On December 1 Titi Conservation Alliance participated in the First Aguirre Environmental Meeting organized by the Aquirre Municipality’s Environmental Technical Unit. With the assistance of many businesses, local environmental organization and the Municipality, students of local schools and colleges took part in the march from Boca Vieja to the Nahomi Point. At this magnificent location the students presented plays, dances and dramatizations celebrating our fragile environment and precious resources. County officials and professors talked about the need to take care of our natural heritage. Several information stalls provided brochures and information on what the local organizations like Titi Conservation Alliance and ASOPROQUEPOS do and how everyone can be more environmentally conscientious.
Everybody had a great time and promised to make even bigger and better celebration next year.
Bienvenidos/Welcome to Paradise! February already! We hope you are having a super vacation here with us & that Quepolandia can help guide you to interesting and fun things to do…..if you are coming or going to the beach and feel that hunger attacking try El Wagon for the BEST HOT DOG around….Quepolandia-tested & delicious – also Cold Beer that goes down easy..they just completed a really cool mosaic floor on the terrace so check it out and be sure to tell them you heard about them in Quepolandia…..we live in a very small area but have an abundance of wonderful restaurants so you will have plenty of places to enjoy …like Agua Azul home to our Guest Chef this month Rob Summers…….if you are planning to take someone special out for a Valentine dinner you will want to try out the special menus at La Hacienda or Gourmet Club at Issimo Suites. Many restaurants have live music — see our live music listings to see what’s happening & when..speaking of Live Music there will be a Blues Festival in San Jose area Feb 27th @Club Cubano, Guachipelín de Escazú….our own Robbie Clark with be performing & possibly more local musicians as well as bands from Texas..……..our cover photo this month is by Paul Reiber of Naranjito and features a symbol of Costa Rica with the painted ox cart……..this cart belongs to Vera of Dos Locos and was just recently restored by Rick, Mary &Paul – they did a great job! In the magazine, we’ve included a couple of pictures of the Annual Ox Cart Parade in San Jose…carts complete with oxen – looks like a fun event if you are in the area in late November……Byblos Resort asked us to let you know that besides Live Music on Fridays(Robbie Clark) they have Ladies Night on Mon and Latin DanceClass on Thurs… all take place in the Billfish Sport Bar………….well that about wraps it up for now… be sure to tell our advertisers that you found them in Quepolandia….come back soon…………….caio……P
The ASVO (Association of Volunteers) has been in Matapalo Beach for 5 years and patrols 5.4 KM of the beach. Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea)turtles nest on Matapaplo Beach from June to November. This year according to Mr. Roberto Solano, the scientist in charge of the project, they have had 180 Olive Ridley turtle nests and on 1 leatherback nest as of the 10th of Dec. This is the first leatherback nest in the past 5 years of monitoring according to Mr. Solano. The Volunteers conduct night patrols, monitor the turtle hatchery 24 hours a day and clean up the beach in Matapalo. Night patrols continued until mid December to protect the nests from poachers and retrieve the eggs to the safety of the hatchery. Hatchings will continue through January.
“I know that touching was and still is and always will be the true revolution.” – Nikki Giovanni
We should all touch ourselves. I often fantasize with my clients on how wonderful it would be to get a massage every day. Imagine having your favorite masseur at your beck and call to get your fix whenever needed…how glorious would that be? Well, we all do have this available, we can utilize ourselves. While sitting on my board surfing, waiting for waves, I massage with both my hands my head and temporal regions. Just a minute of small circular strokes helps to further relax and loosen me up. Every day I massage my own hands and forearms, it has become a routine, it allows me to know where my aches and pains are as well as flushing out stagnate blood revitalizing my tools of the trade. We are all socialized into the language of the senses and in my opinion have become impoverished with hands-on nonverbal forms of communication, relying instead on disengagement and so called sophistication with each other. Sight and hearing (distance senses) rule our days while taste, smell, and touch (proximity senses) are almost a taboo. A shame in my opinion but adopting a philosophy of touching oneself can help bring us into the light.
Barry Biesanz pulls into my driveway, hops out of his car and wastes no time settling onto a patio chair for our interview. He does not need any prompting: he clearly has a message to share.
“People ask me,” he says, “I bet you’ve seen a lot of changes here over the last 40 years. They assume they have all been for the worse – but they haven’t. Sure, there are some ill-conceived projects, drugs, prostitution and corruption. But there are far more monkeys than there were in 1971, and much more prosperity.” Most of Manuel Antonio, he continues, was being converted to pasture and crops, even much of what is now the park, and all the mangroves near town were cut to make charcoal.
“The United Fruit Company was the only employer aside from two huge and many small cattle farms. With the switch to tourism, forest cover increased and species that were been gone for decades have returned. Living standards are very much better for Quepeños.”
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.
One of the main focus areas of the work of the Titi Conservation Alliance is assistance to our members to introduce more sustainable practices in their work and, as a tangible proof of their commitment to the sustainable development, to get certified by the Costa Rica Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) Program.
The program evaluates four categories: The interaction between the company and its surrounding natural habitat, the management policies and the operational systems within the company and its infrastructure, the interaction of the company with its clients in terms of how much it allows and invites the client to be an active contributor to the company’s policies of sustainability, and the interaction of the company with the local communities and the population in general.
On December 1 Titi Conservation Alliance participated in the First Aguirre Environmental Meeting organized by the Aquirre Municipality’s Environmental Technical Unit. With the assistance of many businesses, local environmental organization and the Municipality, students of local schools and colleges took part in the march from Boca Vieja to the Nahomi Point. At this magnificent location the students presented plays, dances and dramatizations celebrating our fragile environment and precious resources. County officials and professors talked about the need to take care of our natural heritage. Several information stalls provided brochures and information on what the local organizations like Titi Conservation Alliance and ASOPROQUEPOS do and how everyone can be more environmentally conscientious.
