Tico or Bust: Mike and Charlie in Costa Rica

Next Three Weeks

2007-07-11T22:50:00.000-07:00

Right now I am coming to the end of some slow time in Coco. Things are going to pick back up and I will have loads more to write about very soon. Here is what I am looking forward to doing and hopefully, what you are looking forward to reading about.

This weekend there is a festival in Liberia. Liberia is the closest large town, with roughly 40,000 inhabitants. I honestly am not sure what the festival is for, but I think it has something to do with a virgin and fishermen. They have bull fights and parades for a few days and generally throw a large party for everyone. I am going to try to go with Paul to see some of the festivities, but we will see.

Karen arrives on Sunday! We are only staying in Coco one night before heading off to Nicaragua on Monday. The plan is to take a bus to the border and then find our way over to San Juan del Sur, which is one of the first beach communities you come to in Nicaragua. Karen found that they are having a festival between the 16th and the 24th. I am almost positive they are celebrating the same virgin as Liberia (sounds like she gets around a lot for a "virgin") We are planning to spend a night there checking it out. The little I have read about San Juan del Sur seems interesting and the beaches there are supposed to be beautiful.

From San Juan del Sur, we are going to hopefully find a bus to Granada. Since Granada is a large city (125,000 people or so), I doubt we will have any problem finding one. Karen is a bit more adventurous than I am and that should be a good influence on me during her stay. I am not the type of person who would normally go to a town BEFORE I knew that I could find a bus to my final destination, but I am sure it will be fine. If not, at least I have someone to give a hard time to. If I am traveling alone, there is only one person to blame and he does not take being wrong very well. The more I read about Granada, the more excited I am for our trip. I had been reading a travel guide for Panama for the past couple weeks and finding myself more interested in my trip there in August than anything, but that has changed. Granada has a amazing history and the old architecture that I loved so much in Italy. There is something about a 450 year old building that blows my mind. I found a hotel in Granada that was built in 1524. It was restored in the early 1990's and looks stunning, but I do not see myself staying there at $100 a night. Karen has already sent me a couple links to hostels that she found for us to potentially stay in. We will have to find a happy medium between Karen's thrifty traveling itinerary and my desire to stay in a place with my own bathroom. Check back to see how that compromising went. Karen and I were always so good at compromising.

Fun Fact about Nicaragua: Lake Nicaragua is the 10th largest fresh water lake in the world and one of the only with fresh water SHARKS! How is it that I always find the fun facts to be about things that can kill you underwater. Needless to say, if you see a picture of me in Lake Nicaragua, Karen pushed me in.

There are many more things I could tell you about Granada that I am looking forward to, but I would rather tell you about them after I know more than what I read on a website or in a book. Expect a review in the coming weeks.

Our plan is to come back on either Thursday or Friday, since I am leaving to come back to New Hampshire on the 21st (Saturday). If we make it back on Thursday, I am hoping to do some white water rafting on Friday, before I leave. Matt and Xana went rafting on their trip to Arenal and I have been looking forward to trying it myself.

Return to NH: For all those New Englanders that miss me so much...... yes, both of you.... I will be flying back very late on Saturday night and staying for a week. My wonderful sister, who's birthday is today, is giving birth to my nephew on the 25th. I will be flying thousands of miles to see this kid, so they better let me hold him very soon after they clean him off. No truth to the rumor that Jill is going to name him Michael. I am sure she would love to name her first born son after her favorite (and only) brother, but alas, her step son is already named Michael. If you are not sensing the sarcasm here, please reread with a thick application of it. As much as Jill loves her little brother, she would sooner name him Satan.

Although I am not well known for planning ahead, my week is filling up pretty quickly. There will be no time for trips to Foxwoods, but I am planning on a night out in the Manchester area on Friday, the 27th. For those who want to see me, that is the best shot. For those who specifically do not want to see me, avoid Margaritas, Strange Brew and The Viper Lounge on that Friday night. Is the Viper Lounge even still there? I hope not.

I fly down to Fort Myers on the 28th, on a mission to move the rest of my stuff out of my old place before Derek sets it on fire. I am sure he is tired of having his storage room filled with my junk, but I bet you he misses the 56" HDTV. By the way, if you know anyone in Florida looking to buy a killer TV, let me know! Four days in Florida visiting with friends and then I will be headed back to lovely Liberia on or around the 1st of August to enjoy my second three months in Costa Rica!

So now you know!

4th of July

2007-07-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

Much to my surprise, there was an international festival celebrating all the independence days, on Sunday. With so many Americans and Canadians, it makes sense to do it at the beginning of July (Canada Day was the 1st). There was music, food, dancing, fireworks, prizes, raffles and they even played the national anthems for everyone. Tons of kids, both Tico and gringo were running around playing field day type games and all the money raised went towards local orphanages.

Michael and Angela brought me along and we met up with a large number of Canadians that I am friends with. I also met a couple from Bethlehem, NH who were retired from teaching. At one point I was sitting with Harvey (friend from Calgary who is taking Charlie while I am back in the states) and Michael and it dawned on me that Michael is British....... we were both celebrating independence from him, basically! That ended up being the joke that would not die for the rest of the afternoon.

So here are my ideas for honoring our nations independence day from down here:

1. I could dress up like an Indian, sneak into Michael and Angela's place, steal all of their tea and throw it in our pool.
2. I could hide on Michael's roof with a bucket of red paint and wait for him to come out to dump it on him. Then I could hide behind a stone wall and shoot him while he just stands there trying to figure out what is going on.

That's all I have so far.....

Any good ideas?

New Visitor!

2007-06-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

If you want to make my day, just call and tell me you are booking a flight to come visit. That is pretty much the best news I could possibly hear from anyone. Just the other day, Karen called and gave me that wonderful news! Charlie has been doing laps around the place ever since. Yeah!

Karen is coming on the 15th of July and we are going to take a bus ride up to Grenada, Nicaragua. Grenada is supposed to be an amazing city with a huge amount of things to see, great restaurants and great architecture. Sold! Karen and I have both heard that they are not huge fans of Americans in Nicaragua, but we can always pretend to be Canadian, Aye?

I did some research on the origins of that dislike and shockingly we helped overthrow their government a couple times to install leaders that would be more convenient for us to take advantage of their country. Here are some highlights:

- US owned timber company paid off the dictator president, that we help install, to clear cut almost every commercial pine tree in the entire north east of Nicaragua without replanting anything.
- Kicked locals off the land they had farmed for generations in order to build cotton plantations and cattle farms. By 1970, Nicaragua was the #1 provider of beef to the US, by US owned companies of course, supporting the fast food chains mostly.
- We exported most of our newly illegal pesticides (DDT, endrin, dieldrin, lindane) to Nicaragua because hell, those aren't real people there and poisoning their water won't matter. In 1977, a study showed that women living in some Nicaraguan cities had breast milk with 45 times greater levels of DDT than what was considered safe for babies to drink. Again though, Nicaraguan babies aren't American anyway and McDonalds needs more beef for happy meals.
- We trained and armed a "National Guard" to help support our interests in the area. The "National Guard" eventually executes their president and helps control the country under a dictatorship for 50 or so years. Oops, our bad.

There is much, much more, but I figure most people do not come to my blog for a history lesson. I encourage everyone to do some research on our wonderful history with Nicaragua and then check out our history with Iran. Maybe it would become more clear why so many people hate us if they actually taught students some real American History. Google, Operation Ajax if you want to understand why we have such a great reputation in Iran.

That was quite a tangent from, "Yeah, Karen is coming to visit." Anyway, I am excited and hopefully will have all sorts of great Nicaragua stories to tell.

-

Missing You

2007-06-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

You just do not realize how important something is to you, until it is gone. Recently, Matt and Xana visited and it really reminded me of something. Then Elijah came and now that he is gone, I find myself missing what I had when they were here; a car. We rented an SUV when they were here and man was it nice to have wheels. Oh yeah, friends were nice to have around, too.

The first month here I had no car. Yeah, it can be a little annoying being forced to walk to restaurants and bars or down to the Casino and you cannot just make a quick trip to the store if you realize you need something for a recipe or really want some ice cream (by the way, I found the best ice cream down here). You get used to not having a car though. I write out grocery lists for the first time in my life because I call a cab once a week to take me to the store. I was riding a bike the first two weeks but you just cannot carry enough things back on a bike and I was worried I might get in good shape if I kept that up. Basically, I was getting used to not having a car. There was plenty to pass the time in Coco.

Then my friends spoiled me with car access. Now I find myself craving a burger from Jimmy's Burgers at night, but not quite enough to walk a mile there and back. (Jimmy's Burger is the closest thing in Coco to late night fast food. You are basically walking up to a trailer on the main strip and ordering from a window. They cook everything on the spot, but you are probably looking at frozen burger pattys and fries. Sometime you just want a burger, though and they stay open later than almost everything else around here.) When I have to call a cab to go to the store, I find myself more and more annoyed. I would love to shoot down to Tamarindo for some surf and a cheap hotel, but without a car it just doesn't make much sense.

Anyway, I want a car and have been moving closer and closer to buying one. (I think my Jay, my Mom and Jill would have a collective heart attack if they hear I bought a vehicle here. They all tend to end emails with, "I hope you are having fun, but not too much fun," followed by some sort of mention that they would not mind me moving back. Considering the alternative is leaving the country and having people happy, I take it as a compliment.) Now that I have had no friends in for a few weeks and no more planning on coming for a few more, I am stuck thinking that I should have just bought a car when I first got here. Looking at my time table, it might not make as much sense to buy one now as it would have two months ago. Can you believe I have been here for two months?

Cars in Costa Rica: Older used cars are golden down here. That beat up 1991 Ford Truck you see for $1500 obo on the side of the street in Manchester is worth about $4000 here, if it runs well. If you want a decent car down here you are going to pay a premium to buy it in Liberia, but it will hold its value well. If I had it to do over again, I would buy a $4,000 car the first couple weeks I was here and then likely sell it for $3,500 when I was leaving. I have actually heard you can make some money buying cars in San Jose (capital, large city about 4 hours away) and driving them to this area to sell them. (Right now Matt is doing some calculations on how much he could make and thinking of paying for his next trip through a car sale or two) If I make another long stay in CR, I will fly into San Jose and buy something to drive to where I am staying. Lesson learned.

So as of now, I am without a car and a little bored. Online poker is not very entertaining. I really miss taking people's money right at a table with them. I have plans for doing that soon and I will update everyone on them in my next couple posts.

More Canopy Tour

2007-06-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a very bad job of blogging lately, with no excuse other than trying to play more poker now that I have Internet back. Oh well, check out some more cool pictures from the canopy tour.

The last part of the canopy tour was a visit to their butterfly farm. Since I know very little about butterflies or the poisonous frogs that I took pictures of, I will just post the pictures for you to enjoy. The butterflies were really incredible and were landing on us. Thankfully the poisonous frogs were not landing on us, but they were really amazing colors.

Nevermind, all of my frog pictures stink.....Maybe I will steal one from a website and pretend I took it at some point.

Horsing Around

2007-06-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

Riding a horse for the first time in my life was very high up on my list of things to accomplish in Costa Rica, as I have mentioned before. For some reason, I made it through 27 years of life without ever having done it. I love animals, think horses are incredible and like to do sporting activities, yet somehow avoided the opportunity.

With the zip lines complete, the five remaining members of the Canopy tour group (Elijah, Haylor, Colin, Beth and myself) all jumped on a horse to ride the remainder of the way down the mountain. (there was actually a presentation by a local tribe between the zip lines and horses, but it was just a scam to try to get you to buy their artwork and I probably will not write about it in any detail). Elijah, Beth and I all had never ridden before, but sucked it up and took the plunge. Elijah had actually expressed a fear of horses earlier on the trip, but cheers to him for saddling that fear! Short pause while you make fun of me for such a terrible pun……..and we are ready.

Haylor picked me out a gentle horse named Estrella (Star) and after a short talk with him about not throwing me off, I climbed on. (Yes, I look like a goober in that helmet, but I was riding a horse while most of you were at work) I was shocked at how easy it was to communicate with the horse and even though Estrella seemed to like the far right side of the path and did not take every one of my suggestions, things went really well. We all rode for about a half hour to the bottom without incident and while that does not lend itself well to an interesting blog entry, no one falling off was fine by me. I am not exactly ready to start taking jumps or playing polo, but I would be shocked if I do not ride a few more times before my six months is over. I can understand why people spend so much money buying and caring for horses now, they really are amazing.

Mine is Longer Than Matt's

2007-06-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

Matt and Xana had amazing things to say about the zip line canopy tour they went on during their trip to Arenal. If you check back on their blog entry, they went lines that stretched nearly a half mile long. That sounded pretty incredible to Elijah and I, so as soon as we got to La Fortuna (town on one side of Arenal) we signed up for the canopy tour that our hotel owner recommended. We only had enough time to bring in our bags, set Charlie up with food and water and change our clothes before a driver picked us up for the tour.

Elijah sporting a killer helmet

Early afternoon at this time of the year in Costa Rica can often mean rain and as the 15 or so people in our group started receiving the safety instruction, ominous clouds started rolling in and the grumbling of thunder was worrying everyone. Lightening would mean game over and I had the strange feeling that even though our guide spoke perfect English, “Refund” was not part of his repertoire. The group, including five daring children and four guides hopped on a tractor to take us most of the way up the course. The ride was incredibly bumpy and for the first time all day, I was really glad I had not found the time to eat anything. As everyone started putting on their harnesses, the clouds pulled overhead. Our guide (Haylor) gave us the option to start halfway down the course to ensure we made it to the longest lines and Elijah and I were both getting discouraged. We asked if going the next day was an option and Haylor not only agreed to let us, but offered to take us on a private tour if we showed up at 7 am the next day. As we rode the tractor back down the mountain with two others that decided on the morning tour, I considered the decision to wake up at 6 am voluntarily. This could be bad.

Shockingly, I was able to fall asleep at a reasonable time and actually made it to the tour 20 minutes early. A couple from Jacksonville on their honeymoon joined us as well as a large crew of guides. I think they were using it for training because there were more guides than customers. Safety, tractor, harness and a 10 minute hike up the rest of the mountain and we were at our first zip line. I was less nervous than I expected considering that we were over 400 feet above the ground and being held up by a small piece of metal with two runners in it. At least at that height you would die instantly on impact. With that in mind, I volunteered to go first. Trying to describe to everyone what it feels like to fly through the air 1000 feet on a zip line is impossible. Elijah followed right after me, which I have a video of and the look on his face is priceless. That was zip line number one of ten and the big ones were a few away. Thankfully they build you up slowly so that you do not pee yourself on the first line.

Highlights of the tour:

1) There was a travel agent on the tour with us and she was not exactly the thinnest woman in Costa Rica. She was taking the tour to see if it was worth selling to her clients, but did not seem too pumped about it. On the first zip line, she came screaming towards the platform (the heavier you are, the faster you go) and did not seem to totally grasp the concept of braking. You have a padded glove on your right hand set on the wire itself to slow you down when the guide gives you the signal. Apparently she thought that the best way to stop was to clobber the guide by not braking at all. My biggest disappointment on this entire Costa Rica adventure is not having my camera rolling as she bowling balled the 130 pound spotter about 15 feet from where he was trying to stop her. Concern for their lives kept Elijah and I from laughing at the time, but I cannot help but chuckle every time I think about it now.
250 foot high waterfall that we were above!

2) The longest zip line stretched 900 meters long. Since I have no Internet, I cannot convert that exactly for you, but that is about 2900 feet (over ½ mile). You might remember that Matt and Xana went on a zip line that was just under ½ mile. Also, you might notice that over ½ mile is longer than just under ½ mile. If you have not figured it out yet, I am rubbing it in that mine was longer than Matt’s. Top speed on this line reaches in the ballpark of 50 to 55 mph.

3) The instructors are completely insane, by the way. Two of them road the lines upside down while their spotters shook the lines to try and make them swing towards trees. I hope the pictures I took do some justice to how crazy they are. After doing these lines a thousand times I am sure the fear goes out of it, but to ride them upside down is still a little nuts. Open up a larger view of the picture below and zoom in on the guy on the line....you have to see it.

4) Almost dying from a poisonous snake was loads of fun. Somewhere around the 3rd or 4th line, we all climbed a set of stairs up to the next platform. After Elijah and I reached the top, one of the instructors mentioned spotting a snake behind us. Naturally, I expected it to be off the trail or in a tree somewhere, but no, it was right on the steps we just came up. I will do some Google searching to find the name of the snake again, but it is from the cobra family and could kill you with one bite. The good news is Haylor told us a bite on the leg would give you a decent chance of survival, while a bite above the waist could kill you within an hour.
Great quote from Beth (honeymoon couple): “That would have totally ruined my day if that snake bit me.” Haylor and I laughed for about 15 minutes on that one. We both agreed that it would have totally ruined our day. Oh yeah, and the rest of my lives, too.

I asked Google for some information on this snake and found out it is a fer-de-lance Viper. Enjoy this little Animal Channel moment on my blog.

"The most talked-about snake in Central America is the fer-de-lance, much feared for its aggressiveness and lethal venom. One of several Central American pit vipers -- another is the bushmaster -- the fer-de-lance can grow to a length of three meters and is abundant throughout the country, particularly in overgrown fields and rivercourses in drier lowland regions. Costa Ricans call this lethal creature terciopelo, Spanish for "velvet." As juveniles, fer-de-lance are arboreal critters that feed on lizards and frogs, which they attract with a yellow-tipped tail. As adults, they come down to earth, where they move about at night and, by daylight, rest in loose coils of burnished brown on the forest floor. Give the fer-de-lance a wide berth! Unlike other vipers, the fer-de-lance will bite with little provocation. The snake's powerful venom dissolves nerve tissue and destroys blood cells and artery walls; those fortunate enough to survive may suffer paralysis or tissue damage so massive as to require amputation of the bitten limb. "

5) If you brake at all while you are riding the zip lines it slows you down too much to get to the other side. I did my best not to brake at all because I am slightly nuts and wanted to go as fast as possible. As I approached the end of one of the longer couple lines, I noticed my speed was not jiving with the distance I had left to cover. I was now coming to a stop about 100 feet short of the platform dangling 300 feet in the air. Crap. I must have had my brake pad on the wire awkwardly. Sadly, no one took a picture as I spun around and started pulling myself hand over hand towards Elijah, Beth, Colin and the spotter. One thing that I have not mentioned that is important to know now is that you can hear this crazy loud buzzing on the cable even as someone just starts zipping. The sound gets louder as they approach, but even 3000 feet away, the line still transfers the sound much stronger than you would expect. Knowing that, the last thing I wanted to hear as I was pulling myself slowly towards the platform was the buzz of another person on the line…….there are radios and signals between the guides telling them that the line was clear and the next person was safe to send, but as I was now frantically pulling myself closer to safety, the buzz was getting louder and louder. To say I was relieved when I discovered it was just my spotter coming out to pull me the rest of the way is comparable to saying that Jaime was relieved when Matt and I finished our best men speech at her wedding. I am guessing we experienced a similar heart in our throat feeling of impending doom.

6) The proper zipping form is knees up, legs crossed, left hand on the rope line in front of you and right hand back with your brake pad gripping the cable. You should basically be in the same position as the old people in the Craftmatic Adjustable Bed commercials, except with one hand back and not wearing a diaper. Elijah decided on two different occasions that the right hand was not an integral part of the equation and let go of the cable with his brake pad. No brake hand = no braking. During our safety instructions Haylor told us that if you lost your brake hand grip, you must lie back flat in order to make it easier for the spotter to stop you with the rope backup brake. Elijah was obviously not paying attention both times that we went through the safety instructions because he came barreling onto one of the platforms head up and whacked his head on the cable when the spotter brought him to the screeching halt. The best part? I WAS taping on this particularly interesting landing and the two of us got to watch it over and over again after reaching the hotel. My feeling is if you are going to crash land, trip over something, slam your head on the surf board or anything else that combines pain with embarrassment, you might as well get it on tape. Thankfully, Elijah agreed and we have a good visual on what not to do next time.

I could go on and on about how cool the canopy tour. My guess is by now the picture is clear that we all enjoyed ourselves. If you want me to send some of the video clips I took during this tour, post a comment or send me an email and I can email them to you. Warning, they are very large files and a tiny bit shaky. You try to ride one of those lines, jump off, grab the camera quickly and not have your hands shaking a little!

The tour did not end with the zip lines. I will post about the rest of it later!

Step One

2007-06-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

Hello, my name is Mike and I am addicted to the Internet.

There, that is step one. Hopefully step two is getting it turned back on and going right back to our wonderful relationship. My Internet has been off for over a week now and that came right after I traveled for a week with Elijah without a computer. My hands have stopped shaking, mostly, but I have realized that I need the Internet more than most things in my life. I think I am in the Matrix. Seriously, if I am not plugged into the Internet, I have no clue what to do with myself. My average day down here I wake up around 9ish (is 10:30 still 9ish?, I say yes) and jump on ESPN.com to listen to a radio show. I eat and get ready in the morning while listening to it and work on my poker database from the information I gathered the night before. After lunch I read every article I can find about the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics or by Bill Simmons, Gammons, Olney, Starks etc etc. Hey, I have to be ready when one of my friends calls me to ask about the center field prospect for the Mets that is available in his NL only fantasy league.

Charlie and I usually hit the beach around 2:30, when it cools down a bit and between that and cleaning him off, we get pretty close to 5 pm. If I am not going to dinner with one of the neighbors and the Sox are playing, I listen to the game while I play poker and eat dinner. I try to play poker for 3 hours, but I am lazy and it usually ends up being less than that. Sox games usually last 3 hours, after which I watch some TV, read a little, write on my blog, talk on IM. Are we noticing an issue here? I did not even include the fact that my only phone is connected through the Internet. Every day they tell me that my Internet should be back any time that day. That leads me to trying to sign on AOL between 20 and 30 times…….each hour. I was serious, I am in the Matrix.

Now I understand why the word "Internet" always need to be capatalized...... similar to "God".

Two Weeks of Adventures; One Week of No Internet

2007-06-12T14:04:00.000-07:00

My most sincere apologies to my readers while I was out exploring for the last two weeks and have been slacking on my blog entries. Two trips to Tamarindo, one to Arenal and a number of day trips to beaches in the area have been really been incredible and instead of trying to sum everything up in one epic entry, I am going to split it up into as many as it takes. My goal is to spread them out and seem interesting for two weeks before I go back to boring you all again. Things I did: Saw a volcano erupting, rode a horse, went 55 mph on a zip line, surfed again, hit up Tamarindo at night, saw two killer waterfalls, cooked some great Marlin, bought a cool mask made by a native tribe in Arenal, almost died when I came within inches of a deadly snake (not exaggerating), went in a butterfly farm, saw some poisonous frogs up close and best of all, I took pictures and videos of it all. Tons to write about now and you can also look forward to an entry from Elijah. I imagine he will have good things to say about Costa Rica since he was already trying to plan a second trip before finishing even leaving.

I wrote this entry last week while my Internet was out. I had expected it would be back shortly, but I was very wrong. Nothing happens quickly down here and for the first time in my life I missed customer service in the states. I was in the black for an entire week and wrote a bunch of blog entries to post over the next 48 hours. I hope everyone enjoys them and sorry again for the 2 week break.

Tamarindo

2007-05-28T23:39:00.001-07:00

Last Friday, Matt, Xana and I went to a town just under an hour away called Tamarindo, which is known for having a beautiful white sandy beach, large waves and a great downtown area. If you want to see Costa Rica-lite and be catered to with American style restaurants, shopping and night life, I had heard Tamarindo is the place to be. I also had heard that it has become a great place to go party and has attracted young people in flocks. Those were the rumors, here is what I thought.

Driving into town felt very much like cruising into a popular beach in the states. You could easily imagine yourself on the coast of Virginia or Florida with stores lining each side of a busy street. Even on a rainy, cool day there were cars everywhere. We were all shocked to see both a Pizza Hut and Subway chain right in the middle of the strip mixed in with surf shops, tattoo parlors and stores selling beach clothes galore. Matt and Xana made fun of me when I mentioned that the Pizza Hut and Subway sounded pretty good after a month without a single meal reminding me of home. I would not want a Subway in Coco, but knowing that I could go get a predictably average tasting meatball sub on my next trip to Tamarindo is nice, even if I never do it. I wonder if there is a Costa Rican version of Jared (the weight loss guy). Probably not.

We parked on the street at one end of the strip and found a restaurant that looked decent to grab some lunch. My fish sandwich was terrible, which seemed rather pathetic since I had not had a bad piece of fish in CR to date, but Matt and Xana thought there meals were good. Prices at that restaurant were very close to US prices and from the other menus and stores we saw, that is the case in Tamarindo. Do not travel to this part of Costa Rica expecting a dollar beer or 5 dollar chicken dinner. This town was built exclusively on the credit cards and ATM withdrawals of tourists, many American and does not extend the discount I have seen in much of the rest of the Guanacaste region.

After lunch we headed to the beach. Even on a rainy day, it was easy to see why people come from all over to spend a day or many in this area. The sand is very comparable to the east coast of the US and at low tide, stretches 150 yards to the shore line and as far as the eye can see in both directions. Imagining Tamarindo in February covered beach towel to blanket is not difficult and in hindsight, the weather may have been more of a blessing than I thought at the time. There would be no tanning and sitting on the beach meant getting progressively more wet. Now was the time to cross surfing off of my list of things to do on this adventure. If we are going to get soaked, we might as well do it while falling off a board on a wave.

If you want to learn to surf, Tamarindo is the place for you. The three of us easily questioned four different surf shops employees on their costs and schedule for lessons, finally settling on Maresias Surf Shop. For $20 each we were promised 1 1/2 hours of a private lesson and the board. That seemed reasonable enough so we went swimming for a couple hours waiting for the tide to shift and the waves to pick up. Surf lessons are very much what you picture. First, you lie on the board on the beach going through the mechanics of the thing and then 5 minutes later you are out in the surf trying to apply the short lesson. After figuring out I am a goofy footed surfer (as well as snowboarder), I put my balance to good use and started riding some waves. Xana and Matt both were able to pick it up quickly (Xana cheated, she surfed once in Hawaii) and the lesson was over in a heartbeat. Matt's conclusion was "surfing was fun, I just don't see myself doing it much or at all again." I can see myself doing it again and often. If my beach had the waves of Tamarindo, I would have bought a board already.

Completely drenched with salt water and rain, we carried our boards balancing on our heads back to the surf shop, single file, more tired from the workout than we all expected, as the sun set on a cloudy, wet and wonderful Tamarindo day. Pura Vida indeed.

Llaves

2007-05-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

Hola from Costa Rica! Como Esta? It's Matt and Xana.

So, the title of our blog entry is "Llaves." That is spanish for keys. You might wonder why our post is titled keys, but I'm going to keep you in suspense. You'll find out soon enough.

Costa Rica is very beautiful. If your on the fence about coming here, definitely do it. There is no doubt it's worth every penny to get here. Things are very quaint. The airport is the smallest airport I've ever been to. When you get out of the plain, you walk down the steps, into the little building that is the terminal, gather your luggage from where the people put it (not the baggage carousel) and head out to get picked up from your rental car.

Rental cars - driving is a little different down here. Their are lines on most roads, but they don't really mean anything. You can pass people anytime, anywhere. The speed limit is usually around 80 kph when your outside the towns, but people do around 110. Oh yeah, there are people, bikes, mopeds, motorcycles (that only do around 60 kph), animals, stopped cars, and everything else you can imagine on the roads.

So, for everyone that wants pictures of Mikes. Here is one. This is the front as you see it from the road. Mikes place is on the left with my Diahutsu rental in the driveway.

Here's a photo looking up the road towards Mike's place. In the background is the new buildings that they are building. In case you were wondering, in Costa Rica they like to start work early, like 6:30 am jack hammering early.

Saturday Xana and I drove about 3 hours to get to Arenal Volcano. It was an interesting drive around the lake through switchbacks and incredibly steep hills. The views were spectacular. The volcano is still active although we didn't get to see lava. Being the rainy season, we were lucky to have the clouds break enough to see the peak. We were able to do a zip line in the mountains around that volcano that was awesome. The longest run was just under a half mile long. It was crazy.

Sunday morning we awoke early and headed into a little town called La Fortuna to go white water rafting. The trip was really great. It was our first time white water rafting and we were not disappointed. Our guide Rocky was great and we were both thrown out of the raft at different points. We were even able to swim in the center of one of the rapids!

I think everyone gets the point of how nice it is here and I don't want to bore everyone with my writing. So, back to the llaves. The day after we got here we realized that Mike only has one set of keys to his condo. While he was sleeping (it was before noon after all) Xana and I went to town to make duplicates of the keyes. We went to what we thought was the general store, but it turned out to be the tires / electronics / mattress / bikes / furniture / everything but keys store. The guy there told us to go toward Ocotal and after the second bridge the key place was on the left. We went over the second bridge and couldn't find a store. We ended up about 15 k down the road where it ended with no sign of a key store. We went back to a home improvement store that was after the first bridge to see if the first person was mistaken. We went in to find that they don't make keys and that we need to look to the left after the second bridge. Luckily, the person their told us that we should look for a sign that said "llaves" - spanish for keys. We went back over the second bridge and saw a very small sign that said llaves. The house looked pretty sketchy, but their was a car in the driveway from one of the local hotels. We went into the building to the sound of spanish disco music. Right after the gentleman looked at me, he said "Oh, blue eyes, I should speak English." We got our two keys made for 1000 colones ($2) and left to the man explaining that his wife was doing aerobics.

So, if you need keys in Playas del Coco, look for this house and the sign reading llaves.

Welcome to Costa Rica!

My Birthday

2007-05-25T22:33:00.001-07:00

Thank you to everyone who emailed, called or IMed me birthday wishes. They were all appreciated and have me very far behind on my emails and return calls. I will catch up this weekend!

Matt and Xana arrived on my birthday, which was also the one month anniversary of my arrival here in CR. That went down as one of the best gifts I have ever been given. I am very good at being by myself and have made a couple real friends down here, but there is no substitute for someone you have known your entire life. Falling back into a rhythm with Matt took a heartbeat and old jokes and stories were a nice reminder of home. Xana is a great compliment to the big guy and someone I feel close to even in the short time I have known her.

I will see if Matt and Xana will write an entry of their own before they leave next week. That might be a nice way to get an alternate opinion of CR from someone just visiting. So far they seem to be enjoying it.

They arrived in the early afternoon, hungry. Of course, I had to take them to The Bohio for some lunch, since it has become my favorite place to eat and is close by. Both Matt and Xana ate fried chicken of different sorts and loved it. After lunch we made a trip to the grocery store and then hit the pool just in time to watch the sky open up and drench Big Daddy. We hid in the 88 degree water as the temperature outside dropped quickly and watched everything get covered with a cold rain. This was not the typical half hour downpour that I have become accustomed to and after our fingers pruned sufficiently, we headed inside to make some burgers. I made dinner as we sat around catching up and planning their first couple days in paradise.

Birthdays should all be this nice and relaxing. We are headed to Tamarindo Beach tomorrow and there is some talk of learning to surf! Exciting to have a rental car and people to enjoy it with. Pura Vida!

Few Days of Catching Up

2007-05-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

A few of my readers have gone out of their way to mention how I have not posted in a few days. I was glad to hear from them and it is always nice to know that people are reading and noticing when I slow down with my posts. So here we go:

Saturday was a boring day. I spend most of my weekends trying to play as much poker as possible because that is when the most people are online. Sunday was a good day for poker, I played in a tournament that had over 10,500 people in it all paying $215 to get into it. Quick math for you, that is over $2.2 million in the prize pool. The site was celebrating their 10 billionth hand dealt and added 250K for this tourney and it attracted all the fish (bad players) to play in it. When I saw how big it was going to be, I spent a couple hours trying to satellite into the tournament (a satellite is a small tournament with a fraction of the buy-in that pays seats to the larger tournament) so that I would not have to pay the $215. The result was great, I spent $11 to get a $215 ticket and ended up placing 1919th out of the 10,500 or so players. That doesn't sound great, but it made me $250 bucks and was the end of a great week of playing.

Sorry to bore you all with poker talk, but that was the largest tournament I have ever played in and thought it was worth mentioning.

After the big tournament, I went over to The Bohio to order some take-out chicken. I have made a habit out of walking down to the bar, ordering two meals, eating one on the walk home and leave the other in the fridge for the next day. That might sound inconvenient, but I really enjoy doing it. On this particular evening, there was a table full of people sitting outside that seemed very friendly while I was drinking a Pilsen and waiting for my food. I asked to join them and they welcomed me. Three of the group were part of a crew taking a boat from San Diego all the way to New York, through the Panama Canal. That seemed like a crazy thing to do, but is apparently the cheapest way to get a boat from one coast to the other. They had to run shortly after I sat down, leaving me with just an older American looking white male with a white beard named Nelson and a young tica named Kristina.

Nelson has been living in Coco for almost five years after leaving the states. He had all sorts of advice for me about Costa Rica in general, Coco specifically and the people of this country. His opinion, which he shared very willingly, was incredibly pessimistic, though with my short time here, I feel slightly ignorant in my judgements. Nelson's opinion is that there are no honest relationships between Ticos and non-Ticos, whether that be friendship or love. All they want is your money and if you are an American in CR, they assume you have some. People are only nice to you here if they think they can get something out of you. My small experience tells me that he is wrong. The locals are very nice people and yes, some want to sell you a fish, a bracelet, food, beer or anything that can help them make money that day. Many others seem to have been genuinely kind and welcoming to me, with no agenda. I believe that Nelson's wonderful personality lends itself to attracting Ticos with agendas. That brings me to Kristina.

Kristina is a local "street whore," as Nelson so gently put it. She is one of the very few attractive prostitutes that I have seen here, outside of the casino, very thin with a big smile and dark features. Many of the prostitutes on the street are rounder and I would not be interested if they were paying me. Nelson had some very crude words to describe Kristina and she seemed to only be sitting with him for the free alcohol and the potential of some work. Her English was actually worse than my Spanish and we communicated a little with the Spanish I know. She is 26 years old and has a 13 year old daughter. Yeah, I was shocked and thought I was losing something in the translation, but Nelson assured me that I was correct. He told me that many girls in CR get pregnant in their early teen years. Very sad. She has been a prostitute ever since her daughter was born. Very disgusting. To think that men were paying her for sex when she was 13 years old...........but this is not my country. I hope that it is not American men that are hiring little girls for sex, but I have a sick feeling that it probably is.

Nelson was doing his best to convince me that I should take Kristina home with me and Kristina seemed to be testing me out. I assured both of them that it was not going to happen and after some pressure from both wasn't working, I think they got the picture. Nelson told me that her charge is $50, but her friend that showed up told me that she would only charge me $30. Looking at Nelson, that did not seem like as much of a compliment as you might think. I was so entertained by everyone that was coming in and out of the bar, as well as Nelson and Kristina, that I stayed for a few beers and let my food get cold.

There was a nice older Tico named Lewis that I will tell you about next time.

Un Idiota

2007-05-19T11:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you Matt, for pointing out that I posted the incorrect phone number on my blog posting "Un Telefono."

Yeah, I'm smart.

The number is 603-397-0049 and I know I have given the wrong number to a few people. Sorry guys. I cannot complaing about people not calling me if I give most of you the wrong number.

Earthquake?

2007-05-19T02:38:00.000-07:00

As is becoming a Friday afternoon tradition, the Big Daddy crew and I headed down to The Bohio for some food and drinks at happy hour (4 to 6). Drinks at a two for one price tend to bring quite a crowd and that crowd tends to have interesting stories and jokes to tell. This being Ralph and Violet's last Friday before they head back to Canada for the summer brought all of the people I am getting used to seeing at bbq's and dinner parties.

As always, everyone drove the kilometer to the bar except Angela and I. We walk every week and I think both for the same reason; you feel better about eating fried chicken and drinking a little too much when you get some exercise first. I do not have very much in common with Angela, she is a cat person, a retired bio-chemist who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for 4 years, has traveled all around Europe, has been married twice, has children etc etc. Not exactly two peas in a pod, but she usually has something interesting to talk about and is very willing to put up with my questions about all the places she has been.

Side note: Her brother lives in Manchester, NH and owns a few multifamily properties. He hangs out at Millie's Friggin' Tavern because he says the beer is great. 1) What the hell are the chances of that? 2) He thinks the beer is great at Millie's? I am not sure which one seems less likely, honestly. I have only thrown up twice as a result of drinking and one of those was completely a result of the beer at that hole. If I remember correctly, I think I got the winter sawdust blend. There was a dead goldfish at the bottom of the glass when I finished it. My memory from that night is not 100% reliable, though.

Anyway, Angela and I were walking and talking about french fries when she randomly asked me if I was catholic.....uh oh................. oh, phew. She only asked because Michael recently found a catholic church down here and he plays guitar and sings there. I told her that I did not practice any religion and we had a long talk about how religion has caused more blah blah blah. No one wants to hear my feelings about religion, but she and I had very much the same ones. Just before we reached the bar, she mentioned something about believing in a higher power and that the only thing she hopes for is that no higher power hits us with an earthquake. Ha ha ha....wait....she doesn't seem to be kidding? They have earthquakes in Costa Rica? While I am hardly a Costa Rican scholar, I did read two and a half books on this country without ever coming across a section on earthquakes. "Oh, yea. They have earthquakes heeya" Angela tells me in a very british accent.

Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike the idea of an earthquake? Hurricanes you can see coming from thousands of miles away. Adam and Kelly were in Atlanta 4 days before Katrina hit New Orleans. Terrible snowstorms are forcasted. Stock up on some water, canned goods and make sure you have enough oil to ride it out and you are good. Earthquakes? No warning at all! You might think this is a stretch, but my small fear of being hit by an earthquake is similar to my fear of anything under water that can kill me. One minute you are swimming in the ocean, minding your own business and wham! Earthquake!

Google tells me that there have been a number of small earthquakes in Costa Rica over the last 5 years, none much more than a 6.5 on the Richter scale, BUT most experts believe that a large one is long over due for this area. In 1972 the city of Managua, Nicaragua was destroyed by an earthquake, leaving over 12,000 people dead. There was something in here about Mick Jagger flying to Managua looking for his wife's family. I hope I spelled Mich Jagger wrong. That would really annoy the old people who read my blog. In case your geography of Central America is as bad as mine was before coming here, Nicaragua is just a short drive north of where I live. Thanks Google, thanks a bunch.

I should post this before things start to shake and my ceiling fan falls, decapitating me. Gulp!

The Matapalo

2007-05-16T22:11:00.000-07:00

I have a new favorite place to eat in Coco. The Matapalo is a tico bar at the southern tip of Coco Beach and is well known by locals as a spectacular place to eat fried fish (Pescada Frito en espanol). Michael had been telling me about this place since the first week I arrived and we finally found the opportunity to take a boys lunch early this afternoon. Michael drove us the long way to the bar because both of us were too hungry to make the mile long walk down the beach to get there. The trick with this bar is knowing not to ask for a menu. If you ask for one, they immediately label you as a tourist and hand you the menu with much higher prices than they would normally charge. Michael just ordered a large plate of fish and fried plantains with two beers. A few minutes later, out came a plate filled with fried fish nuggets and plantains. Michael told me that it was marlin today, though some days it is different and I was hooked from the first taste. The large plate was just enough to fill both Michael and I. We then sat around talking and digesting for an hour or so over 4 beers each (Imperial for me, Pilsen for Michael). As you might have noticed by my previous blog entries, Michael is quite a character and tells very interesting stories about anything and everything. I really enjoyed our lunch, though after 8 beers and all that fish, the bill came to a staggering 5300 colones (almost $11, for both of us, yeah).

Fun Fact: The Matapalo is named after a type of tree that grows roots around a large tree and kills it by suffocating the trunk. There is an extremely large and interesting tree on the beach right next to the bar, but Michael said it is not a matapalo tree. That would have made too much sense, I guess. Yes, this would be a perfect place to put a picture of that cool tree, but I didn't bring my camera. I will take it the next time I go and post it, I promise. The not lugging around my camera deal is my attempt to not look like a tourist everywhere I go. I should just deal with it, they think I'm a tourist anyway.

Phone Number

2007-05-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

Quick little message for everyone. I now have a phone number you can call in Costa Rica through a service called Skype. Skype allows me to have a New Hampshire number ring down here in CR so that you don't have to pay international rates on the call. Calling me is just like calling any other New Hampshire number!

My number is 603-379-0049 and the call quality has been excellent so far. I even have voicemail if my computer is off of I am not here.

Hope to hear from you soon!

She's a What?

2007-05-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

Actual conversation that I had with Sketchy Dave (new nickname for the guy I know, if you want a picture, he is sitting next to Michael at the Bohoi from my first night here) the other night at the casino.

me: "Hey Dave, what are you up to? Do you gamble?"
SD: "No, just hanging out having some drinks."
me: "You should play some blackjack with us, the drinks are free while you play."
SD: "Actually, I am really hoping to get a hooker."
me: "A What????!!?"
SD: "Yeah, those three girls over there are prostitutes. I think your waitress might be one too."
me: "My waitress is a prostitute? That's gross? How much would it ..........never mind."

This has been my biggest culture shock since coming to Costa Rica. Prostitution is legal here, I knew that before I came. The amount of prostitution blows my mind though. Get this; Most attractive women here hook on the side for extra money. They don't actively go out looking for business, but if business finds them....they have sex with them. You like how I threw "hook" in there, like I know the slang already? Yeah, I'm cool.

So every time I go to a bar now, I was told to assume that any women dressed sexy, is a hooker. Imagine a Costa Rican man moving to L.A. or Miami? He would think that the entire club was full of hookers.

Ok, back to how this impacts me. Since I think strip clubs are uncomfortable and moderately gross, you can imagine how I feel about paying for sex. I like to pay for my sex through dinners, gifts and having listen to a woman yammer away about how her day went, not with cash. Hmmmm, now that I look at it that way......... Nah, still gross.

I did ask Sketchy Dave how much is customary to pay, but only because I knew my blog followers would be interested. Anywhere from $30 to $50 for a couple hours, depending on the quality. He used the word quality, not me. I understand we are talking about a woman here, but we are talking about one that has sex for money. That seems incredibly inexpensive to me. Men, please throw up a comment on how much you think it costs, on average, before you get to the sex part in the relationship? I assure you, it is much more than $50. Weaver, you can guesstimate how much it has cost you on average to still be a virgin, if you want. I don't want you to feel left out.

Now that I have taken some time to think, the amount of prostitution makes sense in this area. Most people here, even skilled professionals, make less than a $1,000 a month, much less in some cases. When you combine that with the amount of tourists with money, retired old men with money and young women without money.........Bang.......literally. If you can make the same amount of money in two hours that your Father or husband even, makes in 3 days, you would have to think about doing it. It might even be encouraged for daughters or wives to go out and make some money that way when you consider how much it would help. I was also told that if you date a Tica woman, you are asked to help the family when they need it. If the family car needs some work, they ask if you can help pay for it, or whatever the case.

This information has solidified the fact that I will probably not date any Ticas while down here. I have been warned that they are known to steal from you, can look 25 when they are really 17 (major no-no to have sex with an underage girl here, worse than the states) and now I have to worry that they are going to ask me for money if I start talking to them at a bar. I guess I will have to stick to vacationers. I will just look for the sunburns and pounce!

Powerless Morning

2007-05-11T02:03:00.000-07:00

As you can probably gather from previous posts, electricity has been a bit of an issue down here. There has been a number of blackouts, both scheduled and not, since I arrived in Coco. My usual plan when the power goes out is to grab my book, my dog and a towel and either head to the beach or to the pool. While it is hard to complain when you have those kinds of options, it can still be a bit of a downer when you are trying to watch a movie, listen to a radio show online or write a blog entry and all of a sudden the power shuts off. Also, when the power goes off in the early morning, which it has a few times, I wake up immediately. I have always slept better when there is noise in the room and as soon as the A/C unit stops humming, I snap right awake.

Yesterday morning at 7:15 am, I woke to the sound of nothing. Since it was much too early for me to start my day, I did my best to go back to sleep, only managing to make it to 9. The power is usually down for an hour or so, but there were a couple times we all lost it for two to three hours. I ate a mango on my couch, expecting to see my fan start spinning over my head at any minute.......but nothing. I took Charlie for a walk and came back at 10 to a still quiet condo. Completely bored and annoyed, I took a nap, only to wake up to still no power at 11:30. Up to the roof I went to read some, since I could not download the ESPN morning radio show that I usually listen to every day around noon, hoping that I was only a short time from a decent shower. Nope. Around lunchtime I realized that I should throw some ice cubes into my fridge to try and keep my hamburger meat and ham from going bad. Fun times. After eating some lunch, I jumped in the pool (sorry Mom, I didn't wait 30 minutes), now having been without power for over five hours. The pool was surprisingly clean considering that the filter couldn't run all morni.......hey, wait a second........ the pump is running. How is it running without power? And Ralph and Violet have a fan running in their upstairs room that I can see from the pool.

I was the only one without power. My circuit breaker must have tripped this morning and I could have snapped it back at any point.

Anyone feeling bad for me for having to spend a morning going in the pool, taking my dog for a walk and reading on my rooftop hammock? Yeah, I didn't think so. You have to admit though, that really did suck.

Another Casino Night

2007-05-11T01:39:00.000-07:00

Considering how much I was welcomed the last time I went to the Coco Verde Casino, most people would probably not expect me to go back there anytime soon. Well, what fun would that be? I want to keep this things interesting and heading back would make for a decent story. Actually, the only reason I went back was because Albena, the woman who hosted the Happy Hour Party, was headed home to Edmonton on Thursday and wanted to spend her last night there playing Blackjack. What the worst thing that could happen?

My plan was to do my best to prove to the managers that I could not possible be counting cards by drinking heavily. Most people assume you can't count 6 decks at blackjack when you have a few beers in you, but I have never had a difficult time doing it. From what Albena told me, the casino here was probably not happy with the advice I was giving out to the other players at the table (every other casino I have been to has been fine with it) and that is why they wanted me to leave. That should be easy enough. I am very good at minding my own business, right? Ok, maybe not, but I would have to try hard.

Three hours and eight Imperials later, I was up $190 and feel as though I successfully presented myself as just a lucky American who likes to gamble. I watched one terrible player at our table lose somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 while I was sitting there, so I doubt the casino was that worried about my small victory.

The one poker table in the room was empty the entire night. I am hoping that over the weekend they have some people playing. Online poker is just not as much fun as a good live game (or as profitable). If I could get into a decent live game twice a weekend, I would be able to make considerable more money. We'll have to wait and see.

Un Telefono

2007-05-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

I have a telephone! Well, sort of a telephone. I am using this program called Skype that allows you to make calls over the internet really cheaply. The call quality is pretty good and they only charge 2 cents a minute for calls to landlines and cell phones. When I call you, it will come up as either a very strange phone number with many digits or as an unavailable caller ID call. As of now, I do not have a phone number that you can call, but I may change that down the road. I will keep everyone posted.

The last few days have been nice. The weather is beautiful, in the low 90's every day. Charlie and I try to avoid going out between 12 and 2 to avoid the hottest temperatures, but we sometimes go down to the ocean at that time for a quick swim. The beach tends to be empty mid-day and it allows Charlie and I to run around on the beach like lunatics without anyone being bothered. I still have a hard time getting Charlie to listen to me when there are other dogs or little kids around.

Coco Beach during the day.....Where's the party at?

Single Violet is leaving in the morning. I feel funny saying that it makes me sad, her going back to Canada, because I have only been here for little more than two weeks. Time moves rather slowly down here and Violet is a very sweet woman that I would have liked the opportunity to get to know better. There is a possibility that she may return in July or August for some business with a development down here, but that seems like ages from now.

Trying to describe to you why time moves so slowly down here is difficult. The general way of thinking is that time tends to slip away much more quickly when you are enjoying yourself. I would head to Nick's garage to play pool in Florida and before we realized it, 4 or 5 hours had passed. Jay and I climb into chairs in front of the TV to play some video games and suddenly the day is gone. I am sure that I do not need to tell anyone how months and years can just fly by without noticing. Down here, the pace is so much slower and somehow that is making every day last longer. Soon, Matt and Xana will be here and my time with them will be gone in a heartbeat, I am sure of it. One visitor will lead to the next and rain forest zip lines, canopy tours, beach exploring, ect. will put this stay into a much higher gear. Whether I decide to leave after six months and head back to the states, stay here forever or somewhere in between, I need to remind myself that life can slow down if your TV speaks mostly spanish, you have no phone, the power keeps going out and The Bohio sells beer for a buck. I've officially stopped to smell the roses.

Less Than Perfect

2007-05-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

After receiving a couple emails that read somewhere along these lines, "Wow, it sounds like Costa Rica is perfect. Are you ever going to come back?" I read over my blog and realized that there were no negatives in my posts. I still love it here and have really enjoyed my two weeks, but here are some things that make it less than perfect.

- I miss the Red Sox games. The Internet is too slow to get the video of the games over it. Almost every day I listen to the games and it is a good thing to have on in the background when I am playing poker, but it is just not the same. If the internet was fast enough to get the MLB.com package to work correctly, I would be much happier.

- I wish there were more young people down here. Naturally, when you go to a country where you are not allowed to get a job and you can live on the beach at low expense, you are going to get a large majority of retired people. I enjoy my neighbors and the friends I have made, but I wish there were more people close to my age.

- The electricity! That is one thing I took for granted when I was in the states. A constant flow of electricity to my condo is not guaranteed down here and that has led to me losing some money online when the power just cuts out for an hour. I found out later that they were planning daily shutoffs to deal with a problem with the hydroelectric plants. Eighty percent of Costa Rica's power is generated by hydroelectric means. Last year the rainfall was exceptionally low in the rainy season and that has left the country with a problem providing enough power to an ever growing population as we near the end of the dry season. Within the last few days, I was told that the problem was solved by some heavy rains in the mountains and that there would be no more blackouts. Lets hope because it is not something I can handle with my profession.

- Store hours. The main grocery store in Coco closes at 2 pm on Sundays. Michael just told me that it never used to be open at all on Sunday, but that they recently added hours in the morning. The convenient store that is just down the road from me, closes at 6 pm. Oh, how convenient. The American in me is very used to being able to get most anything at any hour. I do not plan meals well and I certainly don't do a good job writing out grocery lists to be sure I get everything I need. In Florida, I had a 24 hour SUPER WALMART less than 3 miles away. Coming to Coco is basically the opposite of that.

- The language barrier. As of now, I have found it all but impossible to make friends with any locals. The only people in town that will say more than "hola" to me are the guys trying to sell me drugs. My frustration with not being able to understand and be understood is becoming greater by the day. Maybe that will push me that extra step forward with my spanish or maybe it will lead to me only having tourist and retired friends who speak english. Time will tell.

- Friends and family. Without question, the hardest thing about being this far away is not being able to see my friends or visit my family ever. My sister is 7 1/2 months pregnant and I am not there. One of my best friends had their birthday today and I could not go celebrate with her. My grandmother is sick and I cannot be there for her. These are the compromises you make when you move to another country. I am very lucky that starting in late May I have a large number of visitors coming for the rest of my 6 months, but I miss playing pool in Nick's garage, going out with Matt and Jay, driving to Boston to see Karen, stopping by to see Jill, Eric and the kids for dinner, going down to Naples to see my parents and being able to shoot down 93 to see my grandparents whenever I wanted. I know in time I will make friends down here, much like I did in Florida, but it will not be the same.

You are all very missed.

A Real Neighborhood

2007-05-03T23:21:00.000-07:00

This will be a quick one, I promise!

For the last couple of days, ever since the BBQ, I have not seen Michael and Angela or Ralph and Violet at all. I have been out by the pool, to the beach and walking Charlie, but I hadn't bumped into them, which was unusual. I assumed they must have gone away for a few days and had not mentioned it or maybe that they were in Liberia shopping.

Tonight, around 8 o'clock, someone was banging very loudly on my door. I was slightly worried because it was odd to have someone knocking here and did not want to just open the door up, so I stood on my deck and looked out. Ralph and Violet were below, calling up to me to make sure that I was OK. They were worried that something had happened and decided to come check on me to make sure I hadn't gotten sick or hurt. How sweet.

Close to 10 o'clock, I hear a very similar banging on the door again. This time it was Michael, over to check on me for the same reason. I ended up taking Charlie out and sitting with Angela and Michael for an hour or so talking, wonderful people, while Charlie annoyed their cat and checked everything out around the pool.

Just one example of the friendly people I am lucky to share a pool with.

Happy Hour Party - Casino Night

2007-05-03T01:24:00.000-07:00

To try and avoid confusion between the Violet's in my neighborhood, I will call the Violet that is not married to Frank, single Violet. Very clever, I know. Single Violet has never mentioned a husband and I have never asked, but I can only assume that he has either passed or they divorced, since she has two sons that she talks about often. One of her sons, Sean, is living in one of the Big Daddy condos with his girlfriend of 9 years, Bonnie. They are about 30 years old and I would probably talk more about them if it wasn't for the fact that they are leaving to go back to Canada next Wednesday, for good. Sean and Bonnie have been living in Costa Rica since October, teaching English as a second language at a couple universities around Liberia. Bonnie seems to have a very pessimistic opinion of Costa Rica and is very excited to leave, while Sean is slightly torn between the two very different lives. My opinion is pretty worthless since I have only been here for a week and a half. Inconveniences with water, electric and internet might become more frustrating at the 5 month mark of my adventure.

Yesterday, single Violet, came to invite me to a "Happy Hour" Party at her friends house down the road. She mentioned that their were going to be some younger people there and that she thought I might be tired of hanging around the older crowd of neighbors. While I sincerely enjoy my neighbors company and would not trade them for a crew of 20 somethings, it did sound nice to meet people closer to my age. Sean and Bonnie drove me to the house at 5, which was only a few blocks away and we met a group of about 10 people for drinks and appetizers.

An stunningly beautiful, slightly older (than me, probably about 37) woman named Kristina was there with her boyfriend Richard. She moved to Costa Rica less than five months ago with her twin 7 year old girls because the developer she works for wanted her to work down here for one week a month and instead of traveling and being away from her kids, she decided to pack up and move from California. Kristina had very positive things to say about Costa Rica so far and seems really glad she made the move. Her daughters love it down here and are going to a private school that teaches in both english and spanish. One of her daughters is named Cora, which I thought was very pretty. Richard is a professional Polo Player and looks a bit like a surfer from California, with his long blond hair, though he is from somewhere in the southeastern US originally (i forget what state he said). He has been coming to Costa Rica every year for the past 3 years to play polo for their season and then heads back to the US to play their the rest of the year. Richard put up with my numerous questions about polo and I was shocked to hear that it is nothing like how it is portrayed in movies. He told me that polo players are the cowboys of the horse riding world and that he laughs to see how people think it is a proper and high society type sport. Also, the sport is incredibly dangerous. Most players are lucky to make it through their career without a serious injury ending it for them.

There was a very friendly man, about 35 years old, that we found out works for a company that provides online gambling and is starting to open casinos around Central America. People were asking him about the industry and though they do not own any poker websites, we were talking back and forth about the industry in general. He very quickly figured out that I was an experienced poker player and I went ahead and told him that poker was the way I was making a living down here. The next thing you know, everyone is asking me about poker. It turns out that most of the people at the party play in an occasional poker night and spend a fair amount of time at the casino in Coco. I was shocked to hear that they do have one poker table at the tiny casino in the downtown area where they often have games on the weekend. For those of you who know poker, they play $1-$2 no limit with a $100 buy-in. I have made quite a few dollars playing that game at Foxwoods over the years, though it is not my favorite. The next thing you know, Marvin, Kristina, Richard and a few others are taking me to the casino with them to teach them how to correctly play blackjack!

Picture of Coco Verde Hotel and Casino that I stole it from some other site.

For those of you who do not know, I learned to count cards at a blackjack table a few years before I started playing poker and realized it was a much easier way to make money. Blackjack is a very simple game, if you understand the concept. The good news for most casinos is that most people that play do not understand the math behind it. Very intelligent people can sit at a blackjack table and make decisions that are so horrible in terms of potential return and they have no idea why (you can print out a simple key which will teach you how to make the correct decision in every possible scenario online). If you can count the deck, which luckily I can, it is actually possible to swing the odds in your favor. Anyone who has ever been to a casino would enjoy "Bringing Down the House," a book written about MIT students learning to count cards and beating Vegas for millions of dollars. Great book.

At Coco Verde, one of the two, very small casinos in Coco, they have about 9 tables where they play different casino card games. I am not particularly fond of playing blackjack, since I started playing poker, but I was really enjoying the company of Richard, Kristina and Marvin. Richard promised me that if I showed him how to play blackjack then he would help me cross two things off of my "Costa Rica To Do" list: 1) Ride a horse for the first time in my life and 2) Learn to surf. That was more than enough incentive to spend a few hours playing blackjack, even when there was a table full of absolute suckers playing poker.

I will make an incredibly long story only reasonably long by telling you that the night was partly successful and a hilarious failure all at once. Coco Verde only uses six decks of cards for their blackjack, unlike Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun who use eight. That is like learning to hit a 90 mile an hour fastball for years and then suddenly stepping in against Tim Wakefields 72 mph "heater" for some batting practice. Kristina and Richard both won money, I am not positive how much exactly, but roughly $300 between them and I ended up winning $70 dollars in the two hours we played. I was advising them on how to play their hands, while counting out the deck and everyone at the table was listening and winning. This did not sit too well with the casino managers and before I realized it, there were three pit boss type characters standing by my table watching what was going on. In a short session, it is very difficult to tell if someone is counting cards and I did not think for a second that my advice giving would perturb the casino, since it is very common in any casino I have ever been in to help out the fellow players. Lets just say that I was very unpopular at The Coco Verde on this Wednesday night. I was first asked to stop helping everyone and to just play my own hand and then told that my drinks were no longer free. The waitress came to my table with a $15 dollar bill for my three white russians and the message was sent.

We all left with more money than we came in with and I had made a few new friends in Coco. I will certainly let you know what I think of polo soon and update everyone on my adventures on horse and surf board.

Not My Cat

2007-05-03T00:59:00.000-07:00

This is the very pregnant cat that lives around Big Daddy begging ever so sweetly for food. The neighbors have all been feeding her enough that she does not stray far from our 14 units. I am guilty of putting out a couple bowls of milk, myself. However, she is not my cat. I repeat, this is not my cat. Everyone else in the complex calls her my cat because they think I should bring her into my home and take care of her until she has her kittens. First off, no. Secondly, what then? I do not even want one cat, not to mention the responsibility of five or six kittens to go along with the one cat. The problem I am having is that every time she joins our group when we are sitting by the pool, this cat jumps up in my lap and curls up in a ball. The guilt is killing me, but all I have to do to counter it is remember the smell that emanated from the litter box of Amanda's cats each and every day she lived with me. Like a turd wrapped in burnt hair.

My First Few Days

2007-05-02T01:20:00.000-07:00

I have been treating my first few days in Costa Rica like a vacation. I know that this is not supposed to be a vacation, but it is paradise here and I have not been on a vacation in almost a week.

One pleasant surprise is the beach is right down the road. Matt and I had been Google Earthing like mad trying to find my place about a week before I left and I was starting to think it was a little bit of a walk to the beach. That is very much not the case. The beach is slightly more than the distance between Jay and my house on Holton Circle or if you are a Floridian friend, the distance between Nick's house and the U-Turn stop sign. If you have never met me and want some idea on the distance, you really should evaluate how you spend your time.

As you can probably see in the pictures, the sand is very dark. During the middle of the day it is gets extremely hot. You absolutely have to wear sandals until you get to the wet sandy part or you will not be loving this beach. The ocean is beautiful, but lacks the waves I was hoping for. I will not be spending my days surfing on this beach, sadly. The silver lining is that the ocean has no undertow to speak of and Charlie can swim in it without me worrying at all. If I had to pick, I think I would go with the small waves and Charlie being able to go in.

One of the reasons I starting thinking about moving to Playas del Coco is the lack of tourists. The beach is very empty during the day and that allows me to let Charlie run around without too many people around for him to annoy. Have I mentioned that most Ticos are afraid of big dogs? When I am walking Charlie, some locals will cross to the other side of the road to avoid walking by him. Large dogs are very rare down here and often are used for pretection. I see signs on many houses that say "Perro Bravo," which means something like "Attack Dog." Who would have thought that Charlie would be protecting me down here?

Back to the beach: If you walk south on the beach, you end up in the downtown area of Coco. There are all sorts of restaurants and bars right on the edge of the sand and it start to get more crowded in that area. The Ticos are generally very friendly and will smile and say hola when you do the same. Most of the locals welcome the few tourists and see how much it has helped their economy, but there are some who are not too happy about it. My spanish is pretty poor, but you don't need to be a linguist to tell when someone is swearing at you. The bartenders and waitress' almost all speak english to some extent. I have a feeling that my food and drink related spanish is going to be the first to develop, though. You can feel how much the people appreciate it when you make an effort to speak their language, even when communicating in english would be easier.

Dollars are accepted everywhere, though they give all change in colones. The exchange rate is around 518 colones to a dollar, but it seems like they round down to 500 when making change anywhere other than the grocery store. From what I have heard, ATMs will give you colones or dollars, but I have not spent much money here and thankfully have not needed an ATM. Costa Rica is very cheap living when you have neighbors to tell you where to eat at "Tico prices" and where to avoid.

The sunsets at the beach are incredible here. I made the mistake of not bringing my camera for the best one so far, but this will give you an idea of what I am talking about. Also, around sunset everyone come out with their dogs and walks on the beach. Charlie has already made a couple friends, but is having a very difficult time the fact that not all dogs love his attention. He has been snipped at numerous times and is going to get in trouble if he does not learn his lesson soon.

My roof is great! I am not sure I would have ended up picking this rental if it didn't have the tiled roof. If I told you about my place before I left, you probably heard more about the roof than the rest of the condo. I have not been disappointed. There is a great hammock, a grill, two tables and chairs up there to sit at. As of now, the only thing I have used is the hammock, but I am sure I will get to the rest of it. Charlie comes up with me and spends the entire time running from one side to the other looking for whatever just made a sound. Between 12 and 2 it is pretty hot up there, but it is perfect for an afternoon nap and for looking at the stars at night. Yes, you can make fun of me for laying in a double hammock, under the stars, by myself. Oh well, Matt and Xana will be down soon to visit me. I think they might ask for me to leave them alone up there, though.

Food: There is a grocery store which is less than a mile from my place that has just about anything I would ever need. I went there on my first day and grabbed some essentials. The prices are high on anything name brand. If you want American brand everything, it is going to run you American prices. If you are fine with Costa Rican brand soap, Corn Flakes and orange juice, you will find the prices pretty low. I am sure it will shock everyone to find out I am going with Costa Rican brand everything.

I hope everyone is enjoying my pictures now that I have my camera and computer getting along. If you want to know anything about Costa Rica that I haven't mentioned, post a comment about it.

Neighborhood BBQ

2007-05-02T00:31:00.000-07:00

I might not have described the condo complex I live in very well, but I will try to very quickly. We are part of a large development called "Mapache." Our units are a few years old and from what I gather, are some of the oldest in the Mapache world. All the construction has taken place is a very short period of time after the airport (Liberia) started getting direct flights from the US and other countries. At some point I am sure there will be a post complaining about all the construction behind my unit, but for some reason the constant building noise hasn't bothered me much. Throughout the development there are signs that name the different phases. I have no idea how who came up with it or what it stands for, but mine is called "Big Daddy" (I guess I could ask someone.) So when I talk about my neighbors, they are the people living in the 14 units around the pool we use. There are many more people that live all around Mapache, but the handful of people that I talk about most often, I met around the pool.

On Monday, the Big Daddy crew decided to have a BBQ. They are said to be fairly frequent, but this was to be my first. I was in charge of some snacks and some wine if I wanted. Since I have such a vast understanding of wine, I knew that wouldn't be an issue at all. I am borderline professional at wandering around the wine aisle in a store looking for a label that isn't too cute or too plain, so that it seems like a decent bottle. What I have noticed using this very technical method is that most people don't know anything about wine and will tell you that whatever you buy is pretty good. It also can help if you bring the wine out after people have already been drinking. I have had nights where Bud Light didn't taste like swill after I'd already had 7 or 8 of them.

Anyway, the BBQ ended up being Michael and Angela, Ralph and Violet and the other Violet from Big Daddy crew. David, who I had met the first night out in Coco came with his dog Crystal (didn't love Charlie) and a woman name Joana that lives up the street came. She is French Canadian and that makes me laugh because Ralph, Violet and Michael spent over an hour last night explaining to me why they cannot stand most anything French and that French Canadians are even worse. I assume they say very similar things about Americans just before they invite me to the beach with them. Rounding out the party was a very nice couple from Ocotal, Barbara and Henry (I am borderline guessing at their names after spending ten minutes trying to jog my memory, I suck at names.) We ate spicy shrimp kabobs, four fish that Michael bought from a fisherman a couple days earlier for 1500 colones ($3), chicken, a coleslaw salad, potatoes and an assortment of other vegetables. There was even homemade carrot cake for desert. This BBQ was the first time since I arrived in Costa Rica that I stuffed myself, but look at that food!

Barbara and Henry invited me to Violet's farewell dinner at their place in Ocotal next weekend (yes, I feel very stupid for not remembering their names now, thanks) and told me I should bring Charlie. Violet had mentioned to them that I was looking for someone to take Charlie when I go to New Hampshire to meet my new nephew (I will be home on July 21st, baby arrives on the 25th). Barbara and Henry have two dogs and a big yard to play in and they volunteered to take him after only knowing us for a couple hours. People are so friendly down here. I am crossing my fingers that Charlie is on his best behavior at this dinner, but really, who doesn't love him?

So we all sat by the pool for hours talking and eating and my wine went over quite well! I think Michael drank almost the entire bottle of red and the rest of us did our best to share the white. I will remember to get Michael his own bottle of red next time. After everyone was done eating, Michael pulled out his guitar and played some sing along songs. Thankfully, for everyone else, I didn't know any of them.

That was my Monday in Costa Rica. Bike Ride to the store, beach with Charlie and a BBQ. Happy one week in Costa Rica to me!

"Petty" Theft

2007-05-02T00:06:00.000-07:00

During a football game years ago, a broadcaster I was listening to was talking about a player who had a minor concussion, when the color guy, Joe Theisman, asked the broadcaster if he knew what a minor concussion really was. After a strange silence, Theisman told him that a minor concussion is a concussion that doesn't happen to you. That is much the way I feel about the term "Petty Theft" from the books I read about living in Costa Rica.

Ever since I arrived, each and every one of my neighbors has taken the time to warn me about being careful in and around Coco. I have heard a number of stories about people getting robbed in their homes and on the beach at night. One of my neighbors had their computer stolen when they were moving it from one unit to the other and someone saw the opportunity to take it. I know one thing, if my computer is stolen, it won't feel very petty to me. Not a single one of my concussions felt minor in any way, either.

The good news is that violence is pretty non-existent. The majority of the things stolen were left outside of the units we live in and all of the major robberies seem to take place in private homes with no security or in bad areas at bad times. The consensus from all the stories is that you cannot flash money or expensive objects in the faces of people around here without putting yourself at risk. Should I have bought a new camera and computer monitor before I came here? Probably not. Coming from New Hampshire, it takes some adjusting.

Sunday night I went to dinner with two couples that live near me. We walked the beach to get downtown because there was a sandcastle building competition of some sort. There should be pictures somewhere around this post of a couple of the entries. I am not sure what won, but they were all pretty cool. No one had ever been to the restaurant we were going to because it was fairly new. The prices were high compared to what I am getting used to down here, but dinner and two Imperials (local beer) ran me $10, including tip. The food was only average there and I doubt we will run back anytime soon. One of the couples had driven their car to meet us and offered to drive us home, but I really wanted to walk. Angela and I decided to walk the beach home and Angela starting handing all of her valuables to her her husband to take back in the car. I had about $50 and my camera on me and I definitely would not have thought to give them up without the reminder from my friends. Thank you to my wonderful neighbors who have adopted me and are trying to teach me how to become a Tico without making every mistake once.

Travels with Charlie

2007-04-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

Traveling to another country does not stress me out very much. I like the idea of forcing myself into slightly uncomfortable situations because you always learn more that way. Traveling with a 60 pound best friend who has to ride in a large crate under the plane I am on, IF he clears the airlines strict rules, does stress me out. I spent the last 6 weeks getting Charlie as prepared for this flight as possible, but it always seemed that another unknown would pop up, just when I thought I had it all figured out. First it was shots for Hepto, Lepto, Rabbies, distemper blah blah blah, that all needed specific date ranges. Then USDA stamps and Health Ministry permission paperwork and final health certificates. Finally a temperature restriction that absolutely left me panicking. I slept very little in the days leading up to this trip and not at all the night before. As anyone who knows my sleeping patterns, an all-nighter is easy to imagine, but this had nothing to do with a Peter Gammons article or a Conan O'Brein marathon. I jumped in my rented Jeep Liberty and headed for Miami at 4am on the 23rd, planning on arriving 4 hours early for my flight to Liberia Airport, still having no clue if they were going to let Charlie and I on the flight. The maximum forecasted temperature for any leg of a flight with a dog is 85 degrees. Forecasted temperature for Liberia at arrival time on the 23rd: 89 degrees. Gulp!

Thank you to American Airlines for having very friendly and not thorough customer service workers. I will recommend arriving VERY early for anyone planning on bringing their dog on a trip, especially internationally. I will not recommend worrying if you have your paperwork in order. No USDA stamp, no mention of temperature and no problem what so ever with Charlie in Miami. The hardest part about getting onto my flight was trying to explain at the security checkpoint why I have a dog collar on my ankle (sad story, you can probably guess). Once I boarded the direct 2 hour and change flight, I only had to worry about explaining the small electronics stores worth of technology in my 5 bags.

The airport in Liberia is not exactly what I was expecting from an international airport. If you remember the show Wings, imagine that airport, only less technologically advanced and smaller. This is the type of airport that pulls up metal stairs to the side of the plane for you to climb down. Trust me when I say, it is very odd when you are expecting one of those hallways to walk down ,connecting you to a gate and instead you see metal stairs, tarmac and sky.

Charlie was the only dog on the flight and from the looks on the faces of everyone working and most people flying in this airport, the only dog in quite some time. One American I spoke with said that it was the only dog he had ever seen in that airport and he had made the trip 20 or so times. I was more than relieved to see Charlie and his crate come sliding through a door next to the only luggage belt, followed behind by the very friendly, young Tico who was pushing him. Charlie did not seemed phased in the least by the ordeal and actually looked like he enjoyed it. He was much more interested in all the people coming up to say hello to him than anything else. No accidents in the crate to speak of. (I know everyone thinks that their dog is wonderful, but yours actually all suck. I thought someone should tell you.)

Customs was a real chore. The same Tico who pushed Charlie through the side door did much the same thing through customs, after I handed him a $5 bill (an extremely large tip for Costa Rica, probably comparable to $50 in the US since tipping is so rare here). The money was well spent, though I do wonder what customs would have been like had I done it. My new Tico friend asked for Charlie's paperwork, handed it to one of the customs officials and had me through in seconds. Since I was transporting thousands of dollars worth of electronics that may have been subject to import tax, I would say it was money well spent.

I had heard that the half hour cab ride from the airport would run me about $25 and that information came in handy when the man who seemed to be in charge told me it was going to cost me $50 and that it was "very far away." I laughed at his price and told him I would pay $20. After a little arguing and I am sure a few spanish swears that I will hopefully learn soon, I was in a cab for the low-low price of $30. Now that i have been here for a couple days, I realize I could probably have done better, but I had an awful lot of luggage and no sleep. My cab driver was very friendly, but his English was worse than my Spanish (which is not very good.) I was able to piece together some terribly constructed sentences to tell him where I was going and we tried our best to have some sort of conversation. I had heard that Costa Ricans really appreciate it when you make an attempt to speak spanish and that seemed to be the case here. He pointed out a few good places to eat and drink on the way and tried to ask me questions about what I was going to be doing in Playas Del Coco. When i told him that I was staying in Costa Rica for 6 months, he couldn't believe me. Over and over he counted the months (which I remembered most) until he got to Octobre y trenta (poor spelling of October 30th). He just laughed and kept saying Por Que? Por Que? (For what?) Since I have a difficult time explaining it to my friends and family who speak the same language as me, I just told him I was muy loco (really crazy). I hope that term translates with some level or accuracy.

After a small struggle to find my condo, which is part of a much larger development than I had imagined, my cabby dropped Charlie and I off in front of a my new place of residence for the next 6 months. I was greeted immediately by Bob and Karen, who own my unit and one next door. The were younger than I expected, though I am not going to guess their ages since I may send them the link to this blog. I have a feeling that I was younger than they expected, anyway. Both Bob and Karen seemed incredibly warm and excited right off. Karen told me right off that she has had Golden Retrievers before and that as soon as she heard I was bringing mine, she knew I couldn't be all bad. Dog people are lovely people (unless your dog is mean in which case you are probably not lovely at all).

I will take a bunch of pictures of the condo so that you do not have to read through a long description of what my place is like. I will say that it feels much larger than it seemed from the pictures. The bathrooms are large and the one upstairs has a huge shower with plentiful hot water and good pressure (unexpected bonus).

The pool is beautiful and so clean. Matt had joked with me that it was probably going to be filled in with cement when I got here since the pictures I saw were probably taken in 1994. I am glad to point out how incredibly wrong you were on this one. I have since noticed people coming to clean it three times in one day! I quickly unpacked some things, changed clothes and went for a swim.

Neighbors: I have met a few of my neighbors around the pool area. Ralph and Violet are a very nice couple from Canada that come down here for a few months every year. Ralph just retired in January, so I will be seeing a lot of them. Michael(Above with Flag T-shirt) and Angela are year rounders originally from England. Michael is a riot and is currently trying to train Charlie to eat small ankle biting dogs. Apparently his next door neighbor has 4 of them and she should be back in town within the next couple weeks. I will update you on Charlie's progress, but I think Michael is going to be very disappointed. As for Bob and Karen, they have been married for two years and seem to have a very sweet relationship. Unfortunately, they were only around for one day and had to head back to West Virginia for quite a while. Karen may return with her daughter in July and in the meantime they will try to rent their unit. If anyone is looking for a nice place to rent that looks almost identical to mine, let me know!

The entire crew of people I mentioned brought me to one of their favorite hangouts (I completely forget the name) for happy hour drinks and since I was starving, some food. I tried the three main beers made in Costa Rica, Pilsen, Imperial and Rock Ice. Pilsen and Imperial were both very good and about a dollar each, while Rock Ice is good if you want to drink a beer real slowly and gag after each sip (imagine if Schaefer beer had a stronger after taste). For dinner I had fried chicken, with salad and fries. The chicken was phenomenal and somehow not greasy at all. Total cost of 5 beers and dinner? 9 dollars!

After dinner, Bob and Karen drove me to one of their favorite restaurants, where the owner greeted me like family and told me about some of their specialties. They have Wifi for free, an english book take one, leave one and the only decent pool table in the entire area. You were right Nick, I should have brought my friggin' cue! The table is in the back and only available if you know someone, but luckily, I do now. Needless to say, I will be frequenting this establishment.

I did my best not to make this the longest blog entry in history, but it was a pretty eventful day. There was actually more to tell. but I will just lie and say it happened the second day. It's my blog!

By the way, if you email me about grammar and spelling mistakes, I will make it my mission to post something embarrassing that I know about you. I have made the decision not to edit my entries. If I spend all that time going through them to see if I put a "too" when I needed a "to," I will never post anything. Deal? Good.