October 23, 2007
Hola Everyone!
The Rainy (Green) Season draws to a close! This has been an unusually wet green season in the Guanacaste area. Last year the green season saw lower than usual amounts of rainfall, but this year has been the opposite. We started off the season with a lot of rain and we are ending with a lot of rain. We had over 20 inches of rain in the last 10 days alone! Emptying the rain gauge became a regular occurrence as the rains continued for days. The only saving grace was at least it was warm rain! Some type of tropical depression formed over Costa Rica while a cold front over Mexico held the rain in place. It just seemed to circle over us and continually drop rain. Flooding was extensive with roads washed out and people displaced from their homes. As we write this today, the sun is out and it is looking like we are heading toward the Dry Season. Once we are in the dry season, we will not get any rain for six months (till May). Below is a picture of the Tempisque River as it nearly overflowed the major bridge that provides access to the beach areas where we live. Usually the river is at least 35 feet below! I could not believe the water could come this high till I saw it with my own eyes!
The Mountains!
The beach is a great place but when we really want to get away from the heat and the busyness of the beach, we love to travel to the mountains. In fact we have purchased some land up near Rincon de La Vieja National Park, where land is still relatively inexpensive. The weather is crisper and cooler even during the dry season, although the Papagayo Winds that are prevalent during the Dry Season can really get going. We plan to build a “cabina” or two up here and maybe eventually have a vacation lodge. It’s a great place to get away to enjoy nature as the wildlife up here is incredible. We have terrific views of Volcan Rincon de la Vieja and Volcan Miravalles as well as out toward the Tempisque River valley. And on a clear day you can even see the coastline and ocean. Quite a beautiful spot - we get excited each time we drive up! The property is only 19 kilometers from Liberia but the road is an adventure either dry or wet! It is called the “Ruta Blanca” and is actually carved through volcanic ash which gives it the white color. It takes an hour to drive the 19 kilometers of the Ruta Blanca so, combined with the 30 minutes from Coco to Liberia, the entire drive is 1 ½ hours.
What’s New!
The real estate business has been quiet during the Green Season as the tourism slows. Markets in the US are facing issues as well and this may or may not impact our business. The opportunity is still now to own a “piece of paradise”! We are planning an advertising blitz for the Calgary market in November/December and hopefully will be a major part of a Costa Rica Feature Article in the Calgary Herald in November. Plans also include a large ad and advertorial in the Recreation and Investment Properties Magazine in December. Then we will be manning a booth at the Recreation Investment Properties Show in Calgary January 11-13, 2008. Drop by and visit! We will have lots of great information on Costa Rica and all it has to offer!
Just to give you an idea of what you can buy for a lot less than a house in Calgary. below is Casa La Mariposa which is next door to our home.
This is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2300 sq ft home with single car garage, high ceilings and many upgrades. Construction is first quality. It is located in a very quiet neighborhood about 5 minutes by car to the beach. Priced at $349,000!
Until next time, hasta luego!
Herb and Donna
Visit our blog site: www.costaricasecrets.blogspot.com
For Vacation Rentals visit: www.beachfront-cr.com. Tim Ellis can help you locate the perfect home to rent for a great winter holiday!
If you would like to book a Real Estate Costa Rica Tour please send us an email at herb@discovercostarica.com. We would be pleased to help you out - we can arrange for good discounts on rental car and accommodations, plus we will show you some of the real Costa Rica during the tour! If you do end up purchasing property using our services, you will receive $1,000 that can be used to offset your travel expenses!
Keep an eye on our new website: www.costaricadiscovered.com
PS: If you do not want to receive our updates please send us a quick email and we will take you off our email list! Conversely, let us know if anyone wants to be added to our list or just forward to friends or relatives. We will try to send these updates once per month.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Costa Rica Resort - "It will be the best resort in the world" says Steve Case.
Steve Case, an American businessman aged 48 famous for being co-founder of America On line (AOL), officially announced that, with an investment of $800 millions, the American company called Revolution Places LLC plans to build a tourist complex that will be an example of integration between community and protection of nature in Punta Cacique.
Punta Cacique is located northern Guanacaste, in Sardinal de Carrillo, between Playa Hermosa and El Coco beaches. The project will generate 2,000 direct jobs.
Steve Case, an American businessman, age 48, knew that the Internet would be a part of the daily life when that idea generated more skepticism than enthusiasm. Nowadays, after 25 years and millions of dollars later, Case has another vision for his new group of companies called Revolution. The industry is Tourism.
He spent 10 years working on the success of American On Line, and he will spend 10 more years working in what he assures will be the best resort in the world, in Costa Rica.
Case knows by experience that his talent is to build a successful business, and not to administrate it.
Some years ago he was driving around Costa Rica and he fell in love with it because it reminded him of Hawaii, where he was born and grew up. 'It looked like Hawaii 50 years ago', he said. He saw the opportunity right away.
Case commented that Costa Rica feels closer to the States than Hawaii, it is exotic, authentic, beautiful and secure too. 'It is exactly the scenery we want.'
Steve Case wants to create a new resort concept. He wants to integrate the communities to the resort, and make the guests part of it. Usually, people travel, live in a hotel for some days, go to the pool, take a tour, but they do not know the place as such.
Revolution is creating a new kind of resort, more like a 21st century project, according to the needs of the market, in harmony with nature and in alliance with the community. Case is going to spend ten years of his life in Costa Rica trying to create what he hopes will be the best resort in the world and the model of what is going to be a resort in the 21st century.
They are creating a new little town. The local people will have the chance to open businesses and integrate themselves in the economy. In that way the tourists will be motivated to go out and give some support to these local businesses. Entertainment is important and new options are being studied.
Case said that they are announcing the investment of $1 million in order to microfinance the local businesses to stimulate their capital. They are also going to plant one million trees. They want a new forest that will help to solve the problem of water in Guanacaste.
Tourism sector in Hawaii is managed by local people who have developed the abilities. There is a particular interest here. 'This project should make Costa Rican's feel proud. It is their community, their peninsula and not ours', said Case.
Case also promised that his investment will remain in the country regarding the referendum results about the Tratado de Libre Comercio (Cental American Free Trade Agreement) with USA, coming on the 7th of October 2007.
The original design of the property has been changed. It was too dense; it had permissions to build 2,000 units and 7 hotels. Revolution has changed it dramatically. Now there are 2 hotels, 300 villas, restaurants and boutiques. Therefore, 80% of the land will not be developed.
Something that bothered Steve Case was that it was going to be one of those closed worlds, with a huge wall that looked like a jail or a fort, and signs that make the locals feel that 'we are building something here and you are going to be left out'. The wall has been torn down already.
The local people have to be prepared to be part of the development. One can see when people like what they do, or they simply do their job, because it is the only thing they could find. It is called in Hawaii 'aloha' spirit. It is an attitude, more than a service job.
It has to be a balance between environment and culture. If the country permits to build 500 hotels on the beach, all looking the same, it will not be very visionary. They have to build with a taste and a feeling for local culture, there is no doubt about that.
In twenty years the vacation system will be reorganized around the consumers; therefore, Revolution wants to build something that gives people the feeling that they are in Costa Rica, not in a hotel that looks like it has been made with a cookie cutter, identical to all the others.
Steve Case thinks that it is difficult to make a projection about the success of Revolution right now. It was a journey of 20 years with AOL, the second 10 years was the time when he took off and, fame and fortune arrived, he liked the first 10 better. He is still learning and he thinks that he is best at building and innovating. He plans to concentrate on that.
He has invested more than $500 million in Revolution, and he is still investing, it does not bother him. He invested for 10 years before AOL was profitable.
Punta Cacique is located northern Guanacaste, in Sardinal de Carrillo, between Playa Hermosa and El Coco beaches. The project will generate 2,000 direct jobs.
Steve Case, an American businessman, age 48, knew that the Internet would be a part of the daily life when that idea generated more skepticism than enthusiasm. Nowadays, after 25 years and millions of dollars later, Case has another vision for his new group of companies called Revolution. The industry is Tourism.
He spent 10 years working on the success of American On Line, and he will spend 10 more years working in what he assures will be the best resort in the world, in Costa Rica.
Case knows by experience that his talent is to build a successful business, and not to administrate it.
Some years ago he was driving around Costa Rica and he fell in love with it because it reminded him of Hawaii, where he was born and grew up. 'It looked like Hawaii 50 years ago', he said. He saw the opportunity right away.
Case commented that Costa Rica feels closer to the States than Hawaii, it is exotic, authentic, beautiful and secure too. 'It is exactly the scenery we want.'
Steve Case wants to create a new resort concept. He wants to integrate the communities to the resort, and make the guests part of it. Usually, people travel, live in a hotel for some days, go to the pool, take a tour, but they do not know the place as such.
Revolution is creating a new kind of resort, more like a 21st century project, according to the needs of the market, in harmony with nature and in alliance with the community. Case is going to spend ten years of his life in Costa Rica trying to create what he hopes will be the best resort in the world and the model of what is going to be a resort in the 21st century.
They are creating a new little town. The local people will have the chance to open businesses and integrate themselves in the economy. In that way the tourists will be motivated to go out and give some support to these local businesses. Entertainment is important and new options are being studied.
Case said that they are announcing the investment of $1 million in order to microfinance the local businesses to stimulate their capital. They are also going to plant one million trees. They want a new forest that will help to solve the problem of water in Guanacaste.
Tourism sector in Hawaii is managed by local people who have developed the abilities. There is a particular interest here. 'This project should make Costa Rican's feel proud. It is their community, their peninsula and not ours', said Case.
Case also promised that his investment will remain in the country regarding the referendum results about the Tratado de Libre Comercio (Cental American Free Trade Agreement) with USA, coming on the 7th of October 2007.
The original design of the property has been changed. It was too dense; it had permissions to build 2,000 units and 7 hotels. Revolution has changed it dramatically. Now there are 2 hotels, 300 villas, restaurants and boutiques. Therefore, 80% of the land will not be developed.
Something that bothered Steve Case was that it was going to be one of those closed worlds, with a huge wall that looked like a jail or a fort, and signs that make the locals feel that 'we are building something here and you are going to be left out'. The wall has been torn down already.
The local people have to be prepared to be part of the development. One can see when people like what they do, or they simply do their job, because it is the only thing they could find. It is called in Hawaii 'aloha' spirit. It is an attitude, more than a service job.
It has to be a balance between environment and culture. If the country permits to build 500 hotels on the beach, all looking the same, it will not be very visionary. They have to build with a taste and a feeling for local culture, there is no doubt about that.
In twenty years the vacation system will be reorganized around the consumers; therefore, Revolution wants to build something that gives people the feeling that they are in Costa Rica, not in a hotel that looks like it has been made with a cookie cutter, identical to all the others.
Steve Case thinks that it is difficult to make a projection about the success of Revolution right now. It was a journey of 20 years with AOL, the second 10 years was the time when he took off and, fame and fortune arrived, he liked the first 10 better. He is still learning and he thinks that he is best at building and innovating. He plans to concentrate on that.
He has invested more than $500 million in Revolution, and he is still investing, it does not bother him. He invested for 10 years before AOL was profitable.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Where we live! Playas del Coco
Playas Del Coco
Not all roads are endless. One long road ends in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste Province where the town of Playas Del Coco sits like a pearl on the end of a silver chain. The road from San Jose through Liberia is long, but the gem at the end is worth the trip.
Walking from the Luperon Supermarket along the main street of Playas Del Coco, I ask myself, “What is it about this little town that draws me and keeps me here?” What I see doesn’t give me the answer, because what I see is not Las Vegas-style glitter or the usual tourist ballyhoo. Instead, I see a single two lane road stretching lazily ahead of me through a quiet town center. There is activity, but it is not hurried. I see some bicycles, pedestrians and a few cars and motorcycles. I see the modern, low-key facade of the Coco Verde hotel and casino, more or less at the town center. I see the water of Papagayo Bay shimmering in the distance, about a half-mile ahead.
People on foot parade in and out of the small restaurants, shops, vendor stands and other small businesses set back from the blacktop (this road, known as El Centro, is one of two paved roads in Coco—as the town is called by everyone within 50 miles). Coco doesn’t have sidewalks, but no one seems to mind. There is something upbeat, something different, about this place. Coco gives off a unique flavor of optimistic cheer. I decide that what I like about the place is defined by what it is not.
Playas Del Coco is not a “bustling tourist destination.” Tourists come here, but Coco doesn’t bustle (during the day at least), it sort of emits a low level hum. The activity is slow-paced and pleasant.
It is not a place where eating places have names like Starbucks, Pizza Hut or McDonald’s. There is not a golden arch to be seen. There is a Jimmy Burger, however, which puts out a truly fine hamburger. There are some huts, but none of them are Pizza Huts. A very attractive entryway graces the Paradise Pizza, a pizza place that offers many varieties of that excellent Italian pie. I pass the midtown Papagayo Seafood restaurant, which boasts an enclosed upstairs dining area for those who think they need air conditioning.
Ambling along, I stay to the right as the road forks and the vista of a broad beach and moored fishing boats opens to me. I see small shops and outdoor stalls displaying souvenirs and the other things that tourists seem to like. I follow the road around to the left. I make another left, completing a loop, and I’m heading back the way I came. I pass the Bohio Bar, where local people congregate every evening at Happy Hour. Across the street from Bohio, I see an open air coffee shop outfitted with five or six stools, a counter and a kitchen that takes up all the space behind the counter. Instead of a flashy menu advertising overpriced coffee combinations and pastries, I see a hand-lettered menu with a wide range of breakfast choices, all reasonably priced. The coffee choices here are not latte or Cappuccino; the choices here are small or large. It’s Costa Rican coffee, and it’s always excellent.
Beginning at 8 PM or so, music (turned up full blast) and other sounds of serious partying fill the air. People throng the sides of the road. The flow of people in and out of the restaurants and bars is constant. A smile is on every face. That’s what I like about Coco.
Not all roads are endless. One long road ends in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste Province where the town of Playas Del Coco sits like a pearl on the end of a silver chain. The road from San Jose through Liberia is long, but the gem at the end is worth the trip.
Walking from the Luperon Supermarket along the main street of Playas Del Coco, I ask myself, “What is it about this little town that draws me and keeps me here?” What I see doesn’t give me the answer, because what I see is not Las Vegas-style glitter or the usual tourist ballyhoo. Instead, I see a single two lane road stretching lazily ahead of me through a quiet town center. There is activity, but it is not hurried. I see some bicycles, pedestrians and a few cars and motorcycles. I see the modern, low-key facade of the Coco Verde hotel and casino, more or less at the town center. I see the water of Papagayo Bay shimmering in the distance, about a half-mile ahead.
People on foot parade in and out of the small restaurants, shops, vendor stands and other small businesses set back from the blacktop (this road, known as El Centro, is one of two paved roads in Coco—as the town is called by everyone within 50 miles). Coco doesn’t have sidewalks, but no one seems to mind. There is something upbeat, something different, about this place. Coco gives off a unique flavor of optimistic cheer. I decide that what I like about the place is defined by what it is not.
Playas Del Coco is not a “bustling tourist destination.” Tourists come here, but Coco doesn’t bustle (during the day at least), it sort of emits a low level hum. The activity is slow-paced and pleasant.
It is not a place where eating places have names like Starbucks, Pizza Hut or McDonald’s. There is not a golden arch to be seen. There is a Jimmy Burger, however, which puts out a truly fine hamburger. There are some huts, but none of them are Pizza Huts. A very attractive entryway graces the Paradise Pizza, a pizza place that offers many varieties of that excellent Italian pie. I pass the midtown Papagayo Seafood restaurant, which boasts an enclosed upstairs dining area for those who think they need air conditioning.
Ambling along, I stay to the right as the road forks and the vista of a broad beach and moored fishing boats opens to me. I see small shops and outdoor stalls displaying souvenirs and the other things that tourists seem to like. I follow the road around to the left. I make another left, completing a loop, and I’m heading back the way I came. I pass the Bohio Bar, where local people congregate every evening at Happy Hour. Across the street from Bohio, I see an open air coffee shop outfitted with five or six stools, a counter and a kitchen that takes up all the space behind the counter. Instead of a flashy menu advertising overpriced coffee combinations and pastries, I see a hand-lettered menu with a wide range of breakfast choices, all reasonably priced. The coffee choices here are not latte or Cappuccino; the choices here are small or large. It’s Costa Rican coffee, and it’s always excellent.
Beginning at 8 PM or so, music (turned up full blast) and other sounds of serious partying fill the air. People throng the sides of the road. The flow of people in and out of the restaurants and bars is constant. A smile is on every face. That’s what I like about Coco.
GUANACASTE NATIONAL PARKS
Costa Rica’s main attraction is the incredible bio-diversity found within its borders. The exceptional park system represents 13% of the national territory and reflects a strong commitment to preservation. Everyone visiting Costa Rica will help shape the future of conservation.
GUANACASTE
The Guanacaste region stretches from the western edge of Lake Arenal out to the Pacific Coast, encompassing the Nicoya Peninsula, all the way north to the Nicaraguan border. This region tends to be a little drier than other areas of Costa Rica, with a wide variety of flora and fauna in its many national parks. In the north, the mega-parks of Santa Rosa and Guanacaste protect delicate forest systems and provide a migration corridor for highland animals moving on to greener pastures in the wet season. In the south, prehistoric limestone foundations make for an interesting landscape, and at Barra Honda, some breathtaking cave formations sought by spelunkers from around the globe.
THE PARKS
Palo Verde National Park
Palo Verde is very important to ornithologists because over 300 species of birds have been recorded here. Enormous numbers of herons and storks make their home in the park, as well as the rare Jabiru Stork, known to nest only in Palo Verde.
One of Palo Verde’s unusual characteristics is its wide range of habitats, due to both elevation changes and seasonal changes. In the wet season, large areas of the forest are flooded, while in the dry season the opposite is true; so animals that normally live in the marsh have adapted to living in other areas until the rains re-irrigate the wet season marshlands.
Many tour operators organize boat rides on the Corrobici or the Bebedero Rivers to see a multitude of birds, monkeys, crocodiles etc.
Rincon de la Vieja National Park
This is quite a unique park, packed with immense diversity in both animal and plant species and in its geologic formations. Wildlife here ranges from the famous Resplendent Quetzal you find in more centrally located forests to woodpeckers found in dry forests. Of course, you still find motmots, tapirs, peccaries and coatimundis living side by side with armadillos, monkeys and toucans.
Now about that volcano …. Rincon has several cones, lagoons and craters, which have given it the nickname, “The Yellowstone of Costa Rica”. It has erupted at least 12 times since 1860. Although it’s still very active, scientists believe that the abundance of fumaroles, boiling mud pots, springs and sulphuric steam vents help it to let off enough pressure to prevent a big explosion. There are lots of trails through these wondrous sights, so you’ll have no problem getting photos of the rainbow-hued landscape, coloured by minerals the volcano emits through steam vents.
ARENAL VOLCANO
In July of 1968, the people of Arenal Hill were suddenly made to realize that what they always thought was a harmless hill was actually a violent, resting volcano. This volcano came to life, in a fury of rocks, lava and ash. It devastated the west flank and caused 78 deaths. Intermittent rumbling, explosions and nocturnal fire-spitting are the mesmerizing features that draw visitors to its base by day and night. Clouds often obscure the summit, but when lava flows cascade, incandescent rocks fly and Arenal roars, few forget it. Its flanks have been declared a national park but the nocturnal light show can be witnessed equally well from outside the boundary.
SANTA ROSA
This remarkably hot park preserves more than 120,000 acres of tropical dry forest and overgrazed pastures hugging the coastline of the peninsula, Santa Elena, where its purpose is to protect turtle nesting grounds. Easy to access and well structured, Santa Rosa was the site of three historic battles to preserve Costa Rica’s independence. The first and most dramatic in 1856, is well illustrated by the exhibits at the small museum of La Casona.
There are many trails for hiking through the tropical dry forest out to the beaches, where it is possible to camp overnight with a permit.
LAS BAULAS NATIONAL MARINE PARK
Playa Grande plays host to the giant Leatherback (baulas) turtles. This giant of the turtle world measures up to eight feet and weighs around 1,500 pounds. Unlike other turtles, it does not have a hard shell but a thick, black, leathery skin; nor does it show strong fidelity to a particular nesting site. Solitary female leatherbacks, come ashore on the Pacific coast usually between October and February to dig their huge nests where they lay about 100 eggs in a laborious nocturnal operation, before covering them with sand and wading back to sea.
Sources: ICT, Fodor’s and several web sites on Costa Rica.
GUANACASTE
The Guanacaste region stretches from the western edge of Lake Arenal out to the Pacific Coast, encompassing the Nicoya Peninsula, all the way north to the Nicaraguan border. This region tends to be a little drier than other areas of Costa Rica, with a wide variety of flora and fauna in its many national parks. In the north, the mega-parks of Santa Rosa and Guanacaste protect delicate forest systems and provide a migration corridor for highland animals moving on to greener pastures in the wet season. In the south, prehistoric limestone foundations make for an interesting landscape, and at Barra Honda, some breathtaking cave formations sought by spelunkers from around the globe.
THE PARKS
Palo Verde National Park
Palo Verde is very important to ornithologists because over 300 species of birds have been recorded here. Enormous numbers of herons and storks make their home in the park, as well as the rare Jabiru Stork, known to nest only in Palo Verde.
One of Palo Verde’s unusual characteristics is its wide range of habitats, due to both elevation changes and seasonal changes. In the wet season, large areas of the forest are flooded, while in the dry season the opposite is true; so animals that normally live in the marsh have adapted to living in other areas until the rains re-irrigate the wet season marshlands.
Many tour operators organize boat rides on the Corrobici or the Bebedero Rivers to see a multitude of birds, monkeys, crocodiles etc.
Rincon de la Vieja National Park
This is quite a unique park, packed with immense diversity in both animal and plant species and in its geologic formations. Wildlife here ranges from the famous Resplendent Quetzal you find in more centrally located forests to woodpeckers found in dry forests. Of course, you still find motmots, tapirs, peccaries and coatimundis living side by side with armadillos, monkeys and toucans.
Now about that volcano …. Rincon has several cones, lagoons and craters, which have given it the nickname, “The Yellowstone of Costa Rica”. It has erupted at least 12 times since 1860. Although it’s still very active, scientists believe that the abundance of fumaroles, boiling mud pots, springs and sulphuric steam vents help it to let off enough pressure to prevent a big explosion. There are lots of trails through these wondrous sights, so you’ll have no problem getting photos of the rainbow-hued landscape, coloured by minerals the volcano emits through steam vents.
ARENAL VOLCANO
In July of 1968, the people of Arenal Hill were suddenly made to realize that what they always thought was a harmless hill was actually a violent, resting volcano. This volcano came to life, in a fury of rocks, lava and ash. It devastated the west flank and caused 78 deaths. Intermittent rumbling, explosions and nocturnal fire-spitting are the mesmerizing features that draw visitors to its base by day and night. Clouds often obscure the summit, but when lava flows cascade, incandescent rocks fly and Arenal roars, few forget it. Its flanks have been declared a national park but the nocturnal light show can be witnessed equally well from outside the boundary.
SANTA ROSA
This remarkably hot park preserves more than 120,000 acres of tropical dry forest and overgrazed pastures hugging the coastline of the peninsula, Santa Elena, where its purpose is to protect turtle nesting grounds. Easy to access and well structured, Santa Rosa was the site of three historic battles to preserve Costa Rica’s independence. The first and most dramatic in 1856, is well illustrated by the exhibits at the small museum of La Casona.
There are many trails for hiking through the tropical dry forest out to the beaches, where it is possible to camp overnight with a permit.
LAS BAULAS NATIONAL MARINE PARK
Playa Grande plays host to the giant Leatherback (baulas) turtles. This giant of the turtle world measures up to eight feet and weighs around 1,500 pounds. Unlike other turtles, it does not have a hard shell but a thick, black, leathery skin; nor does it show strong fidelity to a particular nesting site. Solitary female leatherbacks, come ashore on the Pacific coast usually between October and February to dig their huge nests where they lay about 100 eggs in a laborious nocturnal operation, before covering them with sand and wading back to sea.
Sources: ICT, Fodor’s and several web sites on Costa Rica.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Costa Rica Whales - A Cross-Species Costa Ballena Encounter That's NOT to be Missed
Lois M. Smith - September 28, 2007
The boat is quietly rocking in the gentle swells. We have come close to a place not too far offshore where our guide had spotted a blow, an eight-foot geyser of spray like a salty feather adorning a dark lump in the glassy green of the sea. We had all caught a glimpse of a tail, and nearby, a bit of fin, and then nothing. So we sit, silently drifting in the coastal current.
There is something quite unnerving about knowing that somewhere down in the depths below your suddenly small-seeming boat an intelligent and fully adapted creature the length of a ranch house is torpedoing through the coolness, chugging schools of small herring and not-quite-so-small mackerel like a college pledge on a spring-break bender.
Shadowy intimations of ancient Pinocchio-prompted terrors creep out of deep storage. Tick... tock... Then someone shouts and points, and we turn our heads just as a 100 yards away, this gloriously slick black and white-bellied creature in a staggering feat of strength, propels twenty-five tons of itself completely free of all marine clutches, and hangs, horizontally suspended, for a split second of time standing still, before the clock restarts with the jolting slap-swoosh of the mother of all belly flops.
Every human jaw is slack and open, every heart is pounding: it is an epiphanic moment. "That," shouts the guide, "was one heck of a humpback breach!" "Funny," I think, "it looked like Yahweh to me."
Whale watching is one of those thrills that help clarify your place in the universe; it is a heartening and humbling experience that's not to be missed. Fortunately, there are few places in the world that rival Costa Rica's southern Pacific zone as a prime spot for close cetacean encounters - cetacea being the name for the order that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The jungle-lined shores that stretch south of Dominical have even come to be known as the Ballena Coast, with ballena the Spanish word for whale.
Sierra Goodman of the Vida Marina Foundation (Fundación Vida Marina) explains that there is a very good reason that this area draws so many whales.
It is called the Costa Rican Thermal Convection Dome, a rich ecological zone that results from a layer of warm water that perches atop cold, low-oxygen depths. This convergence of habitats brings together a great diversity of ocean life. Costa Rica's is the only constant thermal convection dome in the world.
Sierra knows a lot about what goes on in the waters off the Osa Peninsula and Ballena Coast because she has spent the past ten years studying this fabulously rich marine laboratory and, in particular, documenting its cetacean population.
The Vida Marina Foundation, which she founded, seeks first and foremost to protect and preserve the marine habitat, promoting research and public education as key components of that goal.
One of the most immediate and effective ways of educating the public is through whale-watching excursions. And guess who runs some of the best and most respectful whale- and dolphin-watching trips in Costa Rica? That's right, Sierra Goodman through the Vida Marina Whale and Dolphin Research Tours located in Drake Bay.
"Costa Rica has the longest humpback whale season in the world, because whales from both the northern and the southern hemispheres come to winter here," says Sierra. If seeing a humpback is your dream, the prospects are good now through March, beginning again in July. And it looks like 2007 is a banner year. "There are just so many humpbacks out there, it's amazing!" she exclaims.
However humpbacks are not the only mammals to be spotted on the Vida Marina trips in Drake Bay and beyond. Also routinely seen are orcas, pilot whales, Sei whales, Brydes whales, beaked whales, and pseudo orcas. And that's just the whales.
Sierra points out that there are huge and diverse populations of dolphins, including common, bottlenose - one resident bottlenose pod numbers more than 1000 - pantropical spotted dolphins, rough-tooth dolphins, and Costa Rica's very own sub-species of spinner dolphins. Not infrequently, Sierra and her crew come upon injured and scarred mammals during their excursions. While many potential dangers exist, perhaps the greatest threat to Costa Rica's cetacea population is commercial fishing, particularly domestic and foreign long-line fishing boats and shrimpers who injure and kill countless whales and dolphins each year.
Humpback whales by the beach in Costa Rica
Sierra is optimistic that the Vida Marina Foundation working in alliance with national and international organizations such as the Mar Viva Foundation and the Nature Conservancy will eventually convince the Costa Rican government to protect the waters surrounding the Osa Peninsula and Ballena Coast.
Sierra acknowledges that an important aspect of achieving a partial or complete fishing ban is to provide alternate employment to the fishermen who now make their living off these waters. "We just can't say, 'Well that's done, tough luck, guys!'"
Some fishermen, however, are already leaving their dangerous and demanding profession, lured into safer and more lucrative employment by the influx of international tourism that is drawn to the area in no small part by whale-watching opportunities. Some former fisherman have even joined the ranks of whale-watching providers.
There is little doubt that the slow recovery of the humpback whale population, as well as that of other cetacea species, is due to international efforts to curb whale hunting.
The growing educational and economic value of whale watching in Costa Rica has played a part in the resurgence of national interest in the issue at the government level, as became evident earlier this year. Costa Rica has been a member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC,) since 1981, but until this year had not sent a representative to the annual meetings for some twenty-three years.
The degree of renewed Costa Rican interest in whale-related matters was reflected in the fact that the nation sent none other than its own Minister of the Environment, Roberto Dobles Mora, as delegate to the 2007 IWC meeting in Anchorage, Alaska.
Uninfluenced by recent acts of Japanese generosity in Costa Rica, Mr. Mora proceeded to vote against Japanese attempts to suspend the hunting ban and to justify its own hunting for "research" purposes. By the end of the meeting, Costa Rica had emerged as an influential and important member of the critical Latin American IWC contingent.
This is seen as a very positive step by Sierra Goodman, who notes that the Costa Rican Environment and Energy Ministry (MINAE) has been very helpful and supportive of the Vida Marina Foundation's efforts to protect the waters off Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast.
"Costa Rica is world-famous for its rainforest, and rightly so," Sierra notes. "But what people don't realize is that Costa Rica's marine zones are equally astounding, they're an unbelievable natural treasure just offshore."
Sir Francis Drake might have found little action to his liking in the area, but you're sure to be far luckier. If you happen to be headed that way, be sure to let Sierra show you just what she's talking about!
The boat is quietly rocking in the gentle swells. We have come close to a place not too far offshore where our guide had spotted a blow, an eight-foot geyser of spray like a salty feather adorning a dark lump in the glassy green of the sea. We had all caught a glimpse of a tail, and nearby, a bit of fin, and then nothing. So we sit, silently drifting in the coastal current.
There is something quite unnerving about knowing that somewhere down in the depths below your suddenly small-seeming boat an intelligent and fully adapted creature the length of a ranch house is torpedoing through the coolness, chugging schools of small herring and not-quite-so-small mackerel like a college pledge on a spring-break bender.
Shadowy intimations of ancient Pinocchio-prompted terrors creep out of deep storage. Tick... tock... Then someone shouts and points, and we turn our heads just as a 100 yards away, this gloriously slick black and white-bellied creature in a staggering feat of strength, propels twenty-five tons of itself completely free of all marine clutches, and hangs, horizontally suspended, for a split second of time standing still, before the clock restarts with the jolting slap-swoosh of the mother of all belly flops.
Every human jaw is slack and open, every heart is pounding: it is an epiphanic moment. "That," shouts the guide, "was one heck of a humpback breach!" "Funny," I think, "it looked like Yahweh to me."
Whale watching is one of those thrills that help clarify your place in the universe; it is a heartening and humbling experience that's not to be missed. Fortunately, there are few places in the world that rival Costa Rica's southern Pacific zone as a prime spot for close cetacean encounters - cetacea being the name for the order that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The jungle-lined shores that stretch south of Dominical have even come to be known as the Ballena Coast, with ballena the Spanish word for whale.
Sierra Goodman of the Vida Marina Foundation (Fundación Vida Marina) explains that there is a very good reason that this area draws so many whales.
It is called the Costa Rican Thermal Convection Dome, a rich ecological zone that results from a layer of warm water that perches atop cold, low-oxygen depths. This convergence of habitats brings together a great diversity of ocean life. Costa Rica's is the only constant thermal convection dome in the world.
Sierra knows a lot about what goes on in the waters off the Osa Peninsula and Ballena Coast because she has spent the past ten years studying this fabulously rich marine laboratory and, in particular, documenting its cetacean population.
The Vida Marina Foundation, which she founded, seeks first and foremost to protect and preserve the marine habitat, promoting research and public education as key components of that goal.
One of the most immediate and effective ways of educating the public is through whale-watching excursions. And guess who runs some of the best and most respectful whale- and dolphin-watching trips in Costa Rica? That's right, Sierra Goodman through the Vida Marina Whale and Dolphin Research Tours located in Drake Bay.
"Costa Rica has the longest humpback whale season in the world, because whales from both the northern and the southern hemispheres come to winter here," says Sierra. If seeing a humpback is your dream, the prospects are good now through March, beginning again in July. And it looks like 2007 is a banner year. "There are just so many humpbacks out there, it's amazing!" she exclaims.
However humpbacks are not the only mammals to be spotted on the Vida Marina trips in Drake Bay and beyond. Also routinely seen are orcas, pilot whales, Sei whales, Brydes whales, beaked whales, and pseudo orcas. And that's just the whales.
Sierra points out that there are huge and diverse populations of dolphins, including common, bottlenose - one resident bottlenose pod numbers more than 1000 - pantropical spotted dolphins, rough-tooth dolphins, and Costa Rica's very own sub-species of spinner dolphins. Not infrequently, Sierra and her crew come upon injured and scarred mammals during their excursions. While many potential dangers exist, perhaps the greatest threat to Costa Rica's cetacea population is commercial fishing, particularly domestic and foreign long-line fishing boats and shrimpers who injure and kill countless whales and dolphins each year.
Humpback whales by the beach in Costa Rica
Sierra is optimistic that the Vida Marina Foundation working in alliance with national and international organizations such as the Mar Viva Foundation and the Nature Conservancy will eventually convince the Costa Rican government to protect the waters surrounding the Osa Peninsula and Ballena Coast.
Sierra acknowledges that an important aspect of achieving a partial or complete fishing ban is to provide alternate employment to the fishermen who now make their living off these waters. "We just can't say, 'Well that's done, tough luck, guys!'"
Some fishermen, however, are already leaving their dangerous and demanding profession, lured into safer and more lucrative employment by the influx of international tourism that is drawn to the area in no small part by whale-watching opportunities. Some former fisherman have even joined the ranks of whale-watching providers.
There is little doubt that the slow recovery of the humpback whale population, as well as that of other cetacea species, is due to international efforts to curb whale hunting.
The growing educational and economic value of whale watching in Costa Rica has played a part in the resurgence of national interest in the issue at the government level, as became evident earlier this year. Costa Rica has been a member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC,) since 1981, but until this year had not sent a representative to the annual meetings for some twenty-three years.
The degree of renewed Costa Rican interest in whale-related matters was reflected in the fact that the nation sent none other than its own Minister of the Environment, Roberto Dobles Mora, as delegate to the 2007 IWC meeting in Anchorage, Alaska.
Uninfluenced by recent acts of Japanese generosity in Costa Rica, Mr. Mora proceeded to vote against Japanese attempts to suspend the hunting ban and to justify its own hunting for "research" purposes. By the end of the meeting, Costa Rica had emerged as an influential and important member of the critical Latin American IWC contingent.
This is seen as a very positive step by Sierra Goodman, who notes that the Costa Rican Environment and Energy Ministry (MINAE) has been very helpful and supportive of the Vida Marina Foundation's efforts to protect the waters off Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast.
"Costa Rica is world-famous for its rainforest, and rightly so," Sierra notes. "But what people don't realize is that Costa Rica's marine zones are equally astounding, they're an unbelievable natural treasure just offshore."
Sir Francis Drake might have found little action to his liking in the area, but you're sure to be far luckier. If you happen to be headed that way, be sure to let Sierra show you just what she's talking about!
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