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"

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

Would you ever renouce your U.S. citizenship? Practice is on the rise

In the last quarter of 2009, 502 expatriates gave up their U.S. citizenship or permanent residency status.

Though it’s a tiny percentage of the over 5 million Americans the State Department says live abroad, the number is more than twice the total for all of 2008, when just 235 people gave up their citizenship. And, reports the New York Times, “waiting periods to meet with consular officers to formalize renunciations have grown.”

It’s not a decision made lightly, and it’s not, as some might imagine, usually motivated by politics. But more and more expats abroad are giving up their U.S. citizenship, often fueled by frustrations over tax and banking questions.

The U.S., for example, is the only industrialized country to tax its overseas citizens on income earned abroad. That income is often also taxed in the country where it is earned, which means the incoming stream (or in my case, trickle) is dipped into not once but twice.

Double taxation is not the only financial problem for American expats abroad. New banking regulations have made it harder for expats to keep bank accounts in the United States and in some cases abroad. The regulations are intended to curb tax evasion and (under the Patriot Act) to help prevent money from flowing to terrorist groups. “Some U.S.-based banks have closed expats’ accounts,” according to an article in the New York Times, “because of difficulty in certifying that the holders still maintain U.S. addresses, as required by a Patriot Act provision.”

What about you?

Are you a U.S. citizen living abroad? Have you ever considered giving up your U.S. citizenship?

Costa Rica Syndrome: define this malady

Looking out from San Lucas Island towards the Nicoya Peninsula. Photo: Erin Van Rheenen

Did you know that there are at least three recognized travel-related maladies associated with well-known cities?

All can be grouped under the heading of Voyager Syndrome, the wonderfully poetic term for (mostly psychological) illnesses related to travel.

Paris Syndrome occurs when the reality of the modern French capital clashes with a visitor’s idealized expectations (Japanese female tourists in their 30s are at the highest risk). Jerusalem Syndrome is characterized by a sudden flaring up of extreme religious feeling, and can affect Jews, Christians, and Muslims, or even travelers who consider themselves irreligious. Florence Syndrome (also known as Hyperkulturemia, or Stendahl Syndrome, for the author who first described it) can strike travelers exposed to beautiful art, especially a lot of it in one place, like at Florence’s Uffizi Gallery; symptoms include dizziness, faintness, palpitations, and hallucinations.

As I contemplated these various syndromes, I wondered: what would a “Costa Rica Syndrome” look like?

Having interviewed a fair number of foreign residents, I can think of at least one possibility: a sudden and profound belief that you can communicate with monkeys, or turtles, or (this one’s trickier) crocodiles. Many of us in pavement-heavy realms live with Nature Deficit Disorder. Coming to Costa Rica, where nature is very much front and center, can be almost overwhelming. The drippy tropical tangle of the rainforest. The cacophony of a forest full of birds. Beaches where the only sound is the salty slam of wave on sand.

What’s your idea for the Costa Rica Syndrome?

More on the various Voyager Syndromes

More on what a San Francisco Syndrome might look like

Wheelchair travel and politics in Costa Rica

Candy Harrington, who writes about travel for “wheelers and slow walkers,” takes on accessibility politics in Costa Rica in a recent blog post. I met Candy at a talk she gave on “Finding Your Niche” in travel publishing, and she has done just that, becoming the go-to girl for what she calls barrier-free travel. After the talk I mentioned to her that Costa Rica has a single-issue political party–Partido Accesibilidad sin Exclusión (PASE)—that focuses on physical accessibility and inclusion.

Costa Rican streets aren't kind to wheelchair users. Photo: Erin Van Rheenen

She took the ball and ran with it, writing on her blog that PASE isn’t “just a splinter group supported entirely by the disabled population; but instead a driving force in Costa Rica politics with a substantial mainstream following.” And Candy poses a provocative question: “If a relatively inaccessible country like Costa Rica can have a political party based on inclusion, then why can’t it happen in an accessible country like US? And if it did, could this type of a party actually garner a solid mainstream following?”

Two things you don't often see in Costa Rica: special parking for disabled drivers, and 'Prohibido fumar' (No Smoking) signs. These are in front of a government building in downtown San José. Photo: Van Rheenen

Of course the fact that Costa Rica has a political party that advocates for wheelchair users could also be an indication of just how how far the country needs to come in that area.

Costa Rica’s streets and sidewalks are challenging enough for able-bodied walkers, who must be on the lookout for ankle-breaking holes, deep gutters, and careening cars. Wheelchair users in this country have to be especially resilient and creative, as they won’t find many ramps to help them over curbs or lifts to get them on buses.  On the other hand I’ve seen strangers pitch in to help when a wheelchair needed to get over a high curb or a wheelchair user needed to be loaded into a car or bus.

PASE recently won 4 seats in Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly. I’ll be curious to see if  the landscape will change for local and visiting “wheelers.”

The accidental endorser: Rush Limbaugh on Costa Rica’s health care

private hospital in Costa Rica

During his March 8 show, conservative radio celeb Rush Limbaugh said that if the current U.S. health care reform is approved, he would move to Costa Rica.

He seems to have evoked Costa Rica as a place where there’s less “government intervention in health care,” but of course Costa Rica has more “intervention” in providing medical care for its citizens than does the U.S.

Igor Volsky, writing for WonkRoom, put it well:

“But unbeknownst to Rush, Costa Rica’s hybrid government-private health care system provides comprehensive universal coverage to all residents – and even sells affordable policies to soon-to-be visitors like Limbaugh. The government owns several major public hospitals and operates small clinics in almost every community. Workers are required to contribute 15% of their salaries to health insurance and the unemployed “obtain public funding for all health services, including prescription drugs.” At least a third of all Costa Rican residents receive some care in the private sector and the government regularly purchases services from private providers. The system is not without its problems, but it boasts a higher ranking from the World Health Organization – Costa Rica is 36, United States 37 – and has higher life expectancy and lower infant mortality rates. Costa Rica also spends less per capita on health care than the United States and insures almost all of its residents.”

In his ignorance of Costa Rica, Rush inadvertently endorses a system that he spends a great deal of air time vilifying. Sure, Rush, come to Costa Rica–you’ll see how a tiny country with fewer resources than the U.S. makes health care a priority for its people.

More information:

The basics of Costa Rican health care

Four expats weigh in on public and private care in Costa Rica

Expat residents must now enroll in Costa Rica’s medical system: So how is it? Four views

A public hospital in San José, Costa Rica

With the new immigration reforms that go into effect in Costa Rica next week, it looks like expats who are legal residents in Costa Rica must enroll in the national healthcare system,  the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social. Known  as the Caja, the system gives its members low-cost access to neighborhood clinics, pharmacies, and public hospitals.

Some Costa Rica expats are satisfied with Caja (public) care; others are most definitely not.

Visit Miss Move Abroad to read one whole-hearted and one half-hearted endorsement of the Caja, and two accounts of what can only be termed ordeals at public hospitals.

Quien is mas treehouse? Life in the Costa Rican trees

Treehouse at Finca Bella Vista, Costa Rica; photo by David W. Smith

Remember the old Saturday Night Live skit, ‘Quien es mas macho?’ The contestants included Jack Lord from Hawaii-5-0 and Ricardo Montalban, who consistently came out on top.

Here we have a variation on that theme, with all the Costa Rican treehouses I’ve visited vying for the honor of being treehouser than thou.

One thing I’ve noticed in my treehouse travels is that everyone has a different idea of what a treehouse should be.  Even the highest-ranking contestants–Finca Bella Vista, a sustainable treehouse community on the Southern Pacific coast, and Michael Cranford’s multi-level masterpiece on the Osa Peninsula–have philosophical differences about what constitutes a treehouse.

Cranford didn’t want to drill into the enormous Guanacaste tree that is now his home, so has his treetop home supported with wooden supports that go from the ground to the platforms that make up their home. Erica and Matt of Finca Bella Vista didn’t want support from the ground so brought in experts from the States to rig their treehouses without support from below.

Here’s a sampler of the treehouses I’ve seen on this trip, starting with the whimsical and working towards amazing feats of engineering and imagination.

1. The Treehouse Hotel in Arenal is fun but they’re not strictly treehouses—they’re cute little houselets up on stilts.

2. In Uvita, Tra McPeak from Memphis runs the Tucan Hotel, 100 meters east of the Costanera (the coast highway), a hostel with a restaurant, a pen full of rabbits, and high-speed wireless internet. They have a small wooden treehouse out front you can rent for $6/per person. The price includes hammocks but it’s extra for mattresses and bedding. Tra, who arrived in Costa Rica in 2006, says he built the treehouse for his kids but all the backpackers coming through wanted to sleep up there, so he now makes it available to guests.

Casa Arbol treehouse, Costa Rica; photo by David W. Smith

3. Humbert deSilva from France and Lisa Brouillard from Quebec have been in Costa Rica for almost 20 years. They run a small bed and breakfast, Casa Arbol, not far from Chacarita, where you turn off to go to the Osa Peninsula. Their entire house is a work of art—Hugh made the cupboards and the bed stands and the bath that look like something out of ancient Rome, not to mention the small treehouse that guests can stay in if they like. He never knows how a project will turn out when he begins it. He kept showing me carvings and rooms and tilework and saying, ‘When I finished, I saw that it was a”….swan, or frog, or a meditation on humanity.

4. Finca Bella Vista : a treehouse community in the jungle

Eric and Matt Hogan of Finca Bella Vista

A few short years ago Erica and Matt Hogan were camped in the mud by the Bella Vista River, up a rocky road to a spread of gorgeous but undeveloped land in Costa Rica’s Zona Sur. They weren’t sure what exactly was going to get them out of the mud, but dreamed of building a kind of Ewok village where they’d live in the trees and get to their neighbors’ houses via zipline.

Most people would have let that rather whimsical dream sputter and die, but Erica and Matt nailed it down and created Finca Bella Vista, a sustainable treehouse community with 82 lots available for people who want to live off the grid and in the trees. They’ve strung 18 ziplines, which they use fir both transportation and fun, but eventually there will be 45.

Treehouse at Finca Bella Vista, Costa Rica; photo by David W. Smith

We stayed in the first treehouse they built, and once I was 50 feet up in a structure cradled by three trees, listening to the roar of a nearby waterfall (visible from the top floor), I sighed and thought, This is it. This is the real thing.

5. At home in the trees: Michael Cranford’s treehouse on the Osa Peninsula

Michael Cranford and Rebecca Amelia were drinking margaritas in Boquete, Panama, talking about how as kids they’d retreat to the trees when they needed to get away. A few hours and numerous drinks later, they were sketching designs for a treehouse on napkins.

Michael Cranford's treehouse in Costa Rica; photo by Michael Cranford

Years later, the scrawled blueprints became reality when they hauled a few platforms built on the ground up into an enormous Guanacaste tree on their land on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica.

That was about a year ago, and Michael and Rebecca now live full-time in the trees, with Siete, a miniature husky, and Reina, an aging brindle boxer.

Breakfast nook in the treehouse; photo by Michael Cranford

The treehouse is a true home, with a spacious, fully-equipped kitchen, guest bedrooms, an office for each of them, and a master bedroom. Eighty percent of the wood used for the treehouse is downed hardwood from the jungle that is their backyard. They have internet and cable, flush toilets, and plenty of hot water in the shower.

They’ve seen a sloth right outside the kitchen, 3 kinds of monkeys—howlers, white face, and squirrel—come through regularly, and scarlet macaws hang out in the nearby branches.

They rent the place out occasionally—check their web site.

“I learned more about myself working with this tree,” says Michael, “than I have through any other life experience.”

Michael is a painter as well as an architect and visionary. “I moved down [to Costa Rica in 1998] to become an artist,” he says. He sold his painting contracting business in Colorado Springs, and gave himself “a window of 3-4 years to paint.” He painted 6 days a week.

That’s his goal this year, too—to do nothing but paint.  He created the painting below before he created his actual treehouse.