Located in the mountains of Aserri, south of San Jose, is one of my favorite places, the restaurant known as Mirador Ram Luna.  I can still remember the very first time I had the experience of eating there.  I say experience, because the Mirador Ram Luna is indeed an “experience.”  Just getting there is half the fun.  My ex-flame was from the little pueblo of Acosta, just around the mountain where Ram Luna sits at an altitude of around 5,000 feet overlooking the bright lights of the big city. She taught me some very interesting ways to get there to avoid the traffic.  I always take the route though the barrio of Alajuelita, one of the poorest and most populated of San José.  I took some customers to Ram Luna last night (my motivation for writing this morning) and it is indeed a “cultural experience” for a family of gringos fresh off the plane to be driven through that area of town.  The climb up to the restaurant offers breathtaking views of the city and last night there were the usual oohs and aahs.  The restaurant itself offers a unique ambiance and it is filled with Costa Rican memorabilia collected by the owners over the decades they have been there.  The owners are Gilbert and Moraima Ramírez.  Doña Moraima is one of the most recognized female tennis players in the country.  She is a beautiful lady and the place is filled with photos of her and her tennis memorabilia.  The wait staff at Ram Luna are simply the best.  Most tourists rave about the service they receive in Costa Rica in general, from the moment they arrive until it is time to leave. Ram Luna is no exception.  Most of these guys have been there for as long as I have known the place and I count several of them as friends.  It is always great to go there just to have a laugh with those guys.  But the most incredible aspect of the restaurant is the absolutely breathtaking view of the city.  It is as if you can see the entire city with all its 2,000,000 inhabitants sprawled out before you in the valley below. On Wednesday nights Ram Luna has a very famous typical show, with Costa Rican folkloric dancers and marimbas.  The show is capped off with a parade of mascaradas and a fireworks show outside.  The food at Ram Luna is excellent as well, but it is the ambiance of the place, as well as the view, that really gets you hooked.  I would call it Costa Rican “rustic elegance” in its highest form.  If you want to have a romantic night to remember, ask for the table next to the fireplace, complete with the incredible city light view. Add a bottle of Casillero de Diablo (my  favorite Chilean wine) and it just doesn’t get any better than that.  We have often capped off honeymoon and romantic getaway vacations for our customers at Package Costa Rica with a dinner at  Ram Luna.  We have even had our share of marriage proposals made right there.  It is great to have “set the stage” for someone to actually embark on a whole new stage of life and Ram Luna offers the perfect setting. Now that is what I call “making dreams come true in Costa Rica!“

I love this whole concept of blogging.  This way I can voice my complaints to the entire world wide web, or at least that portion of it that would actually read my rants.  So here goes another one.  One thing that gets under my skin worse than anything under the sun is a judgmental attitude (even though I seem to have one this morning).  And boy these days everyone wants to point that “bony finger of indignation” at everyone else.  Consider the case of that poor dude, Blagojevich.  Man did he get judged right down to the last hair on his toupee.  We all have our fair share of skeletons in the closet, dirty laundry and all those other cliches that basically mean, when it comes right down to it, that we are all dirty rotten scoundrels.  There is really only one person that we have authority to judge and that is ourselves.  Having been here in Costa Rica now for going on 8 years, I really don’t feel the sense of “judgemental-ness” that I felt growing up on the buckle of the Southern U.S. “bible-belt.”  That is a little strange since the country is predominantly catholic and quite religious.  Of course, catholics don’t have the reputation of playing judge to everyone else like the evangelicals.  Here in Costa Rica there is a refreshing “live and let live” attitude.  I mean if someone does something really bad, you won’t have to endure hours and hours and days and days of endless media bantering about how bad the person was, how screwed up his family was and how misbehaved was his pet chihuahua. No, here we just kill the bastard and be done with it…..calm down out there, I am just kidding!  But really, if a 48 year old man is seen with a 20 something year old young lady, here it won’t make the scandal of the week in the local gossip column.  Here human nature is generally allowed to run its twisted course without one’s reputation and human dignity being completely obliterated by the “holier than thou” crowd.  In fact, here there really isn’t such a crowd, or at least I haven’t come across them if they are here (they probably hang out in Escazú, which is way above my league anyway).  In life, $%#@ happens.  It is just the way it is.  Things don’t always go according to the rules that you may think people should live by.  And just when you get too high up on your own horse, life has a way of smacking you down…..down to level that you thought you were above.  So be careful.  Judge not, lest before you know it, you yourself are being judged.  Best just to maintain the awareness that people do the things they do for reasons that make perfect sense to them at the time, even though they may not make sense to you.  Rather than judging them, try on a little empathy instead.

For in the same way you judge others, you too will be judged, and by the same measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Matthew 7:2

It was refreshing to finally hear a glimmer of hope in Barack Obama’s first speech to the Congress last night.  Because the truth is, as bad as the current crisis might be, the U.S. does have the ability to climb out of it…..if it can just find the will and motivation to do so.  All the gloom and doom talk that has filled the airwaves of late doesn’t help in that regard, at all.  It just makes it worse.  But Obama’s speech last night did and for me put this whole “stimulus” package thing in a little different light.  What inspired me was that Obama framed the debate around three central goals, energy, health care and education.  And it really got me juiced that energy was the first on the list.  I have been writing a lot in this blog (as well as others that I maintain) that the best way out of this crisis is to have an energy revolution, much akin to what happened with technology in the last decade.  The difference is that this time, not only does our economy depend on it, our planet does as well!  Obama was right in saying that the U.S. is quickly falling behind countries like China and those of Europe in the race to develop clean and renewable energy sources.  If you don’t believe me, just pick up a copy of Thomas Friedman’s book, Hot, Flat and Crowded.  I believe Obama must have recently read that book, because much of his speech, the part related to energy, seem to leap right off the pages of Freidman’s work.  And I (still a Republican) actually applaud the fact (in fact I will join with Nancy Pelosi and give a standing ovation, as she did more times that one could count last night) that this massive spending plan will spend a whole lot of dough to create an environment where businesses will be motivated to make the U.S. number one in this race to wean the world off dirty duels provided by petro-dictatorships.  The government can’t do this. Only the private sector can accomplish this.  But the government, through incentives for the development of new technologies and rewards for those that clean up and penalties for those that don’t, can shape the business landscape to where it facilitates, encourages and motivates energy innovation.  It is absolutely the right thing to do, especially right now!  As always I like to tie in my beloved Costa Rica and I will do so by saying that the triumvirate goals of energy, heath care and education have long been at the forefront of policy in this country.  Costa Rica derives the majority of its energy from clean and renewable sources and is leading the world by vowing the be 100% carbon neutral by 2021.  Costa Rica has in place a government provided health care system, that, while not perfect, has been providing free health care to all its citizens for some time now.  Costa Rica guarantees every child an education and actually takes that responsibility seriously.  It may be a small thing, but I believe that fact is reflected in the scores of school children one can see walking to school in their cleanly pressed uniforms to public (not private) schools.  A more salient fact that supports the country’s strong commitment to education is its high literacy rate, one of the highest in Latin America.  I must say that with all the talk of “pork” I have been quite sceptical of this massive trillion dollar stimulus plan.  After hearing Obama’s speech I am more optimistic, but there must be absolute accountability and oversight or this whole thing will just turn into another big reward for the fat cats that fund the campaigns that keep Pelosi, Reed and the rest in power, as well as the greedy bankers and oil executives that got the country into this mess to begin with.  Somehow this cycle of “capitalism run amuck” must be broken.  For some reason I get a feeling that this guy, Obama, might just be the right man for this job at this moment in history. I hope so.

It seems every other day I read in La Nación about another of Costa Rica’s species “disappearing.”   Most recently, the Lapas of Sarapiquí, but before that, salamanders, and then last year, the Sapo Holdridge (a rain forest frog, which is now considered extinct).  I give credit to La Nación for at least writing about these issues.  Many newspapers wouldn’t because the readers just don’t give a rat’s behind about that stuff.  I am glad I live in a place where it does matter….nature that is.  Because if you think about it “nature” is like one of those jigsaw puzzles you used to do at Christmas that had those really tiny little pieces.  It took a lot of effort to put all that together, but when it was completed the picture became clear and it was, well, quite nice.  But then that idiot cousin came by and just to be a jerk took out a piece.  You probably got really upset because even though the puzzle had 50,000 pieces, it really screwed everything up big time to take out just that one piece, right?  Well nature is kind of the same in a lot of ways.  It took millions upon millions of years of time and effort to create the wonderful mosaic of nature that is exhibited in the rich biodiversity of Costa Rica, as well as any of the world’s biodiversity “hot spots.”  But if you take out that one little rain forest frog, it is just not quite the same.  Take out the Lapa Roja (Scarlet Macaw) and, wow, the puzzle really begins to get messed up, almost unrecognizable now.  Take out one of the four species of monkeys (whose populations are also decreasing at alarming rates) and suddenly it doesn’t even look like Costa Rica anymore.  And the other thing is that all the pieces are linked together.  If you take out one, it automatically removes another.  Take out the árbol almendra (almond tree) and guess what, the piece that is the Lapa Verde (or Green Macaw) is also taken out, since that is their main source of food.  And on and on it goes.  So these things do matter.  I am grateful to live in a place where the media is concerned about nature. I don’t know how many times I have heard commentary in the U.S. media, especially among conservative talking heads like Rush, or Bill O’Reilly or Glenn Beck, to the effect that any semblance of care towards nature puts you in the “enviro-wacko” category.  How could you be talking about stuff like that when we have an “economic crisis” going on?  Well in my view, we are living in a time when it is imperative that we be talking about “stuff like that.”  I am happy to be living in a place where those conversations do take place.  Unless the rest of the world catches on, we are going to end up with one $%#&*-up puzzle.

If it’s Matter, It Matters…..

People often ask me, “which is your favorite beach in Costa Rica?”  That is a very difficult question because there are so many. There are approximately 1,290 kilometers of coastline on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of this country.  And both sides are dotted with beautiful beaches.  I have written in the past about many of them, like Cahuita in the Southern Caribbean, or Manuel Antonio and Dominical on the Pacific side.  There are the most popular and well known beaches of Jaco, which is only about a two to two and a half hour drive from San Jose, and Tamarindo in Guanacaste, which is best reached by flying into the international airport in Liberia.  Then there are lesser known, but beautiful and fun beaches, like Montezuma, Samara and Nosara on the Nicoya Peninsula and the spectacular, but somewhat remote, Punta Islita.  The Northern Pacific is littered with gorgeous beaches, like Playa Grande, Playa Conchal, Playa Flamingo, and many many more.  All the beaches of Costa Rica have an exotic quality, as if you had shipwrecked and washed up on some deserted island in the middle of the ocean.  Personally I prefer the lesser known and less visited beaches to the crowded ones like Jaco and Tamarindo. With that in mind, the Southern Pacific probably has the best ones…..like Matapalo, Dominical, Dominicalito, Punta Uvita, Drake Bay and of course Corcovado National Park.  I could go on and on because the list of great beaches in Costa Rica is virtually endless.  Where you go depends on what you are looking for.  If you are seeking a lively place, full of people and “stuff” then by all means check out Jaco or Tamarindo.  However, if you want to have that “Gilligan’s Island” feeling, then try one of the lesser known and more remote beaches.  They are all relatively safe.  However, the ocean can be dangerous and on most beaches there are no lifeguards. Rip tides are very common, especially at beaches on the Pacific where the waves get big.  Oh and the temperature of the water….near perfect everywhere.  Many of Costa Rica’s beaches also are important marine life habitats.  An example is the annual arrival of turles to lay their eggs at beaches such as Playa Grande or Brasilito in Guanacaste.  If you come at the right time, you might be able to witness this amazing spectacle of nature.  Costa Rica offers so much, like the jungle, mountains, volcanoes, rivers, and, of course, the beaches.  Having grown up on the beaches of North and South Carolina, I will probably never get all the sand out of my shoes, even though now I live in the big city of San Jose. Another great thing about living in Costa Rica is that you are never too far from a beach.  Give me a buzz and I will gladly give you my ten cents on any of the Costa Rica beaches.

Maybe it is just me, but it seems that there is something different about the world these days.  People seem to be a bit more “edgy” and fearful now than any time since I was born 48 years ago.  I mean I didn’t live through the two great world wars or the Great Depression, the Holocaust, or other seminal world events of the past.  Maybe it was the same back then.  I don’t know.  But something strange is in the air, or airwaves since now everything is so media driven (sometimes I believe we are being “driven” right off a cliff).  I can hear it in my mother’s voice when I talk with her.  People are fearful about stuff, or maybe I should say fearful about losing their “stuff.”  So that brings me to the title of today’s post, everything is matter, so everything matters.  The world is divided into two categories of “matter,” at least in my simplistic and unscientific view.  You have the things that are natural, such as all forms of life, the earth itself, the atmosphere, oceans, land, etc. etc. (you get the picture).  Then you have the things that are man-made.  One exists by the hand and will of God (if you believe in that sort of thing) and the other by the hand and will of humans.  It seems that all the hub-bub in the world today is because of threats to the man-made stuff.  Most scoff at the idea of protecting the natural world at the expense of the man-made world.  But in reality it all matters. I am not advocating de-evolution here.  That is, that we all go back to living in caves and hunting and gathering. What I am advocating is that there be some balance restored in our approach to what matters, because it all does. We have gone so far in creating a world of comfort for ourselves at the expense of nature that we are reaching a tipping point in which our actions actually have a profound and negative effect on the natural world. I don’t believe that makes “Mother Nature” very happy.  This obsessive focus on us, a focus that says that only “we” matter, is getting us in a lot of trouble these days. The climate is changing because of it. Organisms are disappearing.  The order of nature is being upset.  Greed is now good.  And we are literally consuming ourselves out of existence. And everyone wants to blame everyone else.  It is the Republicans fault. No, it is the Democrats that did it. No, it is the Muslims, no the Christians, no those damn Chinese, and so it goes without end.  The truth is we are all at fault, every single one of us. Because we are the only form of matter that has the ability to destroy this planet and we are doing a pretty darn good job of it.  The jaguar can’t do that.  They just live according to their God-given instinct.  The can’t decide to build an atomic bomb and kidnap other animals for ransom, or commit any of the millions of dastardly deeds that humans inflict upon themselves.  They don’t destroy the forest or go to war with other animals.  They just live according to the plan that God laid out for them.  And what was that plan for us?  Are we living according to the right plan, or have we gotten off track?  I think what needs to occur is that we stop making every argument a political one, especially those that concern our planet and the health of it. That we start taking action to correct the errors that have brought us to where we are now.  That doesn’t mean that we lose our comforts of life, our homes and cars, and cities and planes and railroads and all those other things we are so proud of.  It just means that we start recognizing that it is not just the man-made stuff that matters, but that everything does.  Costa Rica is a country that is pretty “low on the totem pole” in terms of its rate of consumption as compared with the developed countries of the world.  And it is a place where folks do seem to “get it” when it comes to the idea that the natural world does matter.  It is easy to have a deep respect for nature when you are surrounded by so much of it.  Maybe Costa Rica and other biodiversity hot spots around the world (the few that are left) can serve as giant classrooms to teach us humans that the natural world does matter.  That would be a pretty cool thing to see happen.  Maybe then humans would come to realize that everything is matter, so everything matters.  I hope it is not already too late.

Just moved my office.  It seems that whenever you move you generate an inordinate amount of garbage.  You know all that “valuable” stuff that accumulates over time that now you don’t consider to be that valuable.  So in the name of reducing clutter you just chunk it.  Problem is that here in Costa Rica “chunking it” is like placing a treasure trove on the curbside. Invariably someone will find something of extreme value to them in your garbage.  Thing is that in the process of searching the rest of it gets strewn from here to Sunday.  My initial reaction is usually one of annoyance.  You know like, ”leave my freakin garbage alone.”  As if my “garbage” was more valuable to me than to them.  If it is then why is it out there on the curb, huh?  If you think about the whole process of generating and discarding your garbage it is a “vicious cycle.”  I mean we accumulate, we discard, and what we discard gets re-accumulated……somewhere.  Think about the magnitude of this process taking place on almost every square meter of the planet.  Where does all this stuff go?  It is scary if you think about it, because it has to go somewhere.  I guess the folks out there digging through my garbage are one means of breaking this cycle, or at least delaying it.  I guess it is a form of recycling and they (that is, those treasure seekers out there) should be commended for their efforts.  If they would only leave the rest of it neat and orderly I might tend to agree more with myself.  It must take an enormous amount of energy to deal with all the garbage accumulated throughout the world. Isn’t there a better way?  What if we accumulated less in the first place?  What if instead of just “chunking it” on the curb, we gave some thought to the discarding of our refuse and tried a more organized form of donation?  What if we really got in to this whole recycling thing and made sure that items that are recyclable actually got recycled?  What if everyone really did this?  What would the world look like if we really got more organized about our garbage?  I guess what it takes is for you and me to be more like those treasure hunters out there on my curb.  They see the beauty in my garbage.  That is something hard for me to grasp, but maybe with some effort I could.  And the effort I expend could contribute to saving my planet while also contributing to the elimination of the loss of hope that would drive someone to rummage through garbage in the first place.  Wow, I may be on to something here!  Costa Rica, the country I love so much, and the most beautiful place on earth, cannot be allowed to disappear in a heap of refuse.  And that is exactly where we are headed (as is the whole world) if we don’t adopt a better attitude about this issue of garbage.  Happy recycling!

P.S.  I am not preaching here…..just thinking out loud.

Costa Rica, like the U.S., has also experienced its own period of racial intolerance.  Black people were brought to Costa Rica in the late 1800’s from the West Indies to work on the banana plantations and on the railroad connecting Limón with the Central Valley. Soon thereafter laws were passed that curtailed immigration by people of color and also restricted the movement within the country of those already here.  Well, all of that has changed drastically.  So much so, that a black woman has a chance of gaining the nomination of her party (the PAC, or Partido Acción Ciudadana) in the presidential election that will be held in about 12 months. Her name is Epsy Campbell and she is the descendant of Jamaican immigrants who also came to work on the railroad.  She grew up very poor and married at the age of 19.  She later gave birth to two girls and worked as a school teacher.  She got interested in environmental and educational issues and became a community organizer (shades of Obama) in Limón.  She moved back to San Jose and finished her education with a college degree in economics.  In 2002, at the request of PAC leaders, she won a seat in the Legislative Assembly.  Now she is bucking party leadership and seeking the nomination for president, which puts her at odds with powerful PAC founder, Ottón Solís.  Campbell, like Obama, is a believer in a heightened role of government in a democratic society.  Like Obama, Campbell believes the government has a crucial role to play in issues like protecting the environment and the rights of poor people.  The great debate between “big” government versus “small” government is raging in democratic societies like the U.S. and Costa Rica these days.  The economic crisis that the world faces has provided ample fuel for that debate.  It appears, from the situation in the U.S. (which has on a smaller scale played out here as well), that for the government to just step aside and let capitalism run its course doesn’t work that well.  It doesn’t work well it seems because the powerful tend to exploit the powerless, at least for a season.  That exploitation may take the form of raping the environment upon which the powerless rely for a major portion of their subsistence.  It may take the form of raping companies so that upper level management gets richer while workers at the bottom get poorer.  Whatever, form it takes, the end result is unsettling for everyone, which is exactly what we are experiencing right now.  And it also opens the door for populist zealots like Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega who claim to be “for the people” when the true goal is only to seize the most power possible for themselves (and woe be it to anyone who stands in their way).   Leaders like Obama and Campbell, who grew up understanding what it means to be oppressed in a democratic and free society, are well suited to find that sacred “middle-ground” of big versus small government.  They also are well positioned to appeal to our better angels.  That is, those same angels that motivated them to rise above many obstacles to achieve things that many thought impossible just a few years ago.  I applaud Mrs. Campbell and Mr. Obama and hope that they can find that sacred middle ground.  There have always been times throughout history when it was necessary to find that place.  That place where government may not be “the” answer, but it is “an” answer.  We just celebrated the 200th birthday of one who found it, Abraham Lincoln.  What the world needs right now are more leaders dedicated to that search.

Often folks arrive to Costa Rica ready to party….imagine that?  So at Package Costa Rica we frequently get asked about the best places to go.  If they happen to ask me, invariably they will get the same answer, Castro’s.  Castro’s is an old-style Latin disco.  It was founded in the 70’s (I think).  It probably has not changed one iota since then.  The location can be intimidating for some folks.  I mean it isn’t located in the best part of town, but in an area known as Barrio México.  With the new ley de transitio now in effect, the best way to arrive (and certainly to go home) is by taxi.  By the way, the new ley de transito (or new driving law) is in nutshell this: if you get caught driving with even a little alcohol in your bloodstream two things happen, you lose your car and you go to jail.  So take a taxi.  Also, that eliminates the problem of finding a parking place, which on the weekends after 10:00 PM is difficult to impossible.  So what’s so special about Castro’s?  Well for one they still play good traditional Latin dance music and not that crappy techno garbage that many of the new discos play (sorry if you like that stuff).  In Castro’s you will hear all the best Latin genres in sets.  So you will have a salsa set, then merengue, cumbia and so forth.  The service is fantastic.  When you arrive you will quickly be escorted to an open table and served there (no “bellying up” to the bar required).  The dance floor is ample enough so even when it is crowded it is not like Monday night football.  Also, the place is dirt cheap (so you can be Broke and Happy and still go) and the food (bocas, or small plates, like appetizers) is really good.  And then there is the dancing. The best dancers in the area (and probably in the country) go there.  It is a joy just to sit back and watch.  Although it can be intimidating to get out there and try yourself when there are so many experts whirling around you.  Upstairs they have the Karaoke bar, which is also the best in town (in my opinion).  Castro’s is just a fun place and I never have anything but a great time when I go there (which is probably a little more frequently than I should admit….my mom reads this).  So there you have it….my favorite bar/disco in San Jose and one of the top reasons I love Costa Rica.

See My Squidoo Lens….When in Tiquicia Do as the Ticos, Dance!

In the immortal words of Kris Kristofferson in the song Me and Bobby McGee, “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”  Maybe that is why the pain of this economic “crisis” runs so deep. That is, because in the U.S. folks do have so much to lose.  So I guess the question to pose is, are we really free?  Here in Costa Rica, however, it is a different story, materially speaking.  I will have to admit lately the crisis has me down in the dumps, too.  Yesterday, I lost a $5,000 sale because the potential customer shopped our deal to a competitor who shaved off a few dollars. So wamo, what was supposed to be a done deal ended up a gone deal. Yea it hurt.  But then on the way to work I look at the faces of Ticos with far less “materially” than I have and they are a lot happier than me.  That got me to thinking about what I did have, or do have, right now.  I may not have that $5,000 sale, which surely would have made things better.  But I do have my health.  I do have my sanity (well, there are a few out there who might argue about that).  I am the father of the four greatest kids on earth. I am driving La Poderosa.  I live in a great home.  I have a growing business and motivated, trained and experienced employees.  I live in the most beautiful place on earth.  And most importantly of all, I have the choice not to let some @#$% get me down by shopping the hard work we did for a few bucks savings.  I have the choice to be happy.  And the truth is, no matter how bad this recession might be….that is, even if it is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression or the Civil War or even Noah’s Flood, or whatever, I still have the choice to say %#@ it!  I am gonna be happy!  The Ticos seem to get it.  In the midst of what some might consider material lack, they are generally an extremely happy lot.  They know how to take life less seriously.  I believe that is the genesis of the phrase heard so often around here…Pura Vida!  You can always find a reason to be happy if you look hard enough.  Just like you can find a reason to be miserable….economic crisis or not.  I believe this crisis is just an excuse for a lot of  hand wringing and after all, it does sell a lot of newspapers and it is great for keeping politicians in power.  So today I refuse to be miserable.  I refuse to throw a pity party, like the one we all celebrated at Package Costa Rica yesterday.  The sun is out.  The day is new.  And I am happy, damn it…..

Pura Vida!