The Howler
Volume 18, No. 2 Issue No. 197
February 2013 Founded 1996
TAMARINDO COSTA RICA www.howlermag.com THE HOWLER Ced. Juridica: 3-101-331333
FEATURES
Publisher, editor and production David Mills
Howler • Mono Congo
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Dining Out
dmills@racsa.co.cr Tel: 2-653-0545
Dine on the beach under the stars at Pangas, Tamarindo’s newest beach club, serving seafood fresh from the Pacific.
CONTRIBUTORS
Openings, closings, parties, music. The Gold Coast has it all, and bar-hoppin’ David is in the groove.
ELLEN ZOE GOLDEN TONY OREZ TOM PEIFER JEFFREY WHITLOW MONICA RIASCOS
14 Around Town
JEANNE CALLAHAN JESSE BISHOP MARY BYERLY ROBERT AUGUST
15 Surf Report
Olympus Circuito nacional 2013 visits Salsa Brava; Circuito MasterMetropolitano for veteran surfers; Collegiate Surf Tournament.
18 Brewing Up in Arenal
Deadline for March: February 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
Advertising rates & sizes Size 1/8 1/4 1/3 1/2 Full
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Price $
Surviving Costa Rica
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Pontifex - Building Bridges
Playing in a band is a very uplifting experience, and sometimes exciting, as Jesse tells us in this memory of times long past.
Planting trees to provide an environment for his new house, our columnist provides safe passageways for our monkey friends.
150 210 400
Ads must be submitted on CD or e-mail attachment, JPG or PDF format at 266 dpi, at the appropriate size (above). All comments, articles and advertising in this publication are the opinion of their authors, and do not reflect the opinion of Howler Management.
www.tamarindohomepage.com
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75 120
Discounts For 6 months, paid in advance, one month is deducted. For 12 months, paid in advance, two months are deducted.
www.tamarindobeach.net
A visit to Costa Rica’s only brew-pub, restaurant and hotel, spectacularly poised above Lake Arenal.
DEPARTMENTS 10 Music Review
26 Yoga
11 Book Review
28 Doctor’s Orders
12 August Odysseys
29 Word Puzzle
24 February Forecasts
32 Sun & Moon
25 Parents’ Corner
35 Tide Chart
Cover Caption: Ziplining at Pura Aventura (see ad page 35) Cover Photo: Amed Alvarez Rosales Cover Design: David Mills
One big obstacle to reducing crime in Tamarindo is that OIJ (the national investigative branch) doesn’t know how much crime is committed, that crimes reported to Fuerza Publica do not get to OIJ, because victims will not go to the OIJ office in Santa Cruz. Now Asociación de Desarrollo Integral de Playa Tamarindo announces that OIJ (and Migracion) will soon open an office in Tamarindo, obviating the need to go to Santa Cruz to report a crime. Please take advantage of this, when available, by reporting any crime to OIJ.
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“Do you want any change?” I am so sorry to hear this greedy phrase, common in North America, in Tamarindo restaurants. It translates as “do I get to keep all this?” Yes, I do want the change; I decide whether you get a tip, and how much; you don’t. January 17 saw a huge traffic problem in Tamarindo after a utility pole fell across the street, prompting many people to ask “why is there no other access/exit for Tamarindo?” Any emergency – sickness, fire, earthquake, tsunami – would be disastrous with no ability to move any vehicle in or out of town. We desperately need the Los Jobos road to be completed. And why do the people responsible for the major choke points in town (they know who they are) not do something to alleviate the daily traffic congestion, before Tamarindo gridlocks itself to death?
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The Howler introduces QR Codes as an additional method of promoting your business. See page 8 for details.
Promote Your Business with QR Codes Little square boxes filled with dots! We are seeing them everywhere, on walls, restaurant tables, even in magazines! But what are they? QRCodes are a new way of communicating your business to prospective customers. A QR Code contains a message – your telephone number, e-mail address or website address – that can be read by modern cell phones. Focus your cell phone camera on the image and take the photo, and you will be immediately taken to the web site or e-mail blank. Now The Howler is offering this new service to promote your business. We will publish your QRCode, with a couple of lines of text, as in the example below, for just $30 per month. You provide the code, or we will make it for you in black-and-white or single colour. We can also include your company logo or name for $10 extra.
The Howler Your Gold Coast Magazine 2653-0545 www.howlermag.com Alcoholics Anonymous Schedule of Meetings
Flamingo
Tuesdays: 5:30 - 6:30 pm (open) Fridays: 5:30 - 6:30 pm (open)
T
he first sign that we would enjoy dining at Pangas Beach Club was the 20-oz. glass of Segua Red draught ale, a deliciously hopped beer brewed in Cartago by Craft Brewing. This is a real pint (Imperial measure) as served in the U.K. Then the waiter asked if we would like water, and offered the choice of bottled or tap water – some restaurants don’t give a choice; they just put a bottle on the table, and on your bill. Pangas is a fine seafood restaurant near the estuary in Tamarindo under the direction of Jean-Luc Taulere, of Mar y Sol in Flamingo, and managed by Elizabeth Cole. It features both indoor and outdoor dining. We sat outside under huge ancient trees, nicely floodlit. Chairs are cushioned and comfortable; tables lit by kerosene lanterns. Appetizers are ceviche of scallops or mixed – parrot fish, shrimp, scallop and octopus; shrimp cocktail; two soups; salads – house, quinoa, lobster; curry & coconut mussels; smoked fish sampler; beef carpaccio; and pineapple chili glazed wings. We started with a goat cheese salad, organic cheese with mango chutney, balsamic & honey vinaigrette; and a mixed seafood platter on a sizzling hotplate – mussels, clams, calamari, octopus, fish, shrimp. Beef comes as lomito or grilled rib eye, served rare on sizzling Arenal volcanic rock to cook at the table; and short ribs, braised in Imperial beer with natural reduction sauce.
Location: Hitching Post Plaza Unit 2, Brasilito Contact: Don H. at 2-654-4902
Tamarindo
Saturday: 10:30-11:30 - Open General Meeting Monday: 5:30 - Open Meeting Thursday: 5:30-6:30 - Open Meeting Location: Behind Pedro’s Surf Shop Contact: Ellen - 2-653-0897 / Steve - 8377-1529
The seafood menu offers yellow fin tuna; grilled lobster; grilled octopus; jumbo shrimp kebabs. Pangas is also a fish market. Fresh fish are presented in a display case for a take-home purchase – corvina, mahi-mahi, lobster, shrimp, parrot fish – whole or filets. “Our fish is wonderfully fresh,” says Taulere, “it comes right off the pangas in the estuary.” Pangas is on the beach in Tamarindo, opposite El Tesoro. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Reservations call 2653-0024. Website: www.lasmareas.com/pangasbeach-club.
This property has been donated by an North American couple and CEPIA is selling it to seek funds that will be used to build the Community Center in Huacas.
Music Review Roxanne Oliva’s Accordian Crumbs
Tony Orez
She’s at it again: after her highly listenable 2010 debut album, “Box Candy”, accordionist extraordinaire Roxanne Oliva now offers her sophomore venture: “Accordion Crumbs”. The CD opens with “Secret Body Tango”, an Oliva original, a nice bass & accordion duet with castanet accompaniment and a wonderful intro song. “Fi Fi’s Messy Closet” is an up-tempo, playful and frenzied tune recorded by her band Youkali at what Roxanne describes as “a runaway fast tempo, giving it that untamed quality”. She told me that the song was inspired by what is hidden, or closeted. I also like this album’s versions of the traditional songs “Hole in the Boat Jig” and “Limerick Lass Set”, with their roving, Irish lilt, reinforced by the fiddle playing of Scott Renfort. And “Spin Bourée”, another Roxanne original, was inspired by 3/4 Bourées that were popular in southern Europe. In fact, Ms. Oliva told me that most of her songs are inspired by folk dance music. Roxanne acknowledges that the title of her album is in reference to the popular E. Annie Proulx novel, “Accordion Crimes”, which follows the life of an accordion and its many owners, of many nationalities, for more than a century. And I believe Roxanne has been successful on this disc in embracing those varied cultures and musical styles that span a great length of time and heritage. The CD is subtitled, “Tasty Bits of Random Sessions” and I wholeheartedly agree with the “tasty” assessment. Granted, the songs are an assortment from a variety of projects with which Ms. Oliva has been associated but, far from being a hodgepodge, I enjoyed a certain cohesiveness, a flow in the music. Four of these new songs were written by David Lux and were recorded for “Quiet Little Marriage”, an independent film that has garnered critical acclaim and received awards from film festivals in both Los Angeles and Austin. Along with Richard Mandel, David Lux also provided the tasty guitar work on the album. Four other songs on this fourteen-song project were recorded with the trio Youkali, which comprises virtuoso fiddle and bass players and, of course, Ms. Oliva and her diverse accordion styles. The rest were recorded with a seven-piece band who have gelled quite well on this project. Three of the songs that appear on this CD were on “Box Candy” as well, but far from being outtakes, they are new (to me) versions, much different than the previous renditions, and stand on their own, especially “Each Part Was Played”, that has a kind of haunting “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” feel to it. Roxanne owns a home in Playa Negra and is here at various times throughout the year. Perhaps with some coaxing, we can convince her to perform some time while she is here. We’ll sweep up the crumbs, of course. Both of Roxanne Oliva’s CDs are available at Jaime Peligro book store in Playa Tamarindo, where they will gladly sample the music for their customers.
Book Review Tony Orez
A Turtle and a Toad enter the Pachanga Family
I
n Tortuguero at the break of dawn, a baby turtle cracks through the shell of its egg and begins its perilous trek through prospective predators and other dangers in order to unite with the raging sea that beckons. At the dawn of time, according to Bribri legend, there was an only mountain, at the top of which countless toads held up an immense spherical stone that emitted strange noises. The toads, who were all the same color, had been told by their creator that their mission was to protect the stone and keep it from breaking apart. These are the openings of the two new bilingual books for young readers from the Costa Rican publishing company Pachanga Kids, their fifth and sixth in the series. The noted Costa Rican poet Rodlolfo Dada wrote the lyrical storyline for “Una Tortuguita Sale del Nido (A Turtle is Born)” and Wen Hsu, who was born in Taiwan to Chinese parents and moved to Costa Rica at the age of two, contributed the wonderful artwork. The work by these two artists compliments each other in this amazing union of talent. I cannot stress enough the incredible marriage of media accomplished by this book. And Eliot Greenspan did a good job in the translation to English to preserve the rhythmic flow of the story. The book is intended for children three years of age and older. I think the author’s delivery of information to the young reader feels unobtrusive, therefore much easier for the kids to digest.
Yazmin Ross, one of the founders of Pachanga Kids, is no stranger to adapting stories. At the age of seven, her son created a story about a group of fish who wanted to sweeten the ocean with sugar. Ms Ross remembered and treasured this story for twenty years and used it as the premise for “El Mar Azucarado (The Sea Sweet Sea)”, the first Pachanga publication. For “En Busca del Sapito Dorado (In Search of the Golden Toad)”, Ross has elaborated on an oral history of Creation from the Caribbean indigenous culture in Costa Rica. It is quite a responsibility bestowed upon the poor, uniformly-colored toads, and luckily for us, they eventually were unable to hold the rock and keep it from opening and creating every form of life we know. Yazmin told me she relocated the story to Monteverde to help children understand the plight of the Golden Toad and that she did not depict them as extinct because she wants the children to embrace a sense of hope. Again, it is the telling of the story, alongside the mesmerizing illustrations by the Venezuelan artist Maria Elena Valdez that take the book to another plateau. Valdez contributed the artwork for an earlier Pachanga publication and it is nice to see more of her talents applied to the Pachanga publications. Both of these new hardback books are printed in Spanish and English, simultaneously on each page, a nice vehicle for helping your child become bilingual. All of the Pachanga Kids books are available at the Jaime Peligro bookstores in Playa Tamarindo and Quepos, where they have open store copies for the customers to check out.
August Odysseys
Robert August
Sharks!
W
ay back in the dim mists of history, we were shooting “Endless Summer” and had just driven from Cape Town to Durban where, to our surprise, there were surfers; well, maybe only 10 or 15, but that was a lot compared with our experiences in Cape Town. And they were excited to see surfers from somewhere else. The surfing was OK, but the whole city limits of Durban were cordoned off in the ocean by nets, the shark population being quite considerable – and hungry. The locals told us that the breaks outside of town were awesome, but we were apprehensive of the sharks. Asking around, we were told that “nobody has been attacked recently”, so we took a chance. The breaks were, indeed, awesome, and we got some of the best waves I had ever surfed. And we had an audience! The locals all sat on a nearby bluff (maybe this should have clued us in) and watched, applauding every time we rode a wave. So there was this constant, noisy accompaniment to our fun. At one point, the noise got a lot louder for no apparent reason but, when I looked at the peanut gallery, they were shouting excitedly and pointing up the beach. We saw two large – 2 to 3 feet high – fins moving steadily towards us. I headed for the shore, and have never paddled so fast; I was flying over the water. We joined the locals on the bluff and watched as two huge sharks cruised past, clearly visible in the crystal water where we had been surfing. The larger was about 15 feet, about a yard across. They continued along the coast and disappeared. Our fans asked us if we were going back in for more surfing. “No, guys, we are going back to Durban.” So now we knew why they had steel nets around the beach. Nowadays, they run trips where the tourist sits inside a metal cage to watch the huge monsters bashing their heads against the cage.
The Road to Río*
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e are now in the penultimate year of World Cup 2014, and 2013 is a very full year for deciding who will go to Brazil. Here are the current situations for the qualifying rounds this year. Africa: To fill the five spots thirty teams from ten groups will all play on Mar 22. The ten winners will advance to Round 3, to be played Oct. 11 to Nov. 19. Asia: Thirty remaining teams will contest Round 4 between March 26 and June 18. Concacaf: Six teams play a round-robin to send 3.5 teams to the World Cup. We published Costa Rica’s fixtures last month. Europe: All qualifying games will be played on March 22. Of the 53 starters, 13 teams will qualify for Brazil. Oceania: Of eleven starters, the four remaining teams will play on March 22 and 26. South America: Brazil, as the host country, is automatically qualified. The remaining nine teams play for 4.5 spots between March 22 and June 11. So turn on your TV or find a convenient sports bar, preferably with many screens. On March 22 there are 39 games!
Go Sele! * OK, we stole the heading from the title of a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby movie (ask yer grandad), one of the very successful “Road to...” movies of a few centuries ago.
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Bill Gates
AROUND TOWN Judith and Edy have opened On Egin, serving a variety of Basque dishes from Northern Spain. Specialities are seafood, sangria, paella, all hand-made. In Plaza Tamarindo, second floor (below Bar 1). Tel: 8464-4223 (see ad on page 19). The Thirteenth Annual “Have a Heart” Charity Golf Tournament will be held on Thursday, February 14th, at the Hacienda Pinilla golf course. The annual Valentine’s Day event is the major fundraiser for Amigos de la Educación Foundation. Registration details are available at amigoseducacioncr@gmail.com. Also don’t miss our big raffle prize of a 42” Samsung flat-screen TV. Eric Pittini, ex-Torre Del Mar, has opened Pizza&Co – 8611-6582. Mamasa is a farm-to-table restaurant located in Playa Grande (500 meters before Kike’s on the right), using great local products and quality service. Open for brunch (10 am-2 pm) and Saturday evenings with special prix fixe menus, closed Monday. Dine in or carry out. Phone: 5002-5468. Website: www.mamasarestaurant.com. FB: mamasarestaurant Check out the spectacular copper bar at Nibbana, annealed and treated with a unique patina, then coated with shellac. Pneumos is a new genre of entertainment now appearing in Tamarindo – a mime quartet playing ragtime and ‘30s Django-style jazz, accompanied by silent movies. An authentic British fish and chip shop “The Dog’s Bollocks” has opened at Sangria (ex-Carolina’s) in Tamarindo. Juicy battered fish, large-cut chips, malt vinegar served, as traditional, in newspaper. Not the Daily Mirror, though; Carl is using La Nación for that sabor of Tico culture (see ad page 16). Conchal Consignment! is now open in the Village Commercial Center in front of Country Day School, Brasilito. American clothes, electronics, linens, furniture, toys, sporting goods, household décor, etc. Also featuring our healthy and gluten-free food section! Facebook (“Conchal Consignment”) or at www.conchalconsignment. com. Phone:8516-9159. Hours: M-F 10-4 and Sat 9-2. Foodlab, together with Pippo Import, opens its doors on the main road to Tamarindo, 50 mts east of Arpe hardware store. Rosa & Massimo promise they will have the best price on Pastas, Wines, Cheeses, Salamis and many other imported goods. You also can make your request and we will try to satisfy it in a reasonable time. Visit us; you have nothing to lose. Tel: 8845-4002; foodlabcr@gmail.com. Sangria introduces “Crooner Night” on Saturdays, featuring the classics of the ‘30s-‘60s: Sinatra, Ella, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin, etc. Well drinks at ¢1,500; beer ¢1,000.
Surf Report Ellen Zoe Golden (ellenzoe@aol.com)
T
he Caribbean coast, which features the monster wave Salsa Brava, has been the launching pad this past year for a few events. Of course, this is a great idea, because it not only gives competitors a chance to attack a break that is incredibly challenging, these contests also bring to forefront a different selection of surfers, those that can handle the shallow, big, reef break while competing. This year’s Olympus Circuito Nacional 2013, presented by Adrenaline Rush will have its second contest of the year at Salsa Brava on February 26 and 27. This is the second year in a row that the national tournament has returned to the Caribbean beach and last year’s winner of that specific date was a local named Tomas Tudela. As a matter of fact, all the competitors last year in Salsa Brava in 2012 were Puerto Viejo boys, who were familiar with the area. In addition to the Circuito, there is another contest that springboards from that area. With the waves already pitching high, the finals of the Puerto Viejo Open took place in January (although at press time
WOW Surf Shop, Nico Fisher, 7Mares magazine, Cobian, crsurf. com, Wipeout Film Productions, Punto surf, Al Dia, 104.7 Hit FM, Adrenaline, and B and B Surf Shop. I’ll get you the results in my next column. Even with this year’s Olympus Circuito Nacional 2013, presented by Adrenaline Rush underway (see below), the good folks at the Federación de Surf de Costa Rica (FSC) have already gone ahead and scheduled the second part of the annual contest. That would be the Circuito Master–Metropolitano, which runs on different dates than the main event, and focuses on the older, veteran surfers, as well as those who live in the city areas. The city surfers have always hit the waves in their separate contest, running concurrently with the Circuito Nacional. It was only last year that the FSC split the regular Circuito into two parts, a move precipitated by the fact that there were too many categories to compete during one weekend a month. Additionally, the Masters part of the Circuito has been scheduled so it will be completed in March. With the final rankings compiled at that time, the FSC will be able to put together a Costa Rica national Masters team of the highest caliber. This team will then represent the country in April at the International Surfing Association’s World Master Surfing Games in Ecuador. The Circuito Master-Metropolitano also kicked off last month. (Results can be found at www.surfingcr.net). The full schedule is as follows:
the organizers hadn’t decided whether to present the contest at Salsa Brava or the milder Playa Cocles). Either way, the forecast was for four- to five-foot waves. The four-date circuit was organized independently from the Federacion de Surf de Costa Rica (FSC), and therefore not included in the Circuito Nacional. However, it has drawn the best surfers from all over the country, because of the challenge, and, of course, the $2,000 cash prize. The first dates took place last January in Salsa Brava, June in Playa Cocles, and November in Playa Hermosa.
January 19 and 20: Playa Bejuco (in front of Hotel Playa Bejuco) February 9 and 10: Jaco (in front of El Malecón Restaurant) March 9 and 10: Playa Hermosa (in front of Hotel Backyard). With the combination of the various Masters categories as well as the contest for the urban surfers, the various divisions that were run in January included: Masters (35-39 years), Grand Masters (40-44 years), Kahuna (45 and over), Masters Women (35 and over), Metropolitan (non-coastal provinces residents) Open and Junior. Expected to compete in Bejuco and the other dates is Craig “Tequila” Schreiber (who has won two medals in the World Masters Surfing Games).
Ranked first going into the finals in Salsa Brava is Puerto Viejo’s Jordan Hernandez. He will have competed against Ronald Brown (Puerto Viejo and three-time national champion Gilbert Brown’s younger brother), Luis Vindas (Jacó), Kemba Hernandez (Puerto Viejo), Leo Calvo (Jacó) and Gilbert Brown (Puerto Viejo), who are 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively in the rankings with very little difference in points.
“Year after year, our surfers in these categories have competed at an important level, which has been able to obtain World medals brought to the country by our national selected team,” said Jose Ureña, President of the FSC. “For us, it is very important to cover as many categories, from the youngest to the oldest, to ensure full growth in all divisions.”
The Puerto Viejo Open has been going for six years and this year has garnered quite a list of sponsors. They are Kolbi, Dos Piños,
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The Comets Are Coming!
We mentioned, in November, that two bright comets were approaching our skies. The first, Comet Panstarrs, is just becoming visible to the naked eye and will grow in brightness through February, reaching maximum on March 10. Panstarrs may be seen with the naked eye around midFebruary low down in the early morning sky, and will move rapidly north at the end of the month, passing through Aquarius, Pisces, Aries and Andromeda by the end of March. From mid-February the comet should be very bright. Panstarr’s ephemerides are shown below: Comet Panstarrs Feb 2013
Date
R.A.
01 19.21.00 05 19.47.52 10 20.26.40 15 21.11.14 20 21.59.53 25 22.49.00 28 23.16.39
Dec
Mag
-45.22.29 6.6 -45.37.32 6.1 -45.15 45 5.4 -43.40.56 4.6 -40.14.17 3.7 -34.15.03 2.7 -29.13.43 2.1
March 2013
Please note: you can also order Dog’s Bollocks dishes from TicoToGo.
01 23.25.18 05 23.55.55 10 00.21.57 15 00.33.08 20 00.35.20 25 00.34.14 31 00.31.44
-27.18.25 1.9 -18.27.08 1.0 -05.31.31 0.5 +07.10.29 1.1 +17.50.43 2.1 +26.33.51 3.2 +35.14.52 4.2
(The second bright, maybe extremely bright, comet this year is Comet ISON, expected around November. The Howler will keep you informed of its progress.)
Brewing Up in Arenal Volcano Brewing Company
Volcano Brewing Company is a hotel and microbrewery situated on the south shore of Lake Arenal at its western end, about 8 km from Tilaran, the nearest large town. Getting there is easy: after turning off the InterAmerican Highway at Cañas, it’s uphill all the way. In Tilaran, make a left just after the gas station, heading for Nuevo Arenal and La Fortuna, then follow the clear signs to the brewery. The Hotel High on a hill, the hotel commands a delightful view of the tranquil lake and, weather permitting, two volcanoes. Built about twenty-five years ago as Hotel Tilawa in a pseudo-Greek style, and then closed for many years, it was taken over by Joe Walsh, of Witch’s Rock Surf Camp in Tamarindo, and totally renovated. It now has almost every facility you may require in a tourist hotel: rooms are huge and simple, with whimsical murals and spectacular views over the lake; an open bar and restaurant (all you can eat and drink included in the very reasonable room price), also open to nonguests; outdoor pool; heated Jacuzzi in a cave; skatepark and tennis court. Nature abounds, and there is a trail on the hotel property. From the room or restaurant you can watch the ever-changing weather patterns. Situated in the rain forest it receives its share of rain and cloud, which can change to sunshine in minutes. Rainbows, sometimes double or triple, are common. Inside the hotel are billiards, foosball and table games; big screen TVs showing SKY TV; big comfortable lounge; library of movies; massage spa and free WiFi. Microbrewery The microbrewery is, of course, a major attraction, Volcano be-
ing the only brewpub in the country. The two main beers are Witch’s Rock Pale Ale and Gato Malo, a very tasty, well-hopped brown ale. Brewing, in an imported German tank system, conforms to the international standard, using only malt, hops, yeast and water, and the water couldn’t be purer, coming from springs in the surrounding rainforest. In addition, beers from another microbrewery, Craft Brewing in Cartago, are available here. Farm-fresh Produce Volcano Brewing also maintains a farm producing fresh vegetables and cheese, which are served in the restaurant along with a wide variety of local beef, ham, and chicken, and tilapia fish fresh from Lake Arenal is second to none. Neighbourhood In the vicinity of the hotel is a wide variety of tours: hiking, windsurfing, white-water rafting, ziplining, rappeling, or visiting hot springs. Lake Arenal The 35km-long lake is man-made, having been tripled in size in 1978 by building a dam at its Eastern end. This expansion drowned the existing
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HGTV Show returns to Costa Rica with Blue Water Properties
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ouse Hunters International has again set its sights on Costa Rica. This time, the popular HGTV show elected to focus on the beaches of northwest Guanacaste including Playa Conchal, Pirate’s Bay (Bahia de los Piratas), Playa Grande, Flamingo and Tamarindo. Recently Costa Rica has gained popularity as a travel and real estate investment destination, being featured on many shows on HGTV and the Travel Channel in the USA, Canada and beyond. Filming for House Hunters recently wrapped up and took place from January 4th – 8th with New York-based film crew with Leopard Films Inc. House Hunters International takes viewers on a tour of international real estate shopping with buyers and their real estate agent.
love poem #16 i will love you in ways you can not dre am i will love & cherish all you hold de ar i am here to support flights of fancy crushing blows pink slip no’s i love you with all that be ats within me i love love love you unabashedly i don’t need air you are my e ver y bre ath my e ach waking moment my e ver y le ap into uncharted waters i am so luck y to love you & only you i found pe ace in a raging world i come in f rom the cold embraced by the passion of my conviction: i have chosen & you are worthy from ‘pardon me while i eat my young’ by geretta-geretta 1996 belfast N.I.
Rebecca Clower, Owner/ Broker of Blue Water Properties of Costa Rica, takes clients Sarah Starkey and Steve Low on a wild tour that will take them through several beach areas to see homes, villas, condos and even an ocean view lot! Beach scenes were shot at Pangas Restaurant in Tamarindo, The Palms in Flamingo and at Playa Conchal. Ultimately Sarah and Steve have to decide if their budget of $300,000 will get them everything they want. And if not, would building be a realistic option in this foreign country? This show has the twist of a possible building scenario which is rare in most of the House Hunters episodes. Among the properties shown are a great home in Villareal (Tamarindo), a Villa in Playa Grande and an ocean view condo in Pirate’s Bay. What will Sarah and Steve decide to do—buy an existing home/condo or build? Be sure to tune in this Spring to find out!! For information, contact Rebecca at 8705-1850 or 2653-6779, or visit www.bluewaterpropertiesofcostarica.com.
I don’t want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs. Sam Goldwyn
Brewing Up... (from page 20) town of Arenal, so a replacement town – Nuevo Arenal - was built on its North shore. Arenal now generates a large amount of hydroelectric power, and is a constant source of fresh water for many local communities. It is also a popular wind-surfing destination, and has a thriving population of rainbow bass (called Guapote), which attracts sportfishermen. Volcán Arenal No trip to the area would be complete without a trip to Arenal Volcano and the town of La Fortuna. The volcano can be reached after a very pleasant 1.5-hour drive from the hotel along a twisting and undulating, well-paved road along the North edge of the lake. The volcano, which rises to 1,633 meters, is active, and often sends spectacular streams of red-hot lava flowing down its sides. Due to the rainforest climate and the elevation, a view of Volcán Arenal is not guaranteed, as it is frequently in cloud, but it does put on a show on occasion. The neighbouring towns capitalize on the heated water from the volcano with hot spas and mud baths. The very spectacular drive along the north side of Lake Arenal is dotted with bars, hotels and resorts, prominent being the German Bakery in Arenal which serves wheat beer with breakfast; Los Héroes Swiss Hotel with its own hand-built railway (featured in The Howler, March 2011); Toad Hall hotel, restaurant and gallery, set in lush gardens overlooking the lake. La Fortuna Further east of the volcano is the town of La Fortuna, very busy, very touristy. Nearby is Baldi Hot Springs, a huge restaurant/hotel/hot spring complex, and Tabacon Hot Springs. Volcan Brewing Company is an easy 2.5-hour drive from Tamarindo via the Tempisque Bridge. Our stay at Volcano Brewing Company was nothing short of delightful: a comfortable place in beautiful surroundings and very attentive service by the super-friendly staff. We will return soon. Volcano Brewing Company may be reached at (888) 318-7873 (tollfree from U.S.); 2695-5050 (CR); or volcanobrewingcompany@ gmail.com; or visit:www.volcanobrewingcompany.com.
Volcano Dining Out
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hen you make the trip to Volcano Brewing Company, whether for a day’s outing or a longer stay, bring your appetite with you, because the restaurant serves good food, a mix of North American favourites and typical Costa Rican dishes. Volcano has its own farm where they grow vegetables for the kitchen and raise livestock, and tilapia fish come from nearby Lake Arenal. And, of course, you can wash your meal down with the excellent home-brewed ales. The large overlooks with beauthe distant ever-changing brought such lovely experience.
dining room Lake Arenal, tiful views to mountains, and the weather patterns that rainbows to enrich our
Appetizers are Volcano Chicken Wings in Chili beer BBQ sauce; fried plantains with black bean dip, with cheese made on their farm; gazpacho, from local vegetables; delicious palmetto heart salad, with black olives, red onions and local tomatoes, topped with home-made cheese; Volcano veggies, breaded and fried, with Chili beer BBQ sauce; soup of the day from local veggies. Main dishes are burgers, farmhouse or volcano; Tilapia in spinach sauce with local veggies; pollo jalapeño, chicken in creamy jalapeño sauce with sautéed vegetables; casado – beef, chicken or pork – with rice, beans, tortillas and sautéed vegetables; tilapia casado, fresh fish from Lake Arenal; whole fried tilapia; volcano chicken sandwich; beef or pork fajitas, with onions and peppers on tortillas; quesadilla of chicken or vegetarian; garden salad; arroz con pollo. Desserts are tres leches; bread pudding with ice cream; brownie with ice cream. Over a three-day stay we tried most menu items and were not disappointed. Good wholesome food, to get you ready for a hike up the volcano. For details of Volcano Brewing Company, see article on page 18.
Surf Report (from page 15) Back at the main Circuito Nacional, Luis Vindas proved he’s still in it to win. The former national champion rated to win the debut date of the annual contest. Called the Copa OFF!, the contest took place in Palo Seco in Parrita. In front of 200 people, Vindas took first place in the final against Anthony Segura (Esterillos), and newcomers to the podium Enoc Barrantes and León Glatzer, both of Jacó, with one of his scores being a best wave of 8.83. Kicking off the heat was Segura who came in with a 7.67 wave that put him on top for a few minutes. However, his second wave only registered a 5.67 with the judges, for a final combination of 13.13. Vindas totaled 15.00. Said Vindas: “I’m happy to have won the first date. That’s the best, to start off first in the ranking. It’s the biggest motivation you can propose, and sets high goals for the season. Last year, I lost the title, and I want to go for it again.” Vindas, who is 26, finds himself among a handful of veterans this year who are still vying for the crown. This would be Vindas’ second championship, should he meet his goals. As has been the case in the past, Vindas and his sister Lisbeth both visited the podium in Pala Seco. While she has already earned nine national championships, the 31-year-old mother is now also faced with a crop of strong female contenders including Leilani McGonagle (Pavones) and Emily Gussoni (Jacó), two 12-year-olds that have placed in finals many times in the last couple of years. Of course, there is still Nataly Bernold (Jacó) who actually won the national championship last year. In the final, Lisbeth racked up 14.50 (7.83 and 6.67), with Bernold earning 12.03, while McGonagle and Paula Duarte (Jacó) did not rise above 8.00. “I am very happy to win the first date of the Circuito. One reason is that I can focus and keep working hard, with an establishment on top,” explains Lisbeth. “I want to do well this year and this win is ideal. I predict I’ll have a special campaign from here on out.” Speaking of great female surfers, former national champion Andrea Diaz was at it again. You can’t keep this gal from organizing something worthwhile for the kids who want to surf in this community. As owner of the only Quiksilver/Roxy surf camp in Costa Rica, Diaz has many resources to put on events. She teamed up with another national champion Federico Piluzu, and local surfers John Osbourne and José Colombari, as well as C.O.R.E. (Community Pride, Recreation and Education Tamarindo) Surf for Youth (a group these guys started to help underprivileged youth stay in school and improve their surfing skills), and the Ministry of Education to put on the Second Collegiate Surf Tournament. About 92 competitors from eleven area schools showed up on Tamarindo Beach in December. (continued page 33)
Your Stars in February
Aries: 21 March - 20 April
Libra: 23 September - 23 October
Taurus: 21 April - 21 May
Scorpio: 24 October - 22 November
Gemini: 22 May - 21 June
Sagittarius: 23 November - 21 December
Cancer: 22 June - 22 July
Capricorn: 22 December - 21 January
Leo: 23 July - 23 August
Aquarius: 22 January - 19 February
Virgo: 24 August - 22 September
Pisces: 20 February - 20 March
This will be more of a behind-the-scenes month for you, as five planets in the sign of Pisces by the end of the month, in your twelfth house of secrets, self undoing, institutions, and the subconscious mind, keep you out of the public eye. Those Aries with health problems may find their condition gets worse at this time. Use your energy wisely and pay attention to your dreams and intuition. Best days are the 13th and 14th, though the 13th may bring in shocking news. Your professional life gets a boost this month as Venus enters your tenth house and the Pisces stellium at the end of the month transits your eleventh house of groups, friends and business income. You are motivated to succeed and will feel up to making new connections and contacts. Your most positive days are the 15th and 16th; however, retreat early the evening of the 16th for best results. With Jupiter now in direct motion in your sign, you will have many choices about what direction you want to take. Make your move the first two weeks of this month for best results as the planets in Aquarius then support your agenda and your ability to influence people is at a high. Your ruling planet, Mercury, goes retrograde on the 22nd, giving you a chance to take stock of the results of your actions. The 18th and 19th are your stellar days.
Finances are still at the forefront of your attention the first two weeks of the month as you must pay attention to some long-term planning issues. The Pisces stellium in your ninth house of higher education, foreign travel and religion may find you planning a trip abroad or meeting with people from other cultures. Your intuition and dream state could be highly active then. Pay attention to what messages are coming in. The 20th and 21st are your most fortunate days. Partnerships move forward with more ease the first two weeks of the month as Venus enters your seventh house. Compromise is easier now. With Jupiter now direct in your eleventh, you can gain from your professional associations, too. The last two weeks of the month you become much more concerned with unearned income, wills, insurance policies, and taxes. You may need more sleep at this time too. The 22nd, 23rd and 24th are your best days to shine. Health and work are primary concerns the early part of this month as planets in your sixth house and Jupiter direct in your tenth house of profession create a condition of advancement. Put yourself in the public eye and don’t be afraid to toot your own horn. The latter part of the month focuses on relationships and partnerships. Your ruling planet, Mercury, goes retrograde on the 22nd, creating a need to pull back and restore your energy. Days to push for your agenda are the 25th and 26th. by Jeanne Callahan (jeannecallahan007@gmail.com)
With several planets transiting Aquarius and your fifth house, you will have some opportunity to spend time with children or enjoy some creative pursuits during the beginning of the month. The end of the month has issues of health and work habits under review. Jupiter direct in Gemini in good aspect to Venus in Aquarius should bring in some assistance at the beginning of the month. The 1st, 27th and 28th are your best days to ask. Be careful on the 13th. Concerns about your home, real estate, and parents take front and center at the beginning of the month. Saturn goes retrograde in your first house, taking a toll on your energy and appearance. Saturn seems to age us visibly when passing through the first house. The rest of the month puts the focus on your children and creative projects that can actually do quite well. Your most favorable days are the 2nd and 3rd. With your ruling planet, Jupiter, now direct in your seventh house of partnership, there’s some positive momentum developing for relationships and business partners. Contracts can be signed before the 18th for best results. You are also putting energy and focus into improving your home this month, so it’s a good time to hire people who can make it happen. Your optimism returns and you start to enjoy yourself and your space again. The most favorable days for you are the 4th and 5th. Money and asset accumulation occupy most of your time and energy this month as planets transiting your second house fortify this drive. Later in the month it shifts to concerns about the neighborhood, siblings and short distance trips. With your ruling planet, Saturn, going retrograde for about four months on the 18th, your business associations and humanitarian groups are coming up for review. The 6th and 7th are your best days, though you may be a bit ruthless on the 7th. This would be a good month to take stock of your appearance and make some improvements. We all need a makeover periodically to reflect our new maturity and personal style. With Saturn going retrograde in your tenth house of public appearance, you are being noticed and probably judged. So focus on improving something about your body, face, hair. The last part of the month the focus in on money, assets and how to get more of them The 9th and 10th are your best days to present your ideas. The beginning of the month has you being a bit reclusive and possibly not feeling all that well. Rest and recover as the later part of the month has many planets in your sign and first house. With Jupiter in your fourth house, you may be hosting a social event in your home. Saturn going retrograde in your ninth means a return to a familiar place abroad or needing to get more certification for your profession. Best days for you are the 11th and 12th.
Namasté Visit Jeanne’s site at CelestialAdvisor.com
Parents’ Corner Be a Good Parent - be Good to You
B
ecoming a parent is truly a life-changing experience… we all make accommodations in many aspects of our daily lives in order to be able to create the ideal environment for our son or daughter, in an act of unconditional love and dedication. The child becomes the center of our universe and everything revolves around him. Even though no responsible parenthood goes without some serious accommodations and changes, it’s very important that these changes are not interpreted as a sacrifice of one’s “self”. As with everything in life, extremes are never healthy and the right answer is found in balance. With the responsible, dedicated parent, there should be also the person, the “self”, with his personal dreams, ambitions, passions and needs. Being a father or a mother is just another aspect of our life, a very important one, but not the only one that defines us. It should be our goal to be good parents, and at the same time be committed spouses, loyal friends, involved citizens, dedicated professionals and individuals with personal interests and personal space. This is important not only for our own mental health, but for our children’s social and emotional development. As you balance out your parental responsibilities and joys with your personal activities, dreams and needs, you are a model of emotional stability for your children. How can mothers and fathers find harmony between “being a parent” and “being me”? 1. Cherish and take care of your relationships… parents who are loving and committed partners, and active and involved friends and family members give their children a deep sense of security. At the same time, you are modeling interpersonal skills and stimulating your child’s social development. 2. Take a little time for yourself every day… go for a walk, listen to music, read, or just simply enjoy a moment of quite “dolce far niente” (sweet doing nothing). Alone-time helps you recharge your energy and find inner stability, and enables you to open up yourself to others in a positive way. When parents take personal time on a regular basis, children can see the positive value of independence and autonomy, and are less likely to experience separation anxiety. 3. Don’t give up your dreams “because of the kids”; it’s not healthy for you or for your children to view parenthood as a sacrifice. Adopt a positive perspective based on embracing change as an opportunity and find a way to accommodate your dream to your new situation, approaching it in little steps, but never dismissing its realization. By pursuing your own personal goals and ambitions, you teach your children assertiveness and perseverance. In brief: happy and fulfilled mothers and fathers provide for the ideal conditions to race happy and fulfilled children. “It’s not only children who grow. Parents do, too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can’t tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it myself.” Joyce Maynard Msc. Mónica Riascos Henríquez Psychopedagogist – Member of ASOLAP – Code 2024 consultariascos@live.com
Now Begins the Study of Yoga Strong Foundations When we look at the physical shape of a posture, we build it from the ground up, just like you construct a building. In the three poses shown this month, we strongly ground from the feet up through the legs and into the hips, to support the upper body’s work. Learn the foot position of one, and you have learned it for all three. First stand on your mat facing the long side. Step or jump your feet about 3 feet to a meter apart. Turn your left (L) toes in about 30 degrees and turn your right (R) foot out to face the short end of your mat. Now look at your feet, and line your R heel up with the arch of your L foot. This is the foot position (as seen in the photo) that each one of these poses uses. Now check that your R knee lines up with your center toes. Keep grounded in that foot though, and don’t let the inner edge of it lift off the ground. Keep your back foot grounded as well, especially the outer edge of that foot, while lifting up through the inner arch. Holding this solid foundation, allow your upper body to orient to the long side of your mat. Keep your legs strong, and feel that power lift through your upper body and crown of your head. Bring your arms up to your sides on an inhale, and on the exhale extend your R side over your leg. Let your R hand rest on the ground, a block, or your leg and lift the L up to the sky. This is triangle pose (Trikonasana). Can you find the triangles in the picture of this pose? To go from here into Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II), simply inhale your body up to standing, then exhale as you bend your R knee. Stop when your knee is right above your R ankle. If your knee goes beyond your ankle, walk your R foot farther in front, to get the ankle under that knee. Your upper body stays upright, so make sure you balance the reach in your L arm with that in your R to keep your torso on top of your pelvis. From Warrior II go into Extended Side Angle (Parsvakonasana). On an exhale, bring your R elbow to your front knee, or if you can go deeper in the pose, bring your R hand to the floor. The picture here shows the elbow to knee variation. In each of these poses, feel the strength of your legs grounding to help bring strength to your upper body as well!
Mary Byerly is one of the owners and the yoga teacher at Panacea. An oasis of tranquility and health 10 minutes from Tamarindo. Discover Paradise and Bring a Peace Home www.panaceacr.com • 2653-8515
Namaste, Mary
Barbara’s Pet Stories Squeaky Toys
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oys and more toys. You all know these squeaking toys, which come with different sounds, deep squeaks, high tone squeaks. I have some dogs in my Animal Refugio. To avoid fighting about things, each of my dogs has a toy. A squeak toy. A frog, a duck, a bear, a handbag, a ball, a mouse: squiekkss, squaakkss, uuggss, aaeess... My dogs love them ! Squeakkss, zzrreeggrrss. For the nights I always put a dog bed on my patio, it is 4 x 6 feet , so plenty of room for plenty of doggies. They all love this huge soft bed, and lie down without being asked to do so, of course, with their stuffed squeak toys. squeakss, ssrreeggss, zzuuggss. When I go to bed it does not bother me, as I am already used to these sounds. But then last night I woke up from a strange sound, as I thought. I went out to the patio and saw my dogs on the bed, in between them and their paws the squeak toys...ssrriiggs, aeehhrggr, and a bbrrrpp-bbrrrpp. The dogs looked at me, like: do not disturb, it is not 5 am yet…so I went back to bed. Before I fell asleep, I heard this sound again: bbrrrpp-bbrrpp. I thought maybe it is just another sound of one of their toys I had not paid attention to yet. Next morning with my cup of coffee in my hand I went out to the patio, I sat down on a chair and all seemed to be fine. Then I heard this sound again: bbrrrpp-bbrrrpp. I looked to my dogs which were still lying on the bed, the toys in between their paws...and then I noticed little greyish fur balls I did not remember as a toy...oh my dear...two little raccoon babies were sitting in between the dogs and the toys and it looked like everybody was having a good time: the little bears with their tiny paws were touching gently the faces of the dogs, the dogs in return were softly nudging the bears’ bellies...bbrrrpp-bbbrrrpp. Then the two fur balls noticed me and ran up to me on their short little legs...I could see this look in their eyes: feed us!! Now I have to figure out where these two new ¨squeak toys¨ come from...
Doctor’s Orders Jeffrey Whitlow, M.D. jwhitlow82159@gmail.com
Methamphetamine
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or the past few months we have been discussing the harmful effects of the various “recreational” drugs. We will continue that discussion this month by focusing on the harmful effects associated with methamphetamine. Methamphetamine or “meth” is sometimes called “hillbilly cocaine” or “hillbilly heroin” as it gives a “high” that is similar to those drugs at a fraction of the price, and it is mainly used in rural areas. This drug was unknown until the early 1980s. In the ‘90s, it hit the US countryside with hurricane-like force, similar to the crack cocaine epidemic that hit the urban ghettoes at roughly the same time. Meth is a particularly nasty drug that is a cheap synthetic copy of the adrenaline that is naturally produced by our adrenal glands. The drug’s effect on the user is similar to that of cocaine, in that the user feels hyper-sensitive, powerful, and all-knowing, a sensation medically termed as “euphoria”, for lack of a better term. The drug is produced in kitchens, trailers, garages, and anywhere else that the producers can assemble the necessary raw materials and chemicals. The substances used to “extract” the meth from the raw material, which is usually pseudoephedrine, are extremely toxic. It is a matter of course that, when a so-called “meth house” is busted by law enforcement, a Hazardous Materials team is called in to conduct clean-up! The drug is produced by people who are usually without technical training, in an environment that is less than ideal. So again, users are dealing with a substance that is toxic to their heart and brain cells at a certain dose. But again, the users are not able to effectively monitor their dose, since they have no idea as to the purity of the substance they’re ingesting. To complicate matters, meth producers are particularly notorious for using any kind of poison to “cut” the drug, or increase the yield of their production process. Meth is probably the most toxic of our recreational drugs. Meth users die from overdoses, have heart attacks and seizures, and suffer from all of the other problems with their hearts and brains that we see with cocaine. Additionally though, meth has some unique issues. Users suffer from skin lesions, because the drug creates a sensation in some that their skin is “crawling”, or that there is something on or underneath their skin. That sensation causes the user to scratch uncontrollably, which eventually breaks the skin and leads to sores and infections. In the areas where the use of this drug is endemic, everyone knows that the people who use meth lose their teeth, but of course no one knows why. The mechanism is similar to that of soda and sugar in that meth produces acid when metabolized by the body. The only way the body can neutralize this acid is by stealing calcium from the bones and teeth. Meth produces so much acid though, relative to sugar, that the user can lose most or all of his teeth in a few months. The drug also causes intense paranoia and even psychosis, due to its effects on the brain chemistry. I really am at a loss to understand why anyone would put such poison into his/her body.
Word puzzle Tr o p i c a l F r u i t
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. arandanos banano carambola cereza chirimoya datil frambuesa frutadepan guanabana guayaba higo jocote limon mamonchino mandarina
mangostina maracuya melocoton mora naranja nectarina nispero papaya pina pitahaya sandia tamarindo toronja uva zapote
Surviving
C hapter MXMLII
COSTA RICA
E
verybody should be in a band at least once in his life so he can experience the incredible high produced by music. For some, like yours truly, it quickly became an addiction and still continues to be so even after (I shudder to count them) forty-seven years. It doesn’t matter what level you’re at, a total beginner or first violinist in the Berlin Philharmonic, it’s the same buzz! I was twelve when The Beatles first came out and I remember being excused from the dinner table at The Army Navy Country Club (my Dad’s favorite hangout) so I could see them on the Ed Sullivan Show in the nearby TV room. They made a big impression that is still with me today and they looked like they were having a lot of fun. As it turns out George had strep throat and a high temperature and wasn’t feeling very good, but the show had to go on. I quickly acquired a Sears and Roebuck acoustic guitar and a 300-page Beatles songbook and started wrestling with the chords, most of which were too hard and way out of my league. Being a guitar player was much in vogue among the eighth grade guys at James Fenimore Cooper Junior High and the height of guitar accomplishment was being able to play the intro to the Beatles’ “Day Tripper”. You know: dum da dee da dum dee da dee da dee dum! Hope I’m not getting too technical for you. Ninth grade in Fairfax County Va. meant high school and along with similarly minded types (including my sister) we formed a band called “The Apple Pie”. The band name was very important at that time and we thought we were pretty cool with this one, and the bass player’s mom made the group matching “Apple Pie” vests. The vests featured large red cherries instead of apples as Mom was unable find the proper fruit at the local fabric store.
Fun With Music
It was in this group that I first experienced the competitive side of the band business. One way to get exposure was to enter a Battle of the Bands and the Apple Pie was challenged by another band from our high school, “The Beavermen”, to a musical fight to the death. The guitarists were all brothers or cousins from the local Beaverman clan and were both seniors and jocks to boot. The band dressed alike and played mostly surf music while we Apple Pie types were freshmen riding the current hippy dippy wave. The showdown was held in somebody’s garage and the Beavermen were acting pretty arrogant, assuming a one-sided event. When the smoke cleared it was we who won, apparently because we played some of our own tunes which had never been done before on the band battle circuit. Our victory was short-lived as the following week every freshman in our band received “wedgies” during gym period from the revengeful musical jocks of the Beavermen, a painful experience for all and the details of which are too gruesome for The Howler’s delicate readers. As it turned out, as well as being spiritually uplifting, playing music for others could be somewhat dangerous. The Apple Pie evolved into the Incredible Fog (still not sure what the name means, although I came up with it) and occasionally we’d play at places with people who didn’t appreciate our type of band, usually guys with DA haircuts (also referred to as greasers) preferring groups that played soul music and not that “hippy sh-t”. These gigs usually ended with the band swinging mike stands at the crowd while trying to pack up the equipment and get the heck back home. We survived, and the last time The Incredible Fog got back together was 2010 when we played at our 40th High School reunion.
Story by Jesse Bishop (owlhumm@hotmail.com)
Being in and out of bands as much as I’ve been, you start to appreciate the groups that got along with each other, or at least pretended to. This is not always the case, as I remember playing in a band back in Texas with a group of older musicians who had been playing together over the years in various and sundry groups. The drummer and bass player didn’t have a high regard for the band’s front man who sang and played sax and keyboards. One memorable and final night, after taunting the poor guy throughout the gig, the drummer hit him in the head with his sticks. End of group. The bass player had spent most of his time propositioning band members of both persuasions and was used to this kind of stuff anyway. I was surprised after all these years when he turned up on my seldom-used Facebook page asking to be friends, which I continue to non-confirm. I’m currently enjoying playing with my friends “Bad” Brad Schmidt on sax and David Herzovich on bass in the usually appropriately named “Tres Amigos”. We’re playing everything from jazz standards to that “hippy dippy sh-t”. It’s kinda like a jazz band without a jazz guitarist. But I get by. I asked Brad to provide a music story for this column and upon consideration he told me the time when he was much younger in California and hitting all the concerts including a show by Janis Joplin. At some point in the program Janis headed slightly off stage too have a sip of her famous Southern Comfort as well as have a quick make-out session with one of her harem of attractive young men. This particular young man turned out to have been one of Brad’s best buddies in high school. I betch’a he tells that story a lot to his grandkids!
Pontifex - Building Bridges Tom Peifer (peifer@racsa.co.cr)
I think that I shall never see…anything so cool as monkeys in my trees. (apologies to Joyce Kilmer, 1886-1918)
I
owe a lifetime debt of gratitude to a former neighbor, don Pedro. During the hectic construction of my house in the woods, he pointed out a small sapling a few steps from the future front porch. Given the frenzy of trying to get a roof on before the rains, the farthest thing from my thoughts was the genus, species or whatever of a waist-high stem no bigger around than my thumb. “This is an almendro del monte,” advised Pedro, “good for shade in the summer.” What Pedro failed to mention is that the ‘mountain almond’ is also a super “monkey tree”. Unlike most of the deciduous trees in our eco-region, the almendro has the handy habit of shedding its leaves at the beginning of the dry season; they promptly re-sprout new ones to provide the welcome shade that Pedro had advised me to conserve.
As the tree grew and began to provide the much-desired microclimate at the edge of my home, other advantages began to become apparent. Similar to new growth on mango trees, the magenta-hued canopy of young leaves provides a seasonal dose of color in the landscape. For the monkeys, the bright display might as well be a neon sign at the neighborhood diner. They swing by for a meal on a regular basis, stripping off the tender leaves and shoots, returning only when there is sufficient foliage to warrant the round trip from the nearby forest. (Those with an ecological bent might want to brush up on the concept of ‘optimal foraging behavior’ at this point.) Quite by accident, rather than ‘intelligent design,’ I had plugged a gap between the forest and the growing almendro tree with a guaba tree. Not guava, the fruit, but guaba, an important tree in agroforestry not simply because of the ‘ice cream bean’ that it produces, but for its hosting of parasitic wasps that help in insect control. As luck would have it it’s also an evergreen; the monkeys seem to eat both flowers and the young fruit, and it is literally humming with dozens of hummingbirds during its rather prolonged flowering in the late dry season. Around the back of my home the approach was a bit more methodical. Fast-growing bamboo served to fill the gaps between a couple of citrus trees and a cashew, the source of much-needed moisture in the months of March and April. OK, the monkeys might be a bit challenged in the table manners department. They clamber throughout the cashew canopy, squeezing and sucking up the astringent juice of the cashew fruit like ‘optimal foraging’ beer drinkers during Happy Hour at the beachside bars. For more than a month this pleasant diversion is taking place just outside a window where I’m hacking away into the wee hours on the latest contribution to Tamarindo’s homegrown literary gazette. Connecting up to the next stop in the simian smorgasbord involved another set of techniques.
Anyone with functioning eyesight knows by now that the ‘bigbang’ flowering strategy of the corteza amarilla lights up the local landscape in the mid-to-late dry season. But having one next to your home is a real treat. Not only do you find yourself experiencing the heavenly glow of filtered or reflected light depending on the angle of the incident sunlight. The Howler monkeys’ appreciation of this specie’s showy display is perhaps more utilitarian than aesthetic. A bit of variation in taste, color, texture and no doubt nutritional value ensure that the canopy of the corteza is ‘hanging room only’ for the month or so of its flowering phase. In my landscape the trick was in ensuring the aerial tramway to the existing tree. Having taken out a ‘high canopy’ of the 20-year old gmelina trees for lumber, we needed to select and guide the smaller established cocobolo trees to fill in the voids in the canopy. In the back of my mind I remembered a visit to the Howler exhibit at the world-famous San Diego Zoo. “Threatened by Habitat Fragmentation” read the ominous sign at the entrance to the enclosure. As the last big gmelina crashed to the ground a few feet from my house, I realized that the corteza amarilla needed a dose of ‘landscape connectivity’ in a hurry. As anyone who has planted a live fence of hibiscus around his property can tell you, there’s a time of the year here when you really can “just stick stuff in the ground and it grows.” The technique is known locally as pega pega, and hundreds of plants can be inexpensively propagated in this way--including live posts for living fences. Commonly used for live fences are madero negro, jińote jocote, matapalo and pochote, but they are usually cut just long enough to support the 3-strand fences which are the norm in cattle pastures. I decided to push the envelope. We installed several 12-15 ft. tall, forked poles of jińote, at 3-4 meter intervals. With successful establishment and 2-3 years of growth, these trees were able to fill in the gaps and provide an aerial highway for the monkeys to the succulent flowers of the corteza amarilla. My take on the topic is that the pega pega technique can come in very handy for homeowners who want a bit more instant gratification in their efforts at landscaping and wildlife habitat restoration. At this point it bears emphasizing that the true experts on restoring landscape connectivity for our long-lost arboreal cousins are Patricia and Larry at Fundación Salvémonos. They have the appropriate species list, guidelines, and contacts for installing the all-important aerial bridges that allow the Howlers to safely traverse above the lethal mayhem of the local roads and highways. (continued page 32)
Pontifex... (from page 31)
On the topic of building bridges, I can’t resist referring to one of my favorite writers, Aldous Huxley, who argued elegantly in a short essay that the role of pontifex—or bridge builder—was one of the most needed in the contemporary world. Huxley was referring to constructing lines of communication between the academic disciplines, and between science and normal people, to avoid the narrow-minded outlooks that so often prevail even amongst the supposedly welleducated elites. On a personal level, my efforts at bridge-building have taken two main directions.
February ( a l l
t i m e s
2013 l o c a l )
Sun
1st - rise 6:06; set 5:48 15th - rise 6:03; set 5:52 28th - rise 5:58; set 5:54
Last quarter: New: 1st quarter: Full:
Moon
3rd 10th 17th 25th
7:57 a.m. 1:21 a.m. 2:31 p.m. 2:27 p.m.
Linguistically, the topic of a future article, I somehow find myself in a daily attempt to improve communication between locals and the non-Spanish-capable foreign hordes that have settled in this neck of the woods. As per the theme of this article, with a background both as builder and agro-ecologist, trying to find a fit so that both homes and gardens enhance, rather than deplete, the natural world around us that both nourishes and delights us on a daily basis. A case in point, a small project I’ve been managing was just visited by Coopeguanacaste, to plan the location of the first of many ‘monkey bridges’ that will restore the connectivity across the roads. The inspector detailed to me the ropes, cables and mesh that they were planning to use and indicated the trees to which they’d attach. What I didn’t tell him was that as soon as they drove out the gate, I’d be planting vines to rapidly take over the assembly, provide it with a more natural look, and, just possibly, another source of flowers and food for the enjoyment of all the residents in the project. For anyone interested in looking to somehow ‘marry’ the disciplines of building and biology, of construction and conservation, I’d urge them to watch any number of the videos that are available on the “Living bridges of Meghalaya, India.” The term ‘inspirational’ falls short of the mark, believe me. Returning to mull over the monkeys, one is tempted to ponder at times, as they languish in the security of their lofty perches, if they look down with wonder or with scorn at the frenzied pace and relentless consumerism of their supposedly superior ‘sapiens’ cousins. Do they thank their lucky stars that they never came down out of the trees, took stock of the situation, and decided to embark on the suicidal mission of rearranging nature to suit their self-centered whims? It seems like the least we can do is help them stay up in the trees, enjoying the view and truly experiencing what Costa Rica is supposed to be all about: Pura Vida !
Tom Peifer is an ecological land use consultant with 18 years experience in Guanacaste. 2658-8018. peifer@racsa.co.cr El Centro Verde is dedicated to researching and promoting sustainable land use, permaculture and environmentally sound development. www.elcentroverde.org/
Surf Report (from page 26) The schools represented were: Liceo de Villareal, Colegio Técnico 27 de Abril, Escuela de Brasilito, Liceo de Santa Cruz, Colegio Cindea de Huacas, Colegio La Paz, Country Day Guanacaste, Guanacaste Experimental Academy, Colegio Espíritu Santo de Santa Cruz and Centro Educativo Educarte.
Here are the results: High School Women: 1. Marcela Garcia, Liceo de Villarreal. 2. Malia Vandewelle, Guanacaste Country Day. 3. Christine August, Colegio La Paz. Women under 12 years: 1. Surya Folger, Colegio La Paz. 2. Katie Herman, Colegio La Paz. 3. Lucy Ottley, Guanacaste Country Day. Boys Schools: 1. Malakai Martinez, Colegio La Paz. 2. Aldo Chirinos, Guanacaste Experimental Academy. 3. Tiago León, Guanacaste Country Day. High School Third Cycle: 1. Francisco Coronado, Escuela de Brasilito. 2. Moisés Rodríguez, Escuela de Villarreal. 3. Noah Quijada, Colegio Espíritu Santo de Santa Cruz. High School Fourth Cycle: 1. Marcos Cungi, Country Day Guanacaste. 2. Liad Poni, Colegio Homeschool. 3. Keiner López, Liceo de Villarreal. According to Pilurzu, who is a part of C.O.R.E.: “One of our goals as part of our social responsibility is to implement projects that protect children at risk. We believe that sports are a big way to achieve the goal of creating better citizens.”
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.
1F
0605 1207 1829
86 6W 00 91
2S
0037 0648 1249 1913 0125 0737 1337 2004 0219 0834 1433 2104 0321 0941 1540 2212
03 82 03 89 05 79 06 86 08 76 10 84 10 74 12 82
3S Last Qtr 4M
5T
7T
8F
9S
10S New Moon
FEBRUARY TIDE CHART
0431 1054 1653 2323 0542 1205 1806
10 11M 74 13 83 08 12T 78 10
0031 0648 1309 1912 0131 0745 1405 2010 0225 0837 1456 2102
86 13W 03 84 05 90 14T -02 90 00 94 15F -07 86 -04
16S
0315 0924 2543 2149 0402 1009 1628 2235 0447 1052 1711 2319 0530 1133 1754
97 -09 99 -07 97 -10 100 -07 96 -09 99 -05 92 -05 95
0002 0614 1214 1837
-01 20W 87 00 90
17S 1st Qtr 18M
19T
0045 0658 1256 1921 0130 0746 1341 2008 0220 0839 1432 2102 0317 0941 1531 2203 0422 1048 1639 2308
04 81 07 84 09 74 13 78 14 69 14 73 18 65 23 70 20 64 25 70
21T
0528 1153 1747
19 26T 66 23
22F
0009 0626 1247 1845 0101 0714 1334 1933 0147 0756 1414 2015 0229 0835 1452 2055
71 16 70 19 75 12 75 14 79 07 81 08 83 03 86 03
23S
24S
25M Full Moon
27W
28T
1F Mar 2S
0308 0911 1529 2133 0346 0948 1606 2211 0424 1025 1643 2250 0503 1103 1723 2331 0544 1144 1805
87 -01 91 -01 89 -04 94 -04 91 -05 96 -06 90 -05 96 -05 88 -03 84
3S
4M Last Qtr 5T
6W
7T
0015 0629 1229 1851 0104 0719 1319 1944 0158 0818 1418 2046 0302 0926 1527 2157 0414 1041 1644 2311
-03 85 00 90 01 81 04 86 05 77 09 82 08 74 12 79 10 75 12 79