Costa Rica’s Nature Air Adding Planes & Flights

Costa Rica News – Nature Air has invested $10 million in purchasing five new aircraft to improve its operations in Costa Rica.

The firm is adding flights to David, starting December 1, which will be its second destination in Panama.

The new fleet is made up of three Caravan aircraft, for 12 passengers, and two Twin Otter aircraft, which carry 19 people each.

These replace the two aircraft currently covering 12 destinations within Costa Rica and the trips to Bocas del Toro, Panama.

Nature Air is the only airline with direct daily flights to Bocas and, soon, David. The tickets to David will be from $100, with promotions being launched on www.natureair.com.

Nature Air’s main competitor, Sansa, is working on launching new routes as well. It made a $12 million investment, in January, to strengthening its services and increase its fleet.  

U.S. Army Veteran Charged With Defrauding VA To Pay For Sports Bar In Costa Rica

Costa Rica News – The owner of a sports bar in Costa Rica has been charged with defrauding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) by claiming for years he couldn’t work because of headaches from a service-related car accident.

The Journal Sentinel reports Daniel Kososki, 53, an Army veteran from Wisconsin, told VA officials the headaches led to depression and then anxiety that made him extremely uncomfortable in crowds, unable to work and mostly holed up in his home.

After qualifying for Individual Unemployability — which pays as if you are 100% disabled — federal authorities say, Kososki bought and began operating Coconutz, a NFL-themed sports bar in the Costa Rican coastal town of Playas del Coco, Guanacaste.

Now, a federal grand jury has indicted Kososki for fraud, charging that he lied to the VA to obtain more than US$150,000 in VA benefits he didn’t deserve.

Federal court records list a Costa Rica address for Kososki and no attorney. Kososki did not immediately return attempts to reach him via an email address for the Costa Rica bar on Wednesday.

According to the indictment:

Kososki, formerly of Appleton, Wisconsin, served in the U.S. Army from 1982 to 1987. While on active duty, he was a passenger in a car that was involved in an accident, and later got disability benefits based on resulting injuries.

In 2006, he applied for Individual Unemployability, saying he suffered from headaches linked to head trauma from the crash, and that they were so severe he couldn’t work. He said the condition left him bed-ridden three days week, and blurred his vision so he couldn’t drive, read or watch television.

He was granted the extra benefit retroactively to 2005.

A couple of years later, he told the VA his headaches had left him depressed, and caused a seizure that resulted in his fall from a roof that injured his back and legs.

Later, during a 2015 exam at the VA, Kososki said he was suffering from anxiety that increased when he was around strangers in public, and so he avoided leaving home and had lost friendships and the ability to engage in hobbies and recreation.

Beginning at least in 2010, he submitted forms to the VA stating his service-connected disability prevented him from working.

Actually, according to prosecutors, Kososki had been working for an Appleton investment firm from 2006 to 2008 and left over a business dispute, not an inability to work.

Then in 2008 or 2009, according to the indictment, Kososki and a friend bought Coconutz Sports Bar & Grill in Playas del Coco in Costa Rica. Kososki put up $20,000 and the friend about $160,000. Kososki then actively managed the bar between 2009 and 2016, hiring employees, planning the menu, ordering supplies and interacting with customers.

In August, the indictment charges, Kososki told VA officials in a written statement that though he owned part of a Costa Rican bar, he had never worked there.

For a 2014 report on the global presence of Packers fans for Public Radio International, Kososki is quoted saying Coconutz is the only Packers bar south of Mexico. He told the reporter he has a Packers tattoo on his chest, and fills the bar’s 300 seats most football Sundays, predominantly with Packer backers.

In 2005, the State of Wisconsin denied Kososki a real estate sales license, citing his misdemeanor convictions in 2003 and 2004 for threatening phone messages and theft.

The administrative law judge who denied Kososki’s license appeal noted that the convictions show Kososki is “deceitful and dishonest” and likely incapable of selling real estate “in a manner that safeguards the interest of the public.”

From QCostaRica

The Evolution of Thought and the Crisis of Consciousness

For at least 100,000 years, since ‘modern man’ first emerged from East Africa, we humans have been as we are—tribal, self-centered and dominated by the extremely powerful adaptive strategy of ‘higher thought.’

Now, as the fragmentation of the earth and humanity by the unwise use of symbolic thought nears the breaking point, pressure increases proportionately for a revolution at the root of the mind of man.

That a single species should have the power to destroy the planet that gave rise to it is not just a philosophical mystery; it poses an existential question about consciousness itself. What is consciousness as we generally know it, and is another order of consciousness actually possible?

On one side, many take false refuge in the idea that humankind is unimportant, an infinitesimal speck on a speck in space. But the very fact that humans evolved along with all other life, and yet are bringing about the “Sixth Extinction,” begs the question: Do all potentially intelligent species with technological civilizations go through a crisis of consciousness?

On the other side are people, often so-called religious people, who insist that the previous five extinction events (defined as “a sharp decrease in the number of species in a relatively short period of time”) mean that nature is a “tooth and claw struggle for survival,” so we should expect man to be.

Does one really need to point out that there is a vast difference between the predator-prey dynamic and natural events, and the destruction caused by an allegedly intelligent species?

Conventional atheists say that humans are utterly unimportant, and that our destructiveness is evidence that life is a chance event against a background of chaos. But the emergence of consciousness remains a tremendous mystery, much less the evolution of a sentient species with tremendous spiritual potential that’s rapidly denuding its planet.

Astronomers have so far discovered about a 1000 ‘exo-planets’ orbiting distant suns, some in ‘habitable zones’ probably with water, like earth. The consensus now among astrobiologists is that the emergence of life is as much a property of the universe as the formation of stars and planets.

In the lifetimes of many people alive today, astronomers will discover, I posit, that rudimentary (single celled) life is quite common in the universe; multi-cellular organisms are quite uncommon; and that sentient, potentially intelligent species such as humans, are quite rare.

My hypothesis is that all sentient life that achieves scientific and technological prowess passes through essentially the same crisis of consciousness that humankind is presently experiencing. Those that make it have no more interest in inter-species conflict than they do in intra-species conflict, nor they have the desire to interfere with the processes of transmutation in sentient, potentially intelligent species on other planets.

If science discovers that life has emerged twice in our own small solar system—say, beneath the ice-crusted ocean of Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons—it would mean that life is abundant in the universe. Of course that still leaves the question of sentient and potentially intelligent life, but the probability of us being the only thought-bearing species in the galaxy then drops to nearly nil.

Probably intelligent life can only communicate with other intelligent life, and humans have not made the transition to intelligent life. Most people I know believe we never will, but the question is open until the chances to change course run out.

Therefore the question is not extraterrestrial life but terrestrial consciousness. The brain that gave rise to religion and science is the same brain that pits the religious mind against the scientific mind. And neither science nor organized religion can solve the human crisis, because both are the product of thought and its inherently dualistic consciousness.

Human consciousness, dominated by thought, is inherently fragmentary. That’s why the human mind has separated us from the wholeness of the earth’s ecosystems, and is bringing about the Sixth Extinction in the so-called Anthropocene Age. Can we resolve the crisis of human consciousness in time to restore the integrity of the planet, and ourselves?

The universe did not begin in chaos, but in silence and order. There is no chaos in the cosmic sense; everything but man unfolds in order. Chaos in the human sense arises from the disorder generated by not having a growing insight into the extremely powerful adaptation of conscious symbolic thought.

In the diminishing spaces between the man-made world and the earth, there exists an infinite dimension of being. If one doesn’t have contact that dimension through communion with nature, one totally loses one’s way as a human being. If one does, the earth and the universe are one’s home.

Martin LeFevre

1000’s of Upcoming American Airlines Flights Don’t Have Pilots

Travel News – Thousands of American Airlines flights “during the upcoming critical holiday period” don’t currently have pilots assigned to them because of a scheduling glitch, according to the airline’s pilot union.

“On Friday, management disclosed a failure within the pilot schedule bidding system,” read a statement posted to the Allied Pilots Association’s (APA) website on Tuesday. “As a result, thousands of flights currently do not have pilots assigned to fly them during the upcoming critical holiday period.”

American Airlines said in a statement Wednesday that they were “working diligently to address the issue and expect to avoid cancellations this holiday season.”

“We have reserve pilots to help cover flying in December, and we are paying pilots who pick up certain open trips 150 percent of their hourly rate — as much as we are allowed to pay them per the contract,” the statement said. “We will work with the APA to take care of our pilots and ensure we get our customers to where they need to go over the holidays.”

The airline did not say how many flights were affected or the exact time period of affected flights.

APA represents the 15,000 pilots with American Airlines.

The union statement said in its statement that on Tuesday “management issued an update detailing the ‘significant holes’ in the operation and unilaterally invoked a solution for crewing affected flights.”

The group said it had filed a grievance in response.

The scheduling problem is affecting flights in some of the nation’s biggest airports, including New York, Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago, according to a memo from the airline to pilots that was seen by CNBC.

While pilots had loaded up their schedules with flights in the beginning of December, many were allowed to take off time around the holidays, CNBC reported.

“The airline is a 24/7 op,” Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines captain and union spokesman, told CNBC. “The system went from responsibly scheduling everybody to becoming Santa Claus to everyone.”

“The computer said, ‘Hey ya’ll. You want the days off? You got it.‘”

by DANIELLA SILVA and JAY BLACKMAN, NBCNews.com

Electric Cars Have Reduced Taxes in Costa Rica

Costa Rica News – Thinking of buying an electric car? You’re in luck because the deputies have reduced taxes under a plan that establishes incentives for importing these cars as well as authorizes the replacement of the state vehicle fleet.

It’s been two years of a legislative process but finally the bill to exempt electric vehicles from taxes has been approved, on Monday afternoon. There were 38 votes in favor and just two against it.

The main objective was that the more electric cars the more the oil bill of the country is reduced.

Taxes are added if the car is not fully electric or if it costs over $30,000. Hyundai offers the Ioniq for $29,000 for Costa Rica.

Those over $30,00 will have a tax according to how expensive they are.

Thinking ahead, and to make the law comprehensive, the project establishes that the Minae must put recharge centers, “electolineras,” every 80 kilometers on national roads and every 120 on cantonal roads.

Colombia Drug Trafficker Links Costa Rica Business & Officials to Drug Trade

Costa Rica News – An alleged coordinator of a drug trafficking network in Colombia claimed that transnational criminal groups operate in Costa Rica alongside local businesses and with the support of customs officials who sell information to criminal organizations.

The drug trafficker, identified only by the alias “Juan,” revealed the route of the shipments, which leave from Cartagena towards Limón, the most important port in Costa Rica. The drugs then go to the United States, Europe or China.

The trafficker explained how they are able to move shipments of up to 20 tons of cocaine in trucks that transport cement, in an interview given on the Caracol Television show “Direct Witness,” and reproduced online by Crhoy.com.

“We do the shipments to Costa Rica, in containers, to the port of Limón. There we have a contact within a cement company – a company of cement trucks that carry cement to Costa Rica. Normally we send a maximum of 100 kilos per truck…This company has around 200 trucks working,” he said.

Juan added that trafficking in Costa Rica is similar to trafficking in Colombia. He insisted on the involvement of business owners with legally established companies that are used to launder the money generated by the trade.

“We have a large team working from Cartagena to Costa Rica,” he said. This includes officials from the Central American country who are paid to allow the containers carrying drugs.

InSight Crime Analysis

The statements made by the alleged trafficker corroborate the information published in a recent, extensive investigation by the newspaper La Nación, which showed the routes and maneuvers used by traffickers in Costa Rica.

The report in La Nación also refers to the co-opting of Costa Rican citizens and business owners by drug trafficking networks.
In the case of Costa Rica, organized crime groups have also benefitted from its position in global international trade networks to move large loads of drugs.

Gustavo Mata, the Minister of Security for Costa Rica, recognized that the authorities have had difficulties in controlling the passage of drugs in the country.

“This is a tsunami,” he told La Nación. “They make use of airspace, land borders, maritime routes,” he explained. “It is a constant bombardment. Just as police uncover one load, three or four others are coming in.”

This article was first published by InSight Crime. The original may be found here.

Costa Rica’s Hydrogen Powered Bus

Costa Rica News – Costa Rica’s first bus powered by hydrogen began operating on Monday, November 27, on the campus of the Ad Astra Rocket Company in Liberia, Guanacaste, on the La Flor farm.

There was an inaugural tour with a ribbon cutting ceremony. President Luis Guillermo Solís was in attendance.

This type of transportation is part of ex-astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz’ Hydrogen Ecosystems project. The hydrogen it carries mixes with oxygen from the air producing electricity to feed the electric motor. This is only an example of the many things that can be done in Costa Rica with hydrogen power.

The technology is applicable in vans, buses, cars and even planes.

As Ad Astra Rocket explains, the vehicle can reach a speed of 110 kilometers per hour and it’s autonomy is 340 kilometers. It fits 35 passengers. It’s still in its experimental stage, in which it will make free trips locally. The routes have not yet been defined.

The Haunted Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast

Ghosts & the Supernatural – A while back I received a call on the paranormal hotline, in which a woman that wanted to remain anonymous claimed she stayed at the infamous Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Fall River, Massachusetts. She claims that she saw a shadow figure move against the wall. She just brushed it off and thought it was her over active imagination. After her vacation in Massachusetts, she went back to her home in Missouri.

On the 2nd night being home, she had a vivid dream of taking an axe and killing her husband. This same nightmare was occurring night after night after night. She was so terrified of this dream, that she actually took the axe from her garage and threw it in a garbage dispenser at her local store. When she called me and told me of this experience, I suggested to her that she needed to get a full submersion baptism. A full submersion baptism is a basic form of exorcism and whatever may be tormenting her, will leave her body. She told me that she was not a Christian, but that she was a Buddhist. I then suggested that she get a cleansing utilizing her Buddhist beliefs. She engaged in a Buddhist ritual. The sacrament is meant to cleanse her spiritual being and soul. Other Buddhist members assisted her. She did a follow-up with me and told me that she was cleansed and is no longer having the Lizzie Borden type of nightmares. Now you may ask me. “Paul, do you think what this caller experienced is real?” Answer: “I don’t know. Some people get traumatized after watching something on ID Discovery. So perhaps the stories of Lizzie Borden stuck with the caller, causing her to have nightmares. I don’t get any outstanding reports that the Borden House is haunted. Read on.”

As we all know Lizzie Borden in 1892 murdered her father and stepmother with an axe and she was acquitted of the crimes. Many ghost hunters wonder if Lizzie is still haunting the house, or maybe her father and stepmother are still lingering around the house? It was time for me and my wife Deanna Jaxine Stinson to head off to Massachusetts to find out. The stories that are related to hauntings of the Borden Bed & Breakfast are scarce. There are reports of the floor creaking. That doesn’t tell me much. My floors at times creak and my house was built in 1998. The Borden house is very old, so I would imagine the house is still settling and causing these creaking noises. People at times smell a faint floral scent. Hmmm. Many guests and tourists come and go at this house, it could be anyone’s perfume or cologne that they are smelling. Shadows are sometimes seen. At night at my home, sometimes a car light will hit the window just right, to cause odd shadows to cross my walls. This could almost be anything. One witness said a shadow walked up the staircase. Perhaps a trickery of the eyes? Light bulbs burn out. My lightbulbs burn out all the time around my house, there is nothing paranormal about that at all. People freak out over the smallest things. I watched one program about Salem and the Borden House and the guest thought he saw the mannequin move. Another guest said they had flying orbs chase them out of the door. I wasn’t impressed with the paranormal stories from the Borden House and I can only wonder why the murdered victims would want to stick around this house? I would imagine that the murdered victims souls would immediately want to go into the light and not stick around a house that has a horrible memory. As for Lizzie sticking around the house, I doubt it. I don’t believe there is any intelligent energy residing at the Borden House, but I do believe there is residual energy that stays there. The act of a double murder replays over and over again. This negative energy is forever imprinted into the atmosphere.

Because the Borden House has an evil notoriety, ghost hunters are drawn to this house. They would probably do better in getting evidence at a place like Moaning Caverns – see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moaning_Cavern I get reports of activity that happen in this cave and it’s because many people in ancient times fell into a hole that can fit the Statue of Liberty inside easily. Many bones were discovered in this cave. Some of the oldest human remains have been discovered at this cave. I rappelled in this cave and remember talking to some frequent rappellers of this cave and they told me that they experienced ghostly touches, seen orbs with their own eyes and a few ghost hunters captured EVPs of languages that they did not understand. Moaning Caverns is not known to many paranormal investigators. If you want evidence, you should visit Moaning Caverns before visiting the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast. That’s my advice.

Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Esoteric Detective
aka The Demon Warrior
Halo Paranormal Investigations (HPI International)
http://www.cryptic916.com/
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/HPIinternational/

Reviewing the Costa Rica Mega Port Contract While Under Construction

Costa Rica News – Juan Diego Castro plans to review the contract for the mega port under construction. The PIN presidential candidate will study the issue along with trade unionists from both Japdeva and Recope.

His statement was made by a video posted on his Facebook page on Thursday, in which he answered questions from several members of Fetral. When asked his position on the contract to APM Terminals he stated that it is to revise it in a very real and transparent matter.

He says that everything can be reviewed and analyzed, and revoked, if necessary.

He is not yet saying that the contract will not be respected but that it will be considered carefully and completely, with lawyers, to see what went wrong.

The contract for the mega terminal originally listed January 18, 2018 as the delivery date but this has been delayed countless times, mainly due to construction defects including problems of compaction of the terrain of the artificial island that lead to inclination of breakwater pipes.

Costa Rica & The Global Drug Trade

Costa Rica News – Costa Rica, one of Central America’s most stable countries and home to breathtaking tourist destinations and the world’s happiest people, is now having an increasing role in the global drug trade.

This week, an extensive report by Costa Rican newspaper La Nación found that the Central American nation is becoming a passageway for cocaine trade between South America and the United States—the world’s largest drug consumer —Europe and other markets. Coca that originates from Bolivia, Peru and Colombia arrives in Costa Rica, where criminal networks from Mexico and Colombia profit from the country’s lax security measures and its strategic geographic position to transport large quantities of drugs, the newspaper indicates.

Criminal groups hire Costa Rican citizens to receive cocaine packs in strategic zones for storage and subsequent shipping. Most of the South American cocaine enters the country through maritime routes, and it is eventually carried by air, sea and land to the United States and other international destinations. Small, fast speedboats move drugs as close to the Costa Rica’s Atlantic and Pacific shores as possible, in order to avoid being detected by security radars.

Drug traffickers not only take advantage of the country’s export industry to send large batches of illicit substances. They also use the “ant method,” which involves several drug mules—or people who carry small packs of cocaine inside their bodies—to minimize the loss of cocaine shipments at the hands of authorities, website Insight Crime said. Between 2012 and June 2016, officials found 1.5 metric tons of cocaine from drug mules and passengers on commercial airline flights.

“This is a tsunami. They take advantage of air space, land and maritime borders…it’s a constant bombardment. While the police find one shipment, three or more are entering,” Costa Rican Security Minister Gustavo Mata told La Nación.

Between 2019 and 2015, Costa Rica intercepted more than 100,000 kilograms of drugs, becoming one of the 10 countries in the Americas that have seized a considerable amount of narcotics from criminal groups. Colombia has seized the largest amount of drugs within the same period, with more than 1.3 million kilograms. The United States, for its part, has snatched 673,696 kilograms.

Costa Rica, which doesn’t have an army, is proposing law enforcement cooperation with neighboring countries but it may yield little results, Insight Crime reported. Security forces are stretching too thin, as they try to tackle an increasing drug trade that is begetting violence and the creation of more crime groups. Even though the U.S. offered $30 million to Costa Rica last year to strengthen its security framework, there are still resource constraints that hinder the country’s ability to face a burgeoning drug trade.

Cocaine use has been on the rise in the United States, according to a recent report by the Drug Enforcement Administration. In 2015, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) revealed that 1.9 million people aged 12 or older are cocaine users, a significant increase from the 2007 benchmark of 906,000 users, the DEA study said.

By BY ROBERT VALENCIA, Newsweek

Woman Dies on Tourist Boat Near Totuguero Costa Rica

Costa Rica News – A tourist has died tragically after a tree fell on a boat carrying about 20 people along the La Suerte River, heading towards Tortuguero, in Pococí de Limón.

2 people suffered serious injuries.

The Red Cross arrived at the scene and confirmed the death of the woman, Maria Cristina Star Ropou, 22-years-old. The guide of the boat told authorities she was the only one missing from his list. The girl had been pressed between the tree and the boat with lethal blows.

Once found, the movement of her body was coordinated, which happened around 1:30.

The accident happened at 11:41 am. Two other people were seriously injured and five were treated for considerable blows and five others for less severe blows.

The closest clinics reinforced the medical services available at the nearest one, the clinic of Cariari de Pococí, to deal with the accident patients.

Woman Arrested For Pimping at Costa Rica Nightclub

Costa Rica News – The OIJ has captured a nightclub administrator who is accused of pimping.

The 54-year-old woman from the Dominican Republic was arrested at the request of the Office of the Prosecutor.

She ran a nightclub in Palmar Norte de Osa, Puntarenas where she prostituted five women, also foreigners, between the ages of 25 and 30. She was being investigated by agents of the Trafficking in Persons and Illicit Trafficking of Migrants Unit of the Judicial Investigation Agency since the beginning of this year.

The investigation showed her actions as well as information about her, such as that she has been here for about a decade and has entered into what seems like a marriage of convenience.

The lady charged locals, mainly farmers, ¢13,000 for half an hour and ¢26,000 for an hour of sexual services and then gave a percentage to the girls. At the time of the arrest, they fled the building but were later apprehended.

Costa Rica To Auctions 10 Properties in December

Costa Rica Real Estate – The Ministry of Finance is to auction off 10 properties, on December 6 and 7. The assets are in Guanacaste, Limón and San José.

The total base price is ¢1,137 million.

This is part of the measures to face the deficit of the Central Government.

The auction will be electronic, via the Sicop platform. The reception of offers will be on Wednesday the 6th and 7th and the details of each property can be viewed on the website of the Ministry of Finance.

Among the properties to be liquidated is a 1,092 square meter lot in Residencial Valle del Sol, in Pozos, Santa Ana, a coveted location.

Public Authorities are authorized to sell assets that are idle, unnecessary or luxury.

Those interested in participate should register in the Integrated Public Procurement System (Sicop). This method of electronic bids has been used for years to give accessibility to people from all over the country.

For more information about the properties you can go here on the Haceinda Valor

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is Now worth $100B Thanks to Black Friday

Costa Rica Runs on Renewable Energy for 300 Days

Costa Rica News – According to the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE), the Central American country has run on 100 percent power generated from renewable energy for 300 days.

Currently, Costa Rica is receiving 99.62 percent of its electricity from five renewable energy sources, the highest percentage for the country since 1987.

The breakdown is 78.26 percent of electricity from hydropower, 10.29 percent from wind, 10.23 percent from geothermal energy and 0.84 percent from biomass and solar.

Additionally, the statistics provided by the National Center for Energy Control projects that Costa Rica could surpass the 300 day-mark before 2017 closes.

The record-number 300 days have already topped the Central American country’s 2015 and 2016 runs of 299 days and 271 days, respectively.

Costa Rica has also set for itself an ambitious 2021 goal of becoming carbon neutral as well as totally eliminating single-use plastics – which is banned. The country has also placed significant emphasis on increasing its forest cover.

ICE disclosed that 2017 is on track to be the biggest-ever year for wind production. There are 16 wind farms which produce 1,014.82 gigawatt hours.

Costa Rica experiences large volumes of rainfall annually; this drives its hydropower network.

From Telesurtv.net

Animals, Humans and Gods

It’s completely still. Not a leaf flutters, except for the slender yellow leaves overhanging and nearly touching the rushing stream. They quiver as the water’s current bestirs the air directly above the creek.

Passive observation gathers into intense, undirected attention, and the flame of attention burns away the detritus of thought and emotion, making everything new again.

It’s been a long, mild fall. Because there hasn’t been a major storm yet, most of the leaves are still on the trees in northern California.

The familiar becomes unfamiliar. The known becomes unknown. After the meditation, I take a short path to the park road that I’ve not taken before, and emerge anew into an old world, almost forgetting where I am.

To my mind and heart, there is no more important action than negation in meditation. I used to wonder how others inwardly survive in this depraved culture without inwardly cleansing themselves on a regular basis. Then I realized most people don’t inwardly survive.

Aristotle said, “To live alone, one must either be an animal or a god.” We don’t have to live alone, but humans in the global society have become such self-centered creatures, the only choice now is to grow into gods.

The self is socially constructed, not individually made. The consciousness we have known as humans for tens of thousands of years is essentially cumulative, based on useless memory, not useful knowledge. The old consciousness is not true consciousness, and it has reached a saturation point.

Why is it so rare for people to take the time to watch the movement of their thoughts and emotions in the mirror of nature? Is it fear?

Clearly so. But of what? Of seeing ourselves as we are? Of seeing and feeling what we intellectually know is true but don’t want to emotionally see and feel about society?

Humans are social animals, and there’s a fear of not fitting into the social structure, however pathological it is. Most people are deeply afraid of standing out, of being seen as “weird” because one is different.

The local brewery, Sierra Nevada, came out with a new beer called FOMO—Fear of Missing Out. No kidding. That’s it, isn’t it—the fear of missing out is what compels the vast majority of people to conform.

The earth is so beautiful, and we’re meant to live harmoniously and joyfully on it. The present world is total madness and utter destructiveness however, both ecologically and spiritually. Sadly, far too many adults conflate life with the world.

David Ignatius of the New York Times says American culture is so ubiquitous, “it’s like the air the world breathes.” Perhaps so. But despite or because of the madness of the global society, humankind has a greater chance of changing course at this juncture than ever before in history.

We must first understand and live in the culture and world as they are however. So how is the true individual to live sensitively and intelligently in this world?

Psychological thought is the root of all evil. When the mind-as-thought spontaneously falls silent in the gathering attention of passive observation, a new order of consciousness emerges within one.

Beyond the predator-prey dynamic, beyond the “tooth and claw” ideology, wholeness and love are intrinsic to nature and the universe. But not to man. Haven’t you ever wondered why?

When psychological thought ceases operating in undivided, unwilled attention to the movement of memory and association, a completely different order of consciousness arises in the brain.

So why does thought, which is essentially memory and association, not stop psychologically? And why, when it does spontaneously yield to passive observation and attention in the mirror of nature, does thought/time start up again?

In the sense we normally use the word, there is no such thing as the individual. We are inextricably part of this sick global society and the consciousness that underlies it as long as we aren’t taking total responsibility for the darkness within ourselves, and freeing ourselves by continuously learning.

That’s arduous work, and there is no arrival. But there can be breakthroughs, both within the undivided individual (a redundancy, since ‘individual’ literally means ‘not divided’), and in human consciousness.

Martin LeFevre

Link:
Piano riff on Bach prelude, about 8 minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC44L5T0FVA

Visit Cocos Island in San Jose, Costa Rica

Costa Rica Entertainment – Although Cocos Island is very remote, at 532 kilometers from the coast, we can all “visit” it at the National Museum from November 23 to August 19th, 2018 at the exhibit “Crossing the Island of Coco.”

We can see the beautiful skies and exceptional depths of the ocean near Cocos Island, a unique paradise.

We can see what it would be like to spend a few days and nights there on the island in the Pacific. It will be a full sensory experience.

Few Costa Ricans have seen this national land. Digital tools now allow projections of what happens on the island from day to night.

The exhibit celebrates the 40th anniversary of the island as a National Park as well as 20 years as a Heritage of the Humanity site.

The point of the exhibition is to ensure that visitors leave linked to the island emotionally. This is based on the idea that humans remember more emotionally than intellectually.

Legends of Owls

When humans were looking around at the new world to understand who we were supposed to become, we naturally analyzed the animal kingdom as well, as we are looking everywhere for the correct answers. The purpose of family, friends and survival soon became evident. How did other species act to survive the wild Earth? Where did their spirits go?
This and many other questions evolved into the birthplace of shamans and magical peoples, believing that the spirit world and nature would give us the answers to the riddles left around us. Animals can be admired for their positive and negative characteristics, much like people. Some myths show how humans may want to acquire the powers of certain animals and ways to perhaps achieve this such as eating owl’s eyes to see in the dark.

We know that although medically and scientifically, this may not work and that is why it is spiritual. You are feeding your soul the intention and the message. You are symbolizing the desire to acquire vision in the dark, knowledge in the lost world; there are many different ways to see this. It is important to hold onto the thought processes and spiritual connotation to learn about ourselves now and in the future. A dream, a thought, a visualization is the first voice of creation, suddenly pulling your thoughts into a physical existence.

The soft sounds of a nearby owl can evoke emotions of magic. The owl is a very mysterious and nocturnal creature that has stood as a symbol for legendary peoples such as the goddess Athena and also the Great Spirit.

Evidence of owls has been found dating back to over 60 million years ago in fossils and the design of the owl has not changed much. Because of this, the owl has been used in magic as well dating as far back and widespread touching all cultures and religions. The spirit of the owl is ancient, and beautiful.

In Appalachian cultures, the owl comes down to eat spirits on Samhain night. It enjoys the souls of the dead. This may be related to how an owl can eat something whole and regurgitate the bones at a later time.

It has strong associations with the dead. This is a very unique animal in this sense.

The owl is an eerie creature, nocturnal for the most part although some species of owl such as the burrowing owl are awake at daytime.
An owl that lives outside of one’s home is said to be the telltale sign that there is a powerful sorcerer within. An owl can be a guardian for a witch, protecting her home from unseen visitors.
There are many different types of owl and they each have their separate mythologies. Overall, the owl is a great symbol for mystery, death, knowledge and wisdom.

Barn Owl
A barn ow is a beautiful rustic colored bird that has a stunningly white face. This has earned the bird many nicknames such as ghost bird or demon face. The white color of the bird’s face reflects very brightly in a dark night and can be quite eerie to see when you are not expecting it.

Burrowing Owl
The burrowing owl is said to be the symbol of the God of the dead in native mythologies. It is also known as a warrior’s protector. The burrowing owl hides itself into the Earth, giving it a natural source of enigmatic energy to thrive on. Touching the earth is called grounding, and so this owl is absorbing magic from the Earth.

Chinese
In China the owl is considered to be the masculine and positive force of the yin, yang (the yang). It is considered where there is too much light, goodness and masculinity. The owl is a powerful symbol as well and was used on royal emblems.

Feathers
The Roman’s believed that you could assemble owl feathers in a certain way to protect against the evil eye. Those cursed by the evil eye would experience evil misfortunes and bad luck sure to last a lifetime. The Roman’s placed a very negative connection onto the owl. The owl was supposed to have foretold the deaths of many emperors.

A feather can also keep away evil spirits and illness from evil intentions. This feather must be found and not stolen from the owl in order to work properly. It must be hung upon a doorway or placed in bed with the person who needs protection.

Native America
In Native American mythology, the owl is a symbol of death. Apaches believe that dreaming of one can bring death. The calling of an owl through your window if you are ill is an omen of your passing. A symbol of an owl may be placed onto rocks to mark fishing spots. Cherokee culture speculates that the owl is really a ghost or spirit of a loved one.

Owls are killed throughout the world each year for those believing in the magic. The unfortunate part is that some species has almost become extinct by doing this. A spirit who holds a specific animal sacred is one who would not want to see the owl become hurt, so murdering an owl will not protect you it will only bring severe karmic offenses against you. Not only is it evil to kill owls or other animals for magic, it will only bring harm upon everyone involved, including yourself. There is no reason to sacrifice animals to please a god, even if using black magic this is a myth. It is very unwise to make rash decisions when performing magic because magic was not intended to be used by everyone, only shamans and other magical peoples of the world. Please do not perform magic ceremonies unless you were gifted to do so by the Gods and Goddess and have the proper knowledge for protection. This is very much like driving a car, if you get behind the wheel of something you have not learned or practiced to use, it can be dangerous to your life and others.

My soulmate by Jodi Lynn Meyer Stinson

Each night, I sit and wait to hear
The footsteps of my soulmate, dear

To many men have come and gone,
They’re on a frightful quest, I fear

The footprints they have placed upon my soul
Reminds me to keep the good book near

A special love is hard to find, every time
The pain makes me think I have found mine

I do not wish to die alone
I always think the end is near

I place my trust in one good friend who
Doesn’t understand the pain I’m in

Dear friend please don’t leave again
I know now that you don’t really care

All I need is to make my house a home…

Deanna Jaxine Stinson aka The Black Rose
Halo Paranormal Investigations (HPI International)
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/HPIinternational/

Illegal Stem Cell Therapy in Costa Rica

Costa Rica News – Stem cell therapies are being offered in Costa Rica without the authorization of the Ministry of Health.

Authorities warn of possible fraud by charging for unsecured treatments.

Specialized clinics advertise on websites stem cell treatments to treat Alzheimer’s, diabetes, sclerosis, Parkinson’s, arthritis, lupus and even aesthetic treatments for baldness or wrinkles.

The warning is that there is a lack of regulation in the field which can lead to many abuses and problems. Offering treatments lacking scientific support can be considered a scam. The stem cells may be exposed to infections or disorders.

Those offering the services, however, see the issue differently. They swear by the results.

They say there is ignorance and misunderstanding standing in the way of getting the necessary permits.

Have the Experience of a Lifetime at Ylang Ylang

A trip to Costa Rica can prove to be the experience of a lifetime. It’s one of the most beautiful, relaxing places to go for vacation. It allows visitors to indulge in various local activities along with exotic sightseeing.

The lush green environment and protected native wildlife create an atmosphere of beauty, nature, and culture.

The beaches of Costa Rica are perfect for sunbathing, swimming, romantic dining and walks, or even building a sandcastle.

Costa Rica has quickly become one of the most popular  vacation destinations.

Here’s what makes Ylang Ylang Beach Resort so special

1) Ocean Views

2) Garden Views

3) The Tree Top Canopy

4) Luxury Tent Rooms

5) Daily Yoga classes with an ocean view

When you choose to stay at Ylang Ylang, you’ll enjoy all that Costa Rica has to offer from a single point.

The Ylang Ylang resort has a secluded location that is ideal for romantic getaways and a relaxing atmosphere. Not only that, this resort is also located close enough to all the hot-spots – such as Montezuma – to ensure that you always have something to occupy your time. Thinking about a trip? Start planning your unforgettable vacation getaway to Costa Rica and stay at Ylang Ylang Beach Resort.

Filed under: costa rica restaurants, things to do in costa rica Tagged: beaches of Costa Rica, beautiful sightseeing, most popular destinations for a vacation, unforgettable vacation
Have the Experience of a Lifetime at Ylang Ylang published first on https://ylangylangresort.com/

Ready for Cirque du Soleil in Costa Rica?

Costa Rica Entertainment – Cirque du Soleil and the Argentine rock group Soda Stereo will be presenting their joint show, Sép7imo día – No descanso, in Costa Rica, from February 14-25, with double features on weekends, at Hacienda Espinal, Alajuela.

There will be 14 performances.

The producer, Primo Entertainment, announced Wednesday that prices will go from ¢25,000 to ¢100,000.

Presale starts tomorrow for American Express cardholders and on December 1 for all other payment methods.

Visit eticket.cr or Servimás.

Credit options are available to pay the ticket over 12 months. Additionally, a VIP ticket is available that includes front row seats, two drinks, a red carpet experience and a souvenir.

The shows will be held in a tent in San Rafael, Alajuela, which was also the venue for shows such as Corteo and Varekai.

The show has been a hit in every country it has toured so far.

Weep for America; Work for Humanity

[For my Thanksgiving column this year, I’m republishing a piece I wrote nearly three years ago. If it seems prescient, it wasn’t. It’s simply that what was true a few years ago is much more painfully true today.

So, with a few alterations (the elite in question had the mendacity and audacity to write a recent column entitled, “Our Elites Still Don’t Get It”), here it is. I hope it induces reflection and ignites insights as America dredges the bottom of the barrel and calls it a “reckoning.”]

Sometimes you read something by a mouthpiece for the status quo that’s so outrageously false, yet so widely and subconsciously accepted, that you want to scream. According to David Brooks, “Nationalism tied to universal democracy is uplifting and ennobling.”

Brooks represents the antithesis of truth telling and the epitome of wishful thinking. It’s impossible to know whether he cynically writes such drivel because his position depends on it, or he really believes it.

Are America’s socio-political divisions, coming on the heels of its illegal invasions and extrajudicial murders in the name of the ‘global war on terror’ the new normal, or are they a symptom of its collapse and the breakdown of the international order?

At a time when the moribundity of America is culturally palpable and more politically manifest every day, to wax nostalgic about how “Lincoln committed himself to the sacred truth that his country represented the “last best hope” of mankind,” as Brooks does, is to condemn this country, and humanity, to permanent spiritual decline.

A pathological need for heroes is the disease of zeroes. My countrymen flocked to see “American Sniper,” a movie about a man killing people from long distance (considered cowardice in many countries) after America opened the gates of hell through our invasion of Iraq. The Hollywood sniper’s sad story is that he was unable to integrate back into his family and society, epitomized (though it isn’t in the movie) by his bragging about shooting people in New Orleans during the Katrina disaster. It’s a perfect symbol for the Bush Administration’s arc of lies, and the Obama Administration’s whitewashing.

The fragmentation and demise of the nation-state is undeniable except to the most die-hard nationalist. Yet on the left as well as the right, nationalists continue to believe the poppycock that America “has succeeded in uniting nationality and universality, civic and spiritual selfhood, sacred and secular history, the country’s past and paradise to be, in a single transcendent ideal,” as Brooks puts it.

If you want to feel the truth of what I’m talking about, rather than process it through words and concepts, watch a half hour of CNN, and then listen to Dvorak’s “Largo” movement from his “New World Symphony,” written in 1893 while the visiting Czech composer was director of the National Conservatory of Music of America.

It holds excruciating echoes of the potential and promise of a new world, albeit one imperfectly formed and largely stolen from Native Americans. You hear the longing for homeland in the true sense (not the trillion-dollar trope of fear and false security), as well as the yearning of millions of immigrants who left forever the lands of their families and lineages stretching back into the mists of time.

Where did we go wrong? Why did this become a nation of narcissistic consumers led by a narcissistic president? Why did the fear of terrorism find such fertile soil here (even as the warning signs for 9.11 were ignored)? Who manufactured the mirror-image enemy of ISIS, milked by media for news entertainment value in conjunction with a government for propagandistic diversion, and corporations for trafficking in an insatiable global market for weapons of death and destruction?

We stopped valuing the thing that the Founders valued most—telling the truth and standing for it, dying for it if necessary. We now still live under the yoke of encrusted tradition and enervating tyranny of a different kind, camouflaged by the modern mendacity of words like freedom and phrases like protecting the homeland.

There can be no rebirth, here or anywhere, in the context of nationalism. It is dead in ways that cannot be reborn, and has fallen onto the midden of history.

The biggest lie is that the spirit that Jefferson and Hamilton breathed into this nation’s conception, and for which Lincoln died, that we are “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” still thrives.

If America is the “last best hope” of humankind, and we cannot have a rebirth of spirit (the human spirit, not the American spirit), humanity truly is entering a dark age for which no living person can see the end.

At the hinges of history, when rotting institutions and hidebound traditions can no longer hold the center, there is a tremendous opportunity as well as urgent responsibility to create a new culture in the context of our undeniably global society, and thereby secure a true future for humanity.

The great endeavor now is not in any national framework and perspective. The great endeavor, the vast unexplored territory, is, for the first time in human history, humanity itself, humanity as a whole.

Martin LeFevre

Dvorak’s “New World Symphony, Largo”:
http://www.bing.com/search?q=anton%C3%ADn+dvořák+new+world%27+symphony+(excerpt)&filters=ufn%3a%22anton%C3%ADn+dvořák+new+world+symphony+excerpt%22+sid%3a%22d95904da-64cb-ff0e-8ac1-28077dec6710%22&autoplay=1&FORM=SNAPST

Miss Costa Rica Elena Correa & The Miss Universe Pageant

Costa Rica Entertainment – Miss Costa Rica 2017, Elena Correa, has, on Monday, played the last card before Miss Universe.

This step was the preliminary round of the world contest.

The 27-year-old appeared gracefully before the judges and public. This presentation, in bathing suit and formal wear, led to her qualification to the semifinal rounds of the Miss Universe Contest.

In a live broadcast, Elena told her followers about the Preliminary, stating that she felt calm, sure and happy. She was proud with all of her being to say the name of her country and represent it.

She was also joyful for the support received that went towards a foundation that treats people with cleft lip.

Almost 100 ladies advance to the gala on Sunday, November 26th. They were chosen after interviews with the jury on the 19th and the parade in national dress on the 18th.

Elena was dressed as a goddess of the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum.

Costa Rica To Use the Money Set Aside for Schools For Schools

Costa Rica News – The Ministry of Public Education has used almost ¢1,000 million set aside for the construction of new elementary and high schools to pay penalties imposed by the Inter-American Development Bank.

The fees were imposed for not executing on time the projects the money was for. The financial institution contributed the funds to build 80 educational centers and roof 23 courtyards.

The money being fined is roughly equivalent to the construction cost of four complete schools.

The MEP attributes the delay to the fact that the National Bank took two years to form the Executing Unit in charge of development of the project.

Without that body, the project could not begin.

Of 103 projects, only two have been finished and one has been started, the one in La Carpio, which is being built finally after 12 years of waiting.

The first built with the trust opened in Mata de Plátano.

Where to Buy Toys for Christmas in Costa Rica

The year has flown by and Christmas is right around the corner. Our heads are spinning over what the best gift options are for our friends and family, especially the kids of all ages.

This Christmas, as usual, the best toys of the season are to be found at TOYS, one of Costa Rica’s top toy stores.

Aside from having a huge selection of the best games around, TOYS is the store with the very best prices. Get the most coveted products of the season at a great price, starting today. It’s a great place to get much of your shopping done all in one store.  

This season, TOYS offers discounts on over 300 product lines. Fabulous gifts can be had for a steal of a price. No matter your budget, there is something for everyone at TOYS.

For more information, including gift ideas for your loved ones, visit www.tiendatoys.com. There you can search by the type of product you are looking for or the age of the child you are buying for. You can also stop by any of the 24 stores throughout the country.

Brain Implant Boosts Memory for First Time Ever

In brief: A professor built a brain implant that can reportedly improve short-term memory by 15 percent and working memory by 25 percent. The device could prove life-changing for the growing segment of the population impacted by Alzheimer’s and dementia.

A BIONIC MEMORY BOOST

With everyone from Elon Musk to MIT to the U.S. Department of Defense researching brain implants, it seems only a matter of time before such devices are ready to help humans extend their natural capabilities. Now, a professor from the University of Southern California (USC) has demonstrated the use of a brain implant to improve the human memory, and the device could have major implications for the treatment of one of the U.S.’s deadliest diseases.

Dong Song is a research associate professor of biomedical engineering at USC, and he recently presented his findings on a “memory prosthesis” during a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington D.C. According to a New Scientist report, the device is the first to effectively improve the human memory.

To test his device, Song’s team enlisted the help of 20 volunteers who were having brain electrodes implanted for the treatment of epilepsy.

Once implanted in the volunteers, Song’s device could collect data on their brain activity during tests designed to stimulate either short-term memory or working memory. The researchers then determined the pattern associated with optimal memory performance and used the device’s electrodes to stimulate the brain following that pattern during later tests.

Based on their research, such stimulation improved short-term memory by roughly 15 percent and working memory by about 25 percent. When the researchers stimulated the brain randomly, performance worsened.

As Song told New Scientist, “We are writing the neural code to enhance memory function. This has never been done before.”

A GROWING PROBLEM

While a better memory could be useful for students cramming for tests or those of us with trouble remembering names, it could be absolutely life-changing for people affected by dementia and Alzheimer’s.

As Bill Gates noted when announcing plans to invest $100 million of his own money into dementia and Alzheimer’s research, the disease is a multi-level problem that’s positioned to get even worse.

Age is the greatest risk factor for Alzheimer’s, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, with the vast majority of sufferers over the age of 65. With advances in medicine and healthcare continuously increasing how long we live, that segment of the population is growing dramatically, and by 2030, 20 percent of U.S. citizens are expected to be older than 65.

This increase in the number of potential dementia sufferers can be costly in both a financial and emotional sense. In 2016, the total cost of healthcare and long-term care for those suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was an estimated $236 billion, and according to the Alzheimer’s Association, the more severe a person’s cognitive impairment, the higher the rates of depression in their familial caregivers.

Of course, further testing is required before Song’s device could be approved as a treatment for dementia or Alzheimer’s, but if it is able to help those patients regain even part of their lost memory function, the impact would be felt not only by the patients themselves, but their families and even the economy at large.

“For the First Time Ever, Scientists Boosted Human Memory With a Brain Implant” was originally published by Futurism, LLC on Nov. 14, 2017 by Kristin Houser. Copyright 2017. Futurism, LLC. All rights reserved.

Medical Marijuana in Costa Rica

Costa Rica News – The Legal Commission has welcomed new text on the bill on legalization of commercial, industrial and medical uses of cannabis.

The plan seeks to allow the government to charge up to $2.5 million for producing medical marijuana.

This fee would be for a concession to plant, research and develop cannabis products for medicinal, industrial and food purposes. There would be a limit of 228 such concessions, and they would start at $5,000, depending on the type.

Some of the changes to the text include the elimination of a public institute of cannabis and also the allocation or control over medical marijuana to the Ministry of Health. The price of concessions was also increased.

It is thought that by endorsing medical consumption, illegal trade, drug trafficking and organized crime will decrease. It will also bring resources into the state by charging for concessions.

Ecotourism in Costa Rica

Costa Rica Travel & Tourism – Nature reserves in rainforests, protection programs for threatened flora and fauna, organically farmed cacao for cocoa production – Costa Rica is known for all that, and has a reputation as an ecological role model. When I visited I tried to track down practical examples of sustainable tourism in three places.

Watch out! Babies on the beach!

I’ve never witnessed a birth, but today I’m seeing several. One of about 80 freshly-hatched turtles has freed itself from the hole in which its mother laid her eggs, and is scuttling twenty meters down the beach. There it glides into the lukewarm water of the Caribbean Sea. Its siblings are doing the same thing – but not all of them have it easy, because they’re not alone on the beach. I’m there, along with about 30 tourists. The beach is freely accessible; there are no barriers. A few guides from Tortuguero National Park on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast are giving instructions: “Don’t get in the way of the turtles! Watch where you step! Don’t help!” The tiny animals have to find their way on their own. But many tourists only listen with half an ear – they’re much too busy taking pictures and filming. “Oops!” A señora next to me has just failed to notice one of the small animals between her legs and accidentally knocked it over, but the turtle picks itself up and keeps going.

It’s 5 p.m. – a good time to hatch, as the heat of the day has already slowly subsided. The nesting season of the green sea turtle, which is actually more gray than green, runs from July to October. “There is an estimated total of up to 40,000 nesting holes on about 30 kilometers of beach here,” Diego, one of the guides, tells me while tourists and baby turtles bustle around us. I want to know if there are official rules set by the authorities. Diego’s answer is a terse “no,” even though there are about 200,000 tourists annually in Tortuguero National Park.

“It hurts me to see this,” 14-year-old schoolgirl María Fernanda Vaquero Castillo tells me as I leave the beach. She lives here in the only village in the national park. “It simply has to be better organized and regulated. I don’t mean they should charge entrance fees for the beach. They should sensitize tourists about this natural miracle.” The eighth-grader has grown up here on the Caribbean coast, and together with her friends collects trash people leave on the beach. She has seen hundreds of turtles hatch. It’s certainly a beautiful experience, but now she has tears in her eyes. “Once I saw a dead baby turtle that had slit its throat on a beer can. That was the worst.”

The sun sets – and we go back down to the beach, this time to a different section of it. It’s pitch-black and suddenly sand flies in my face. The guide turns on his torch and it glows with a weak red light. I can just make out the outlines of what I was able  to admire in miniature version in the afternoon. A sea turtle about a meter in diameter is digging a hole in the sand under cover of darkness. She throws the sand far behind her with her flippers. “No photos,” the guide says quietly, not for the first time. Light and noise could disturb the turtle. Only the guide’s dim lamp is turned on occasionally and the beam of light moves over the animal’s shell. After a good half an hour the turtle has finished digging. While she lays her eggs, we slowly retreat.

Another half an hour later something moves in the hole. “She’s done,” whispers the guide. Shortly afterwards the animal ponderously moves back towards the water, followed by an entourage of tourists. No one speaks. All keep their distance and tiptoe behind the reptile. Has she noticed us? “We don’t know,” says the guide. The first small waves lap over the turtle, who continues undeterred and eventually disappears into the sea. The babies will never see their mother – perhaps only hordes of tourists who may be standing near the hole when they first see the light of day.

Touring the rainforest in an aerial tram

About 60 kilometers from the turtle beach as the crow flies, I’m taking an aerial tramway through the forest canopy. Below me I see the floor of the rainforest passing by. To my left and right, colorful birds sit in the treetops. “That one over there is a red-eyed vireo – an American songbird,” the guide calls from behind us, and the tram car stops briefly. It’s one of 22 that travel through the Rainforest Adventure Park.

The park is an hour’s drive from the capital San José and in private hands. In addition to the aerial tramway, which has stood here since 1994 and is considered the highlight of the park, zip-lining, hiking tours and birdwatching are on offer. 33-year-old Nicolas Staton, General Manager of Rainforest Adventures Costa Rica, welcomes 40,000 to 50,000 visitors a year here. Despite the number of visitors, he says it’s sustainable tourism: “We’ve been climate-neutral since 2012,” he announces proudly. That means that the park’s CO2 emissions are completely offset. Staton can name any number of examples of the sustainability of tourism here. “We are preserving 450 hectares of rainforest, waste is recycled and we use only ecological elements to clean up the park.” He adds that the park provides work for residents of the neighboring communities, which is part of sustainable tourism. “It consists of three pillars: ecological, financial and social development.” Instead of possibly hunting animals illegally or clearcutting in the forest, the locals who work here show its flora and fauna to visitors.

And in addition to colorful birds, that fauna includes other exotic animals. On a branch relatively near our tram car sits a huge spider. I notice it quite late, so I’m startled and jerk my camera and arm back into the car. I hadn’t expected the spider – but I did expect the laughter of the other five occupants.

The eco lodge in the middle of nowhere

We left the well-paved road to the Rainforest Adventure Park long ago, and if our Jeep didn’t have four-wheel drive, we’d be in trouble, because these ten kilometers are not paved at all, and there are many twists and turns. They couldn’t be driven in an ordinary rental car. At one point we even have to ford a river with our vehicle. Tourists have to accept this awkward journey if they want to get to Selva Bananito Lodge in the middle of the rainforest.

People who holiday here usually want to relax and switch off. What I have to switch on is my electric torch in the evening, in order to find the way to my small cabin. The sounds of the rainforest are impressive: chirping, croaking and tweeting everywhere. In the cabin itself I’m glad of the mosquito net over my bed, which in addition to an astonishingly small number of mosquitos keeps out a multitude of extremely diverse insects.

“This is no walled-off all-inclusive resort. I use tourism as a mechanism to conserve the rainforest,” says 51-year-old Jürgen Stein, who has lived in Costa Rica since 1974 and run the eco lodge for 22 years. But how does that work? “The great mistake is always to look for a quick buck. This is a small lodge with a personal atmosphere,” he says. “I might have 4000 to 5000 guests a year. In the future, our children and grandchildren ought to be able to carry out every activity here without our having destroyed anything.” That means, among other things, that every guest here plants a tree, that water in the cabins is heated by the sun and the soap is biodegradable.

Then Jürgen gets slightly irked. That’s due to my question of to what extent his eco lodge might be a mere drop in the bucket where climate change is concerned. “In my forest, more than 500,000 tons of CO2 are stored. The trees planted by my guests alone will make my lodge carbon negative in the next 200 years!” he insists. That is to say, Jürgen gives more to the environment than he takes from it. That’s the opposite of what his father intended when he bought 17 square kilometers of rainforest in Costa Rica’s Limón province four decades ago.  He had planned traditional agriculture: cocoa cultivation, banana plantations and animal husbandry. And that always involves deforestation. “My  sister and I saw that in clearing the forest he was destroying life support systems.” In 1985 that came to an end.

The next morning I see from the air that it wasn’t too late. Jürgen flies an autogyro – a slightly rickety-looking aircraft with two seats that resembles a helicopter. Before take-off I’m still pretty nervous, but in the air I’m so thrilled by the view that I forget my fears. High over “Jürgenland,” as the locals call this neck of the woods, it’s easily to recognize what the father did wrong and the son did right.  Three quarters of the area is a rich green in color – it’s pristine primeval forest. A quarter is light green. That part was deforested and is used for farming, animal husbandry and, of course, for the Selva Bananito Lodge.

We land, and now Jürgen is laughing again. I can hear him over the headphones in my helmet. Even though he’s flown innumerable times, that obviously hasn’t dimmed his enjoyment. I ask him whether Costa Rica can serve as ecological role model. “Yes,” he says, “but unfortunately there are so many areas that are overrun – for instance, Manuel Antonio National Park on the Pacific coast. There the monkeys on the beach come right up to the tourists and rummage through their rucksacks looking for junk food, because they’ve become addicted to it. The monkeys here in my forest throw sticks at you when they see you, because they feel disturbed in their habitat.”

And that’s how it should be, I think – because here I’m the interloper. The monkeys are at home.

Article & Pics – Lukas Stege, From DW.com

San José’s Metropolitan Cathedral, A Good Reason to Go to Church

San José‘s Metropolitan Cathedral, A Good Reason to go to Church

Why do we go to church? If we are religious, we go to worship god. However, some of us go because it is a social event, or for others, we go because it is a social obligation (we are expected to go). When we were children, many of us went to church because our parents made us.

Here is another good reason: We can go to church because it is beautiful. In the case of the Metropolitan Cathedral, the main Catholic church in San José, it is indeed very beautiful, and it is an important building, rich with art, history and culture.

The Metropolitan Cathedral of San José, Costa Rica, features a facade with two bell towers and a clock tower. Behind the facade is the long nave, and at its eastern end is a small cupola, or dome, over the altar.

The Metropolitan Cathedral is located in the heart of Downtown San José, two blocks west of the National Theater, across the street from the city’s Central Park. It is the headquarters for the Roman Catholic hierarchy in San José.

The Cathedral was built in the 1870’s after an earthquake destroyed a smaller church on the site. It was designed by a Spanish architect in a style that is considered “neo-classical.” The front of the building features a facade with three towers; a clock tower in the center and two bell towers. There are Doric pillars supporting an overhang that covers a wide front portico.

The Metropolitan Cathedral provides a quiet, peaceful place of escape from the noisy city outside. The arched ceiling of the long nave is supported by classic columns that run all the way to the altar.

Behind the facade is the long body of the church and at its eastern end is a small cupola, or dome, which covers the altar. In the Cathedral’s 140-year history, parts of the building have been closed several times for restoration and strengthening. The most recent time was in the 1990’s, after damage was caused by a series of strong earthquakes.

Once inside, you will escape the noise and the bustle of the city outside, and you cannot help but be impressed with what a peaceful, spiritual, and yes, sacred place this is. The long body, or nave, of the Cathedral features a vaulted ceiling supported by classic columns that run all the way to the altar.

The Cathedral features an impressive collection of stain glass windows. This powerful scene depicts Saint Michael the Archangel defeating Satan.

There are many things to see as you explore this historic Cathedral, but for me, the most fascinating features are the dazzling stain glass windows. These are a collection of French made masterpieces on either side of the cathedral. They are from the Champigneulle factory in Paris, and they depict Biblical scenes of Jesus, the Holy Family and various saints. One of the most moving, is a window that powerfully illustrates Saint Michael the Archangel defeating Satan.

Fourteen sculpted bas reliefs are mounted on either side of the Cathedral. These are the Stations of the Cross, fourteen images that depict the suffering of Jesus Christ on the way to his crucifixion.

As you walk the length of the Cathedral, you will see fourteen bas reliefs mounted on the walls. These are the Stations of the Cross, fourteen scenes that depict the suffering of Jesus Christ on the way to His crucifixion. If you were not fortunate enough to have been raised a Catholic, the Stations of the Cross are commemorated each Friday during the season of Lent. The bas reliefs at the Cathedral were sculpted by an Italian artist and then painted with oils.

The altar of the Cathedral is covered with a cupola. Windows around the base of the cupola allow natural sunlight to brighten the altar area during the day. There is a mural behind the altar showing Jesus and the Holy Father.

At the eastern end of the Cathedral is the magnificent altar area that is capped by the cupola. The cupola has windows around its base which allows natural sunlight to bath the altar during daylight hours. This creates a wonderful special effect: While the main body of the Cathedral is softly lit, the altar appears to glow. Above the altar is a mural of Jesus and the Holy Father.

As you face the altar, and turn to the left, you will discover a small chapel in a separate room. This is the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament. This very quiet and very solemn room, is a replica of the original chapel that was demolished. It has its own series of stain glass windows, and ornate statues of angels.

A “flying pulpit” attached to one of the columns, with a winding staircase, is just one of the many features of the Cathedral.

Throughout the Cathedral, you will see all kinds of interesting objects. There are statues of cherubs and paintings of holy scenes. There are life-size reproductions of Christ and the Virgin Mary. Secured to one of the columns, is a beautifully designed raised pulpit built with Costa Rican hardwood. This “flying pulpit” has a winding staircase leading to it, and it is the work of a Guatemalan master craftsman who designed many of the interior features. Even the floor is beautiful, made of a painstakingly laid out colonial-style mosaic tile that runs the length of the building.

A huge pipe organ, considered on of the most important antique organs in Central America, is in the choir loft. It was imported from Belgium in the 1890’s.

Up in the choir loft, there is a huge pipe organ imported from Belgium in the 1890’s. It is considered to be one of the most important antique organs in Central America. It has recently been restored, and it has been played by several great masters of organ music.

The visit of Pope John Paul II in 1983 is considered the most important event in the Cathedral’s long history. Note the expressions on the faces of some of the attendees as the Pope celebrates mass. This photo was provided to us by the Cathedral.

I mentioned earlier in this article that the Metropolitan Cathedral was an historic building. It has been the site of weddings and funerals of some of the most prominent people in Costa Rica’s history. However, by far and away, the most important event to take place at the Cathedral was the visit by Papa Juan Pablo Segundo (Pope John Paul II).

Pope John Paul II visited Costa Rica in 1983, less than two years after he had been shot in an assassination attempt. His Holiness said that he wanted to visit Costa Rica, and the other Central American countries, because the region was “crying out” for an end to war and hate. He celebrated mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral to a packed house of a couple hundred very lucky people. (Later he celebrated mass and spoke to a crowd of hundreds of thousands at Sabana Park.)

This statue of Pope John Paul II, now Saint John Paul, was sculpted by renowned Costa Rican artist Jorge Jiménez Deredia. It commemorates His Holiness’s visit to the Cathedral in 1983. It is made of Italian Carrara marble.

Two years after the death of John Paul, San José Mayor, Johnny Araya, and a group of citizens, raised money to have a statue created to commemorate the Pope’s visit. That statue is now mounted on the northwest corner of the Cathedral’s grounds. It is the work of renowned Costa Rican sculptor Jorge Jiménez Deredia, one of the few Tico artists to gain international acclaim. It stands 12 feet high, weighs 25 tons and is made from white Carrara marble from Italy.

If you visit this beautiful old-world cathedral, be sure to be respectful if you arrive during a mass or other services. Even though this is a popular tourist attraction, it is still a place of worship. Do not go in wandering around and snapping pictures during a service. Mass is held throughout the day on Sundays starting at 7 a.m., and several times a day during the week.

You are welcome to walk through the Cathedral and to take non-flash photographs when there are no services. And gentlemen: Please remove your hats. (For some reason, a lot of guys under 30 don’t seem to know that.)

San José’s Metropolitan Cathedral is opposite the city’s busy Central Park. It is an important part of the daily life of people in Downtown San José.

You can visit the Cathedral for free, but donations are greatly appreciated. There are donation boxes at the entrances. Keep in mind, it takes a great deal of money to maintain a building of this stature. Think about this: When it is your time to arrive at the pearly gates, and you are waiting for Saint Peter to decide which way you will go, a donation of a couple thousand colones to this beautiful Cathedral may be just enough to tip the balance in your favor.

The Metropolitan Cathedral is well worth a visit, and it is an important feature of life in Downtown San José. It is all part of The Real San José. The Metropolitan Cathedral is located on Calle Central, between Avenida 2 and Avenida 4. Its doors are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Michael Miller is the author of the first and only guide book that focuses on Downtown San Jose, Costa Rica, titled The Real San Jose. An electronic version ofThe Real San Jose is available at Amazon/Kindle. To access it, click here.

You can see additional stories that Michael has written about Downtown San Jose at his website:  http://www.therealsanjose.com

The Haunted Hearst Castle

Ghosts & the Supernatural – Before reading this article, please check out the Hearst Castle website at:  http://hearstcastle.org/
I have been interested in the paranormal, since I was a kid, living in a haunted house on Effy Street in Fresno, Ca. After my experiences in that house on Effy Street, I started researching the paranormal through Brad Steiger’s books on the paranormal. As I got older, I visited known locations that have a reputation of being haunted. Some of those places are: Alcatraz in San Francisco; Hearst Castle; Tombstone, Arizona; Old Tuscon, Arizona; Billy the Kid’s Grave in New Mexico; Napolean Bonaparte’s Tomb in France; Bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand; Red Square in Moscow; Tower of London in London, England; Stonehenge; Dublin Castle in Ireland; Eiffel Tower in Paris, France; Notre Dame in France; San Quentin Prison; Folsom Prison; Superstitious Mountains, Arizona; Area 51 – Rachel, Nevada and Las Vegas, Nevada. While I was in the Army, many of the places I was stationed at had history and much of that history leaned towards hauntings, the paranormal. Some of the places I was stationed at and heard stories of hauntings were: Yongson Barracks – Seoul, Korea; Merrill Barracks – Nurnberg, Germany; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; Ft. Huachuca, Arizona; Fort Ord, California; Fort Jackson, South Carolina; Fort Hood, Texas; Camp Beaugard; Fort Polk; Fort Knox, Kentucky; Fort Gordon, Georgia; Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Out of all of these places, I would like to take some time to talk about the very haunted Hearst Castle. This 20th century castle was commissioned by William Randolph Hearst. When I visited this castle, I was in awe. I could feel the history resonating from its walls. Architect Julia Morgan who was very much involved in the creation of this castle, received her certificate of architecture from L’ecole des Beaux – Arts in Paris. Hearst only hired the best and the result was something that was utterly fantastic. The Hearst Castle was originally called La Cuesta Encantada. Many lavish parties were thrown at the Hearst Castle. A slew of celebrities would frequent the parties that William Randolph Hearst would throw. One of his biggest parties was his 71st birthday party. The party was Civil War themed. Some of the celebrities that have visited the Hearst Castle are: Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, Marx Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, James Stewart, Bob Hope, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, Dolores del Rio and Winston Churchill. The guests would enjoy looking at the exotic animals on the property and watching the zebras roam about the property. To this day, zebras can still be seen roaming around the countryside at the Hearst Castle.

Hearst Castle with its beautiful surrounding property and lovely Neptune Pool took a long time to complete. In fact it took 28 years for Morgan and Hearst to complete the finishing touches of this magnificent castle. 6.5 million dollars was spent on the building of the castle and 3.5 million was spent in collecting artwork from all around the world to place in the interior of this castle. One of the things that attracted me to visit this castle is hearing the stories of paranormal happenings at this castle. I heard reports that caretakers have heard sounds of splashing in the pool during the evening and there was no one around. The sounds of music can sometimes be heard and no music is playing. Lester Shaw who was visiting the Hearst Castle said he heard the song Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller and asked the tour guide if he heard the song too? The tour guide said he didn’t hear the song, but two people in the tour heard the song, while others on the tour did not hear the song.

Sometimes late at night, caretakers have heard the shuffling of feet, laughter, music playing, talking as if there was a party in the house. They turn on the lights and the noises stop abruptly. When I visited the Hearst Castle, I did obtain an EVP of a man saying: “Everything will be fine, my dear.” I believe there is a lot of residual hauntings taking place at the castle and not necesarrily intelligent hauntings. The EVP that I captured most likely was residual and they are words that are imprinted into the atmosphere and being repeated over and over again. The only possible intelligent haunting that was reported is from Suzie Bilkins of San Jose who said that when she was visiting the castle with her husband, that she actually got pinched in the rear. She thought her husband did it and he denied the incident. As they went up the stairs she got pinched again and she could feel the palm of someone’s hand sliding down her buttocks. She felt very uncomfortable and left the premises quickly with her husband.

This is the only report I have received, that shows there maybe intelligent hauntings taking place at the Hearst Castle. If you hear any reports of intelligent hauntings, please let me know at the email below. If I get enough reports, I will revisit the Hearst Castle.

Paul Dale Roberts, HPI Esoteric Detective
Halo Paranormal Investigations (HPI International)
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/HPIinternational/