Car Rentals in Costa Rica: Deciding on Insurance Options
What does this have to do with surfing in Costa Rica? A lot, since when you are planning a vacation, it is one of the most important decisions to make. You have decided to rent a SUV with 4wd and now you have to decide which insurance option to take.
A. Full collision coverage with a $0 deductible and a very low deposit (usually $100).
B. Basic collision coverage with a $1000 deductible and a higher deposit (usually $500-1000).
C. Use the collision coverage on your credit card and just get the minimum insurance required, called third party liability, which covers the other person’s vehicle and injuries and has a $5000 deductible. Your deposit is the highest (from $500 to $2000+).
Option A costs the most and option C the least. The actual costs vary with each car rental company, but for this article I will choose Alamo for my explanation. Their rates when I book the reservation for you are $30/day for option A, $15/day for option B, and $10/day for option C for midsize and standard SUVs. The larger Fortuners, Prados, and vans are $40/day for option A and $25/day for option B.
To determine which is best, it depends on your tolerance to risk and your budget. Driving in the city a lot or well off the paved roads in the countryside would have more risk for damages. If you are driving in the peak of rainy season, late September to early November, then the chance of muddy roads, bigger pot holes, and flooding are possible. One way to determine your risk is to confirm with your Airbnb hosts exactly what the road conditions are leading to their house. And even though the weather forecast is going to show rain every day on your trip, be sure to check that there is not a tropical storm or hurricane that will cause heavy rain fall.
“It’s not the crabs that stink”, he laughed. “It’s the rotten coconut. They love it. When I need fish bait, I just look for a coconut husk that’s been cut open. If there’s still any rotting coconut meat left, it’s sure to be full of colonchos. See…” He stuck his hand through a hole in the coconut and pulled out one of the colonchos, which I later learned are called “hermit crabs” in English. Eduardo held tight to the shell, a little smaller than a ping pong ball, grabbed the crab’s head and pincher, and pulled steadily until the little invertebrate came free of its protective home, which Eduardo dropped on the ground. The head looked like a crab and the back part more like a fat worm. “Fish love them”, he said with a smile. Reaching into his bag, Eduardo pulled out a hand reel with some light fishing line and a small hook which he stuck through the crab and tossed it into the estuary. It didn’t take long before he had a nibble. After several tries, he hooked a fish he called a machaca. In half an hour he had four. They weren’t much bigger than his hand, but he took them home anyway. “My wife knows how to fry them up real tasty”.
2022 DORADO DERBY
Hallowe’en came early this year, with LPE sponsoring the community Trick-or-Treating Halloween Fiesta & Costume Party in Dominical on October 29th.
Also aligning with the Hindu Diwali Festival of Lights, Samhain is an opportunity to light a candle and celebrate the triumph of good over evil, or of the perpetual choosing to orient our hearts more with the light than the darkness. Deeply supportive of this process, it is the time to honor family and ancestry; through offering, contemplation and ritual, thereby healing old wounds and moving towards wholeness once again – whilst warding off harmful spirits through the donning of costume, masks and disguise!
This year, families from all over the southern zone and beyond united at the annual Fiesta in Dominical, a community-sponsored co-creation. Children collected a variety of treats, including healthy, homemade LPE fayre on the trick-or-treating route as it moved through Dominical village.
The arrival of the month of November brings with it two of the most anticipated activities of the year: the Dorado Derby Fishing Tournament and the Thanksgiving celebration, which guarantees fun for people of all ages, the only requirement is want to have a good time and enjoy the adventure to the fullest.
Bienvenidos….Welcome to the Rainforest. It will probably rain a little while you are here but don’t let that slow you down. Thanks to the rain, 
It’s Dani, your KSTR spokeskid! I just got done spending several weeks in Manuel Antonio volunteering at KSTR, and I have a TON of exciting updates to share!
First, a huge thanks to everyone who came to Monkey Jam. We had 250+ attendees (the biggest party), lots of fantastic, home-cooked Costa Rican food, and great bands and music. It was nice to see the community connect, all the new improvements to the sanctuary, and have everyone meet the animals. I heard interesting discussions about recycling programs, new hotel owners learning about the services KSTR offers (from an injured sloth to a snake on the loose!)—and lots of amazing stories about the animals KSTR has saved 🙂 Someone shared such a great story about sponsoring a wildlife bridge on their street and how it made them feel happy every time they saw monkeys crossing. Even a kinkajou family is using it to safely make it across the road with their baby. 
Second, KSTR has formally changed hands to two incredible conservationists, who are excited to usher in a new era for the organization. I spent a lot of time with Gabe, one of the new owners, who has an amazing vision for increasing the reach and impact of KSTR. He wants to focus on building a new, state-of-the art animal hospital, more marine wildlife rescues, and MORE KIDS! We’re going to be adding additional spokeskids (who you’ll be hearing from here in the future), and raising money for more exciting projects to rescue more animals. Luckily, the old owners are still involved at KSTR and helping out with the transition—I love them so much so I am glad we can continue to work together to help the amazing animals in Costa Rica!
Directions
Ethanol, with a few simple modifications to your engine, can be substituted for gasoline. It can be derived from many raw materials but is usually produced from corn or sugarcane. Since the carbon contained in corn and sugarcane is already here and available, ethanol doesn’t add any new carbon to the atmosphere. Plant fiber is made up primarily of carbon; so, to grow and produce biofuel these plants need to acquire carbon from their environment. A carbon dioxide molecule is composed of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms (CO2). The green stuff in the leaves of growing plants is called chlorophyll. The plants get their carbon through a process called photosynthesis which involves sunlight, chlorophyll, and atmospheric CO2. In greatly simplified terms, the plant captures the carbon dioxide molecule from the air, keeps the carbon atom and uses it to build fiber for its own structure, and releases the two oxygen atoms into the atmosphere. When the corn or sugarcane plant is ready, we take it and turn it into ethanol. Cool, right? We get fuel for our cars and trucks and, at the same time enrich the earth’s atmosphere with oxygen. Well, not exactly. I must confess that I left out a few steps. Let’s have a look at how corn and sugarcane are grown.
Welcome to the September & October edition of That’s Fishin! What a great year of fishing it has been so far, visitor numbers have been fantastic this year and the Quepos Charter fleet have been kept busy on the water taking our visitors from around the world fishing in search of those dream catches.
The larger boats in the fleet such as THE SPORTSMAN, THE HOOKER, & HOG WILD have been fishing 60-100 miles out at our Marlin FADS & SEAMOUNTS and catching some insane numbers of Blue Marlin. Our Offshores Marlin FAD fishery is one of the only places on the planet where you could be in with a chance of raising upwards of 10 Blue Marlin in a single day when the bite is on. If epic Blue Marlin fishing is on your Bucketlist, this is the trip for you and just drop me a line for more info.