Living in Costa Rica

Yes Miguel I can surf. Main problem is getting some one to take pictures. No one ever wants to get out.

Surfing Playa Grande

Uno Mas

Surfing Playa Grande, Costa Rica

Too much writing in that last post. Here are some quick clips of stuff I shot over the last couple of months.

Golf Cart Ride, Hacienda Pinella Costa Rica

Avellanas, Costa Rica

Los Suenos II Apt, Tamarindo Costa Rica

Playa Grande, Costa Rica

Inside Rip Jack Inn Restaurant, Playa Grande Costa Rica

Rodeo - Huacas, Costa Rica

Ever have one of those weeks you wish you could start over? 3 Weeks ago I had one of THE worst experiences of my life.

It started off like any typical Sunday. Woke up at around 8am. Grouchy as usual. I packed the car up with a bag full of soccer balls and grabbed my cleats. You may be wondering why I have a bunch of soccer balls. I’ve been volunteering as a soccer coach for a group of Ticos down here every Sunday from 9 until 10am. But I digress. So I got my car full of soccer balls and my cleats and I’m headed off to practice.

During the drive I was thinking of what we could do for the practice and how I was going to handle the insanity of the morning. My Spanish is still a little rusty so it can be frustrating for them and me to carry a conversation. Typical insecurities I think anyone would have.

I was in deep thought. So much so that I didn’t realize how far I had driven in such a short period of time. Have you ever had one of those driving experiences that you arrive at your destination and you don’t know how you got there? That you’ve been so absorbed in the thoughts in your head that you almost completely blank out and you are just going through the typical motions to get from point A to point B?

Well I was having one of those driving experiences that I was so zonked that I was completely wrapped in my head going through the motions behind the wheel to get to practice. I was about 5 minutes from practice or so and came up behind a motorcycle with two Tico’s on it. As usual they were driving fairly slow. So I pulled into the oncoming lane to pass them, still deep entranced in my head. (I was about 4 car lengths from them when I pulled into the lane). As I started to pass them I noticed something strange out of the right of my eye. The guys on the bike started to lean left as if they were turning left.

Immediately I came flying out of my trance. I jerked my head to the right and sure enough they were turning but by now it was too late. I was about a 1ft from their tail when they turned into my lane. I immediately jammed on my brakes that in turned locked up.

And man I wish I could do a better job of explaining what happened next. Because this happened so quick. As they turned into my lane I slammed into both of them. I REMEMBER this so vividly but the Tico on the back literally banked off my window. I remember seeing his body horizontal with the front of the car. After he bounced off my car both he and the driver bounced off the pavement and into the embankment on the side of the road.

My car came to a screeching halt. So many thoughts and emotions were scrambling through my head in a matter of seconds. I remember feeling GOOOOOODDDD THIIIIISSSSS IS NOT HAPPPPPENNINNNNNNG!!. I was completely shaken to my core.

I immediately swung my car door open. Jumped out and ran over to the two Tico’s who were now both unconscious in the drainage ditch on the side of the road. After of about 10 seconds both of them instantly started moaning. One of them tried getting up. I tried keeping him on the ground. He was falling all over the place. Meanwhile the other guy was completely laid out on the ground. From the time I opened the door I was yelling in typical idiot gringo fashion “La Policia!! La Policia!”. At this point there were about 20 or so Ticos on the scene from the surronding village helping the two guys

Not one was on the phone. So I ran back to my car and grabbed my phone. Handed to the first Tico I saw and told them to call the Police or EMS. The Tico got on the phone and told them where we were. At this point I would say maybe 5 to 10 minutes had passed and I started to settle from hysteria to completely shit scared.

I was surrounded by 20 to 25 Ticos. I was the stereotypical affluent reckless gringo who comes to their country to run them over with his big car. Thankfully this wonderful Nicaraguan women pulled up in her car. She spoke perfect English and asked if I wanted her to stay with me to translate. I told her I would appreciate it if she didn’t mind. So she pulled over and helped talk with a number of people there that appeared to be the gentlemens family. They also looked extremely pissed.

After about 30 minutes the ambulance pulled up. Strapped both the guys to gurney and took them back to the little house down the road that acted as an EMS center. It was about 1 mile from the accident and it took this emergency medical team 30 minutes to get to the scene.

I ended up going with Marta, the Nicaraguan women, back to the center. Leaving my car behind to be looted and burned to the ground. Once we got there I was informed that the gentlemen would live. They both had SEVERE road rash and one had broken his arm. Man was I relieved to hear that. I was told I had two options for them to get care. I could pay nothing and let the red cross take them to a hospital in Nicoya. Or I could pay 400 bucks for a personal transport that would get them there quicker. I paid the money and the men were off.

Now I had to go back to the scene of the accident and wait for the police. Marta drove me back and dropped me off. THANKS AGAIN MARTA WHERE EVER YOU ARE. You were a much needed hand when I was completely lost.

We got back to the scene and to my surprise my car was not burned and unharmed other than the front end from the accident. (Funny where your mind takes you when you get in these situations). I waited another hour for the police to show up. When they did they took the layout of the accident. Marking my skid marks from where I ultimately hit the guys yada yada. It turns out I was only going 37 kilometers per hour which is somewhere between 25-30mph. So really not too fast but fast enough to give these guys a good thrashing.

The cops ended up giving me a ticket and told me I would need to show up in court that coming Wednesday. What day is today? That’s right Sunday. So I hopped in my car. After the 3rd try the car turned over. I immediately headed for the mechanic’s shop in town.

On the way there I was caught in some traffic due to some road work that was happening. While I was waiting in line the same cops from the traffic accident pulled up next to me and asked me where I was headed. In my best Spanish I told them I was headed to the mechanic in Tamarindo. They said they would follow me, I think. However they ended up driving ahead and cutting everyone in traffic. I guess they were going somewhere else then.

I finally got out of the traffic and started towards the mechanic. After driving for about another 10 minutes….wouldn’t you know it the two cops were on the side of the road ahead waving me over. I thought here we go.

When I pulled over the cop said something about my inspection being 2 months over due, which it was, and that he forgot to put it on my ticket. I grabbed the ticket and told him to write it on there. Apparently he didn’t have a pen or something cause he didn’t want to write it on there. He started saying ” No No No” ” Blah Blah que es su problema”. Of course it’s my problem pal just write it on the ticket. After going round and round about the inspection tag and both of us not understanding eachother a light bulb went off. I’ll call a friend who speaks Spanish and he can talk to this cop. So I reached for the phone and the cop gently grabbed my hand and said “No No”. Looks me squarely in the eye and says ” I heelp you”. Now I get it. This MF’er is trying to get money out of me. I looked at my wallet and said I had no cash. I told him I would need to go to the bank and come back to give him money. He asked how much I could get. I said 10,000 nada mas. 10,000 colones that is. Which is like 20 bucks. He asked again and I said 10,000. Then he leaves my car and talks to his partner who then returns. His partner starts asking the same thing. I again repeat 10,000. All I was thinking at this point is for them to let me go to get the money because I sure a shit wasn’t going to come back. The second guy leaves to talk to his buddy. After about 5 minutes of talking. One of the guy returns to say ” No quiero su plata”. My heart jumped. He basically said they didn’t want money anymore and that I could go. Man I wish could have run these two jerkoffs over instead of the nice guys on the motorcycle.

So I finally get the car to the mechanic and leave it for him to look at on Monday. I catch a ride home from a co-worker. The very next morning I wake up and call my attorney. He basically informs me that I could potentially need to leave the country depending on how bad these guys were off. I WAS COMPLETELY FREAKED. He told me to meet him at his office on Wednesday morning and we ‘d drive to the court house to find out how bad the situation was.

I showed up at his office at 8am on the dot and we made our way to the court house about an 1 hour away. On the drive he told I had 3 basic scenarios. 1. Their personal damages were more than I could afford and I’d have to book the first flight out of Costa Rica the next day. 2. They were bad off but not to the point where I’d need to jet. However they could sue me and the most I’d lose is my car. Which by the way I was already having repaired to hand over to these guys. 3. We could get them to settle out of court for a sum and repairs to the bike.

Once we got to the court house Gonzalo, my lawyer, checked in with the clerk. The clerk informed us that the police filed the accident but not the details of the men or the specific’s of my speed etc etc. I couldn’t handle it any more. I told Gonzalo to call them and find out how they were and what we could do to make it up to them.

He did and Eurekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!. They said all they wanted was the bike repaired and some money for personal damages. Immediately, Gonzalo and I headed out to their place. Got their bike appraised and negotiated some deal terms for their personal damages. After we agreed to a small fee Gonzalo headed back to his office and worked up the paper work for them to wave their right to sue me later.

I grabbed cash and the paper work and we headed back to their house. At 8:30pm on that Wednesday the situation had finally come to a close. Man what a relief.

I don’t really know what the lesson was here. I’ll say this is that I learned that it could have been worse. They could have died. I could have been drunk like the old days. Man I could have gotten locked up by those dirty cops.

In the end I didn’t do anything stupid because the pressure was on. I used my friends for support and I had faith that something had gotten me this far and wasn’t going to let me down now.

Tip: If you are moving to Costa Rica and you buy a car. You need to also make sure you buy a corporation. You then need to make sure that the only asset in that corporation is your car. Then if you are put in a situation like I was the only thing they can get is your car.

If you are thinking of Pizza than you’d be wrong with that title. Danny G….

About a year ago when I started at SEER interactive I was presented with a visual surprise at the local coffee shop, the Latte Lounge. There were a couple of DYNO MITE prints on the wall of Bob Marley, Aretha Franklin, and a few other prominent black figures. I spoke to the owner of the coffee lounge about the paintings and got the contact information of the artist, Nomo.

For the past couple of years I had wanted to get a commission done of Jimi Hendrix. Specifically the cover of Voodoo Soup. After already seeing his prints I knew Nomo was the guy for this job. We connected and got the project underway. Remember this is a year ago. About 6 months after we had agreed on a deal I got the offer to come down here.

So I basically had written off ever getting the painting. Because it wasn’t done and I had no idea on how I would be able to get it down here. Well wouldn’t you know it when I sent my farewell email to Nomo he pinged me back saying that it was cool and he’d make it work. Unbelievable! So he finished the painting a few months ago. However after a few visits to the post office it didn’t appear he was going to get it down here in a manor that would make financial sense. But thankfully I got the opportunity to come back to Philadelphia and take it off my his hands last week.

To Nomo: Thank you so much for the dedication on this deal. I truly appreciated it. I look forward to working with you in the coming months and years.

To the rest of you in Philadelphia: Take a few seconds to check out Nomo’s profile on Myspace. He’s got a number of pieces there.

http://www.myspace.com/willflo

One last shout out, he’s doing a massive murial on the side of the fire department on 6th and south. Check it out next time you are acting a fool down on south street.

Without further a due I give you Jimi

So back in late February 3 of my good friends from Ocean City, MD decided to pay us a visit down here. Dave Hooks, Rob Lewis, and Tom Harvey decided to break away from the freezing cold and enjoy some fun in the sun.

They came down for a week flying into San Jose. They had a bit of crazy trip getting here. I believe they left Baltimore at something like 6am got to somewhere in Panama at 12pm. Had a 6 hour layover there. Flew into San Jose around 9pm and then drove 5 hours over night to get to Tamarindo. I think it was fair to say they were troopers.

It was really great to have them because not only did it give me an opportunity to hang out with some close friends it also gave me an opportunity to take off some time from work and travel a bit.

I’ve been in Costa Rica for about 6 months now and really haven’t had an opportunity to take off some time from work and travel the country a little bit.

For the first part of the week we took them to all the surf spots in the surrounding area: Avellanas, Tamarindo, Playa Grande, Playa Langosta. We got excellent waves all week. The very best was saved for the last part of the week.

The plan was to take off to Mal Pais for the last part of the week. Unfortunately, Kristina had to work on Wednesday so they took off a head of us. Kristina and I had a decision to make. Take off on Thursday morning and miss a full day of surfing or leave in the middle of the night and get their early in the morning. Its about a four hour drive through some of the countries worst roads. Pot holes form out of no where and practically 50% of the road is unpaved. There are ridiculous hills with 200 ft cliffs of to the side. Hopefully you see where I’m going with this in that if you get stuck or your tire blows in the middle of the night you are screwed. Here’s a map to give you an idea of the trek that laid ahead of us.

View Larger Map

So we decided to gamble. We went to bed at around 10pm on Wednesday and got up 1:30am Thursday morning to start our trek. We made with the normal morning pleasantries… coffee, some breakfast, gassy farts the usual. If all went as planned we’d get there in time for sunrise and a morning surf session.

The drive was going excellent. Flying through the bad roads, dodging the pot holes. We did hit a little rough patch though in the hills. My car stalled out 7 or 8 times in a matter of 10 minutes. I was getting pretty scared at that point.

At any rate we were about an 1 hour away from Mal Pais when I missed a turned. At this point it was about 4:30am. We began driving down what appear to be a your typical screwed up Costa Rican road. What we didn’t realize was the road we were traveling down was beginning to bottle neck into the jungle. After about 5 minutes on this road we were brought to the entrance of what looked the like the jungle. The path of the road was a little wider than my car with overhanging trees and over grown grass in the middle of the road. THIS DEFINITELY DID NOT SEEM RIGHT. After some discussion we decided to proceed. After traversing two ravens we decided that we were in the wrong place. So we flipped around and decided to head back.

We ended up taking another wrong turn and traversing two more ravens. After the two ravens we were presented with what looked like a massive speed bump. As soon as we got to the top of this thing the whole car immediately sunk. I was able to drive out of it but we were immediately presented with a massive river 20 ft ahead of us. Realize that this path we are on is as wide as the car. We now have quick sand behind us and a massive river in front us. It’s now close to 5am. I pulled what I like to call an Austin Powers three point turn (pictured below) to get the car around to take the quick sand head on.

So after burning out my clutch and waking up every living creature in the jungle I finally got the car completely turned around. I dropped the car into 4 wheel drive. I revved up the engine and plowed head long into the mud. We sunk immediately! After spinning my wheels for about 30 minutes we gave up. It was now about 5:15. Dawn was upon us. I was a little scared. We were lost in Costa Rica, in the jungle, with our car stuck in mud up to the chassy. Would you be scared? I sure as hell was. Below is shot of our car stuck in the mud.

After about 15 minutes of spinning our wheels some more a little Tico had appeared out of the woods. His name was Johnny. He and his family lived up on a little hill to the left of where we were stuck. What a saint this guy was. He was about 5′2. He was wearing nothing but cut off jeans.

After some friendly chit chat in bad Espanol he immediately got behind our car and started to push. I couldn’t believe it. How would you behave if some silly ass Latin Americans got stuck outside your house at 5:30 in the morning. Waking you from a good night rest. Yeah exactly I’d doubt you be pushing them out in your cut off jeans, no shirt or shoes. After two attempts of trying to pull my car out with rope we decided to resort to other tactics.

Remember we only did all this so we could get to Mal Pais by morning so we could surf. We had basically resided to the fact that we were completely screwed and we’d be lucky to make it back to Tamarindo let alone the first true vacation I’d had in this country down to Mal Pais.

I was really distraught at this point. It was around 5:45 am. I asked Johnny if he knew of any surronding towns that may have a tow truck. I couldn’t really understand what he was saying but I knew enough that he wanted me to get into the car with him and see what his neighbors could do. So we piled in his car and made off on our way. We pulled up to one of his friends house a few minutes later and EUREKA! This guy had a old school tractor for farming with metal chains.

He ended up following us back into the jungle and in two seconds yanked us right out. Below if shot of him hooking up his chains.

Man let me tell you! As soon as we were out the green backs were a flying. I gave $40 to the tow guy and $50 to Johnny. We got out in just about an hour from something that could have easily marooned us for days! Thank GOD.

(By the way the town we got stuck in was San Rafeal, Costa Rica. Made 100% out of the kindest people on the planet.)

Kristina and I hit the road in full speed. At this point we were dying to get to Mal Pais. We had been on such an emotional roller coaster and behind the wheel for too long. After about another hour we had arrived. It turns out that Dave and the guys had booked a nice little Cabina in the neighboring town Santa Teresa.

We unpacked and immediately hit the beach. The surf was absolutely epic. Head high waves all day and for the majority of the remaining week. I’m extremely happy we got there on Thursday vs. Friday because it was THE best day of my short surfing career I’ve ever had. It was wave after wave head high & 30 second rides. O yeah and the line up was completely empty. I’ve been rambling for far too long so I’ll just end with my usual. A butt load of pictures from the trip with stupid comments. Enjoy:

ONE OF MY FAVORITE PICS FROM THE TRIP

THE BEST SUNSET TO DATE THAT I’VE EXPERIENCED IN THIS BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY

Who the heck is CEPIA you may be asking? Well it stands for Culture, Education and Psychology for Infants and Adolescents. It’s an organization that works with Tamarindo’s surrounding communities providing children and families of poor back ground in Costa Rica to experience culture and education. Through out the week they typically provide all sorts of workshops from Yoga for single mothers to classes about computers for kids.

They recently had a tent set up at a local art show. They auctioned off some of the kids work to raise money. Kristina and I chipped in a couple hours to help feed the kids and chaperon. Below are some pictures of the day.

 A couple of weeks ago I got my first experience of a fiesta. Starting around Christmas time until the end of March every town in the area holds a fiesta to celebrate the saint of their town. The fiestas involve food, carnival rides and games. The mainstay of any fiesta is the rodeo. Its involves some bull riding and drunk Ticos dodging bulls. Check out this unsuspecting Tico get rolled. Why he wasn’t paying attention is beyond me.

I’m sorry but I thought this was pretty hysterical. If you look closely at the end of the video you can see them chucking him through the standard hole where an ambulance is waiting for him and dozens of other idiots who get their a$$ handed to them throughout the night.

“20 Years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. EXPLORE, DREAM, DISCOVER.”

Mark Twain

So I’ve been slacking as usual. Sorry for taking so long to get some fresh content on this bad daddy. So I’m making sure to do it right this time around. Lots of things happening over the last few weeks so let’s begin.

Right before I left for Kentucky for X Mas a few of my friends and I decided to throw a impromptu Christmas Party. We decided to have our shin dig on a local Catamaran Boat. It was a pretty sweet deal. For 45 bucks we got 4 hours on the boat with food and free drinks. Mid way through the trip they dropped us off in a local cove to do some snorkeling for about an hour. Below are a collection of pics I took off and on the boat acting a fool.

EXCELLENT VIEW OF TAMARINDO, COSTA RICA

BELOW IS A PIC OF A COLUMBIAN DRUG BOAT THAT WAS CHASED BY THE COSTA RICAN GOVERNMENT ON SHORE. IT WAS SET ON FIRE BY THE DRIVERS AND THEY MADE OFF INTO THE WOODS.

New Year’s Eve I got the best treat I could have ever wished for, fruit cake’s arrival.

Kristina got in a ok. Upon her arrival to our place

she was treated to our friendly neighbor mr. hairy scary ass spider on our door step.

We were pretty lame on New Year’s. Got some pizza and went to bed at 8pm.

HERE’S A VIEW OF THE BEACH FROM OUR DINNER TABLE. A FAMILY HAD A FIRE BURNING AT DUSK. PRETTY SWEET.

SOME ICE CREAAAAAAMMMMMM!

A LITTLE WARM UP SESSION ON THE TABLES BEFORE MY DEPARTURE

The next morning we hit up Playa Grande for some waves. I finally got a shot of me riding some waves. Hopefully more of these to come on some bigger waves.

PICS OF AN IGUANA CHILLING IN A TREE NEAR MY CAR

The following day we hit up Avellanas. Its a break about 20 minutes south of Tamarindo. It’s a completely different scene than Tamarindo or Playa Grande. Typically you get a bunch of the locals down there on the weekends with their family’s. There is a restaurant there called Lola’s. Extremely over priced but definitely extremely chill. It’s named after the resident pig who is the town favorite. When we found her she was fast asleep under a beautiful tree.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Definitely will be back. If you read this far then it means you must be interested. Feel free to leave a note on stuff you would like to see more of and hear about.

Conference call at

2pm. Its now 1:30. At

the bank and the power goes out as soon as my number is called after waiting an hour and half….

Welcome to Costa Rica!

Okay it’s not a perfect Haiku but I got the first two lines right.