Bad Girl - Mario Vargas Llosa

Once a Bad Girl,

Always a Bad Girl

     Mario Vargas Llosa is known for weaving stories like threads into an ultimate, seamless tapestry that far exceeds its individual components. He is also an enigma in that he gained acclaim as a writer while in his birthplace of Peru, became involved in politics there, grew disenchanted and then renounced his Peruvian citizenship. He moved to Spain. But he continues to write about Peru.

     I’ve just finished reading his novel, “Bad Girl”, a novel where Llosa unequivocally answers the age-old question, “Which is the weaker sex?” Meet Ricardo Somocurcio, a 1950s Peruvian teenager living in Lima. He falls pathetically in love with “Lily”, who’s just arrived from Chile, with her exotic manner and colloquialisms. She allows Ricardo to hold her hand and no more, calling him “the good boy”. When her Chilean history is exposed as false, she vanishes.

    

Ricardo becomes a translator to fulfill his dream of living in Paris, which he does, though he never forgets Lily. And then, there she is again, in the City of Lights, this time calling herself “Comrade Arlette”, an activist on her way to Cuba. She allows a remote relationship to begin between them, one where she dictates the time and place to meet as well as every physical action between them, which generally focuses on pleasuring her exactly as she mandates it to occur, all the while referring to Ricardo as her “pissant”. And then, she is suddenly off again, this time to fight for The Cause.

     And so she continues to disappear and reappear throughout this poor dog’s life, tugging on his leash the entire time. Whether she is Madame Arnoux, wife of a UNESCO official, or Kuriko, mistress of a sinister Japanese businessman, she is constantly reinventing herself with a smokescreen of lies, designed specifically for her own gains. She snaps her fingers and he comes running, even if it is half-way around the globe, to repeat “that sentimental crap” that amuses her so. Although their sexual forays revolve around what pleases her, she somehow remains detached the entire time, paying little or no attention to his desires. More than not having a conscience, she is truthful and proud of pursuing goals that exclusively revolve around her gains, be they physical, financial, or an elevation in her social status.

     As with all of Llosa’s novels, we receive an historical backdrop, ranging from Paris and London in the Sixties, Tokyo in the Eighties and Spain in the Nineties. Because Ricardo stays in touch with his uncle in Lima, the author is also allowed to expound on the cultural and political climate and changes in his “former” country throughout nearly half a century.

     Just as Everyman is a morality play that attempts to define human nature, Llosa seems to be writing his version of Everywoman, with a clear message of who he thinks is really the stronger sex. Randle McMurphy explained it best in “One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest” when he told the ward psychiatrist, “You know how it is, Doc. When they put that thing in your face, ain’t a man alive who will turn it down”.

South of Normal

South of

Normal

     Norm Schriever used to live in Tamarindo. A couple of times, actually. I met him when he was here for a year, writing a traveler’s memoir, titled “Push-ups in the Prayer Room”, a collection of stories Norm had woven together about his travels around the world a decade earlier. It was also about a young man looking for a humanistic mission in life. I liked it, even gave it a favorable review in The Howler. The book has been put Norm on the map as a credible writer. It also had something of a cathartic effect on him, allowed him to leave something behind as a legacy, positive proof of his existence.

     I know because I’ve just finished reading “South of Normal: My Year in Paradise”, Norm’s chronicle of living in Tamarindo for a year, with the three goals of composing his first book, getting physically and mentally healthy again and finding happiness. He was smart to keep notes during his stay here: “South” proves he is an accredited writer, not a one trick pony. I regard it as a handy guide for anyone wanting to pull up stakes, relocate and navigate in a new culture. Specifically, it’s a wonderful inside glimpse of life here in Tamarindo, complete with all our quirky customs and personalities. For this reason, it’s earned a place in my heart. But “South of Normal” also picks up where “Push-ups” left off, finding our writer at a crossroads in his life. He’s out of shape and completely dissatisfied in The States – the Rat Race was taking its toll. So he does what so many dream about but so few follow through on: he pulls the plug and free-falls into Central America, following his heart, not his brain, and writing his book, the one he had been postponing for ten years.

     In the introduction, Schriever explains that he is a traveler. He is also an objective camera, but with compassion and a sense of humor. The opening of “South” is jarring. The writer has just returned to Costa Rica and heads to a prison outside Liberia to visit a gringo friend who is there for growing marihuana. It’s not pretty, but Norm is able to blend humor even into this bleak scenario. Throughout the book, Norm returns to visit his incarcerated friend and repeat his mantra about getting back into shape and making a mark in the world. It’s no surprise that he discovers a connection between his physical and mental states of depletion, as the two mend symbiotically.

     And as Norm pursues his “metaphysical journey to consciousness”, it becomes apparent that in “South of Normal”, there is a sense of completion for the writer that began in “Push-ups”. He also has a blast with his sardonic wit, depicting life in a culture where logic often takes a back seat. His portrayals of local personalities are spot-on and hilarious, touching and human at the same time. There are many poignant interactions for Norm in this book, both with other people and by himself.

    Norm spent a year in San Juan del Sur and The States writing “South of Normal”. So, what’s next for this established writer?  He told me he wants to find a little hut on some obscure beach in Southeast Asia and write a “small” book, perhaps about the plight of children in the Third World. There he goes, leaving his legacy again. I know he left one in Tamarindo. I hope he finds his hut.

     You can find both of Norm’s books at his website: www.NormSchriever.com

Green Phoenix

The Noble Act of

Reforestation

     The province of Guanacaste in Costa Rica has the distinction of containing most of the remaining Tropical Dry Forest in all the Americas. Technically, a dry forest receives less rainfall than a wet forest, and typically has a dry season that spans about eight months, as anyone who lives here can attest. Although it is rich in biodiversity, it remained largely unnoticed as it shrank in size. Its use as pasture land expedited its decay and ironically, when the cattle were removed, the decay escalated as the jaragua grass that had been planted to feed the cattle overran local fauna and became fuel for dry season fires, which further diminished the forest. Enter Daniel Janzen, an American entomologist working in the area who realized the magnitude of rich life here and the futility of trying to discover and study it if it would become only a memory in a few short years. This is where the book “Green Phoenix” by William Allen begins. A team of Costa Rican and American scientists and volunteers soon ventured out of the classroom and into the political, ecological and social world arenas to not only preserve the quickly vanishing forest but to boldly propose to regrow the forest, to connect the tiny islands into a corridor resembling its original status. The notion was initially considered outlandish, but the determination and passion of those involved pressed the idea ahead, against seemingly insurmountable odds.

     Allen does a good job of portraying the main characters and their character flaws in this book, as well as how all the participants are able to put aside their egos for the cause. The project is a group effort but to succeed, they needed a spokesperson to pitch the cause. The result was that “The Janzen Story” (part Crocodile Dundee, Part “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, part “Nutty Professor”) started to overshadow the story of the project to everyone’s dismay, especially Janzen, who came to distrust most reporters.

      Allen also includes some incredible detail about the delicate and intricate balance between the entire eco-structure, how plants, trees, birds, mammals and insects are interdependent on one another. A breakthrough revelation was the discovery that this same interdependency occurs between the rain forest and the dry forest through migratory mammals, birds and even insects. He also does a wonderful story detailing the work of many others involved, including the huge help Arias provided almost immediately after becoming the president of Costa Rica.

     The project is a model success story, one that will finally succeed in reclaiming the forest to its pristine form, “in about one hundred to one thousand years,” in the words of Daniel Janzen. Throughout their endeavors, the team is confronted with hurdles, from poachers, gold miners, squatters and even hostile land owners near the park. But they persevered, and along the way they learned to be creative. The final result can be viewed in about three centuries, but until then, Costa Ricans can be very proud about what they have preserved and returned to Nature for future generations.

Diana Renee: Tell Me About the Telarana

Tell Me About the Telarana

Diana Renee: A Poet in Our Midst

     Diana Renee is an anomaly. She is currently living in the state of Washington, “near the North Pole,” she told me in jest. But she was born in Pennsylvania and traveled cross country with her family to live in Montana for a year. In 1995, she moved to Costa Rica where she lived for five years in Guaitil, near Santa Cruz and for another ten years in Playa Tamarindo. She returned to The States but still visits here in her body sleeps, she confided, and her soul has free time to visit the garden at the house here where she used to call home.

     Diana is an accomplished journalist who wrote wonderful articles for The Howler, which were also spot-on in their accuracy. But she has been writing poetry since the age of ten when she was so taken by the Rocky Mountains during her aforementioned family excursion that she simply had to describe it and voila! her first poem was born. Now Ms. Rene has decided to publish some of the poetry she created during her fifteen years in Guanacaste. The book is titled, “Tell Me About the Telerana (media vida de poemas)”.

     The poetry is flowing and flawless, autobiographical and rooted in nature. A lot can happen in a person’s life in fifteen years and Diana depicts and expresses her half-life here in all its naked beauty, with the wonder of life and abundance of Nature here as both a backdrop and canvas for her art. The writing can be sparse yet rich, abundant with life without overflowing. Some of the poems were written in English, some in Spanish. Some are presented in this single version while others have been translated, presented side-by-side versions in the book. Still other poems are written in “Spanglish” which, the authoress confessed, is her favorite format for her poetry. Some of the poems are published only in the language in which they were written, because Diana felt the translation would not do the original poem justice. The book is divided into nine sections, the titles as bilingual as the poetry itself: Cielo, sun, stars, viento; Peces/Fish, aves and other creatures; Tress, tierra, grass; Night/la noche; Dientes, bones; Gritos/Shouts, cries; Belly, heart/corazon; Rain, tormenta, river, mar; Mountains, stillness, esperar. We watch Diana become the life around her, or do the mountains and trees become her? Diana may visit us in her sleep but a big part of her heart will always be here, as she demonstrates to us in her poetry. I particularly like “boat poem”, where we discover from the poet:

I prefer the tickle of fish

to the safety of sand

And “Biking Home at Night”, where the poetess explains:

I make my swooping left turn

perfectly

while watching the stars

and dodging potholes I haven’t noticed

in years.

     I can relate exactly to what she is telling me, but I could never explain it in those terms. She is concise and prolific, spare and voluptuous in her use of language, which is why poets are venerated.

     “Tell Me About the Telerana” is available at the Jaime Peligro bookstores in Playa Tamarindo and Quepos.

New Guanacaste Rutas de Viajes

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.

     Deciding which version I like better is like asking me to choosing between apples and oranges. And asking me which is my favorite new photo is like asking me which is my favorite day of the week; Monday: the rainbow road starting “Camino de Luz”; Tuesday: the bridge at Playa Conchal; Wednesday: the sunrise shot of an ash-spewing Volcan Arenal; Thursday: the jaguar at dusk; Friday: the hidden spot on the Tempisque; Saturday: the shadow-play in the Colorado lowlands; Sunday: the yellow full moon hanging over the Pacific Ocean at dawn. I do recognize that the new edition is a pristine version, one worth owning, but I also think the two editions would look nice side by side on any coffee table. The new “Guanacaste: Rutas de Viaje – Travel Routes” is available at the Jaime Peligro bookstores in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos and Nuevo Arenal.

Pura Vida, Detroit Style

Pura Vida, Detroit Style

     Cops grow a tough shell. They have to, I am told, or they’ll never make it. The violence, injustice and dark underside of the human condition that they witness on a regular basis hardens them. Everyone is a suspect. They eat hoagie sandwiches while cracking jokes together at gruesome murder scenes. Take, for example, Detroit homicide detective Jacob Miller: he’s been on the job for thirteen years, seen it all, hell, even his dad was a cop, even if they aren’t speaking to each other any more.

     Jacob Miller is also the main character of “Pura Vida”, the first novel by Jim Utsler, who has been coming to the Tamarindo area for a dozen years, each year trying to stay a bit longer. But back to detective Miller who, along with Albert, his work partner of five years, decide finally that enough is enough in regard to a drug dealer by the name of Willy, who has taken “scumbag” to a new level with some of his unspeakable practices. So the two cops decide to teach him a little lesson and abscond with some of his money in the process. Their real problem starts when Albert shoots and kills Willy. They do a poor job of covering it up and eventually get thumbed. Miller decides to rat his partner out for in exchange for a short term at a minimum security federal pen. During his five year stint, he meets some higher-end crooks and finds a way to skim a fellow inmate who has illegally hidden a lot of money in off-shore accounts.

     When he is released, Miller knows he can’t stay anywhere near Detroit, so he grabs some of his money and makes his way to the Pacific coastline of Costa Rica, moving into a little town that looks a lot like Tamarindo and Langosta. Utsler’s portrayal of some of the atypical ex-pat characters here is a hoot, something, I believe, he enjoyed lampooning. But wait! One of the affluent gringas turns up dead, brutally murdered. And Miller cannot resist re-donning his detective’s cap and solving the crime. This actually lands him in a tureen of trouble as his good gesture receives international press coverage, and the guy he burned in The Pen hears about it.

     Utsler told me he wanted to write a novel about revenge and he certainly has accomplished that. I think he did a splendid job of portraying Miller’s detached character and I particularly liked the language used for the main character’s inner reflections at the beginning of some of the chapters. And there is also a bit of romance, which may be part of the subject matter for Utsler’s second novel, which he is currently writing. Jim assured me that it will be “driven by the same search for some sort of passive-aggressive salvation as in ‘Pura Vida’”. I will definitely read it.

     “Pura Vida” is available at Jaime Peligro book store in Playa Tamarindo.

Nadine Pisani and her Happier Sequel

     The story of Nadine Pisani’s deserved success with her first book, “Happier Than a Billionaire” has been well chronicled. It is a humanistic look at the first year she and her husband Rob spent living in Costa Rica. I thoroughly enjoyed it and wrote a review saying so because I felt she had shown both sides of living here and she had done it with her adroit humor, not an easy task. At the time, I’d asked Nadine if she had any plans for a second book and she replied that she had already begun a follow-up.

     “Happier Than a Billionaire – The Sequel” has been recently released. After reading only the first few pages, I had the sensation of seeing an old friend again. The book revolves around the couple’s second year here, adjusting to their new environment in Guanacaste and building their dream home in Paradise. And here she is again, Nadine the storyteller, addressing her audience directly like she is chatting with each and every one of us individually. She was good at this in her first book and I couldn’t help noting as I read the Sequel that she has actually gotten better at her craft.

     Nadine and Rob are Mr. & Mrs. Yin and Yang: she likes to plan, is hesitant, cautious; Rob, on the other hand, likes to plunge into it, be persistent and approach the goal perceiving a positive result. It creates a nice balance, a symbiosis in this Dynamic Duo. Their likelihood of success would be a lot less if they were two gung-ho types or an overcautious couple tumbling together into Central America. But together, they are able to take on all comers: a seemingly senseless municipality, makeshift mechanics, killer bees and lurking crocodiles, lunatic fringe neighbors and even a month-long visit by Nadine’s parents and a visit from Rob’s mom. 

Nadine in front of my shop

     I appreciated Nadine’s explanation early on that this form of paradise is not necessarily for everyone, because that much is certainly true. Along the way, she discovers herself taking the time to appreciate the little things in life, to exert patience over panic, plus utilizing her unique humor as a form of catharsis.

     I particularly enjoyed reading her entries about trying to publish her first book – the one that subsequently took off like a house on fire. I like witnessing that, seeing her push to make that happen. Throughout both books, it is the authenticity of the writer’s “voice” that makes the book such a joy to read. Nadine told me that in part, one of her goals for writing a sequel was to prove to herself that she wasn’t just a “one trick pony”. I believe she has cleared that hurdle with sparkling colors. “Happier Than a Billionaire: The Sequel” is available at Jaime Peligro book store in Playa Tamarindo.

     So what’s next for the wonder girl? Nadine recently revealed to me that she is looking into starting her own production company and that her first project will be a cooking show. Mangia!

A Turtle and a Toad Join the Pachanga Family

A Turtle and a Toad Enter the Pachanga Family

     In Tortuguero at the break of dawn, a baby turtle cracks through the shell of its egg and begins its perilous trek through prospective predators and other dangers in order to unite with the raging sea that beckons.

     At the dawn of time, according to Bribri legend, there was an only mountain, at the top of which countless toads held up an immense spherical stone that emitted strange noises. The toads, who were all the same color, had been told by their creator that their mission was to protect the stone and keep it from breaking apart.

     These are the openings of the two new bilingual books for young readers from the Costa Rican publishing company Pachanga Kids, their fifth and sixth in the series.

     The noted Costa Rican poet Rodlolfo Dada wrote the lyrical storyline for “Una Tortuguita Sale del Nido (A Turtle is Born)” and Wen Hsu, who was born in Taiwan to Chinese parents and moved to Costa Rica at the age of two, contributed the wonderful artwork. The work by these two artists compliments each other in this amazing union of talent. I cannot stress enough the incredible marriage of medias accomplished by this book. And Eliot Greenspan did a good job in the translation to English to preserve the rhythmic flow of the story. The book is intended for children three years of age and older. I think the author’s delivery of information to the young reader feels unobtrusive, therefore much easier for the kids to digest. 

     Yazmin Ross, one of the founders of Pachanga Kids, is no stranger to adapting stories. At the age of seven, her son created a story about a group of fish who wanted to sweeten the ocean with sugar. Ms Ross remembered and treasured this story for twenty years and used it as the premise for “El Mar Azucarado (The Sea Sweet Sea)”, the first Pachanga publication. For “En Busca del Sapito Dorado (In Search of the Golden Toad)”, Ross has elaborated on an oral history of Creation from the Caribbean indigenous culture in Costa Rica. It is quite a responsibility bestowed upon the poor, uniformly-colored toads, and luckily for us, they eventually were unable to hold the rock and keep it from opening and creating every form of life we know. Yazmin told me she relocated the story to Monteverde to help children understand the plight of the Golden Toad and that she did not depict them as extinct because she wants the children to embrace a sense of hope. Again, it is the telling of the story, alongside the mesmerizing illustrations by the Venezuelan artist Maria Elena Valdez that take the book to another plateau. Valdez contributed the artwork for an earlier Pachanga publication and it is nice to see more of her talents applied to the Pachanga publications.

     Both of these new hardback books are printed in Spanish and English, simultaneously on each page, a nice vehicle for helping your child become bilingual. All of the Pachanga Kids books are available at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Playa Tamarindo and Quepos, where they have open store copies for the customers to check out.

Wealth Magnetz by Regina Ruf

Wealth Magnetz

     OK, I admit it: I judged a book by its cover. Or by its title, actually. Yes, it’s true – when I picked up a copy of “Wealth Magnetz” by Regina Ruf, I immediately assumed it was another “Think and Grow Rich” book. But I heard that Regina was living in the Tamarindo area, so I decided to give it a try. Boy, was I wrong! By the third page, she had taught me just how wrong I could be. The book is a guide for “abundant living”, including monetary wealth, but really focuses on taking responsibility for your life and propelling it toward your own set goals.

     The book is comprised of short, manageable chapters in alphabetical sequence, from A through Z, and each chapter opens with a short affirmation, which I found inspirational. The sequencing also makes the book easy to use as a constant reference once you’ve read through it, to go back and touch on points that are pertinent to you at the moment. Some of the points and practices are things I already do, but they’ve been encapsulated in the book in a way that was new to me.

     Regina told me the book “came out fairly quickly, after about four or five month’s work writing it”. Her inspiration came in a seminar she attended by Mark Victor Hansen, who said that everyone had at least one book in them. She knew at that point that “Wealth Magnetz” was hers to write. She also told me that her motivation to write the book is her love for people and indeed, she continually espouses the rewards for giving back in this book. She is good at making her points clear, with her “inspirational pushes”, what I called her timely bluntness and she refers to as “loving kicks in the butt”. I also like her style of presenting a concept, then demonstrating it with plain simple examples. An example of her examples: If someone said they’d pay you a million dollars to cross the same road a thousand different ways, you would get creative and come up with that many ways, right?

     The book is a source of positive reinforcement and success through repetition, conviction and belief in self-worth. She is a great coach, if a person is willing to enlist her. Here again, it is the individual’s call to commit. I also like the parts where she talks about living in the moment, the only true gift of life we have, and experiencing life through unfiltered, exuberant eyes, not unlike those of a child. Toward the end of the book she writes about aspiring to move to the tropics. When I read that and knew she had followed through, I knew we were kindred spirits, of a sort.

     Regina told me she is considering a second book, that there is a potential there and she is playing with the idea. I hope she writes it so I can read it! Until then, “Wealth Magnetz” is available through her website at: www.wealthmagnetz.com and at the Jaime Peligro book store in Playa Tamarindo.

     All comments concerning this article are gladly welcome.

Hostile Acts: U.S. Foreign Policy in Costa Rica in the Eighties

Hostile Acts

     Writing about politics and the political arena can be a touchy subject. Too many times the author ends up preaching to the choir or simply alienating their curious reading audience. It does not often happen that a book can sway members of an opposite political faction or belief. This, however, seems to be the unique case with Martha Honey’s “Hostile Acts: U.S. Policy in Costa Rica in the 1980s”. Since its release, several of the main players berated in the book have changed their colors and revealed their true roles during this embarrassing chapter in the checkered history of the foreign policies of the United States of America.

     But back to Martha’s book. Ms. Honey has combined extensive academic research with her own first-hand experiences as a journalist. Martha lived in Costa Rica from 1983 until 1991 with her husband Tony Avirgen, who is also a journalist as well as a cameraman. During those years, nearly a decade, Honey worked for the London Times, the New York Times, The Nation, NPR, ABC and BBC, impressive credentials, indeed. As a result of her endeavors, she was awarded the Pio Viquez National Award for journalism in 1989, presented to her by none other than Oscar Arias.

     The U.S. involvement on the Contra debacle as they tried to stamp out the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua during the collective terms of presidency of Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr. is no clandestine mystery. In fact, quite a few books have been written and published recently on that very subject. What makes “Hostile Acts” unique is that it is told from the Costa Rican viewpoint by someone who was actually there to witness it and, at least theoretically, impart impartial reporting on the subject.

     Here in Guanacaste, a folkloric glow hangs around Ollie’s Point because this is where Ollie North, working as a CIA directive, used to slip into the country too illegally supply and aid the Contras with American clout and cash. It all sounds somewhat mach-romantic until, upon reading Martha’s book, the reader discovers how many people were shot or blown-up due to these actions. It’s also interesting to note that John Hull, an ex-pat who owned property in that vicinity at the time and was receiving ten thousand dollars a month (of U.S. taxpayers’ money, without their consent) and that he was picking upon another cool ten grand every time a cocaine delivery used the airstrip on his property built by the U.S., which was often and always under the watchful eye and consent of the covert CIA operatives. It wasn’t until after the publication of “Hostile Acts”, however, that Hull was brought to court and prosecuted for his actions during the Contra operations.

      Oscar Arias comes out smelling like a rose in the book, although he is at times depicted as being contradictory and wishy-washy, a dreamer and an idealist. From my perspective, he was a little over-glorified by the author, making him appear as responsible as the Sandinistas for thwarting a U.S. coup in Nicaragua. Still, Ms. Honey has done her homework, as the nearly one hundred-fifty page appendix of her book exhibits. Through all that data, though, Martha Honey makes “Hostile Acts” a very digestible book for the average reader.

Mayan Glyphs Unraveled

Mayan Mysteries Decoded

Yaxchilan in the Yucatan

     The recent publication of “A Forest of Kings” has shed new light on some of the mysteries surrounding the ancient Maya culture. The book is a collaboration between the two prestigious archeologists Linda Schele and David Freidel, who collectively have spent more than fifty years in Central America and Mexico excavating Maya ruins and deciphering their glyphs. For some time, archeologists have understood the Maya counting system, their adroit understanding of astrology and the systemic patterns of stars and planets, and some of their religious beliefs. A big question mark has been the explanation for the apparent collapse of the entire empire nearly five hundred years prior to Europeans arriving on the continent and what predicated the slow repopulation of their abandoned sites. And this is where Schele and Freidel come in. Linda spends most of her time in Guatemala and Honduras, while David generally concentrates on the Yucatan Peninsula and Quintana Roo in Mexico. Though the two rarely work side by side, it was through their sharing of information and comparing notes that most of the break-through occurred. And it was by translating several key verbs, understandably, that the actions of Mayas started making more sense. Truly, this work has the makings of a giant puzzle, much more real than any Dan Brown novel. It also has nothing to do with the 2012 Doomsayer’s predictions or some New Ager reading your Mayan Astrology. As an amateur student of the Maya civilization (I’ve visited twenty-two different sites), I take great offense with these pretenders when they sling the Maya moniker around to gain ambience or credibility.

Palenque temple in Guatemala

     With their new information, Schele and Freidel postulate that, ironically, success led to the Mayan civilization’s failure; that as sites became more populated, there was a need among the hierarchy to dispense power to maintain the population and try to defend against and/or conquer neighboring city-states. And kings lost their credibility among the masses as the voice of the gods through their lineage as they relinquished the reins. In addition, as the upper-middle class grew in each community, the concentration of population in the center of the community intensified. Originally, these sites had been chosen because they were fertile but as these richer areas became covered with temples and upper-end dwellings, farmers were pushed into the less fertile hills, which were soon depleted, their topsoil washed away in the rainy season. And so the cycle began and the kings’ credibility lessened even more. Prosperity, theoretically, bred an eventual defeat and evacuation of the sites.

Yaxha ruins in the Peten region

     It is amazing how the written language survived during this seemingly dead time because upon returning to their original sites, the Mayas continued to build and inscribe. Even more amazing is the hundreds of unexcavated sites the jungle still harbors, some small and some massive. It will take lifetimes to unearth these places, just as it took lifetimes to create them. “A Forest of Kings” is a useful book for readers interested in more than just a glimpse at the storied Maya civilization.

Pachanga Kids - Contagious Laughter

Laughter Is Contagious

In the New Pachanga Kids Book

     Imagine a land where none of the citizens speak but rather communicates in colors instead. Every tint has a meaning and every hue has its own connotation. People quietly express themselves with these colors and by gestures and, of course, by their actions. The place is called the Silent Country and there is no place more beautiful.

     The Costa Rican publishing house Pachanga Kids recently unveiled its newest book, simultaneously in Spanish and English, titled “La Risa Contagiosa”, or “Infectious Laughter”. The story begins as described above, with wonderful illustrations by the Venezuelan artist Maria Elena Valdez throughout the book and they play a major role in depicting the sequence of events. The story itself is the creation of Jaime Gamboa, a founding member of the popular Costa Rican band Malpais. As with all Pachanga Kids books, the storyline is not only entertaining for the young readers; it conveys a nice message for them (and their parents too) to think about after they have finished the book. Along the way, Gamboa has sprinkled the story with enough innuendos and asides to keep the adults’ interest, too. I don’t think it is a secret that least at certain times in the story, Fidel has used Costa Rica as a model for his beautiful country in transition.

     Pachanga Kids launched its line of books for young readers in 2007 with “El Mar Azucarado – Sea, Sweet Sea”. It is a hardback book, printed in Spanish and English, side by side on the same page, with a CD containing the theme song in both languages as well as an instrumental version. The book was quickly embraced by the public and two subsequent books with CDs followed: “El Coyote y la Luciernaga (The Coyote and the Firefly)” and “The Mono Paparazzi”. In 2010, Pachanga Kids’ matron, Yazmin Ross unveiled three activity/coloring books based on these successful storybooks and they, too, have been very popular.

     But back to 2012 and the “Infectious Laughter”. Always looking for new approaches, Pachanga Kids has released this new book in a softback edition in Spanish and English separately. In either language, the story remains memorable. When the people of Silent Country run out of tint and dyes, when the well literally runs dry, they have to find new ways to express themselves. A colorless world does not work for them, so they need to find a solution outside the parameters of their known world. After all, what good is a black & white rainbow? I’m happy to report that the citizens do indeed find a workable solution and a wonderful lesson is imparted as well.

     Once again the people at Pachanga Kids are to be commended for their innovative approach and their pursuit of art and education. Their messages tend toward teaching children to collaborate and have fun doing it. The new book is the first joint venture between Pachanga and Grupo Amanuense, a Guatemalan publisher that specializes in cultural and educational material for people of all ages and walks of life; and so Pachanga Kids has built a bridge with their neighbor.      

     Both versions of “La Risa Contagiosa” are available at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos, and Nuevo Arenal.  Any comments concerning this review are gladly welcomed.                                     

Nadine Pisani is Happier Than a Billionaire

A New Kind of Wealth in Costa Rica

     I have to admit it: before I began reading “Happier than a Billionaire (Quitting my Job, Moving to Costa Rica & Living the Zero Hour Work Week)”, I immediately lumped it into a catch-all category inhabited by dozens of other books I had seen with a similar premise. Boy, was I wrong. To begin with, I have since met the author, Nadine Hays Pisani and her husband Rob. They are definitely not a pie-eyed New Age couple, afloat in their own naïveté (not that there is anything wrong with that), nor are they a Bonnie & Clyde couple fleeing some lurid past. In fact, they are a level-headed professional couple who got fed up with the rat race and opted for a more rewarding lifestyle.

     In her book, Nadine presents the dilemmas and angst of taking the gamble, cutting the cord of a secure job (they were both chiropractors with a private business), and allowing yourself to freefall. I remember and it’s scary. But Nadine’s approach in her writing is unique because she uses humor to tell their story. She is able to laugh at herself and I admire that. She also does not candy-coat their experiences, presenting the beauty, the splendors and the reward of a more relaxed lifestyle alongside the frustrations, tiny remorses and fears that come with relocating to a new culture. Paradise has its nuances, after all. But it’s delivered with a quick East Coast wit where anyone and everything is fair game.

     Nadine also uses the book as a kind of memoir, often reflecting back to earlier experiences in her life, many times including her sister and her dad, who appear to be cornerstones in Nadine’s life. Her real anchor in this new environment is her husband Rob, a knight to her rescue in perilous times, the brunt of her venting episodes and generally an even-keeled genuinely nice guy. She is also able to include helpful facts about Costa Rica seamlessly into her story so they don’t feel like a history or geography lesson, not an easy feat.

     I particularly enjoyed Nadine’s depictions of the friendliness of people here throughout the course of everyday life, be it shopping for vegetables, walking your dog or chatting with friends and nearby customers in a restaurant, likening it to life in The States in the Fifties. “You may spend more time at the bank because the teller speaks to every person about their day,” she told me, “but then she gets to you and asks about your day…and it feels nice when she does”. One point Nadine learns from her experience is that we are all allowed to choose how we ingest what life deals us and I thank her for reminding me. And her humor! If she ever wants to look for a second occupation, she might want to consider “stand-up comic”. She told me she is actually already considering writing a second book about life here.

     Considering the fact that “Happier than a Billionaire” was featured on CNN, I think she is making a wise decision. Her book is available at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos and Nuevo Arenal. All comments on this article are gladly welcome.

Norm Shriever: Push-Ups in the Prayer Room

Norm’s Age of Discovery

     I’ve just finished reading an advanced copy of “Pushups in the Prayer Room”, Norm Shriever’s account of his year long global backpacking adventures and now I don’t know where to start this review. The book has a lot of interesting details and informative histories of the many places he visited, but it’s not that kind of travel book. I guess it is Norm’s delivery that really hooked me in. The book reads like he is speaking directly to the reader, something that is not as easy to do with the written word as it might seem. But when it is done correctly, is conveys a personal sense of familiarity and camaraderie and this book oozes a sense of kinship.

     In 1999, Norm and his buddy Shane literally dropped everything, bought open-ended airline tickets and took off with little or no agenda and only a little more clothing and money; they were in their late twenties and ready to drink, womanize and generally party globally. The airline tickets were good for a full year, so part of the goal was to see as many places as they could and put on as many miles as possible. In total, they logged more than seventy-thousand miles (the equivalent of nearly three times around the equator), visiting more than twenty countries in six of the seven continents, excluding only Antarctica, so they definitely got their money’s worth.

     The story Norm recounts gives the sense that he isn’t holding much back, that we are given privy to all the sordid details. Part of the success is Norm’s use of his own slang and colloquialisms and his own humor which I confess had me laughing out loud while I was reading it. I also like the fact that they used basketball as an ice-breaker. Being an old hoopster, I can relate to that. I also liked the fact that they continually trekked down the path less taken in an attempt to meet the real inhabitants of the countries they were visiting. Along the way, something happened: partying became far less important and absorbing the corresponding cultures took precedence. Another thing happened as they viewed abject poverty throughout the world: they came to recognize just how lucky they are, and this is another revelation I can identify with.

     Norm recounts his journey some eleven years after it took place; so obviously, it is being told by someone older than the twenty-something kid on a life-excursion. It is definitely touching, human and bust-a-gut funny at times. But the real story here is about that young travelling adult maturing and this makes the book special and well worth the read.

     It is also notable that the first country Shane and Norm visit is Costa Rica and that now, more than a decade later, the author has decided to call this country home and in fact, it is here that he wrote this account, after scouring the seventeen-plus notebooks he filled throughout his sojourn, now the testament to a young man becoming an adult. Check his website at: www.normshriever.com or email him at hi@normshriever.com
     All comments regarding this article are gladly welcome. 

A Cafecito Story

A Cafecito Story

     Julia Alvarez may not be a household name but her works are definitely recognizable. Among other things, she wrote the novels “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” and “In the Time of the Butterflies”. Yes, that Julia Alvarez. She is actually the authoress of ten novels, five books of poetry, a children’s book, and a book of collected essays. She is considered one of the most significant Latina writers, having achieved critical and commercial success on an international level. Born in New York of Dominican parents, she spent her early childhood on that island, returning to the U.S. at the age of ten. She is known for works that examine cultural expectations of women in both the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. I see her as successfully bridging the two cultures, rather than awkwardly straddling them. 

     I recently came upon a copy of Julia’s novella “A Cafecito Story”, an English/Spanish bilingual edition. My Spanish is passable but I’ve found books in this format to be very helpful to me in that the two languages are printed side by side for easy reference. I’ve also found it hard to find books printed in this format and I wish there were more.

     I read the story through strictly in English the first time, then went back and read it slowly in both languages more or less simultaneously, a “joint reading”. It is the story about a middle-aged man named Joe, the Midwestern son of a farmer in a mundane life who, just after a divorce, decides to vacation in the Dominican Republic. He tracks out on his own and discovers independent, organic coffee farmers surrounded and sandwiched in by corporate, industrial growers. Throwing caution to the wind, Joe abandons his teaching position and purchases a parcel of land. By pooling their resources, the collective is able to remain organic and even successfully enter into side ventures, further their educations and rejuvenate the cycle of Nature. It’s a sweet, human success story, with birdsongs used analogously throughout the story. 

     The Afterward is written by Julia’s husband, Bill Eichner, a former teacher, and they are both quick to explain that although they are also participating in a coffee collective in Dominica, this story is not autobiographical. OK, maybe a little: successful writers write about what they know. The message I got from this book is the importance of participating in a community, sharing your expertise and energy, and giving back to the community. 

     If I have a knock on the production, it is the occasional overuse of Spanish on the English side of the book. Some of the “leaps” into Spanish I find presumptuous and I think it should remain strictly English on one side and only Spanish on the other or you run the risk of losing readers.

     There are some wonderful woodcuts decorating the pages, created by Belkis Ramirez, a well known Dominican artist. It adds to the flavor of participation of the book. I’d love to see more like it. 
     All comments concerning this article are gladly welcome.

Green Dreams

Macho Eco-Tourism Made Easy

                                                                                                            

     Travelling outside the normal parameters in Central America requires a sense of adventure and a lot of ego. Stephen Benz has a healthy dose of both, as he demonstrates in his travel journal “Green Dreams”, a Lonely Planet publication. The book actually open with him in Peru in the late Eighties, following the political strife there and eventually taking a canoe journey into the Amazon, where he gets a taste of his new career. As an independent journalist with a sense of wanderlust, Benz initially was looking for political hotspots for a paying byline. He discovered that he not only got into that game a little too late, but that he also did not have the nerve for the tension and indiscriminant violence. What he did have was the desire, the ability and enough of the swashbuckling braggadocio to rub elbows with established journalists at all the local ex-pat watering holes. When the talk of a biosphere in Honduras and ecotourism cropped up, Benz showed interest while others balked: after all, green tourism was untested, no body was shooting at each other there, and it was in the Caribbean Mosquitia zone, a godforsaken area, in the collective opinion of the seasoned veterans.

     But Stephen’s curiosity was piqued, so he researched as much as he could of that area (very little) and quickly took the plunge, relying largely on introductions by friends of friends, and soon found himself in the small village of Brus on the Caribbean coast, whose only other gringo citizens were a missionary couple, a retired doctor and at times a pilot. The rest of the people spoke Meskita, a dialect of indigenous, Spanish and English combined. And no one had heard of the biosphere. He had been an exchange student in Costa Rica so his next venture was to San Jose, where he struck paydirt. Ecotourism was catching on here and Benz jumped onboard. Benz does a good job observing the changes he’s seen the country go through since he visited twelve years earlier, musing on the contradiction in terms between ecology and tourism. He is a witty writer with a perceiving eye.

     The journalist’s next stop was Guatemala City, to follow the Ruta Maya northeast into the Yucatan Peninsula. After a stopover in Tikal, he met with several young, educated Mayans who were part of the group dedicated to empowering Mayas and their traditions. It is a powerful section of the book. Oddly, Benz only visits a few of the more popular Mayan ruins: Tikal, Palenque and Copan, preferring to go into Maya hamlets off the beaten path. It was enlightening but I felt it strayed from the concept of seeing how ecotourism was working in the area: there was no tourism in the pueblos he visited. Still, Benz makes a lot of valid observations and the book is certainly worth the read.

     Green Dreams is Stephen’s second book about Central America, his first being “Guatemalan Journey” written after living in that country for two years. He currently teaches in Atlanta and has apparently discovered his softer side, becoming a hiway poet with his new publication, “U.S. 77”.