When it comes to parties, no one does it better than people of the Latin culture. Spirits are high and conversations are animated, but best of all, the food is always delectable and the music upbeat and very danceable. None of these factors has was lost on Putumayo Music when they released their new album, appropriately titled “Latin Party”, a compilation of twelve modern, up-tempo songs from a varied reach of Latin regions and influences. Latin people are very proud of their heritage and I think this CD demonstrates how new musicians pay homage to their musical Latino roots, while putting their own spin on it.

The album kicks off with “Big Apple Boogaloo” by Brooklyn Funk Essentials, a band that got its start in the early Nineties as a studio jam band that evolved into a group doing world tours, with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie sitting in, which adds a lot to your credibility. Another artist from Spanish Harlem, Luis Mangual offers his song “Son de Nueva York” for this album. Luis is a legendary sideman from the Sixties, backing such names as Johnny Pacheco and Celia Cruz. He retired from performing in the late Eighties but returned to the studio in 2007 with his brother, Jose, to record the album “Abril en Paris”, which is where this song first appeared.  And the group Yerba Buena, also from NYC, perform “Electric Boogaloo”, from their 2005 album “President Alien”, recorded with Venezuelan producer Andre Lorin, who has also worked with David Byrne, Tina Turner and Marisa Tome, so you know he can put the funk right in your face.

Cuban son is well represented here, with Raul Paz playing “Buena Suerte”. Paz, who has been living in Paris for the last decade and has played alongside Ruben Blades, really rips it up on this song.  Another Cubano band with a French connection is Mas Bajo. Also residing in France, the band is a cool mix of French, Cuban, Chilean and Mexican musicians who reflect their Afro-Latin ties. The band began playing cover tunes but has graduated to writing and performing their own material, including “Rico Montuno”, the song on this disc. Anything but conventional, Ska Cubano is obviously having a good time playing “Yri Yri Bon”. The band came into existence when London ska artist Natty Bo went to Havana to record. He inadvertently met Beny Billy, a former boxer, who quickly became the frontman for the new band Ska Cubano. The music is infectious and I see it as a standout on this album.

No Latin party disc would be complete without Colombian cumbia showing up and it does so in spades on this album. Fruka y Orquesta has been at it since the early Seventies. On this compilation, he offers an updated version of “Cumbia Del Caribe” by fellow Colombiano Edmundo Arias. And the Quantic Soul Orchestra presents “Regi Bugaloo” an instrumental from their 2007 album Tropidelico, which was actually recorded in Panama City. From Bogotá, the thirteen-member band Orquesta Lo Nuestro does their number “Ni Tilingo Ni Titingo”, a moving cumbia number with a salsa twist. Also from Colombia, Coffee Makers, who have generated a reggae underground uprising in that country, play an instrumental ska reggae original, “Las Calles de Medellin”, from their 2005 debut, “El Camino”.

Rounding out the Party are a song from Peruvian singer Cecilia Noël and The Wild Clams, doing what she calls, “hard core salsa” with the song “Asi Se Compone Un Son” and the Corpus Christi band Kombia Kings, with bassist A.B. Quintanilla, the sister of Selena, with their composition “Mi Gente”.

Did I say a Latin Party wasn’t complete without good food? Well, at the end of the liner notes (in English, Spanish and French), there are recipes for scallop ceviche and Cleriquot, a white sangria. If I have a knock on the project, it would be that I’d like to hear more South American and, of course, more Central American contributions. Is this a set-up for Latin Party Dos?

Latin Party is available at the Jaime Peligro bookstores in Tamarindo, Quepos and Tilaran, where they will gladly sample the music for their customers.

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.

Charles Darwin had it right: the strong survive and adapt to their ever-changing surroundings while the weak ones become mere memories. And the Darwin Theory can be witnessed in action in Managua, Nicaragua with the rock star Perrozompopo. Even the stage name he chose is indicative of his tenacity. Loosely translated, perrozompopo is a colloquialism for “street smart” but the nickname was actually first given to a species of gecko who stowed onboard in crates of goods coming from Cuba to aid the Sandinista uprising in Nicaragua in the 1970s. These non-indigenous lizards, easily identified by the red marking on their foreheads, quickly took over, running out all the local geckos, and a nickname was born.

Now, in the Twenty-first Century, the musician Perrozompopo (aka Ramon Mejia) has delivered another classic example of evolution. His first album, “Romper el Silencio” established his voice and style as a rocker with a message. The music is straight-forward Rock and the lyrics are about being politically and socially active in working toward beneficial change. The album caught the attention of Papaya Music, Costa Rica’s major music label, who signed on to distribute the disc. The second Perrozompopo CD, “Quiero Que Sepas” took on a varied look from the first. The lyrics kept his initial theme, concentrating on the plight of Central American women. For half of his new songs, he continued to employ his Nicaraguan urban rock band to accompany him. For the other half, Papaya brought him into their San Jose recording studios and surrounded him with talented, successful Costa Rican musicians, including members of the popular band Malpais and the three-time Grammy winners Editus. Another subtle change was printing the liner notes and lyrics in English as well as Spanish. The result was a more marketable, palatable product that allowed for a wider audience, further enhancing the evolution.

The new Perrozompopo album, “Canciones Populares Contestatarias” sees the artist reunited with his Managuan band, including new lead guitarist, Federico Miranda, who adds a little more punch and distinctive style than his predecessor. This entire album was recorded in Nicaragua and was funded by the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development, another feather in the cap of the street-wise survivor, who is rapidly being portrayed as the voice of a Nicaraguan generation. The twelve song disc kicks off with “9 Dias”, a song written a year ago about the trials and tribulations of living in a poverty-stricken country. In fact, four of the songs were written more than a year ago, as if the author was waiting for the right time to release them. Other standouts include “Cancion Toxica”, “Mirando al Sur” and the final cut, “Angel del Cielo”, a beautiful ballad and fitting close to the album. Perrozompopo seems more comfortable in his own urban setting, no matter how volatile it might be, since this is what the theme for the bulk of his songs is. And he always seems bent on positive change, and survival. Darwin (and Sandino) would be proud of him.

All of Perrozompopo’s CDs are available at the Jaime Peligro bookstores in Playa Tamarindo, Tilaran and Quepos, where they will gladly sample the music for their customers.

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.

The origin of reggae in Costa Rica dates back to the 1920s, when Jamaican leader Marcus Garvey evoked his ideas and beliefs throughout the Caribbean province of Limon. Born in St. Anne’s Bay, Jamaica, the future birthplace of Bob Marley, Garvey is considered the prophet of Rastafarianism. So, it is easy to see how reggae music is considered a kind of Costa Rican folk music.

Remaining consistent in its mission statement, Papaya Music recently unveiled its newest release, Costa Rica Reggae Nights. The CD embraces a variety of Costa Rican reggae bands and styles. Included on this disc are eleven bands, demonstrating the versatility during a span of the past two decades of reggae in this country. All the recordings were previously unreleased and the compilation offers songs in Spanish, English, and Limon Creole.

Baby Rasta Band, now defunct, appears twice on the CD. Ricardo “Baby” Collette, from Puerto Limon, took his band to San Jose to record as well as to reach a larger audience. They are generally recognized as Costa Rica’s first nationally popular, modern reggae band.

Bamaselo’s lead singer, Michael Livingston, was the first Costa Rican to sing Bob Marley songs in Spanish. The band got its start in the mid-1980s. Bamaselo means “we are going to do it” and they certainly do so on both songs preserved on this disc, with their highly inventive style of Latino and Jamaican music.

Mentados is from the new breed of twenty-first century reggae, which at times combines Latin punk and ska music into the reggae stew. “Frente al Mar”, their contribution on this compilation disc, is a good example of Mentados’ spin on modern reggae. Born and raised in Puerto Limon, Roberto Clarke was an original member of the Baby Rasta band. In 2001, he ventured south to Cahuita and formed the Trinity Roots Band. Their song “Modern Times” demonstrates the more laid back style of southeastern Costa Rica reggae.

Native Culture calls San Jose home. They have been together for nearly five years and recently completed their first CD. “Don’t Cry” is an example of the “old school” following in Costa Rica, more in the style of Bob Marley. It is a great example of how good a band can sound after playing together for half a decade. Next up is Ragga by Roots, with the song, “Baby Broke”. This quartet was founded in 1996 and had an immediate hit with “Jump to the Sound”. Both these songs are indicative of the rhythmic, less structured form of reggae dubbed “ragamuffin”. The last spot on the disc was appropriately reserved for Mekatelyu, the new bearers of the Costa Rica reggae torch. Lead singer Johnnyman’s easily identifiable voice on “Don’t Worry My Girl” is the trademark of the band, confirming its place in modern Costa Rican reggae.

The packaging on this disc bears the same standard as with all prior Papaya CDs. Even the artwork on the disc itself is undeniably Papayan, as they demonstrate again their astute drive to chronicle any and all Costa Rican music. Costa Rica Reggae Nights is available at the Jaime Peligro stores in Playa Tamarindo, Tilaran and Quepos, where they will gladly sample the music for their customers.

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.

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

Walter Ferguson is probably the last Calypsonian to learn his craft in this traditional, organic manner. Born in Guabito, Panama in 1919, he moved to Cahuita, Costa Rica at an early age with his father, Melsh, who was a cook for the Banana Company there. For years, Ferguson, or “Gavitt” as he is affectionately referred to by his wife and family, plied his trade with an old Martin guitar, creating songs and exchanging them with other wandering Calypso minstrels up and down the Caribbean coast of Central America. Walter even recorded a vinyl album of original songs in the early 1970s, which quickly slipped into obscurity along with its composer.

With time, the legend of Walter Ferguson had garnered legs of mythical proportion. Finally, in 2003, he broke a thirty year recording silence, agreeing to record a CD for Papaya Music, who had “discovered” him. Papaya has an austere reputation for its integrity in capturing and preserving authentic Central American music. At the time of their initial contact, Ferguson agreed to the recordings, but explained to Manuel Obregon, the president of Papaya, that he was eighty-four years old and had no desire or intention to go to a recording studio in San Jose. So Papaya brought the mountain to Mohammed, so to speak. They packed up and transported their recording equipment to Ferguson’s beloved Cahuita, where they set up a makeshift studio in the Ferguson family hotel there.

Mattresses, rugs and blankets were employed as soundproofing in one of the hotel rooms, to muffle the sounds of the local pet parrots and dogs, the passing buses and trucks on the streets. The result was titled “Babylon”, the first CD by one of Calypso’s forgotten kings. The disc is comprised of thirteen original tunes with only Ferguson accompanying himself on his old Martin, in a style he dubbed as “Porch Reggae”. Babylon portrays everyday life in the little towns along Costa Rica’s southeastern shoreline, with characters passing along from one calypso number and into the next, like images in a comic strip. The first two pressings of the disc sold out in just a few months.

One year later, Walter Ferguson was revitalized. Once again, Papaya had to disconnect all the refrigerators in a four block radius of the Ferguson Hotel in Cahuita (ostensibly to get the hum out of the wiring), quiet the pets and set up their hotel room/recording studio. For his second CD, titled “Dr. Bombadee”, Ferguson dusted off some of the songs he had nearly forgotten about from his purported two hundred fifty song repertoire. One of those gems, that needed very little polishing, is “One Pant Man”, that Ferguson wrote after the young woman he was living with accused him of being so poor that he owned only a single pair of pants. Along with nine other original songs on the second disc, Walter also renders his version of “Old Lady” by Papa Houdini, whom Ferguson considers to be his mentor. He also pays homage to traditional Jamaican music with his rendition of “72 Weeds”, a song with a ridiculously funny list of local plants which, if recited correctly, will cure any illness.

Walter Ferguson’s songs have an air of innocent pranks and jokes, a very healthy humor that some doctors might prescribe to their patients to forget all their own ills for a while. After the recording of Dr. Bombadee, Ferguson informed Papaya that it would be his final recording. In my opinion, Walter Ferguson should be proclaimed a national treasure. Both his CDs are available at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Tamarindo, Tilaran and Quepos, where they will gladly sample the music for their customers.

When Alice stepped through the looking glass, one of her first observations was that “things are not what they seem to be”. Lewis Carroll’s fairytale was written as a double-edged sword: a bright and cheery surface story, with an underlying cynical twin meaning. The rock duo who call themselves Amigosintimos have taken this theme and extrapolated on it with their debut CD, “En el Pais de las Maravillas”. There are direct references to Carroll’s work, including a song titled “Alicia” and a quote from Edgar Allen Poe in the lyric book which is included in the CD package.

Salvadoran Keren Mizrahl and Costa Rican Marco Arias met in 2002 and started making music together less than two years later. The concept for this disc has been evolving since then. The music is a collaboration between the two, with Keren writing most of the lyrics, singing lead and back-up vocals, and playing piano and acoustic rhythm guitar. Marco handles most of the music composition and guitar work, as well as some piano and vocals on the project. The songs are playful and bouncy, with bright, lilty vocal harmonies. The duo is ably assisted by producer Edu’  Olive’ on Fender Rhodes and Hammond organs, lending a circus/fantasy motif, which is depicted in the album artwork as well.

The irony lies between this Twenty-First Century Pop music on the surface and the serious political and social issues addressed in the content of the lyrics. The music certainly makes the message more digestible, especially in the songs “Amnesia” and “Voz de Guerra”. It also creates the possibility of a broader audience, verified by the album’s huge radio support from both 94.7 and Radio U. Not unlike the hippie movement forty years ago, some of the main issues center on loving more and shedding the warm coat of apathy. The sentiment is genuine and the music is infectious. “We’re not considered politically correct,” muses Arias.

An incredible job was accomplished on the slick mixing and mastering by two-time Grammy (Ruben Blades, “Tiempo”) recipient Oscar Marin. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Beatle’s “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was a major influence on the production of this LP. Studio guitar ace Bernal Villegas is all over the CD, playing on nearly every song. Even Hector Murillo, from Blues Latino, shows up for a cameo accordion appearance on one song. It’s an impressive legion of peripheral help, as we observe Amigosintimos “get by with a little help from their friends”.

The self-produced project was picked up for distribution by Papaya Music and given co-founder Manuel Obregon’s stamp of approval with a nice quote on the back of the jacket. The packaging is pure Papayan, too: nice, bright inks for the sleeves, an extensive booklet and a fold-out, eco-friendly jacket. The label has already backed a live promotional push for the band and the unveiling of its new CD. And given Papaya’s success and approval ratings, we should be hearing a lot more from Amigosintimos in the future and on the radio.

In Playa Tamarindo, Tilaran and Quepos, Amigosintimos is available exclusively at Jaime Peligro bookstores, where they will gladly sample the music for their customers.