I was walking down the street at mid-day. It was late in the dry summer season, and the sun was right overhead, blazing hot, ready to fry the skin of anyone who lingered in the glow for too long. It was heat that could wound as easily as heal. The afternoon before I had gone to the playa, walking at full stride through the sun-baked sand, bouncing and grimacing like some beach loony, making little noises of pain until I reached the shoreline and immersed myself in the sea. Twenty-four hours later the bottoms of my feet still tingled. This flaring sun could do the same thing to your face or back or shoulders in the time it took to eat lunch. Pedestrians sought whatever puny shade they could find in the center of town. Indoors, people hunkered down near ceiling fans or hid out in air conditioned offices. Life went on under the sun in a distorted, hazy, slow motion dance. Days and days of unabated heat could make one crazy, or at least desperate for a change in the weather. 

And then it happened—rain fell, a substantial rain, the first in months. Just as there are two seasons—Summer and winter, verano and invierno—in Costa Rica, likewise there are two times of year when I become officially sick and tired of the season. The first heavy rains came precisely at the same time I was cursing the dust and relentless intensity of the heat, like a microwave at high noon. Early April was the time for the skies to open and bring relief. Six, seven months down the road—the dark afternoons of October, early November– and I would be cursing the mud and the clouds and the endless precipitation, and the fact that I had to pay a guy 40,000 colons every month to chop the wild grass that sprung up all over my property. 

Of course, another reason to be thankful for the break in solar activity is that, yes, it is 2012, the end of times year as predicted by the Mayans on their long count calendar. The Mayans were keen observers of the sun and even the most skeptical among us might occasionally admit that it could be something more than mere coincidence that freakishly high temperatures and intense solar storm activity are part of the daily menu in the first months of this year. Personally speaking, I am not sure of the significance of the Mayan calendar happening to stop on December 21, 2012. Maybe the high priest in charge of plotting the calendar died and had only gotten as far as that date. Maybe they were too busy trying to salvage their culture in its final days to worry about continuing a calendar. There are still Mayans living in Guatamala and Mexico and I have yet to hear any dire predictions from their corner, likely because they are too busy with day-to-day survival to put much import in something done centuries back. 

I was recently informed that Nostradamus also predicted our demise to occur around this same time, to which my first thought was, “Is there anything that Nostradamus isn’t alleged to have predicted?” His writings can be interpreted so many ways that you can likely give him credit for predicting the space shuttle, every war of the past five centuries, Twitter, Flipper the dancing dolphin, and the fact that I drink two cups of coffee when I arise from bed in the morning. 

It is easy to forget that we are but a speck in the vastness of the ever-expanding universe, living on a planet that has gone through numerous meteorological cataclysms in its long existence; the notion that Planet Earth will one day be sucked out of its gravitational field into a cosmic black hole, or blown to bits in a collision with “Planet X” or destroyed by a meteor or scorched out of existence from the effects of endless solar storms certainly seems plausible. In the meantime, the rains are here, so I am going out in a while for a short smoke and a long drink to celebrate not only the cooling relief, but also the fact that life goes on for another day. Cheers!

By Pat Cheek

I recently spent a little time with Renate at the Hotel Parador. It was a day off from her swimming and teaching  before moving on. 

As  a little background, Renate began swimming at the  age of 4 when her mother coaxed her into ever deepening water until she was swimming- we should say she’s been swimming ever since.  She has logged about 4,800 km and still kicking since making saving the oceans her life calling. 

Renate suffered a medical disaster in 2005 when a torn meniscus turned into a massive thrombosis, neglected too long by her health care provider, there was nothing that could be done. In need of reinventing herself she looked to what she loved, swimming. The swimming helps her to manage her health problem and benefits the ocean .

 In 2007, Renate came to Costa Rica for an open ocean 7km race. Her journey then brought her to the first ever crossing of Golfo Dulce’s 22km by an open ocean swimmer. The publicity this swim generated has showed her the way to continue her swims. This is her 5^th swim of the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, beginning at the Panama border, finishing at the Nicaragua border. She often spends 8 hours in the water and finds that the benefits to her health and well being are immense. 

Renate’s goal is for the entire coast of Costa Rica, preferably both the Pacific and Caribbean, is to be designated Marine Sanctuaries. She certainly isn’t against sport fishing or commercial fishing but stated that regulations are going to have to be enforced if the oceans are to be saved.  She stated that the effects of global warming, over- fishing and environmental neglect will have our oceans without edible fish by 2048 – if nothing changes.  As a part of this needed change, she put her background in education into the educating of school children along the way. Now she teaches in local schools every other day between swimming. Teaching marine education and conservation to children of all ages believing the children are our hope for the future in learning the benefits of protecting the ocean and teaching others.

 She plans two more trips to Costa Rica to continue to swim the coast in hopes of realizing this goal. 

Renate depends on donations and the generosity of people and places along her swim. Hotel Parador sponsored her time in this area and helped to set her teaching schedule as well. She was very grateful for their assistance and generosity. She invites our readers to visit her website at www.costaricamermaid.com, or email her at renatemermaid@gmail.com  for more information.    It was a pleasure visiting with her and we wish her well.

By Jim Parisi

The first time I listened to “Musica Profana”, the new CD by Rialengo, I found myself being impressed time and again by the vocal and instrumental harmonies and the seamless, gentle flow of the melodies. The music is a mesh of Cumbia, from Colombia, and Swing Criolla, which itself is a marriage of Peruvian Criolla and American swing music, all blended in a Costa Rican, Latin stew. Francisco Murrillo, the singer and songwriter of the band, has a perfect voice to portray this flowing music. Francisco was born in Rialengo, a neighborhood in Guapiles, on the road to Limon, on the Caribbean shore of Costa Rica. 

The ten song disc reaches out still further musically, embracing influences from such diverse styles as Reggae, electronica, straight-forward Rock and even rap, all the while not losing its Swing Criolla backbone. And the music simply floats along, a very Caribbean sensation, indeed. The opening “Intro” sets the mood right away, followed by “Cumbia” with the vocal harmonies of Bernardo Quesada and Karla Gutierrez. The use of female accompaniment on vocals is a very nice vehicle for this style of music, the harmonics blending beautifully with Francisco’s voice. Guitarist Carlos Delgado shows his expertise throughout the disc, especially on the reggae-influenced “Andar el Camino” and the rocky “La Malacrianza”; Carlos has been a part of the Costa Rican music scene for more than two decades, bringing an impressive resume with him, having played and recorded with too many names to list here, so I will only mention Manuel Obregon, Ray Tico, Perrozompopo, The Escats, Jazz Garbo and Bernardo Quesada, who co-produced the album with the band and sings back-up on many of the songs. Quesada recently released “Donde Te Espera Mi Nombre” with Rumba Jam, another swing Criolla CD, but of a more metropolitan sound, with more brass and horns. I would consider the two albums more complimentary than competitive. 

But back to Rialengo and its diverse, smooth groove. I like the accompaniment of Hector Murillo on accordion on the song “Fin del Mundo” and the suave clarinet playing by Checko Davila on “Musica Profana” to lend to the sound of the American Swing era. I also think the exemplary keyboard work by Nelson Alvarez helps give this harmonic music a rich, full texture throughout the album. And guest appearances by Guadalupe Urbina, Yaco and Perrozompopo add to the disc’s diversity, as well as giving a nod of approval from these seasoned veterans. The fact that Papaya Music, one of the premiere labels inCentral America, has decided to distribute this project also speaks a lot about its potential. 

Swing Criolla is definitely undergoing a revival, potentially putting the musical genre and its accompanying dance style on the international map. When it does, Rialengo and the aforementioned Rumba Jam will be there to take their bows, and then, who knows, possibly go on a world tour together. Until then, their CDs are available at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos and Nuevo Arenal, where they will gladly sample the music for their customers.

Captain Jon Anderson

www.quepostropicalwaterssportfishing.com 

We are thrilled that hotel owners and wedding planners unanimously agreed to stop setting off fireworks in Manuel Antonio due to their negative impact on the wildlife and environment here! 

Fireworks create a very serious problem and a very dangerous one for the rainforest. We have found that most people do not want to cause harm to the wildlife of our area, that is part of the reason they are visiting or living here. But ignorance (which means “lack of knowledge, education and unawareness of something, often of something important”) is the main culprit. So by  writing this article, people will now know the effects of fireworks on the wildlife and the environment, and will understand the seriousness of it. 

Firework displays and celebrations bring confusion, anxiety and fear into the lives of animals, causing many to run in an effort to escape the frightening detonations. 

Firework explosions can produce a blind panic in animals that can lead to serious injury, deep-rooted, debilitating fears, or even death. This is, in part, because the events do not last long enough for animals to become accustomed to the explosions. Moreover, the ears of most animals are considerably more sensitive than the human ear. Therefore, the explosion of a firework (which can emit sounds of up to 190 decibels, a full 110 to 115 decibels higher than the 75- to 80-decibel range, where damage to the human ear begins) not only is proportionately more disturbing to an animal, it can also affect an animal’s acute sense of hearing. And animals that are too close to firework explosions often suffer significant burns and eye damage. Fireworks generate a noise level higher than the noise from gunshots (140 decibels) and low-level flying jets (100 decibels), which can cause irreversible ear damage, such as tinnitus and loss of hearing. 

Also, the damage to the environment is quite serious. The color in fireworks comes from a variety of chemicals and metallic substances, many of which are toxic to animals and to humans! From the gunpowder needed to fuel their flight to the metallic materials that color their explosions, fireworks often contain carcinogenic or hormone-disrupting substances that can seep into soil and water, not to mention the lung-clogging smoke they release into the air and the plastic debris they scatter.

Dr. David Noakes, a zoologist at the University of Guelph, Ontario, points out that the combined responses to fireworks of panic and disorientation can result in birds’ flying into a building or too far out to sea. After a loud bang, most birds will fly away in fright, and the nesting mothers of the flock sometimes cannot find their own nest upon return, endangering the well-being of nestlings. 

We hope we have convinced you why it is so important not to have fireworks at any event in the area. If you want people to understand why you aren’t having fireworks, KSTR will gladly supply you with flyers to pass out at an event. What some people have done which is really nice, is to make a donation to KSTR instead of fireworks, and that can be put on the flyer as well, saying that the donation was made in their guests honor and given to all attending or can be made into a poster for the event. We really want to help you and the rainforest, and we can do so as a team! Thanks to you all!

The answer is; Absolutely, definitely. Yes. Flow!

After all, when you think about it, the opposite of flowing is stopping, or worse yet, stagnating, and we surely would not want that to be a part of our yoga practice. This month’s yoga pose is more of an intention then an actual pose,  it is to flow, big time. All this month in my classes we will focus on finding our flow in our yoga practices in a number of ways. The style of yoga that I offer to my students is named “ Vinyassa Flow Yoga”, and many styles of yoga also make use of this concept. What is this flow you might ask?

It is similar to when you’ve been dancing to your favorite music, or running for miles without getting tired, or talking with a good friend and realizing that many hours have gone by. Flow is moving without effort, it’s putting out a lot while receiving just as much, if not more energy, in return. It is a great feeling, and when you find it in your yoga practice you really begin to fly.

Have you ever watched a person float through their yoga postures, and it looks effortless? They’re flowing. All you have to do is connect with what your doing, sink in deep, and let it happen. Some come to their first yoga class ever, and it appears easily. Some may need to spend a bit more time, a few more classes, in order to learn the language of yoga instruction, or build up a bit more stamina, and that is perfectly o.k. It can be a like going to a dance class, maybe learning to Salsa. You might get into it half way through the first song, and loose yourself in it. Or, you might take a few more classes as you get the footwork down and learn the beats. In any case, you know when it arrives, and then you go for it.

You can flow in any and all parts of a yoga practice, any of them. A great example of a series of yoga postures that can express this flow are the “Sun Salutations”. There are several different ones, and even a fantastic “Moon Salutation” series of postures. Vinyassa Flow Yoga includes a good number of various Salutations in a typical yoga practice. In a nutshell, a Sun Salutation series of postures will take you from standing up tall, to flat on the ground, to raising up into one or more warrior poses, and eventually bring you back to a standing pose. Throughout all of this we are sending our breath, both inhalations and exhalations, into each and every movement. We also utilize “engagements” in our muscles in order to make certain parts of our bodies stronger, and other parts lighter ( see past articles here ).

This combination of breath, movement, engagements and some good music offers us a great recipe to create our flow. I’ve been in classes that use beautiful serene flute music from India for mesmerizing gentle flows, and other classes that played loud Led Zeppelin tunes to create high energy flows. What ever “flows your boat”.

All of this month we will be really paying attention to the essentials in order to create our Yoga Flow. I offer private individual and group classes here at our Manuel Antonio retreat, and can also come to you. If you are interested in setting up your own class, or joining one that we already have going, just let me know. Yoga can be a wonderful part of your life, and I hope that I can play a role in opening that up to you.

You know the days of the week en español, don’t you?  Nooo? Why am I not surprised? Joke….Ok, let’s learn them: 

Domingo (Sunday) de Ramos, everybody gets a piece of palm to welcome Jesucristo.  El lunes (Monday), el martes (Tuesday) and el mièrcoles everything is normal until midnight when some people of the municipalidades are working (hard to believe but it is true, jajaja) and closing the liquor cabinets and cantinas with tape because it is prohibido to sell booze during el Jueves (Thursday) Santo and el Viernes (Friday) Santo. Tranquil@, you can come back to your favorite bar el sábado (Saturday) at 11 a.m. and el Domingo de Resurrección  you can eat red meat again in case your familia is very católica and they decided to do abstinencia during the Holy Week. 

Here we go guys: this is serious, very serious: 

EVERYTHING has to agree.

EVERYTHING has to match.

EVERYTHING has to agree and match.

EVERYTHING has to match and agree.

When we need to describe something we need to use words that describe things (just for the record, a word that describes things is called ADJECTIVE).

For example colors.  Colors are adjectives when they describe Things.  Things have gender.  Things have gender and pluralSSS.  Guess what?

Colors have to agree/match with the gender of the Things.  Colors have to agree/match with the gender and the plural of the Things.

Question:  ¿How do you say-Cómo se dice “white” en español?

There are 4 ways to say “white” en español.  There are 4 “words” that equal “white” en español.   They are NOT interchangeable, ok? “White” can be:  blancO  -  blancA  -  blancOS  -  blancAS.

Ready to mingle?  Ready to agree and to match everything?  Remember that en español:

EVERYTHING has to agree.

EVERYTHING has to match.

EVERYTHING has to agree and match.

EVERYTHING has to match and agree. 

And remember also that en español:

“The” can be:   la  -  el  -  las  -  los.

Ok, let’s go!!!! 

Book = Libro  *  The book = El libro.

The white book  *  El librO blancO. 

BookS = LibroS  *  The bookS = LoS libroS.

The white bookS  *  Los librOS blancOS. 

Table = Mesa  *  The table = La mesa.

The white table  *  La mesA blancA. 

TableS = MesaS  *  The tableS = LaS mesaS.

The white tableS.  *  Las mesAS blancAS. 

Do NOT say: 

librO blancA  *  librO blancOS  *  librO blancAS 

Match the “O”:  librO blancO 

EL librO blancO.

 Do NOT say: 

librOS blancO  *  librOS blancAS  *  librOS blancA 

Match the “OS”:  librOS blancOS 

LOS librOS blancOS. 

Do NOT say: 

mesA blancO  *  mesA blancAS  *  mesA blancOS 

Match the “A”:  mesA blancA 

LA mesA blancA. 

Do NOT say: 

mesAS blancA  *  mesAS blancOS  *  mesAS blancO 

Match the “AS”:  mesAS blancAS 

LAS mesAS blancAS. 

¡Buen trabajo people! 

I suppose that you noticed that when you want to describe things, the Spanish word order is reversed.  Think “backwards”:  NOUNS (words that name things, people, animals or anything else) first; and then ADJECTIVES (words that describe things, people, animals or anything else), 

I suppose that you noticed that the Days of the Week-Días de la Semana are masculinos and don’t need to be capitalized…and…

…I suppose that you noticed that “Matchment” is not a word. I made it up (my students always do). 

Don’t forget to stock some booze.  ¡Salud!  

OS is a certified and experienced Spanish teacher.  He gives One on One, Group, and Immersion Classes.  He also offers a “Travel and Learn” program tailored for persons renewing their tourist visas.

¿Lost in Translation?  (506) 88-222-936.

www.Facebook.com/SpanishbyOS

By Jack Ewing

Those of us who live within the bounds of the Path of the Tapir Biological Corridor are among a privileged few. With most of the world suffering the impacts of over development we live in one of the few places in the world where biodiversity is increasing and has been doing so since the mid 1980s. This is due to a number of factors including the work of many people who live here and understand the importance of restoring wildlife habitat. The work of the Asociación Amigos de la Naturaleza del Pacífico Central y Sur (ASANA) on the biological corridor project has been the driving force that has influenced the change.

The Path of the Tapir Biological Corridor is bounded by the Savegre River to the north, the Tinamastes Ridge to the east, the Grande de Térraba River to the South, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. As late as the 1920s the area which comprises what is now the corridor was completely wild land covered by primary rainforest and inhabited by a multitude of fauna. The first settlers to move into the area cleared the land with axes and machetes. Then they used it to grow crops and raise cattle. By the 1950s people were using chain saws and bulldozers to fell the trees and clear the land. By the early 1970s when I came to Hacienda Barú most of the usable land had already been cleared, primarily for cattle pasture. Beef export for the fast food industry in North America was a big business in Costa Rica, and raising cattle was profitable. In this region Hacienda Barú was one of the few places that hadn’t been entirely deforested. Of its 330 hectares (815 acres,) almost half had been cleared for cattle ranching and rice farming. There was a mangrove estuary and two small forest fragments in the lowlands and about 170 hectares(420 acres) of primary rainforest in the highlands. The rest was mostly devoid of trees.

In the past when it had been necessary to build a fence, the first step was to cut down some trees. These were then split into posts using metallic wedges of different sizes which were driven into the trunk with a sledge. The problem was that all of the good trees, the ones that were resistant to rot, had already been cut down, and posts made from those that remained would rot in less than five years. For that reason I decided to use living posts. Instead of cutting down trees, we would be planting them, and when they were well rooted and thick enough, we would nail the wire to them. In the tropics certain species of trees can be grown from a cutting. In other words you can cut a branch off of the tree, stand it up in the shade until roots sprout from the bottom end, dig a shallow hole, stick it in the ground, and it will grow into a tree. In the late 1970s we started using this type of posts every time we had to build a fence. The types of trees that grow from cuttings are almost always fast growing species. In the tropics that means that they can easily reach three to four meters in height in a couple of years.

I was amazed to see that with only a single line of trees about twice as tall as a tall person, the monkeys started using them to move between forest fragments. The first time I saw white-faced capuchin monkeys moving down a line of trees was a little over two years after the trees had been planted. At that time there was a troop of monkeys in the mangrove estuary, located in the lowlands near the mouth of the Barú River, and several troops in the highland rainforest. Occasionally monkeys would move from one to the other. Prior to the living fences this meant crossing 400 meters of open pasture. I once saw a big dog go after a monkey that was walking across this gap. Sure that the dog would kill the monkey, I cringed in anticipation of the slaughter that I expected to take place. To my surprise the monkey jumped on the dog’s back, dug its claws into the dog’s flanks, gouged  the dog’s eyes with its fingers and bit the dog’s ears. The terrified dog yelped, screamed, rolled, and ran in tight circles trying to rid itself of the monkey. When the monkey finally let the dog go, it ran for home with its tail between its legs. Though we didn’t realize it at the time, the living fences we were planting would eventually provide a means for the monkeys to move between forest fragments without risking encounters with dogs, coyotes and other predators.

Even though these living fence lines were only one tree wide, they were functioning as wildlife corridors in their simplest form. When people ask me how wide a biological corridor has to be, I always say that it has to be at least one tree wide, but anything wider than that is better. One line of trees is better than 400 meters of open pasture, as I’m sure the monkey that encountered the dog will agree, or maybe in this case, the dog that encountered the monkey. A corridor 100 meters wide is better than that, and, of course, one a kilometer or five kilometers wide is better yet. There were two areas in the lowlands of Hacienda Barú where poor soil conditions prevented the establishment of good pasture grasses. Having seen how the monkeys would use a single line of trees as a passage way, I decided to let these marginal strips of land regenerate into secondary forest. There were two of them, and each was about 100 meters wide. One connected the mangrove to the primary forest near the our house, which we called “la casona,” where today there is the ASANA office and a biological research center. The other corridor was located near the present day Hacienda Barú Lodge.

As the secondary forest of these two corridors matured more and more animals started using them. At that time the road was narrow, rough, and there wasn’t much traffic. Nevertheless, the arboreal animals preferred not to come to the ground to cross it. The lodge corridor had a place where two large tree branches, one from each side of the road, arched out above the road and overlapped, thus providing a natural bridge where the animals could cross. The casona corridor didn’t have any overlapping branches, but we had suspended a black plastic water pipe from one treetop to another, across the gravel road, in order to carry water to our house, la casona. One night, while photographing bats, a biologist noticed something walking across the top of the water pipe.  Unable to identify the moving creature in the darkness, he snapped a photograph. Much to our surprise, the developed print revealed the animal to be an olingo (Bassaricyon gabbi), the first one ever identified on the Hacienda Barú reserve.  After this incident, we began to closely watch the suspended pipe and soon discovered that many other animals, such as monkeys, sloths, anteaters, opossums and coatis, were using the water pipe as a means to safely cross the road. I’m sure that all of these animals would have preferred to cross the road on tree branches, but since that option didn’t exist, they quickly adapted to the artificial structure.

Bridges for wildlife have been built in several places. At one time there were some animal bridges across the highway to the south of Dominical in the Playa Hermosa area. These were done by ICE, the electrical institute. They were made of netting and were very flexible. I don’t know how effective they were, as I don’t know of anyone who has ever seen an animal cross the road on one of them. In Manuel Antonio a local conservation group has stretched thick ropes across the roads so the squirrel monkeys can cross. These have been very effective. However the roads at Manuel Antonio are narrow and the bridges are fairly short, no longer than 20 meters.

When the Ministry of Transport (MOPT) started doing the studies for the new highway, we at Hacienda Barú began negotiating for measures that would maintain connectivity and minimize the amount of animals killed on the road. Due in part to our insistence, several conditions were written into the environmental impact statement (EIS) of the new highway. The EIS stated that bridges and tunnels to facilitate animal crossings would be build on the three kilometers where the highway traversed Hacienda Barú National Wildlife Refuge. In the end there were a total of 21 tunnels and four bridges. Two of the bridges were built at the lodge corridor and the other two at the casona corridor. The tunnels were placed in locations where animals had always crossed the road.

The tunnels were all square. Experiences in other parts of the world show that animals will use a square or rectangular tunnel, but shy away from a round one. At Hacienda Barú a few of the animals started using the tunnels right away, and with time more and more animals learned to use them. This was evident from the tracks at the approaches to the tunnels. It was also evident that as the usage of the tunnels increased, the amount road kill diminished.

The animal bridge design consists of two cables with space bars to keep them separated. Then the whole bridge is wrapped in green netting, the kind used in plant nurseries. The bridges are about 40 centimeters wide, a natural color and semi-rigid like a tree branch. Primate specialist Florence Vallet suggested putting another cable about 30 centimeters above the bridge so that animals with prehensile tails could grab onto it. The highway department agreed to this modification, and it was incorporated into the bridge design. The main problem with the bridges was their length, the longest being 63 meters and the shortest 26 meters. We knew that monkeys, opossums, raccoons, kinkajous, olingos and anteaters would use a bridge, but we weren’t sure they would use one that long. A year went by and nobody had reported seeing an animal on a bridge. The monkeys were still crossing the road on foot, and at least two have been hit by cars and killed. A year and seven months after the completion of bridges an employee of Hacienda Barú watched and photographed a troop of monkeys crossing the highway on one of the bridges at the casona corridor, the shortest one. Curiously they used the single cable above the bridge that had been suggested by Florence. Later they were seen on the bridge itself. Soon thereafter they started using the other bridge on the same corridor. This one was 43 meters long. Since that time many sightings have been reported and many photographs have been taken. Tourists became very emotional at seeing them. One lady commented how nice it was to be in a country where the Highway Department would care enough to provide animal crossings. “This is a wonderful example for the rest of the world,” she said.

During a two month period the monkeys used both of the bridges at the casona corridor almost daily. We think there were two different troops of monkeys using the bridges, but aren’t 100% sure. We do know that there are seven troops of monkeys on the lowlands of Hacienda Barú that potentially have access to the bridges. We wondered how long it would take the other troops to learn. Occasionally a monkey will move from one troop to another. This might be, for example, a young male that is expelled from his troop by a dominant male, and is later accepted into another troop. If a monkey from a troop that knew about crossing the bridges ended up in another troop, would it teach the monkeys of his new troop to cross the bridges? Only time would tell.

Unfortunately, this was not to be. The Costa Rican Electrical Institute (ICE) decided to move the electrical lines and run them along the edge of the new highway. With total disregard for the environmental impact statement of the highway and total disregard for the biological corridor and everything that had been accomplished, they destroyed the monkey’s passage way. The photo tells the story. The monkeys now arrive at the bridges, look across, and turn around and go back into the forest, because now the two bridges go to nowhere.

By Jim Parisi

Criollo music actually originated inPeru, and was quickly absorbed by Venezuelan and Argentinean musicians. But swing criollo with its tico flavor had its genesis here in the Sixties with a merger of American Swing music and a Latin style of music from Colombia called cumbia. Initially, it was frowned upon, considered an uncultured, even crude style of music to a point where in the Seventies in San Jose, there were many signs at dancehalls and clubs proclaiming, “Swing Dancing Forbidden”. But the style continued and grew, both in popularity and refinement over the next forty years. Last 30 November,Costa Rica’s president Laura Chinchilla and Minister of Culture Manuel Obregon officially declared swing criollo “one of the expressions of dance of the intangible cultural heritage of Costa Rica”.

Now, here to usher swing criollo into official credibility is another merger: Bernardo Quesada and Rumba Jam, with their new CD, “Donde Te Espera mi Nombre”. Rumba Jam is an eight piece band made up of graduates of UniversityofCosta Rica, the National Institute of Music and the National University. They recently participated in the Festival de Artes Turrialba 2011 and the Tegucigalpa Jazz Festival 2011 in Honduras. They have also worked with the popular San Jose jazz band Escats. Rumba Jam is a brassy band of piano, bass, percussionists and a deep section of trumpet, sax and trombones.

Bernardo Quesada is a household name in the music business in Costa Rica, recognized as a performing musician with two CDs, “Cuervo Blanco” in 2000 and “Mas Cerca de mi Corazon” in 2007. He is an established producer, working with Editus, Malpais, Ruben Blades and more recently with Perrozompopo from Nicaragua. In the past few years he has been touring the U.S., Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Brazil and Colombia.

The result is a very nice marriage of a fine composer and conductor working with a slick band. It’s obvious from the first song on the album, “Pa Curubande’ Yo Voy” that these guys are a nice fit and enjoy playing music together. Bernardo is a clever lyricist and has constructed songs to fit around the musical concept of the album; Rumba Jam does the rest. The music, which also includes Costa Rican Salsa, jumps right off the disc, directing the listeners’ feet to the dance floor. The title song, “Donde Te Espera mi Nombre” has a snappy, almost hypnotic staccato beat that is definitely infectious. Other standouts on the album include “De Tu Boca” and “Congoli Shango”, two very danceable tunes. The final song, “Salsa Marinera” is another tune with a mesmerizing beat, a nice send-off that should leave the listener anticipating the next project by Bernard Quesada & Rumba Jam.

Papaya Music, one of Costa Rica’s premiere recording labels, has decided to distribute the CD, a vote of confidence that should give this CD excellent exposure. The CD is available at the Jaime Peligro book stores in Playa Tamarindo, Quepos, and Nuevo Arenal, where they will gladly sample the music for their customers.