Tank Tops Flip flops Newsletter edition no. 18

For those of your just joining us, you need to go back a few issues and read Newsletters 11 and 12.  How I came to Costa Rica part 1 and 2.

When we left our hero, he was in a jeep, loaded with beer, heading north from Manual Antonio to Jaco Beach, Costa Rica.  For those of you who have been asleep this entire time, I am the hero, by the way.  The drive was brutal.  This was not a road, this was a riverbed.  It reminded me of those old photos of the moon.  The pot holes were so big; you would literally drive INTO the pot hole, and come up and out the other side.  It was July, middle of the green season, and the Southern Central Pacific gets some of the heaviest downpours in the entire country.  Sure enough, we found out the hard way.  It was as if the sun just disappeared from the universe instantaneously.  It got dark so fast; we didn’t even really have time to react.  In my entire life I have never seen so much water fall from the sky at one time. 

They call this area a rainforest.  Key word:  RAIN.  The road turned into one of those water theme parks except we weren’t in a log, we were in a jeep.  “Save the beer!!!!” were the first words out of my mouth, as Travis grabbed the handle of the cooler.  “Hold on!  We are going in!” Huge ass water falls were shooting out of the mountain on both sides of us: the road beneath my tires just seemed to disappear and I felt like Noah and his ark.  We were sloshing and bumping, skidding and bouncing, and I thought for sure we were going to be washed over the edge of the cliff, gone forever. 

Tank Tops Flip Flops Newsletter edition no. 99

99 Bottles of Pilsen on the wall – 99 Reasons why I Love Living in Costa Rica.

One of the things you will notice, if you spend some time here in Playas del Coco, is that there are a tremendous amount of people from Wisconsin who live, retire, vacation and snowbird here. Maybe it is because the weather is so horrible there, or maybe it is because they just love to drink beer, but it seems a bundle of them have chosen the land of PURA VIDA to call their home. There is even the one and only PACKER bar in all of Latin America right here in the middle of town, Coconutz, which happens to be one of my all-time favorite places to hang out. Earlier this year, there was a huge game at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, as the Wisconsin Badgers took on the LSU Tigers. So it just made sense that a whole bundle of these Cheese heads were going to make the trek up north for this colossal sporting event. And do you think I would miss out on the fun? No way Jose, I was in like Flynn. About 50 of us loaded up on a school bus from Appleton on the day of the game, and consumed like animals the entire way to the stadium. As you can imagine, the energy was amazing, and the crowd was rocking. When it was all over, the Badgers had defeated the superior LSU team and the city went nuts!!! There were people partying like it was 1999 and it took hours to get everyone back on the bus and headed home to the hotels. This was where I wanted to cut my wrist. You see, there is always that ONE guy, who just has to lead the choir, and he started singing the most obnoxious song, ever written in the history of mankind: the 99 Bottle songs, and it seemed to go on for an eternity.

So in remembrance of that torturous 2 hour bus ride, and also in Celebration of my 99th Newsletter, I bring to you MY list of the 99 REASONS WHY I LOVE LIVING IN COSTA RICA.

99. Ninety Nine Bottles of Pilsen on the wall, Ninety Nine Bottles of Pilsen…. Take one down pass it around: Costa Rica is 99% green. It is almost totally carbon free, and the most environmentally protective country in the world and most of it still looks like it did when the dinosaurs walked the earth. You have to love and respect somewhere, which places nature above money. This haven will blow you away.

98. Hiking. There are so many spectacular places to hike; National Parks, volcanoes and mountains that the scenery seems to go on and on forever. You could spend eternity clunking around this little paradise and never see all there is to see; there is an endless supply of “secret spots.”