Iwo Jima lands in Costa Rica; more US warships to follow

The USS Iwo Jima

The country with no army is about to get a big dose of the US military.

Last week, the USS Iwo Jima landed in the Caribbean port city of Limón, Costa Rica, the first of up to 46 U.S. war ships that may dock in Costa Rica through the end of 2010.

The Iwo Jima docked in Limón on August 20 for a 10-day humanitarian mission called “Continuing Promise 2010″. The ships to follow are meant to provide military assistance in the area’s escalating drug war.

But even the Iwo Jima may be a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. According to the web site of the U.S. Southern Command, “mission personnel… will provide medical, dental, veterinary and engineering services,” but will also provide “training with the Costa Rican Police Force.” You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to wonder what that vague sentence portends. And even those thankful for the humanitarian aid brought by the Iwo Jima can be forgiven for wondering if this infusion of medical supplies, teddy bears, and baseball equipment is a cynical bid to make the other, more military missions more palatable to a country that abolished its own army in 1949.

the type of helicopter the Iwo Jima carries

Two days after the ship landed, according to La Nacion, three of its military helicopters flew over the Central Valley, reminding locals that when you let a warship dock, even for humanitarian aid, it brings along more than stuffed animals for the kids. The ship itself is 800 feet long and is said to have a crew of anywhere from 400 (according to La Nacion) to 2,500 (according to the Tico Times).

It was back in July that the Costa Rican legislature approved a U.S. request for permission to dock up to 46 warships (and to bring along up to 7,000 military personnel) to help Costa Rica combat escalating drug traffic within its borders and the surrounding waters.

Although the July approval is billed as a renewal of a 1998 accord with the United States known as the “Joint Patrol,” it sparked “outrage among skeptics of the global war on drugs. The critics include outspoken politicians, pacifists, student groups and everyday Ticos, who are proud of their country’s six decades without a military,” according to Alex Leff, who writes for the Global Post and the Tico Times.

Leff also writes of Costa Rica’s “painful paradox.” The country boasts of having no army and preaches that other nations should reduce their military spending and increase funding for schools and hospitals. But with no military and a small police force, Costa Rica can’t fight the country’s new role as the “storage, shipping and financial base for some of the deadliest cartels,” according to Neff.

The running joke in Costa Rica:  Why would the country need a military when Uncle Sam is so quick to loan his out?

How to get free ebooks (on your Kindle or other e-reader)

Note: I first posted this in November 2009, but Google’s interface has since changed. Here’s an updated set of instructions that will let you easily get free ebooks–from Google and from Gutenberg.

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I posted a few days ago about taking my Kindle on the road, lamenting that the device didn’t read epub files, the “free and open ebook standard.”

Well, as many Kindle users may already know, it’s not so hard to convert epub files into mobi files, which is what the Kindle wants.

I’m using caliber to do the conversion. It’s free, works on a Mac or a PC, and “seems to do a good job with epub but is slow & lame for PDF conversion,” according to my source, who prefers to rename mainless. That source also tried AutoKindle and Mobi Pocket Creator (both free), neither of which worked very well. He’s looking into Savory for PDF conversion.

How to get free epub books from Google books:

• Click on “Advanced Search” (it’s under the “Search Books” button)
• Under “Search” options, select “Full view only”
• Fill out any other search criteria that will help you find what you’re looking for
• Find the book you want
• On the screen showing that book, in upper right hand corner click on ‘download’—there are usually a few formats to choose from, including epub and pdf.
• Download the file, then use a program like caliber (which lives on your computer) to do the conversion to mobi (Kindle’s file format)
• Hook your Kindle up to your computer (with the usb cord included with your purchase) and pull the converted file from your computer to your kindle.

Even as I take advantage of these free digital books, I know that Google’s drive to get all the world’s books online is problematic for authors and publishers. For more about the class action lawsuit against Google books, go to the Practical Nomad, then scroll down to ‘Articles by Edward Hasbrouck on other topics.’

Hasbrouck also has a good post on Amazon’s new Kindle for the PC.

Free books from Gutenburg

Gutenburg has a smaller selection than Google books (how could it compete with the “don’t be evil” empire?) but all the books you find there are free.

Example:

• I search by Nicaragua in the title field.
• I get a few results, inlcuding Thomas Belt’s The Naturalist in Nicaragua, which just so happens to be one of the books I was looking for, ever since I read about it in William Allen’s Green Phoenix: restoring the Tropical Forest of Guanacaste, Costa Rica (wonderful book that makes natural history and political shenanigans read like a high-quality potboiler; I’d get it on the Kindle but it costs a whopping $28 just for the mobi file).
• The Naturalist in Nicaragua (originally published in 1874), is available for download in a variety of formats, including epub, Mobi, and html.

Download it, covert it (or don’t), and Success! Now I have a classic of Nicaraguan travel and nature writing on my Kindle, perhaps to be hauled out on the 12-hour boat ride across Lake Cocibolco, from Isla Solentiname to Isla Ometepe.

Treehouses just 6000 miles from Costa Rica

I’ve posted before about treehouses in Costa Rica, but my treehouse mania knows no borders. Here’s a new treehotel in Sweden, 40 miles south of the Arctic Circle, with six rooms in the trees. A nice alternative if it’s too hot in Costa Rica.

the Mirrorcube treehouse at Sweden's Treehotel

the birds' nest treehouse at Sweden's Treehotel

Are Swedes colorblind or am I? This is the "blue cone" treehouse at Sweden's Treehotel.

Neotropica: new Costa Rican magazine seeks writers

cover of Neotropica's first issue

Excerpts from a 15th-century account of Christopher Columbus “discovering paradise” in the New World. A philosophical rumination on “Before Paradise was Necessary.” A report on what expats in Costa Rica think about their Central American paradise, illustrated with images from Alice in Wonderland.

Neotropica is not your average travel magazine. The beautifully designed first issue, titled “Imagined Geographies of Paradise,” is a headlong plunge into history, myth, and culture. Available online, the magazine is laid out like a full-color academic journal, lavishly illustrated with photographs, prints from old trip journals, and reproductions of paintings, like Spanish painter Remedios Varo’s haunting and surreal “Exploration of the Source of the Orinoco.”

Founder and Editor-in-Chief Stephen Duplantier says he hopes Neotropica becomes “a widely-read journal of important ideas for all of Central America. The region is diverse and the archaeologies, histories, and traditions are thickly layered.”

"Exploration of the Source of the Orinoco," a painting by Remedios Varo

Duplantier and his wife Kathleen moved from Louisiana to the hills above San Ramon, Costa Rica, in 2004. Back home, he earned a PhD in journalism and and an MS in film and wrote extensively on Louisiana history and folk life. Duplantier also produced ethnographic films about the music and food of French Louisiana.

Now he turns his gaze on his new home—Central America—with the same learned and omnivorous curiosity that he once applied to Louisiana.

Duplantier says he’s seeking Central American artists, writers, and thinkers to help make Neotropica come alive, though at this point the magazine is a collaborative effort that hasn’t been paying its participants.

Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas chronicled the adventures and abuses of Christopher Columbus and other conquistadores

“This is a time for sharing and understanding,” says Duplantier. “We are looking for contributions in Spanish, English, and French that deal with our contested histories, and that try to understand 500 years of colonization. We’re in this together. What can we make of our lives in Central America?”

The second issue of Neotropica will be called The Banana Chronicles, and the 3rd, says Duplantier, will be “an archaeological dig to uncover buried ghosts, disappeared histories, and disappeared bodies of Central America’s past.”

Email Stephen Duplantier at editorneotropica@gmail.com

Read Neotropica online

Are equator-dwellers “present hedonists”?

still from "The Secret Powers of Time" video

“The closer you are to the equator,” says Professor Philip Zimbardo, “the more present-oriented you are. The more you’re in an environment where climate doesn’t change, it gives you a [mind] set of imagining sameness rather than change.”

I’m not sure I agree, but it’s definitely a thought-provoking insight, one of many from Zimbardo’s (literally) animated philosophy lecture about cultural perspectives on time.

Other juicy quotes from his video:

–We all begin lives as present hedonists….the purpose of school is to take present-oriented little beasts and makes them more future-oriented.

–Shared time perception characterizes nations.

–Lots of conflict we have with people are about different perceptions of time.

Whether you think the video (at ten minutes) is long or short will be a function of your perception of time, but either way, it’s well worth your, uh, time.

Sunday in Alajuela: jazz and wild art

Going to be in Alajuela (Costa Rica) this Sunday? At noon at Vista del Valle Plantation Inn there will be jazz and an auction of Michael Cranford’s paintings. Mike is the treehouse-building, RainForest Aid-producing dynamo from the Osa Peninsula. That same night at the Inn, there’s a presentation about the environmental crisis surrounding the Osa’s waterways.

Check out Mike’s work:

Michael Cranford's "First Flight of the Lapa"

Michael Cranford's "Dos Capitanes"

Michael Cranford's "Mid-day Snack"

Michael Cranford's "Over a Barrell Waterfall in Costa Rica"

Stem cell clinic shuts down

stem cell clinic in Panama City

The Institute of Cellular Medicine (ICM) in San José, Costa Rica, which opened in 2006 and has treated hundreds of people, recently shut down its clinic.

The company’s Panama City stem cell clinic is still open.

An article on the Popular Science blog says that the Costa Rican health ministry stopped ICM’s stem cell treatments because there is no hard scientific evidence indicating that the treatments work. But a comment on that same post (apparently from someone at ICM) offers the alternate view that “the ‘closure’ of the clinic was a business decision by the company to consolidate operations.”

Stem cell treatments, which introduce new cells into damaged tissue in order to treat a disease or injury, have both been hailed as the new wave in medicine and vilified as a scam preying on desperate people. Such treatments have not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, meaning they have not undergone the lengthy human clinical trials that would allow such federal approval.

Popular Science also has an interesting article about stem cell tourism in general, focusing on treatments available in the Dominican Republic. “Droves of patients are heading overseas for stem-cell therapies unavailable in the U.S,” says the article. “ Is it a dangerous scam — or is America just behind the curve?”

Parklands in Costa Rica help reduce poverty

Entrance to Tortuguero National Park

A recently released report from Georgia State University gives us yet another reason to protect the rainforest: parklands, it turns out, can also help with economic development.

Studying data from Costa Rica and Thailand, researchers concluded that national parks in developing countries can actually help to reduce poverty in the areas surrounding the preserves.

“The effect of national parks and reserves on their human neighbors is arguably the most controversial debate in conservation policy,” says the new study, “Protected areas reduced poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand” released in April 2010. The debate is especially heated in developing nations, where ecosytem preservation and economic development are often seen as at odds.

“Because ecosystem protection limits agricultural development and exploitation of natural resources,” says the report, “opposition to protected areas is frequently driven by the assumption that they impose large economic costs and thus exacerbate local poverty.”

And while the researchers found that people living near national parks were indeed on the whole poorer than the national average, careful analysis of census data revealed that the poverty wasn’t a result of land preservation, which in fact often “generates economic benefits by…promoting tourism and improving infrastructure in remote areas.”

In the graphic below (courtesy of the report), protected areas created before 1980 are in green (these were the areas that the report studied). The relative poverty levels throughout Costa Rica are shown, with pink being the richest and dark red the poorest. The diagram makes use of data from 1973; the report compared that to economic data from 2000.

Apart from the effect of protected areas on poverty, the map is interesting to me in that it shows where Costa Rica’s wealth is (or was) concentrated: in the Central Valley around the capital city of San Jose, which is to be expected, but also in pockets around the country, like near Palmar Norte and Palmar Sur (north of the Osa Peninsula), near Cuidad Neily and Paso Canoas (near the Panama border), around Liberia in Guanacaste, and along the Pacific Coast between Jaco and Dominical. I would imagine that an updated map would show even more wealth along Guanacaste’s “Gold Coast” – where in beach towns like Tamarindo and Playas del Coco development is moving along at breakneck speed.

Here are some maps of Costa Rica with cities and towns marked, if you want to compare them to the map below.

Green means protected parklands; light pink means wealth, dark red poverty.

See also:
Boom town greed and condo ghost towns in Playas del Coco

A reader asks: Can I live on $20K/year in Costa Rica?

Photo: David W. Smith

Readers of Living Abroad in Costa Rica sometimes email me with questions about starting a new life in Costa Rica. I’m honored and humbled by these requests, and often wish that I had a whole crew of people–living in different parts of Costa Rica and with vastly different experiences of the country–to help me frame my reply.

And so here, dear reader, is one of those emails. If you have advice or encouragement for the writer, please post a comment at the bottom of this page (it’s easy to sign in and I promise I won’t abuse your email). Sometimes it takes a village to help someone launch into a new life.

Hi Erin,

I want to thank you. I read your book in December of 09. At the time I was going through some rough times (death and divorce), and I decided to travel to Costa Rica to just get some relief. I was dazzled by it. I was there seven days, the Central Valley (San José and the Arenal area), and the mid-Pacific area (Jacó, Quepos, Manual Antonio), and you’re right, it’s a little bit of paradise.

I truly want to live there or try it. I live in Minnesota and except for summer cannot stand it. At present I work as a metal worker. I am a shop foreman in a steel/aluminum plant with 30 men under me. I have always been a man of the left (social democrat, democratic socialist, trade union type). I want to simplify my life, I am done with the rat race, and I just cannot do it any more. I want to live intentionally. If you know any community or communal style living, like a religious or spiritual group, I may be interested.

I am 58, and have about 4 years before I can get Social Security, but have a bit of money in my 401k plan (I lost a fair amount in the stock exchange). How much would I need a year to live, renting a house somewhere in a town outside San Jose or around La Fortuna? I have in mind a smaller two-bedroom home with a small yard for my Collies. Could I find something for $500 – $600 a month? I would also need to buy into the national health insurance; would that be about $60.00 a month? I own two motorcycles–I would ship both to Costa Rica, also mountain and racing bicycles.

Could I do it all on $1,600 a month, or about $20,000 a year?

Thanks,

Dan

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your note, and I’m glad Costa Rica dazzled you and provided some relief from rough times. It had the same effect on me when I moved to San José in the midst of many life changes. I came on my own, and found that struggling to make a new life in an unfamiliar place had the added benefit of helping me regain my confidence that I could do more than I’d come to expect of myself.

And I thank you for agreeing to have me post your questions on my blog. I will take a stab at answering some of them, and hope that other readers will chip in with their two cents. It takes many people to answer these kinds of questions-they touch on everything from cost of living to transporting pets to medical care. And under them all is a deeper question: How can I live a simpler but more satisfying life?

Lake Arenal

Come back soon
The first thing I want to suggest is that you come back to Costa Rica, as soon as you can, for as long as your life will allow. Seven days gave you a taste of the place but you need to see and feel more before making the commitment to relocate. Maybe spend a few weeks in the Arenal area to see if it’s for you, then come back again and explore some of the towns closer to San José. In the “Planning Your Fact-Finding Trip,” chapter, Living Abroad in Costa Rica has suggested itineraries for stays, of a week up to a month, and tips on how to integrate into a place to take its live-abroad temperature. And since you’re interested in the La Fortuna area, check out this Arenal-area community forum.

If you come back and stay in one place for a few weeks, you should also think about enrolling in a Spanish course. Knowing (even a little of) the language will make your time in Costa Rica much easier and more rewarding.

Cost of living
Can you live in Costa Rica on $20,000 a year? The short answer is, Yes, if you do some planning and set up your life that way. But make no mistake: Costa Rica isn’t cheap.  While researching the 3rd edition of Living Abroad in Costa Rica (due out Fall 2010), I did a cost-of-living survey that I’ll post here soon. Long story short: housing here can be (if you do your homework) a little to a lot cheaper than in the U.S., medical care is much cheaper, food is about the same, cars are more expensive, telephone and internet can be pretty cheap (unless you need something that your area doesn’t have much of, like broadband), and you can still travel around Costa Rica by bus for a song.

Check out the Costa Rica craigslist to get an idea of what rental houses are going for in various parts of the country.  A quick look shows me several options within your budget. (Of course these may be gone by the time you look, but no doubt there will be similar options available in the future).

• $550 / 2br – Country Living: Farm Home w Utilities, Phone, Internet, SKY TV (Sarchi, 35 miles northwest of San Jose)
• $150 / 1br – Cabin / Apt for Rent Fortuna
• $620 / 3br – View of Volcano Arenal walk to center of La Fortuna

You can also spend as much or more than you would in Minnesota:

• $1400 / 2br – THE MARILYN MONROE APARTMENT: GLAMOUR, AND HOLLYWOOD FURNITURE (ESCAZU)

But I’m betting you won’t be tempted by a “Marilyn Munroe Apartment.”

You also say that you want to simplify your life. Perhaps you want to consume less and have fewer possessions. In that case, you’re on the right track for a more satisfying but economical life. And you can start to pare down now, even though you still have a few years to go before you plan to move. See my suggestions on lightening your load so you’ll have less to ship.

Treehouse at Finca Bella Vista, Costa Rica

Intentional Communities in Costa Rica
Your openness to living in some sort of intentional community also signals to me that you may be able to economize that way. If you don’t need your own land, your own car, your own everything–in short, if you can and want to share, then you can probably live on a lot less that you now spend in the U.S.

The non-profit Fellowship for Intentional Community has a Costa Rica page that lists over 30 communities (and there are probably dozens more not yet on their list).

Many note that they are in the process of forming, so now might be a good time to look into them–to get in on the ground floor, so to speak. There are communities focused on eco-sustainability, like Finca Las Brisas (near Nosara, on the Nicoya Peninsula) and Rancho Margot (on the shores of Lake Arenal), others focused on yoga and alternative lifestyles, like Pachamama, and even some that emphasize treehouse living, like Finca Bella Vista in the Zona Sur.

Bringing Your Collies Along
I’ve worked with Angela Passman, creator of Guardian Angels Costa Rica and World Pet Travel, and I found her an excellent resource for news and tips on how best to bring your pets to Costa Rica. I think bringing your dogs is a great idea–they’ll be a living piece of home while you all adjust to a new environment. I’ve also found dogs better than any alarm system when it comes to home protection.

Deer Hunting with Jesus
This tip has little to do with Costa Rica, but when you told me you were a leftist trade union type, I thought of a writer I enjoy a great deal that has a similar slant: Joe Bageant, author of Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class Wars. He’s a southern boy born and bred, but his latest post is written from Mexico, and he spends part of the year in Belize. Talk about outsourcing liberal discontent! Check out his posts, like Moon Over Gringo Gulch, It Ain’t Easy Being White, and Escape from America.

Well, I’ve gone on a bit here and still probably haven’t done more than skim the surface of your questions. I’m hoping others will pitch in. Whatever happens, Dan, buena suerte (good luck) and keep us posted on your progress towards a new life.

Sincerely,

Erin

8000 e-readers agree: no to company stores

Will the iPad do maps as well as it does peacock feathers?

I’ve struggled with the Kindle, coveted the iPad, and perused the great variety of devices that let you read digital books. My Kindle went belly up, and now I’m holding out until I find a cheapish e-reader with better navigation (especially for travel books and maps) that doesn’t force you to shop at a company store.

Turns out a lot of other people feel the same. In a recent survey of 13,000 people in 14 nations, 80 % of respondents say that want to buy e-reader content from more than one source. Most are waiting for a device that does more than read books. And a lot of people feel that when the prices drop to around $200, that’s when they’ll jump on this e-reader bandwagon.

Other findings in the e-reader study:

• Within the next three years, 73% of those who are familiar with e-readers plan to buy one
• People want multi-purpose e-readers that will not only let them read books but also check their email and watch videos
• 4% of survey respondents from the U.S. already owned e-readers
• 4% of survey respondents from India already owned e-readers
• The three countries with the greatest awareness of e-readers are India, China, and Japan—in that order. The U.S didn’t make it into the top 3, despite the fact that many high-profile e-readers are designed and heavily promoted there.

I wish the survey had asked questions about travel guidebooks and e-readers, like, Why do the designers for these devices pay so little attention to features that would make guidebooks and maps easier to use? Given that many people buy e-readers for travel (so they can leave the stack of books behind), you’d think there’d be more attention paid to this substantial market.

See also: how to get free content for your Kindle (or another e-reader)