Tamarindo’s new Catholic Church was opened officially at the end of May.  Mr. Frank Barnyak, who donated the construction of the church, formally donated the church to the diocese.  Starting June 8, Mass will be held every Sunday at 6 p.m.  For information, contact Vinicio Hidalgo at 2653-0075.

Gil’s Place has reopened for breakfast and lunch at the old Stella location, 200 meters east of Pasatiempo, inside Wild’s Restaurant, which serves dinner from 5 p.m.

Now, a boca bar in Tamarindo.  Sylvie, who used to operate El Fuego opposite Pasatiempo Hotel, has now opened Relax Bar from 5 p.m. daily at the  same location, serving beers and bocas.

Astronomers are watching a new comet which has the potential for naked-eye visibility from our location, given clear skies, of course.  Comet Boattini is crossing the constellation Pyxis and, in early June, will be south of the very bright star Sirius.  After it passes close to the sun in mid-June, it will reappear in July.

Bar 1 is now showing movies, every Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Ron and Janet Stewart have left Tamarindo, where they operated the Pasatiempo Hotel for many years, for their retirement home in Boquete, Panama.

CRGAR is having its annual charity golf tournament June 29th.  If you are a golfer or know a golfer please contact costaricagar@gmail.com. They are also looking for sponsors for the evening cocktail, or a golf hole, or donations for a raffle, dinner for two, fishing trip, sunset trip, painting, whatever.

Casa Cook has, for sale, a panga.  It is 18ft, 8 in. with a Johnson 65 horsepower engine and a Suzuki 15 horsepower engine (only 10 hrs).  A trailer is included.  The panga was built in Puntarenas in 1999, has had one local owner and has been kept in great condition.  Package also includes 4 gas tanks, a concrete mooring anchor and other small accessories.  The package is for sale for $7000 or best offer and is ONLY for sale as a package.  Call 2653-0125 or e-mail casacook@racsa.co.cr.

The veggie truck has sprouted roots!  The guys that bring in fresh fruit and veggies every Thursday from Arenal have set up shop in an air-conditioned cabina opposite Kahiki.  They offer a wide range of fresh refrigerated produce.  Look for the sign: Verduras Sanchez.

Slo Jo and the Mojos played their last gig at El Cocodrilo, as Erin Jo has left Tamarindo indefinitely to work in the U.S.

After scores of visits over the next twenty years, and now, ten years as a permanent resident, I still am awed by the biodiversity, love the coffee, and have come to realize the importance of the unique history of Costa Rica and its influence on the creation of a friendly island of peace and prosperity in a region known for revolution and corruption.

Costa Rican coffee is not just a wonderful hot drink that helps us wake up to a new day, but is one of the major factors that shaped the democratic foundations of Costa Rica.  Coffee along with the unique geographic position of Costa Rica created the environment fostering the development of a large middle class, the flourishing of progressive, intellectual leadership and co-operatives.

On the ranch, as the tour group finishes their lunch and are served a dessert of dark German chocolate cake and ice cream, we pour freshly brewed hot coffee into traditional blue tin cups. Pulling out a basket filled with bags of colorful Costa Rican coffee, I begin my five-minute lecture on coffee, and begin with the statement, “coffee is the reason why we are able to be here today!”

In the two hundred years after the modern discovery of Costa Rica by Columbus on his last new world voyage, Costa Rica was a remote, sparsely populated possession of the Spanish crown.  Even before Columbus, the indigenous populations were remote outposts of the Inca and Maya cultures. The native populations, like those of North America, were fierce fighters who either retreated deep into the forest, or were killed fighting the Spanish invaders.  Costa Rica’s population grew very slowly until the 21st century.  I am reminded of this when Esteban, my husband who was born in Guanacaste, recalls the big news of the country’s population reaching one million in the late 60’s.

The first major settlements were in the Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific side. But soon, the fertile mesa central lured European settlers to establish the first coffee plantations.  Large land grants were given by the Spanish crown. There were few Indians and no slavery, so the Spanish settlers had to work their own land, and it soon became clear a work force was needed to work and harvest the new economic crop.  When the remote, rural country received its independence from Spain in 1821, progressive leaders offered free land to anyone willing to plant coffee.  Coming from not only Spain, but also Italy and France, the new small coffee plantation owners joined with the large plantation owners to form cooperatives to bring the country’s major economic crop to European markets.  The coffee co-ops became the model for scores of other co-operatives as Costa Rica’s agriculture base expanded.

Just looking at a map of the Costa Rica, the influence of coffee is demonstrated by the development of urban centers along the “coffee road”.  The towns – San José- Heredia-Alejuela and all the others snaking to the Pacific coast are just “one ox-cart day” away from each other.  Most of Costa Rica’s famous mountain-grown coffee was taken from the Meseta Central to the Pacific ports then, first around the tip of South America, then later through the Panama Canal, to the European market. Because of its rich flavors it was often used to flavor other coffees from Africa .

A growing middle class, along with the progressive leadership of a handful of wealthy, well-educated families, helped to establish a tradition of equality and cooperation. The early wealthy families gave the country not only their names on the coffee bags, such as Volio, but also elected presidents, such as the Don Pepé and José Figueres.   While the other Central American countries developed military and oppressive governments, Costa Rica lured the intellectual refugees from Europe and strengthened its economy and democratic foundations with free elections and early mandatory education. With a small population that didn’t have the typical conquistador mentality and, being isolated until modern times from its military neighbors, Costa Rica enjoyed its peaceful development and growing prosperity.  

A democracy for over 100 years, Costa Rica again became a model for its neighbors by disbanding the army and promoting education and better health care. Today, tourists and foreign residents alike can enjoy the fruits of coffee, in the cup or traveling and living in this unique democratic country, for Costa Rica’s cultural roots grow deep in fertile hillsides covered with mountain coffee.

To make a great cup:
Although there are many new coffee brands made for the export and tourist industry, there are two common types of coffee found in Costa Rica homes.  The first is Traditional, a rich velvet flavor coffee processed with 10% sugar. Finer ground and richer flavor, the traditional type of coffee is most often made strong with hot milk and more sugar added for a traditional breakfast staple.  I make it in my Mr. Coffee maker using less coffee and enjoy it simple without milk or sugar.  What Costa Ricans pay pennies for resembles cappuccino or latté for often more than $4 in specialty coffee shops in the US.  Today, many prefer the 100% coffees, some ground to produce a milder coffee, others in the finer ground traditional style without sugar.  It is important to read the bag to know the coffee type; however you don’t need to purchase the expensive export blends to enjoy a great cup of coffee unless you need decaf, which is more expensive because the beans are sent to Germany for processing then some is returned to Costa Rica for sale.

To make the most traditional cup of Costa Rican coffee, Costa Ricans used a chorreador, which is basically a stand with a cotton sock.  Place two teaspoons of traditional coffee in the sock, pour through boiling water to fill your cup.  For each additional cup, add a teaspoon of coffee and don’t empty the sock until full or at the end of the day.

Liberia, Costa Rica

Authorities here in this northwest provincial capital announced today that they cannot find the once-famous Pacific tourist town of Tamarindo, or “Playa Tamarindo” as they prefer to call it. The provincial government had not been aware of any problems until they were notified by Hacienda (the Costa Rican IRS) that no taxes had been received that quarter.

Alarmed officials immediately contacted officials in the municipal capital of Santa Cruz who acknowledged that apparently the once vibrant seaside destination had indeed ceased to exist. At first this news was received with a great deal of celebration as the gigantic thorn in the side of previous, as well as present, administrations had apparently been removed and the emotional distress levels of city council members plummeted.

A ninety-seven page resolution was passed that basically said “good riddance” and a more tranquilo future was anticipated by all.... until the next Prado payment to Purdy Motors was due. It then dawned on everybody where the money was coming from.

A crack unit of Fuerza Publica’s “Ultra Brigade” was dispatched from their Santa Cruz headquarters to make the harrowing back road journey riding double on their famous ultramarine blue-painted scooters. Finally arriving in the outlying village of Villareal they proceeded to ask questions. Locals acknowledged that no rental cars had driven by for a long time and none of the local dudes had been seen with blond girlfriends.

The elite unit pressed on ahead, wondering what they might encounter ahead.

They encountered nothing!!!

Where once majestic non-native palm trees stood there were only large holes, the only buildings remaining were seven-storey concrete husks, waves were flat and most of the sand had disappeared. Miraculously in the middle of all this there appeared to be a brand new state-of-the-art asphalt road stretching an entire one-and-a-half city blocks. None of Tamarindo’s previously thriving multi-national inhabitants could be found, although the elite police unit did encounter non-indigenous savages living on the hill in huts made from abandoned surfboards. Police questions went unanswered as the primitives only spoke a strange unfathomable language they called “Buenosaires”.

The baffled police officers called headquarters for further instructions. A group of city officials as well as numerous professors from the local agrarian college was hastily assembled to reach the mysterious site that used to be Tamarindo, hoping to find out answers as to what happened to their comfortable futures. After several days of exhaustive search, buried under the rubble of what must have been an incredibly huge gigantic house, they found what turned out to be the final issue of a local magazine called “The Howler”. In it the story of the last desperate days of Tamarindo started to unfold.

Sinister forces were at work to bring down the once-thriving laid-back tourist capital of that part of the world, filling the streets with recently spray-painted yellow taxis whose drivers assaulted local inhabitants with their deranged cries of TAXIII!!!!!!!!!!!

Soon there were more taxis than people and no one could find a place to park downtown. Restaurants, souvenir shops and designer boutiques started to drop like flies, while drug dealers could only sell dope to each other. On top of this, it turned out you had to have plumbing in your mega-construction projects, a fact most builders apparently forgot to factor in, so on a dark moonless night every unfinished construction project was re-loaded onto extremely large tractor trailers and sped off into oblivion.

The beleaguered Tamarindans woke the next morning to long lines of Nicaraguan construction workers marching out of town never to return, depriving the local Supermercados of 99% of their beer, cigarette and banana sales. In desperation the remaining survivors got together and discussed options.

“Why aren’t people coming?” resounded throughout the assembly. According to most publications tourism is up 230% in Guanacaste and they’re having trouble finding enough planes to fly ‘em down here.”

Finally there was one person present, a well-respected member of the community known as “Mark the Knife”, who had the guts to speak the truth.

“It’s the name” he explained to the dumbfounded assembly. “We’re competing with places with names like “Playas del Coco”, “Playa Hermosa” and “Papagayo Peninsula Mega Resort”. Your average tourist (i.e. American), Doesn’t know what a Tamarindo is, much less how good it tastes, whereas “Coco” has that ring that draws people to it, be it chocolate or perfume.

“The name “Tamarindo” may have attracted a few Bohemians back in the last century, but it just ain’t hacking it today!”

After this the story stopped; apparently the unknown Howler scribe had reached his 900-word allotment for that month and the rest was edited out. All experts agree this was the last recorded event before the town’s disappearance. No further trace of Tamarindo seems to exist and government authorities have yet to explain the mystery.

A non-related story recently appeared in a new publication down in the Osa Peninsula called “The White Face” inviting tourists to visit a peaceful little surf town with a few good restaurants, great waves and sand, no taxis and a funky art gallery.

You, too, are invited to visit “Nueva Playas del Coco” but please don’t tell anybody else.

Jesse Bishop hails from Texas, and lives in Langosta, Costa Rica with his lovely wife Susan and ugly Shar Pei dog Sun Tzu. In addition to writing for the Howler, Jesse is a guitarist who plays several gigs along the Gold Coast. Contact Jesse at owlhumm@hotmail.com

Fabrice Venegas was familiar with Santa Rosa and friendly with some of its inhabitants.  He took it upon himself, with whatever help he could raise, to improve the conditions for the kids.  At his bar, Shangri Lounge in Tamarindo, he and his friend Svetlana held two fundraising parties and raised other donations locally, and in February, 2008, he started work at the school.  Since then he has laid cement, rebuilt walls with drywall and repaired electrics.

Then, on April 21 a gang of new angels flew in – from Silicon Valley, California.  Fusion Storm, a $500 million hardware and software development company, took the school under its wing.  Of the 350 employees, seventy, paid for by the company and led by the president John G. Varel, came on a four-day vacation to Costa Rica, one day of which was dedicated to the Santa Rosa School.  “Geeks” would not be a word I would use to describe these people.

From 8 a.m to afternoon they worked “like prisoners” according to Fabrice, painting almost the whole school, repairing broken walls, laying ten truckloads of sand and gravel and preparing the ground for a computer laboratory.  “The best part of our vacation,” said Varel, “was helping the kids at the Santa Rosa School.”

In addition to the physical work, Fusion Storm also donated six brand-new ThinkPad lap-top computers to form the basis for the Fusion Storm Computer Lab, together with a wireless network. 

Fabrice hopes that the lab will grow to 12 computers, and asks readers to donate any equipment – computers, scanners, power supplies, etc – in good condition.  The lab will help children to be more competitive in tomorrow’s workplace.  There are plans to set up a scholarship program for each year’s best student to receive an internship in Silicon Valley. “Guanacaste is being left behind by Costa Rica,” said Fabrice, “but we could be seeing here the beginning of something incredibly positive, the start of a whole new era in computer literacy in Guanacaste.”

Fabrice wishes to thank also Ted Horwitz of Off-Road Costa Rica; Jon Rosenblatt and Paul Cruz of Pacific Park; Proycon for construction of the lab; architect Oscar Ulate.

Although much was accomplished by the task force, there are still many improvements needed – in  structural work, security, plumbing and new electrics.  Fabrice would be delighted to receive assistance in any of these areas.  He can be contacted at 8981-4181 or fabrice@pacificparkcr.com.

Roads were vital to maintain the law and order required to keep supplies flowing from the hinterlands to mission control. Don’t forget, long before it was fashionable to be “green”, Rome was an empire driven by solar energy. The prime energy source for the slaves who did the grunt work in farms and public works projects was wheat. Grains came from as far away as North Africa, Egypt, Spain, Sicily and Sardinia. One writer even calculated the amount of land needed to feed the slaves and oxen that built the Coliseum--an area the size of Manhattan, for five years, just for one monument.

Of course the larger story involves the myriad factors involved in the empire’s collapse, and the near total disappearance of the fabled road network. It takes a very complex system to organize the flow of energy from the farms and fields, into the boats and wagons and through the slaves. Just like modern day Costa Rica, when the fuel stops flowing, the rocks and dirt don’t just self-organize into a smooth driving surface.

The Romans didn’t corner the market on letting infrastructure go to pot. A number of Chinese empires were undone when the tax monies for maintenance of dikes ended up in silk pockets instead of routine repairs. Flooding, famine and ‘regime change’ were the usual consequences. Moving from ‘back in the day’ to the here and now, it’s amazing how some things just stay the same.

People who lost loved ones in the sudden collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis last year don’t need Google or Wikipedia to understand what “deferred maintenance” means. They’ve learned it the hard way. Deferred maintenance is defined as “a practice of allowing machinery or infrastructure to deteriorate by postponing prudent but non-essential repairs to save cost.” Granted, the families of the squashed and drowned victims fished out of the Big Muddy may have a different perspective on the “non-essential repairs” issue. The fact remains, infrastructure repairs across the US are postponed--massively so—until the “next budget cycle,” whenever that is. We’re talking bridges, water and sewer lines and, yes, roads. Estimates run into the trillions of dollars. To compound the problem, by the time there’s a fiscal “will”, the energy costs alone will make a lot of the needed repairs a big “no way.”

In case you haven’t thought it through, big projects need big machines. Big machinery runs on diesel fuel. Nobody is selling plug in/hybrid or hydrogen-powered caterpillar tractors, road graders, cement mixers, etc. Diesel is getting more expensive faster than gasoline, and the exporting countries are using more of it as their own economies boom. It is going to get more and more expensive to maintain roads—almost everywhere—but especially in countries which import their fuel. (Like in the beautiful, Pura Vida-land of Costa Rica.)

Nary a thought about the implications of the steady rise in fuel prices goes into the planning—or the issuance of permits by government agencies—of the myriad developments being carved into the coastal hills of Costa Rica. In broad terms, what is being replicated is the US-style, suburban living arrangement which one critic calls the greatest mis-allocation of resources in the history of the world. Miles and miles of roads to reach relatively few living units. (I, personally, was witness to the crafting of a plan that involved 20 kilometers of roads in a 1000-hectare farm.) And, the more radical the terrain the more expensive to maintain. The spate of landslides, road wash-outs and gullies which occurred during last year’s rainy season is simply a harbinger of things to come with more roads and more severe weather. Big road repairs mean you bring in the big machinery and shell out the big dough. And that’s only part of the picture.

“Stranded in Suburbia” is the title of a recent article by a writer for the New York Times. Referring to the increasing impact of fuel costs on household budgets, he identifies the “big problem... long-lasting investments — in infrastructure, in housing, and to some extent in our auto fleet — based on low oil prices.” The take-home message is as true in Guanacaste as in the Big Apple. The farther you have to drive—to work, shop, whatever--the worse it is and the worser it’s gonna’ be. The Gold Coast reincarnation of the suburban-style ranchette, Little House on the Prairie vibe is happening in the wrong place at the wrong time. And you can bet the finca that the roads are going nowhere but downhill, literally, as the rains, and rising energy prices take their toll. And it’s not just the roads.

Energy experts across the spectrum agree that one of the first industries to undergo massive downsizing is air travel. Barely profitable at present, airlines are scrambling to tack on charges, reduce flights and survive. One analyst predicts that, “ten or 15 years from now, air travel is likely to be significantly reduced.” Or, as Caltech vice provost and professor of physics, Dr. David Goodstein, bluntly informs his students, “Your children will probably never fly in a plane.” The stark reality facing our region is that the airborne flow of customers, clients and money will inexorably dwindle to a trickle. What will happen to all those people who plunk down their dough on the hope that they can get one more slice of life in the Age of Aquarius? Will they still be able to enjoy the amenities of their dream house at the end of the “long and winding road” up the mountain and into the jungle? Or will the lion’s share of the shoddy roads that have been hacked into our hills go the way of the Roman highways? How much deferred maintenance before the ‘Minneapolis’ syndrome crashes into the shortsighted ambition of developers and the non-existent planning of government agencies?

Developers who really want to offer a secure investment to prospective clients should familiarize themselves with the concept of “least path design” for their road system layout. There are also a number of proven techniques to minimize storm damage to both road surfaces and edges in order to avoid ever-more-costly maintenance and reconstruction work. Buyers need to view sketchy access to projects with a healthy dose of skepticism. For the truly adventurous, who fancy a secluded home several kilometers from a solid road and public transport but really want to be prepared, buying a horse is not a bad idea. Better yet, make that two. After all, as the saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Tom Peifer is an ecological land use consultant with 12 years experience in Guanacaste. Phone: 2658-8018, email: peifer@racsa.co.cr. Web site: www.elcentroverde.org