DESTINATION: PANAMA

Having finished my first draft of my book, and my first 30 day stint in Costa Rica coming to an end. i have decided seeing as I have to go down to the boarder anyway, to go with my friend Whitney to spend a couple of days on the Island of Boca in Panama! Its on the Carribian side so it will be good to see a sun rise rather than set for a couple of days!

Whitney is a Texan belle, who has lived here for the last 8 months after buying her gorgeous little house (I call it a shack) on Playa de Guapil. The beach!
She seems to have as a spontaneous “lets wing it” type of attitude as I do, and are both very excited about our little upcoming vacation from our vacations!

As I mentioned ive just finished my first draft of my little book, and my editor Adey will soon be working furiously to understand what the hell im talking about. But that’s what editors are for right?

As for “home” the dogs are great, Sabina is once again away for the weekend this time to a silent retreat in San Jose, and Henrietta, and Harry the Iguanas are doing just fine!
For all my “monkey loving” guy friends out there, there have been quite a few sightings in the trees of late, bouncing around the trees hanging from their tails.

Well… wish me luck on my adventures in Panama!

Will take photos, I promise!

Love and pixie dust!

Monday Monday!

Its taken me a couple of days to get this up, but its better late than never!

Monday was a very “interesting day”. It was the one year anniversary of my Grandmother (who I was very close too) passing over. So I got up extra early to do a Kelly styled memorial service thing.

I love the time of day when its dark when you get out of bed and you get to watch the world awake. Just can anyone tell me why you have to get up so dam early to do it? why cant the sun rise at 10am like me? and not 4.30am!

So with my “everything is going to happen earlier today” routine going on. I got on the quad and tottled off down to Dominical to do my emailing for the day. (my little taste of technology that keeps my sanity from being washed away with the rain!)

Upon my arrival I learnt that the entire phone system, both cellular and land line had been down since Saturday (the last time I was there was Friday) and because the internet café is dial up, there was nothing to be done until the phones were back. OI VAI!
Having decided to hang out for a while and “see what happens” I did the only thing I know how to when there’s nothing else to do. I looked to make a new friend! (yes i can see you smiling behind your screen in acknowledgment of my incessant chatting to random people)

The most colorful people I could find (by colorful I mean people who are very different from me, giving me something new to learn about, a new perspective to understand and broaden my perspective on life = great conversation) literally walked right in the door. They were three Rastafarians who lived and breathed their philosophy on life, right down to the Red, Yellow, and Green of it. (if you know what I mean).
They introduced themselves to me as “Rasimani”, “Jahricio”, and “Pepe”. All three “Costa Rican born and bread” had performed the night before at a Reggae music night not far from Dominical. “The place had views like you wouldn’t believe” I was informed many times by “Rasi” – who I swear was the spitting image of Bob Marley himself!

Have you ever seen “men in black” (one or two) do you remember the aliens in the kitchen, really skinny, fun loving, lotsa banta, and hanging with the coffee? Well these guys were the human forms. After exhausting the conversation of the philosophy of Rastafarian lifestyle, dogmatisms, and the many wonderful qualities and implementations of cannabis. I took for a dip in the ocean, on what was the best weather day yet. but not before a few photos were taken of my “new friends” for your enjoyment.
Peace and Love!

Tell me, have you ever….

Been sitting down to a nice dinner. Desert actually, Bananas (and for anyone who know knows how much I love bananas this will be extra amusing!!) with honey on top. And just as your about to put the second slice in your mouth have a Bat fly straight for your head? Hmmm. Me neither until tonight.

I got a fright, sure wouldn’t you?. And I could handle one. but then it was two, three, four… (a family reunion of banana loving bats!) flying all around us at the table. Jean Guy and Gerardo didn’t flinch. Not a single acknowledgement of the flying vampires! (I thought you would find this amusing Micheal!) Me on the other hand. Have crawled up on my chair into the fetal position. Hoovering down as much banana as I could before they took over. As soon as I had finished. I jumped up. Exclaimed my disgust at the top of my voice and went to do the dishes. Jean Guy and Gerardo just sat their eating slowly with smiles on their faces… ah.. men!

And what about me you ask?

Well, I have to say, that the last couple of days has been practically rough.

Sabina is gone, so im basically here by myself. (not counting the four dogs. – see photo. Sucha is camera shy) and I have to say. That day one its great. Day two its ok. But the rest of them, its dam hard being here by yourself. On Wednesday I did a one day cleans, and drank this horrible concoction all day. By Wednesday night was so violently ill, and physically whipped out that I just couldn’t move. I didn’t sleep much that night. The mugginess, and my stomach just didn’t want to play nice. So Thursday I woke up. Threw up once more for luck. And could do nothing for the rest of the day.

When you don’t speak the language, (and there’s no one to speak it to anyway.) you cant read because your eyes are so heavy with exhaustion, you have no tv. No phone. And walking to the door makes you light headed. You have nothing to do but think. Feel sorry for yourself, and wish you were at “Sushi on Bloor” with a couple of your friends.

Thursday night I ate. Not much but some, and kept it down, Gerrado, and Jean Guy, came over to give me a Spanish lesson which was mildly entertaining, as I watched them both munch down plain long spaghetti, (that’s all I could keep down). But that 24 hours has defiantly put a new light on things. (for the time being anyway) namely. What the HELL am I doing here?

So you think this is paradise eh?

A couple of days ago I ventured on the “quad” (that’s a four wheeler to all south of the equator) to the little town 6km south of me to Dominical.

6km is not very far, but it is really when every 20 secs you have to stop or slow down to 2nd gear just to get though a humongous pothole. (which is usually a pond because of the rain). It’s the only stretch of road (Quepos – Dominical) from the USA to South America that is still dirt. Yet. it dosnt stop the articulated trucks going down it. making it all the worse. This road I tell ya makes going anywhere a real “effort”

It was in dominical that I met a man called mike. Mike has been sitting in his hammock on the beach selling home made baking for 20 years. he runs the dog rescue for dominical. And apart from that. Well…. I have no idea.
I mentioned something about how lucky I was to be able to come and live in Paradise for a couple of months while I write. And his reply was… “so you think this is paradise eh? Then tell me. how come everyone here is so sad? How come there is so much “drama”? I sit here everyday and just watch the soap operas unfold. Its actually quite depressing”

It got me thinking… and I realized how much I had been told about the real Costa Rica already but had blocked it out behind the palm trees. After all Costa Rica, (the real one. not the tourist retreat one) is a 3rd world country, with huge problems, that is being advertised to the dreamer at a huge price.

For example. Let me share with you some of the realities of this place.

Tico (costa rica native) vs. Gringo (American)
There is a huge problem down here with the clash of the cultures. Land (especially beach front) is being brought up by Gringo’s and sold for $500,000 and up. Which is all very well. Except half the time this peace of beachfront paradise that you have just brought has no access road, no water, no electricity and a huge cockroach infestation. The prices have now made it such that no Tico can possibly “better” their living situations by moving house because its just not financially realistic and ill tell you why.

The minimum wage in Costa Rica is 400 calonas/hour. (that’s about 75 cents US) if you have a good job then you get about 700 calonas/hour (roughly $1.40 USD).

A town up the mountain not far from where im living (not sure of its name) came to its demise a couple of weeks ago. You see, some Gringos had purchased some land above this town, but it wasn’t flat enough for them, so they had been bulldozing it to flatten it out. In the course of this bulldozing, they had put the left over dirt to one side. Along came, mother nature, and the raining season and dislodged the dirt down the hill and into the path of the river that runs from the top of the mountain in the sea by where I live. (this is the paddock by the sea that was whipped out.)
The river with its more than normal water level had to go somewhere… so it re routed itself into this town. Literally whiping out EVERY house there. (most of which had been there for 50 years.) these people, now homeless, could go and live with friends and families, but with their wages being so low and prices of building going so high (cause gringos will pay a lot for a house to be built so why do it for next to nothing?) they cant afford to. So they only thing they can do to get assistance is go and live in the local school. (just down the road from me) this is the only way that the government will have to acknowledge their situation and give them new houses. Meanwhile, this was 3 weeks ago. And none of the local kids can go to school! Because people are living in it!. which means that their parents have to stay home and look after them. which means they cant go to work. Which means they have less money coming in than usual.
And all because A HILL WASN’T FLAT ENOUGH FOR A MANSION!

I would keep going. But quite frankly I think that’s enough for one day.

such a special girl!

hello everyone!

so today i have into San Isidro to do some shopping (about an hour from where im living) and i actually have good internet access for a change. so i thought i would introduce my personal bodyguard - Gerrardo.

you see Sabina is going away from 11 days. so its me and the dogs. no phone. no interent. im not quite sure how im surposed to survive but ill try.

to make me feel alittle more comfortable Sabina has hired a personal body guard to be outside my cabin at night. armed and dangerous! he arrives a 5pm. and leaves at 5.30am when the gardner comes.

he kinda reminds me of my grandfather in many ways, which i find quite ammusing.

hope all in the world is well...

INTRODUCING!

So I thought it would be good to introduce some of the main characters of this little adventure of mine.

My hostess with the mostess is the lovely Sabina. A polish woman of 60, who lived in Canada for near on 30 years before endeavoring on a Costa Rican retirement 6.5 years ago. This being a retirement that never stops working, which is good because Sabina never stops moving! She has a heart of gold, wisdom and stories to boot, and all be it that she has a son that is older than I, she always talks to me like a long lost friend. She has a simple house about 50 steep steps above the cabin that I am living in. this means that visiting Sabina = butt work out! But she has the internet (when its not raining, if the cell phone likes us, and we tilt our head to the left) so shes sure to see me every morning. There will be much more about Sabina as my time here unfolds, that I am sure of.

Her dear friend and next door neighbor Jean Guy (pronounced ‘Gungi’ kinda like jungle) is a 70 year old French Canadian man who “retired” to Costa Rica in 79. He exclaims whole heartedly that he never worked hard until he came to Costa Rica. His driveway up to his water pump (which is 20 steps below his house. I mean hut. I mean house) is mearly a bit of jungle that doesn’t have trees so you can actually walk in a straight line. This was until today, when Sabina and I helped him shovel river stones mixed with dirt, to try and level it out a little. DAMED HARD WORK! Especially when the afternoon rain came to help out.

The conversations between the three of us was a real sight. Jean Guy would speak to either of us sometimes in French, sometimes in Spanish, sometimes in English with an French Canadian accent so strong that it might as well be Japanese. But to see them work, I tell ya. For 60 and 70 years of age, a 20 something would find it hard to keep up. I would shovel my butt off, and Jean Guy would ask “cest mon torn” (its my turn to shovel) and I would let him only when I couldn’t shovel another stone. He played the marcho man. But I could tell that he was grateful for the help. Afterwards we trekked up to his house, cursing at the squirrels for dropping the cacao beans (chocolate beans before they are chocolate) on the ground, making him have to bend down to get them. You see Jean Guy makes chocolate, and wine out of anything that will ferment. He has two rules in life, don’t work after 2pm, and don’t drink before 6.45am. Quite the character. But I guess you would have to be to live in a place like this.