato, cat), “o” (gorila, gorilla) or “u” (gusano, worm) and the soft “g” goes with “e” (gente, people) or “i” (gigante, giant). However, the soft “g” in Spanish is pronounced as an “h” sound. Another significant difference between English and Spanish is that the
“j” sounds like an “h,” as in the name José. Whenever you hear a Spanish word pronounced with a “j” sound as if in English, the actual consonant spelling is either double “l” (ll)” or a “y,” depending on geographic region. When pronouncing calle, street, or apoyo, support, for instance, some people use the “y” sound and others a “j” sound. Oh, and by the way ...“h” in Spanish is silent! Hora, hour, is an example. Speaking of silent, a “u” in Spanish can be silent when paired with a “q” and followed by “e” or “i” to make a hard “k” sound — quesadilla and quiero (I want), for example. The same applies to the silent “u” between “g” and “e” (as in guepardo, cheetah) or between “g” and “i” (Guillermo), pronounced as a hard “g.”
Spanish Vowel Sounds
a
ah
e
i
eh
a, o, u
ee
o
oh
To roll or not to roll?
u
oo
hard “k” sound
casa, corazón, cuchara
To make a hard “ki” or “ke” sound, use “qu” quiero, quesadilla
e, i
soft “s” sound
celular, cielo
a, o, u gato, gorila, gusano hard “g” sound To make a hard “gi” or “ge” sound, use “gu”
e, i
Guillermo, guepardo
gente, gigante
soft “h” sound
Many English speakers have trouble with the “rr” in Spanish; mastering those rolls can be a challenge. You are in luck in Costa Rica, where it’s not customary to roll “r”s. Rather, it’s more of a longer, harder “r”. Another Costa Rican quirk is that “b” and “v” have the same sound, and it’s always “b.” My favorite example comes from a student who met a woman named Banessa. He innocently asked, “Banessa with a ‘B’?” She replied with a laugh, “No silly ... like Banessa Williams!”
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 65
LIFESTYLE
If fighting cancer isn’t beneficial enough, beets have other claims to fame among nutritional rock stars.
Bee-autiful Beets WELLNESS SUPERFOODS
by Marian Paniagua
B
Beet, Boiled Egg and Potato Salad (Ensalada Rusa) Ingredients
3 beets 3 eggs 5 potatoes Cilantro, finely chopped Salt, to taste Mayonnaise, to taste
Preparation
Chop the beets and potatoes into pieces the same size and boil together with the eggs. Once they are cooked, cut into small cubes. Place in a bowl and add cilantro, salt and mayonnaise. Mix together. Place in the refrigerator and eat when cold.
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eets (remolachas) get their vibrant color from betalains, purple pigments that are more than just pretty-looking. Studies suggest antioxidant betalains, which have a higher concentration in beets than in most vegetables, may help ward off cancer and other degenerative diseases. If fighting cancer isn’t beneficial enough, beets have other claims to fame among nutritional rock stars. The root veggie belongs to the chenopod subfamily of superfoods, which also includes chard, spinach and quinoa. Beets have a range of health benefits, from lowering blood pressure (thanks to their high nitrate levels) to providing detox support (due to the megadose of betalain content). Beets are also good for the brain. They contain betaine, an amino acid used to form the brain chemicals responsible for our body’s natural antidepressants. In addition, beets are packed with potassium, which helps vital organs function properly, and fiber, which keeps everything moving through the
digestive tract. Alphabet-letter nutrients abound in beets as well. Vitamins A, B, and C all make our bodies feel bee-autiful by bolstering the immune system, manufacturing red blood cells, and producing collagen. Beets also boast folate, a stellar B9 vitamin that helps strengthen neural tubes. Pregnant women should consume folate to reduce the risk of neural defects in babies. But take note, gentlemen — folic acid can help prevent gray hair, so there’s a reason for everybody to hop on the beet bandwagon!
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ECO-SUSTAINABLE SPECIAL by Jenn Parker
Going Ever-Greener
W
hat can Costa Rica do to become even greener than it already is? Inspiration for infinitely wider and deeper impacts can come from any number of initiatives, programs, and goals that are already helping the country advance in that direction. Doing what’s right for the planet is an ongoing effort that takes the commitment of the government, local communities, and visitors. Here are just a few examples.
Introduction of Ecolones https://bit.ly/2GsZCTK
Costa Rica recently introduced its first “green cryptocurrency” as a creative recycling incentive. For each piece of recyclable material brought to one of the designated collection sites, individuals are rewarded with “ecolones,” redeemable for goods and services from participating companies and businesses. The ecolone program has been implemented at more than two dozen recycling and ecolone reimbursement centers.
Say No to Plastics Movement
Costa Rica is working to eliminate the use of all singleuse plastic items by the year 2021. This nation-wide, highly necessary movement away from disposable plastics is well underway, and places like Jacó and San José are making significant progress. In Guanacaste, the No Straw Challenge is promoting the elimination of plastic straws in restaurants and bars. Many other towns and communities are finding ways to do their part.
Renewable energy goals
In 2017, Costa Rica sustained the goal of powering the country on 100 percent renewable energy for 300 consecutive days. Year after year, Costa Rica continues beating its own record on this front. Carlos Alvarado, the newly elected president, announced during his inauguration that he wants to work toward eliminating fossil fuels entirely and make Costa Rica the first decarbonized country in the world.
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 67
COMMUNITY
Diamante Eco Adventure Park
COMMUNITY FEATURE
BEING GREEN MATTERS Guanacaste's leading adventure park sees CST certification as a key component of its environmental mission.
Planting a tree at Diamante.
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T
he gorgeous jaguar, Nico, was awake and walking along an upper branch in his habitat when he spotted a small, green lizard cluelessly walking toward him on the same limb. Nico froze and ducked his head in a hunting pose, and I thought, we’re going to see a live kill right here, right now, at Diamante Eco Adventure Park. But the little lizard kept sauntering boldly forward until it was invading the big cat’s space, at which point the jaguar jumped out of its way in fright, like a spooked little kitten. A jaguar scared of a lizard was one of the more unlikely surprises we found at Diamante, a world-class adventure park with a great animal sanctuary at Playa Matapalo, south of Playas del Coco. Diamante has a major ziplining operation, including a dual, ocean-view Superman cable that is almost a mile long. Diamante also offers ATV rentals, horseback riding, ocean activities and the amazing animal park, built in a partnership with La Paz Waterfall Gardens. We came here on a somewhat unusual mission: to learn about Diamante’s efforts to be recognized by the Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST). This program, launched by the Costa Rican Tourism Board, evaluates businesses for their environmental, social and cultural sustainability practices, awarding up to five leaves for those that meet 95% of its exhaustive criteria. “It required us to complete an intensive self-audit,” said co-owner Jim Correll. “It's one thing to use the word 'eco', it's another thing to practice it daily. The CST process
Diamante team having a great time with the kids from Liberia's Center for Special Learning .
by Howler Staff
helped us fine-tune our daily eco-related operations.” Alexandra Guzmán, Diamante’s marketing assistant, explained the requirements in some detail. The CST certifies hotels, restaurants and other enterprises, but it has a category for adventure parks with four major issues that must be addressed. The first is the physical and biological environment. “This is the environment you create within your company,” she said. “It’s basically how the business is done and run, so it looks like you have a solid company. It looks like you have a vision, a mission, that you have your statements, that you have a culture within your business, you have your values.” I noted that none of this has anything do with the environment. “Sustainable tourism is not only about the environment,” she said. “It’s about being able to have a business that you grow, and as you grow it, you’re helping the community as well. “It has to do with business, it has to do with the environment, it has to do with culture, it has to do with who you hire, the opportunities you create. It looks for reducing the negative impact that you might have.” The second major category is operations. “That’s how your operation is run,” Alexandra said. “Whether you have policies in place about how you should treat your customer, what your conduct is going to
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be like, how are you going to educate the customer in what you’re doing here, and how you’re trying to help the environment, help the community and help the culture.” Alexandra said this category is also focused on the environment, on what you do to reduce, reuse and recycle. “Our single-use items are almost nil,” she said. “All of our buffet is done with reusable plates, cloth napkins, no plastic glasses.” (There are no plastic straws either, Jim noted.) “We have trash cans in every station all around the park, divided between organic, trash, cans, glass and plastic,” Alexandra said. “We have the treatment plant as well, so all the bathroom waters are treated and then they’re used for gardening.” The third category is about the customer: “They want the guests that come in to take something out of it, to have a real Costa Rican experience and have it all very balanced,” Alexandra said. “It’s all about what are you doing to educate your client, how are you giving them something to take away, and how are you also insuring that they know the laws of Costa Rica,” she said. “And it’s also about how are you getting them involved in maintaining a greener planet.” The fourth category is socioeconomic: “What are you doing to help the communities around you?” For example, Diamante has over 90 employees, of whom almost all are locals, and Diamante does not lay them off in the low season when business is slow. “It’s a great thing to create jobs,” said Jim, originally from San Diego. "Providing year-round employment and opportunity for the local
community has been an extremely rewarding aspect of building Diamante.” Alexandra said that Diamante also organizes beach and town cleanups, holds community events like Guanacaste Day, and sponsors low-resource schools to come visit. There’s one group of kids from the Center for Special Learning in Liberia that comes every year to do the ziplining and see the animals. Alexandra said it's very rewarding to see these kids having so much fun. Alexandra went on to outline the CST’s extensive verification process, which requires the business not only to comply with a vast checklist of best practices but to prove they’re complying — and to do so year after year. I asked Jim why Diamante is going to so much trouble to get a certificate with some leaves to hang on the wall. “The CST is an important recognition for everybody in the business,” he said. “But we did it before we knew what the CST was. "Our early mission, because we had an oceanfront property, was to have minimal impact on the land, and create a special product for people to experience the best of Costa Rica. At the heart of that, we wanted to be very environmentally aware.” Jim said when you see those leaves on the wall, “you know the company has earned it.” He said it’s not like you fill out an online application and they mail you the certification. “We wanted to have that validation. We knew going into the process, it would be a big effort for our team. I am very proud of everybody. They all have worked very hard, putting in extra hours to make this happen,” he said.“ I look at it as an important selfauditing process to hold the company accountable.”
COMMUNITY
by Tatiana Vandruff
BUILDING COSTA RICA
Building It Green and Proving It
D
eveloped countries many years ago realized that as natural resources were used without control there had to be a way to create awareness of how to better preserve resources in a systematic way and introduce the general public to voluntary methodologies that would help owners and the environment. Several professionals in the 1990s got together in the field of sustainability, initially creating a method in England that later was imitated in the United States and forming what is known today as the USGBC (United States Green Building Council). An outcome was the LEED standard (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) with a point system evaluation and targeting specific aspects of environmental compliance. This method resulted in four different levels of compliance — Baseline, Silver, Gold and Platinum — that are commonly used today worldwide. In addition, there are other third party compliance methods that have driven the thirst of awareness to specific areas such as Energy Star, Green Globes, BOMA, EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) and many more. Most recently Costa Rica has adopted a voluntary technical guide issued by the College of Architects and Engineers that resembles the EDGE methodology, an easy-to-follow local option for new construction. This guide targets
measures for energy efficiency and water conservation. For most of these methodologies, professionals in the field had to take courses that led to examination and accreditation. Many of these methodologies are created for different approaches and mostly were designed for
The best way to find the professional needed is to consult with the local architects and engineers. new construction. These professionals can suggest different design criteria in order to enhance performance, be it for energy efficiency, water efficiency, indoor air quality control or sustainable material use. An accredited professional can contribute greatly not only to the attempt
of certifications available, but to your design based on a desire to intelligently return to the environment or simply to reduce actual maintenance long-term and short-term costs and returns. These methods of accreditation can be engaged with different professionals that will contribute to the information needed for the overall analysis of a project, be it for the energy consumption aspects, the water savings or the sustainable use of materials. Mechanical and electrical engineers as well as accredited general engineers and landscape architects, that are accredited can provide the proper advice for the approach needed. They can work independently or on a team and provide different design criteria aspects to the enhancement of a project. The best way to find the professional needed is to consult with the local architects and engineers source or online under USGBC professionals to be able to obtain local listings or abroad. Professional fees for this type of approach can vary depending on the amount of involvement. If the owner seeks certification of a building the fees can increase based on the method that would be implemented. Each certification method requires an accredited professional, so the specific certification that is attempted should have the corresponding professional.
“EDGE empowers the discovery of technical solutions at the early design stage to reduce operational expenses and environmental impact. Based on the user’s information inputs and selection of green measures, EDGE reveals projected operational savings and reduced carbon emissions. This overall picture of performance helps to articulate a compelling business case for building green” — EDGE Building Methodology
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COMMUNITY
by Marian Paniagua
Pet Talk By Dr. Gilberth Cavallini
Chemotherapy:
PET CARE
Another Chance for Your Pet?
C
hemotherapy has become a more promising and widely accepted treatment option for pet cancers. It wasn’t long ago that veterinarians like myself, as well as pet owners, automatically assumed euthanasia was the only alternative when a malignant tumor was diagnosed. Fortunately, we’ve been proven wrong. I’ve seen quite a few cases of healthy pets undergoing chemotherapy successfully. The outcome can be positive even for older animals with some health problems but a strong will to survive. The longer the life expectancy of an animal, the greater its probability of experiencing various illnesses, including tumor development. As in humans, the appearance of any new mass, overgrowth or change in skin pigmentation warrants attention as soon as possible. Although masses are usually not found in dogs and cats younger than seven years of age, they can appear earlier in some cases. When a new mass is detected in your pet during a veterinary visit, there are different ways to test it. The first and simplest method is cytology. This is a non-invasive procedure for taking a tissue sample, usually with a syringe, for laboratory analysis and diagnosis. Second, a biopsy of the mass may be performed in one of two ways, depending on location and other factors. Using a punch to take a minor sample can often be done under local anesthesia but total extirpation —
excising to remove the tumor — usually requires general anesthesia. The cytology and/or biopsy results are a basis for making treatment decisions. Some benign tumors can be left alone if there is no negative health impact or when the risks associated with surgical removal outweigh the benefits. But removal of even a benign tumor may be advisable if it’s causing bleeding, growing too fast or is in a place that might compromise your pet’s life. For malignant tumors, a key consideration is whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body (metastasized) or is potentially aggressive. X-rays of the thorax and abdomen can detect internal metastasis, and its absence improves the prognosis. Chemotherapy refers to the use of drugs capable of killing cells that reproduce quickly. The specific type of medication, and the dosage, frequency and method of administration will depend on the type of cancer your pet has. In our practice, protocols are established by the veterinary oncology specialist we work with. Treatment is followed up in our office, with some control visits in San José. Based on the encouraging results we’ve seen, our recommendation is to not fear the worst if your pet tests positive for cancer. It does not have to mean the end … at least ask for another opinion about another possible chance!
The cytology and/ or biopsy results are a basis for making treatment decisions.
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clínica veterinaria — animal hospital veterinario/veterinaria — veterinarian mascota — pet hospedaje — boarding kennel perro/perra — dog cachorro/cachorra — puppy gato/gata — cat gatito/gatita — kitten pájaro — bird pata — paw alas — wings enfermo/enferma — sick lacuna/injección — shot moquillo — distemper pulgas — fleas sarna — mange rabia — rabies garrapatas — ticks desparasitar — deworm camada — litter castrar — neuter (male) sacar los ovarios — neuter (female) comida para perro — dog food comida para gato — cat food
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HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 75
COMMUNITY
Tax Fraud Prevention Updates LEGAL EASE
by Ivan Granados
T
he following are outcomes of 2016 legislation “to improve the fight against tax fraud” in Costa Rica.
Mandatory electronic invoicing
The transition to a mandatory electronic invoicing system (factura electronica) for taxpayers got underway earlier this year. Under a 2018 schedule of phased-in compliance deadlines, Resolution No. DGT-R-51-2016 stipulated which types of businesses and professional service providers would be required to use electronic billing and receipts for all customer/client transactions. Those sectors include health, accounting, legal, engineering, architecture, computer science, geology, geography, biology and advertising. The same obligation to adopt mandatory electronic invoicing has since been extended to taxpayers who were not included in the DGT-R-51-2016 mandate. On March 20, 2018, the tax office issued implementation deadlines as follows under Article 3, Resolution No. DGT-R-012-2018. Failure to comply with the mandatory electronic invoicing requirement is subject to severe penalties and fines. A variety of electronic billing service packages are offered by more than 10 authorized providers in Costa Rica. Taxpayers are free to choose one that best suits their personal or business needs. You
may also qualify to use the free system offered by the tax office.
Shareholders registry
Executive Decree No. 41040-H, dated Apr. 5, 2018, establishes a mechanism for the mandatory disclosure of corporate shareholder information. The Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) is charged with creating and operating a shareholder registry database platform to be implemented by June 30, 2018. All legal entities and corporations in Costa Rica must provide information about their shareholders and “beneficial owners” who have substantive participation — between 15 and 25 percent of the total share capital. The same requirement applies to trusts, except for public trusts, third-party asset managers and nonprofit organizations. However, there is no obligation to disclose customer information for financial entities supervised by the General Superintendency of Financial Institutions (SUGEF) or General Superintendence of Securities (SUGEVAL). Also exempt are publicly traded companies listed on organized stock exchanges, either locally or internationally, as they are subject to specific stock market rules and regulations. For details, visit the Attorney General of Costa Rica website at www.pgr.go.cr and view Executive Decree No. 41040-H.
All legal entities and corporations must provide information about their shareholders and “beneficial owners.”
Last Digit of Personal or Legal ID No.
Deadline to Implement Electronic Invoicing
1, 2 or 3
Sept. 1, 2018
4, 5 or 6
Oct. 1, 2018
0, 7, 8 or 9
Nov. 1, 2018
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New agreement for exchanging tax information
Costa Rica and the United States allow for the exchange of information relevant to the determination, liquidation and collection of taxes, execution of tax claims, or the investigation or prosecution of tax cases. Signed on Apr. 23, 2018, this agreement must be ratified by Costa Rica’s Asamblea Legislativa and published in the legal newspaper La Gaceta.
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ECO-SUSTAINABLE SPECIAL by Jenn Parker
Greener Growing, Building and Living
A
side from the abundance of nature tours and adventures that make Costa Rica a traveler’s paradise, there are plenty of opportunities for learning and inspiration to adopt a greener lifestyle. Some ways to enrich your knowledge of earth-conscious growing, building and living are highlighted below.
CONTRIBUTORS Gregory Basco. Awardwinning professional nature photographer and environmentalist. www. deepgreenphotography. com, www.fotoverdetours. com Gilberth Cavallini. Veterinary Doctor, owner Cavallini Veterinary Services, Villarreal (MegaSuper Plaza). tamarindovet@gmail.com Ellen Zoe Golden. Former entertainment biz PR flack, now living the dream as a travel agent and journalist in my long-time home of Tamarindo. And yes, I surf! Ivan Granados. Managing Partner at GM Attorneys. He specializes in real estate and corporate law. igranados@gmattorneyscr. com
Punta Mona
puntamona.org Punta Mona is an off-the-grid community and center for regenerative design and botanical studies. Located on Costa Rica’s paradisiacal southern Caribbean coast, it offers a wealth of hands-on and immersive learning experiences. Workshops, retreats, volunteering opportunities, and camps are geared to those wanting to learn about permaculture, herbal medicine, and living a more sustainable and ecoconscious life.
Rancho Mastatal
ranchomastatal.com Rancho Mastatal is a sustainability education center, permaculture farm, lodge, and community on a 300-acre campus complete with waterfalls, natural swimming holes, diverse plant and wildlife, and an extensive trail system through an awe-inspiring virgin rainforest. You can choose to embark on a two-hour tour of this working permaculture farm and community, take part in one of many week-long workshops, or even participate in a year-long apprenticeship program.
Upward Spirals
upwardspirals.net/sustainable-living-expedition Upward Spirals’ one-week Sustainable Living Expedition is a unique opportunity to learn about natural building, permaculture, organic food production, renewable energy systems, community living, and food forestry, all while connecting and collaborating with other like-minded individuals from around the world.
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Karl Kahler. Author of "Frommer's Costa Rica 2017," former travel editor of the Tico Times and former national editor of California's San Jose Mercury News. Johnny Lahoud. Owner/ broker of Pura Vida Realty, Playa Grande. He loves Costa Rica a lot. pvrealty@ gmail.com Sylvia Monge. Owner of Spanish for Expats, a tutoring and translation service. spanishforexpats23@gmail. com Tom Schultz. BS Biology and Geology, avid birder and nature photographer, retired software executive. tom@pananima.com Patricia Sterman. Argentinian fashion design graduate, living in Costa Rica for 20 years. Owner of Azul Profundo Boutique, jewelry manufacturer and co-founder of SalveMonos animal protection group. José Gerardo Suárez Monge. Professional photographer, graphic designer and author of six Costa Rican historical photo books. Call 7062-3086 or 8794-7679.
Marian Paniagua. Certified Yoga Instructor and local artisan, born and raised in Guanacaste. 8914-0199. marianpaniagua@gmail.com Jenn Parker. An avid writer, traveler, and nature lover on a mission to surf the earth and share her stories. Jessie Rowan. Multimedia journalist and photographer originally from California. Former Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting grantee and global health reporter. Passion for surfing and traveling. jessierowan2929@gmail. com Tatiana Vandruff. Principal LEED GA, at GRUPO PACIFICO Architects and Builders. Sustainable Design and Construction for over 30 years. www. grupopacificocr.com or email at tvandruff@ grupopacificocr.com Vern Veer Jr. Retired reptile specialist, Denver zoo. Co-owner of V3 Reptile breeders. PHOTOGRAPHY Jorgelina Agramunt. We document your surf session at the breaks in Avellanas Beach with consistently incredible, rad images and create wall art. 8879-9612. www. avellanassurfphotos.com Alfredo Barqueo. Marcel Freitez. Venezuelan-born photographer, in Costa Rica since 2014. Nature and surfing are his main interests.8330 5436 shakamediainfo@gmail.com @shakamedia Jorge A. Russell. Professional photographer from Chile based in Jaco beach. Does outdoor photography and studio photography. 8836-6475. jorgerussellphotographer@ gmail.com Edward Sloane.
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COMMUNITY DIRECTORY All times AM to PM unless noted
Main road to Brasilito Sun, 10am 8621-6273 perrycarlile@gmail.com
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Hotel Capitán Suizo Mon-Fri, 9-5 8319-4015 adi@playatamarindo.org
Huacas Mon-Sat 2653-8365 cepiacostarica@gmail.com
ECO-COCO Community Organization Our mission is to raise awareness and educate the community by organizing cleanups and recycling Playas del Coco Mon-Fri, 8-5 8706-7963
PACIFIC SMILE DENTAL CARE Kids & Adults - English Speaking Highly experienced staff— orthodontics, implants, endodontics, gums Near Auto Mercado, Tamarindo Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat by appt. 2653-4354 info@pacificsmilecr.com
TAMARINDO DENTIST First Dentist in Tamarindo Implants • Orthodontist • Endodontist • Cosmetic Dentistry Tamarindo 24/7 for emergencies 2653-2020 smile@tamarindodentist.com
GROCERY STORES
CHURCH / COUNSELING
BEACH COMMUNITY CHURCH Visit and Socialize Love, hope, peace
ADI Community Development ADI is a group of volunteers interested in the welfare of Tamarindo
CEPIA Nonprofit Organization We promote culture, health, sports and education for children
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
M&G DE HUACAS Marble, Granit and Quartz Custom countertop, highest quality and materials, free inspection and quote 50m east, 150m north, 75m west Huacas Community Center M-F, 7:30-5, Sat, 7:30-2 8840-3815 litomtz74@gmail.com
TAMARINDO CHURCH All are Welcome Welcome atmosphere, casual dress, relevant teaching, meaningful worship 150m W of Tamarindo Airport Sundays @ 10:00am 8868-0871 Pastor Lyle Watson lyletamarindo@gmail.com www.tamarindochurch.com
DENTAL SERVICES
3k past Huacas intersection towards Tamarindo, on the right Open Daily 2653-9117 / 8926-6905
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMNET
BUILDING SUPPLIES
CERACSA Flooring and Tile Local showroom offering the quality and value that your luxury home deserves
CHURCH
ALLINSURANCE
ALL INSURANCE CR - TAMARINDO Health, Auto, Homeowners and More Offering the best coverage with customer service a priority Across from Auto Mercado Mon-Sat, 8-5 2653-4300 / 973-536-1191 (24/7) info@allinsurancecr.com
CENTRO DE CARNES VILLA MAR Freshness & Quality is Our Priority Beef, frozen seafood, chicken, pork, sausages. We have San Martin meats Villarreal: 250m to Tamarindo Mon-Sat, 8am-7pm 2249-0710 express service carniceriavillamar@hotmail
LA URUCA, HUACAS Supermarket Food, liquor, fishing gear, and much more - delivery service available 300m W of Flamingo turnoff 7 days a week, 7-8 2653-8714
HM HOWLER MAGAZINE | 79
Tipografía 2
CENTURY GOTHIC ITALIC
COMMUNITY DIRECTORY All times AM to PMB/Nunless noted
CMYK
ESCALA DE GRISES
FITNESS
PACIFIC COAST GYM Stay Healthy — Join Today Training, therapeutic massage, rehab, physiotherapy and nutrition Huacas - next to Super La Uruca Mon-Fri 6-8, Sat-Sun 9-5 2653-9026 / 8718-6872
Tamarindo and Flamingo Mon-Fri, 9-1, 2-5 2654-4367 / 2653-2155 info@gmattorneyscr.com
EDUCARTE Preschool, Primary, Secondary Private bilingual school 5km south of Huacas Mon-Fri, 8-3:30 2653-6363 info@educartecostarica.com
WALDORF SCHOOL Bilingual Education, English & Spanish Foreign languages German and French Pre- Kinder – 8th Grade Canafistula 6km from Villarreal Mon-Fri, 8-2:30 8651-8301 www.gws.ed.cr info@gws.ed.cr
LA PAZ Private School All grades, international baccalaureate program Flamingo / Mar Vista Mon-Fri 2654-4532 paz@lapazschool.org
VETERINARIAN
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GM ATTORNEYS Legal Services Full service in all areas of law
SCHOOLS
8794-7679 / 8466-6484 costaricaantigua@gmail.com
SCHOOLS
PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY
COSTA RICA ANTIGUA E INEDITA José Gerardo Suárez Monge Photographer and historian, collects and analyzes historical photos
SCHOOLS
MASSAGE THERAPIST
MASSAGES BY ELIZABETH Best Massages in Tamarindo Relaxing massages at your hotel or home Best Western Vista Villas Daily, 9-6 8640-6984 massagesbyelizabeth@yahoo.com
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
MASSAGE THERAPIST
KALISAGE Day Spa and Oxygen Bar Licensed Customized Massages & Facials Plaza Tamarindo #15 Mon-Sat, 9am-7pm 2653-2050 kalisagecr@gmail.com
CAVALLINI VETERINARIAN Animal Hospital Full-service veterinarian hospital for all animals and wildlife Royal Palms Plaza, Santa Rosa Mon-Sat, 8-noon, 1-7, Sun, 9-2 2652-9009 / 8815-5713 (24/7)
THE DOGTOR Vet, Grooming & Pet Shop Export proceedings, delivery, pickup and dropoff service Plaza Palmas #3, Tamarindo Mon-Sat, 8-5 8351-9910 / 4702-5106 thedogtortamarindo@gmail.com
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COMMUNITY DIRECTORY
PLAYAS DEL COCO
All times AM to PM unless noted
KRAIN Luxury Real Estate Member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World
CHRISTIE'S International Real Estate Specializing in Costa Rica real estate for over 27 years
Playa Tamarindo 7 days a week, 9-5 2653-0073 www.remax-oceansurf-cr.com
SPECIAL PLACES COSTA RICA Property Management & Rentals Full management, rental and concierge services Flamingo and Playas del Coco Mon-Sat, 8-5 2654-4493 / 2670-2198 specialplaces@crvr.net
Hermosa del Mar Plaza #7 Mon-Fri, 8-5, Sat, 8-noon 4702-7098 / 2665-8746 info@costarica-brokers.com
KRAIN Luxury Real Estate Member of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World
REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE
HORIZON PACIFIC Property Management and Rentals A leader in quality properties and services: Vacation rentals, management, association administration Tamarindo, Plaza Palmas #17 Mon-Sat, 9-5, Sun 9-2 2653-0390 horizonpacificvacations.com
RE/MAX OCEAN SURF & SUN Nobody Sells More Real Estate Sales of residential condos, homes and single-family home sites
REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE
Tamarindo & Flamingo Mon-Fri, 8-5 2654-4004 / 8407-1898 info@plantacionproperties.com
Flamingo, Potrero, Ocotal Daily 8-5 2654-4010 info@kraincostarica.com
BROKERS COSTA RICA Property Management & Rentals We specialize in luxury rentals and property management
REAL ESTATE SCHOOLS
REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE
ABC REAL ESTATE Fine Selections by the Beach We offer personalized service and a full range of real estate services Plaza Tamarindo Mon-Fri, 9-5, Sat, 9-1 2653-0404 tamarindo@abccostarica.com
All times AM to PM unless noted
Ocotal, Flamingo, Potrero Daily 8-5 2654-4010 info@kraincostarica.com
RE/MAX OCEAN VILLAGE Exclusive Buyer's Agents Roland & Nadene Tipper: Helping buyers find their piece of paradise Pacifico Village, Playas del Coco Daily, 8-5 8371-1520 thetippers@me.com
KELLER WILLIAMS COSTA RICA BEACH PROPERTIES Helping your dreams be a reality; sales of homes, condos, land and businesses Tamarindo, Sunrise Plaza Flamingo, North Ridge Road Mon-Fri, 9-5, Sat, 9-1 2654-5460 kwcostarica.com #s earchf indh owl
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