Life in Puerto Viejo

Change is Coming to Playa Negra

Torrential rains, 6 months of construction, landscape architects, truck loads of plants and mature trees, tons of cement and a wheel barrel full of cash, the long awaited pool is coming to Banana Azul.

The word is getting out even though I have not published it anywhere, we have many guests writing in asking when it is going to be open.  Anyone that knows anything in Costa Rica, knows that is a question that you never ask.

Here are some pics that a customer too as we were installing 10 year old royal palms.

I think in 5 years living here, that is the second time I picked up a shovel.

In Costa Rica... People are very good at watching work being done.  It always seems that at least 50% watch while the other half works.  Most times they trade off at some point.

I know it looks like something out of the Flintstones, but I promise it will be pretty.  You know us homos.... We came.  We saw.  We decorated.

Is the Yoga Instructor the new Real Estate Agent?

I recently received an email from a woman with a child wanting to move and work here. She said she was currently "land locked in Texas" and looking to escape.  She went on further to tell me she was a yoga instructor from Big Island of Hawaii and also is a career bartender.

Now, correct me if I am wrong?  But is not Yoga for people who are trying to get more in touch and connected with themselves?  If so, why would they teach that by day and then help people abandon themselves in the evening with drinking?  Yoga Instructors and Massage Therapists are abound here. 

The more I thought about this... It made me think of one of the so-called yoga instructors down here who in between cigarettes, junk foo, an IV of morning coffee and vino noche said on more then one occasion said that "I was the tightest person she ever met". 

Now, I will be the first to admit that I am no Gandhi and far from it. But being an ex smoker of 13 years, I was wondering just how "tight" she would be in 48 hours if we started removing all of her vices starting with the cigarettes?  All I could see was a modern day version of Linda Blair from The Excorsist.

All this hipocracy (as I see it) reminds me of the using days of drugs and alcohol.  I was hooked on everything including anything that I thought would fix my life.  On a good day I would do things like go to the gym reeking of cigarette smoke and not stay over 30 minutes, because of nicotine withdrawal.

The next month, if it was not a new self-help book, a yoga class or a steady diet of afternoon Oprah (while drinking red wine), my life was going to hell in a hand basket.

Maturity does seem to take some of the fun out of living.  Maybe the old saying "Ignorance is Bliss" has some truth to it.

What is an Enviromentalist

One thing that has always perplexed me in life is non-logical thinking and downright hypocrisy.  I thought there was enough of that in North American society, however it seems to be extreme here and not limited to the locals.

Some of the most bizarre cases I have experienced are from ex-pats that claim to be environmentalists on varying self-described spiritual paths. 

We have a neighbour that has gone absolutely ballistic to the point of calling all sorts of government agencies for locals cutting down trees on their property.  On numerous attempts they have tried to enlist my support to stop this or at least validate their actions, but to no avail.

They said they would have never bought their house had they known that the trees in the neighbours property were going to be cut down.  It does not seem to concern them whatsoever that the 1/2 acre plus lot that they enjoy is almost completely cleared of trees to allow for the building of their house and security of not having one fall on them.

On different occasions I have casually mentioned this fact and in an indirect way - it was made clear they were not interested in this and somehow I don't have any concern for the environment.

These obvious self-serving motives do not stop at the trees.  The biggest debate going on in this area, tends to be the proposal for building a marina.  The subject has bought out fierce emotions from both sides. 

Again, numerous attempts have been made to enlist my support in the anti-marina coalition under the environmentalism banner.  First of all... let the record show that I can not think of anyone that is more opposed to the marina then me.  I feel it will ruin the natural paradise of the area and the yachting set is not exactly who I yearn to have lunch with.  I will dine with the hippie potsmoker anyday.

However, I feel this choice is not up to me.  I do not worry about having a job.  I do not worry about my financial future.  I have no kids to feed.  I feel in a very privileged situation.

Not only that... I am from the beautiful waterfront city of Vancouver, BC.  I can not imagine having city council meetings about waterfront development that was stacked with non-residents of the country that merely had real estate holdings or held mere residential status in the country.  I am sure the the meetings would be for citizens only and any other participation from outside would not be welcome.

So, just where do we get off marching around the world deciding how everyone else should develop their country and we clearly benefited from developing ours with little or no regard for enviromental impact.

Colinsito reporting live from The Home of The Least Wanted or The Most Wanted.

First World Schocker!

Owning a hotel in a place like Costa Rica gets kind of scary when your largest market starts to have financial problems.  One of the big wild cards in all this game is the US tourist market.  But so far, it seems to be holding even though evidence of financial meltdown is in the air. 

I was just in a hotel in San Jose and met 2 gay guys (separate travellers) that changed destinations from Europe to CR because of cost.  You know the economy is bad when even the freshly 'fake n baked' homos are cutting back.

So, welcome to the reality of first world living.  I am back in Canada for a couple weeks visiting family and friends.  I needed a reminder me why I had to make so much money to live before I left to Costa Rica. 

I was at San Jose airport and bought an Economist Magazine.  It was $10.75 and the bag of chips I bought was $3.25. I am surprised that they did not have to board me in a wheel chair after that sticker shock.  I guess I was spared because I passed on the soft drink and the 20 measily chips in the puffy bag were organic.

Too funny... Last night I went out with friends to a nice classy lounge.  I bought the first round of drinks.  Almost $100 for 7 people. (includes tax and tip).  $100 was all I had.  Thank God, I am an recovering alcoholic and bought just a soda.  It was all I could afford.  At least it was in a classy place.

I noticed that the price of beer was $6 (before tip).  And to think I was agonizing 2 weeks ago for raising our beer price at the hotel from $1.80 to $2.25. Would our guests feel I was gouging?  It is such a price difference from drinking on the steps of the corner store where the locals and budget-minded expats drink and enjoy beer for just over $1.  I had to remind myself that a clean glass with ice served by a sexy latino bartender, does not come cheap.  (Maybe we could charge more if I had him take his shirt off?)

Then the taxi ride home ($8 - no tip. who could afford it?), I had to stop off at bank machine to get money, only to have my card refused.  (They assured me it was international. I should have known better).  So I had to wake up my house hosts to borrow money to pay the cab driver. 

Now, that is not classy.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I just had these 2 girls from New York stay at the hotel that just raved about my blog and were really sad I have not been posting.  It is so weird to feel like you actually have fans.  I did not know what to say except that I promised them I would get busy and publish something.  So here I am...

I guess the main reason I have not published a piece in so long is that I have been basically working from dawn to well past dusk.  I had no idea that a small hotel was this much work.  We have a complete compliment of staff (13 in total) , yet it still seems to demand almost all the waking hours I have for a day.

In hindsight there are a few key things that I underestimated in taking on this project. 

1) Not knowing how much work it was.  I really thought we would lie in a hammock with a cordless phone and tell people the key was in their room, help themselves to drinks and pay us on the way out.  Hell, we have even had clients cook us breakfast.

2) I did not realize it would be such a challenge to find qualified staff.  It appears that tasks like replying to email is a specialized qualification.  It did not dawn on me that people would not even know how to use a North American style washer, let alone a computer.  It just shows how out of touch I am with reality outside of North America even though I espouse to be worldly.  I mean why would people know how to respond to email.  Apart for working for people like us what really is the need and Tico style washers work just fine.

3) I had know idea that we would be this successful this fast.  We have absolutely no experience in running a hotel apart from staying in a few budget style places in my lifetime.  Many local expats thought we were crazy and were supposed to budget for 1/3 occupancy rate.  We are currently running at about 80% for the past 6 months (last 3 months, almost 100%).

4) Having worked in almost isolation and virtual enviroment, I forgot what it was like to deal face to face with general public.  We are fortuneate that given our location and my blatant website, we screen out the average traveller and 95% of our clientel are great.  But, that one person that is hard to please can really take it's toll on you despite efforts to not let it get to you.

5) I got totally carried away.  Our idea was this was supposed to be a Key West style guest house.  May be 8 rooms with a cozy atmosphere.  Well, I started to run the economics, we realized that we needed more rooms to make the numbers work.  Also, I have stayed in such ugly cramped rooms in many places in Costa Rica, I wanted ours to be spacious and look like someone had paid attention to decorating them.  So, our building cost on the project almost doubled.

6) How little profit there was.  Despite our success, I am surprised that there is little money left over at the end of the month.  Because of both of our neurosis to make everything look nice, we keep spending money on fixing up the hotel with no end of projects in site.

Regrets? None!  I am still happy to say given a choice of doing anything I want and living anywhere I want, I can't think of anywhere I would rather be.  I can not remember feeling like that for most of my life.  Life always seemed greener somewhere else.