New, Improved Guanacaste Travel Routes
In 2008, Luciano
Capelli and Yazmin Ross released their joint effort: “Guanacaste: Rutas de
Viaje – Travel Routes”, a photographic and written journal of this unique Costa
Rican province. It has been one of the most popular books in Costa Rica for
the last five years. Have I really been admiring this book for half a decade?
The original project took nearly three years to assemble. Luciano told me he
had to decide which photos would appear in the book among the five thousand
that he took. So it really is no surprise that he wanted to present a new
version of the book. The 2013 edition contains one hundred thirty-five new
photos. Beginning with the first two photographs in the book, the images are
stunning. The patience needed for this kind of selection speaks for itself. It
is not every day that a photographer can catch a school of manta rays leaping
out of the water, as if on cue… He also confided that he used a very
high-resolution printing process, along with augmenting his own photos with
about fifty others by Pablo Cambornero and Simone Manzo in addition to the
underwater photos of Diego Mejia. Luciano also employed Guido Scheidt and Frank
Nierhoff of the Flying Crocodile, with their gyrocopters that we can see flying
over our heads at times, in Tamarindo and Samara.
Just as it was
difficult to edit the photo selections down to the original version, it must
have been equally hard to choose the new ones for this new edition. But when I
opened the cover for the first time, I was amazed at the new shots. It is easy
to see why Capelli wanted to put out this new version. I am sure these new
photos have been “calling” to him for their deserved exposure for some time.
Luciano also expanded the book to include the entire Nicoya Peninsula,
including Montezuma and the beautiful beaches of Malpais, where the road ends
and the legendary band got its name.
The entire book
has been revised: some of the original photos have been moved on the page and
sometimes even to other locations in the new book and Ms Ross’ printed words
(in Spanish and English) have been reconfigured on the page. It is still a book
of seven chapters: the introductory “Routes to Get Lost In”, followed by
Marine, Volcano and Pre-Colombian Routes, then Routes of Tradition, and finally
Ranch, Nature and Summertime Routes. There are new photos as the cover page for
each section, kind of a new introduction to each chapter. Even the
breath-taking cover photo of Witches Rock is new, a kind of variation of the
original, with its panoramic, overhead view of the beach and island.
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