There is no doubting the economic storm that is blowing at hurricane force around the world these days.  It’s a real mess out there!  Being in Costa Rica does not make one immune either, especially when that someone is in the travel business.  I don’t think I am speaking alone in saying that business lately has been just miserable.  However, being in Costa Rica does make weathering the storm a bit more tolerable.  For one thing here we are not inundated by bad economic news 24/7.  It is not the major topic of every news program, or major newspaper headline.  Nor is it the topic of every conversation with the neighbor or stranger in the street.  The U.S. over the last few decades has become almost a completely media driven country.  Yes I know that it is the media’s job to keep the people informed.  But it is not their job to keep them brainwashed and hypnotized.  The truth is that the news media exerts far too much influence on what actually happens in the U.S. and that goes beyond mere reporting.  The media may not instigate every newsworthy occurrence, but they certainly perpetuate it.  That goes with presidential elections and the economy and almost every other facet of life.  How can one not seriously say that the media played the major role in the election of Barack Obama (please note that I am not saying his election was a bad thing, just pointing out the fact that the media elected him).  These days one can perpetrate a horrible act of violence on one’s own loved ones and immediately gain instant notoriety in the media (consider the case of the mother of that poor child, Caylee Anthony).  Do you not seriously think that a deranged psychopath is not encouraged by the fact that he (or she) can gain instant fame through unspeakable violence.  And no where is the media influence felt more than in the economy.  The media has blabbered on and on about how bad the economy is until they have now triggered national depression.  No one even wants to get out of bed and get out there to make things better, because the media makes us all feel that the effort would be futile…..better to stay in bed and watch TV!  It is a little maddening (and that is coming from a TV news addict).  Even though here in Costa Rica the U.S. cable media outlets such as CNN and Fox are available, one can easily escape by switching to local channel 7 where one can learn how to make superb tamales.  Yes the economic storm is brewing out there and no one is immune.  The U.S. economy is the proverbial 800 pound gorilla and right now she is throwing an “economic fit” with worldwide reverberations.  At least in Costa Rica the grumblings of our own Arenal Volcano drown out her rants.  In the poetic word’s of Bob Dylan…..

Well, I’m livin’ in a foreign country but I’m bound to cross the line.
Beauty walks a razor’s edge, someday I’ll make it mine.
If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born.
“Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm.”

The storm will pass, it always does.  But sometimes just being far enough away to be on the outside looking in can be a reason to love Costa Rica. Thanks Costa Rica for providing a little shelter from the storm.

I didn’t grow up with horses.  Never even owned one.  My horseback riding experience is limited to the numerous trotting tours one can take in the major tourist areas of the country.  Yet I have this dream that just won’t die and that is to be a cowboy (or vaquero, in Spanish).  I long for the day when I own enough land to have a few horses and to be able to just take off riding, not having anywhere in specific to go, just riding.  I will say that when I do one of those trotting tours I am not the one in the group that settles just to, well, trot.  I am the one that at the first opportunity will take the horse to full gallop…..for in that fleeting moment, my dream is realized, I am Costa Rican cowboy!  Costa Rica is definitely horse country.  There are horses everywhere and in many of the pueblos you will see vaqueros riding their horses as a primary means of transportation.  Nothing exemplifies Costa Rican horsemanship like the annual “tope” that is held in the streets of San Jose right after Christmas.  We just finished the el tope in San Jose with an estimated 5,300 or more horses and their riders parading through the streets of downtown San Jose. Another great thing about being a cowboy is that you are of course more attractive to the cowgirls….and their is nothing sexier than a pretty Tica with a cowboy hat on a horse….yippee!  There is something magical about being on a horse.  They are such majestic creatures.  So humble and gentle, yet also so powerful, graceful and beautiful.  In my opinion there is no better way to see the natural wonders of Costa Rica than on the back of a horse.  One day I will have my horse and go riding into the Costa Rican sunset, never to be seen again.  Who was that masked man, they will ask?  Hi-yo Silver and away I go….Adios!

Who doesn’t love the weekend?  Of course everyone, everywhere, does.  There was even that awful 70’s movie  (you know, the one with disco queen Donna Summer) entitled, Thank God it’s Friday!  But there is something really special about a Costa Rican weekend.  The sun always seems to shine a little brighter, especially on SUN-day.  Pueblos always seem to have special events (”ferias” in Spanish) on the weekends.  There will be music, lots of home-cooked goodies, arts and crafts, rides for the kids, and so forth.  Or the weekends are just a great time to hop into the car and get lost in the mountains, or maybe go to the beach.  But the thing that I like most is that the weekends offer a chance to just sit back, relax and catch one’s breath after a hectic week.  I have my little secret places I like to go on the weekends.  Places like Puriscal, a small pueblo located in the mountains not too far from Cuidad Colón. There you can sample some of Costa Rica’s best chicharrones with a cold Imperial and look out at the majestic mountains, or just go to the park and hang out with the locals.  There are so many places you can go to escape and rejuvenate the soul.  All the frantic activity that marks the weekdays just seems to ratchet-down a notch or two.  For me, being in the travel business with customers arriving on any given day, including the weekends, means that I am never completely free.  Nevertheless I still love my Costa Rican weekends.  As I sit here this Saturday morning writing this post after an extremely hectic and stressful Christmas week, I am so grateful for the opportunity to relax and reflect, even for a fleeting moment, before getting back into the fight.  The weekends are a great opportunity to take the gloves off, or throw your weapons down, and have at least a few moments of peace.  We all need our weekends.  The beauty and serenity of Costa Rica makes that peace seem all the more, well, peaceful.  In life there are always things to be grateful for…if we have the awareness to look for them.  I am grateful that no matter how tough it gets, I can always look forward to my Costa Rican weekends.

When I really began to move around to various parts of Costa Rica, especially the diverse barrios of its capital city, San Jose, I noticed a peculiar thing.  At least it seemed peculiar to someone like me from a different culture.  That is, that life here is lived, for the most part, outside.  I say that sitting here in my rocker writing and looking out onto the streets of my neighborhood, Quizarco, in Santo Domingo, and I am thinking that it is not so, joe.  But Quizarco is more upper-crust than what I am referring to and more resembles a typical U.S. middle class hood.  I am talking about a huge middle class barrio like Desamparados or any small pueblo outside of the city.  In these places people seem to be everywhere all the time.  Don’t they ever go inside?  Maybe it’s just a function of there being so many people packed into a small place.  But that is not true because then why do you see the same phenomenon in the small pueblos in the mountains and along the coasts.  I believe it has much to do with the fact that Costa Ricans are a voraciously social people.  They love to mingle and gossip and party and sometimes fuss and fight and then make up (the one time that they will go back inside) and start the process all over again.  Life here is just one big “telenovela” (Soap Opera).  I guess living on the outside is a way to see what is going on with everyone else as well as a way to be seen yourself.  You know, something like…..”mi amor look at who she is walking with today and the way she is dressed……what a little $%#@ she is!”  It actually makes driving through a bustling barrio all the more interesting.  If you observe closely you will see some pretty interesting things.  Some will make you laugh, others will make you cry.  Like the old lady wearing hot pants and trying desperately to attract her next amorous adventure, or the poor homeless kid begging for a couple coins to buy some bread (or possibly crack).  The scenery is so far removed from what I knew in the southern U.S.  I guess you see this in some parts of the big cities like New York or Chicago, but I don’t think it is quite on the same level, or for the same reasons.  It certainly makes life more interesting and invigorating and possibly more rewarding than to always be shut in and wrapped up in your own little four-walled world.  Breathing the same air and watching the same television programs over and over and over.  Why not get out there and live a little……and maybe discover what that neighbor is up to now.

Costa Rican society is decidedly polite compared to that of the U.S.  It might be the biggest area of culture shock one will experience after being here for a long time and then returning to the U.S.  At least, that has been my experience.  Now there are exceptions to every rule.  Those apply here on the streets, avenues and highways.  Just put the most polite, well refined Tico behind the steering wheel of an automobile, and it is like pouring water on a “gremlin” (you remember those lovable little creatures from that early Spielberg kid-flick?).  Yea, they become little demons hell-bent on destruction.  But outside of that environment, politeness rules. I am still trying to adapt, because sometimes I just don’t feel like being polite.  Those times are usually when I am too wrapped up in what is going on in my life at the moment (or in my head) to take the time to try to brighten someone’s day with a simple, disculpe, por favor, or gracias.  Here folks are just polite, even when they may not be having the best day.  It is not as if they are “faking it.”  The politeness comes natural.  In the culture of the U.S., you can readily tell when someone is faking it, can’t you?  You know, the so-called “courtesy laugh” at that joke you blew, or the “courtesy smile” when lurking just behind it is seething cynicism.  I am one of those persons that tends to wear his emotions on his shirt sleeve and that does not always go over so well in this culture.  I am learning to be naturally polite, because I admit I am not (as any of my friends here will attest).  I am polite when and if I feel like it.  The Spanish language of politeness does not roll off the tip of my tongue as easily as “hey that’ll be 20 dollars of super and check the oil while you’re at it.”  But politeness will get you further in Costa Rica.  It will open doors that sometimes appear to be shut to gringo expats who haven’t learned the language of politeness yet.  It will develop and strengthen relationships. It will make you feel better because you are making others feel better.  Because in reality life is not all about us, is it?  To refuse to learn to adapt to this culture of politeness is to remain in the cynical and pessimistic world where one always demands that his needs be met and to hell with anyone else. That does not go over so well down here.  So take a tip from the Costa Rica Guy and make your first Spanish lesson be to learn the language of politeness. And the “palabra mágica” is……P-O-R F-A-V-O-R.  Gracias, Adios!

Before arriving to Costa Rica I had never really thought about those little creatures that are so small they seem more like insects than birds.  I mean they also exist in the U.S., but I never really noticed them that much.  Here it is a different story.  They are so plentiful in Costa Rica that you must notice them.  And they are such amazing creatures that you certainly should take notice of them.  Costa Rica has a wide variety of different hummingbird species (”Colibri” in Spanish).  There seems to be an infinite variety of different sizes and colors.  We have the Violet Sabrewing, the largest of the Costa Rican hummingbirds, that are a deep purple in color.  And then there is the tiny Scintillant, the smallest, which is much smaller than some of our flying insects.  All in all, there are over 50 different species of hummingbirds in Costa Rica (around 330 species in the world).  We have some amazing hummingbird gardens like at the La Paz Gardens (part of the Peace Lodge) where hummingbirds will do “fly-bys” so close to your head that you can feel the air move and hear the distinctive hum of their wings fluttering at speeds as fast as 80 flaps per second.  One of my favorite places to view the hummingbirds is a secret spot located not too far from the Peace Lodge.  This is a tiny little pueblo named Cinchona that overlooks the deep gorge of the Sarapiqui river.  My secret spot is actually a private residence, but the owners open their doors to the public (the few that are fortunate enough to stumble onto the place) for the most amazing view of the San Fernando waterfall deep down in the gorge below.  This a majestic 400 foot fall (much larger than the La Paz fall close-by, which is the main tourist attraction to the area).  But even more amazing than the view of the fall, are the hummingbirds.  I don’t know if all the different species that exist in Costa Rica can be seen there, but it seems so.  There are so many and they are so varied that it is mind boggling.  In addition to the hummingbirds, you can see Toucanets, Oropendolas, Tanagers, and many other types of birds that visit the garden they have planted just below the lookout.  There are so many other spots to view hummingbirds in Costa Rica.  At present, these creatures are plentiful and not in any imminent danger.  They play such an important role as pollinators of plants that produce some of Costa Rica’s most brilliant flowers.  Costa Rica’s hummingbirds are another amazing testament to its depth of biodiversity and another reason I love Costa Rica.

Hummingbird Facts

• Only bird that can fly backwards
• Highest metabolism of any animal
• Species consists of smallest birds on the planet
• Heart rate of as high as 1,260 beats per minute
• Can migrate up to 500 miles nonstop

Hummingbird Photo Gallery

For my first years in Costa Rica I was always a city dweller.  Actually, for the first couple years I lived in hotels until I finally rented an apartment in Paseo Colón, a business district of San Jose.  I had my travel agency office downstairs and my apartment upstairs, so basically I never really left the office.  Then I moved to La Sabana, which was more peaceful, mainly because at that time I separated the office from the living quarters.  That was a smart move for my sanity.  But it still didn’t really feel like home.  One day I was out apartment hunting with my girlfriend who had the notion that she wanted to move to Santo Domingo de Heredia.  It is a small pueblo not too far from the city, but far enough.  I really didn’t know it that well, other than having passed through from time to time.  We drove through a surprisingly nice residential area known as Quizarco and spotted a home for rent.  It was a two-story home with a yard, garage…the whole works.  I told her to call the number on the sign.  She told me I was crazy because the price tag on such a place would be through the roof.  I told her it never hurts to try, so we called.  And now I call that beautiful house my home.  I feel that I have now really found my little paradise.  As I sit and write this post, as I do every morning, sitting in my Costa Rica rocker with my cup of Costa Rica’s finest coffee and looking out at an incredible view of the mountains that surround this place, I feel a sense of inner peace.  I feel that even though things may not be perfect yet, they are all working themselves out in that direction.  Of course, nothing ever arrives at that state, “perfection,” does it?  It is all about the process.  We are becoming perfect because we were made in the image of the only thing that exists which is perfect, God. It is our role not to fight the process, but to flow with it and, most importantly, enjoy it.  When we fight it, or when we try to rush it, we feel stress and that can wreak real havok in our lives if we are not careful.  Or we can succumb to the notion that it is unattainable, give up and settle for less than what we are destined for.  However, settling will only bring ultimate disappointment and disillusion and maybe even bitter resentment, but certainly not joy or peace.  I love Santo Doming.  It is such a peaceful and serene place compared to where I lived before.  I have everything I need right here.  Everything I need to enjoy the process of life, the process of becoming more each day who and what I was created to become.  We all need to find our Santo Domingo’s. Places where we can be at peace and find the clarity and awareness that often is obscured by the dust-storms of life.  A place where the dust clears and the sun shines and we know deep down inside what we have to do.  Then we do it.  Right?  No questions.  No second guessing.  Just determined and resolute action that takes us in the direction we are supposed to go……our destiny.  I hope you find your Santo Domingo.

I have said often that no matter where you are in Costa Rica you are going to find three things in close proximity: a bus stop, a bar (with an Imperial sign hanging) and a soccer field.  In Costa Rica fútbol, or soccer as it is called in the U.S., is religion.  Every kid grows up dreaming of becoming a star of one of Costa Rica’s pro teams. In fact, observing the behaviour of the adult fútbol fans, I don’t believe that dream ever goes away.  Costa Rican fans are a little animated to say the least.  Every province of Costa Rica has a pro team, as well as some of the major cities within those  provinces (for example, you have the Alajuela team, La Liga, but San Carlos also has a team).  Then on the world fútbol scene, Costa Rica will select the best of the best from these teams for its national team known simply as La Seleción.  Costa Rica’s national team opened the World Cup championship a couple yeas ago when they lost to Germany.  However, La Seleción did put on a respectable performance in the opener.  It is quite an exhilarating experience to go to a major game in a stadium such as Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in Tibás (a section of San Jose).  That is especially true when the game pits the two biggest rivals together, Alajuela’s La Liga and San Jose’s Saprissa. Costa Rican games are not dangerous like sometimes you hear about in Europe, where fans riot or trample each other to death.  Sure, emotions get heated and occasionally fights break out (but doesn’t that happen at Chicago Bears games too?).  But it is quite a spectacle to see the stadium filled with fans dressed in their team’s colors and screaming at the top of their lungs every time their team threatens to score.  And those poor referees.  While the games do not generally break out in any uncontrolled violence, woe to any official that makes a controversial call that is a game changer.  He will need to be provided with a bodyguard to get home that night and maybe for the next few days until emotions calm down.  Since I live in San Jose, I do call myself a Saprissa fan (a Saprissista as we say).  Just so happens that this past Saturday night, Saprissa beat La Liga and were crowned champions once again.  In arguments among locals, however, it is safer for a gringo (which I still am) to remain neutral in the matter.  If asked, say that you pull for Seleción and it might just save your life!

It probably comes as no big surprise to readers of this blog (hopefully there is someone out there reading it??) that I own a travel business.  You know the one I shamelessly plug from time to time (Package Costa Rica).  Just like any business there are aspects of it that don’t exactly get me too fired up.  Paying bills, for instance.  However, one thing that is a lot of fun is when I get to show off this great country to my clients.  I don’t play tour guide that often anymore.  It is not the “best use of my time.”  But actually it is probably the most fulfilling aspect of my work.  To get to see the amazement on the faces of our clients as they get their first taste of Costa Rica.  We have had clients of all ages, from 8 to 80, and from all walks of life.  While most of our customers come from the U.S., we have had many from other countries, like India, Israel, Ireland, Brazil, Puerto Rico and on and on.  We have had customers come here to tie the knot and begin a new chapter of their lives.  We have had many marriage proposals and countless honeymoons.  The purpose statement of our company is very simple….”we make dreams come true in Costa Rica.”  Now that is a concept that will get me springing from bed each morning and saying YES!  Yes….today I get to make some one’s dreams come true.  I guess when I am out there with the customers, experiencing the magic of Costa Rica right alongside of them, I really feel like, yea, I am making their dreams come true…..and mine too.  Of course, things don’t always go perfectly according to plan.  There is something about Costa Rica that makes the best laid plans of mice and men to often go awry.  It is as if “Murphy’s Law” works double-time here.  But the cool thing is, the customers usually just shrug it off and keep their focus on enjoying the experience of Costa Rica.  Heck, those little problems that arise are a part of that experience and even add to the adventure.  Even the hardest-nose New Yorkers are reduced to putty after they have been here just long enough to catch that “pura vida” spirit and give up, at least for a moment, that “rat race” mentality and expectation that the world revolves around them.  It doesn’t and Costa Rica has a special way of proving that, often!  So when those little tasks of entrepreneurship start weighing me down, it is time to put on my tour guide cap (among the many others I wear) and head to the airport to pick up that honeymoon couple just itching to have their dreams come true in Costa Rica.

Costa Rica has a reputation for the exotic and mysterious.  I guess because it is so, well, exotic and mysterious.  But there is no place that exemplifies these characteristics more than the Peninsula de Osa.  There are remote corners of Costa Rica where man never hath trodden and deep in the heart of Osa may be one of those places.  From the pristine Golfo Dulce to the ultra biodiverse  Corcovado, this place offers an amazing display of pure natural splendor that rivals any other location on the planet.  National Geographic actually declared the Corcovado National Park to be the most biologically diverse place on earth.  It is a place where our largest jungle cats, the jaguar, romp and where humpback whales make their majestic leaps in the tranquil blue waters of the rocky Pacific coast.  It is a place where relics from ancient Indian cultures remain including the mysterious stone spheres of various sizes.  Their perfect symmetry baffles archaeologists who have been trying to decipher their meaning as well as the means by which the ancient Indians, using only crude tools, could have created such perfectly formed orbs from solid rock.  Osa offers some of Costa Rica’s largest tracts of virgin rain forest, where trees date back hundreds of years.  Corcovado is the only place in the country where all four species of Costa Rica’s monkeys are found. Actually, it is said that Corcovado alone contains 2% of the entire planet’s biodiversity.  The Osa peninsula remains largely undeveloped to date.  However, you can find some very cool eco-lodges.  The two best places to visit are the Corcovado National Park and Drake Bay.  Corcovado can be accessed either on the north side from Drake Bay or on the south side from Puerto Jiminez.  Drake Bay is a scenic and pristine bay on the northwest side of the peninsula that offers great diving as it is an easy boat ride out to Isla del Caño and its coral reefs.  Tourists also arrive to Corcovado via boat from Sierpe.  You take the Sierpe River to where it dumps into the Pacific and pass by one of the largest mangrove forests in the Americas. The Osa Peninsula is often overlooked in favor of more well-trodden tourists locations like Arenal and Manuel Antonio, but it is well worth experiencing. The best way to arrive there is by plane from San Jose into the several small landing strips that exists (like Palmar Norte, or Drake Bay, or Puerto Jiminez).  Costa Rica has so much adventure to offer.  How could anyone not love this place!

Corcovado National Park Facts

• 500 species of trees (49 of which are near extinction)
• 150 species of orchids
• 140 species of mammals (including the country’s largest population of jaguars)
• 120 species of reptiles and amphibians
• 6,000 species of insects…. 

Two Great Places to Stay in Osa

Drake Bay Wilderness Resort

Lapas Rios

Corcovado National Park Tour Slide Show