Donna PorterIt's a Wonderful World of Plants

Watering

Summertime is upon us in the tropics and that means hotter temperatures and weeks and/or months void of the cooling, refreshing, life-giving rains. To any gardener, be they home-gardener or professional, this can only mean one thing – water, water, water. Visitors who have spent time in Costa Rica in our rainy season, may find it hard to believe that watering is a necessity here, but the natural cycle of the rainforest does include a dry period for flower and seed formation of the natural vegetation. This is why the native vegetation/indigenous plants can withstand these dry times, moreso, than the imported, exotic species.

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Pat Cheek

A Hero In Manuel Antonio

Hero in Manuel Antonio
All he wanted was a cigarette and a rum & coke – and to catch his next plane to Miami
I recently got to meet with a hero enjoying a hot dog and a cold beer at El Wagon –home of the BEST HOT DOG in MA as the guest of Alan Templeton of Costa Verde. He was here visiting his sister who lives in Jaco with his friend Karina from Miami. This was a trip he had been waiting 5 years to make and if circumstances had been different on December 25th it might never have taken place, but happily for about 270+ people, he turned out to be a hero and made it to Costa Rica……. it happened like this:
It had been a long, but uneventful flight. It was Christmas Day on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit. The flight was about to land when a couple of very loud pops where heard – something like firecrackers and totally out of place. Shortly someone was yelling “fire – fire” – that’s when Jasper Schuringa, a Dutch film maker, looked up to see smoke rising from a passenger a few rows in front of him and on the other side of the plane. Jasper jumped up and over the seats to put out the fire. The passenger on fire wasn’t moving or talking and Jasper said he seemed to be in a trance. It was apparent that this was not an accident. There was liquid from a container dripping fire down his pants and they were on fire. Jasper was yelling for water or a fire extinguisher and using pillows to put out the fire. He received burns to his hands but they were minor. He stripped off the man’s clothes and got him in a headlock to assist the flight attendant with moving him to First Class where he was totally stripped to be sure that he had no other explosives on his body and handcuffed.
The plane landed safely and the man was removed into the custody of the FBI. Jasper was taken into interrogation for 5 hours where his clothes were removed as evidence. He said “the FBI looked just like on TV”. They asked if they could get him anything and he answered a cigarette and a rum & coke—-he repeated this a few times and nothing came – finally one of the agents took him to the bathroom for a cigarette – he never got that rum & coke! What he really wanted was to catch the plane to Miami where his friend Karina was waiting so they could continue their vacation to Costa Rica. After a few days of media craziness things settled down and they were able to fly here to our little paradise for a great visit and vacation.
As Jasper sipped his cold beer he was relaxed, tan from the beach and obviously happy to have finally made it here to see his sister – we are too.

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Uncategorized

TURTLE PROJECT – MATAPALO BEACH

By Katherine Richardson The ASVO (Association of Volunteers) has been in Matapalo Beach for 5 years and patrols 5.4 KM of the beach. Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea)turtles nest on Matapaplo Beach from June to November. This year according to Mr. Roberto Solano, the scientist in charge of the project, they

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Health is WealthTodd Pequeen

Touching Yourself

We should all touch ourselves. I often fantasize with my clients on how wonderful it would be to get a massage every day. Imagine having your favorite masseur at your beck and call to get your fix whenever needed…how glorious would that be? Well, we all do have this available, we can utilize ourselves. While sitting on my board surfing, waiting for waves, I massage with both my hands my head and temporal regions. Just a minute of small circular strokes helps to further relax and loosen me up. Every day I massage my own hands and forearms, it has become a routine, it allows me to know where my aches and pains are as well as flushing out stagnate blood revitalizing my tools of the trade. We are all socialized into the language of the senses and in my opinion have become impoverished with hands-on nonverbal forms of communication, relying instead on disengagement and so called sophistication with each other. Sight and hearing (distance senses) rule our days while taste, smell, and touch (proximity senses) are almost a taboo. A shame in my opinion but adopting a philosophy of touching oneself can help bring us into the light.

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Carol VlassoffPersonalities in Our Midst

Barry Biesanz

Barry Biesanz pulls into my driveway, hops out of his car and wastes no time settling onto a patio chair for our interview. He does not need any prompting: he clearly has a message to share. “People ask me,” he says, “I bet you’ve seen a lot of changes here over the last 40 years. They assume they have all been for the worse – but they haven’t. Sure, there are some ill-conceived projects, drugs, prostitution and corruption. But there are far more monkeys than there were in 1971, and much more prosperity.” Most of Manuel Antonio, he continues, was being converted to pasture and crops, even much of what is now the park, and all the mangroves near town were cut to make charcoal.

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Jim ParisiMusic Review

The World Discovers Walter Ferguson

The essence of Calypso is in its rhythm and its humor, not necessarily in that order. The seed of this musical style sprouted around Barbados, Trinidad and Ciudad Colon, Panama. It spread, literally by word of mouth, to other Caribbean ports, including Kingston, Jamaica, where it spawned the nucleus of reggae music. Walter Ferguson is probably the last Calypsonian to learn his craft in this traditional, organic manner.

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Jack EwingNature and Local History Stories

Capuchin Capers

The troop of 28 monkeys was strung out over about 100 meters, moving through the forest. The lead monkey, a mature female, came to an area where the tree cover was broken by an open swamp with only a narrow corridor two trees wide going around it. About half way across the corridor the leader abruptly leapt back and let out an excited yelp, one of several different alarm barks the two observers had heard them use. This initial bark was followed by a series of short barks in a slightly calmer voice. Flor Vallet scanned the foliage with her binoculars near where the lead monkey had been when when it jumped back. Finally she saw the source of alarm, a non venomous bird-eating snake. It wasn’t large enough to harm a full grown monkey, or even a juvenile, but it was a snake nevertheless, and they instinctively disliked it. The troop kept moving forward, but as they arrived at the point where the snake was coiled each monkey veered over into a neighboring tree, staying well out of its reach. They didn’t need any further signals. Every monkey in the troop knew exactly where the snake was coiled. Was this communicated to them via the alarm call followed by the short series of barks emitted by the lead monkey when it first saw the snake?

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Academia D'AmoreTico Talk

El año nuevo

Soy el Año Nuevo, vengo a ti puro e inmaculado; acabo de salir de las manos de Dios. Cada día es una perla de gran precio que te es concedida para que la ensartes en el hilo de plata de la vida. Una vez ensartada, ya no puede desenhebrarse jamás; queda allí como un testimonio inmortal de tu fe y de tu destreza. Debes fundir entonces, cada minuto, como eslabón dorado a la cadena eterna de las horas.

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Charlie BerghammerMaking a Difference

Greg Anderson

How exciting to begin the year by sharing the story of a recently migrated expat to Costa Rica who knew from the start that his coming to Costa Rica was more than just to live a comfortable lifestyle in the tropics. His story is that of many of us who have come looking for ways to INTEGRATE into our local Costa Rican communities. What Greg Anderson and many others have discovered is that the catalyst for this integration can come through engagement in local community service.

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Guest Chef

Guest Chef – Darren Remy of Kapi Kapi

Beach Noodle Salad – First put orange juice into a pot and reduce liquid to a syrup. Add mixture to a blender with rice wine vinegar and blend. Slowly add sesame oil and salt & pepper to taste. Boil noodles “al dente” and rinse with cold water. Cut lomito into large bite sized pieces and season with salt & pepper. Then heat a sauté pan or grill and cook to medium rare. In a large mixing bowl chop basil, mint & cilantro and mix with ¼ of cold noodles, dressing, beef and then slice the mango & avocado at the last minute for garnish. Top with chopped peanuts & ENJOY!

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Cosmic ConfettiHoroscopes

Cosmic Confetti’s Horoscopes – January 2010

CAPRICORN – December 22-January 19
As we all ring in the New Year together, you can also celebrate another year of growing older! Lucky You! 2010 is set to be your year to shine, a “come back” you might say. Forget about your New Year’s resolutions…I think the Mayans might be onto something, and if so, we only have 2 good years left…so go on…smoke your laughin lettuce, eat till it hurts, and have a little rum in your egg nog!
CELEBRITY CAPRICORN: Daffy Duck
IDEAL JOB: Cactus Thorn Picker outer

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Health is WealthTodd Pequeen

Just Today

There is always something to stress about. Even when health and happiness are present we often create stress for a variety of reasons. Living this way, in this space, is a mistake. Time is a delusion the mind is happy to hold hands with. I’m sure the cynics are chuckling right now but let me explain. Inside our heads our minds are looking to identify with something. Most of the people I know dwell on memories from the past or their plans for the future. When is my next vacation turns into I don’t want this vacation to end. There is a compulsion to expel the present for the next job on the list, or to space out on what was so good and how to get it back. Obsession with this occurs simply because we can firmly identify with the past, as we have already lived it, and the perfect future is a dream, perhaps even a promise we made ourselves which will be the end all, be all. Whichever we choose, they are both illusions.

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