The Howler
Volume 15, No. 9 Issue No. 168
September 2010 Founded 1996
TAMARINDO COSTA RICA www.howlermag.com THE HOWLER Ced. Juridica: 3-101-331333
FEATURES 8 Dining Out
Publisher, editor and production
Mirador, at the top of Sea Tower in Tamarindo, is under new management but serving a wide range of international foods.
David Mills
dmills@racsa.co.cr Tel: 2-653-0545
12 Profile - Ari the Prankster Bartender
The best-known and longest-serving bartender in town, Aristides holds court at Nogui’s serving drinks and practical jokes.
13 What Makes Our Horses Different?
The birth of a new foal gives Kay the opportunity to practice modern methods of preparing it for its life on the ranch.
CONTRIBUTORS ELLEN ZOE GOLDEN TONY OREZ TOM PEIFER JEFFREY WHITLOW
JEANNE CALLAHAN KAY DODGE JESSE BISHOP MONICA RIASCOS
14 Around Town
Openings, closings, parties, music. The Gold Coast has it all, and barhoppin’ David is in the groove.
15 Surf Report
The Costa Rican Surf Federation reissues the results of the Gran Finals, and awards the women’s championship to Nataly Bernold.
16 Land of Steam and Wind - 1
Deadline for October: September 15
Howler advertising
The Howler offers a wide range of advertising sizes and formats to suit all needs. Contact David Mills • dmills@racsa.co.cr
Dimensions (cms) Width Height
1/12-page 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/3 1/2 Full
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6.15 6.15 12.70 12.70 6.15 25.80 25.80 12.70 25.80
23 Independence - September 15
Surprise, surprise! Costa Rica did not ask for independence, and didn’t even know about it until a month later.
25 Land of Steam and Wind - 2
Advertising rates & sizes Size
Miravalles Volcano provides superheated steam for electrical energy generation.
Price $ 50 75 90 120 150 210 400
Discounts
For 6 months, paid in advance, one month is deducted. For 12 months, paid in advance, two months are deducted. Ads must be submitted on CD or e-mail attachment, JPG or PDF format at 266 dpi, at the appropriate size (above).
On the slopes of Miravalles is the largest wind generation plant in Costa Rica, churning out mega quantities of megawatts.
26 Surviving Costa Rica
Just another week in the life - washer breaks down, television breaks down, dryer breaks down...
DEPARTMENTS 5
Parents’ Corner
22 September Forecasts
10
CD Review
24 Doctor’s Orders
11
Book Review
28 Rain, Sun & Moon
18
Word Puzzle
29 Tide Chart
All comments, articles and advertising in this publication are the opinion of their authors, and do not reflect the opinion of Howler Management.
www.tamarindobeach.net
www.tamarindohomepage.com
Cover Caption: Whispering Giants of Guayabo - wind power feeds large amounts of electricity into Costa Rican grid. Cover design and photos: David Mills
Parents’ Corner Back to School
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or many families in our community, August and September are back-toSchool months... which is often synonymous with back to stress: students sometimes struggle with school responsibilities and parents worry about their child’s school success. Let me share with you some guidelines that can help you and your child have a positive school year experience... 1. Model and promote reading at home! Reading stimulates your child’s cognitive skills more than any other activity and a child’s reading habits will have a direct impact on his or her school success... Don’t give up encouraging your child to read! 2. Talk with your child! Make sure to provide for regular opportunities for dialogue, and always find time to listen to your child... talking and listening plays a key role in a healthy family dynamic, and it has a positive effect on school performance. 3. Monitor your child’s homework and study time! This doesn’t mean that you will sit with your son or daughter throughout homework – this is something your child has to do alone. Your responsibility is to set up regular times for studying, and to provide your child with age and learning style appropriate support. While some children are able to finish all of their homework in one nonstop session, most children perform better if the work is broken down into manageable “portions”; i.e. work for 15 minutes straight, then take a 5 minute break. Help your child establish priorities: assignments that are due the next day should be completed first – always starting with the subject that requires more effort. Long-term projects should be completed in daily or weekly portions, following the rubric that teachers usually provide for such assignments. 4. Know your child’s teachers! Attend parent – teacher conferences, even if your child is doing “fine”, and try to attend family events as often as you can. If you want to have a private meeting, make sure to schedule it appropriately and to ask all the questions that you have on your mind (even if you think they are not important). A teacher’s feedback on a student should include not only the current grade average, but also the student’s learning approach, his or her strengths and difficulties, as well as his or her social performance. Teachers, parents and students should work as a team! 5. Provide your child with effective school tools! • Filing folder with labeled compartments for each subject, in which homework assignments, projects and communications are filed, this way avoiding loosing or misplacing papers. • Student Agenda. This is an important tool, if not the most important, for self evaluation. Parents and teachers can monitor the student’s performance through it, and provide support when it is needed. Using a student agenda should be a school requirement and its management planned into each class by the teacher! 6. Make sure that your child has healthy recreational activities throughout the school week! As in everything else in life, a school day requires “balance”... next to a healthy nutrition and good sleep, physical activity and fresh air should be on the daily routine, as well as time to “chill out”. Whether your child signs up for a sports team, goes surfing, walking, or plays soccer with his friends, it’s important that he or she enjoys it – it’s recreation! Have a great school year! Msc. Mónica Riascos H. Psychologist - Psychopedagogist NOTE: I would like to invite all readers to send in your suggestions about topics related to children and adolescents’ psychology, that you would like me to discuss in this section. I’m at your service! Send your comments, suggestions or questions to: consultariascos@live.com
EE d d ii tt o o rr ’’ s s N N o o tt e e
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espite the very wet weather, AyA has been inundated with water woes. On one street alone, the maintenance people have been in attendance almost every day for the past month repairing bursts caused by excessive pressure that send water in ten-meter geysers into the air. In my house, two feed hoses have blown apart from the pressure, flooding the floor with hot water, and the water pump has burst its seals. Over a long weekend a leak sent a torrent rushing to the ocean. Repeated calls on Friday to the emergency number in Santa Cruz met with indifference to the millions of litres being wasted for four days: “We’ll be there Tuesday; Monday is a feriado.” Our delivery system, built 20 years ago of cheap plastic, is overdue a total overhaul. Even in wet weather we can’t afford to lose such volumes of already-treated and pumped water. AyA, whose leaflets warn us how much water a dripping tap can waste in a year, turns a blind eye to torrents of their own wasted water. However, there is now an emergency number in Tamarindo, for use when the office is closed: 2653-4069. We’re mad as Hell and we ain’t gonna take it any more! Tamarindo residents are proposing to withhold taxes until the Road to Langosta is paved. And there is a national drive to combat crime – Crime Awareness and Prevention (CAP), is looking for your support. See articles on page 19.
Finca Arwen TAMARINDO - LOTS 1,200 TO 4,000 M2 Fully titled, water and electricity Very quiet location 5 min. from Tamarindo and beaches 3 min. from Hacienda Pinilla Golf Best prices, below the Bank’s appraisal!! Financing available! Lot 2B: 1201 m2 - $42.000 Lot 12A: 1322 m2 - $46.000 Lot 9A: 1601 m2 - $51.000
Lot 3A: 1734 m2 - $60.000 Lot 3B: 2044 m2 - $71.000 Lot 22: 4000 m2 - $84.000
Web Site: www.fincaarwen.com Email: finca.arwen@gmail.com TEL: 8885.8706
Dining Out
David Mills
Restaurant Mirador in Tamarindo
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e dined again at the Top of the Town, now with a new name and under new ownership. Mirador, on the fourth floor of Sea Tower in Tamarindo, is now operated by Marianne Pratt and Tom Bales of New Mexico, who plan to keep many of the Vita Bella favourites and add some new ones. Certainly a big attraction at Mirador is the view to the west over the roofs of Tamarindo to the ocean and the famous sunsets – the best view in town! The restaurant is comfortably appointed, with open and covered areas depending on the weather. Mirador’s menu is eclectic; if you can’t find what you like here, you are just too picky. Chef Miguel Padilla has officiated here from the start as Bruno’s, through Vita Bella, and continues to add new delights. The atmosphere is casual; cuisine is a mix of Italian, Middle East, seafood, Tico and international. Appetizers include Kalamata olives; hummus; eggplant; shrimp cocktail, or in garlic sauce or coconut; bruschetta or several salads. We ate a highly spiced baba ghanouj with pita and a caprese salad.
Casagua Horses The greatest variety of tours and riding experiences for all ages, featuring spectacular countryside, howler monkeys, colorful small towns and fun-filled fiestas. Cantina Tour - Nature Tour Fiesta & Tope Rental - Old Tempate Trail Tour Located near Portegolpe on the main road, opposite the Monkey Park, just 20 minutes from the beach.
Phone us at: 2-653-8041 • kaydodge@racsa.co.cr www.paintedponyguestranch.com The best horses on Guanacaste’s Gold Coast!
The pizza menu lists all the usual favorites, but you can take a Margarita and customize it with up to two dozen extra ingredients! Entrées include beef tenderloin with various sauces, or filet mignon; chicken or shrimp kabobs; several fish and seafood dishes; spaghetti, gnocchi, lasagna and ravioli. We chose sea bass in chimichurri; and frutti di mare, spaghetti in a sauce of tomato, clam, shrimp and squid. For dessert we shared a flan and a chocolate mousse, both delightful. Mirador is a great place to dine, or for a cocktail at sunset Happy Hour from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Since many businesses in Tamarindo depend on local residents for much of the year, savvy businesspersons should treat the locals well, so a good idea is the Locals’ Passport – eat t h e r e five times and you get one free! Mirador, open Tuesday through Sunday from 5 until close. In Sea Tower above SuperCompro in Tamarindo (with its own elevator). All credit cards accepted. Tel: 2653-0147.
CD Review Boom and Chime of Mr. Peters
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ilfred Peters began playing the accordion at the age of seven, instructed by his father, as they toiled in a logging camp near the Suburn River in Belize. The music was based in Creole, Jamaican Mento and Calypso, syncopated rhythms, and the Afrikaner style of phrase and response, refined through generations in the Mahogany camps. “We didn’t have radio back then,” Peters has joked. In fact, very much like Caribbean Calypso and Guanacaste folk music, Belizean Creole is a form of music with a lot of wit, as well as being a way to spread news and gossip. In 1970, Mr. Peters was making five dollars a day as a construction worker in Belize City. He decided to form a trio and start playing at night in the clubs there. Within a short amount of time, The Mahogany Chips were performing for five dollars a show. They quickly changed their name to Mr. Peters and his Boom & Chime, a name used for a local percussion instrument that is struck on one side with a wooden mallet (the boom side), and the other (the chime side) with a drum sack. Many regional musicians, in fact, prefer playing “found” instruments, such as the jawbone of an ass or conch shells. The music has been dubbed “Brukown” and Wilfred Peters has been proclaimed its king. After sixty years of playing this Belizean music, Mr. Peters was recruited to record a CD with Stonetree Records, the quintessential recording company in Belize. The result is a continuous frolic through eleven Peter’s original songs, along with two traditional tunes, titled, “Weh Mi Lova Deh”. I asked Ivan Duran, Stonetree’s founder and president, what he remembered about recording the band for this disc. “A lot of fun recording them. And lots of rum,” he joked. “They never liked repeating songs more than a couple times. It kept the music fresh.” The band consists of Mr. Peters on vocals, accordion and banjo, Mr. Lenox Blades on electric guitar and backing vocals, with Mr. Egbert Beltran on jaw bone as well as backing vocals. Wilfred’s son, Mr. Wilfred Peters, Jr., plays the boom drum and ding-a-ling, while Mr. Francis “Swapy” Lewis is on the tumbas, known to the rest of us as congas. And that’s Mr. John Matura on the steady bass. The songs alternate between the Afrikaner/Mento styles of singing a line, with chorus refrain, such as the first song, “Llebam Bokotora”. Other songs follow the storyteller theme, such as “Man Wid No Uman” (Man with no Woman). There is definitely a barroom, zydeco influence in the music as well, something that encourages the listener to hoist another one and continue with the good times. In 1997, Wilfred Peters performed for Queen Elizabeth when she awarded him with an MBE for cultural contributions. He has toured Mexico, Spain, France, and North America. He was awarded the Meritorious Medal by the Governor General of Belize in 2005. And now, The King of Brukdown, Mr. Peters and his Boom & Chime have graced us with a CD of his recordings, allowing us all to participate in his talent. Wilfred Peters passed away last month and to commemorate his legacy, Stonetree has reissued the CD, which is available at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos and Nuevo Arenal.
Book Review Dragon Tattooed Heroines in Literature Tony Orez
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wedish writer Stieg Larsson has struck gold and made quite a name for himself. As the author of The Millennium trilogy, he has become the new “it” author who has discovered the magic formula for success, notoriety, fame and fan worship: he died. That puts him on a pedestal, or as Jimi Hendrix so prophetically put it, “Once you’re dead, you’ve got it made for life”. I admit I stayed away from “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, the first of the trilogy, for a good length of time. After all, cutting edge in Tamarindo would be a woman without a dragon tattoo. But I have finally succumbed to the first book and I cannot say that I regret it. I had been warned that the first book has a long build-up and that is absolutely correct, but once the story gets going, it is pure roller-coaster ride. Since the story transpires in Sweden, there were many family names that were similar and, well, foreign, so it was a good idea for Larsson to include a family tree at the intro of the novel, much as Gabriel Garcia Marquez did for One Hundred Years of Solitude. Unlike Marquez however, Larsson is never going to win a Pulitzer Prize, but I don’t think that was ever his intention, either. Instead, he has an expanding cult following and has been proclaimed “hip”, and his books are being made into movies overnight. It’s a shame he won’t be around to watch them or collect the residuals. I was impressed with Stieg’s storyline. I thought it was methodically mapped with enough unexpected turns to keep the reader turning pages. Because the story takes place in Sweden, it is peppered with an assortment of that country’s cuisine, customs, weather and holidays and Larsson does a very good job of including these details without making them feel force-fed. The Midsummer Pole? I do have to say that though his characters were a bit polar, being either extremely good or equally bad. It gave the novel a comic book feel, a bit implausible at times. I had a hard time believing someone like Lisbeth Salander, the main character, could survive this cold, hard world. And with every detail revealed about her by the author, another nail goes into her coffin. At the same time, one of the flaws of this trilogy is that no matter what predicament Lisbeth gets herself into, the reader knows she will survive: she’s got two more novels in which she is the main character and is included in the title (“The Girl Who Played with Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”). I also found the other prime character Mikael Blombvist a bit naïve for a hardcore journalist. Still, through all my critical whining, I found “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” to be a well-written and well-executed modern mystery novel with intriguing characters and more twists and turns than the Snake River. I am definitely looking forward to reading parts two and three of the trilogy.
Profile Ari, the Prankster Bartender
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f you have spent any time at all drinking at Nogui Bar on the circle in Tamarindo, it has probably happened to you. In fact, it has probably happened more than once. I know. I have been a victim more times than I care to admit. It all begins innocently enough. You walk up to the small beachside bar and order a cold Pilsen or Imperial from Aristides, the amiable, Anthony Quinnlook-alike bartender. You take an appreciative first sip and turn toward the beach to check out the small glassy waves and the scantily-clad, strolling female fauna, both of which are pleasing to the eye. And it is in this idyllic instant, when you have just concluded that God is, indeed, in His heaven and all is right with the world, that you detect a familiar insect in the hair on the back of your neck. Your reaction is an immediate slap to dispatch the offending bloodsucker. Another dead mosquito in paradise, you think, and examine your palm for confirmation. But, alas, you see no black, bloody smudge there. Oh well, you conclude, you’ll get it next time. You take another pull on your beer and return your gaze to the sand and sea. And no sooner have you done so than the pest strikes again. This time you slap yourself even harder and again examine your hand only to hear a burst of familiar laughter behind you. Aristides strikes again! You turn and shake your fist at the grinning, legendary Nogui bartender. He is holding a long, clear wand made of four plastic straws joined together - the infamous “Primo” mosquito. Aristides Pizarro Pena was born on August 31, l950, in Los Ranchos, a little village not far from Santa Rosa on the old road to Portegolpe. He lost his mother at a young age and, lacking her parental supervision, grew up to be a muy bravo, brawling, Cacique-drinking young man. A longtime Tamarindo fishing captain recently told me a story of how, in the early seventies, a borracho Ari and an equally inebriated compadre fairly demolished the old Zullymar Bar. According to the captain’s account, it was a direct consequence of Walter, the owner’s,
Story: David Robert Photos: Malinda Bravo
furious response to this drunken rampage that Aristides gave up alcohol. Whether this story is entirely true or a bit apocryphal like so many bar stories dating from that period, it is a fact, attested to by the man himself, that Aristides stopped drinking for good in l973. In l975, a reformed Ari began working for Nogui Acosta, whose bar at the time, ironically enough, was in the old, now sadly demolished, Zullymar building. When Nogui Bar moved to its present location, Ari moved with it. And, except for a brief stint in the late eighties when he took a job operating earth-moving equipment, he has been a beloved, if somewhat mischievous, fixture at that famous establishment. In addition to being a world-class prankster, Ari is also arguably the most accomplished surf fisherman in Guanacaste. Stories abound of his legendary catches, perhaps the most celebrated a sixty-plus pound snook that he caught on a hand line years ago. In fact, one day just this past January, Ari landed three roosterfish on the beach in Tamarindo, the biggest weighing in at over fifty pounds. A photograph (right) of a smaller fish he caught that same day - a mere thirty pounder - can be seen on the back wall at Nogui’s. Next to his practical jokes and surf fishing, Ari is probably best known for his love of children, Gringo and Tico alike. I doubt there is a child who has grown up in Tamarindo during the last twenty-five years who has not spent more than a little time behind the bar at Nogui’s in Ari’s big arms. In the old days, Ari lived in one of the wooden houses on the back lane behind the former Fiesta Del Mar restaurant. For the last ten years or more, he has lived in the nearby town of San Francisco in a tidy little house surrounded by flowers and small ornamental trees. But for those of us who go to Nogui’s as much to see Ari as to drink a cold beer or watch the sunset, his rightful home will always be behind that worn wooden bar, telling fishing stories, laughing at his own jokes, admonishing a regular to “shut up” or “86” and, of course, playing one of his repertoire of practical jokes. Aristides turned sixty on the 31st of August. If you are in the neighborhood of Nogui’s around that time, stop by and wish my favorite Primo a “feliz cumpleanos”. But when you do, remember to check the straw in your drink for a knot and beware of mosquitos on the back of your neck!
Quinn
What Makes Our Horses Different? by Kay T. Dodge and Esteban Peraza
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aiting weeks for that early morning knock on the door announcing the birth of Black Feather’s long-awaited foal, finally on August 8th it woke us up from a sound sleep. Jumping up to quickly dress and wake up the rest of the family visiting from Michigan, we all grabbed cameras and rushed to the pasture of mother and her wobbly foal. Although we were hoping for another paint baby, the long-legged bay colt, with a white star shaped like an eight, soon captured our hearts. Black Feather was very protective as the little foal nudged her for his first drinks of the warm rich milk from his mother, containing the colostrums so important in giving him immunity. Unlike calves, foals must nurse often, drinking a small amount at a time. We calculated he was born a couple of hours earlier under the open stall in the pasture, now gaining strength with every drink as the pair stood under the almendro tree. The mother was very cautious as Esteban approached her, always keeping her body between the foal and the possible predator. She was a good mom, protecting her baby. As he moved very slowly toward them, she felt less of a threat and allowed him to fasten the lead on her halter. He announced, “It’s a boy”, and then led her across the field with baby following her like a shadow. What would happen next would make a difference in the young foal’s life forever. Esteban led Black Feather into the picadero, the large riding ring, with baby following closely and the rest of us following at a safe distance. One of our workers took the mare and led her out of the small gate and tied her to the railing. As the nervous mare watched, Esteban and I lifted the now stronger foal off his feet and gently laid him on his side. Asking help from our granddaughters to hold down the foal, Michelle, their mother, took pictures documenting the imprinting of the baby. He struggled as we held his head and hindquarters down until he relaxed, then we started the imprinting process as mother nickered to him and pranced in place, a little nervous for her foal. We began touching and stroking the baby’s ears, mouth and entire body, talking to him in a soothing voice. We breathed in his soft nostrils as Esteban flexed each of his tiny, deer-like legs, patting the bottom of the hooves where one day a farrier would put on his first shoes. As he relaxed, we took turns stroking him and imprinting humans on him in a good way. In his mind, after imprinting we would be funny-looking, two-legged members of his herd. By allowing a foal to imprint on his mother first then, within the (continued page 28)
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monthly “Flea Market” takes place in the parking lot outside of Aroma Café/Lounge and Jaime Peligro Bookstore. This “Flea Market” will be of an open form allowing its participants to sell anything they’d like (from used articles to vegetables or art). A nominal fee of $1 per square meter will be charged in order to help pay for publicity and live music! Contact 8858-2902 or write to macha76@me.com pElAgUS Photo Gallery has opened for the delight of your eyes. If you like pictures, and fell in love with Costa Rica, you will definitely enjoy this exhibition, dedicated to Tamarindo: birds, shells, iguanas and the beach. pElAgUS, an experienced photographer from Paris, invites you to share her perspective of Tamarindo in her gallery, and of other places in the world, on her website: http://www.pelagus.biz . New to Flamingo is Carlos & Carlos, the third in a chain from Chicago and Guatemala. Owner Juan Carlos Montiel offers fine Italian cuisine in elegant surroundings, great service at reasonable prices. Catering service, private room for parties and free transportation from as far as Tamarindo. Halfway between Brasilito and Flamingo. Tel: 2654-5712/3 or 8703-2892. (see ad page 17) Special for locals! Until September 11 Seasons Restaurant is offering a big 30% discount on Tuesdays and Fridays. Tel: 8368-6983 or 2653-2440. From 27th September to 1st October, VIVA Travel Guides is going to be running a Travel Writing Boot Camp in Tamarindo. During this week-long course, participants learn how to write for travel guidebooks. The cost of the course is $350 or $250 for Costa Rica residents. During the course, participants get their work critiqued on a daily basis. Contact Paula Newton at paula@vivatravelguides.com. Next door to Fischel in Villarreal is Fashion Girls and Kids, a tienda full of clothes, perfumes, games and toys, all at very reasonable prices. See ad on page 18. Restaurante Bodeguilla has opened in Potrero, serving authentic Spanish dishes such as paella Valenciana, Spanish tortilla, gazpacho Andaluz, etc. Also international dishes, seafood and the best meats. Different special each day (see ad page 3). Call Javier or Estrella at 2654-5415 or 8785-3388.
www.howlermag.com
Surf Report Story: Ellen Zoe Golden
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ight off the bat, the Federación de Surf de Costa Rica announced that they made a mathematical error when calculating the new Costa Rica National Women’s Champion after the Gran Finals in La Curva Playa Hermosa in late June. They had announced that Jacó’s Lisbeth Vindas was the 2010 Champion, due to their failure to apply the correct points in the rankings in the Open Women’s category. The Federación announced that “we committed an error this past Sunday June 27 when we stated that the surfer Lisbeth Vindas of Jacó was the 2010 National Women’s Surf Champion. This was due to our failure to apply the correct points in the rankings in the Open Women’s, Junior Womens and Grommets Girls. Instead of applying the points that would be attributed to the Gran Finals 5 stars, we added the points of 4 stars to the tally at the end of the contest. This resulted in the error in ranking”. In correcting this, and using the structure and points for 5 stars, there were more points attributed in the final rankings for Jacó’s Nataly Bernold. That is to say that in the end, Bernold had a total of 6,040 points with her best of 4 dates. Vindas added up to 6,000 in equal conditions. This is Bernold’s second National Championship. While the same error in calculation was used in the Junior Women’s and Grommets Girls, the winners were not altered, although the positioning was. In Grommets Girls, Selena Moberly came in 2nd, not 4th. The first 6 dates of the Circuito Nacional de Surf DayStar gave 1,500 points to the winner of each division, while the Gran Final awarded 2,000 points. Prior to starting the Championship, it was announced that the surfers would would be in a position to win would be the one with the best of four dates and a greater score, opening the possibility to replace one of their lower scores with a good showing at the Gran Finals. That turned out to be Bernold, not Vindas. The press release stated: “The Federación de Surf wishes to make sincere apologies to the surfers involved in this error, to the press to whom we announced that Lisbeth was the National Champion 2010, and the representatives of the brands of the surfers.” “With the responsibility assigned to us, we are, in the whole, susceptible to the human error which we committed and to those who were affected by it. Already, the Federación of Surf is taking precautions learned from this case so that this situation is not repeated,” the announcement continued. The first date of the Triple Corona de Invierno called Luz de Vida Surf Challenge, that took place in Santa Teresa, was won by Gilbert Brown. He won with the highest combination of the event—16.70—and for that he earned $2,500. In late July, Costa Rica’s Brown, Isaac Vega, Muñoz and Federico Pilurzu (photo) were off in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, competing for the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Qualifyphoto: Tony Roberts
Here are the rest of the Gran Final winners: Open Posn Name Prize 1 Gilberth Brown $2500 2 Jason Torres 1300 3 Alaric Smith 700 4 Anthony Filligim 400 5 Jair Pérez 300 6 Carlos Muñoz 200 7 Luis Castro 200 8 Federico Pilurzo 200 9 Brandon Roberts 200 10 Matias Braun 200 11 Pedro Cruz 100 12 Olman Morales 100 13 Luis Vindas 100 14 Jordan Hernandez 100 15 Diego Naranjo 100
Women’s Open Posn Name Prize 1 Nataly Bernold $700 2 Julia Muller 300 3 Lisbeth Vindas 150 4 Flavia Fernández 100 5 Erika Valverde 50 Junior 1 Anthony Fillingim 1000 400 2 Alberto Muñoz 200 3 Danny Bishko 100 4 Carlos Muñoz 50 5 Marcos Rojas 50 6 Jordan Hernández 50 7 Elijah Hawk 50 8 Félix Velásquez 50 9 Jean Gaggstatter 50 10 Eilay Tal
ing Series (WQS) Quiksilver Pro 2010 4 Star contest. In total, the Quiksilver Pro awarded a total of $85,000 and was a 4-star ASP event that had 96 surfers entered. Money was rewarded to the first 49 competitors. Waves were big at the competition—4 to 5 meters—with about 2,000 spectators enjoying the show. Brown surfed well and placed 49th, earning him $700 dollars. Muñoz, however, only made it to 65th and Round 3. Pilurzu and Vega had the best representation of Costa Rica. Vega actually surfed the best, placing 17th in the event and winning $1,100 dollars, coming in 3rd in his last series. Pilurzu was 4th in his series and pocketed $900 and 25th place in the contest. Back in Tamarindo, the 10th Annual Robert August Surf n’ Turf took place August 29 through September 1. People from all over converged into town to surf and play golf with the legend, while raising money for CEPIA. CEPIA helps underprivileged children in the area and depends on this money for its main budget for the year. Thankfully, the event didn’t disappoint, neither those who were participating in all the activities or CEPIA. The event raised $12,000. Among the guests this year was another surfing legend Jericho Poppler. Not only was Poppler a United States Longboard Surfing Champion, she was a co-founder of the Women’s International Surfing Association and the Surfrider Foundation. The event kicked off at an inscription party at Tamarindo Vista Villas, continued with its surf contest and golf tournament, had various other dinners and events, and finished with an awards ceremony at the Vista Villas featuring the band Solar Seed.
That’s all I’ve got. Looking forward to hearing what you think. Keep those emails coming at EllenZoe@aol.com. Send your comments, information, errors or praise, because I can’t do this column without you, the real surfers.
Land of Ste a
Part I - Miravalle
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riving up the main road towards Liberia, near the international airport, on a clear day you can see two plumes of white smoke on the slopes of the distant mountain. These mark our destination, the thermal generation project at Guayabo. The mountain is Volcán Miravalles, and the “smoke” is volcanic steam, tapped from underground reservoirs to feed the generators which supply over 150 megawatts of electricity to the national grid, some 12 percent of total requirements (almost 80% of Costa Rica’s electricity comes from hydroelectric sources). Miravalles is one of the chain of volcanoes that make up Costa Rica’s backbone of mountains – Poas, Irazú, Arenál, Rincón de la Vieja, Tenorio. Though not all are active, they nonetheless generate enormous temperatures and pressures under their rocky slopes. Rainwater trapped underground is heated by the 1,200o Celsius reservoir of magma that connects the volcanoes, and can be tapped off for electricity generation. In the 1950s the region was impoverished, with very poor roads and little communication with the outside world, relying on its local agriculture for survival. The fuel crisis of the ‘70s was the impulse for development of the thermal generation, but geothermal energy was an unknown concept to the locals, who protested against it, citing projects in Africa which had released poisonous gases and killed many people. Environmental studies showed that the project was not a hazard, but clean and safe, and would improve the region’s standard of living. Presentations by ICE (national electric utility) allayed the fears of the locals, and the region is now a popular tourist destination with good roads and services. There are four active “wells” at present. Each pumps superheated steam through half-meter pipes (43 kilometers in total) laid on the surface to
am and Wind
es’ Volcanic Power a generating station, where the steam drives generators to produce electricity, then is cooled and the water injected back into the ground. The steam released from this operation constitutes the white plumes seen from afar. A further benefit of the project has been the reforestation of the region. Prior to 1970 the area was subject to widespread deforestation by cattle farmers, to a point where large areas were barren desert. ICE installed a project to reverse this process. From its own vivero (tree nursery) ICE planted large numbers of saplings of trees native to the area and has reforested an estimated 1,300 hectares. Several tourist resorts have sprung up in the area, taking advantage of the hot water issuing from the ground on the skirts of Miravalles. Some, such as Yoko and Thermo Mania, have a series of connecting swimming pools, starting hot and reducing in temperature as the water flows down. The availability of free hot water also facilitates the operation of spas and saunas. There are several places where visitors can soak themselves in the soothing and healing qualities of hot sulphurous mud that bubbles up out of the ground. If you visit, don’t forget your swimsuit. Tour operators also are invited to visit - see ads on this page. The views from Miravalles are spectacular, across the Rio Tempisque to the Gulf of Nicoya and the Pacific around Papagayo. Getting there from the coast: Turn right in Liberia on the InterAmerican. Turn left in Bagaces and follow the road to Guayabo. For a visit to this beautiful and interesting area, consult Destination Adventures (page 11). See Part II, Whispering Giants of Guayabo, on page 25.
Word puzzle All words from the list below can be found in the word block on the right. Answers may be forward, backward, upwards, downwards and diagonal. bilinguismo caliente cenicero concurso crecimiento culebra demasiado demonio desesperacion encomienda escudo freno fresca harmonia hipotecar
impresora jaula langosta mariposa pretencioso primula prohibicion pulperia recluso resbalar rompimiento sagacidad salutacion tratamiento veneno
Cap on Crime
Citizens demand action against rising crime rates A national initiative has been introduced to fight the increasing crime in Costa Rica. CAP, Crime Awareness and Prevention, is attempting to create a single voice for those who believe that the government should take a tougher position on crime. Polls have indicated Costa Ricans overwhelmingly support efforts by the central government to address the crime problem; the CAP plan has received widespread support from Costa Ricans. At her inauguration, President Laura Chinchilla invited citizens and residents to send their ideas on what people wanted from the government, via a United Nations program known as POLSEPAZ. In response to this invitation, CAP has submitted a 5-point plan to POLSEPAZ and is collecting names for an on-line petition to send to the government. POLSEPAZ has confirmed receipt of the plan and that it would be evaluated along with the other input compiled during Town Hall meetings and other input solicitation efforts. Recommendations in the plan include (1) a comprehensive revision of the existing criminal code based on accountability, (2) an increase the Flagrancy Courts throughout Costa Rica, (3) an increase in prison/jail capacity, (4) an increase in police personnel, training and compensation and (5) and organizational, educational, and financial support for schools and communities to promote rehab programs, value-based education curriculum, and positive alternative activities steering at-risk youth away from a potential life of crime. Additional information on the CAP plan and the petition is available on the CAP website (www.caponcrime.info) The petition may be seen and signed in English at www.petitiononline.com/CAP2207/petition.html or in Spanish at www.petitiononline.com/CAP2207S/petition.html. So far, over 1,000 signatures have been collected. CAP and associated groups around the country are working with the US Embassy, which has been very supportive of the initiative however is unable to officially endorse the plan.
No Road, No Taxes! Once again, the Road to Langosta is in a deplorable state, despite dozens of promises by then-President Oscar Arias, MOPT and the Municipality of Santa Cruz. Driven by frustration, residents of Langosta are proposing that the town bring the matter to a head by withholding taxes. Mark Schneider, who has long been active in efforts to solve the road problem, is looking for some hard-working attorneys who will start a “No Road, No Tax” campaign, to mobilize the whole town to put all taxes in escrow. Mark can be reached at mrs7777@hotmail.com.
Alcoholics Anonymous Schedule of Meetings
Flamingo
Tuesdays: 5:30 - 6:30 pm (open) Fridays: 5:30 - 6:30 pm (open)
Location: Hitching Post Plaza Unit 2, Brasilito Contact: Don H. at 2-654-4902
Tamarindo
Stranger! Approach this spot with gravity! John Brown is filling his last cavity. Epitaph of a dentist
Saturday: 10:30-11:30 - Open General Meeting Monday: 5:30 Open Meeting Thursday: 6:30-7:30 - Open Meeting Location: Behind Restaurant La Caracola Contact: Ellen - 2-653-0897
Robert August Surf & Turf Robert August Surf & Turf 2010 proudly announces $12,000 were raised for the children of Guanacaste. In collaboration with: Platinum sponsors Hacienda Pinilla Marlin del Rey Fundación Florida Lola’s Restaurant Nibbana Restaurant KOI Sushi Lounge Ed Zigo Best Western Vista Villas. Golf Sponsors Horizon Pacific Management and Rental Reserve Conchal Nature Air Agave Azul Custom Design & Construction Hotel Bahia del Sol Flamingo Beach Resort Hotel Diriá Turf Safari La Carolina Lodge Quicksilver. Auction sponsors Flying Crocodile, Vagabundo Sailing Adventures, Capitán Suizo, Frijoles Locos, Frijol Feliz Spa, Happy Snapper, Ahula Spa, Nimbu Spa, Copacabana, Nogui’s, Petit Paris Beauty Salon, Seasons Restaurant, Cathy Deweer, 70 Degrees Shop, Calypso, Europcar, Camaron Dorado, Papaya con Leche, Amo la Vida, Panaderia de Paris, Sea Star, Punto Tranquilo, Roja Bruja, Serenity Spa, Altos de Eros Hotel & Spa, Bougainvillea Homes at Reserva Conchal, Flamingo Beach Resort.
New Banknote Introduced The new ¢2,000 banknotes will be introduced in September. It is the second of six new designs to be introduced in the coming months. The obverse shows education reformer Mauro Fernandez Acuña; the reverse depicts the coral reef ecosystem.
Volunteers Muriel Cuny, Elodie Combeaud, Cristopher Sheppard, Benoit Deweer, Jonathan & Carole Vardakis, Brianna del Castillo & John Skaggs, Max Chaves, Elise Garnier, Taylor y Jennifer Smith, Julian Chaves, Olivia Benavides. CEPIA students: Aquiles, Haime, Leandro, Bayron, Johanny, Monica, Veronica. A special thank you goes to Lyssia Baldini, Professional Photographer in Costa Rica: www.lyssiabaldini.com. The funds of this event will be used to finance CEPIA’s programs such as training teenagers excluded from school; drug prevention; school supplies; psychological attention for victims of sexual abuse and violence; literacy for adults; sport, arts and English for children; environmental education. More info: www.cepiacostarica.org. Thank you!
We Love The Howler “David, we want to advertise in The Howler,” said Jack, as I joined him and Arianna at the bar. “What do you want to advertise?” I asked, knowing that Jack was a visitor from the U.S. who does not conduct a business in Costa Rica. “We want to advertise The Howler,” he answered. “You see, for years we have been reading your excellent publication. We read every page, cover to cover. We have been entertained, amused, pissed off, educated, and it has never cost us a penny. We love the magazine and would hate to see it go, a possibility in these hard times. So we want to pay our dues for the years of enjoyment.” What a wonderful gesture! In a world of take, take, take, it’s nice to see someone give something back. Muchissimas gracias, Arianna and Jack.
After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. Nelson Mandela
by Jeanne Callahan
SeptemberForecasts Forecasts October
Aries: 21 March - 20 April
28
This month has some work issues from the past coming up to be dealt with. Gather information up to the 11th and don’t sign anything until after that date. You are leaving something completely behind but don’t burn bridges with any anger or vindictive actions. Get clear within yourself about how to handle things differently in the future. Best days are the full moon on the 23rd and the 24th.
Taurus: 21 April - 21 May
Lots of interesting energy for you to work with this month as you get more support coming from friends and new associates. Make use of this for some long-range planning after the 12th. Your work may take a new direction or you may find yourself working with completely new people. Best days to further the action for yourself are the 26th and 27th. Lay low on the 8th and the 15th.
Gemini: 22 May - 21 June
Your ruling planet, Mercury, is retrograde until the 12th which delays things a bit but you still get a major boost to your professional life with Uranus and Jupiter in your tenth house of public image. If speaking in public, do so only after the 12th so you won’t be misunderstood and misquoted! Breakthroughs in creative projects are possible all month; trust your intuition. Best days are the 1st, 2nd, 28th and 29th.
Cancer: 22 June - 22 July
This is not a comfortable month for you as the cardinal cross is triggered yet again with Pluto powerfully stationed in early Capricorn and moving direct on the 13th. Misunderstandings about your intentions and actions are seemingly everywhere right now. Not everyone around you can be pleased so don’t even try. Take care of yourself and your family first. Good days are the 3rd, 4th and 30th.
Visit Jeanne’s site at CelestialAdvisor.com
Libra: 23 September - 23 October
The energy of the Mercury retrograde has you dealing with issues and powerful people from the past. You would be wise to question your motives to cultivate those relationships, particularly if there was any negativity that wasn’t resolved to mutual satisfaction. Saturn in your sign beckons you to create a stronger more mature image and path for yourself. Keep quiet about your strategy until after the 11th. Good days are the 9th and 10th.
Scorpio: 24 October - 22 November
This month is mixed for you. For openers, your ruling planet, Mars, has been traveling closely with Venus creating new opportunities for relationships. When Mars enters Scorpio on the 15th, you are ready to launch something new and have the support of many people. There’s some danger, however, of overstating your position. You can cope with the changes being thrown at you now. Good days are the 8th, 11th, 12th and 15th.
Sagittarius: 23 November - 21 December
Your ruling planet, Jupiter, is moving back into Pisces on the 10th, bringing you some good fortune and luck. Look to the energy of May and June to see what opportunities can be had. You will still have a bit of a struggle with finances but you have allies who want to help you succeed. Keep a positive outlook and stay active socially. The 13th, 14th and 15th are your best days.
Capricorn: 22 December - 21 January
Pluto in your sign goes into direct motion on the 13th and could be rather dramatic and traumatic as deep secrets or hidden agendas are made public. You will feel tense and uncertain about the future, but not without resources to cover any losses. Don’t get too heavy-handed with people now as fear is just below the surface for the herd mentality. You do not want to get involved with that as the predomiLeo: 23 July - 23 August This month will be interesting regarding your and your nant emotion. You’re ultimately a leader—lead. Days of th th partner’s finances. Take precautions against loss and good fortune are the 16 and 17 . reevaluate your positions regarding insurance, wills and Aquarius: 22 January - 19 February investments. Make any changes after the 12th. The end of You have the ability to take an informed and enlightthe month is a good time for home improvements and/or ened view of what is currently taking place in the world. entertaining in the home. You may need to provide tem- However, the month can hold some unpleasant surprises porary housing for a family member. Set a time limit on regarding your health. Don’t ignore any odd symptoms now. Strive to improve your diet and exercise regimen this. Good days are the 5th and 6th. now. The 18th and 19th are your power days. Virgo: 24 August - 22 September Your ruling planet, Mercury, is in retrograde motion until Pisces: 20 February - 20 March the 11th which will create a delay as you straighten out With both Uranus and Jupiter back in your sign, you have some details. Don’t sweat the small stuff as Mercury is the opportunity to clear something up from the spring. in your sign and therefore very strong when in Rx motion. Don’t sign or buy anything substantial until after the 11th, Creating a brilliant strategy for your future is possible at when you will have more energy coming your way. There this time. Practicality rules and lots of business is coming also may be a turn of events in your relationship house. If your way in the near future. The 7th, the new moon on the you are looking for love, it just may show up at the end of the month! Best days are the 21st and 22nd. 8th and the 11th are your power days.
Namasté
Independence Why Costa Rica celebrates September 15
I
n 1821, Cartago was the capital city of Costa Rica, with a population of 15,000 out of the country’s 60,000. But it was a quiet and poor city. A traveling Englishman, John Hale, said of Cartago, “the place, the houses and life itself are notoriously poor; the people friendly and courteous.”
David Mills
Act, which “fell like a bomb in the deadly quiet of the old metropolis”, according to Ricardo Fernandez Guardia in his book “La Independencia”. The unexpected news “caused a terrible shock to the townsfolk, who were unprepared to receive it.”
The newly independent territory was required to deOn At that time, Costa Rica formed the termine a new form of government. The September 15 Costa Rica, southernmost part of the Kingdom city elders signed a proclamation along with three other Central American of Guatemala, but was a very announcing their acceptance of distant province, totally isolated countries, celebrates its independence, in 1821, independence from Spain, and the and in a very primitive state. from Spain. The separation was peaceful, almost decision to support the Mexican sleepy. The country had neither asked for It had been described as “the Empire. In the meantime, León independence, nor even knew about it poorest province in the entire had accepted the declaration from until weeks later. Spanish Empire”. Communication was Guatemala and had declared total by road, and roads were poor in summer, independence from Spain. impassable in winter. There were no newspapers (and few people could Civil War read anyway), no currency (often, The status of Costa Rica was still undecided, due to cocoa beans were used as money), groups within the country with widely differing views. Two no doctors or medicine. years after independence from Spain, Costa Rica was split between two factions: Cartago and Central America had been visited Heredia, who supported the Mexiby Christopher Columbus on his can ruler Agustin Iturbide; and San last voyage in 1502, as the first José and Alajuela, who favored the European to make landfall here, and Federal Republic of Colombia under settlement started in 1522. For the Simon Bolivar. next three centuries Spain administered the whole region as part of On April 7, 1823, the Constitutional the Captaincy General of Guatemala Congress decreed that Costa Rica under a military governor. be ruled by Colombia. This angered Cartago and Heredia, who favored In September, 1821, unknown to Costa Rica, a group alignment with the Mexican Empire of influential persons met in Antigua, Guatemala, to to continue power from Spanish discuss the Kingdom’s independence from Spanish rule. rule. On September 15, the Act of Guatemala was signed, declaring total independence from Spain. Armies from both sides met at Ochomogo, near Cartago, and when the excitement died down (San José lost 17 Now came the task of informing the far-flung provinces men, Cartago 4) Cartago was on the run; thus, the govof Nicaragua and Costa Rica; a horseman set out from ernment passed from Cartago to San José. Antigua on September 16 to spread the news. Unknown to the two factions, the Iturbide rule fell in On September 27, the courier arrived in León, seat of Mexico, a few days before the battle at Ochomogo. government of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Leon’s relations with Guatemala were strained, and the city fathers resolved not only independence from Spanish rule, but also absolute and total independence from Guatemala. Be kind whenever possible. The Act of Guatemala, with the added resolution from It is always possible. León, continued to Cartago by way of San José. The documents arrived in Cartago on October 13, at noon, prompting a meeting in the city square. Most of the population attended to hear the reading of the
Dalai Lama
Doctor’s Orders Jeffrey Whitlow, M.D.
I
n my last column, we concluded the discussion of how the consumption of unnatural foods affects our health. In this column, we will talk about natural foods.
Natural foods are foods that contain a life essence, and that is evidenced by the fact that these foods spoil or rot. Processed foods last forever, as my girlfriend found out to her chagrin. She was looking through her wardrobe, trying to decide which purse to carry for the night. She stumbled across one that she hadn’t carried for at least 3 years, and in fact she had a vivid memory of the soirée she attended while carrying it. She opened it to assess the contents, and a piece of dry pasta fell out. It looked the same as any piece of pasta you would see in the store today. I didn’t ask her how the pasta got in her purse in the first place, but I certainly asked her if she would ever eat pasta again, and she replied in the negative! Smart girl. You can imagine what a piece of fruit, a vegetable, or a raw piece of chicken would have looked like after 3 years, so now you can readily appreciate the difference between a dead food, like pasta, and a food that contains the essence of life. Natural foods will be seamlessly incorporated into the body, given the following caveats. If the food contains a lot of natural sugar, like fruit for instance, then we come up against the problem we discussed previously, that being the limited capacity of the body to digest and process sugar. And if the food is cooked, then the life essence is compromised. A natural food that is cooked will still decompose, but at a much slower rate than its raw counterpart. You can therefore conclude that the act of cooking the food has changed something about the food, and that food will be much harder to digest than its raw counterpart. Realize that out of all of the living things on this planet, only man and his pets eat cooked food. A lion doesn’t pull out a hibachi after she runs down a gazelle. Rather, she gorges on the raw meat and immediately falls into a deep slumber. Remember how many times you have heard that you shouldn’t eat before bedtime, as this will lead to obesity. Yet have you ever seen a fat lion? Moreover, the medical conditions that plague man, as described in my previous columns, do not occur in the animal kingdom. You don’t see animals in the wild with high blood pressure, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders. But these conditions occur in humans because, even if a person consumes only natural foods, cooking those foods alters the life essence contained in them in such a way as to compromise the ability of the body to process them properly. What can be done? It is known that plants produce proteins that can be used as aids in digestion. Our salivary glands produce amylase, a protein that digests complex sugars called starches, and our livers produce both protease, an enzyme that digests protein, and lipase, a protein that digests fats. Plants also produce proteins that digest sugars, fats, and proteins, which are the three basic nutrients contained in any food, natural or unnatural. Therefore, we can harvest these plants, concentrate the proteins, and use those proteins as supplements to aid in our processing of cooked natural foods. In my next column, I will discuss the use of these supplements and their effect on digestion in more detail.
Land of Steam and Wind Part II - Whispering Giants of Guayabo
F
or many years, farmers have used wind power to generate electricity and pump water. Originally small, high-speed, compact affairs with many small blades, the technology has evolved to large, three-bladed fans, capable of high generation efficiency. These are in use in many parts of the world, and Costa Rica is no exception. Last year the 55-unit La Gloria Wind Farm went operational in the Costa Rican Cordillera just outside Guayabo, Guanacaste. These are not the windmills of Don Quixote, which he imagined as giants. In fact, if the brave Don had encountered one of these he would certainly have abandoned his career of derring-do and raised chickens. These monsters stand 50 meters high and have rotors 44 meters in diameter, the width of a soccer field. Stretching in an irregular pattern across the rolling hills near the small town of Guayabo, the powerful generators turn lazily in the gentle breeze on the day of our visit, their combined rotors giving out a low roar like a distant jet. The average wind speed in that area is 12 meters per second, which will turn the machines up to 50 revolutions per minute and generate about 900 kilowatts per turbine, enough to power 2,000 average North American homes. Total output for the farm, fed directly into the national ICE grid, is 49.5 megawatts of clean, non-polluting energy. The same amount of power produced by petroleum would generate 240,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year; thus, La Gloria will contribute greatly to Costa Rica’s carbon-free goal by 2020.
I don’t deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don’t deserve that either. Jack Benny
“La Gloria” was produced in Germany by Enercon GmbH, one of the leading wind energy companies in the world, using turbines from Juwi Wind, and is the largest wind farm so far built by Juwi. Getting there from the coast: Turn right in Liberia on the Inter American. Turn left in Bagaces and follow the road to Guayabo. For a visit to this beautiful and interesting area, consult Destination Adventures (page 11).
Surviving
C hapter LXVIII
I
COSTA RICA
could just as well titled this column “Has This Happened to You Lately?” Life here in Paradise is somewhat cyclical; sometimes things go smoothly, and you start getting nervous and wait for other less benign events. For me it began when our maid informed me that the washing machine wasn’t working on the day she needed to use it about twenty times. In a pre-coffee haze I stumble out to the bodega and confirm the bad news. It’s got juice and moves well enough, there’s just no water coming out.
As our long-suffering and grumbling maid begins a labor-intensive alternative laundry solution I call the local “fix it” guy in Villareal who has told me in the past he could also work on stuff known in this neck of the woods as “electrodomesticos”. I wasn’t going to call my previous ringer from Filadelfia who guarantees a minimum $100 fee no matter what. Several days elapse before the guy from Villarreal shows up with another “technico”. It’s yet another laundry day and our maid is dispensing some pretty dirty looks as she begins another machineless ordeal. The guys proceed to disassemble my unit and find a non-functioning water pump to be the culprit, and promise to return in time to have the machine fixed before you-know-who’s next work day. True to their word they show back up with the part (used), stick it in and “voila”, water starts coming out! We’re almost there. The only problem now is the cycles aren’t working right. After a little more tinkering the cycles are back in order but the water doesn’t drain. Finally the guy came out and furtively announced that it was all fixed. He charged me $50 for the job and told me to call him if there were any problems. A good deal I thought. So let’s go back to the first day of the story. Those of you who know me are aware of my addiction to television, from the early days of “Howdy Doodie” and “I Love Lucy”. Nowadays I got to have CNN in the morning and my wife lives for “True Blood”.
Yet Another Week or so Survived
So, of course, after the washer breakdown I made some coffee and prepared to watch whatever horrible is happening in either Haiti or Pakistan. What I got was nothing, not too unusual for those of you familiar with local cable, ours being of the digital variety, so we decided to wait for its return. By that afternoon it still hadn’t returned so I called a technical support number in San José and waited...and waited...and waited... Finally someone answered and we went through the many procedures necessary to determine the problem. He put me on hold... and I never heard from him again as the line eventually went dead. After repeating this process several more times it was determined that some thing wasn’t working right and they’d send a “tecnico” out tomorrow. Which they did. The two pleasant fellows who showed up the next day discovered that the digital doo-dad box was no longer functioning and needed to be replaced, which they couldn’t do because mine was one that I had purchased and they could only replace those that were rented from the company. So off I go to the downtown office and sign up for a new box, and this time I’d rent one of theirs. Back came the tecnicos who cheerfully install the new box which seems to work; I sign the work order and off they go. An hour later the box stops working. The same bunch is back the next day; however, the box is working again. They leave and an hour later the box stops working. The following day the guys are back but this time the box is still out of order. Several more hours are spent ascertaining the problem. They didn’t seem very comfortable with my observation that the new box was the problem and probably should be replaced. When they left they seemed pretty sure it was working right, but they did leave me the San José technical support number just in case. Back to the bodega. It’s Saturday and when the maid shows up I tell her the was-
Story by Jesse Bishop
hing machine is working. Fifteen minutes later she less than cheerfully informs me that water now only comes out during the spin cycle and it wasn’t spinning...etc. I call the guy in Villarreal who is there in about fifteen minutes and starts tinkering again, after which he pronounces it fixed. Just as he’s leaving the maid comes and informs me that the dryer has just ceased doing its “revolving” thing and is no longer usable. My limited but recent experience with similar “dryer” problems led me to believe that the belt the “$100 plus” guy from Filadelfia had installed a few months previously had broken. The maid begins her grumbling cycle again as she starts improvising clotheslines to dry the clothes on, no mean feat in this particularly heavy rainy season. Our repair guy left, promising to return with a belt for the dryer. That was the last we ever saw of him. I’m sure by now you’ve figured out that I was immediately informed that no water was entering the washing machine at all, though it did drain and would spin. I avoided the maid’s eyes. My word count informs me that I’m dangerously close to the number of words the editor will allow per column so I’ll tell you what happened. My neighbors turned me on to a really competent guy from Santa Rosa who fixed both the machine and dryer and charged me $180. A totally different tecnico showed up on a Sunday and determined that, indeed, the rented cable box I had didn’t work and needed to be replaced. My two buds returned the next day and replaced my old box with a new one, which didn’t work either. No problem, they had several and the one I ended up with is still working. I was back in the TV world and we now had clean clothes and a tranquila maid. I could finally relax. I walked into the study to turn on the computer. It didn’t come on.
A Slice of Life My Presentation that almost wasn’t
A
David Mills
rriving at my hotel in the late Sunday afternoon I had a wide choice of parking spaces, as the car park was almost empty except for a few rows nearest the hotel. I parked the car and went to my room. I had arrived at LAX on Friday night for a computer convention. This Monday-Friday gathering took place quarterly, in a different U.S. city each time, so I always took the opportunity to explore by arriving on the previous Friday night, renting a car and spending the weekend touring local attractions – deserts, national parks, cities, beaches, etc. On this occasion I had seen Los Angeles, Death Valley, Buenaventura and the beaches, Laguna, Huntington and others before checking in to the hotel. Monday morning I breakfasted well, ready for the 10:30 presentation I was to give at a convention centre a few miles away. Leaving a few minutes for the drive to my first meeting at 9 a.m., I walked out of the hotel, rental car key in hand. As the already hot sun blasted me in the face I saw to my dismay that the car park was wall-to-wall cars – thousands of them. Which one was mine? The key tab told me that I had a grey Lancer, plate number ABC123. Of course, the preferred colour of the year was grey, about 90% of the cars. Certain that I had parked in the first few rows I walked around the park, sweating like a pig in my three-piece business suit. No luck, no car! I returned to the hotel to seek assistance, though asking the Bell Captain “Where did I park my car?” didn’t seem to be of much help. “Well, sir, we have four car parks, one on each side of the hotel” - all identical except for a large letter of the alphabet, which I had not seen the night before as I thought it was the only park. Time was getting short and I had already missed my 9 a.m. meeting. I couldn’t grab a cab as my presentation materials were in the car! How do I explain to the convention director that I couldn’t make my presentation? Claiming sickness was not an option – many people had spoken to me at breakfast. Should I go to the conference hall and tell jokes for an hour or so? “I forgot where I parked my car,” would generate just a few laughs, but a very embarrassing situation, and would certainly not impress my boss back at the office. Idea!! I phoned my secretary and asked her to fax me my presentation papers. I could get the hotel business centre to reshoot my overhead foils. While waiting, I took another look outside. Lo and behold!! The car park was almost empty, the conventioners having departed to their meetings. A quick look around revealed a lonely grey Lancer and, yes, it had the right plate number. I arrived just in time for my presentation, and stood on the stage for oneand-a-half hours before 500 computer professionals while looking like a wrung-out dish rag and freezing in the air conditioning. Next time I’ll tie my handkerchief to the antenna.
What Makes Our Horses Different?
(from page 13)
next few hours, imprint on humans, he would not have the typical instinctive fears usually kicking in within hours of birth. Later, when being trained by humans, he would respond with curiosity rather than fear, making the training and “hooking up” with humans much less stressful.
RAIN GAUGE
12 10
c m s
RAINFALL - July/August Maricle Meteorological Observatory La Garita
8 6
Total rainfall: 55.8 cm (22.0 inches)
4 2 0 16
20
25
31 1
5
10
July
Year-to-date 2009: 99.4 cm 2010: 184.6
Rainfall July/August 2009: 18.7 cm 2010: 55.8
September 2010 ( a l l
t i m e s
l o c a l )
Sun
1st - rise 5:34; set 5:53 15th - rise 5:33; set 5:44 30th - rise 5:32; set 5:34
Last quarter: New: 1st quarter: Full:
15
August
Moon 1st 8th 14th 23rd
11:22 a.m. 4:30 a.m. 11:50 p.m. 3:17 a.m.
The next day we did the imprinting again, more to train the humans that helped us, for in theory it only has to be done once, just after birth; after that it is desensitizing rather than true imprinting. The next day, as we entered the ring with mother and baby, he was drawn by his innate curiosity to come over to us and check out his friends. Mother following, still protective, would put her body between the foal, temporarily named Ocho because he was born 8/8, had an 8-shaped star on his forehead, and the mother had 8s branded on each flank. The frisky foal no longer just followed Mom, but cantered around the ring, jumping and bucking. She trotted behind him but gave him more freedom. Within four days she allowed him to check us out, petting and stroking him all over. We gave her carrot chunks; she seemed to trust us more and more. A California vet first wrote about the process of imprinting newborn foals after his work with sick mothers and babies. They were different because they were handled young and this carried over to the rest of their lives. We discovered imprinting about 12 years ago and have imprinted all the foals we were able to soon after birth. We could see the difference in the couple of foals we didn’t imprint and only desensitized more than a few hours after birth; they were typically more shy and the mother more protective. After working with horses in Guanacaste for over 20 years and seeing the difference Natural Horsemanship and Imprinting do for bringing out the best in horses, I am convinced that this type of training benefits both humans and horses alike. It is a lesson for everyone who is lucky enough to have a baby horse born into their lives, and the minutes spent on imprinting will save hours and days of training and stress for horse and owner. Whether called Natural Horsemanship (knowing the nature and mind of the horse), Horse Whispering, or any of the methods of nonviolent training, when combined with Foal Imprinting, we know this is what makes our horses different at Casagua Horses. Our clients on day rides, clients that stay with us for a week at our Painted Pony Guest Ranch and friends who purchase our imprinted horses comment on “how good our horses are” which gives credit to their training and, of course, imprinting.
We are HIGH on Tamarindo...
...and we LOVE The Howler!
1W Last Qtr 2T
3F
4S
5S
00:55 07:19 13:34 21:49 01:43 08:10 14:29 20:49 02:44 09:15 15:34 22:00 03:56 10:27 16:45 23:12 05:11 11:38 17:51
1.6 8.1 1.5 7.0 1.9 7.7 1.8 6.8 2.1 7.5 1.9 6.9 2.1 7.6 1.7 7.3 1.8 7.9 1.2
6M
7T
8W New Moon 9T
10F
00:16 06:19 12:40 18:50 01:12 07:18 13:35 21:43 02:03 08:11 14:26 20:32 02:51 09:01 15:14 21:19 03:38 09:48 13:02 22:05
8.0 1.1 8.5 0.5 8.8 0.4 9.1 -0.1 9.6 -0.3 9.7 -0.7 10.3 -0.9 10.0 -1.1 10.7 -1.2 10.1 -1.1
SEPTEMBER TIDE CHART
11S
12S
13M
14T 1st Qtr 15W
04:24 10:35 16:49 22:51 05:11 11:23 17:37 23:38 05:59 12:12 18:27
10.8 16T -1.2 10.0 -0.9 10.5 17F -0.9 9.5 -0.4 10.0 18S -0.3 8.9
00:27 06:49 13:03 19:22 01:21 07:45 14:01 20:23
0.3 19S 9.3 0.3 8.2 1.0 20M 8.5 1.0 7.6
21T
02:22 08:48 15:06 21:33 03:33 09:58 16:19 22:45 04:51 11:08 17:28 23:50 05:59 12:10 18:25
1.7 7.8 1.6 7.2 2.2 7.3 1.9 7.1 2.4 7.2 1.9 7.2 2.2 7.3 1.6
00:43 06:53 13:01 19:11
7.6 25S 1.8 7.6 1.4
22W
23T Full Moon 24F
01:27 07:36 13:43 19:49 02:05 08:13 14:22 20:24 02:40 08:47 14:58 20:57 03:13 09:20 15:32 21:29 03:45 09:54 16:06 22:01
8.0 1.4 7.9 1.1 8.4 1.0 8.2 0.8 8.7 0.6 8.4 0.6 9.0 0.3 8.5 0.5 9.1 0.2 8.5 0.5
26S
27M
28T
29W
30T Last Qtr
1F Oct
04:18 10:28 16:41 22:35 04:52 11:03 17:16 23:10 05:28 11:40 17:54 23:48 06:06 12:21 18:36
9.1 0.2 8.4 0.6 9.0 0.3 8.1 0.8 8.7 0.6 7.8 1.1 8.4 0.9 7.5
00:31 06:51 13:07 09:26
1.5 5T 8.0 1.2 7.3
2S
3S
4M
01:23 07:46 14:03 20:27 02:27 08:53 15:08 21:38 03:41 10:07 16:18 22:48 04:55 11:17 17:25 23:51 06:01 12:29 18:24
1.8 7.7 1.5 7.1 1.9 7.4 1.6 7.3 1.9 7.5 1.5 7.7 1.5 7.8 1.1 8.4 0.8 8.3 0.5