Panama: Las Lajas Beach

For one day, 15 Kilometers of solitude, friendly people and wild horses.

Cosa Rica: Costa Ricans approve CAFTA

A crowd of young people, some from the University of Costa Rica, burn a banner in support of CAFTA outside the Legislative Assembly.

In a bit of a surprise ending, Costa Ricans approved the Central American Free Trade agreement Sunday.

More than 1.5 million Costa Ricans headed to the polls, as almost 60 percent of the eligible voters showed up, according to figures by the Supreme Elections Tribunal.

As of Monday night, with 59.16 percent of all the polls counted, the Si vote had 51.61 percent while the No vote had 48.39 percent.

Polls leading to the referendum had the No vote up by 8 points. Early Sunday, the leader of the No movement even declared that he expected to win by at least 10 percent.

Sunday's vote was the culmination of more than four years of a debate that has consumed this nation of 4 million.

A voting box in Puriscal, a town about an hour away from San Jose. All voting booths were set up in schools around the country.

The mood most of Sunday was almost festive as people from each side took to the streets to show their support for their respective campaigns. People were dressed in Si or No shirts. Some stuck stickers or tied flags around them. Cars were equally decorated, and many drivers honked to show their support. Music played in many of the voting locations, and the Si supporters even held a concert.

By night, though, as the results showed the No vote losing, a small crowd of young people began protesting raucously.

Outside the No headquarters, tension ran high as some angry and frustrated supporters yelled at singers on a stage to call fraud.

A small mob of students, some covering their faces with bandannas, tried to block traffic. One man broke the glass covering an advertisement from the Supreme Elections Tribunal.

A Si booth welcomed voters to the school in the indigenous reserve of Quitirrisi. The vote leaned to the approval of CAFTA in this small village with 679 eligible voters.

A man walks on the road leading to the school in Quitirrisi.

The Ninta Cabezas Gonzalez school. Around one quarter of Quitirrisi's eligible voters were expected to show.

A woman, her child, and an observer of the No campaign walk up to the school where the voting was set up in Quitirrisi. The man said the Si led here because they gave away gifts.

Around 50 students gathered outside the Legislative Assembly building to protest, burning and yelling anti-CAFTA chants.

Costa Rica: A Carmiol, Por San Pedro, Outlet Mall, UCR, 155 Colones

Things I love about taking the bus in Costa Rica:

-The impromptu bus routes drivers take if there is too much traffic, or a road block.
-The music, sometimes blasting, through the speakers. Cuuuumbia!
-Drivers stopping the bus and getting off to either, get a soda, coffee, and/or change.
-Drivers stopping in the middle of the street, peeking out the window to say hi to friends.
-Bus routes here have the definition of a flexible schedule.
-Young men getting up for old ladies.
-Young men sitting, on purpose, next to young ladies.
-The random street artist serenading in the bus for change.
-These change-compartment thingies made of sponge to hold the fare.
-The constant hard-brakes during rush hour.
-In packed buses, there isn't too much air flow, so the front windshield always gets fogged up. Good thing the driver has handy newspaper to clean it.
-Stickers of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and Saprissas, the reigning soccer champ team.

A blind, college student getting some extra cash.

On the way to work. These things are loud.

Marc, my roommate, pensive.
By the way, those rail lines are where drug dealers hang out.

Random Picture Time

The things you find when you go through the 700+ pictures in the memory card.

Announcing Costa Rica's National Theater's plans to commemorate its 110th anniversary. Present: the minister of transportation, the minister of culture, and the theater's director.
They got stamps!! And ballet shows, one completely out of the range of regular Costa Ricans.

A little shop in Orosi, Costa Rica

Chris Huber, the photography intern, bugging people while they cook.

Orosi

What the dudes were cooking.Learning Spanish in Orosi.

Banner welcoming American foreign exchange students to the University of Costa Rica.

The Last Push

With a few days left in the campaign for the referendum deciding the Central American Free Trade Agreement, both camps kicked their efforts into their last, loudest gear.

On Thursday, hundreds of supporters of the trade agreement held a car parade through one of the main avenues of San Jose.


Throughout the capital, both sides are attempting to win over the last few undecided voters with little manifestations everywhere, such as waving flags at busy roundabouts. Opponentes of the trade agreement have developed a series of quick honks to show their support, and those are heard around the city's street.

The NO Vote Takes the Lead in CAFTA Referendum

For the first time, a poll is showing a majority of Costa Ricans opposing the approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), according to the daily newspaper La Nacion.

The paper is reporting that 55 percent of the 1,202 Costa Ricans polled will say no to CAFTA on next Sunday's referendum, and that 43 percent will vote yes, while 2 percent are undecided.

Support for CAFTA has eroded during the past few weeks, hurt by a scandal surrounding former second vice-president Kevin Casas and National Liberation Party legislator Fernando Sánchez, after both men sent an e-mail to President Oscar Arias encouraging a campaign of fear to gain support for the trade agreement.

Casas resigned last week.

The poll, conducted by agency Unimer for La Nacion, also found that 27 percent of those interviewed made their decision to vote NO this past month. Moreover, 7 percent said the memorandum directly affected their decision.

Polls last week by the University of Costa Rica and La Nacion showed a virtual tie, but this is the first time in the more than two years of campaigning the NO vote has taken the lead.

The poll has a 3.3 margin of error, and was conducted between Sept. 27 and Oct. 2 throughout the country by interviewing people 18 years and older.

Using songs and dance, anti-CAFTA supporters hold massive protest.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Around 100,000 Costa Ricans descended on downtown San Jose this past Sunday in a massive rally protesting the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States.

The scene was colorful, as the peaceful protest featured bands and speakers trying to rally the people for the upcoming national referendum, scheduled for Oct. 7, that will decide whether the nation enters the agreement.

Reuters estimated 100,000 people manifested, while the EFE news agency put the total number at 150,000. La Nacion, one of the papers here, did not have an estimate.



This week is the home-stretch of the political and economic debate that has consumed this nation for the past year and the rally was a show of force for the side opposing CAFTA.


Meanwhile, President Oscar Arias has promised to abandon CAFTA if the trade agreement negatively affects Costa Rica.

Here are a few pictures and videos. More pictures can be found here.




Protesters danced their way to opposition:


Anti-Cafta March In Costa Rica - The best video clips are right here

Near the end of the rally, they sang the national anthem:


Anti-Cafta March In Costa Rica - The funniest videos are a click away

OH MY GOD!!! GIANT ANTS!!! COCKROACHES!!

My roommates and I were fascinated by ants eating a cockroach.

Trabalenguas

I've always been fascinated by tongue twisters. Maybe because I mumble a lot.

I asked my German and French-speaking Swiss roommates to say some in their languages:

In German:



In French:

Sounds of Costa Rica

The two men below were playing folk songs at a restaurant in San Jose.



In the former capital of Cartago, I encountered a band playing Peruvian music, er, but covering an Abba song.

Sounds weird, but the band was just catering to tastes in Costa Rica, a country that loves crappy 80s music.

La Cucaracha Si Puede Caminar

(A post delayed due to the untimely death of my laptop.)

Last night, I had my sporadic spout with insomnia.

I think it was for good reason. When I got up to check the time (3:30ish a.m.) I saw my first cockroach in Costa Rica.

And I feel at home.

Years ago, back in Guatemala, my family – my mom at least – had a declared war against these pesky insects. It was quite the production to exterminate the seemingly invincible spiky-legged creatures.

We tried fumigation. It didn’t work. We tried using our shoes. That can get messy.

Finally, my mother found this chalk that apparently was Chinese made. Yeso Chino.

I haven’t a clue what chemicals where in that thing.

But it worked. We lined the house with chalk. And cockroach corpses appeared magically.

I remember once we had to clear out the entire kitchen. The cockroaches liked to live in the cupboards and drawers where we kept cooking pans and plates.

Chalk in the cupboards.

Chalk in hallway.

Chalk everywhere.

I’m pretty sure someday I’ll get cancer from this Chinese chalk.

But at least, my family won the war.

Pura Vida

Everywhere, Costa Rica -- Some things I have had to be re-accustomed to:

1. Ants.

An ant colony lives somewhere near the pantry-area of the home I live in. If bread, cookies, or any kind of food are not properly sealed, then the ants have a feast.

While I'm all for keeping thousands of ants happy, I must say that on a couple of occasions, I just wanted to eat bread.

But ants and I go way back.

Back in Guate, many ant colonies called our patios home. I was fascinated by these holes in the cement where ants streamed out.

Sometimes I would put lines of sugar somewhere around the hole. That would bring out the ants, and they would have a feast.

Unfortunately that also brought out other ants from other colonies.

Massive ant colony battles ensued.

2. Sidewalks.

Sidewalks in Costa Rica are not made for strolling. Your life could be at risk -- in the shape of a giant hole in the middle of the sidewalk.

The infrastructure of this country, like many still developing, is horrible. And that includes lack of maintenance of sidewalks that are filled with holes, gaps, cracks, and roots, making a walk, not a walk but a concentration game.

People have died, by the way, from these dangerous sidewalks.

3. Shower

Hot shower here comes from an electric heater (with wires and all) placed right above the shower. While I don't know how many people have been electrocuted by this method of warming water, I will say it takes forever to heat it.

And because I am always somewhat behind in the mornings, I take the showers cold.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, cold showers wake you up, and help fight the heat in the morning.

Sometimes, after a humid, hot, sweaty, and overall disgusting day, a cold shower feels nice.

Chiqui Chiqui

In the late 1980s, a new music genre emerged in Costa Rica that just seems to underline that the 80s were a bad time for everyone.

They call it Chiqui Chiqui, and I have no idea what that means. The movement (haha) spawned a slew of cheap music videos such as the one above called "Canchis Canchis."

The songs are silly, often giving nicknames to women or things. There was one about a love pill that featured angels and a giant pill. Others included chorographed dancing, and clothes that made James Brown look like a monk.

I saw Canchis Canchis on a bus on my way to a beach, but it wasn't the first time I had heard this song. When I was a kid in Guatemala, I remember Canchis Canchis was my brother's favorite song (his horrible music taste continues to this day). We had it recorded on a cassette tape that was lost during the move north.

It was weird, hearing a song that I had not heard in years.

So enjoy, a piece of my forgotten childhood.

UPDATE: After a few more listens, I think the song is about copulation. Or blondes. Or both.

Like most Latin Americans, Costa Ricans love their PDA

These lovebirds were, of course, next to a church.

El niño y la playa.

Tamarindo, Costa Rica.