To become a commercial success, a musician needs to have talent. But in the formula for success, a little luck and timing have to be factored into the equation. Still, there have been many very talented troubadours who have been in the right place at the right time and did not catch the train to fame. Usually, it’s because they overslept or “spaced out” and forgot all about it. And herein lays the key to fame and fortune: good management. Of all the musicians I have met, the successful ones have a dependable manager, usually a spouse or family member, taking them by the hand to catch the plane to Boston for a gig or to the dining table because it is time for lunch. Musicians live in a different dimension than the rest of us and that is one of the reasons we love them: they have a unique perspective and are able to articulate it, through poignant lyrics, blazing guitar riffs and amazing drum flurries that touch our souls.

In Costa Rica, Jaime Gamboa is a successful musician. He is one of the founders and the major songwriter of Malpais, one of this country’s most popular groups, with many other talented and successful musicians, including his brother Fidel and pianist Manuel Obrgon, one of the founders of Papaya Music, a major music label in Costa Rica. Jaime has also been one of the driving forces behind “Al Pie del Balcon”, an album of Guanacastecan serenades and “Tierra Seca”, an album of “modern folklore” from Guanacaste, performed by members of Malpais, Odilon Jaurez, and Jaime’s uncle and mentor, Max Goldemberg. Sr. Gamboa has also written books for young readers, books of poetry and participates in La Orquesta Esporadico. Whew! The word “prolific” comes to mind, but I don’t think that one phrase says enough.

Jaime Gamboa’s new venture has the appearance of a new horizon for him, a multi-media project that includes literature, music and the use of the internet. The physical part of this new project, a CD and book of short stories, are packaged together. The album is titled “La Cancion de Adan” and features Jaime at times solo, accompanied of Malpais on other occasions or simply brother Fidel and Uncle Max on others. But this is not by any stretch of the imagination a continuation of Malpais or Tierra Seca; to the contrary, I believe it is the continuation of the visions of Jaime, at times with his friends along for the ride. The songs are a collection of “traditional” and original scores, but the entire project takes on the look of an invented character and universe, so I suspect all the songs are actually Jaime’s. The photography and graphic design by Luciano Capelli are impeccable in displaying the overall ethereal mood of the project.

Packaging the CD together with the book of short stories was a novel concept and creates a unique collection. Realizing that some of Gamboa’s listening audience may not want a book with their album was good, insightful management, resulting in the release of the CD as a separate entity and should result in more sales. And Jaime listening to his managers and allowing this release indicates that he understands the formula for success.

Be suspicious when someone tells you that size doesn’t matter. On the contrary, when it comes to field guides, for example, the size of the book is a determining factor toward how well it will serve the customer. For example there are several beautiful coffee table books whose subject matter is the wildlife of Costa Rica. But I wouldn’t want to treat that book like a field guide, put it in my backpack and go into the jungle in search of its subject matter. Likewise, there are pocket guides that provide concise snapshots of the most common species of wildlife in Costa Rica, concise being the operative word. Pocket guides are handy but are limited and compact in their information as well.

Recently a field guide has appeared that fills this void in that it is compact, travels well and is a fountain of pertinent information. Simply titled “The Wildlife of Costa Rica”, this field guide is a collaboration of four experts in their respective fields. Fiona Reid is a biologist from Cambridge who has written more than a dozen books on mammals, including “A Field Guide to the Mammals of Central America and Southeast Mexico”; Jim Zook is an ornithologist who has lived and worked in Costa Rica for twenty-two years, coming here originally as a volunteer of the Peace Corps to teach environmental education; Twan Leenders is a biologist from The Netherlands, specializing in Animal Ecology, especially among amphibians and reptiles; Robert Dean has been studying and painting neotropical birds for a dozen years, including the artwork he did for the highly acclaimed “The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide”, which is considered The Bird Bible among the serious bird watchers here.

This two hundred-fifty page book is presented in five main sections: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and arthropods, each with a nice introduction. It also offers a very good glossary and an index of scientific and common names of each species. One very distinguishing attribute that I enjoy about this field guide is the presentation of twenty-four natural history vignettes interspersed throughout the book. Each vignette offers text that, accompanied by a photograph of the subject at hand, portray general points of interest, describing in greater detail the given species and the natural history and ecology of their habitats. With forty color photos and more than six hundred detailed color illustrations, this functional field guide exposes readers to the animals and other wildlife one is most likely to see in Costa Rica. I also appreciate the fact that all measurements in this book are being relayed in both metric as well as inch/foot terms. As a matter of fact, this book itself measures 14 cm by 21.5 cm (or 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 inches), a good daypack size.

I find the overall presentation of “The Wildlife of Costa Rica” – the layout, the language and the flow of information to be very user-friendly, especially for the inquisitive, non-scientist, such as myself. To be sure, there is a plethora of scientific information in this guide, which has adeptly been made digestible for the average reader. The guide is published and distributed by Zona Tropical, a Costa Rican company who, I believe, saw a need, filled it, and hit a home run in doing so. And a home run is a home run, no matter the size, and don’t let anyone tell you any differently.

“The Wildlife of Costa Rica” is available at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos and Tilaran, where they will gladly let the customer browse through their open copy of the book.

Did you know that frogs don’t drink water? It’s true: instead of lapping it up with their tongues in the conventional sense like a dog or a cat, frogs absorb water through their skin. I learned this bit of interesting information, and a lot more, when I recently read Adrian Forsyth’s new book, “Rainforests – Costa Rica and Beyond”. Forsyth, and award winning author and biologist, is definitely at home in the rainforest, drawing on more than forty years of experience as reference to present this publication. And it is some impressive experience that Adrian brings to the table: Vice President of the Blue Moon Fund, Director of Biodiversity Science for the Andean/Amazon Foundation, a PhD from Harvard in tropical ecology, Vice President of Conservation International, a research associate at the Smithsonian Institute, and the list goes on from there. Forsyth is also the author of at least five books ensconced in ecology, including the eye-catching title, “The Natural History of Sex”.

Dr. Forsyth does a nice job of interspersing the topics of his chapters between specific species and general locations. And the photographs by the husband and wife team of Michael and Patricia Fogden work complimentary to the text; indeed they have an impressive display of very unique and very clean, clear shots: enough to merit a book of their own. In fact, they have spent six months a year living in Monteverde for more than three decades and have published two of their own books: “Animals and Their Colours” and  “Costa Rica: Wildlife of the National Parks and Preserves”.

There is obviously a delicate balance in nature, and Forsyth does a wonderful job portraying this interdependency, the worlds within worlds in the labyrinth called Nature. He intersperses personal, hands-on experience with scientific fact as well as a little humor in his story-telling, revealing another part of his human side. I especially enjoyed the sections dealing with the co-evolution of an animal and corresponding plant life: the quetzal and avocado’s inter-dependence, for example, as well as the interdependency of the hermit hummingbird and the heliconias, along with all the tributary life systems attached to this relationship, another example of the interwoven fabric of Nature. I was also particularly in awe after reading the chapter about camouflaging techniques used in the rainforest and equally impressed with the accompanying photos.

Dr. Forsyth is an ecologist and there is a message about preserving the planet in the book, but he does a good job waiting until the reader is well into the text to bring up the subject and then he spoon feeds us subtly, rather than cramming it down our throats.  Adrian also shares his insights about observing nature in its natural setting and that it is much more beneficial for everyone involved to sit down, be still, and let nature come to you, viewing it in its natural habitat. The book is a beautiful presentation of information and photos. The Forward by E.O. Wilson, himself a research professor in evolutionary biology at Harvard, is testament in itself to the books credibility.

“Rainforests – Costa Rica and Beyond” is available at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Playa Tamarindo, Tilaran and Quepos.

It had never crossed my mind that one of the reasons that the Osa Peninsula has remained such pristine terrain is because its isolation has helped it to remain an entity. This geographical logic comes up early in the text of the stunning new book “Osa – Where the Rainforest Meets the Sea”, a successful collage of photographic art and insightful journalistic essays that portray this unique region in southwest Costa Rica like no publication that has preceded it. In fact, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard Professor Emeritus Edward O. Wilson proclaimed the work, “the best way to experience (Osa) short of going there.” High accolades, indeed.

The two hundred twenty pages are separated into eleven sections with a forward by internationally renowned biologist, conservationist and nature writer Adrian Forsyth, certainly lending more credence to this two-man project by highly acclaimed nature photographer Roy Toft and writer Trond Larsen. Toft’s work has been featured in National Geographic, Smithsonian, Audubon and Discover Magazine, to name a few. He has been traveling to the Osa Peninsula for more than twenty years. His partner in this book, biologist/conservationist Trond Larsen received his PhD from Princeton and has been conducting scientific research on the Osa for more than a decade, has established a new biological station there and is currently a research fellow with the World Wildlife Federation and the Smithsonian Institute. These are all lovely credentials but honestly, the book speaks for itself and in ways that make the resumes seem inconsequential: it is a masterpiece. The scenery photos are spectacular and the writing is truly heartfelt. And I think it is the wildlife photographs that help to put this project head and shoulders above all others along with the obvious emotion, the care that went into the entire presentation. Trond told me that it took him nearly two years to find time away from his research biologist job to put together his half of the project and that Toft’s photos in the book are a cross section of literally thousands of shots he has taken in the Osa over the past decade or more.

More than fifty years ago, botanist Paul Allen wrote of the Osa that “it is difficult to believe that anyone could view these forests without emotion”. That sentiment emanates from every page of this publication. The staggering wealth of bio-diversity and life there is portrayed both in images and the written word, along with the sense of the delicate balance, the micro-environments and unique situation that exists at Osa. The inter-relationships, dependences, not unlike a woven fabric, are astounding. Trond Larsen has done a highly commendable job of making this information palatable to a lay person, such as me, for example. I have to say that reading the text in this book also has a certain sobering effect, an immediate diminishing of human ego.

The division of information into chapters is also subtly yet well calculated, beginning with a nice overview and history of the peninsula. Four of the chapters are dedicated to the different animal groups in the area: mammals, arthropods, reptiles and amphibians, and birds. Another chapter focuses strictly on the flora, while three other chapters each are immersed in a particular ecosystem: watersheds, the rainforest intersecting with the ocean, and the Golfo Dulce. The final chapter, “The Human Animal”, looks at how we have and will fit into the history of this unique area. The book also dedicates, not surprisingly, one chapter to the importance of conservation. Personally, I think the whole book does a good job of reminding us about this essential topic.

It is important to note that a portion of each sale of this book is donated directly to conservation projects on the Osa Peninsula. The book is available at all three Jaime Peligro book shops in Playa Tamarindo, Tilaran and Quepos, where the customer can view a sample copy of “Osa – Where the Rainforest Meets the Sea”.

Recently, the University of Costa Rica published its third edition of “The History of Costa Rica”, the first of its kind to be translated and printed in the English language. Written by Ivan Molina and Steven Palmer, two of the leading and most recognized Costa Rican historians, the book is concise yet thorough and current, spanning this country’s rich history from the arrival of human beings, at around 12,000 B.C., to the beginning of the Twenty-First Century, including the bulk of Arias’ term as president of the country.

This is the fifth book to be written in collaboration by these two authors. Palmer has a Ph.D. in Latin American History from Colombia University in New York and Molina received his Masters degree in History at the University of Costa Rica, where both men have taught. Their books have won many prestigious awards, including the Aquileo Echeverria National Prize in History, the Cleto Gonzalez Viquez Prize in History and the Ancora Prize from La Nacion, Costa Rica’s premier newspaper. The book comes armed with eight different maps, more than eighty photographs, paintings and drawings, a comprehensive bibliography and an index that offers its readers a handy, thorough reference and complete chronicle of key events in Costa Rica’s history.

It is important to note the “The History of Costa Rica” is not published by the Tourism Agency. Rather, it covers the essential background and characteristics of the country that the reader is living in or visiting. There are no descriptions of menus from restaurants that have paid to be mentioned or phone numbers to make reservations at a hotel near a volcano or the beach. What the reader does get in this publication is a ringside seat on a safari with prehistoric hunters, their means of domesticating local vegetation and the subsequent formation of tribal societies, their cultural practices and how they progressed. One is allowed to witness the arrival of Cristoforo Colombo at Puerto Limon, then called Cariari, in 1502, and Ponce de Leon’s visit to Golfo de Nicoya seventeen years later. The reader is given privy to view the “civilized” diseases from Europe, such as typhoid, influenza and slavery, reduce the population of indigenous peoples from an estimated 400,000 to a mere 10,000 in less than a century. It would then take Costa Rica more than three hundred years to replenish this original population. You will also learn how San Jose’ flourished due to the tobacco cultivation there; and you can watch the establishment of the United Fruit Company and their systematic deforestation of surrounding terrain in order to plant groves of bananas, sugar cane and coffee – the “Golden Bean”.

The reader is also invited to mingle with the cultural swell of the 1930s and watch the social reform and flirtation with communism during the ‘40s. You will also learn how the Civil War in 1948 abolished the military here. It also gave women and all black people the right to vote and implemented the formation of everyone’s good friend, ICE (the Costa Rican national electric power company). The reader is there when then-president Oscar Arias Sanchez receives his Nobel Peace prize in 1987 for refusing to allow then-president Ronald Reagan to bring in the U.S. militia. Indeed, the Costa Rican people have a lot to be proud of in their lengthy fight to establish and preserve democracy in their Jewel of Central America.

“The History of Costa Rica” is available at Jaime Peligro book shops in Playa Tamarindo, Tilaran and Quepos.

Writing humor is a cruel, nasty and thankless endeavor more times than not. Trust me because I have tried. Telling a humorous story in person to a group of people is completely different because the speaker can control the pace, the cadence, the intonation and eventually, the punch line. Writing these same words onto a page, handing it to a complete stranger, walking away and allowing the writing to convey humor on its own takes a leap of faith and a unique storytelling talent for the humorist to succeed. And Matt Casseday has pulled it off.

Sr. Casseday is a fifty-something ex-pat who has been calling Costa Rica home for more than two decades. He has been living in the Quepos area for about half that time and writing columns for Quepolandia, the local monthly magazine there, for more than five years. He recently culled through his collection of articles, selecting fifty-four of them to compile into a publication of his own, titled Crazy From the Heat. I think the operative word in that title is the first one, and I mean that in a good way. Matt takes a wry look at the trials and tribulations of living within another culture, specifically, being a “gringo in Ticolandia”, as he calls it. Sr. Casseday has lived and worked in a few different locales as well as owned a car and a business in Costa Rica, is married with a Costa Rican woman, and in short, has easily garnered enough material for his book with first-hand experience.

I’ve lived in Costa Rica for nearly eight years now and I could recognize myself and relate to many of the situations he describes in his stories. At times I found myself literally laughing out loud at some of Matt’s stories. His use of tongue-in-cheek and dry observational humor hooked me in more than once or twice. Certainly, not all the stories tickled my funny bone to the same degree. Humor is an individual taste. But I really enjoyed his piece titled “Gringos in Paradise” which describes four classic ex-pat caricatures. Despite the disclaimer, I swore I had really met each of these exaggerated personalities. I also laughed heartily at his article about the lack of political correctness embraced by the local gentry.

Matt Casseday could certainly never be labeled discriminatory; to the contrary, he appears to be more than willing to take a jab at everyone and anyone in this country (including himself) with equal verve. And it is this quality that for me lends to his credibility. The popular knock on satiric literature is that it lampoons the folly of existing situations without offering any viable solutions. I beg to differ. I think Matt has demonstrated a perfectly logical way to navigate contentedly through an illogical and at times frustrating scenario: with humor, and yes, compassion, the all-purpose salves to soothe your emotional wounds. Hey, maybe this gringo isn’t so crazy after all!

Crazy From the Heat is available at the Jaime Peligro book shops in Quepos, Playa Tamarindo and Tilaran.

Armando is a young Tico boy who has lived his entire nine years with his family, just a stones-throw from Playa Real on the Pacific Ocean in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. He’s a smart kid with an active curiosity and Playa Real has continually offered him an abundance of different ways to explore and learn. Upon his request, Armando’s father allows him to spend the night alone on the beach on the evening of his ninth birthday because Armando wants to witness the phenomena of the Baula turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. What transpires on that night has a huge impact on Armando: he does, indeed, see a Baula lay her eggs. In fact, the turtle introduces herself (Yes! She speaks!) as “Annabella”, or Bella for short, and has quite a story to tell the impressionable Armando.

This story is the premise of “Armando and La Baula”, the new, self-published book by David Robert. The story line moves right along, guaranteeing to keep young readers’ interest. There are more than a few good lessons concerning ecology, honesty, the value of a promise along the way, making it well worth it for the parents to read along with their children. Or even to read it alone for their own good: there is information in the book about both the life cycle of the Baula turtle and some of the species-threatening problems they are currently experiencing of which I was not aware. The chapters have been separated by the wonderful watercolor illustrations of Ellie Cox, helping the young reader to visualize Armando and his surroundings through the various phases of his adventure. It is a story that succeeds on a few different levels at being worthy of any young reader’s collection. Along the way, there are wonderful geographic descriptions and folkloric stories, all playing a part in the story line. The plight of the Baula turtle and many other species of Costa Rican wildlife is not a new development. But teaching people at an early age about it seems like a positive step to help come up with a solution. And David Robert’s book certainly makes the message easily digestible for a new generation. In fact, the story points toward a few viable answers and alternatives, with the potential for the young reader to become his parents’ teacher.

Armando and La Baula is available at Jaime Peligro bookstores in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos, and Tilaran or can be ordered at: jaimepeligro123@hotmail.com

Willow Zuchowski needs a hat rack simply to distinguish her many occupations: this woman wears a lot of different hats. First and foremost, Ms. Zuchowski is a botanist who has lived in the Monteverde area of Costa Rica for nearly three decades. She had come to Costa Rica a few times in the late Seventies as a vacationing botanist, then accepted a position in the early Eighties that allowed her to return to Monteverde to work as a field assistant on a hummingbird-plant interaction project and has called that area “home” since then. Willow is also a renowned author with four books to her name, as well as a booklet of Common Flowering Plants of the Monteverde Cloud Forest and a four-fold laminate covering the Cloud Forest of Montverde. She writes passionately about this area. Willow is also an adept illustrator and includes her work in each of her books. Truly, the culmination of these endeavors makes Willow Zuchowski a formidable teacher and instructor. Her works are detailed and specific enough to serve any advanced botany student and yet straightforward and digestible for any lay person, such as myself. For me, this is an indication of a natural teacher.

A good example of the cohesive mix of her talents lies between the covers of the book “An Introduction to Cloud Forest Trees  Monteverde, Costa Rica”, for which she rendered all the illustrations. The text, written by William Haber, covers eighty-eight common species of cloud forest trees, indigenous to that locale. The book is separated into three cohesive sections, beginning with an overview of Monteverde that covers its geography, climate and soil, along with a description of the various forms of pollination and seed dispersal and an overview of the biodiversity of the vegetation there and in Costa Rica in general.

The second section of the book is the real meat of the publication, dealing with observing and identification of the trees, dividing them into ten major groups for the benefit of the reader. Willow’s illustrations are detailed and specific, testimony to her gift of communicating not only with words but with her drawings as well. The third and final section is a series of four appendices, including a very useful glossary of botanical terms. Author Mark Plotkin has been quoted as saying that, “this book belongs in the backpack of all nature lovers headed for Central America”. I agree wholeheartedly.

Willow’s other publications include “Tropical Trees of Costa Rica” and “Tropical Blossoms of Costa Rica”, two handy field guides, as well as the extensive “Tropical Plants of Costa Rica: a Guide to Native and Exotic Flora”. All of Ms. Zuchowski’s books are available at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Playa Tamarindo, Tilaran and Quepos.

Her newest project is a native plant propagation and garden initiative called ProNativas, which had its impetus in Monteverde and is now spreading throughout Costa Rica.

So there we have it: Willow Zuchowski: illustrator and author, teacher, ecologist and botanist currently in search of a new tree, where she can hang her hats of many shapes and colors…

For readers interested in Ms Zuchowski’s Monteverde laminate, please refer to: www.massaudubon.org/shop/books.php?type=pubs.