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Jan
14
Local community reaches out to Haiti
January 14, 2010 | Tags: Accidents and Natural Disasters, Helping Out | 1 Comment
Costa Rica has had it’s share of natural disasters and is no stranger to earthquakes.
So many in the local community have been profoundly touched by the pictures coming out of Port-au-Prince, knowing that it could’ve just as easily been San Jose or some other part of Costa Rica.
The department of immigration puts the official Haitian population of Costa Rica at only 215 residents but the actual number is probably much higher. Many of them work as mobile vendors in San José. Those interviewed on Teletica last night were anxiously waiting news from home as to whether their families were okay.
A number of local businesses we spoke to have already sent donations:
- Puerto Viejo Satellite $100
- Gecko Trail Adventures $200
Donations within Costa Rica can be sent to the Banco de Costa Rica or Banco Nacional accounts set up for this. International organizations which are collecting donations include Doctors without Borders who have worked extensively in Haiti for many years (Their US, Canadian and other national offices all accept online donations) and and the International Red Cross.
Jan
9
The Hidden Majority
January 9, 2010 | Tags: Community News | 8 Comments
 Willi helps with jungle laundry. Photo © Maisie Crow. |
Puerto Viejo is a global melting pot. Getting to know people from all over the world is a really enjoyable part of the Puerto Viejo experience.
Estimates of the permanent population that I’ve heard have been around 2,500. It’s hard to pin down by just looking around the streets, where a mixture of blacks, whites, and ticos are easily seen, along with a relatively small number of indigenous Bribri. The number of Bribri is usually so small it’s easy to assume there are only a small number of them in the area.
 Daniel & Alejandro. Photo © Maisie Crow. |
We were given a copy of a study done in 2003 by the Ministerio de Salud (Health Ministry). They wanted to understand the health conditions of the indigenous, and the delivery of services to that segment of the population. They counted heads by province. The two provinces that affect us here in Puerto are Talamanca and Limon, and the total population of indigenous they counted in those two provinces was 20,121. The indigenous in these provinces are largely Bribri, who have a total tribal population in Costa Rica of about 35,000. Piecing together data in the report, there were about 11,500 Bribri within service range of the Hone Creek Clinic, which serves Puerto Viejo, and draws from both Talamanca and Limon provinces.
In the Puerto Viejo area, the indigenous living areas aren’t easily visible. Look toward the hills behind Puerto, where it is difficult or impossible to reach with a motor vehicle. Some of the indigenous “Bridge Kids” we put in school are on top of that hill, and even though they are relatively close to Puerto, they walk nearly two hours each way to go to and from school. There are other walking trails out of the Reserve, one of which goes right past my house.
 Timoteo and his daughter show Daniel Leonhard, of the California firm Earth Source Organics, Cacao seeds in the process of being made into Chocolate. |
What does this mean as a practical matter? The Bribri are a voting majority in Puerto Viejo. This most recently came to light during the angry debates over the marina that was being touted for Puerto Viejo. I witnessed one exchange between Timoteo Jackson, a tribal elder, and the Alcalde of Talamanca, a Bribri, in which Timo went nose to nose with the Alcalde and said something like “if you let that marina in, you’re out!” He said a lot more, but my Spanish isn’t that good. The Bribri have voting control, and they are beginning to think of how and when that control can and should be applied. One of the Bribri beliefs is that they are here to protect the environment. I have a feeling they will be less and less of a Hidden Majority.
 Article by Barry Stevens. Barry, along with his wife Nanci Wright, are the team behind El Puente-The Bridge. El Puente provides educational assistance, food support, and microloans to mainly indigenous people in Costa Rica to help them help themselves to self-sufficiency. More information is available at www.elpuente-thebridge.org. |
Jan
8
What was the weather really like in 2009?
January 8, 2010 | Tags: Community News | 2 Comments
The folks over at Greencoast have updated their weather charts with the 2009 data collected by Playa Negra resident Charlotte who has been measuring rainfall since 2002.
2009 brought us 189.5 inches. The average for the past 8 years was about 150 inches. February was the wettest month, with 36.2 inches. September was the driest with only 6.8. For those of you who where here in November 2008, you’ll see in the graph below that the records confirm how exceptional that month was.
Click the image for a larger version.
Jan
6
Playa Cocles Lifeguard Program Launches Website
January 6, 2010 | Tags: Helping Out | Comments Off
In order to highlight the work they do and to acknowledge publicly their supporters, the Playa Cocles Lifeguard program has launched a website www.Cocles.org.
The website goals are to:
- Provide a place for residents and visitors alike to find out more information about the program
- Provide a place to acknowledge the supporters in the community who’s regular support keeps the program alive and saving lives
- Provide an online place for donations to be collected
The program would like to hear your stories of how the Cocles Lifeguards have affected (or saved!) your life. Send them to info@cocles.org.
A number of individuals were involved in getting the website launched:
- Doug Dosdall of Puerto Viejo Satellite who is donating the hosting and domain name and did much of the website layout,
- Bethany Hope of Code 3 Design for the graphic design and website layout,
- Zöe Courtier of Geckoes Lodge for writing the backgrounder article that appears on the site, and
- Eddie Ryan of La Costa de Papito for providing the history and records for the program and shepherding it all these years!
Those businesses who were regular supporters of the program at a minimum donation level of 5,000 colones per month are thanked and acknowledge with a link on the site. “Lifesavers”, the businesses supporting the program at a monthly level of at least 20,000 colones per month, are especially thanked.
Businesses who wish to start a regular donation should contact Eddie Ryan to make arrangements and let info@cocles.org know so their donation can be acknowledged.
Business supporters are also encourage to add a link to their website like “We support the Playa Cocles lifeguard program” with a link to www.Cocles.org.
Individuals who wish to make a one time donation can do so by following the Make a Donation link on the website.
Jan
3
Visitor interest in Puerto Viejo continues to grow
January 3, 2010 | Tags: Site news, Tourism | 3 Comments
While most hotels and other businesses reported a slow 3rd and 4th quarter of 2009, the end of the year brought high occupancy rates and growing visitor interest to Puerto Viejo. A walk through center of town during the Christmas Holidays showed a very bustling town full of Ticos and foreigners.
 Downtown Puerto Viejo, Dec 19, 2009. Photo by drewdomkus. |
The Costa Rica Chamber of Hotels surveyed hotels around the country and the Caribbean hotels surveyed had a 100% occupancy rate. Other beach areas also reported very strong occupancy numbers although San Jose results were less positive.
Here at Puerto Viejo Satellite, the year also ended very strong with more visitors to the site than ever before: December ended with a record 15,735 different visitors coming to the website (32% over last Dec) and over 34,000 page views (37% over last Dec)! That indicates a lot of potential visitors researching the area for the future vacation planning. Of the visitors about 40% surfed the site from the United States, 10% from Canada, 26% from within Costa Rica and the remainder from the rest of the world.
The site also hit a new high ranking on the Alexa web tracking service; steadily rising through the rankings to break through into the world’s top 500,000 websites and is currently ranked 455,390. This is substantially higher traffic than any of the other Puerto Viejo area websites.
Why are these numbers significant? Vacations always start with research and planning. Bigger numbers can indicate more people are looking to plan their vacation on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. An informal survey shows that much of Puerto Viejo’s popularity has come at the expense of the traditional Pacific vacation crowd. Despite decreased travelers overall due to economic slowdown, there continues to be a growing interest in the South Caribbean of Costa Rica.
We attribute this to our great community of users who over the year have left 100’s of comments on listings and on news articles and have helped us keep all our information current. There are now 204 places listed on the map: hotels, restaurants, stores, services, tours and more. The site has also had a lot of new features added over the last year to keep up with the growing interest in the area and make one comprehensive place where visitors can find out everything they need to know about Puerto Viejo.
Here’s to a prosperous and safe 2010 for residents and visitors alike!
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