COSTA RICA NEWS 2008

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FURTHER PROOF THAT THE WAR ON TERROR IS LOST comes as Samalian pirates continue to receive dozens of multi-million dollar ransom payments from shipping companies while US naval ships have for weeks surrounded a pirated ship loaded with arms and seem to be helpless to eject the pirates. Whatever happened to U.S. Special Forces?  The primary US industry of large corporations swallowing smaller ones continues as the economic collapse caused by massive debt is "solved" by creating even-more massive debt. Thais are now dying from the poisoned Chinese food sent to Thailand (if I were you, I would forget about our Thailand offer) while Presidential candidates tell how they will "create jobs".  American companies continue to manufacture in China and Americans continue to buy from Wal-Mart. Emirate Airlines is placing more orders for their luxury airliners to fly the "haves" to Dubai and China is placing more orders (with Denmark) for their carrier-sized container ships while more Americans join unemployment lines and retirees are given financial incentives to tap their retirement accounts in order to survive. Britain has posted record unemployment figures and Iceland had to run to Russia as its Western Allies are unable to bail them out from their economic woes caused by Iceland's trust in the Western banking system.  Survival is not an issue for the Chinese, as their hospitals continue to sell unwanted babies to restaurants and canning factories.

Costa Rica has no worry about terrorism and our banks are safe, but our tourist-oriented economy is doing as would be expected. Stores & hotels are closing, and massive resort projects have stopped for lack of funding and customers.  Nicaragua, on the other hand, has hitched its wagon to a different star  and is doing well economically. On top of those problems, unprecedented rain continues with tropical storms causing landslides and flooding from Venezuela to Mexico.  World scientists agree that these storms, which never affected us in the past, are the result of Global Warming which China continues to invigorate as they don't have to comply with the environmental laws imposed by the free world. London began building for their upcoming Olympics while the Bushes were partying with the Chinese Communist dictators, but now funding is threatening to bring those preparations to a halt. Afraid to continue their sex/drug parties with US regulators and having trouble dumping their product, oil companies and speculators are unable to keep oil prices propped up, but OPEC is thinking of stepping in. Mexicans are retreating across the border as even the jobs Americans never wanted are drying up.

As the last of the Presidential Debates passes and candidates spend hundreds of millions of dollars on media advertising while the world sinks into depression, the media concentrates its efforts on hours of publicity for Joe The Plumber. Even Swiss banks are in trouble, and Americans continue to spend tens of billions of dollars per month to rebuild Iraq, which has told America to leave, has an $80 billion budget surplus and is selling its oil to China. One Vice Presidential candidate touts her qualifications as being key in tapping America's vast Alaskan oil resources and selling them to Japan. Foreign observers comment that the European Union Bail-out package is designed to "save the Titanic" (US).

TAMARINDO LOOSES ITS LAST HOPE as the Residents Association folds. Founded, populated and run by "extranjeros", Tamarindo boasted one of Costa Rica's most beautiful and expansive white sand beaches with a beautiful estuary and a river running into the Pacific. As we say throughout Costa Rica News, the most successful (not the best) resorts in Costa Rica are those with prominent English websites, although the best resorts (ours) have Spanish sites and are difficult to find on the Web. Tamarindo proved our point with beautiful websites for both the town and its hotels.  The influx of tourists (about the time 1 Dream Getaway located in the area) resulted in unplanned urban sprawl and pollution.  A strange mix of million-dollar homes, stores, bars and condos soon blocked any view of the beach, and it became a city of drugs, crime, whores and over-priced stores with beaches and drinking water full of fecal matter. As we also stress on the 1 Dream Getaway website, the San Jose gangs are attracted to those same Gringo places.

Until last year, one could sit in a crowded Tamarindo restaurant and watch the monkeys fry on the power lines and drop dead on the sidewalk. The last Tamarindo tree disappeared long ago, as Residents quickly destroyed everything that first attracted them there. The Association began a Save The Monkeys campaign to install ropes so the monkeys could travel where the trees used to be, but that effort was closing the barn door after the horses ran away. Every square foot of Tamarindo is now paved or being built on (like a larger, less-planned version of Flamingo), although there does not seem to be work going on at some of the construction sites since the U.S. economy died. The river, once our playground until it became too polluted, divides Tamarindo from Playa Grande and the Baula National Park which has been encroached on my development and has long been in a legal contest with San Jose Government.

Tamarindo's Association tried to draw on the extreme wealth of Tamarindo residents to fix the problems. A couple years ago they replaced the police force to rid the city of crooked cops. Although crime continued, at least there was a police station and the cops would actually accept a theft report---which tourists needed to show their insurance companies when they got home (once they got their passports replaced).  The police would not make a theft report before the shake-up. The Association also worked with San Jose Government to arrange the first privately-run sewage treatment plant in Costa Rica. They arranged a loan from a Swiss bank and had the down payment secured. However the land was to be donated by Santa Cruz, and (typically) Santa Cruz reneged on its word and thousands of toilets continue to flush into the ground, river and beach. Now apparently the wealthy Tamarindo residents have given up on their town, and stopped funding their Association. The donated office space is still there, but there is no one inside and no City Manager.

Five years ago, Costa Rica built a very nice road coming into the city. However there was no way out but that same road and the cars/busses/delivery trucks/rentacars made moving through Tamarindo all-but impossible. Last year the Association tore up the cobblestone road in Tamarindo, and re-did it. Now it seems Costa Rica has also given up on Tamarindo, and even the highway coming in is deteriorating with no maintenance. This year our President Arias announced that "Tamarindo is lost along with Manuel Antonio."  The Residents Association was working on a new exit road to cut traffic in half as it could exit Tamarindo using a different route, but that never materialized. Now it doesn't matter, as there is no traffic and restaurants are closing, either for vacation or permanently.

OCTOBER 10, 2008 TAKES A STANCE WITH DECEMBER 25, 0000 with the advent of another immaculate conception. A shark in the Maryland aquarium gave birth after eight years without a mate. Unfortunately there are no wise men this time, as humans continue their quest to annihilate her free-swimming comrades.

President Ortega of Nicaragua declared that God is punishing the U. S.:.  “It’s incredible that in the most powerful country in the world, which spends billions of dollars on brutal wars, people do not have enough money to stay in their homes,” Mr. Ortega said.

COSTA RICA NEWS' WORLD HISTORY REVIEW

NEW YEARS DAY, 1499  after convincing the Queen of Spain that he was a Spanish Catholic, an Italian Jew named Cristobel Colon sailed East to go West, got lost and thought he had discovered China. He was later credited with the discovery of the Western World. The purpose of the trip was to serve God, who needs gold in order to be happy and holy. To serve God's will, the people Columbus encountered had to be forced to collect their gold so it could be shipped to the queen, who had been designated by God to be His bank. As the inhabitants of the countries Columbus visited were skeptical that God really wanted their gold in Spain's bank, an ultimate authority was sought.

In those days, God only spoke to one person, and the Pope ruled that those who Columbus encountered who accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior were in fact people and should be spared. Of course, they would realize that God needs gold in Spain. God wished that all others be enslaved to load their gold on Spain's ships. Those who refused to be enslaved could be tortured and killed without conscience, as God had not made them and therefore they were not people.

NEW YEARS DAY, 1699  On the Continent of North America, terrorism came to be. Convinced that God speaks English, the British Isles had established colonies there, and the people of the English-speaking God had formed their own empire in competition with the people of the Spanish-speaking God. Of course both firmly believed that God wished them to serve as his bank. Rallying around the cry of TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION IS TYRANNY, the terrorists questioned whether God really wanted England or Spain to serve as His bank---or whether God really needed a bank at all. In that belief, the terrorists declared themselves independent. This did not sit well with the British, and they sent their well-trained and equipped army to recuperate their colonies.

The disciplined British army regiments formed neat rows as they properly marched in their pressed uniforms on the terrorists . The terrorists hid in the bushes and behind trees picking off the British soldiers who, as trained, stepped over their fallen comrades and kept marching.. As the War on Terrorism was new, the British eventually gave up and allowed the terrorists to have their own country.

NEW YEARS DAY, 1799  Finding 13 states insufficient, the terrorists marched West claiming more territory, as God obviously wished them to do. Their God had nothing to do with Nature, and so the inhabitants who had revered Nature and lived in peace for centuries were directed by God to be slaughtered. As God's chosen people were incapable of following His will and killing all the Indians, even after rewards were offered for scalps, God directed that all the buffalo be killed so the Indians would starve to death. Those who managed to survive were promised anything in order to peacefully head off to reservations, where they could live forever as God wished them to.

NEW YEARS DAY, 1859  The War on Terror is long-forgotten, and the southern half of the new empire has developed a strong economy growing cotton. As it is well known that God has no sympathy for non-whites and non-Christians, enterprising African leaders find new wealth by rounding up their people and selling them to American ships so they can work for free on the cotton plantations. The Northern half of the United States has discovered yet another God, whose wish is that His people collect gold using machines instead of Negro labor. A war breaks out between the two halves of America, and the North will eventually win in 5 years.

NEW YEARS DAY, 1959  Machines rule, and thwart the efforts of a tiny island nation to dominate the world. The final year of
WW II passed with America competing with its buddy, Russia for a group of German scientists working on machines that could blow up the world and leave its atmosphere. America got most of them. Its leader, the first to use a nuclear weapon, heard from his God that America had to show God's grace by rebuilding a country whose God had sent them to torture and kill millions of people around the world in order to dominate them. While America converted its antique factories and machinery back from making jeeps, arms and LCM's to making cars and appliances, it built new factories in Japan and shipped them the latest machinery and technology. Still no American wanted the junk labeled MADE IN JAPAN, but it was on their shelves and they were encouraged to buy it.

Tired of living in fox holes, American men viewed cities as much the same and discovered the suburbs. Jobs were abundant and Americans needed everything. Neighborhood banks popped up everywhere. Americans brought their pay checks to the teller, who wrote in the new balance and paid them interest on their savings. When Americans needed a home or a car, the bank lent their money back to them at a higher rate of interest after checking to be certain that what they were buying was worth it and that they could afford the payments.  Everyone prospered, and America became much mightier than before it was devastated by fighting two wars simultaneously. Jealous of America's success, Russia got to work building its own empire.

Half way around the world, the Jews were given their own sovereign country. Meanwhile another Race/Religion seemed cursed by their God, as they were left with lakes of black gook instead of fresh water lakes. The God of the Jews had been at odds with the God of the Arabs for millenniums, and now the people of the latter God were left roaming deserts on their camels, as they were the only transportation that could survive without much water (or money). The God of the Jews told them He needed more land, so they began moving in on their neighbors with the help of American arms and money. Global economies are now huge casinos, as the world's financial strength is no longer determined by how well businesses are doing, but rather whether more gamblers are betting that stocks will go up or go down.

The leftovers of the Spanish Empire had a Catholic God with one desire---more Catholics. He told his people to oppress other religions and breed. The faithful servants of that God soon bred themselves into poverty, and their God has a central bank in Rome with no desire to share..

NEWS YEARS DAY, 1979 shuffles in the electronic age. Computers seemed to have a use, but were useless without an operating system. Xerox, one of America's new innovators, came up with an operating system for computers which was soon stolen by Steve Jobs who shared it with his partner Bill Gates. A new God of Greed and Thievery prevails, as Gates steals the stolen technology from Jobs. Federalism and mega-corporations take over America, much as Federalism and large corporations had already obliterated the family farms throughout America.

Federalism of America's banks gave them full authority with zero responsibility. Instead of giving free toasters to their depositors, banks made their customers feel as though they were doing them a favor by taking their money. Banks no longer needed depositors' money to make loans, as they just bundled up the loans and sold them for cash to federal organizations like Fannie and Freddie who turned them into bonds and sold them. Of course, these federal organizations neither knew nor cared what they were buying---just that the checks came in every month. Even that didn't matter much, as taxpayers could pay the interest on the bonds.

This transition gave rise to a totally new thought process and American industry. Instead of inventing a better mouse trap, determining the best way to manufacture it, and marketing it; the Windows/Apple scenario taught Americans that crime does pay while patriotism does not. With the rise of Wall Street and countless other commodity/stock markets, money matters and the product has no significance. At the same time, OJ Simpson taught America that the Constitution can be ignored, and America's laws prohibiting monopolies were forgotten. There was no longer a need for innovation nor hard work, as buying up successful companies and selling them for scrap---or firing American workers and giving their jobs to countries where labor is cheap and there are no unions is a very successful way to make rich people even richer and large corporations thrive without having to do much work.

Coincidentally, America's post-WW II productivity resulted in the poor people riding their camels realizing that their lakes of black gook were actually more valuable than fresh water reservoirs. During the height of demand, they told America's Richard Nixon that either America stay out of the Yon Kippur War or they would cut off his oil. When America jumped in on the side of Israel, the Arabs cut off their crude and Americans stood in line to pay as much as forty cents for a gallon of gasoline. Oil companies aligned with the Arabs, and helped make Americans grovel until they were given permission to drill oil in Alaska, which they promptly loaded on refinery ships and sold to Japan---who by now knew they could make better products with their new factories and equipment and sell them back to the Americans. They made so much money doing so that they bought the Fannie/Freddie bonds making America its debtor, and took over the automotive industry.

Rather than concentrate on making quality products and standing behind them, American corporations concentrated on buying up their competitors and outsourcing the work. To solve the quality control problems, they just made customer support their lowest priority and shipped their hot lines to foreign countries. As the money flowed in from foreign countries, Americans and their government were encouraged to buy whatever they wanted regardless of whether they had the money to pay for it. Both Americans and American government became hopelessly in debt.

NEW YEARS DAY, 1989  A not-very-successful B movie actor became President of the United States, and picked the 21-year CIA head as VP.  He  made his mission in life to destroy the Soviet Union by outspending it. This had become an easy task, as America no longer needed to consider its income and available money. Russia went broke and its empire crumbled. Reagan declared victory over the Soviet Union and forever became a hero. For the next two decades, Reaganomics created countless millionaires and billionaires in the theory that money from these wealthy people would "trickle down" to the peon American workers. Then the mega corporations learned they didn't even need American workers, and added a new word to the dictionary: outsourcing.

NEW YEARS DAY, 1999 sees a new America and a new world. After spending 8 years in the White House, George Bush takes office and immediately announces that the U.S. is hopelessly in debt. He has no idea how that happened. Former CIA employees like Daniel Ortega, Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega, no longer want to play with the CIA, so their countries are attacked and they are removed. MADE IN AMERICA no longer appears on the goods in America's stores, and even the Japanese outsource their jobs to Communist China. Still, from Government's position, the money is flowing and all is well. The son of the CIA chief takes over the reins, but does not have a clue what to do with them and no one is listening anyway.

NEW YEARS DAY, 2009 finds a new system in place with no control. Half way around the world, camels have been replaced with Rolls Royces, Maseratti's and Bentleys while Russia rebuilds its empire and Communist China manufactures everything the world needs using the machinery, designs and technology America gave it over the last decades. Terrorists like George Washington have been replaced with Osama Bin Laden, whose God has clearly dictated how the world should be run. The World Trade Center and Disneyland have been replace by Dubailand,  American businesses are all "multinationals" and Americans owe tens of trillions of dollars to the people who wish to destroy them.

With hopes of getting them out of an un-winnable "war", Americans had changed Congress over, but Congress responded by escalating the war. Then the new President declared victory as he moved out of Iraq and in to fight in Afghanistan. Iraq became an Al- Qaeda training camp after they moved their operations from Afghanistan and Pakistan, while helping supply China's growing energy needs. Swimming in American money and owners of America's debt, the Arabs and Chinese are laughing all the way to their banks (which they also own).  As Saudi Arabia begins to pump more-and-more water from its oil wells, its Residents will remain in the lap of luxury with the incomes from Dubai and America's debt. Americans may use their last ounce of innovation to develop alternative energy, but those new machines will be made in China who will contract to make them for the Arabs. Americans will not be able to afford it. An Arab could buy a Chevy Volt with his pocket change, but has no desire for one. If an American could afford one, he could not obtain a $40,000 loan from his bank to buy one. America's one ace in the hole, the nuclear bomb, is inconsequential because now everyone has some.

CHANGING TIMES IN COSTA RICA became obvious today during a trip to the store. Up for less-than a year, Automercado (a huge shopping plaza with waterfalls, fish ponds and abundant stores and restaurants including underground parking and everything first-class) was completely devoid of customers. In the empty supermarket, I found a plastic bag (labeled in Spanish) of Quaker Oats for 75 cents, and next to it the exact same product in a box labeled in English for $2.00. A bag of Purina Puppy Chow labeled in Spanish cost $10, while its identical neighbor labeled in English cost $20.

ECONOMIC WOES have produced some winners, probably none as much as SNL whose political satire is constantly replayed on world news programs. Years have passed since comedy writers were unneeded and comedians only need to read the news to get laughs. With the world in a serious crisis while politicians can think of nothing more to do than attack each other, comedians are likely the most important part of society, Without them people would be crying instead of laughing. My generation was constantly warned of the One World Order, and for decades American executives have been pushing the Global Economy. I guess I am not intelligent enough to recognize the difference. It is clear, however, that the world will emerge from this mess with new world leaders, and if America is among them it will not be on top. Other winners during this crisis are Rolls Royce, Bentley and Maserati, who report an upswing in sales. None of these cars, however, are being sold anywhere near where they are made. Wachovia stock is now one dollar per share as technicians work to invent a machine capable of counting to tens of trillions so Americans know how much they owe China and the Arabs.

UNABLE TO FIND HELP FROM ITS WESTERN ALLIES Iceland turns to Mother Russia as its banks fail.  Financial analysts who last week denied a recession are now speaking of depression as markets continue to tank---even as the Fed. prepares for further rate cuts. Regardless of how this turns out, faith in America has taken a huge hit. The only good news is that oil keeps dropping since Federal regulators got caught (but not prosecuted) in their sex/drug parties with oil company executives. India reports an 8% economic increase as they enjoy the American jobs executives shipped over there.

THANKS TO DAVID FOR THIS ARTICLE  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&refer=home&sid=aw2EzHFTix4s foretelling the purchase of silicon valley by the Arabs, beginning with Abu Dhabi's purchase of chip maker AMD. I imagine American businessmen will soon join the list (below) of endangered species if they are not already on it.

PROOF THAT WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO BEHAVE floods in, as a 5-year study is completed and determines that 1/4 of Earth's land mammals and 1/3 of our sea mammals are endangered. London projects 40,000 lost jobs in that city alone and the world awaits the Fed. to cut rates---hoping to solve problems (caused by extreme debt)  by encouraging more debt.

NEW EQUIPMENT IS NEEDED  as the U. S.'s  national debt passes $10 trillion and the National Debt Clock has no more digits. America's children will spend 1/4 of their lives just paying the interest on that debt (to China). China reports a 20% rise in its GNP and lot of cash in its banks as thousands of children remain in hospitals around the world recovering from deliberately-poisoned Chinese dairy products. Thanks for shopping Wal-Mart.  This reporter feels a point is being made here, as America has spent the last 60+ years fighting Communism and insisting that the world become a democracy, and now the Communist countries are the only ones who are liquid and stable. We also feel a valuable opportunity was missed when America refused to open its stores to Cuba after that country was destroyed by three hurricanes. God knows the stores need the business, and a neighbor 90 miles from the United States might temper its thinking after wandering along the loaded shelves and buying whatever they wish. For some reason the United States seems Hell-bent to make-and-maintain as many enemies as possible.

Meanwhile the first of America's states weighs in with its problems, as California reports it cannot afford to pay its employees without a Federal bail-out. Costa Rica reports a 16% overall inflation rate, with a 28% rise in food and transportation costs. Ticos are particularly hard hit, as their staples: rice, beans and eggs, cost 55 to 70 percent more than they did last year. From what we see on the streets, they do not seem to be eating any less.

Venezuela is offering a special deal on oil for its 18 Petrocaribe members, who now finance 60% of their fuel purchases (Costa Rica gets 20,000 barrels/day) with zero down, zero payments for two years, and 1% interest over 25 years. Costa Rica will also be able to pay part of its bill with goods and services.

NICARAGUA'S REAL ESTATE MARKET BOOMS as that country aligns with Russia, Venezuela and Iran. As Nicaragua has utility problems similar to Costa Rica's, they are using the country's inability to provide reliable electricity as an opportunity to promote eco-development using solar and wind technology as opposed to relying on the country's power grid. Costa Rica News has long predicted the fall of ICE (our monopolistic utility supplier) the moment CAFTA (the free trade agreement) takes effect.  However it appears CAFTA will not be implemented, and we will be saddled with ICE's power outages and phone/internet problems as always. ICE has greatly-increased capacities in recent years for the building explosion and now that has gone the way of America's economy, so we who live in Costa Rica may be enjoying the fruits of that development.

EUROPE REACTS TO THE FINANCIAL CRISIS by blaming the American financial system. As European banks and business are in line with the falling American dominos, they vow not to follow America's lead of throwing indecent amounts of borrowed money at the problem, and will change the manner in which their banks and markets are regulated.  One of those changes will be to separate their markets from American ones. WW III takes another step forward as America bombs nuclear Islamic Pakistan against its warnings not to and Turkey declares war on the Kurds in Iraq. Meanwhile, the United States, which is more-than broke from the Iraqi invasion, continues to spend $10 billion per week there as Iraq allies with China and enjoys its $80 billion budget surplus. Americans continue to flock to Wal-Mart to enhance China's ability to buy their failing assets and another half-million American jobs go to China.

THE WORLD WOULD BE LAUGHING OUT LOUD at what is going on in America. However nothing that is happening is at all funny. First they saw Americans elect Al Gore and then George Bush became President. Then they saw Bush invade Iraq to end Terrorism and eliminate nukes in the East with the result of the democratic Iraqi government telling America to get out and selling its oil to China. Americans finally had enough and revolted, replacing the Republican Congress with a Democratic one charged with removing American troops from Iraq, then immediately saw even more troops sent there.  Long before Hillary or Barack's qualifications were known, they were only referred to as "woman" and "black" and then in the most critical moment in United States' history Congress takes off for Jewish holidays. With access to unbiased world news, it is clear that the world sees America as a country obsessed with and dictated by race, sex and religion before all else; and eager to solve problems militarily rather than diplomatically. Does anyone know the definition of victory in Iraq? I'm certain I don't.

I apologize for using Costa Rica News as my personal editorial, and there soon will appear an editorial page to take my opinions and place them apart from reporting the news. America has rarely seen anyone as deeply patriotic as I was, and when I saw tanks rolling over cars in a Texas church parking lot while military choppers fired 50 mm rounds through the the church roof at the women and children they knew were huddled inside I found it impossible to support my country, so I left. America should have learned a lesson from Waco, but instead distanced itself further from its Constitution and the values that made it great---and invaded another Texas church, hauling off hundreds of children without any due process of law and based upon one phone call from one nutty women who did not even know the people. I guess American government still thinks OJ would not have killed his wife if she had a Domestic Violence Injunction against him. 

CONGRESS SENDS A CLEAR MESSAGE    after weeks of endless speeches, creating a debt in one day which is greater than America accumulated in a quarter of a millennium, financial institutions collapse around the world and their constituents can no longer buy a house or a car; as they go home for Jewish holidays after accomplishing ZERO while their President tells the country how urgent is every minute to all Americans. European politicians and financial experts ARE working frantically and assuring the world that its economy will not collapse, and markets react positively. The Chinese Communists are turning somersaults over the fire sales going on through out America, and spending their Wal-Mart and poisoned food money to buy up America. When Congress comes back from vacation, they would do well to appropriate money for teaching Chinese in public schools. The world would certainly profit if the banquets in the homes of Congressmen during their holidays consisted of a Chinese menu of melamine. I have always wished for a color blind world, but it seems that if the Jewish people place their religion and leisure time above the dire needs of Americans and the world that voters should pay careful attention to the religions of those for whom they vote.

THERE ARE HUNDREDS MORE DEATHS IN THE NAME OF GOD as Indians trample each other to death during a religious ceremony.

WORLD FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS REACT NEGATIVELY to America's bail-out plan, which may cost each adult American $20 million. To a crisis created by Government, businesses and individuals living beyond their means, America reacts by creating record debt and selling it to China. British banks follow American ones as they circle the drain. The only countries not in trouble are those who deal in cash. Costa Rica is one of them, but China and the Arab states are expanding rapidly as they have more of it. Although Bush announces that the executives will not profit from taxpayers, it is already reported that one executive will draw an $18 million salary for three weeks on the job. After his announcement, Bush took no questions from the press.

Illustrating the world's  problems and reaction to the bail-out are the fall of Wachovia Bank, and Cadbury's recall. A successful company which had acquired a good name and recognition for its top-quality products decided to save money by buying poisoned Communist Chinese food ingredients rather than look to its own workers and domestic companies. The cost of the recall must be more than what they saved by outsourcing, and now Cadbury's is no longer a brand to be trusted. Wachovia's assets are going to Citibank, and their liabilities to American taxpayers.

ARABS AMD JEWS have been at it for much longer than the U. S. has existed. The Arabs are resentful that the U. S. created and armed Israel at a time that they were camel jockeys with sticks and stones, and that American money continues to expand Israel beyond its borders.  Now the Arabs can easily buy-or-sell America and in fact legally own a great deal of America. It is time for the President and the Candidates to acknowledge America's new position in the world. The only reason for someone to be afraid to talk is that they are afraid that the other side learns the truth. That is true of love relationships, marriages, and America talking with Iran. There is no downside to talking, Iran is open, and the only alternative is another invasion, which the U. S. can no longer afford. An attack on Israel could only result in nuclear holocaust, and a continued American presence in Iraq (now a free, democratic country whose government has asked America to leave and has allied with Communist China) is costing America money and lives it can no longer afford and which is counter-productive. If Larry King can talk to Iran, why not Bush, Obama or McCain? An interesting point during the interview illustrates the West's propaganda machine. Although the free world is told that Iran seeks to annihilate Israel and all Jews, there are 20,000 Jews who choose to live in Iran.

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FORMALLY GOES ON THE AUCTION BLOCK as the Florida Department of Transportation opens  bids to foreign countries to buy Alligator Alley. America's Interstate Highway System is one of the Engineering Wonders of the World, and now the 78-mile stretch of Interstate 75 is being sold (  http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/702674.html ).  As China already owns a trillion dollars worth of American real estate, each-and-every American adult would have to write a check for $20 million to buy it back. The Grand Canyon and Yellowstone should sell at bargain basement prices to America's enemies, as Americans can no longer afford the gas to go see them.

America's strength and greatness came from its natural resources, the most valuable of which are its people with their innovative technology. The U. S. would have been foolish to sell is technology, production techniques, inventions, specialized production machinery and innovations to any foreign country. HOWEVER, the very people who are now asking for $700 billion in taxpayer money shipped all those things to China and taught the Chinese what to do with them. Now the rest of America is going the way of its automotive industry.

AS NICARAGUA SIDES WITH THE COMMUNISTS Costa Rica's new Ambassador to Nicaragua is being kept out. Nicaragua has long signed and approved CAFTA, but now wants nothing to do with the U. S. (having aligned with Venezuela, Iran and Russia).  Costa Rica signed CAFTA (the free trade agreement) in 2004 and passed it on a national vote in 2007. The agreement requires new Costa Rican laws (like giving the U. S. access to Costa Rica's banks) which Costa Rica is balking at initiating, and now the October 1, 2008 deadline imposed by the U. S. is out the window. It appears Petrocaribe (below) will replace CAFTA for Costa Rica (and all of Central America), and America seems to be thumbing its nose at the few friends it has left. Destroyed by a barrage of hurricanes, Cuba refused America's offer of money, and only wants to spend a great deal of their money in American businesses who desperately need it.  However America refuses to allow them to do so.

A very disturbing story in Costa Rica appears to predict changes here in Costa Rica. Costa Rica News has always reported San Jose as a war zone, and never considered it to be part of Costa Rica. But now, in this developing story whose details are not yet clear,  10 police officers were responding to a 9-11 call in Tileran, a clean, quiet, peaceful community near Arenal. They were apparently attacked by a gang carrying AK-47's (I wonder where they got them.). Costa Rica has no army, and has never needed one. However if the lawless San Jose Ticos are getting Communist arms and decide to move north, Costa Rica will need someone to defend us, and that will likely be Chavez. The only Costa Rican police with weapons are the Transitos, and they just hide in the bushes to steal from motorists and have no training or intestinal fortitude.

AS CHINA LAUNCHES ITS SPACE PROGRAM AND EMIRATE AIRLINES ORDER MORE LUXURY JETS  Americans struggle to figure out how to keep their banks afloat and hang on to their homes. Communist China joins Communist Russia as it builds a bigger, better Soviet Union and the number of poisoned children approaches 100,000. Free democratic Iraq, with a HUGE budget surplus, ships its oil to China while giving America a deadline to be out. Pakistan puts up the NO TRESPASSING sign to the United States. Two other countries have kicked Americans out of their Embassies while Iran and Korea work with their Communist allies to expand their nuclear programs and take Central America. As America plans another Afghan invasion in its continuing War on Terrorism, it becomes clear that War is over--- and who has won. 

 Although American leaders are considering spending $trillions on mismanaged companies, we copy below something that puts things into an understandable prospective. Keep in mind that the following only addresses one failed company, and debated figures discuss up-to 20 times this amount.  Thanks Walter for sending this in:

I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.
 
Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in
a We De serve It Dividend.
 
To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000
bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.
 
Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman
and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..
 
So divide 200 million adults 18+  into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.
 
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a
We Deserve It Dividend.
 
Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.
 
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.
 
But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.00.
 
What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans – what a great boo st to new grads
Put away money for college – it’ll be there
Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car – create jobs
Invest in the market – capital drives growth
Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else
 
Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+  including the folks
who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company
that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.
 
If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it...instead of trickling out
a puny $1000.00 ( “vote buy” ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.
 
If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!
 
As for AIG – liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.
 
Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.
 
Sure it’s a crazy idea that can “never work.”
 
But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!
 
How do you spell Economic Boom?
 
I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .
 
And remember, The Davis plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because $25.5 Billion is returned
instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.
 
Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.
Kindest personal regards,
Art
A.C.Davis, A Creative Guy & Citizen of the Republic                                                                                                                                  & nbsp;                                                             

PS:  Feel free to pass this along to your pals as it’s either good for a laugh
or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 Billion!!

COSTA RICA NEWS makes no claims to unbiased news reporting, as is obvious as one reads here. Our feelings about the Chinese are not disguised, and our reasons for same are documented here. Years ago New Zealand told China their dairy products were poison, and it took until now for China to react---and that is not for any moral obligation. Between the time the Government of New Zealand told China its baby formula was poison and the time China decided to recall it, 13,000 babies have been sickened or killed.  The United States lost the Korean War because each time a successful offensive was launched, the Communists crossed the boarder to China, and the U. S. was afraid to pursue them.  The United States lost the Viet Nam war again because the Gooks ran to China and the U. S. was afraid to follow. Like the U. S., China has always been smart enough to fight its wars on someone else's territory, and 9-11 is only the second (in history) attack on U. S. territory.

But as America had the intestinal fortitude to invade Iraq, they should have the intestinal fortitude to dictate where Iraq's oil goes.  But again, the U. S. is afraid to interfere with China. China contains every valid reason the U. S. claimed to invade Iraq (weapons of mass destruction, not a democracy, chemical weapons), but the U. S. will never invade China or do anything to interfere with their wishes. The current collapse of America's financial system is being solved by selling its debt to the Chinese. Although I live in Costa Rica, I will always consider myself an American and am ashamed that Americans are for sale and continue to support and sustain China's retail outlet, Wal-Mart. Even after having their pets and children poisoned, their jobs exported, their intellectual property rights stolen outright, and their economy destroyed,  Americans continue to flock to Wal-Mart because it is cheap. How the Chinese could devour the world's resources, endangered species, and even their own babies is obvious with our slide show showing how Chinese can and eat their own babies.  Yet Americans are willing to sacrifice their pride, their health and their families to save a few bucks. This reporter is saddened beyond words that Americans are willing to sell their families, and that American Government is willing to sell its worth to a country which has zero respect for its own people, let alone Americans.

KUDOS TO CNN  for putting together an hour long discussion of former U. S. Secretaries of State representing 40 years of experience. What a shame that group cannot run the U. S. for the next 8 years, as neither of the current choices comes close to having the wisdom presented in that hour.

NO ONE LOOKS AT THE BIG PICTURE IN WHAT IS HAPPENING,  but the fact is that America has 5% of the world's population and consumes 25% of its resources. Small appliance repair is gone, not only eliminating a large industry, but the throw-away products used today will pollute the earth for untold years to come.  Aside from chemical fertilizers and industrial waste, America releases chlorine, fluorine and bromine into the very water it drinks and tries to fish.  The even bigger picture is that every two years the world's population increases by the number of people who lived over the previous 100,000 years. For many years, Government has convinced its people that the halides and PCB's (like DDT) should be sprayed everywhere, even though scientists long argued it was a dangerous process. Government long-argued that Global Warming is scientific nonsense.  Perhaps there IS a Master Plan, and it is being executed to the world's advantage. Remember that America stopped slavery at a time when its entire economy depended upon it.

COSTA RICA IMMIGRATION BOSS MARIO ZAMORA has caught 24 of his employees taking bribes to falsify documents and arrange American Visa's for Ticos who do not deserve them. This practice has been known and reported for years.  He has filed criminal charges (police reports) against those officials, but none of them have been fired.  Go figure!  Each day this world makes less sense to me.

PRESIDENT G. W. BUSH who came into office with 30 cent gasoline, world peace, and a record American budget surplus, takes to the TV to discuss the "unprecedented financial crisis" and how it will be addressed with "unprecedented action". America's stock markets soar.  Meanwhile John McCain, long-time Chairman of the Senate Economics Committee and the person with more long-time control over America's economy than any one person in the world, speaks of a non-existent "crisis on Wall Street". Meanwhile Wall Street is making money hand-over-fist with record trading volume, and makes just as much money when stocks fall as when they rise. As millionaires and billionaires, no longer able to profit on the fall of America's value,  prepare to walk away and make foreign investments; the Arabs and Chinese buy up America's assets and John Q. Public has to either pay the bills or abandon his home and live on the streets. Paying the bills becomes less an option, as Corporate America has made hostile corporate takeovers America's #1 industry, while breaking up American industry and outsourcing the labor force. . The worse things get, the more Americans rush to ship America's remaining cash off to China while China says thanks by deliberately poisoning their products. China pretends the poisoned products come from rogue Chinese companies, but, by definition, Communist China has no private industry..  Thanks for shopping Wal-Mart.

AS THE GREAT DEPRESSION UNFOLDS Chinese mothers don't know how to feed their babies as all their milk products are found to be poisoned and NO Chinese babies are breast-fed, explaining their lack of morality. Starbucks joins the list of poisoned customers while America solves its financial crisis by doing more of what created it---spending more money than they have. I can remember the first time I saw the word $billion and how overwhelmed I was at its magnitude.  Now they're speaking in $trillions. NO ONE except the Arabs has a trillion dollars, but that doesn't seem to stop people from spending it. Most American taxpayers have spent their entire lives working to pay the interest on the National Debt, and now that figure is doubling. All the visitors to the Olympics were poisoned, but the Bushes likely didn't drink any milk while they were there, and oil company execs were using booze and cocaine so the world's leaders are safe. As Wal-Mart's ship from China comes home empty, Chinese have no safe American products to feed their families.

American stocks rally as Wall Street executives become richer in record volume trading. Millionaires become billionaires as the SEC plans an emergency ban on the short-selling of stocks. Once the ban goes into affect those who raped America of its capital will tuck their money safely away in foreign investments (like Dubai) and watch the show. Although banks say they will use their newly-found profits to correct America's problems, they are in fact buying bonds (profiting from America's debt) and not lending money to each other, which is what is needed to restore America's economy. The economies of the Emirates, China and Russia are booming as they assume legal ownership of America's assets.

My American history studies as a youth spoke of how American government taught farmers high-technology farming methods.  They could double their yield per acre by using chemical fertilizers, and Government gave them interest-free loans to buy modern machinery that was more-efficient and eliminated the need for human beings. In short order, the family farm disappeared as the modern equipment went on the auction block, depleted fertile farmland turned into a dust bowl,  and COMING SOON PRECONSTRUCTION PRICES signs became the new American crop. Now those condos and developments are joining the high-tech farm machinery on the auction block, but Americans cannot afford to attend the auctions.

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA GAS STATIONS ARE DRY as their owners are unable/unwilling to pay the ridiculous prices oil companies are demanding. As reported below, I once owned an Exxon station until Exxon advised they were taking my business and stole my $120,000.  But while I was in business, I was required to buy Exxon products exclusively and take Exxon credit cards. Each day, we bundled our credit card receipts and mailed them to Memphis, and waited weeks for Exxon to write a check and mail it to us. However when Exxon delivered our gas, we had to pay by certified check. In tourist season when our business was really booming, we were broke and struggling because Exxon had our cash and our credit card money. It was only when business slowed down that we had money. That was when gas cost a quarter, and I can only imagine what those small businesses are going through when the figures are 15 times what I had to deal with.

DIRECTLY HIT WITH TWO MAJOR HURRICANES IN A WEEK Cuba is hurting and using old wood and nails to try to rebuild its destroyed homes. Cuba asked America to lift its trade embargo so they can buy materials from American companies who desperately want to sell them. However, Bush refuses to do so because America's second-closest neighbor is a Communist country. When the hurricanes hit, President Bush and Ex-President Bush were partying in Communist China. Now the British are upset because the American Government is paying for the AIG uniforms worn by British soccer players. 

THE WORLD NOW FEELS THE CRUNCH as American consumers can no longer consume. Since WW II, America taught Japan how to manufacture, built its factories, then bought all its stuff.  Now even Japanese companies are declining as their biggest market dries up. Air Italia is about to fold as Italy debates buying that company. British banks, in business longer than America has existed, are worried and banks around the world are afraid to lend money to each other.

AS THE UNITED STATES GOES COMMUNIST by buying up its private enterprise, Iraq with its huge budget surplus and new best buddy, Communist China, has told America it wants soldiers out by the end of this year. Israel may have its second female leader, as it scrambles to find a new political stance.  Big Brother ain't so big anymore, and Israel isn't so confident by having America looking over its shoulder. Korea and Iran are working hard on their nuclear and missile programs, and now have nuclear friends to help. Israel, of course, has long been nuclear, but denies it. Costa Rica News was among the first to express concerns about WW III.

COSTA RICA made international news, as CNN took a crew to our Coco Island. This highly-protected island is a 24 hour boat ride from 1 Dream Getaway territory, and is a highly-valued national park. But nothing is sacred to the Chinese, who have been long lining in the National Park CNN found dozens of de-finned sharks. Having desecrated many of the world's highly-endangered species trying to improve the sexual deficiencies God gave them by eating sex organs, Orientals have now now managed to put the shark near the endangered species list.  Having been on this planet since before the dinosaurs, sharks serve an immense need in our already-endangered oceans.  Orientals (who also herd dolphins into bays and slaughter them) have acquired a huge appetite for shark fin soup, which they believe will make their penises work.

Catching a shark, cutting off its fin, and setting it free causes the animal to swim without direction until it starves to death, and further pollutes the ocean rather than cleaning it up. In short, killing sharks does to the ocean what cutting the rainforests does to our air and land. Each year, sharks kill 40 people.  Each year Orientals kill 40 million sharks. While CNN was filming in Costa Rica, the Chinese poison baby count passed 6000.  Along with shark fins and tiger balls, Chinese have a great appetite for their own babies.

THIS BEACH NOT SAFE FOR SWIMMING signs may go up in Playas Del Coco, Jaco and Playa Tambor after they failed to deal with very high fecal coli form bacteria levels. As Costa Rica News reported below, Tamarindo's beach once measured fecal bacteria at 4600 parts per 100 milliliters of water, where 240 is the maximum safe level. Tamarindo has managed to reduce that level.

TERRORISTS ATTACK THE US EMBASSY IN YEMEN with a car bomb while Venezuela and Bolivia have banned the US Embassy from their countries..

 U. S. ARMY INVADES COSTA RICA by sending 19 medical personal and a helicopter to the Ngobes Indian tribe in the south of Costa Rica. Banished to a reservation, as Native Americans are, the 600 remaining Ngobes suffer from parasites and respiratory infections, and have no clean drinking water. This medical assistance is an arrangement worked out with America a year ago.

COSTA RICA'S PRESIDENT Oscar Arias, who I feel has done a great deal to pull Costa Rica out of the mess left by Abel Pacheco, is suffering terrible approval ratings comparable to those of George Bush. His cabinet's approval rating is down to 18%. One reason cited is the secret sale of $300 million in bonds to China. It seems China is buying allies as the U.S. did when it had money. As the Constitution in Costa Rica prohibits a president from running for a second term there will be no political effect from these polls, but even in the U. S. where the president has done more than any in history to destroy his country, the people responsible for this mess seem to be enjoying popularity.

A BOY ON A BICYCLE rode past a police roadblock in La Paz, Nicaragua and was shot in the back as he knocked on a neighbor's door to come in. A funeral mass was underway across the street, and the people ran out of the church and burned the police station down.

CHINA'S FAVORITE POISON, Melamine, has now been found in 22 Chinese food products shipped around the world. Thanks for shopping Wal-Mart, but stop waiving your American flag.  During America's financial collapse, Japan made an $85 billion deposit in the Bank of England while Sara Palin continues to ship  America's oil to Japan.

AMERICAN TAXPAYERS LOSE ANOTHER $85 BILLION as Government decides to bail out another mismanaged company, AIG. Economists and government think tanks around the world are studying the Great Depression to see what mistakes were made and how to avoid them during this financial collapse. As this reporter opinionated below, America's only salvation would be to declare national bankruptcy (by defaulting on its bonds to the Arabs, Russia, Japan and China) which would wipe out the multi-trillion-dollar National Debt on whose interest most of America's income goes, and pass a Balanced Budget Amendment which would prohibit further debt. The Founding Fathers never considered that one could spend more money than he has, and so did not address that issue in the Constitution. The candidates are now accusing each other of "earmarks" (pork, riders) which is stupid, as an elected State official is doing his job buy seeking special funds for his state. However, NO candidate proposes making earmarks illegal and forcing each bill passed by Congress to stand on its own merit. America's collapse is not caused by individual greed as much as a system which encourages greed and deficit spending. EVERY financial expert, foreign and domestic, is certain that there are many more skeletons in the closet and are waiting to see which American companies fall next and if the Government will continue to bail them out. Government COULD afford to bail out smaller businesses (the common man), but reacts only by hitting them with interest and penalties on overdue taxes. For these reasons, America is where it is now and is sleeping in the very bed it made..

ICE, Costa Rica's monopolistic supplier of phone, electric and cellular service, is scheduled to disappear by March 2009 as the result of CAFTA. The free trade agreement with America is the only such agreement put to a national vote, and it (barely) passed despite ICE's strikes and blocking highways with Government-owned trucks as a protest of the popular vote. However CAFTA's affects have yet to be seen, and we wonder if they will be. In recent years Costa Rica newspapers have published photos of mansions around the world and Fifth Avenue apartments bought with money belonging to the citizens of Costa Rica, but owned by ICE executives (and their families) and maintained with huge off-shore bank accounts, again funded with taxpayer money. CAFTA does not prohibit ICE, but it does force competition. We feel ICE will disappear because they are simply too inefficient to compete with anyone.

As reported in our Archives, 1 Dream Getaway waited 5 years for our phone line. We are located on the only road to Santa Rosa (half mile from its central), so it is not as though ICE had to run miles of service lines to a remote area. Our next door neighbor waited 12 years for a phone. All phone and electric service passes by our building to get to town. In fact, during our construction we ran underground lines from our building to the road and placed the connection point a couple feet from the ICE pole carrying the phone lines.  Last year, Costa Rica News reported in our Archives that ICE claimed to have run out of power, and the entire country was under "floating blackouts", which interrupted electrical service to different parts of the country every day for hours at a time. We also reported that ICE was draining the Arenal reservoir to limit power output, and this was because Costa Rica put a hold on a major hydroelectric project from which ICE was stealing vast funds. One day ICE cut power to Intel without notice, and hundreds of thousands of chips were destroyed. Although the "black outs" were supposedly due to insufficient generating power, President Pacheco declared an end to the black outs, and suddenly Costa Rica had plenty of power to supply the nation.

Costa Rica is the third-largest user of cell phones in the world, and some major change is in the works for our cell service. Costa Rica News has spoken to ICE officials, cell phone stores, and citizens trying to find out about this change, and everyone has a different story as to what this change is and what will be its affect. When we buy a cell phone we have to take it to ICE and wait in long lines to have ICE re-program our phone, and ICE charges $15 for a new cell number. They also charge extra for making a cell call, and someone calling a cell from a land line gets a "cell surcharge" in his phone bill.  The only point upon which ICE and the others agree is that at some time in 2008 or 2009, our cell phone will no longer work. Apparently we will  have to buy a new type of phone. In the meantime, 1 Dream Getaway has to use ICE for its broadband, and ICE's system is "dynamic", which is a system used by spammers. Whether ICE is now stealing money by spamming is unknown, but many ISP's (like Comcast and ATT) have blocked ICE for spam.

We publish this article in reaction to an email just received from our attorney. It warns of a text message appearing to come from ICE with a request to punch in a code to win a prize or maintain service. Sure enough we received such a message and deleted it as advised. Either ICE is playing some serious games or someone has figured out how to invade their system. Either way, if CAFTA ever presents us with the opportunity to divorce ourselves from ICE we will jump on that opportunity.

ANOTHER CATCH22  appears, as AIG announces it will go tits up without American taxpayer funds.  American government cannot afford to bail out this huge company, yet it cannot afford not to. Just after publishing this article the U. S. announces it will again borrow money from the Orientals and Arabs to bail out this huge insurance giant whose bad investments and mismanagement ran it into bankruptcy. Inch-by-inch these people assume formal ownership of the United States and Americans become increasingly at their mercy.

WHEN YOU CUT THROUGH THE RED TAPE it turns out Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch are largely owned by Japan, to whom America's future Vice President is selling America's oil. As Merrill Lynch may be sold, Fanny and Freddie have things set up that Japan will actually profit from the tens of thousands of Americans joining unemployment lines. Costa Rica News has long speculated that everything that is happening is part of a master plan to knock down the World Trade Center, destroy America's economy, and move financial centers and tourism to Dubai.  As America and the Caribbean are inundated with hurricanes, Iraq is hit with a huge sand storm. Iraq will be fine when the dust settles, as it has a $80 billion budget surplus, and its partner, China, is financially sound and buying up Iraq's oil while the Western World can no longer afford it.

America's Presidential candidates talk as though they had nothing to do with what is happening and how they'll fix it, although they have spent years as elected legislative officials in Washington. I personally don't expect any "change".  McCain says the economy is sound and he has always been right in there with the common man, but doesn't know how many houses he has or what kind of car he drives. Obama chose a VP  with extensive experience in Washington, but who can't pronounce his boss' name. AIG, America's largest insurance company, is again begging for taxpayer dollars and threatens to collapse in a matter of days. Welcome to the new world.

PAKISTAN, the only nuclear Islam country, has given its troops authority to fire on any American troops invading its borders.

OF THE 51 MILLION AMERICAN HOMES 26 million Americans now have mortgages higher than the value of their homes. Financial gurus are now predicting that the current failure of America's major institutions will result in a further decline of  real estate values. For instance, the 25,000 Lehman employees who lost their jobs today are told they will not receive severance or even back pay owed them, so there are 25,000 more homes that will either be on the market or defaulting on their mortgages. British financial institutions are now feeling the same pinch.

WITH NEARLY A WEEK OF BEAUTIFUL, SUNNY DAYS,  I am wondering if Costa Rica's rainy season has ended.  It began with torrential rains as we normally have in October, Our rainfall is normally dependent upon Gulf of Mexico storm activity, but we had fabulous weather here during Ike. Not long ago, scientists speculated that the polar bear was a land mammal in the process of evolving to a sea mammal.  Now they seem in agreement that it is a species headed for extinction.  Costa Rica is a better place to be in today's climate changes and threats of war, and if Ticos can overcome the Catholic edicts to breed, we can likely figure out how to make a decent living on our own.

WITH ELECTIONS 50 DAYS AWAY Republicans and Democrats declare each other sleazy and dishonorable. While true, one must wonder why Independents and third parties have zero opportunities in American politics.

MELAMINE, the plastic chemical the Chinese use to foil food quality inspections, has so far placed kidney stones in 1500 babies using Chinese powdered milk formula and has killed 3 babies after killing thousands of American dogs. As the Chinese eat both dogs and babies, this only adds to the food supply in China.  Thanks for shopping Wal-Mart.

25,000 EMPLOYEES PAY NIGHT VISITS to clean out their former offices at Lehman Brothers as it closes its doors after 158 years in business. Oil prices drop below $100 as US gas prices rise amid reports that oil company facilities were not damaged by Ike. No oil company execs are stepping up to the mike to explain that. They're likely still high or in bed with Government regulators. No financial experts, foreign or domestic, see an end or stabilization for America's plummeting economy. Merrill Lynch is next, as the U.S. government announces it no longer has funds to bail out these huge failing businesses. The Nigerian people declare an Oil War, as oil companies continue to profit $350,000/minute from that country's natural resource while the people live in the streets begging for food. AIG (American International) has asked taxpayers for $40 billion, and Uncle Sam inverted his pockets and said "Sorry".

My experience with insurance companies is that their major expense is hiring "adjusters" whose job is to explain to people who have been paying all their lives why whatever happened to them is not covered. Yet apparently these companies have invested their fortunes in the banks and real estate that are collapsing in America. So now even these companies, whose major expense is executive salaries, are going under. At least until elections, oil will settle below the $100 mark, and many speculate that oil companies cannot permanently prop up prices much above $86. Some are speculating that Chavez threw America out of Venezuela in anger that his unbelievable oil windfall has been cut nearly in half. A sharp, unexpected, and intelligent blow comes to the Fannie and Freddie executives who got canned, and Uncle Sam has refused them their $24 million each severance pay.

SOME INTERESTING INVESTMENT ADVICE came via email from my cousin. We pass it along for your consideration:

If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.

With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1,000.

With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left.

If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock you would have $49.00 left.

If you had purchased United Airlines, you would have nothing left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for aluminum recycling you would have $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

5 "AMERICAN" CAR COMPANIES , GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda and Toyota; have asked American taxpayers for bail-out money. Government is too busy screwing oil company executives and prostitutes and snorting cocaine to think about it right now. With the Government take over of FANNIE and FREDDIE, American taxpayers now directly pay their elected officials to subsidize the banks who are putting them out of their homes, while at the same time wholesaling America's real estate to America's enemies.

In Costa Rica, I observed more bad news during a trip to Costa Rica yesterday. A neighbor, Elder, has a small farm and a truck---but he does not know how to drive. Twice/week I drive his truck into Tamarindo to collect food waste from restaurants and hotels. Yesterday, we had less-than half of the food waste we normally collect for his animals. Some hotels and restaurants are preparing to close, and some major construction projects have come to a halt. As usual, leaving the main road in Tamarindo puts you on roads with two foot deep mud puddles several meters in diameter while while employees of the empty restaurants and stores stare out at deserted mucky roads.

To illustrate the Tico work ethic, below is a photo of William Cervantes, a typical Tico contractor/thief::

William Cervantes and his crew were hired by 1 Dream Getaway to install new siding on our home/office. They were working well, as I spent every minute supervising them until Elder (my friend/neighbor) called and asked me to make a run to Tamarindo to feed his animals. William asked for a $1000 advance to pay the crew.  I paid him, left with Elder, and when I returned the crew, their ladders and their tools were gone.

To illustrate how Ticos are left without a work ethic, Elders son, who I've never met, lives in a shack on Elder's farm. He drives, and usually when I get into Elder's truck it is full of empty beer cans. During the fiestas in Liberia, Elder's son took Elder's truck to the fiestas, and returned it with the passenger door smashed in, and the windshield and side glass gone. Yesterday it had no gas, and needed three quarts of oil. Yet Elder works hard  sunrise to sunset and would never think of disturbing his son, who lives 20 feet away, to help or drive to Tamarindo. I think the son is in his 20's, but to a Tico is still a baby. Elder doesn't drink at all, and his son does nothing but drink.

As another example: When we were building this place, the contractor (Aparicio Rosales) was the contractor along with his four brothers.  Again I spent every minute watching them, and again they worked hard and well. One day they had slaved five hours in the hot sun, and I left to buy them a six pack of beer.  When I returned, they were gone. The next day I asked where they went, and they insisted they were here. In the end, like William, Aparicio never finished the job and stole two truck loads of fine teak which he sold in Portrero with total immunity from the police. It appears American executives have acquired this same work ethic.

OIL COMPANIES DEMONSTRATE THEIR COMPASSION as Ike clobbers Houston by ripping people off at the pump with $5 +/gallon gasoline across the nation. While America's youth bombs farmers fields in Colombia and Afghanistan in the "War On Drugs", oil companies' illegal sex and drug parties with the Government officials who regulate them go unpunished. 30 years ago I purchased an Exxon station in Fort Myers Beach, Florida for $120,000 after signing piles of paperwork with Exxon.  A month later Exxon just kicked me out, announcing they they had decided to "direct market" and would have no more dealers in Florida. My $120,000 was flushed down the toilet. If America would declare war on the people who really are destroying America---corporate takeovers that break up companies and fire their workers, oil companies that operate with immunity, Lobbyists who buy public officials, Wall Street brokers who become millionaires and billionaires by destroying American industry and leave it with nothing to manufacture, executives with multi-million-dollar annual salaries who steal their companies blind and then let taxpayers handle the debt, the people who really were responsible for 9-11---America would be on its feet. Instead Government bundles up America's massive debt unto bonds (taxpayers get the liabilities, the Arabs, China, Japan and Russia get the properties) and sells them to the very people responsible for the debt. With the hours that the media spends interviewing the new Vice President, no one asks her why she is selling America's biggest oil reserves to Japan (after drilling it, piping it and refining it). Alaska has not been hit by any hurricanes, and oil production is being made easier as Alaska warms. Exxon actually employs more lawyers than Americans. During the first three quarters of 2008, the average American homeowner has lost 15.5% of his investment.

WHILE SERVING UP BABIES IN THEIR RESTAURANTS and canning them for their supermarket shelves, the Chinese are now shipping poison baby formula which has already sickened the children of many Wal-Mart shoppers.

WW III TAKES ANOTHER GIANT STEP as Bolivia and Venezuela give American Ambassadors 72 hours to get out of their countries. The only nuclear Islamic country puts up a NO TRESPASSING sign for the U. S., but Bush plans another invasion. Korea resumes its nuclear program and shows off its long-range missiles. Africa holds training camps for Al Qaeda and Taliban. Iraq bonds with China and Russia before American troops even have time to leave. The U. S. is voluntarily ending relations with Nicaragua,  while that country has already bonded with Iran and Russia. To feed their oil addiction, all Central American countries are now bonded with Venezuela. The Afghan War heats up, but no one is certain whether it is the War on Terrorism or the War on Drugs. If history repeats itself, the world has always pulled out of an economic depression by going to war, and today the possibilities are endless.

TIED UP WITH BUREAUCRACY AND RED TAPE the 9-11 New York Memorial has yet to be started after 7 years. America's economy could well afford a grand memorial seven years ago, but not now. Meanwhile many experts doubt that Bin Laden will ever be caught and a new war begins as Pakistan tells America not to enter its territory and Bush orders ground troops there. The US declares another enemy as the  US Secretary of Commerce cancels his trip to Nicaragua in retaliation for President Ortega recognizing Russia's takeover of two Georgian provinces. In Costa Rica (San Jose) China is holding its second annual trade fair (good timing). Lehman Brothers has failed along with numerous American banks as the massive debts of their failed saviors (FANNIE and FREDDIE) are absorbed by taxpayers. Oil production is down and every mechanism is in place for a weak dollar and rising oil prices, yet elections near and oil prices are falling while the dollar is strong..

Non-terrorist Arab journalists report that while Bush was invading Iraq, British troops nearly killed Bin Laden in southern Afghanistan. Now the invasion has created so much Arab support for Al Qaeda (and an obscene amount of money) that he has many safe havens and will likely never be found. Knowing Bin Laden's desire to level the Twin Towers after his failed attempt at bombing them down, U. S. intelligence followed him, had him in their sites, and requested permission to take him out---which was denied by the Clinton Administration.

OIL COMPANIES FESS UP AFTER BEING CAUGHT RED HANDED having sex and drug parties with the U.S. Government employees who are paid to regulate them. Meanwhile America's Presidential candidates begin attacking each other.  One would never guess they are all Americans and elected officials, and they don't seem to be taking any time to do the jobs they were elected to do. During all this, the man most responsible for the trashing of America's Constitution, O. J. Simpson, prepares for more fame and fortune with yet another public trial.

FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND have fired up their particle accelerator, a project the U. S. tried a few years ago and gave up on. The 13 mile long circular tube brings protons to near-light speed in opposite directions---meaning their relative speed exceeds the speed of light. The actual collision is scheduled at the beginning of 2009, and could prove the most significant experiment of mankind.

I FEEL COMPELLED to share my observations today after a trip to the market. I remember the cultural shock I felt years after arriving to Costa Rica after my first visit to the States. Fat people gathered around TV's and fast food restaurants. Very few smiles and no music and dancing. No eye contact or chatter in the streets. Nodding or greeting someone in the street resulted in a stare as though I had done something terrible. I couldn't wait to return to hear Salsa playing everywhere as people laughed, sang and danced.  Beautiful women in sexy tight clothes to accentuate their tight bodies, and smiles and greetings everywhere. Then after days of huddling in the house with torrential rain, the sun came out and I ventured out.

The stores and streets were quiet. No salsa, and where there was music (even in the stores) it was pounding, annoying drums with no musical instruments and "singers" shouting in the most annoying manner, occasionally throwing in bitch and muddafucka to prove their bilingual prowess. Girls and women walked solemnly or waddled in clothes that might have fit them months earlier---or baggy T-shirts, with flaps of fat hanging over undersized pants. Men had their shirts open as they would not button any more. Everyone wore a frown and stared at the ground as they walked. It took about a year after the building explosion and invasion of fast food.

US NETWORK NEWS this morning had two disturbing stories. One was of a subway rider who was sleeping while coming  home from work and terribly beaten by a guy with a hammer . Everything was captured on video, but witnesses cannot be found. Another was a video of a pedestrian crossing a busy street in daylight.  He was clobbered by a car, thrown up in the air, and left to lie on the street for a very long time. These shocking occurrences bring to light a sad fact about the new America. Police and courts are no longer seekers of truth, but anxious to rapidly place blame and convict so records look good and the work load doesn't pile. Various new "laws" circumvent the Constitution, and Guilty Until Proven Innocent is the norm.  The huge fear of Americans and American companies is no longer losing a lawsuit, but being sued---and any lawyer can do so with or without cause. Loyal Americans unable to enter the political conventions to make themselves heard organize rallies in the streets to voice their opinions and concerns (as is their basic human right) are attacked with mace and other chemical weapons and shot with rubber bullets by the very people (whose salaries they pay) whose job is to protect those rights.

MUCH IS HAPPENING WHILE IKE HEADS FOR TEXAS: Here the weather has been absolutely beautiful, and we are enjoying the sun while Florida's record dry spell is being replaced with floods.. Our Thailand Package, however, does not look so inviting as again the government is overthrown and there is unrest in the streets. Along with the President of Thailand, the Presidents of Pakistan and Korea have disappeared, and the price of oil continues down (as elections approach) while OPEC cuts production and US Gulf production is still not back. Having run the private corporations FREDDIE MAC and FANNIE MAE into the ground, their $60 million/year executives continue to collect their salaries while Americans pay $250 billion to bail out their companies and take on $trillions in potential debts. Americans flock to Wal-Mart as real American companies are filing 40% more bankruptcies than last year and hundreds of thousand of American workers join unemployment lines. Remember that China is a communist country---meaning that the work, technology, jobs, and production machinery Americans ship does not go to businesses, but to a government in bed with Russia and in control of Korea, Viet Nam, Emirates, and other American enemies who have worked hard to destroy America. American government made many incentives in the past to put undeserving people in their own homes, and now those bad mortgages are paid by taxpayers while the good ones are bundled by Fannie and Freddie, converted to bonds, and sold to those bent upon destroying America. Thank you for shopping Wal-Mart.

COSTA RICA HAS ITS OWN CATCH22 as it finally reacts to the San Jose crime waive (see the article on neighborhood watch groups below) . As in all countries, there is the law and there is the way the law is applied. The general application is that Ticos do not go to jail regardless of the severity of their crimes. As reported below, this has resulted in criminals running rampant in San Jose streets while residents live in their own little jail cells. Now Costa Rica judges are considering "preventive prisons" meaning the most violent Ticos will be jailed until their trials. Costa Rica has a "right to a speedy trial", but "speedy" means two years here. Dissenting Costa Rican judges argue that Ticos found Not Guilty at their trials will already have served a two-year prison term. This pretty much follows the U.S.'s predicament at Gitmo.

PRESIDENT DANIEL ORTEGA of Nicaragua has declared war against the "feminists" who have called him a rapist. That country's citizens fear a revival of the Sandinista assassination of journalists  from the not-to-distant past. The Nicaraguan civil groups, whose financing comes from outside donations, are being accused of money laundering after printing criticisms of Nicaragua's government and its direction.

THE WEST HAS A NEW BUDDY as Libya welcomes new money to upgrade its production facilities. The decades of bombing and failed attempts to kill Omar Khadafi are forgotten as Libya can send 2 million barrels per day of sweet crude to America. Meanwhile America's long-term buddy (the people who donated their youth to fly planes into the World Trade Center) Saudi Arabia is voting with OPEC to cut production given falling crude prices. Rumors abound that $86/barrel oil will be the norm, and the oil companies are crying that they cannot survive on that. Possibly this American election really will make a difference, and may determine whether America keeps its wagon hitched to oil until it is all gone (about 2040) or weans itself from its addictive habit by using America's strength---innovative technology..

...and speaking of technology, another war looms in the background as GPS, operated by USAF and upon which America becomes increasingly dependent finds competition with Europe's Galileo system. The US is suspicious that Galileo is a military project which, with Nuclear France's participation, will allow a Nuclear Europe with no dependence upon American technology. GPS was always a military project, and was given civilian application by Reagan---then de-scrambled by Clinton. The bottom line is that NATO could become obsolete. The first sign was NATO's unwillingness to defend Georgia from Russia while Bush was partying with Communist Dictators in China and pretending nothing happened.

As proof of who actually controls oil prices, 84% of America's oil production shut down for Gustav, and oil prices fell (making the economy look good before elections) and now the damaged rigs have yet to be repaired while production is again shut down for Ike.  Oil prices continue to fall even though OPEC production did not meet its quota. The average Mexican working in the U.S. sends $200 to $300/month home to sustain his family, and now even cheap Mexican labor is feeling the effects of the U.S. economy and Mexican organized crime is taking over and making kidnapping a major source of income. Meanwhile Bush speaks before the National Defense University (America's anti-terrorist training camp) touting the great success in Iraq, whose economy is booming (with 3 hours/day of electricity and a $80 billion budget surplus) and who is selling their oil to China. In his speech, Bush announces that more American boys and money will be heading for Afghanistan.

A person is smart, but people are stupid. The same people who wave their American flags and claim victory in Iraq continue to flock to Wal-Mart and strengthen China, while China pollutes the world, sells its unwanted female babies to restaurants and canning factories, consumes the world's resources at an alarming rate, sends poison goods to our children and pets and uses American machines, designs and technology (sent to China by US corporations who fired American employees in lieu of cheap Chinese labor)  to market knock-off American goods and send us spams and viruses while at the same time buying bonds from FANNIE and FREDDIE to assume ownership of America's homes, businesses and real estate.

The people of Democratic Iraq find themselves in a Catch22, as no one wants American troops there, but they know Taliban will take over as soon as those troops are gone. As Costa Rica News again predicts, the ultimate result of the Iraq invasion will be to create a terrorist state where none existed before. I doubt that any American President would invade Iraq again---even if there were a valid reason to do so---and the "terrorists" also know that. America cannot run around attacking Arab nations where "terrorists" relocate and train, knowing that if the Arabs sell their FANNIE and FREDDIE  bonds America will go broke. With China and Russia aligning with the Arabs and the EU (dependent upon Russian oil and gas)  becoming independent, America is finding itself without friends, money, oil, or a strong military. Americans could help by shutting down Wal-Mart, but they are doing the opposite.

COSTA RICA'S NATIONAL WATER AND SEWAGE AUTHORITY AYA, has issued severe warnings after testing our beaches in August. It should be no surprise that areas with massive Gringo development have become the most hazardous.  This is why 1 Dream Getaway does not use Gringo resorts, and never has. AYA states that fecal coli levels above 240 parts per 100 millimeters of water are dangerous. In Playas del Coco, Jaco, Limon, Quepos, and Tambor, fecal coli levels have been measured as high as 4600 in chest-deep water 100 meters from the nearest stream entering the ocean! The worst of Costa Rica's polluted beaches are the Caribbean beaches and Quepos. Allow me to illustrate what that actually means:

My first Costa Rica home was in Playas del Coco, and I am a beach person. I was up at sunrise every day and headed (by foot) to the beach. Soon I had inch-diameter open sores on my shoulders and upper arms (I still have some scars), which did not heal regardless of what I put on them over several months. Finally someone suggested that these sores were the result of mosquito bites I had scratched before entering Coco's filthy beaches.  I began driving to nearby Ocotal every morning, and my sores healed in a couple of days. At that time, Coco had 10% of its current population, and Ocotal had a handful of homes and one hotel. I then moved to Ocotal (for six months) and never had another sore. At 1 Dream Getaway's new location, we spent every free day swimming in the estuary a few meters before Tamarindo Beach, and swimming across the river to dine in Playa Grande. That was five years ago, and today we would not think of going into that water, as it became convenient for new resorts to build upriver, and just run their toilets into it.

As reported elsewhere in www.1dreamgetaway.com, I recently tried a new beach in Portrero---a bay overlooking Flamingo. Flamingo is a small volcanic hill so saturated with million-dollar homes and hotels that there is not a square foot left to nature. Its sewage runs into that bay in Portrero. When I got ankle-deep into the water, I could no longer see my feet and left. I know a mechanical contractor involved with the construction of 4 Seasons, on a peninsula we called our STRANDED ON A DESERT ISLAND PACKAGE in our Archives (That is currently 4 Season's golf course). All of 4 Seasons' toilets flush into a huge pipe which runs out into the Pacific. When we ran our Stranded Package ($200/night including the boat ride), we could clearly see tropical fish on the bottom when snorkeling in 100' of water. $2000/night stays at 4 Seasons are not uncommon, and they have houses that can rent for $80,000 per night.

FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAE exemplify the new American Corporate thinking. Basically in charge of America's economy, they now show a $100 billion debt as banks go under and American homeowners are thrown into the street.  They have 100% authority and 0% responsibility (that belongs to Taxpayers) while their CEO's are given annual salaries of $30 million each for those efforts. The executive decisions of those $30 million executives are based upon how much wining, dining and perks are given by special-interest lawyers legally working (also for multi-million dollar salaries) for their corporate clients.

On Monday, Sept. 8 this problems gets a typical Washington solution: FANNIE and FREDDIE's CEO's will continue to draw $60 million in salaries for running their companies so into such debt that they lost 90% of their value, while the American taxpayer is now liable for $5 trillion (that's 500,000 times one million dollars) in mortgages, and taxpayers lose $200 billion in the process. 2 million American homes are currently in foreclosure. Remember that banks give mortgages to Americans, then sell them to FANNIE and FREDDIE who packages those mortgages as bonds and sell them to the Arabs, China and Russia. Who needs nuclear weapons to take over America?

These figures are particularly disturbing as the sitting party always artificially pumps up the economy before elections. I remember Reagan leaving office with a glowing economy, and then George Bush taking over and saying: "Wow, we're broke!  How did that happen?" after spending 8 years in the White House as VP. This time the bail-out has to come from Arabs, Chinese and Russians, who have put an unlimited credit rating on America's Platinum Card. High-fives are everywhere overseas, as McCain yells: DRILL, DRILL, DRILL and assures the world that America will continue its oil dependency. Meanwhile the EU wants to take measures to stop Russian expansion, but as most European Union countries are dependent upon Russian oil and natural gas, Russia proceeds as it pleases with immunity while throwing the world a bone by pulling its troops out of Georgia.

HAVING WIPED OUT 80% OF THE HOMES in the Turks and Caicos, Category 4 Ike is scoring a direct hit to Cuba before moving on either to SW Florida or North to New Orleans. Clearly Mother Nature is not pleased with the way we have treated her. America and Europe seem to be learning.  China, Emirates and Russia don't care.

THANKS TO LARRY for sending the following as a warning, for those of you who are planning on going to Dubai:

Along with this comes other international news: Haiti washes away as retribution for cutting all of its trees, while it is hit by one storm after another. Currently America has 6% of the trees it inherited from Native Americans. America announces the loss of 15,000 more jobs (605,000 in 2008) as Wal-Mart announces record profits because Americans insist on sending their money to China, who is also thriving with Iraqi oil and a huge budget surplus. Russia settles its dispute with BP by buying the company and now direct-markets gasoline to the US as it works to re-instate the Cold War. Rejoicing in it's Iraq victory, American boys are preparing to depart Iraq and head for Afghanistan, where that war is escalating. At home, people exercising their Constitutional Right to Free Assembly are attacked with chemical weapons and rubber bullets during the Republican National Convention where America's future leaders vow to listen to the people. Obama's VP choice, the PIT BULL WITH LIPSTICK,  continues to sell America's oil to Japan---a fact which no one seems to mention. .

Here in 1 Dream Getaway territory, the sun is finally out, but as our rainfall is relative to tropical activity in the Gulf, it likely will not be for long.

WHILE EXERCISING THEIR RIGHT TO FREE ASSEMBLY Americans in St. Paul are attacked by police with chemical weapons during the Republican Nation Convention. This reporter sees little difference between George and Saddam. As Emirates announces it is taking over the movie industry one has to wonder if it isn't just as well to allow the Arabs to rule the world. Pakistan, currently the only nuclear Islamic nation, continues its separation from the US as America moves its military operations back to Afghanistan and Korea resumes its nuclear program. As the Arabs now have unimaginable amounts of money and no industry or jobs, what is happening is inevitable.

FINALLY world economy reacts to the fact that people just cannot afford current crude prices. Markets rejoice at $110 oil---which would have made them shudder just months ago. The dollar is strong, and if people are smart and continue to reduce consumption some more time may be bought. In the 70's oil flow stopped so the Alaskan pipeline could be built, and that oil went to Japan, who took over America's automobile market. Now America's economy suffered for a free Iraq, who, with its $80 billion budget surplus is sending their oil to China while laughing at America's huge debt.. De ja vous all over again.

THE MASSIVE SACRIFICE of the lives of young Americans and the diminished capacity of America's military and economy finally pays off, as Iraq signs an agreement to sell its oil to China. Hopefully the Iraqis will soon be eating canned babies.  Thanks once-again for shopping Wal-Mart.

AS GUSTOV MARKS THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF KATRINA  it marks the first anniversary of AOL founder Steve Chase standing with President Oscar Arias to launch the $800 million Punta Cacique project near our Private Villas. For years this property bore the name of golfer Greg Norman, whose name has been erased from the huge entrance wall. When Chase took it over, it was slated to be a mega project of million-dollar homes and private hotels nestled around an 18-hole golf course.. Now it has become one of three Costa Rica mega-construction projects to be put on hold (for 18  months) due to U.S. economic woes, fuel prices and rising costs of construction materials. It was to include a 75-boat marina.

Another used to be our White Beach Resort, which we used almost exclusively until Richard Pakonen, Blaine Kirchert and Regency Hotels bought it up with plans, as they told me, "to make 4 Seasons look like a poor house." . They mis-managed the resort so badly that we stopped using it, and now their mega-development plane, which included a 75-slip marina, are also cancelled for the same reasons as above. The third to cancel for the same reasons is the St. Regis development on 250 acres near Los Suenos, the only marina left in Costa Rica. Perhaps this bad economy will save Paradise. In the meantime (kind of like closing the barn door after the horses are gone) Costa Rica is developing Regulatory Plans for the Pacific Coast, which are to go into effect in 2010.

WHEN LIR FIRST OPENED  our job at 1 Dream Getaway was easy.  Delta was the only airline, and had noon flights Wednesdays and Saturdays. A friend of ours was head of Immigration, and when LIR became a bustling airport, Costa Rica refused him more help and more pay, so he left for Miami. Now the airlines are pulling back due to high fuel costs, and Delta has cancelled its JFK/LIR route. They still come daily from Atlanta. First Choice Airlines have cancelled their direct flights from London starting in 2009.

AUGUST ENDS with Gustov in Cuba with 150 MPH winds and heading for the Gulf. Currently a category 4 hurricane, it is expected to strengthen and become a category 5 as warnings are in effect from  Hanna. Two other storms are at the same time awaiting development Southeast of Florida and predicted to hit the East Coast. Cuba is actually being hit by two hurricanes simultaneously! Welcome to Global Warming!  In the meantime, a British environmentalist is paddling his kayak into the record books by being the first person ever take any kind of boat (except a submarine)  across the North Pole. And again in the meantime, 2 million Indians find their homes underwater as rivers overflow.

MEXICO BECOMES A WORLD LEADER in kidnappings as organized gangs make their fortunes grabbing tourists and selling them back to their families. Thailand is experiencing another government overthrow. Costa Rica remains safe (except in San Jose) and wet.

PLAYAS DEL COCO was always the little fishing village that was trying to be something else. It was the last to experience our building boom.  Having lived there for three years, I know most of the business owners --- many of whom abandoned their businesses to go into construction when the boom hit. Many years ago our President stood on the shores with the National Band behind him, and dedicated the new Coco Marina (which was never built and likely never will be).  All of the beach front homes were then condemned, and inspectors were sent around to make sure no one did so much as paint their house. Beautiful homes were bulldozed to the ground. Then the Boom hit, and every square foot of beach front property and the property for a mile back became crammed with condos, hotels and restaurants.

Now Carillo (the county seat for Coco) has decided to enforce the Maritime Zone, which prohibits construction 200 meters from the medium high-tide line, is being enforced. Homes, bars and businesses which have been there for up-to 60 years are being knocked down.  As we explain in our Buying Land In Costa Rica section,  Concession Zones are always owned by the government, have a 20-year lifespan, and cannot be sold.  However, in practice this is Costa Rica's most valuable real estate, and it has been sold and re-sold for millions of dollars per hectare. Now Government is taking it back, and the people who paid the most are the losers. Supposedly they are building a pedestrian walkway along the beach, which as in Tamarindo, can barely be seen  from any public walkway. Coco has long been the import center for the drug trade

ANOTHER OMEN OF THE FUTURE is on the horizon as President Oscar Arias plans a two-day trip  to Europe in September to discuss free trade with the EU, then a nine-day trip to China in October. CAFTA, the only free trade agreement ever in the world to be put to a popular vote,  passed nearly a year ago, but has yet to see daylight. As Wal-Mart is taking over Costa Rica's big supermarkets, they may soon be selling canned babies as in the US. *   

YOU CAN BET NEW OREANS WILL GET PLENTY OF ATTENTION THIS TIME as Gustov threatens the Republican Convention. As Gulf hurricanes determine 1 Dream Getaway Territory rainfall, we're getting plenty. Our rivers, which are dry half the year, are swollen and it would appear that other areas of Costa Rica will be experiencing problems.  Here it is just wet. AN UPDATE ON THIS ARTICLE: New Orleans is planning to evacuate 80,000 residents, but only 30,000 have signed up for transportation out. The levy system, which collapsed during 2005 Katrina, is not fully-repaired, and trucks are rushing with fill to prepare for Gustov. At this writing (Aug. 29) Gustov is a tropical storm expected to gain energy from the warm Gulf waters and hit Louisiana as a category 3 hurricane. A recently-discovered phenomenon is the Loop Current, a current of warm, deep water in the Gulf of Mexico. This current expands, contracts and moves---but in its current position Gustov is headed right for it and is expected to gain a lot of energy, as did Katrina.

Crude production will soon cease in the Gulf of Mexico, as 25% of the US oil production and 15% of its natural gas production prepares to shut down. The sky is falling in 1 Dream Getaway Territory, and we are not recommending that anyone book vacations with us until November. Please do not wait until the last minute to do so. So far, we have only one client booked for November.  Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has issued a disaster declaration today in response to the significant threat posed by Tropical Storm Gustav to 61 Texas counties,.  The governor's declaration allows the state to initiate necessary preparedness efforts, such as pre-deploying resources requested by local officials to ensure their communities are ready to respond to severe weather. Mississippi has declared a Disaster. Meanwhile, the US National Weather Service has issued warnings of Tropical Depression Eight, which is currently 350 miles east of the Leeward Islands and another near the West coast of Africa and is watching  Gustov has already killed 59 people in Hispaniola. Katrina, exactly a year ago, killed 1,500 people along the Gulf Coast and caused $80 billion in damage. It is an interesting coincidence that the damage in New Orleans, which has yet to be repaired, is exactly the same as the budget surplus in Iraq at this writing---and that Gustov is threatening more of the same for the onset of the Republican Convention.

INTERPOL IS WORKING WITH COSTA RICA AUTHORITIES  as Julio Rodríguez, 33, and 13 other Cuban-Americans who ran a mortgage scam in Miami and took the loot to Escazu, an upper-class area of San Jose got caught, and are going home.

THE SOVIET UNION takes a giant step backward as China refuses to back Russia's takeover of Georgia.

DON'T EXPECT ARMS AND MUNITIONS to come home from Iraq with American troops. To reduce reported American fatalities, the U.S. decided to give arms and supplies to supposedly "former" Taliban fighters who switched to be with the good guys. Since then, those weapons have magically disappeared. We're still awaiting an explanation of what happened to the Constitution's guarantee of a free press, as all media have, since the beginning of the Invasion, been prohibited from filming caskets returning from Iraq with America's young men inside. It is still warming to know that Iraq,  a democratic country just days old, was able to amass an $80 billion budget surplus while only receiving electricity three hours per day.

TWO AMERICAN DESTROYERS PORT at Georgian ports. Russia still controls the ports, and claims the US is delivering arms, while the US says it is humanitarian aid. Tensions rise as Russia meets with China to decide what to do about it. Georgia has recalled its ambassadors from its embassy in Moscow. Personal American bankruptcy filings are up 30% and corporate bankruptcy filings are up 40% while Tropical Storm Gustov  threatens to shut down oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and finish off New Orleans. All these events began while President Bush and former President Bush were partying and dining with Chinese Communist Dictators and Senator McCain declared the U. S. economy is sound. America's debt to China and the Arabs approaches $100 trillion.  Don't look for any good news in the near future, as Americans will struggle to pay the interest to the Chinese without the possibility of paying them off.

AS CHINA AND ARAB NATIONS PROSPER Costa Rica reports a trade deficit twice what it was over the same period in 2007. The mainstay of the Tico diet, rice, is rising in price and becoming scarce as rice paddies flood and harvesting machines are parked. Thankfully the best coffee in the world is still available and affordable.

IN CONJUNCTION WITH INTERPOL Costa Rica has captured Nikolai Korobkov, 54, a former treasurer of the Russian Communist Party, and deported him. He has been on the run since 1997.

BEYOND ANY DOUBT the most gross and disturbing photos this reporter has ever seen are shown in THIS SLIDE SHOW. Even if you do not understand Spanish, click through the slides and by the end you will fully-understand the morality of the new world superpower. Once again, thank you for shopping Wal-Mart.  Roughly translated, Chinese hospitals sell unwanted babies to restaurants and canning factories for $50 each. I would not be surprised to find some of these body parts on Wal-Mart shelves.

WWIII COMES A STEP CLOSER as Pakistan, the only nuclear Islam nation, thumbs its nose at the U.S. and Russia annexes two Georgian provinces into the new Soviet Union. The overthrow of the government of Thailand is in progress,  so we suggest you forget about our Thailand package for  awhile. On the lighter side, we copy below some comments made by NBC during the Olympics coverage---thanks to a 1 Dream Getaway client: 

1. Weightlifting commentator: 'This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria.  I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was  amazing.'

 2. Dressage commentator: 'This is really a lovely  horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.'

 3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: 'I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father.'

 4. Boxing Analyst: 'Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.'

 5. Softball announcer: 'If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.'

 6. Basketball analyst: 'He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.'

 7. At the rowing medal ceremony: 'Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.

 8. Soccer commentator: 'Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field.'

 9. Tennis commentator: 'One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them... Oh my God, what have I just said?'

AS SHOULD BE EXPECTED from the Chinese, they cheated, lied and murdered their way to record gold metals after spending $40 billion to host the Olympics. Everything from the video-game presentation of the opening ceremonies to the eligibility of their competitors with fake ID's should have demonstrated to the world what they can expect from this new superpower. Protesters and journalists were arrested and prevented from doing their jobs, and two elderly Chinese ladies were shipped off to labor camps after they tried to protest the fact that their homes were taken for the extravaganza and they were put out in the streets. As world morality seeks new lows, so the Chinese demonstrate themselves as fit leaders of the movement. Thank you again for shopping Wal-Mart.

1 DREAM GETAWAY    NEVER sends mass mailings, newsletters or ANY unsolicited email.  If you received any, it may have come from our computer, but it did NOT come from us.  Please accept our apologies. We recently purchased programs from Uniblu and Symantec to clean our computers from viruses and spyware.  Apparently this software installs spyware. Please accept our apologies.  We are working on a solution, and welcome suggestions.

GIVEN CURRENT EVENTS political commentary is simply too irresistible when you own a newspaper. European leaders are expressing how anxious they are to rid their countries of anti-Americanism. Russia, China and the Arab nations are saying they could care less about what America wants. The Democratic and Republican parties are stockpiling mud balls to throw at each other for the next few months while each candidate struggles to display himself as "the common man". McCain's claim to fame is being captured by the Vietnamese during that war. Obama's projected image is that of a poor black man struggling through the ranks on his amazing abilities. The fact is that America has long been run by aristocrats who don't feel the pain or understand the problems of Americans---and let's face it, Who on Earth would want the job of President of the United States (especially now) if he weren't an egomaniac?

As King of the World, I would first re-instate the American Constitution, and mean it this time. Then I would declare national bankruptcy to screw the Arabs, Chinese and Russians who have the country's economic testicles in their hands while at the same time adding a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution so the current mess cannot re-occur. Along with that Amendment would come amendments illegalizing lobbying and riders to bills in Congress---forcing each new law to stand on its own merit's and so be voted upon without all the pork and favors. Congressmen and the current President are Government employees, and if they choose to spend their time holding $10,000/plate fundraiser  dinners they should be doing so on their own time---not that of the taxpayers. There is no need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on media advertising, as the media would be more-than happy to cover worthy candidates without payment.

Democrats are "the people's party" as everyone knows. The most expensive seat at the Democratic Convention cost $1,000,000. Do you think the companies buying those seats will not expect favors when their candidate wins?  McCain struggles so to present himself as the common man, yet doesn't know how many houses he has or what kind of car he drives. Obama relishes his rock star image, and got the money for his multi-million dollar mansion from a convicted felon. Does hearing constantly about these truths over the following months serve any good purpose? Americans had every right to demand a swift and strong response to 9-11, but instead went broke invoking a personal vendetta and handing over their money to the people directly responsible for the second-ever attack on American soil.

This King would also eliminate the American Army, Navy and Air Force. They serve no purpose, as the Army has planes and boats, and the Navy and Air Force have foot soldiers. One American Armed Force would eliminate countless fat cats robbing Americans for their offices, amenities and money spent in the three forces competing with each other. The National Guard should be charged with guarding the nation---at home. Currently a great deal of valuable energy is wasted just in the three armed services guarding secrets, intelligence and new hardware from each other. It was largely for that reason that 9-11 occurred in the first place.  At this writing, the Clinton camp and the Republicans are having difficulty launching a valid attack against Joe Biden, but eventually they will find a way. I submit that all this energy and money could find better uses as America finds itself in a hole and needs to dig itself out..

TO FIRM-UP IT'S RELATIONS WITH NICARAGUA the US has sent a new Ambassador to Nicaragua. Robert Callahan hopes to make friends with Ortega and keep the Venezuela connection (below) at bay. As Costa Rica is now feeling the world's economic slow-down, this is a good time to make friends, and as always---money talks.  The cost of holding America's political conventions is announced at $250,000,000---which would be more-than-enough to revamp all of Costa Rica's roads. America's Interstate Highway System, one of the engineering Wonders of the World, is also suffering badly from decay and Iraq's $80,000,000,000 budget surplus could have gone a long way to fix that (as well as putting many Americans to work). As I respond to people who tell me: "I don't have enough time..." : We all get 24 hours every day.

The good news is that the inordinate amount of early rain we have received this year has come to an end (at least in 1 Dream Getaway Territory), and we've had a week of beautiful sunny days with a cool ocean breeze. If you can afford it, this is a great time to common down, y'all.  The dollar is very strong, and traffic has subsided.  Roads are better than I can remember them this time of year, and we're waiting for you to make your travel arrangements.

THANKS TO DAVEG FOR SENDING THIS LINK explaining the true reason for the world's economic problems.

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/oil_speculators/2008/08/21/124032.html?s=al&promo_code=684E-1 

COSTA RICA reports an even greater budget surplus showing a 40% increase in tax revenues.  Government spending is up 17%. This makes us less-dependent upon Iran and Venezuela than our neighbors to the north and south. Hopefully the decision to join Petrocaribe (below) will simply assure us ample fuel resources in the future. It seems President Arias' decision to remain friends with everyone is working, and Costa Rica is becoming the Switzerland of the Western Hemisphere. Although our free trade agreement, CAFTA, was passed in January, there is no sign of anything being implemented. As we reported below, President Arias has refused to sign on to America's anti-terrorism laws, largely to protect the privacy of Costa Rica's banking customers, so travelers to Costa Rica will not be harassed at the airport as they are in other countries, and our freedom remains a priority while there are no threats to our security or freedoms..

Rumors always abound in Costa Rica, and one we've been concerned about is that the cell phone system will soon be changing, making current phones useless. Costa Rica is the third largest cell phone user in the world, so a last-minute rush to stores selling phones could be a nightmare. In a meeting with ICE this week, we were told that the change will not be in effect until late 2009, so it appears our CONTACT information will not have to be changed for another year.

MESSAGE CLEARLY RECEIVED as America signs its missile pact with Poland, and well-equipped Taliban forces annihilate American troops in Afghanistan. It appears the "terrorists" have openly-acquired a new ally which not only has an abundance of conventional and nuclear arms, but a well-established intelligence network and its own spy satellites.

AUGUST 19, 2008 brings so much world news it would better serve the subject of a book rather than a news article. As Russia elevates its finger to Georgia, NATO, France, the EU, and all those interested in the Russia/Georgia peace agreement, NATO holds a very clear and concise press conference. In the meantime, terrorist bombs go off in several nations as the President of Pakistan steps down. Zimbabwe reports an inflation rate of 11.2 million percent as it rushes to distribute $million notes to its currency. Finally, Fay, which terrorized the Caribbean degrades as it hits SW Florida (my homeland) and continues to bring much-needed rain to Lake Okeechobee and Georgia. 

There were very specific questions posed by the media to NATO, which were very clearly answered:.

The message to Russia: You have invaded a sovereign democratic nation and violated the peace agreement you signed. Stop it!

What are you going to do about it? We're going to form lots of commissions and study groups and talk it to death.

Will you admit Georgia and Ukraine to NATO?  We know we should, but our commissions will keep studying the matter and talking about it.

What about Russia's threat to nuke Poland if US missiles are not removed?  That was very bad.

What can you do about it?  Again, we'll continue to form study groups and commissions and talk the matter to death.  In the meantime, Russian military forces can no longer play war games with NATO forces, and Russia will no longer be included in the joint economic alliances we have spent the last decades forming.

In the interim, Russia's ally, China, trounces the US in the number of athletes winning gold metals. Even when there is a dead tie between the US and China, China gets the medal. That Chinese athletes are competing who are clearly not eligible to do so is widely reported, but not investigated or acted upon. All of Costa Rica News' reports, fears and predictions (below) seem to have become realities on this day.  Welcome to the new world with its new superpowers.

INTERESTED IN GOING TO DUBAILAND?  FIRST CLASS from NYC to Dubai = $ 16,069.00!  Sorry, you can't book your flight through 1 Dream Getaway.  Contact 1 Dreamgetaway and let us turn your dreams into realities while there are still some American airplanes flying into Liberia.

HISTORY CLEARLY REPEATS ITSELF and WWIII is becoming more-than the stuff of sci-fi movies. This time there are ten US silos in Poland instead of Russian missiles in Cuba. Arguments between Russia and America continue over where those missiles are aimed, but they can be aimed wherever. For the very first time in my memory the Russians are openly rattling their nuclear swords, and American rhetoric responds accordingly. Meanwhile, Presidential hopefuls trade words over whether American law should dictate what a woman does with her body.

NATO finds itself in a Catch22 as it debates admission of Georgia and the Ukraine.  NATO cannot afford not to admit them, yet it cannot afford to admit them.

EFFECTIVE PARENTING can only be done by example. An obese parent cannot expect his child to listen to lectures about proper diet and exercise. Drug-addicted parents cannot expect their children to listen to lectures about the evils of drugs. Talented children will not listen to lectures about the importance of staying in school and studying hard, while their drop-out heroes are awarded multimillion dollar contracts and given college degrees because they can run fast. In like manner, President and Commander-in-Chief Bush cannot expect a "child" such as the President of Pakistan to listen to his lecture that a person cannot be President and Commander-in-Chief simultaneously. The history, legacy and example of America has always been one of being the first on the ground with food, technology and aid when disasters happen around the world, and disasters within America were always handled quickly and efficiently. Of course, America was always able to set this example coming from a position of strength and responsibility.

When a major hurricane hit a major US city, America for the first time was unable to respond.  The National Guard was no longer guarding the nation, as it was half way around the world. The media can no longer broadcast films of Americans rushing to the scene of a disaster and setting up temporary infrastructures to sustain the affected population while permanent solutions are planned and built. Instead they have films of soldiers with equipment specially-designed to batter down the doors of private homes and holding the homeowners at gunpoint while they search for weapons/drugs/terrorists, or whatever. A U.S. cabinet member is seen on TV proudly pointing to body parts and saying: "We think this is part of Saddam's brother."  Body guards doing their job in a sovereign nation are shown tied to a tree and tortured until they divulge the hiding place of the country's President, who is then humiliated and publically hanged. America has taught some compelling lessons, and they are not good ones.

Russia is known to carefully plan and execute its actions. Planning of the Georgia invasion almost certainly began during the Iraq invasion, and with careful attention paid to the word's actions and reactions to America's invasion. Russia's timing could not have been better, as America's leaders stood with China's communist dictators telling Russia: "Pull out of Georgia now, or there will be serious harm to US/Russia relations", Russia replies: "Well, DUH..." and Georgia's leaders were off on vacation. Captured Russian soldiers in Georgia have confessed that their stated mission is to destroy Georgia's infrastructure and economy, and make that country dependent upon Mother Russia. Already discussions are underway regarding what to do about the 2014 Olympics in Russia. As this is written, the German Chancellor stands on a Georgian podium reiterating America's words, but is also powerless to enforce them.

African countries have always been unable to feed or govern themselves, and decades of media films have broadcast aid organizations bringing food, medical supplies and farm equipment---giving them fish and teaching them to fish. With the current combined problems of more hungry Africans, more costly food and equipment, more poverty within developed nations, radically elevated transportation costs and less money to go around; the African situation has reached a critical point and nations are unable to respond. Who has the money and resources to step in to save these people? Who will have the support and allegiance of the Africans? As America reels from its $trillion expenditure to "save" Iraq, Iraq reports an $80 billion budget surplus this year, and we're not hearing many "thank-you's". I propose that the African situation is a smaller example of replacing the World Trade Center and Disneyworld with Dubai..

As the world's industrialized nations struggle to reduce emissions and the use of fossil fuels, China, Russia and the Arab nations rush to build more factories, bigger cars, airplanes with bigger engines, unimaginable fuel and resource-consuming projects and military hardware. The words "green" and "conserve" are simply not in their dictionaries. Again, thank you for shopping Wal-mart.  It takes 8 gallons of fuel just to start the engine of one Abrams tank. Think of how much fuel and pollution we expend just  in these futile efforts to hurt ourselves.

COSTA RICA'S ROADS are world-renowned for their terrible condition. As reported below, road maintenance/construction is financed by the fuel taxes, which are currently at record levels. It seems that our previous president, Pacheco, just stole all that money as roads deteriorated to the point that they were literally impassible, When the tourists stopped coming, tour operators started going out of business, trucks/busses could no longer move and President Arias got elected, roadwork began. Last year, we watched for months as road crews did and re-did our road at 1 Dream Getaway until it was beautiful, but now it is impassible and traffic looks for off-road paths to avoid giant pot holes. Part of the problem is that they use cold asphalt and no provisions are made for drainage.  During our construction boom, seasonal rivers are diverted and often just wash the roads away as new roads and driveways are cut into the hills. 

A couple of years ago I was invited to sit with a World Court Judge at a restaurant near our cloud forest resort in Dominical. I commented on the road they were building in that area, and how professionally the work was being done. He said the reason was that the road was not a Costa Rica project, so the road was being built to international standards. Hopefully that level of professionalism will be coming to all of Costa Rica as a historical amount of money, $850,000,000, is being loaned to Costa Rica for the total revamping of its roads and bridges. To give you an example of how bad it is, when we drive a few hundred feet we cross a bridge with 1' X 2' holes and look down 50' through those holes to the river below. Currently, that bridges is being repaired. Taking that bridge is the only option for kids to get to school, and for us to pay our utility bills. There is no sidewalk, and the guard rails fell into the river last year. To get to the multi-million-dollar homes in Portrero (Flamingo area) new residents regularly drive their cars off the one-lane bridge with no guard rails, and the cars land on their roofs 20' below.

The "work crew" on our local bridge consists of a couple of guys dropped off with a welding machine, a few bags of cement, a couple hundred feet of wire and a wheelbarrow. The construction site is marked by tree branches they cut and placed on either side of the bridge. Yesterday they were stringing the wire to the nearest house, asking if they could hook up their welder. This is typical of the services provided by our municipality, Santa Cruz, which has to be among the most crooked local governments in the world. It is Santa Cruz which stole Flamingo Marina (now shut down for years) as reported in our Archives. Rumor has it that a new "boss" took office in Santa Cruz, and demanded all new pay-offs for the marina. Flamingo Marina refused, stating they had already paid their bribes, so the Concession Property was repossessed by Santa Cruz who have been promising for years to contract with new marina operators, but so far every enterprise interested in operating the marina has been afraid to negotiate with Santa Cruz, and no one in Santa Cruz, Costa Rica is smart (or honest) enough to make it a Municipal Marina.

As would be expected, much of this new $ billion transportation appropriation will go to San Jose, as that is where Costa Rica's governing body drives. The $850,000,000 loan, Costa Rica's largest ever, is from OAS, and hopefully will be managed and supervised by them. Before my time, money was given by the U.S. to build a superb highway system in San Jose, which included overpasses at major intersections. The overpass money was stolen, and San Jose's hazardous traffic circles are now infamous throughout the world.

Hopefully OAS will tour Costa Rica and recognize that Costa Rica is much more than San Jose, so some of that money will trickle into our infrastructure in 1 Dream Getaway Territory. The loan is repayable in 25 years, so it appears we have a long wait. To illustrate the situation: In the United States, Monroe shock absorbers have a lifetime guarantee.  In Costa Rica it is 90 days. If they were smart, they would invest a few bucks to actually name our streets and require that buildings have numbers, but that notion has not come up with this project.

AS COSTA RICA NEWS REPORTED (BELOW) Emirate Airlines has taken delivery of it's new 380's with individual showers and internet, while American and World airlines train their pilots to fly using less fuel, cut back millions of seats, and do anything possible to lighten their planes (those which have not been mothballed). We now have a presentation showing the new luxury liners (PLEASE USE YOUR BROWSER'S BACK ARROW TO RETURN TO COSTA RICA NEWS). The Arabs have contracted for 58 of these planes.  As Dubai represents the new World Trade Center and Disneyworld, built largely with American dollars, and Wal-mart exhibits its new ship for hauling American dollars to China the "haves" line up for $9000 first-class seats while the "have-nots" park their cars for bicycles. Who won the War on Terror?

WORLD SCIENTISTS WORK IN THE JUNGLES OF COSTA RICA along with their counterparts in the Arctic and Antarctic while scientifically-equipped U-2 planes fly at 55,000 feet to collect data intended to enhance computer models predicting the effects of Global Warming. An early discovery is that bands of warm air are traveling North from Costa Rica at the rate of 30 feet per day. Meanwhile a Norwegian inventor has come up with carbon dioxide scrubbers that are much more efficient than trees, and envisions them floating randomly on the world's oceans doing what the rain forests did before we cut them down. That project is currently financed by the oil companies, as they purchase the CO2 to pump into the ground and force hard-to-get oil closer to the surface. As Thomas Edison said: The true value of water can only be calculated when the well runs dry.

Costa Rica's rainforests largely disappeared when Costa Rica became MacDonald's supplier of beef. Ronald MacDonald now has his own ranches, so the cows are gone here. However the drive from San Jose to 1 Dream getaway territory reveals countless acres of bare ground (which used to be rain forest) with tiny patches of trees scattered around (MacDonald's version of conservation).

During my 60-year lifespan, the efforts of the United States have been largely to produce a nuclear arsenal, which it vows never to use.  Currently the United States can completely blow up Planet Earth 7 times. Yet with all the talk of inflating tires and hybrid cars, no one seems interested in a program to convert weapons-grade nuclear materials into energy-producing nuclear materials. Should the U.S. decide to give up 80% of its nuclear arsenal, it (and the world) could tell the Arabs to go to hell, have a balanced budget and still be able to blow up the world at will. Currently fortunes are dedicated to storing heat-producing spent nuclear materials which could find a productive use were Government not so jealous of its nuclear technology.

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN CALLING a company which only books flights from the US to Costa Rica at 1-800-493-8426.  We're anxious to hear your feedback on this service, so contact us after you call.

COSTA RICA  reports its slowest growth rate in 6 years as our bus ridership increases 13% in cost, and the US dollar rises in value to the maximum allowed against the colon.  There was never a better time to contact 1 Dream Getaway for your vacation in Paradise. Meanwhile China laments that its growth rate is only 15% above last year as Wal-mart holds employee meeting explaining why they should vote Republican.

CONGRATULATIONS TO MIKE PHELPS    the American swimmer who continues to destroy Olympic records and show the world what America can do when it really tries. The abilities of Saudi women will not be demonstrated, as they are not allowed to drive cars, much less compete in sports.

As China continues to amass twice the gold of the United States, I can only think of the old joke where the Devil challenged God to a baseball game. God asked: "How can you expect to win?  I have all the good players." to which the Devil responded: "Yes, but I have the umpires."

AS THE FRENCH-BROKERED CEASE FIRE CONTINUES  Russian troops continue to attack civilian populations in Georgia and loot their stores and homes. Costa Rica News' assessment of the situation is confirmed, as the Russian Ambassador asks Georgia: "Where were your American and European allies when you really needed them?"  The line in the sand is clearly drawn. The three oil pipelines through Georgia are turned off, as Wall Street cascades. The European nations aligned with Georgia are caught between a rock and a hard place, as they are 40% dependent upon Russian oil. The Arabs and Chinese are attacking America economically, while Russia does it militarily. There was never a worse time for America to be on its knees economically and militarily.

American mettle was clearly-proven in WWII, when it fought two world wars simultaneously and won them both with pride and admiration. Now Russia is doing in Georgia what America did in Iraq, but with much-more sinister intent. Both Presidential candidates are prioritizing Afghanistan and Iran for their 2009 term. However nothing can be done with Iran without Russian help, and America continues its War On Drugs by bombing Afghan farmers, when the true cause of the drug problem is American drug addicts, who get free needles from their government. The War on Drugs has long-continued in the bombing of Columbian farmers, and Columbia has had enough. I have personally interviewed many Columbian refugees here in Costa Rica, and they all agree that Columbia was a wonderful place to live until America began this "war".

It was interesting to spend hours with our last client, who suffers from ALS. The only recognized medical treatment for ALS is marijuana. American lawyers are making handsome profits from the conflicting state and federal laws regarding marijuana. Federal Law prohibits its sale/use or production: PERIOD. However some state laws allow its production, use and sale for medical purposes. Florida is not one of those states, and so to make his disease bearable our client has to make buys on the streets and subject himself to criminal penalties. Yet tobacco and booze kill many more people, and are perfectly legal. I often wonder with America's big push on drinking and driving why they allow bars to have parking lots.

The oil crisis was exacerbated by attacks on American-held oil resources by Nigerians.  Those attacks came about because the Nigerian people live in absolute squalor while obscene amounts of money pour into their country. It cannot be denied that much of this is coming about as the result of greed. However, ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY, and Bush initiated this world mess by abusing his power.  Now America has lost its power, and new corrupt forces prevail.

No one seems to notice that America's vast oil supplies in Alaska are loaded on floating refineries and shipped to Japan. For decades,  America's deficit spending has been financed by the Japanese, Chinese and Arab nations. To completely destroy America, these countries need simply to take their money out of America's already-weak financial institutions. Decades have also passed since there has been any discussion in Congress about a Balanced Budget Amendment. We applaud those Olympic athletes who arrived wearing face masks to protect themselves from the pollution which is spreading around the world..

When Congress with held funds for the Contra War in Nicaragua, the CIA brought the drug trade to Costa Rica for black-op financing. When the "war" ended, the CIA left, but the drugs stayed behind. Both Costa Rica and our President Arias have been stalwart friends and supporters of America. American contributions are largely responsible for Costa Rica's elevated status among Central American Countries. As President Arias is a staunch believer in democracy and the American way, he still has to be a realist. The river of American dollars is now a small stream, and Costa Rica also needs oil. Venezuela has it/America does not. Hence the new alliances reported below. Realizing where Costa Rica's bread is buttered, President Arias refuses to cast his UN vote with America and against the Russians. Also as reported below, the Alliance of Nations---the most obviously phony piece of propaganda ever presented to the World---is now without Costa Rica's signature. The world is changing rapidly, and Costa Rica is part of the world. It is simply an application of The Golden Rule (He who has the gold, rules.)

IT BECOMES MORE DIFFICULT BY THE DAY to run this newspaper, and my personal saving grace is that I am old. Even my mother criticizes this negative reporting as being detrimental to business, and she is correct. However, as long as this continues I feel a responsibility to report on it. As I have nieces training for the Summer Olympics in London, it would be interesting to follow the Chinese Olympics.  However our Channel 59 on Amnet displays a screen 24/7 advising that the NBC SIGNAL IS BLOCKED as they (I guess Amnet) have not paid for rights to broadcast the Olympics. From what we see and read, they are a sham anyway---as would be expected from the Chinese.

America is competing very well, setting records and taking home Gold Metals. Don't expect much from America's volleyball team this year, as their coach's family was murdered during the opening ceremonies.  However as America's leaders stand with Communist dictators, the initial Chinese scams even have to be admitted by the Chinese. They have a little girl with a marvelous voice who sang the National Anthem, but now the Chinese admit that the little girl simply was not cute enough to appear at the opening, so both her image and her name are hidden from the public as a cute Chinese girl who cannot sing lip sinks to the other girl's voice singing the Chinese National Anthem at the Olympics. 

For the first time, the media refers to China as a Superpower. There is overwhelming evidence that Chinese gymnasts are well-below the Olympic minimum age to compete. Many still have their baby teeth.  The reason for the age limit is that a child training so rigorously is doing irreversible damage, yet little girls 10 to 14 years of age are passed off by the Chinese as being 16, and the Olympic Committee is afraid to confront the Chinese with this violation. Mom called to tell me how wonderful the Opening Ceremonies were, but now we know that what was broadcast of the Chinese Extravaganza was simply a computer generation.  Again the Olympic Committee remains silent.

Crude prices continue to fall, as consumers in the industrialized nations find themselves unable to afford their previous lifestyles. Yet the Chinese and Arabs increase their consumption of Government-subsidized fossil fuels. Although temporarily shut down around Beijing, Chinese factories increase production using tools, equipment and technologies given them by Western countries to take advantage of cheap labor while American and European manufacturers scale down, go under or lay off their country's workers.

IN THE MEANTIME Communist Russia announces the end of the Georgia invasion, but Georgia media continues to broadcast Russian bombs falling on their citizens. Chinese air and water are way below substandard, and Dubai's Island Construction has killed off countless square miles of the world's non-renewable resource---the coral reef.  The World is powerless to stop either. The application to join NATO by free/democratic/Western-aligned Georgia continues to be ignored, as NATO recognizes it's inability to defend against the new Superpowers.

INTERNATIONAL DISCUSSIONS are under way to eliminate passports and replace them with retinal, fingerprint or facial profile scans. Given the recent theft of 41 million credit card ID's and the thousands who are erroneously on the TERRORIST LIST, this is a scary prospect. If one's passport is stolen, he can report it and get another with a different number.   However if your fingerprint ID is stolen, you cannot get new fingerprints. In addition, the margin of error on these scans ranges from 5% to 50%, and how would you like to be in that "error" group, and completely helpless to prove that you are you?

1 DREAMGETAWAY HAS ALWAYS USED and promoted the Liberia branch of Economy Rental car. We reserved a car two weeks in advance of our last client, and when he arrived Economy announced they had no cars, and placed us with TRICOLOR RENTAL CAR. Whenever we opened the rear door of the Suzuki 4X4, a plastic try always fell out.  It covered a plastic compartment across the back of the car, and apparently was supposed to be screwed into place---but there were no screws.  When he returned the car, he was charged $78 for tools that were supposed to be in that compartment, but never were there. Be VERY CAREFUL renting a car in Costa Rica.

08/08/08 BRINGS A WORLD-SHATTERING EVENT and American media doesn't notice as it fills the air with Chinese fireworks and election coverage. China's ally, Russia, draws a clear line in the sand as it launches a full-scale air and land invasion of non-corrupt, Western-aligned, democratic Georgia. The American military is there, showing the free, democratic country how to defend itself, and is now begging the Pentagon to come get them before the air fields are destroyed. Meanwhile the Bush who invaded Kuwait to save it from the Iraqi invasion, and the Bush who invaded Iraq to rid it of weapons of mass destruction and make it a democracy glad-hand the Chinese and smile for photo ops. During the Bushs' visit, the Chinese stole credit card information from 41 million Americans.

THE CHECKS MAILED OUT TO "EVERYONE" to solve America's economic woes  (coincidentally at election time) apparently only went to those who don't need the money. We spoke to one elderly woman in Florida who was so happy to hear this money was coming, as she is in danger of losing her home.  When her neighbors got their checks and she did not, she spent two days waiting in the Social Security Office only to be told that she did not make enough money to merit a check.

COMPARED TO LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES Costa Rica is about in the middle concerning inflation. Aside from fuel prices, our food, drinks and milk prices are soaring. At the end of July, Costa Rica inflation was at 7%, compared to Mexico at 2% and Venezuela at 15%. The prices of tomatoes and eggs have dropped.

In terms of AIDS, Nicaragua---which has no programs to prevent or monitor HIV---is the lowest in Central America, and Costa Rica is also very low. Costa Rica has a long-standing AIDS program, and is working hard in monitoring and educating.  Some African countries have a 34% AIDS infection, while Nicaragua has 0.2%. However, one must wonder where Nicaragua's statistics come from if they do not have a monitoring program. The main concern is that Latin gays do not come out of the closet, and keep their sexual practices a secret.

COSTA RICA WILL NOT IMPRISON THIEVES, but they did put Chere Tomayko in jail for 10 months on a US fugitive warrant (see below). As we reported this story (below) U. S. Marshals awaited Chere's release to escort her to America to face kidnapping charges. President Arias finally gave her refugee status, and she is now free and living in Costa Rica with her husband and four daughters.

(photo from the TICO TIMES)

WHAT WAS ONCE AN OVAL-SHAPED OCEAN CURRENT connecting North America and Asia has been formally designated the world's largest garbage dump. The barometer of water quality within the current is the PLASTIC TO PLANKTON RATIO, which has recently doubled. Water samples taken include floating fish and water birds with plastic bottle caps in their stomachs.

AS IF THE WORLD DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH BAD NEWS, Earth is undergoing a shift of its magnetic poles. We don't fully understand how or why this happens, but we know it does on average every 250,000 years, and the last one was 800,000 years ago. As the result of its rotation, Earth bulges around its middle (like a pumpkin), and the melting of the glaciers has caused this phenomenon to exaggerate. In time, compasses will point in different directions at different latitudes before North become South. The process is expected to complete over 7000 years, and it seems clear we will have destroyed ourselves by then. Our magnetic field protects us from destruction by solar storms, and it will weaken as the magnetic poles shift.

AMERICANS continue to poison their children with fat and sugar. A recent study showed the average fast food breakfast for children contains more-than twice the recommended number of calories.  We can only surmise that parents are working so hard to keep the house that they don't have time to give their kids decent home-cooked meals. Costa Rica is apparently not immune, as we see an extraordinary number of fat people in the streets---as never was the case before. Coincidentally, 1 Dream Getaway Territory has seen an explosion of fast food chains.

WE EXPECTED TO WAIT YEARS to see how accurate our predictions have been, but now they are proven in days. Disney has raised its entrance fee to $70/head, making one wonder if a family needs to get a home equity loan to take the kids to see Mickey Mouse.  However, banks have stopped home equity loans in the face of plummeting home prices. Soon it will be cheaper to take the family to meet Carrie Camel.

For the first time ever, there are runs on British banks. Daimler may be bought by foreigners as Germany pulls its manufacturing from China, citing zero quality control and rising labor prices there. Now they're looking towards India as their biggest bank, HSBC begins reporting problems.  The $millions spent by the media placing cameras to broadcast the opening Olympics from afar are wasted, as Beijing has disappeared in a cloud of smog. Our current client commented last night: "All we can do is sit back and watch the show."

As American airlines struggle to strip ounces from their payload, looking at lighter silverware or cutting food from their flights to save weight, Emirate Airlines announces its new fleet of luxury airliners with individual showers for its passengers.

PRESIDENT CHAVEZ of Venezuela continues his friendly takeover of Central America, claiming to have enough oil to supply Central America for the next 100 years. President Arias of Costa Rica  ( long-time friend of America ) joins President Ortega of  Nicaragua ( long-time enemy of America ), in Petrocaribe (below). Unlike the other Central American countries, Costa Rica is not viewed as a poor country in desperate need of assistance. However all the Central American countries take offense at the strings attached to American aid. It is not clear at this point if Venezuela is competing with---or working with Iran in elevating Nicaragua's standard of living.

The decades of American dollars flowing into countries from Honduras to Panama have largely been wasted. The U. S. can afford neither to buy back Central America nor make it dependent upon American oil, and a military takeover is not in the cards. Honduran President Mel Zelaya is entering his country into the ALBA club, making Honduras the sixth country to join the leftist alliance, which now includes Bolivia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Chavez has  purchased $4 billion dollars worth of arms from Russia, and has contracted for another $6 billion, so the loss of Central America as a US ally becomes fairly evident and disturbing.  A Tico could never make a good soldier, so I feel Costa Rica is safe from this transition.

To gain a good prospective of the world situation, I recommend you read a book by Richard Nixon entitled 1999. Written in 1987, Nixon predicts world events at the turn of the millennium, and reading the book with hindsight adds to its appeal. The point that comes to mind from that book is that Nixon points out America's short-sightedness. While American Government and corporations live from quarter-to quarter (or election to election), foreign companies and governments think in terms of generations. Still, as America's new President ponders moving the Iraqi War to Afghanistan, no one cares (or ever seemed to notice) that the guys who rammed planes into the World Trade Center were Saudis. However Exxon noticed before 9/11/01 that they needed a pipeline through Afghanistan, and there was not enough American presence there to safeguard it.

I often chuckle thinking of those Cold War days, with America touting the values of democracy. The fact is that Russia IS and always has been a democracy, while America is not. By law, Russian voters elect their leaders, while American voters elect members of the Electoral College (who can vote as they please)  and never even know their names. America's best lawyers (and God knows America has enough of them) don't know all the laws, and new ones appear every day. What really matters is how those laws are enforced (or not). America's greatest achievement was its Constitution, and when that lost its value so did America's standing in the world.

ONCE AMERICA'S LARGEST EMPLOYER  General Motors struggles to avoid bankruptcy as it  reports a record loss for the quarter, and plans thousands more layoffs; while Exxon, which employs very few Americans, reports a record $350,000/minute (every hour of every day) profit for the same quarter. Meanwhile, America's only remaining industry---employing Americans almost exclusively and recognized worldwide as #1 in the business---Hollywood is selling out to India.  The likes of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks will soon be Indian employees. Bollywood is now making its move on the movie industry, and of course everything is for sale. I remember the last time the world ran out of oil, 35 years ago.  Exxon wanted to build a pipeline through Alaska, and oil miraculously appeared before the pipeline was finished. When it was finished, that oil was shipped to Japan. Now Exxon wants to drill off the coast of Florida. When George's brother was Governor, he wouldn't let them do it.

Does anyone see a pattern (or a problem) here? How MADE IN USA by K-Mart became MADE IN CHINA BY WAL-MART;  How the World Trade Center and Disneyworld became DUBAILAND?  How made in the U.S.A. by GM became Made Anywhere by GM, and how GM went tits-up shortly after shipping its equipment and technology to China as it did to Japan 60 years ago? How discrimination against blacks was a terrible thing/but discrimination against whites should be American Law and Practice while the President of the United States steps up before the cameras to deride  the Supreme Court's ruling that Habeas Corpus is a human right--- then to tell the President of Pakistan that no one can be President while at the same time being Commander-and-Chief of his country's armed forces? 

It didn't bother anyone when Westinghouse purchased CBS to protect itself and the tobacco companies, and now America (and the world) is paying for its apathy. Certainly America's CEO's, with their 9-figure salaries, don't care. In the extensive media coverage of America's 2008 Primaries, all we heard was America's color-blind society talking about ...the first black, ...the first black---and ...the first woman, ...the first woman.... Did no one learn from Hitler that people can just be people? Must there be a "black vote" and a "woman vote" and organizations like Miss Black America and the Black Trial Lawyers Association? Can the world take America seriously while these things exist?

Any white American who uses the "N" word would be sued, lose his job, and likely go to jail.  Yet black people do it all the time without penalty. As an American, I can't explain this to friends who want to understand American culture. To help you understand ours, the word "negrita" means little black girl in Spanish, yet it is also used for the Virgin Mary in this legally-Catholic society, and mothers often refer to their daughters as "negra". Costa Rica recognizes that blacks are different from whites, as women are different from men. But there is no racial (or gender) barrier.

AFTER BANNING CARS and shutting down factories in Beijing, the Chinese now have their pollution level down to ten times that of Chicago. There are predictions of further good news that rains will soon wash Chinese poison into the water supply---but clear the air so you can at least see. Of course the Chinese continue to kill off the world's endangered species in hopes that it will solve their sexual dysfunctions. In a stay at our Dry Forest Resort at the end of July, I took the following photos from my cabin as I read a book.  The water arrives without a pump---they just stick a pipe upstream and the water coming from the tap and shower is something bottled water companies can only dream of obtaining:

While scouting the photos of our water, I came across the photo on the right (above) of our Howler Monkeys (which I also took in late July, 2008). These monkeys are often our alarm clock at home (and our resorts). There is always a harem of females, often with babies on their backs, led by a male.  When the male babies grow up, they are kicked out of the harem, and seek girls elsewhere (much like us!). When they do, there is a violent fight over the girls, and the fight just happened to be starting when I took this photo.

From a distance, the Howlers look black, and the males have snow white balls that appear just like ping pong balls. Howlers compete with noises, and when you first hear them they sound like lions.  The Indians of Costa Rica claim the Howlers once were snow white, and were competing with God during a thunder storm. As God made the thunder louder, they kept out-shouting the thunder. Finally God lost his temper, and sent a lightening bolt as the Howler reached down to protect his balls. Ever since then, the Howler males have been black with snow-white balls.

I'll also take this opportunity to mention another experience we had during that late-July, 2008 trip to Dry Forrest, and have yet to put with our Packages: As our client on that trip was disabled, we were told, after getting him on a horse, that the trail to our hot springs  was muddy and that there was another option which would be much easier to traverse. We rode on dirt roads rather than trails through the woods, and arrived at hot springs which were a commercial operation rather than the springs we normally go to---which are as God left them. They had huge vats of mud (like spas charge $200 to use) with paint brushes.  You paint yourself with the mud, lay in the sun for it to dry, then go into the hot springs to wash off. This is just another of the countless experiences you can have in Costa Rica with 1 Dream Getaway.

A GANG OF SAN JOSE THUGS  invaded a San Jose neighborhood watch meeting, putting guns in the mouths of those attending. The Watch  group has now disbanded in fear, proving that crime pays. As we say countless times at www.1dreamgetaway.com , San Jose is not the real Costa Rica, and 1 Dream Getaway Clients can walk the streets, forests and beaches any time of the day-or-night without fear. When we go our exotic  resorts with our clients, I leave my keys in the car and my door unlocked and/or open.  I have not been to San Jose in 5 years now, and hope I never do. There is no reason for you to either.

If you think we are exaggerating, please read the following from THE TICO TIMES (a San Jose, Costa Rica newspaper available online and in print), July 31, 2008:

At least half of the country's 4,915 watch groups have disbanded, crumbling in the face of an increasingly violent crime wave during the last few years.

Mora retains some hope despite living in one of the nation's worst slums where she says many police are on the take, charging drug dealers not to bust them. Prostitutes and crack addicts control access to the community's only health clinic by extorting money from people who want to get in.

“It's so bad here even the firemen won't come in because they're afraid they'll get robbed,” she says.

Lillian Saborio, former head of a now-defunct neighborhood watch in Cuatro Reinas de Tibás, says the tactics police initially taught them are no longer effective and that the Public Ministry has abandoned them. These tactics include the use of whistles, uniforms, neighborhood alarms, patrols, batons, telephone networks and group action.

“All the old tactics can't be used any longer because (the criminals) will just kill us,” says Saborio, whose daughter was recently robbed 100 meters from their front door. “We're incarcerated in our homes, and the criminals run free in the streets.”

Costa Rica Law Enforcement is actually aiding the criminals in San Jose. Recently a car lot with a Rottweiler to guard the lot at night was robbed, and the dog killed the criminal. Rather than cheering the dog, the owner was prosecuted for murder and many Rottweiler's were poisoned and killed. As to the drug problem, aside from telling the local police about our drug dealer neighbor who sells to Tamarindo (and our dog, who was raised on cocaine), we've had  photos of drug deals up here on Costa Rica News for a year now---along with directions to the house and photos of drug dealers, and nothing has been done. We have had one burglar here, and he will not be robbing any more houses.

Costa Rica is receiving a new underwater trans-Atlantic cable, so our TV's and communications will soon no longer be dependent upon satellites.

THE 1 DREAM GETAWAY LIMO had a first-hand experience with Chinese goods. To save c.20/car when buying new tires, Chinese tire valves are now being used.  They are blowing out and causing cars to roll over on the highways. As they poisoned our pets and sold us poison food additives while painting our children's' toys with lead, China is now poisoning Olympic athletes with the air they breathe and shipping us more dangerous junk. Thank you for shopping Wal-Mart.

MONDAY, JULY 28  was a holiday in 1 Dream Getaway Territory as we celebrate the annexation of the province of Guanacaste into Costa Rica.  Party time!

PRESIDENT OSCAR ARIAS has affirmed Costa Rica's status as a sovereign nation by granting Refugee Status to Alexandria Tomako.  The 19-year-old mother fled the U. S. for Costa Rica after a court granted joint custody of their 8-year-old daughter to her ex-husband, Roger Cyprian.  She claims Cyprian abused her and her daughter, Alexandria is now married to a Tico, Javier Montero. The U. S. would like to put her in jail, and American taxpayers now save $40,000/year for her imprisonment plus all the legal fees and court costs. A little girl now has two parents and lives in a free country.

COSTA RICA'S NEW FLOATING CURRENCY (see below) is giving some of the bankers who run it fits. Some want to return to the old system, and some feel it is just growing pains. Regardless, there is no better country than Costa Rica to get the best bang for the buck.

RICHARD BRANSON has completed construction of the first commercial spacecraft, and tickets are selling well (at $200,000 each) for a joy ride. This as American airlines mothball their fleets and tourists and businessmen struggle to afford tickets and avoid the hassle of getting on a plane. The delineation of "haves" and "have-nots" in the world is becoming clearer.

IRAQ IS TRYING TO ACT as an independent country while its athletes have been training hard to prove themselves and their nation. Now, as did China, Iraqis have nationalized their Olympic Committee and have been thrown out of the Chinese Olympics. The timing could not be worse for treating this emerging nation as a bastard son rather than a newborn child. If you receive daily spam mails in poorly-translated Chinese (often with viruses attached) selling products made with US machinery, technology and design but pirated by the Chinese, as do we, you have to recognize the dangerous situation that is emerging. We have received a number of ads for the Canadian Pharmacy with the body of the letter in Chinese. These people appear to have been born without morals, and are soon to be the world's superpower.  Thanks for shopping Wal-Mart.

Dubai (when the show ends, click your browser's back arrow) has already turned its coat after spending $trillions of our money building a world tourist Mecca.  The millions of Westerners who are already flocking there are now being arrested for behaving as they are accustomed to behave in their own countries.  When Bush presents himself to the Chinese while the Iraqis are prevented from competing in the games, new alliances will form in Iraq, and we can have little doubt with whom they will be. In this writer's opinion, the Invasion which has bankrupted the US and weakened its military will ultimately create a true terrorist state where none existed before.

WE OFFER ONLY CONFUSION FOR OUR EXCHANGE RATE.  When this writer came to Costa Rica, our currency (the colon) was variable, but predictable, against the dollar.  At that time, an American dollar bought c200 colones, and each month the dollar purchased more colones. This continued until the beginning of 2008, when our colon gained value and the dollar bought fewer colones. In the beginning of 2008, a dollar bought c520, and that dropped to c490. Now the dollar has strengthened against our currency, and has gone as high as c570/dollar. Of course this is great news for 1 Dream Getaway clients and others who travel to Costa Rica, but raises Hell with our merchants. To make things worse, a year-or-so ago someone was passing $50 and $100 counterfeit bills, and there are signs in stores and gas stations everywhere that these bills are not accepted.

The Central Bank of Costa Rica is trying to to manage the problem, and is setting upper-and-lower limits for the value of the American dollar against the colon. They're talking about regulating the value of the colon against the dollar to a floating range between c500 and c555. These are laws that effect mainly Costa Rica imports/exports.  The reality is that many stores which except dollars (and what we advise our clients) is to consider our most common notes to be as follows: c1000 (mil colones) is a two dollar bill. c5000 (cinco mil) is a ten dollar bill) and c10000 (diez mil) is a twenty dollar bill. Note that American coins are totally worthless here.

We advise our clients against using the money exchanges at the airports. Often our clients send us extra money with their payment, which we exchange for them at the bank before they come. We also advise to forget bringing $50's and $100's (except to pay us at 1 Dream Getaway) , and the reality is that there are automatic tellers everywhere (with the options of English as well as Spanish), and they should give you colones at the correct current exchange rate. Visa is accepted everywhere (except in small local stores), and the other credit cards are accepted on a hit-or-miss basis. For buying things like souvenirs and presents for your companion (and taking a taxi),  the local stores usually give you the best value and want colones. Let your companion negotiate a price in advance.

There is also a big difference in prices of things like hotels and entrance to national parks between Ticos and non-Ticos. For instance, if you go into the national park at our Dry Forrest Volcano and present your passport to the guard, you may pay $20/person. But if you have your companion present her cedula (Residency card), you will pay $6.  Keep that in mind.

FOR THE FIRST HALF OF 2008 Costa Rica registered a $230,000,000 budget surplus!  As we reported below, 1/4 of our income is on fuel sales taxes---which are a percentage of the dollar amount sold.  So logic would dictate that when fuel prices multiply so do tax revenues. I filled up yesterday, and paid $1.50/liter. The number one source of Costa Rica's revenue is Customs Duties,

COSTA RICA NEWS reported earlier (below) that Costa Rica has withdrawn its signature from the (laughably phony) Alliance of Nations which invaded Iraq. Since then, Costa Rica has hosted the first ever annual China Trade Fair. Now Costa Rica has asked to join Petrocaribe, an alliance with Venezuela, Honduras and Nicaragua.  Our fuel has always come from Venezuela, but by joining this alliance Costa Rica gets much better terms for its fuel purchases. As Venezuela is already here giving free eye surgery (see below), it looks like we have a new buddy. In my song HOTEL DEL REY, I sing: The Lord above knows you can't buy love, but Lord it's sure for rent...  Maybe you can't buy love, but you sure can buy friendship. Currently our tax on gasoline and diesel fuel amounts to 1/4 of Costa Rica's national income.

IN MAY, 2008 a CNN reporter named Drew Griffin did some negative reporting on Iraq, and was subsequently placed on the TERRORIST LIST, which prevents people from boarding airplanes. After months of documenting his credentials, Griffin remains on the list---along with about a million other honest Americans, some young children.  Homeland Security's response to questions about this is that there is a true Arab terrorist named Drew Griffin and the name caused the problem.  However, Griffin remains on the list. With all its other problems, how can America expect the world to listen when it speaks such nonsense and behaves so?

CHINA SHOWS THE WORLD ITS FUTURE by raping those who want to see the Olympics for visas, hotels, travel and food.  I remember when anyone who saw MADE IN JAPAN quickly replaced the item on the store shelf. Then America rebuilt Japan's industry, infrastructure, and gave it the latest technology. Now GM circles the drain while Toyota looks for non-American banks to put its money. Yet the idiotic American public continues to to look only at the price tag and never at the MADE IN CHINA labels. Thanks for shopping Wal-mart.. When there are nothing but Chinese products to buy, they won't be so cheap.

ISRAEL HAS DEMONSTRATED TO THE WORLD its thanks for the formation of that country in the year I was born, and the welfare checks that have kept it afloat ever since, by trading 200 coffins and 5 terrorists and murders for two coffins. Until now the WAR ON TERRORISM has been undefined, but now the terrorists are dancing in the streets at the winning of a major battle while the wagers of the War continue to pump (literally) money into their coffers.  What a joke! --- but one for which the world is paying.  (Again, see Dubai, and click your browser's back arrow when finished.) Eventually America has to pull out of Iraq, and there will be more victory celebrations. In this writer's opinion, rather than deny that the invasion was about oil and George's father, America should take full possession of the Iraqi oil fields---at least until the "liberation" debt is repaid.

THE VERY MORNING after offering the article below, I turn on the US news with the lead story that Fanney Mae collapsed, American beer is history, and photos of the $27 Billion (with a B) mosque being built in Aradabi, where the average citizen makes $200,000/year tax-free without working. As a long-time blood donor  I see the U. S. as a donor---but it is not waiting 8 weeks between donations, nor is it drinking juice and eating doughnuts afterward.  In fact there is no "afterward", and the tube just remains connected while the blood keeps flowing. How long can this continue before the patient dies?  This morning's news continued with coverage of a spectacular Arab Rolls Royce dealership followed by reports from the thousands of Americans giving up their cars and riding bicycles. As is always the result in America's biggest industry, corporate takeovers, the result will be the loss of more American jobs at Budweiser.

THE GOAL OF COSTA RICA NEWS is to inform, and present the news in such a manner that it makes sense and helps you govern your lives. As 1 Dream Getaway caters to those who travel to Costa Rica for their vacations, it behooves us to paint Costa Rica with a glowing brush. As you read, the fact that we do not becomes obvious. We have no desire to trick any adult to vacation with us in Costa Rica. We make no false promises to those clients we accept nor to those who choose us. We deliver what we say, and we tell you when we cannot, or do not want to.

This article was inspired by today's (Sunday, July 13) morning news, which we get from CNN in Hong Cong and from US air networks broadcasting from Denver. It is no secret that substantial tax dollars are spent manipulating the media, and for countless generations  the President of the United States has been the one with the organization that best manipulates and buys the media. This writer is a long-time Libertarian, and so I have been prohibited by law to vote in US primaries. Again, by virtue of this morning's news we make the following comments from a world view and with no political bias:

It is now the President of France rather than the President of the US who is photographed with the Jews and Arabs shaking hands and promising to play nice from now on. What a coincidence this happens at the same time that the world is seeking Euros instead of dollars. There was never a better time to see again our Dubai presentation and understand its significance ( CLICK YOUR BROWSER'S BACK ARROW TO RETURN HERE). Americans were convinced 70 years ago that they would never see another bank failure as the result of measures taken after the Great Depression. But now the Arabs knocked down the World Trade Center and have their own. American banks are toppling. Airlines, one of the very few industries that actually employs Americans, are laying off like crazy. Iran is taking over Central America, and Americans flock to Wal-Mart to feed the Chinese.

With the talk we are finally hearing about Global Warming, the true cause is never addressed: Overpopulation. Like it or not, the only country with the foresight to address that problem (although for their own wellbeing) were the Chinese. As a former owner of an Exxon station (and a former GM engineer), I can assure you that alternative-fuel cars will not have a future (at least significant enough to make a difference) as long as the oil companies have oil to sell. 60 years ago Carnegie, Ford, Flagler, Rockefeller and a few others went around the US buying all the trolley cars and scrapping them. As a side income, the diner came about as an American icon. The objective was accomplished: to eliminate public transportation and force people to buy cars, oil and steel. Then, against the will of the American people and the United Nations, America declared war on the Arabs. Chase Manhattan (the Rockefellers) receives a percentage of every penny spent buying oil from the Arabs, and their income has increased 10X since the Iraq invasion---so you can bet Chase will not join the list of failing American banks.

This diatribe is not because we wish to fill Internet space. Time is long-overdue for Americans to say: "What can WE do about this." rather than: "What will THEY do about this."  History does repeat itself, and absolute power does corrupt absolutely. Eisenhower's warnings about the Industrial-Military Complex went unheeded. A world war has always been the solution to world depression. Be careful!

SAN JOSE'S TRUCKS AND BUSSES are blocking highways to protest fuel costs and eliminate the tax on diesel fuel.

AS WITH THE REST OF THE WORLD, Costa Rica's cost of living has risen. Our inflation rate is now at around 14%.

DRIVING IN SAN JOSE has always been a hassle, but more so over the last year.; There has been some sort of law with alternate days and hours based upon the cars' license plates. The Transitos have been writing 750 tickets/day to those who don't understand the law. Now they are banning all car traffic (only delivery trucks allowed). 1 Dream Getaway Territory has never experienced such nonsense. I have not been to San Jose in years, but local news reports that Transitos are giving over 5 tickets/day to each driver caught in San Jose.  If you don't understand the rules (which few do), a cop will stop you and write a ticket.  If you turn around to get out of town, another (or the same one) will stop you again and give you another ticket. As with US traffic cops, the objective is to make money.

A 12-YEAR OLD PREGNANT GIRL with health problems had an illegal abortion in Managua, Nicaragua. In return for votes, the Catholic Church got life-saving abortions banned under Nicaragua law. The hospital was faced with the option of saving the girl's life or allowing her to suffer and die, and made the right decision. Now Ortega's government is faced with a dilemma. They have the options of prosecuting the doctors and hospital administrators or turning a blind eye. Either way, an important precedent is in the making. The girl was over 3 month's pregnant. Her father committed suicide after being caught raping her, and her mother abandoned her blaming the girl. Neighbors took her to the hospital.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has offered free eye surgery to anyone who comes, and so far 800 Ticos have taken advantage of it. The Costa Rica health care system is cheap, but inefficient and leaves people standing in lines for days. Costa Rica hospitals have no more appointments for 2008. Venezuela sends eye doctors to Costa Rica for a diagnosis, then flies qualified Ticos on three Venezuela Government planes for free surgery, free bed clothes, and free accommodations, even though President Oscar Arias has publically attacked Chavez.

DEDICATION TO SERVE CUSTOMERS appears to be a lost concept, at least in America. The stories clients tell us about their trips are saddening. From "FLY THE FRIENDLY SKIES" airlines now shout: "JUMP THROUGH THESE HOOPS, KISS OUR BEHINDS, AND WE'LL TELL YOU HOW MUCH IT WILL COST TO TAKE YOUR CLOTHING ABOARD."  Of course this after standing in lines to be ordered around by strangers and treated like a criminal. American companies like GE and Westinghouse have no CONTACT information, and people feel as though the company is doing them a favor just to vend their products (which are rarely American-made). If you can talk to a service tech, he is likely in India, while Americans join unemployment lines.  As a former GM engineer, I lament reading the words GM and BANKRUPTCY in the same sentence, but the reasons become obvious. Costa Rica is not like that, and hopefully never will be. When you arrive at LIR, you are greeted with smiles and "welcomes", and people who ask how they can help you --- not just by us at 1 Dream Getaway, who are just a few feet away.

When America's products include video games that teach violence and crime, and music teaches disrespect for anything/anyone, causes of moral decline jump out at anyone who can see from a distance. That even ONE school teacher would parade an infant autistic child before the class so his peers can tell him what they hate about him (and that the teacher still has a job) is truly a sad commentary on the American way of life. We refuse to buy any Hallmark products, and certainly understand the protests in other countries about American beef. Videos of a major U.S. company beating sick animals with sticks, ramming them with forklifts, and then grinding them up to sell for school lunches speaks volumes of the new morality of American business.

 The new GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT creed explains why America has (by far) the largest percentage of its population behind bars (and thousands, who have never been charged with a crime behind bars in foreign countries), and hundreds (or thousand) of American men are added daily to a computer database of woman or child abusers based solely upon a phone call from someone they might not even know. After Waco, you would think the US would temper its attitude, but instead some crazy lady makes a phone call, and a train of buses (chartered with American tax money) invades another Texas church and hauls off hundreds of children from their parents---whose job is now to prove in court that they DID NOT abuse their children. Remember, in these times of economic woes, that you are paying over $40.000/year for each person imprisoned. Add that to the cost of waging war against the people who have oil, and the reasons so many Americans are without homes and struggling to feed their families becomes obvious.

Come to Costa Rica, where the music speaks of love, dancing and gayety. Where businesses try to earn your trade, and check later to be sure you are happy with your purchase. Where people smile at you, and hitch hiking is a way of life instead of a criminal activity. Where church as a place to gather and rejoice, rather than learn to shoot an abortion doctor or strap a bomb around your waist. Where police (not traffic cops) smile and go out of their way to help you. Where there is no army and the people have no knowledge of (or desire for) war. Sure, we have our foibles, but we are good, honest people who want you to leave Costa Rica planning your next adventure here for vacation travel, a lifelong companion or a real estate purchase.

SPORT FISHERMEN WITH TOURISTS ABOARD have been attacked by commercial tuna fishermen in the Jaco area (south of 1 Dream Getaway Territory).  The commercial boys are serious, and using AK-47's and helicopters to harass the tourists. (Again, this won't happen in 1 Dream Getaway Territory). The tuna boys (not Costa Ricans) use the helicopters to spot schools of dolphins herding tuna. Then the boats scoop up the dolphins and tuna, killing the dolphins in the process.

CAFTA, our Free Trade Agreement, is making progress, as the Costa Rica has agreed to the Intellectual Property provisions and voted to eliminate its insurance monopoly. 13 new laws needed to be passed, and four are left. It must be done by Oct. 1, 2008. Costa Rica continues to resist the "Anti-Terrorist" provisions, which give the U.S. access to Costa Rica banking.

COSTA RICA is considering eliminating their tax on diesel fuel, while doubling it on gasoline.  Needless to say, this is not a popular move.

THE TAMPISQUE AQUIFER, which was to supply water for 8000 new homes in Playas del Coco (Coco Beach) has been scrapped, as the new aquifer has been contaminated with gasoline, glass and garbage.

GOOD NEWS:  Some mega hotel chains that have been paving Paradise have ground to a halt, having problems getting financing.  Maybe there is a silver lining behind the World's financial cloud.

BAD NEWS: Costa Rica has changed its laws regarding medicines, and is now requiring a doctor's prescription to buy medicine. We hope this free country is not changing to another US. I have long felt that a Pharmacist knows more about medicine than a doctor.

1 DREAM GETAWAY NEEDS YOUR HELP:  Since we got set up with our broadband service (with ICE), we are having emails rejected by our clients' servers---and some to us.  As best we can understand, it is because ours (ICE) is a "dynamic" server, and whatever that means, it is something used by spammers.  We have no options of servers (as ICE is it in Costa Rica), and if anyone has any suggestions as to how to mitigate this problem, we'd love to hear from you. Thanks---AJ Seaman

WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT OUR 1 DREAM GETAWAY REAL ESTATE OFFERING #6  This is a nice opportunity for a beautiful home or small business---or both!

The BUDGET SUPPORT GROUP (EU countries plus Canada) have basically been given the bird by our neighbor to the North (Nicaragua). Ortega responded to their threats to cut funding by telling them he doesn't want them meddling in internal affairs. It seems clear climates are changing---both climatic and political---and that Ortega is counting on Iran to keep Nicaragua's coffers full. Not too long ago, foreigners doing business in Costa Rica were crossing the border for the cheaper land and labor, but now the messages seems clear that Nicaragua is no longer a place for anyone in the Free World to travel.

At the same time, the IMF has given Nicaragua all A's on its report card of how Ortega and the Sandinistas are handling the country's economy. Another reason to visit our presentation at: www.1dreamgetaway.com/dubais.pps to understand how our own money can be used against us. The best book this reporter has ever read is: THE PATH BETWEEN THE SEAS by David McCullough. It explains in detail how building the Panama Canal (which should have been built in Nicaragua) negatively impacted North America. In fact, so many Ticos died building the Canal that Costa Rica had many incentive programs to attract men here from other countries. The French were desperate to sell their failed project, and LOBBYING (one of the most destructive of all US practices) began as a result. Do yourself a favor and read the book.

TROPICAL STORM ALMA, the first to hit Costa Rica in 120 years (May 29) destroyed 112 homes in the San Jose area, and some areas are still without utilities. Many families have applied for aid and have not received it  They are still trying to fix roads and bridges in the San Jose/Quepos area. Alma came just after the San Jose-area coffee farmers fertilized, and over 1000 acres of CR coffee plantations (best in the world!) were damaged. 1 Dream Getaway Territory just got a lot of rain and no real damage. There was also extensive damage (again San Jose area) to a 128 MW hydroelectric plant under construction, as the river washed equipment and supplies into the ocean and many roads disappeared due to landslides and rivers changing their course.

COSTA RICA HAS JUST PASSED A LAW BANNING PARENTS FROM SPANKING THEIR CHILDREN. Perhaps this story relates to the one below. When kids don't get military discipline, parents cannot discipline them and the courts do not punish children or adults for crimes, what is the result?

IT IS WITH GREAT SADNESS  that we report the appearance of highway robbers in Costa Rica. This is a common practice in other Central American countries, but until recently the only highway robbers here have been the Transitos (Costa Rican traffic cops) who hide out in obscure areas along the highways and just write tickets (and solicit bribes)  until their quotas for the day are met. But now there is a gang of 6 men who are robbing cars (sometimes they take the car) and trucks along the road  from Nicoya to Samara. They are armed, have shot people, and wear black ski masks. Costa Rica authorities know who they are, and they have been jailed (for a few days) and just come back to practice their trade. 1 Dream Getaway has never taken clients on that road, and recommends that you avoid that route---and if we encountered them we would run them over rather than stop.

Also (in the Central Valley only), armed robbers are going to homes disguised as flower salesmen, DHL drivers and ICE employees.  When the homeowner opens his door, they force their way in at gun point, tie up the residents and rob them.  That will never happen in 1 Dream Getaway Territory.

COSTA RICA TOURISM is reporting a 16% increase over the first half of 2007. With many US airlines dropping so many of their domestic flights, only American Airlines has reduced flights to Costa Rica (San Jose---not here). Currently, American flies here 43 times/week, Continental 25, Delta 24, Spirit and US Air 7. Charter companies like Miami Air are picking up any business given away by the airlines.

FOR THOSE OF YOU INTERESTED IN COSTA RICA REAL ESTATE, we should explain the Costa Rica tax system. There are no property taxes on raw land.  Most Tico houses are just built---no records, no permits, they just build them.  However a Gringo home is carefully monitored and "engineers" come all the time to be certain you have received a building permit. There are no "engineers" who actually inspect the construction, but once you get your Permit your building (and only your building) is registered for tax collection.

Our cable service (Amnet) broadcasts US networks from the local Denver channels, and so we receive Denver news on their three air channels.  Yesterday they were talking about Government offices going to a four-day week to save fuel, and said the average employee spends $30/day driving to work. The 1 Dream Getaway home/office pays property taxes of $35/year. If you don't pay, your annual property tax just goes in the records and a 10% surcharge is applied---they do not take your home! In January of every year, a car with speakers on the roof drives up-and-down the streets announcing that you have to go into town to pay your property taxes.

When you apply for a building permit, you have to contract a Costa Rica "engineer" to draw up the plans---which then go to the Engineering College in San Jose where the students review the plans. If you look at the Lighthouse in our May, 2008 Birthday Party, you'll see why you don't want to just "hire an engineer" to draw up your home or business project. The Lighthouse owners did that, and have a $2 million Frankenstein monster on their hands that is actually a liability. I'm sure the AutoCAD renderings (as with our photos) were really beautiful and convinced the Lighthouse owners that they were getting a truly spectacular home. But the Tico designer of the Lighthouse had learned in college how to use AutoCAD and some structural concepts---but both the Lighthouse and the development in which it sits, Paloalto, are completely impractical in the real world. Untold $millions have been (and are being) spent on mansions that the owners cannot use when completed. For instance, at the Lighthouse, the six glass doors do not open and have two-inch gaps where the air conditioning (if it worked) just escapes through the huge cracks. Even the bathroom door doesn't work, and everything came from Brazil---so you cannot even buy a light bulb for your home without going to Brazil. Without a 4X4, it is difficult to enter the development, and impossible to get into the Lighthouse driveway. This problem might have been solved by designing the parking on top of the house, but it is too late now. It is also impossible to have visitors at the house, unless they have good motorcycles and know how to drive them. The Lighthouse owners kept throwing money at the project until they gave up, as it became obvious it cannot be fixed.

This is the value of doing your real estate purchase through 1 Dream Getaway. You travel to Costa Rica on vacation, and see what you want to see/ learn what you need to learn. Certain Gringo projects attract the attention of the Costa Rica Government (Minai) and you are thrown into an endless process of Environmental Impact Studies, Permit Reviews, etc.. With 1 Dream Getaway, you do not hand over your money to a lawyer in return for your deed and then figure out what to do with it. Our sellers are real Ticos with friends, connections, and the ability to proceed with construction without any hassles.

We know many people who have bought property here and years later are still working to get utilities run to their property or the plotting approved. At nearby Playa Grande, Gringo realtors have sold some magnificent beachfront properties (at gringo prices) and the owners have been battling for years just to retain title to their land and arguing over what belongs to them and what belongs to Government.  Some have built spectacular beachfront homes and had them claimed by Government. Minai now patrols and "protects" the leatherback turtles on the beach, so even after spending a fortune on a beautiful home on a beautiful beach, you cannot walk out your back yard at night without paying Minai $40. With 1 Dream Getaway, you can actually accomplish actual clear title, building rights and utilities BEFORE you buy.  When you deal with Gringo realtors, you are paying Gringo prices and all the red flags are up to the Costa Rica Government. In short, you can turn your dreams into nightmares (as with the Lighthouse), or turn them into realities with 1 Dream Getaway. We don't have all the real estate answers, but we promise we'll get them. As with our adult vacations, we make the introductions, then stick with you until things work out.

IN COSTA RICA, You do not get bills in the mail, as streets have no names, and buildings have no numbers. On the 20th of each month, we go to the local "pulperia" (poor man's 7-11) and the owner has all the town's electric bills, which are brought to him by bus on the 20th. He pulls out the bill (about $40) and we pay in cash.  ICE has an Internet service where we could pay our electric bill online, however we would have to print out the paid receipt for the electric bill and bring it to the same pulperia that collects the electric bill, as SHUT-OFF is done by the pulperia turning over the unpaid receipts to ICE a week later, and they then disconnect service to each meter turned over to them by the pulperia. After paying our electricity, we walk down to a crippled lady's house, give her out meter number (260) and pay the water bill (about $10). Again, a guy from the water company (hated by the locals) picks up the unpaid bills a week after they are due, and goes around shutting of water to those meters. ICE's telephone bills used to be only payable at banks, but now the local supermarkets collect them---however you have to pay cash, and cannot use your credit card along with your grocery payment.

AS JULY APPROACHES,  our rainy season continues to be unusual with violent thunderstorms in the night and partly-sunny days.  Temps are always in the 70's/80's and our roads are better than they were in previous years. Tourism is down (which we like) and 1 Dream Getaway Territory is still Paradise.

BARCELO, THE SPANISH OWNERS of our Southern Beach and Fantasy Party packages, is having their resort in Montelemar, Nicaragua harassed for no apparent reason with liens put against the property.  The Swiss International Institute for Management Development has included Nicaragua with its warnings about travel to Haiti, Venezuela and  Bolivia as dangerous places to travel or do business. Costa Rica is currently celebrating Fathers Day.

COSTA RICA'S GAS PRICES continue to rise as everywhere, and are currently around $1.30/liter. Our prices do not float with the market, but are set by the Government and include a 3% flat tax for our roads. Since Oscar Arias become President, some of that money actually is being used for our roads and there has been a great improvement. Also as everywhere, diesel is rising most rapidly.  As diesel is much cheaper to refine than gasoline, that tells us that the cost of production has nothing to do with the price of the fuel.

SINCE ITS 1968 ERUPTION, Arenal volcano acts up at times. It is now spitting up rocks along with the normal lava flow.  There is a 3-mile- radius cloud of  ash and gas, and parts of the Arenal National Park are closed. The volcano resorts we use (CR Naturally and the Dry Forrest Volcano) are still great, and we invite you to join us. At our Dry Forrest Volcano, the new thermal-electric plant is now operating.  We've been taking our clients on horseback for years to watch its construction.

In the meantime, President Daniel Ortega has bedded up with Iran to build a hydro-electric plant in Nicaragua. As the US's invasion of Nicaragua was to oust Ortega, there are obviously bad feelings, and American interests there are being taken by the Nicaraguan government. As Nicaragua is close to 1 Dream Getaway Territory, we no longer offer day trips to Nicaragua. Iran's unfolding deals with Nicaragua include a farm equipment assembly plant, 4000 tractors, 4 other hydroelectric plants, 5 milk processing plants, a health clinic, 10,000 houses and a deep-water Caribbean port (working with Venezuela). With rapidly-changing political, economic and climate changes, it seems 1 Dream Getaway Territory is anyone's best bet for travel to a safe and beautiful vacation in Paradise.

HAVING BEEN EFFECTIVELY CLOSED due to landslides and parts of the road washing away during tropical storm Alma, the Pan-American Highway (running from Alaska to Panama) is again open in Costa Rica (mid June). Some bridges are still one-lane, and the area affected is 60 kilometers (36 miles) of Highway 1 . This does not affect 1 Dream Getaway Territory in the least.  Our roads (Northern Pacific) are better than ever, and we're ready for business. Alma killed 4 people in Costa Rica, and many communities in the Quepos area (in the Central Pacific coast) were evacuated.  Highway 1 traffic was diverted to the coastal roads, which were never really built (interesting story!) and the rickety one-lane bridges are causing a huge traffic mess in the Quepos area.  Again, we are not affected, and the Pacific Coast has had no problems. Heavy rain and cold (for us) weather continues to plague that area, but not ours.; Alma was the first major tropical storm to hit Costa Rica in 120 years, and 1000 victims have yet to be reached as of mid-June. In 1 Dream Getaway Territory, we just got lots of rain.

JUNE 2008 brings to an end the first half of our most unusual year at 1 Dream Getaway. After buying new computers and getting a new ISP, we still receive notices that emails to/from us do not go through. It seems just sending them again usually works. Our rainy season ended a draught in Costa Rica, and began with our first tropical storm.  Since then, we've had ten times our normal rainfall. We are receiving much more spam and Chinese trash and hacking than actual client inquiries for travel to Costa Rica. As tourist travel is really down in Costa Rica, we receive visits and calls from whores looking for work---and lots of letters from "clients" looking for whores.  If a prostitute is what you really want, you don't need us. Just come to a safe place in Costa Rica and walk the streets any time of the day-or-night.  The hookers will find you. If this trend continues, 1 Dream Getaway will cease to operate.

1 Dream Getaway publishes with Front Page, and we've just learned that is a big mistake. Apparently FP was developed before search engines and SEO's, and puts in all sorts of code the search engines do not like. We ask any reader here to PLEASE email us if you are interested in making our website W3C-compliant, and/or can recommend a replacement program for Microsoft. Front Page.

RAINY SEASON IS HERE, and quite unusual, as we have had two of four rainy days.  Usually our season begins much as Florida's, with the sunny days and rainy late-afternoons or nights. The temperatures remain in the low 80's, and the rain is actually refreshing. The scenery has changed from brown to green, and it is a beautiful time of year. After four days without sunshine (May 28), thunderstorms are predicted for the next five days. This is an UNHEARD OF rainy season, and we will let you know if/when it returns to normal. In October 2007, we received 7 times our normal rainfall.

APPARENTLY 1 DREAM GETAWAY HAS BECOME COMPLACENT, as we booked a private Tour for a new Swiss client who declined our invitation to meet him, introduce him to his companion, and take them to their first resort. His companion is now afraid of  him and the way he treats her, while he is demanding another girl. This client was very reluctant to exchange emails with us, and we did not really have an opportunity to know much about him. On occasion we have clients who do not wish to talk, but from now on if we are unable to get to know a potential client, he will never become one. 1 DREAM GETAWAY TURNS DREAMS INTO REALITIES is now going to depend on what the realities are.

With $10/gallon US gasoline on its way this year, make your vacation count. Discover your feet!  Discover horses! Discover all the wonderful things you can experience that are not petrol-dependent. Write to us at 1 Dream Getaway, and give us the opportunity to give you the best travel of your lifetime. Bring your family.  Bring a loved one, or let us find one for you. You ask for it---we give it to you.

YOU CAN READ GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA, OR THE TRUTH, and a client recently sent this link: http://www.logosol.com:80/_customerservice/news/index.php?todo=show&id=6166, which you can compare to Costa Rica's propaganda and decide how ecologically friendly Costa Rica really is. Now that they are bringing the sawmills directly into the rain forests, our only hope is that the upcoming $10/gallon gasoline will slow them down. They are truly paving Paradise and putting up a parking lot.

A NEW WEB SITE IS UP-AND-RUNNING where you can search bus schedules within Costa Rica: http://thebusschedule.com/cr/index.php?lang=en  This may not be of interest to most of you, but may come in handy for us at 1 Dream Getaway, and who knows?, so you might want to keep it handy.

THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO BE SCREWED some good/some bad. When you plan to spend your valuable time and money traveling somewhere to unwind or plan a future, you only want the good kind. If you just want sex or gambling or prostitution, you are better off using your Yellow Pages rather than 1 Dream Getaway (or any other web service). In 2008 a travel agent neighbor of my mother's (and friend of mine) took a group to Costa Rica, as she has done many times before. One of them spent her entire stay (plus!) in a Costa Rica hospital after falling down stairs that we never would have taken her to. As in Costa Rica Archives,  some wealthy, hard-working and well-intentioned Gringos bought property and developed a marina in Flamingo, only to have it forcefully taken from them. Hence the value of 1 Dream Getaway personal service. We live in Costa Rica, and are here 12 months/year.

We made a huge mistake for our May 2008 Birthday Party, and advertise that mistake on our website (the Lighthouse). In a way, our clients suffered (for a matter of hours), but in a way we have something to talk about and show our friends in years to come. Either way, 1 Dream Getaway had the error corrected quickly and without hassle or expense. All (but one) of our May Birthday Party guests have been here before, and all are already planning on coming again. Not many travel agencies can say that.

The Lighthouse is located in Monte Paraiso ( http://www.costaricaart.com/photogallery/pages/montep.htm ) , and if you visit the link we provide here, the photos sure make you want to come. In fact, hundreds of people have invested untold millions of dollars buying land and building homes here. They all got screwed (not in the good way) and have million dollar homes you could not even drive to in rainy season. One of our clients for the May Party, an FBI Agent, has already posted an internet warning about this place.

1 Dream Getaway has now branched into real estate, aware of how many people are being screwed (bad way) here in Costa Rica. The owners of the Lighthouse wanted the perfect dream home in the perfect setting with the perfect scenery. 1 Dream Getaway goes on through out www.1dreamgetaway.com about the tragedy of the educational system and work ethic in Costa Rica. It is largely for that reason that our Companions are looking at people from other countries. We copy below a dissertation about the Lighthouse, and what the owners got for their $2 million investment in Monte Paraiso and  with a Tico Architect:

My understanding of the problems with this house is they are compounded by the fact that EVERYTHING in the house comes from Brazil and must be imported, down to the special bulbs in the fixtures. This was designed by some San Jose architect who obviously is clueless, from what I can see, The least he should have done was used materials that could possibly be found in CR.

How would you like to spend millions of dollars building a house only to find you have to go to Brazil to buy a light bulb? In truth, Monte Paraiso was Tico-engineered, and the entire development should never have happened. It would not have happened had the developers contacted us before buying. Have a good look at Monte Paraiso and the Lighthouse.  Our photos and theirs are not deceptive, and both are, in reality as beautiful as shown. The Tico engineers who rendered the development and the house were not crooks.  They just lack knowledge and experience. I am a graduate engineer, but I could have never drawn either Monte Paraiso or the Lighthouse. Yet had you asked 1 Dream Getaway to oversee the project, it never would have happened.

The advantage of locating in Costa Rica is that you have the freedom to do what you wish.  I designed and built my home here, and could not be happier---nor could I have built it in the United 'States. The disadvantage of locating (temporarily or permanently) in Costa Rica is that you can do anything you wish. When you are honest and up-front with us, we assure you get what you want, whether for a week or a lifetime.

Another example (of countless) showing the value of our personal service is our canopy tours. There are more in Costa Rica than I can count. On our way to this canopy tour, we passed numerous signs to others.  Very few new to Costa Rica could find the one we use, and the guides do not have even one word of English in their vocabulary. For that reason, they give me a really good (guide) horse without charge, and the freedom to monitor everyone on the tour. There are fascinating things to see and do on the tour, but you miss them if they cannot be explained in English.  This is an inconvenience---but the safety instructions are a necessity, and you would not have a clue unless you spoke Spanish. People are hurt (and even killed) doing Costa Rica's canopy tours, and that never seems to make the news. It will never happen with 1 Dream Getaway. Children, handicapped and elderly could not take a canopy tour on their own, but if we think we can get you on a horse and up the ladder we promise your safety and the time of your lives.

The same is true with any type of vacation you plan in Costa Rica. More important any real estate transaction or development. Our real estate offing on Playa Hermosa is without a doubt the most desirable and valuable land (possibly) in the world.  It is also grossly over priced, and we tell you so in the offering. If that doesn't bother you, we'll walk you around the land mines and give you the most spectacular home or development anyone could hope for. If you did it on your own, you might end up with $2.5 million worth of useless property. Monte Paraiso is a prime example of how that could happen.

In like manner with our adult vacations, we sometimes have both clients and companions pulling our legs, and that usually results in disaster. If we learn that a sincere client looking for a soulmate has a girl who is playing around, we tell him (and can usually get all the dirt).  When we have a sincere girl with a client who is playing games, we have our talk with her. As my grandfather always told me:  If you always tell the truth, you don't have to remember what you said.

1500 HECTARES (3700 acres) have so far been consumed in a wildfire in Palo Verde National Park (shown in our second real estate offering). In dry season, fire is how Ticos clear their land, and this fire got out of hand.  Hopefully rainy season will soon put it out.

LARGELY DUE TO THE EFFORTS OF RICHARD & MARGO (along with our beloved Blue-and Gold Macaw BJ) a Costa Rica macaw breeding program is working, and these magnificent birds are returning to the wild in Costa Rica. You can see their efforts by searching Amigos de Aves.

TAMARINDO POLICE AND POLICE VEHICLES are at risk of losing their homes from the rented space, as there is no more money to pay the rent. If that happens, the police may be relocated to their previous Red Cross location in Villareal (near 1 Dream Getaway) and their cars, trucks and motorcycles taken away. There is a fund drive, and it looks like a few rich Tamarindo residents will be footing the bill.

COSTA RICA CONSTRUCTION rose 11% in the first quarter of 2008, according to Costa Rica's records of issued building permits.

FOR AN INTERESTING LOOK AT THE FUTURE and what happened to the World Trade Center, try clicking on this MS Powerpoint link.  PLEASE USE YOUR BROWSER'S BACK ARROW TO RETURN TO US AT WWW.1DREAMGETAWAY.COM when this amazing presentation ends.

LEATHERBACK TURTLES are heading up local news at Playa Grande, a beautiful beach a half-hour drive from 1 Dream Getaway. For years land has been sold as titled land up to 50 meters from the high-tide line.  Then Costa Rica extended the borders of Las Baulas National Park to 125 meters of high tide, and people began having their land/homes taken from them by Costa Rica. Various groups have been battling in court for ten years over this issue. Now Costa Rica's highest court has ordered the immediate expropriation of 45 hectares of land from the people who purchased it. However, Costa Rica has to pay the landowners the appraised value of the land ($650 to $1000/square meter) and doesn't have the money, as it relies on donations to do so. A lot of this land was sold by Gringo realtors, like Century 21, so I imagine we'll all be dead before this is finally settled.

Our inside information on the issue and from groups working to save the turtles' nesting grounds on Playa Grande is that thousands of turtles were counted nesting every year until Minai (Costa Rica's EPA) took over monitoring the beach. No one (not even residents of Playa Grande) are allowed to walk on the beach at night without paying $40 to Minai (which I guess protects the turtles). I've taken people to the beach after dark and had Minai soldiers come out of the woods like Sandinistas and chase us away (or arrange a pay-off), and I'm told that after Minai began "protecting" the turtles, nests went from thousands to 57. I am often at a supermarket when some kid comes up on a bicycle trying to sell me turtle eggs. I'm told that friends and relatives of Minai are now the only ones allowed on the beach, and are collecting all the eggs for a percentage.

FIESTAS are an integral part of Costa Rican culture. Here, anyone can ride and anyone can be in the ring, and the bulls are not hurt. Every little town has its fiesta.  The larger ones have a bull ring and grandstands, while the little towns have trucks that bring lumber, nail it together, bring in kiddie rides (and walls of speakers), and three days later knock everything down and move on to the next town. President Arias has changed the insurance laws regarding the fiestas following some serious bull-riding injuries and deaths. The people who run the fiestas are now required to insure the riders. The previous insurance coverage only included the cost of their funerals.

 A recent client, disappointed with the horses we had rented on a tour, asked for some good horses and a non-tour ride.  We drove around and found the guys who have the horses that are used to round up the bulls at the fiestas, and rented them.  In doing so, we learned that the people running the fiestas are giving cocaine to the bulls before they go into the ring ---. Possibly an explanation for the recent surge in injuries and deaths.  .

COSTA RICA'S EPA had announced it was shutting down a billion dollars worth of construction projects in Tamarindo, Brasilito and Portrero (the Hyatt, Bahia del Sol, and San Francisco) for not meeting Costa Rica's environmental laws. . Now they have changed their minds and given the go-ahead.  I imagine some offshore bank accounts got fatter this week.

OUR MAY BD Party was another success, and now we are opening it for reservations again.  The first person to reserve sets the date.  As two guys this year were born July 13 and 22, we can have another party this year if we get a minimum of thee guys. One of our clients who was here for the party, an FBI agent, contacted the owners of the Lighthouse and advised them not to rent that house in the condition it is in. We promise fist-class accommodations the first time this time. So think about it! Let's have a party.

CAFTA was apparently just a dream, even though it was put to a national vote and won. Since then, there have been no notices or signs that it was implemented.  As we said often in www.1dreamgetaway.com, if the free trade agreement were implemented, the first to go would be ICE, the monopolistic utility company and Costa Rica's license to steal. .  However, as the US goes monopolistic, so Costa Rica appears to be staying that way.  As we were so excited about our new broadband, now we lament, as it is down and no one even answers the phone at ICE. The weather is still beautiful, so come on down! Remember that our answering machine at the office (011-506-2652-9017)  is not working, so if we don't answer, call our cell phone at 011-506-8389-7479.

AS MAY  and our annual May Birthday Party approach, we find a new world and look forward to sharing it with our old friends. Rainy season should have started here, and it was predicted to be early and heavy with this La Nina year.  However, the April page of our calendar tears off without a drop of rain since last November (two exceptions). Costa Rica is resisting America's insistence that it pass "ANTI TERRORISM" laws, which translates to giving the US free access to private banking information in Costa Rica. We are proud to live in a country where a person is secure in his person, papers and effects, and wish some US politician would take the time to read their Constitution. America remains the only country in the world where possession of its own legal currency is a crime. It also remains the only country convicted in the World Court of State-sponsored Terrorism. Costa Rica is concentrating on putting its own house in order, and the world wishes the United States would do the same.

1 DREAM GETAWAY HAS ENTERED THE 21ST CENTURY with broadband.  We are connected at 100 mb/sec, and it is like dying and going to heaven. As time passes, we learn the ropes and are anxious to share our experiences to help you if you want to own your piece of Paradise.  See our available properties as linked to our Home Page.

ANOTHER WEEK COMES AND GOES. and we still have no idea if/when we will have our Broadband.  1 Dream Getaway is located on a main, paved road one half mile before the central of Santa Rosa on the only entrance road. We requested our telephone and internet in 2002, and got our phone in 2007, although we were promised the phone and internet would come together. ICE, the monopolistic utility company of Costa Rica, has a setting in their main and branch offices throughout Costa Rica that makes their phones ring busy when they are either not there or don't feel like responding to their customers---which is most of the time. For that reason, we help our clients obtain their utilities, and recommend that the first item on the agenda after finalizing purchase of their property is to make their requests for utilities.

ANOTHER MANANA COMES AND GOES, as today was to be the installation of 1 Dream Getaway's broadband internet service.  We have now waited six years, and finally had a firm appointment for this morning.  However, as the morning passed, we called---and called---and called ICE until we got through. Their technician made a 2 PM appointment, and at two he called to make a new appointment for tomorrow morning.  This is what we call TICO TIME. I tell people that in the Spanish language, manana means the next day (or morning).  However in Costa Rica, it means NOT TODAY. We are encouraged, however, in that this is the first time in six years that ICE has actually called us.

A 1 DREAM GETAWAY CLIENT has explained the US airline mess, and we pass along his information. As the result of the nose landing gear malfunctions in the past, the FAA issued an edict demanding that all wiring harnesses in the area of the nose gear be placed one inch apart. Not 3/4 or 1 1/4, but one inch. In spot checks of American Airlines, the FAA found variances, and so it grounds planes on the spot which do not have the 1" spacing of the wiring harnesses. Those of you who have flown on military aircraft, where all the plumbing and wiring is exposed,  certainly have friends who will not fly or are afraid of flying after watching the wiring and plumbing bounce around in a plane. We see arguments for both sides in this tragedy, and wonder why aircraft not governed by the FAA don't seem to have any problems of this magnitude.

HACKING seems to be an ongoing problem, and again we apologize to our clients and potential clients. First Margarita Island hacked our site and directed our traffic to theirs. Now the Chinese have hacked not only 1 Dream Getaway, but many sites hosted by Godaddy. Apparently email to info(at)1dreamgetaway.com is being returned (fatal permanent error) and our Client Information Form comes to us with copy/paste nonsense from Chinese translator programs and links to sites like Big Asian Boobs. We apologize, are working hard to stop this Chinese invasion, and assure you that we answer every inquiry as promptly and fully as possible. Aside from buying new computers, we are changing our ISP (even getting broadband!) and will post our new personal email address as soon as we have it.

COMMUNICATION is key to every endeavor. When 1 Dream Getaway clients don't talk to us or are not honest with us, it is their travel that suffers. People listen to the Dali Lama not just because of who he is and what he has to say, but because he is articulate, open and speaks English. That Boeing has a problem with its landing gears and is trying to fix it is something that happens. That American airlines let thousands of their customers come to the airport only to tell them AFTER they arrive that their flights are cancelled is only spitting into the wind. We believe that the concern over Global Warming should include the warming of corporations to their customers.

Years ago when I lived in Coco, I used to laugh at the kid who ran the local Water Company (AYA) office.  When we lost water, he would go somewhere and hide, closing the office so he did not have to explain the problem to the people who pay his salary. It was funny because he is a kid, and Costa Rica is a third world country. But the employees and management of the United States airlines are NOT kids, and America is not a third world country (at least not yet). Shit happens, and when corporations have problems and work to resolve them, those problems get resolved. When they go into hiding and make communications difficult or unavailable, they go under. This is a critical period in world history, and everyone should be paying attention.

THE NEWS TRENDS ARE SCARY, as we watch US network news (Denver) report of the countless houses FOR SALE BY BANK and hear of the many homes now being sold for less-than the mortgage on them. A short while ago it seemed impossible that a Republican would move into the White House for the next term, but now the Democrats are proving they cannot even run a Primary and the world laughs at the American Democratic process, while two American states are told their votes in the Democratic Primary don't even count. One of the Super Delegates, who may wind up choosing America's next President, has resigned and may go to prison for using tax dollars to buy $5000 hookers. The military claims victory in Iraq because fewer American boys are being killed.  Of course, this is just because they are throwing money and weapons at one side of the civil war.

 American workers join the unemployment lines in droves, the dollar nosedives, while the Arabs and Chinese are growing so rapidly that they are straining word construction material supplies. 1 Dream Getaway has a client who collects loans for a number of banks, and his emails become more depressing by the day. It seems the only thing America manufactures any more is weapons and weapon delivery systems.  The big moneymen now buy companies and destroy them rather than build a better mouse trap. The Constitution and monopoly laws are totally ignored, and the brightest news is that Bush is sending everyone a check while the country sinks into impossible debt. 

As a once-proud American with many family and friends who have given their lives for their country, I suggest it is time FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE to smell the roses and take back their country. What would the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution think if they knew what is happening to their country? The decision whether to pull out of Iraq should consider the desires of the Iraqis rather than Americans or American military and political leaders...and what happened to all that Iraqi oil that was to pay for the war?

There is an unusual tree seed here that babies love.  It is also an all-natural baby rattle.  We tried to offer it as an American product, and were given such an awful list of legalities we gave it up.  How hard can it be to grind up a seed (that babies have been playing with for hundreds of years) and determine whether it has any harmful chemicals? I think Shakespeare was right: FIRST, WE KILL THE LAWYERS. Why the leader of an oil-dependant nation would declare war against the people with the oil is beyond me---but if you're going to do it, take the country and take their oil.

IN COSTA RICA, THERE IS THE LAW, and there is how the law is applied. This is why you need 1 Dream Getaway when you plan to own land in Costa Rica.

Cases in point:

    1. One day 42 armed cops showed up at Flamingo Marina (photos in our Costa Rica News Archives) and simply threw the owners/builders out.  The marina has been closed ever since with periodic talk by the Costa Rica (Santa Cruz) government of letting out a new contract to run the marina. Costa Rica cites ecological reasons, but the true result is that the charter fishing boats now have trucks of diesel and gasoline parked on the beach and stretching fuel lines out to the boats, rapidly polluting this beautiful water.

    2. One of the most popular Gringo bar/restaurants, the Happy Snapper (Portrero, Costa Rica), was bulldozed because it supposedly encroached on the Maritime Zone (200 meters from the tide line).  However, the huge Tico bar right next door remains open, and at high tide the waves actually hit the side of the building. On the other side of the (now vacant) Happy Snapper lot is another Tico bar/restaurant, where the waves can actually wet your feet while you are eating. These two Tico businesses are doing quite well without the Gringo competition.

The official story of the Costa Rica government is that they are actively patrolling the Pacific Coast, eliminating violations and returning the beaches to the people. Even if you buy-or-rent a long-standing home or business, you are not protected if someone from San Jose picks you. You not only lose your home or business, but are left with a mess and a bill for destroying it:

This beautiful beach side home destroyed by Costa Rica and photos by TAMARINDO NEWS March, 2008.

1 Dream Getaway will protect you, and organize things so you have the peaceful enjoyment of your property without worry or intervention. The difference: We work WITH Ticos, not against them. Write to info(at)1dreamgetaway.com and set up a trip to find your place in Paradise without Government intervention.

KUDOS to those protesting against China in the Olympic games.   We always promote equality and racial tolerance, but if China is allowed to replace the USA as the world's superpower, there will be no more protection for copyrights or intellectual property. We didn't see Bush rushing in to kick China out of Tibet, and if China was made to shine during this period their take-over would happen rapidly, which I'm certain was the plan.  Like Lex Luthor, China is wealthy, ambitious and intelligent, but it needs to turn its powers to good instead of evil, maybe even to learn some morals.

NEARLY HALF OF A YEAR AFTER CAFTA PASSED A NATIONAL REFERENDUM   it has become a non-item. No mention in the papers and no effect in the stores. Maybe it will be implemented on Tico Time.

FIVE LONG-TIME TAMARINDO RESIDENTS  held a rally to save Tamarindo.  they had free food and beer, and gave out bumper stickers and stickers.  People carried signs such as: LESS NATURE/LESS TOURISTS/LESS WORK, COSTA RICA: NO ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS, WE WANT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, LET'S SAVE LAS BAULAS NATIONAL PARK. When we moved here, a large factor was the proximity to Tamarindo with the beautiful beach and estuary. We often took the ten minute drive to either park our car along the estuary and play/swim all day with our dogs---or go to the beach and body surf. Now I have changed cable companies solely because I had to drive through Tamarindo once per month to pay the cable bill, and that is an absolute nightmare. The protesters want to save the trees, but I challenge you to find a tree left standing in Tamarindo. We no longer swim in either the estuary or the beach because the water is disgusting. In the meantime, Costa Rica reports a 24% annual construction growth over the last two years and is restricted only by a shortage of workers, who are now being imported from all over Central America (even Mexico, Honduras and Ecuador) and the world.

In honesty, last year Tamarindo was evacuated for a tsunami warning, and all I could think about is what a great event it would be for Costa Rica if Tamarindo were wiped out and we could start over again. Aside from Gringo greed, a large part of the problem is Costa Rica government, as one can accomplish anything with a few pesos under the table. The Flamingo Marina was taken by Santa Cruz because a new boss took office in the Municipality, and he wanted all new pay-offs.  As the marina had already paid off, they refused to pay again and lost everything.  That property is CONCESSION (land rented from Costa Rica) and they have been putting out requests for new contracts to run the marina, but after what happened everyone is gun-shy, and the Tico government has no interest in running the marina itself. In April, 2008, the Tamarindo road remains torn up, and the impossible traffic is now ridiculous.

AT THE SAME TIME, TAMARINDO GARBAGE COLLECTION IS A REAL ISSUE: Although paid garbage collection is now required in Tamarindo, the trucks drip garbage daily through the streets as they bake in hours of traffic, and the smell is horrific.  On top of that, they have no place to haul the garbage and pollution progresses to disease (such as Dengue). The Liberia land fill remains closed, and Costa Rica is arguing over a proposal to charge a $3 tax on tourists at the airport to pay for a new landfill. 1 Dream Getaway stays away from these places, and shows you the real Costa Rica. Soon rain will wash the tons of garbage in the dry river beds into the estuary and ocean. One of the biggest polluters is the Tamarindo garbage collector, who lives just before Tamarindo proper and rents half his property to a restaurant. The river bed behind is loaded with garbage.

AS GUANACASTE NOW GENERATES MORE MONEY THAN SAN JOSE, police and government officials are feeling their oats and have become the same type of assholes one normally encounters in San Jose. On a February 2nd a raid on Vista Villas (the Tamarindo Best Western), Immigration and Police raided the restaurant and hauled off 80 people in a buss, because they did not have their passports with them at the table. San Jose TV stations filmed the event, including the manhandling of a pregnant woman tourist just enjoying her lunch at her resort. This is NOT what Costa Rica is about, and could never happen to you when you travel with 1 Dream Getaway.

CORPORATE AMERICA begins April by screwing the people who pay their salaries (again). Crying about higher fuel costs, the airlines will begin gouging their customers as they arrive at the ticket counter rather than when they purchase their tickets (although the airlines have also imposed $25 to $50 fees for calling them to make reservations). As I lament that I simply cannot seem to buy anything that is not made in China, I once-again see American business chasing away its customers. The oil companies say: We can't help the rising oil prices., but they can help the extra third of a trillion dollars in profits, and Government can help the tax breaks it gives to the oil companies.

A 1 Dream Getaway client runs 800 trucks, and when I asked how he copes with the fuel prices, he laughed and explained it this way: We buy oil futures on the commodities market. When fuel costs go up, we lose at the pump and get the money back in the commodity trade. When prices go down we lose on commodities and gain at the pump.  We always know what our fuel costs are going to be. Logic would dictate that the airlines are doing the same thing. So who loses? The independent truckers can't afford to play commodities.  They have to raise their prices, and the big corporate truckers get a windfall.  The consumer gets screwed.

A typical traveler has two bags and a carry-on. Now, after carefully shopping for his ticket, he goes to the counter to get his boarding pass, and learns his second checked bag will cost him $50 to $100, and if one is over 62 inches in length, that will be another $50 to $100. My mother comes here every January for her birthday. Last year, as American Airlines was screwing its senior employees out of their pensions, I booked Mom's flight on Delta (the same people who initiated this latest rip-off). The American and Delta flights were exactly the same cost (What a coincidence!). At 83, Mom would have an easier time getting from one gate to the next in Atlanta than in Miami airport.

THEN I GOT A CALL FROM MOM: Delta had arbitrarily cancelled Mom's flight (without telling me, who purchased the tickets and had written confirmation), decided to overnight her in Atlanta, and charged $210 for a motel room. When I tried to contact Delta, ALL of Delta's email addresses had suddenly changed, and they were impossible to contact. Fortunately, we have a client with connections, and he booked Mom on the next day's Delta flight to LIR, saving us $210 and a full day in Atlanta---but it still cut a day off of our time together.

This same corrupt thinking happens here in Costa Rica, where we often hear complaints that tickets to LIR cost so much more than to SJO. The reason is that friends and family of Costa Rica's government own the businesses and hotels in San Jose, and they want to get you there.  Our clients who decide to "save money" by flying into San Jose spend hundreds more in Hotels and travel, plus lose a couple days of their vacations.

THURSDAY, MARCH 20 began the Costa Rica nightmare in 1 Dream Getaway territory. We have the mixed curses of the beginning of Semana Santa (Easter Week), where 3 million people come from  San Jose to pollute our roads and beaches along with our new telephone numbers. All  numbers now add an eighth digit.  For Cell phones you put an 8 at the beginning (so ours is: 8389-7479) and land lines have a 2 in front of them: (so ours is 2652-9017). On top of that, we are setting up new computers and communication (along with transportation) is a mess.  That is why we do not do business on Easter and Christmas weeks. The Transitos are hiding in the bushes to compound the mess.  So we stay home and hibernate. Enjoy your holidays.

IN THE HOURS I spent this morning driving a friend to work in Tamarindo---only to turn around and bring her home as she learned there was no water in Tamarindo---I had time to reflect. I returned home to see news accounts of the thousands who daily are being evicted from their homes in the US, while the banks go broke. I see this largely the result of a President for whom America voted against who invaded a sovereign nation (in the name of democracy) to avenge his father and turn America's largest budget surplus into its largest budget deficit. For the first time in history, people don't want the American dollar. I think the problem is that Americans want an identity desperately. In their millenniums of history, Europeans  know who they are and where they came from. But an American is black/white/red/yellow and traces his history to another country. Now they are the people who develop and manufacture weapons of mass destruction and criticize others for having them. My 83-year-old mother (in Florida) and the mother of my child (in Michigan) are now told their votes do not count, while one of the SUPER DELEGATES, who will elect the next President resigns so he won't go to jail. Two years earlier Americans exercised their democratic powers to radically change American government just to get the Hell out of this "war", only to have more troops sent and the conflict escalated.

As the world readies to send its youth, money and media to provide China its world status with the Olympics, the morally-bankrupt country of China will soon be the world's leader in partner with its oil supplier, Russia. Through out www.1dreamgetaway.com we speculate what will be the result of the fall of the United States for us here in Costa Rica. After today's ride through Tamarindo, with cranes reaching for the sky, it becomes obvious that Gringos are bailing and anxious to turn Costa Rica into a large, polluted ghetto (as they did in San Jose years ago).  Come and enjoy us while we last!  March, 2008 was to be the initiation of CAFTA, which passed a popular vote, but so far we see nothing resulting. Yet as the US news shows Americans evicted from their homes by the hundreds of thousands, we are thankful to be secure in our home and to be awakened each morning by our neighbors hitching their oxen and heading to work. Pura vida!

IN THE YEAR I WAS BORN, the United States created a new country. The ensuing 60 years saw that country equipped with nukes and the most sophisticated arms and training of any country apart from the US itself, and designed to protect that country from camel jockeys with sticks and stones.  Thanks to the current administration, the camels are gone, and the former jockeys now have a worldwide Media, limousines, private jets and modern technology. For every billion dollars White House workers have made on skyrocketing oil prices, the Terrorists have made 100 billion. It is no coincidence that American arms manufacturers also own American media, and we are fortunate to have the benefit of a world view here in Costa Rica.

American intelligence knew about Bin Laden, his organization and his plans before the first attempt on the World Trade Center with a car bomb. Clinton denied their request to eliminate Bin Laden, and so the story continues. Yet the Country became preoccupied with determining whether-or-not he got a blow job from someone other than his wife. After 9-11, Bush set out to revenge his father rather than attack the country which provided the money and people. Now the Saudis are pumping water, and they know the golden goose is dying. Still the invasion of an innocent country continues, and surely Iraq will be a terrorist state when the US finally leaves.

America became great by virtue of its Constitution. In my father's time that Constitution was legally amended to legislate morality, and that recognized error gave organized crime a firm foot hold. The War on Booze ended with the repeal of the Prohibition Amendment. Rather than learn its lesson, America began to negate its Constitution with "wars" like the War on Drugs, and to attack innocent farmers (in Tennessee, Afghanistan, Columbia, etc.) who could care less whether they are growing corn or poppies. Because of this war, the real "cash crop" becomes obvious, and today's organized criminals make Al Capone look like a boy scout. The problem is not the suppliers, but the users.  Yet America gives them free needles and "alternative drugs".

Some American politicians have recognized this, admitting that if someone wants to pour a gallon of gas in his ear and light a match he should be allowed to do so. Unfortunately any politician proposing legalizing drugs is laughed off the stage. The War on Drugs has as much chance of being won as the War on Booze did. But the War on Terrorism has created much more than a criminal element. It has shown the world that the US military is in fact vulnerable. It has shown the world that dollars are not in unlimited supply---and now even that they are not necessarily desirable. It has moved the world's financial center out of New York City (and probably soon to Dubai). Deficit spending has literally made a major portion of the United States' wealth foreign-owned.

Costa Rica, a tiny third-world country with no military since the formation of Israel, long-ago withdrew its signature from the bogus Alliance of Nations which invaded Iraq. And now we, who were probably the closest thing to the 51st state, are aligning with China. In 1989, the US became the only nation ever convicted of State-Sponsored Terrorism in the World Court. The US invaded Nicaragua to rid it of Ortega, who is now its President. In the 1970's, Chairman Mao attempted to take Central America by ordering the assassination of all business owners. After that, the US tried doing so by making the dollar the currency standard. With the collapsing dollar and enemies from Nicaragua to Venezuela, this reporter fears there are serious changes coming.

As to tourism, Americans are certainly welcomed (and courted) here. 1 Dream Getaway certainly does. I doubt an American can find a safer, more friendly place to travel. Yet Costa Rica's Government becomes increasingly anti-American. As a Tico can have countless appearances due to our wealth of foreign blood, racism has been non-existent here. Now San Jose is rushing to pass "anti-Gringo" laws to collect taxes exclusively from Americans, and has already stolen significant property from American ex-pats. Tranistos (our traffic cops) stand along Costa Rica's roads looking for white Gringo faces and pull those cars over to write bogus tickets. When highway traffic is light, Transitos set up outside Gringo areas with roadblocks, usually letting Tico drivers pass. I personally have received three tickets for non-working stop lights, and not one cop issuing the ticket ever saw the back of my car until I drove away (my brake lights work fine). Each day I see countless Tico trucks whose open backs are packed with workers, yet a Gringo with a passenger in the back of his pickup will have his vehicle confiscated.

I left the United States after watching a full-scale military attack on a Texas church. Should my new country become ruled by a country whose people seem obsessed with the size of their penises and willing to wipe out the world's endangered species to enhance their penises, I will again be searching for a free country in which to live out the rest of my years. Be careful, because that same country is rapidly emerging as the world's superpower.

COSTA RICA'S CONCESSION ZONES prohibit building within 50 meters of the high tide line, and prohibit land ownership within 200 meters. Those beachfront properties are rented from Costa Rica. Flamingo Marina (see our archives) was stolen from its owners/builders by the Municipality of Santa Cruz.  However now Costa Rica is upset because these Concession rights are being sold for large sums of money without being taxed, and they are working on new laws to collect taxes on them. The local Gringo watering hole in Brasilto, Happy Snapper, was bulldozed to the ground because it encroached on the concession.  However the two Tico restaurant/bars on either side are still standing and operating, although the waves lap the building at high tide.

TWO DRUNKEN TICO BROTHERS (24 & 32) have admitted beating a Shaman to death for "possessing several families".  They said his death was necessary to "clear the town".  Our Shaman is still alive and kicking, and awaiting you in our YOUR HEALTH package.

A DOLPHIN & WHALE SANCTUARY, among the first in Latin America, has become reality in Costa Rica.  In my last diving experience I was joined by about 40 whales, and it truly was exciting.

A THIRD BODY has washed up on our shores this year. We do have rip currents, and if you cannot swim you should not go in above your knees.  You should also be aware that swimming against the current is not the answer---you swim perpendicular to the current until you're out, then you head in. This one was a San Jose Tico visiting Tamarindo. Part of living free is taking personal responsibility.

OUR FAVORITE BEACH has begun to disappear.  The place where we drive up under a shade tree, take out the cooler and massage table, and romp with our dogs and play Frisbee is being replaced by a $300 million, 214 room Hyatt hotel. They truly are paving Paradise and putting up a parking lot.

LIKE MANY PLACES IN THE US (Florida, for example), Costa Rica is entertaining more tourists than is sustainable. In Quepos/Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica's government has OK'd the first private utility (PPP) to try to get enough water into that area. In 1 Dream Getaway Territory, 40 residents of Liberia protested and blocked the road for Papagayo Allegro Resort (and others) from trucking their raw sewage and dumping it in a Liberia lot. It becomes harder by the day to find the real Costa Rica among all the tourist traps, but we're still doing it.

GLOBAL WARMING seems to be affecting different parts of the world differently. 2008 is the first year we have not had our constant storm force (Papagayo) winds blowing in December, January and February. Now we are having cloudy days in February, and I'm willing to bet will have rain in this month. And just as this is written, it is raining! We NEVER get rain between November and April. But it is still a beautiful day to be outside, quite different from letters we're receiving from our friends in other parts.

IT IS TIME FOR REFLECTION:   As we say often throughout www.1dreamgetaway.com, we began this business to help the multitude of girls in Costa Rica find a real man, and often for their children to find good fathers. We've had some notable successes, and made some people very happy for the rest of their lives. However, either the content of our site has degraded or world morality is disappearing. Long ago we learned to ignore lawyers' inquiries and we deny them access to Paradise through us, as their nature is to be deceptive and their level of morality somewhere below that of a pond leach. We spend hours daily deleting Chinese emails, and they have even hacked our Client Information Form. to send us vulgar information as to how to enlarge our penis or sell Viagra and pirated manufactured goods. It is, in truth, kind of scary that this degenerate race is rapidly becoming the world's next superpower. We've also become disheartened to learn that there are whores who want nothing more from their lives than to be career whores, and clients (or potential clients) who think they will find happiness with them. What could either of them possibly expect when they reach my age (60)?

The US has whores, booze, drugs and gambling, and we really never thought people would want to go trough the expense and hassle to come here for what they could find in their Yellow Pages.   We don't even have Yellow Pages here. But then look at Tamarindo. At times we succumb to temptation  and speak ill of Ticos, whose shortcomings are due to a lack of parental upbringing and education. But the Chinese we hear from make Ticos look like PHD saints, and now we are receiving letters from Gringos demonstrating the same level of irresponsibility. We don't follow our "competition" , nor do we have any interest in a bidding war over a Dominican prostitute. Please don't waste your time---or ours! From our window, it appears the human population (men and women) has lost its self-respect.  What a truly sad observation! Perhaps some day Global Warming will solve it.

PS: If any of our readers knows a certain way to get this Chinese spam software (the emails come from numerous made-up names) off of our computer or block them, we sure would appreciate hearing from you.

HERE'S ANOTHER OPTION FOR SHOPPING AIRFARE:

sun-country-airlines-SY.html   and:   http://www.discountairlines1.com/reference/south-america.html

Remember to book into Liberia (LIR), Costa Rica---NOT SJO!

THIS FROM A CLIENT, which I read after returning from the beach: Good morning Alan, what a day...tried starting my car...no go, too cold.  Tried to plug in my block heater....the plug snapped...Started to shovel the drive way the shovel snapped....Decided to go back to bed. Life does not have to be that way. Write to info(at)1dreamgetaway.com , and change yours for the better.

BANKING is an enigma in Costa Rica, and so we wanted to share our experiences to provide some local knowledge to those planning on establishing themselves here. Banco Nacional is run by Costa Rica and gives the best (and most) service. For that reason, it is always crowded.  To get to a teller, you walk in, take a number, and wait.  Sometimes the numbers are color-coded---the color indicting what day is your appointment with the teller. There are also banks who deal exclusively with MasterCard and some exclusively with Visa. As of late, we find the cash machines fairly reliable. As we do not get bills in the mail, we just have to know when to go where in order to ask for and pay our bills. However you can pay your phone bill via internet (and in some places you can also pay water and electricity bills online). Where we are, the local "pulparia" receives our town's electric bills once a month by bus and we must go there on the 20th of every month to pay.  We can pay online or at a bank, but if we do not go to the pulparia and take our receipt, our electricity will be cut off, as unpaid receipts are collected by ICE at our local pulparia and given to the guys who cut power to deadbeats. So if we pay our electric bill elsewhere, we have to bring a copy of the paid receipt to the local pulparia. For that reason we just pay at the pulparia. With the recent onslaught of modern supermarkets and local stores with contracts to collect utility bills, do not get lulled into a false sense of security that your utilities will not be cut for non-payment just because you paid them.

As we have waited days just to get to a teller at Banco Nacional, we opened an account at Banco Cuscutlan, which is closer and has no lines. HOWEVER, Cuscutlan takes as long to process one person at the teller as Banco Nacional takes for twenty people. After we opened our account, we were told we could not deposit checks in our account. We are also denied changing the password on our debit card, and Cuscutlan changed our password on our Banking webpage (they do that here every three months), and has yet to tell us what our new password is after numerous emails and visits to the bank. Yesterday I went to a teller at Cuscutlan and asked what the balance is on our account, and he said he could not tell me.I cannot find out online, as Cusctlan will not tell me our new password. Our point is that local knowledge is hard fought and difficult to gain.  Take advantage of it and ask around before opening a Costa Rica bank account. The situations and advice you will receive will vary depending upon where you are. Keep in mind that independent thinking, logic, work ethic and responsibility are not Tico qualities.

WHEN I CAME TO COSTA RICA, 200 colones bought a dollar. By 2007 is was up over c500, and dependably rose every month.  As America's economy circles the drain, the trend is reversing and the colon has gone up in value to c493/$. We've been waiting to see what effect America's recession will have on us here, but the newspapers are telling us not to worry, so we won't. 1 Dream Getaway's prices have not changed. CAFTA is supposed to take effect in March, and it will be interesting to see what effect that has on us. Hopefully a favorable one. On her January visit, my mother was impressed with the host of new stores and plazas that have sprung up since her visit last year---but shocked by the prices.  Paradise awaits you, and we handle the hassles so you can just enjoy it!

HERE IS A FREE SUPER DISCOUNT FROM 1 DREAM GETAWAY:  It is also an explanation as to why we are in business. The house in the following photo is where you can buy your drugs directly from the supplier, rather than pay the high prices of the Tamarindo dealers. You also may pick up your own companion, and only have to pay for her booze and drugs.

To get there, you follow the signs along the road from Huacas to Tamarindo for Lomas de Santa Rosa, and make a left. The road climbs a hill, and at the very top is a giant Guanacaste tree. This house is behind that tree.

Costa Rica has a welfare program called "bono". If you are a single woman with children and can buy a lot, Costa Rica will build a house for you free of charge.  The only stipulation is that you cannot sell or rent it.  This is such a house.  The owner, Anna, has a 15-year-old daughter, who she put out on the street as a hooker, and a 9-year-old boy. We are currently treating her abused dog, who ran away from home. As I work with a dog clinic, we went over with hundreds of dollars worth of medications for mange, but Martha apparently sold them---so there are probably Tamarindo tourists now shooting up with Mange medicine:  In searching this dog's history, because he did not respond to typical treatment, we learned that he was truly a party animal. His Tico owner raised him on cocaine and loved to show off his stupor to his friends.  This is why Latinas do not seek Ticos.

  This is the Costa Rica you do not want to see, and that 1 Dream Getaway will never show you. We publish this without fear, as the authorities are well-aware of what we say and show here, and are also well-compensated.: Martha has visitors 24 hours per day, and they all wear back-packs. She also babysits other small children, who are getting more education than Costa Rica public schools will ever give them. 1 Dream Getaway shows you what Costa Rica should be, and used to be.

You should also be aware that under Costa Rica law, if a girl claims she is pregnant with your baby, your passport will be taken from you and your vacation will be extended 6 weeks until blood tests come back from Miami. If the blood tests show that she was telling the truth, your passport will be returned once you have given enough money to provide for the baby until he is 18 years old. This is something else that cannot happen when you travel with 1 Dream Getaway.

Anna is an alcoholic who works in various Tamarindo bars, and if you have come on your own you may know her (maybe her daughter too). She is now pregnant, and living with her boyfriend. A year ago she rented (illegally) her bono house to drug dealers. The father of the two little children of Martha (the renter) was an obnoxious, loud-mouthed, pony-tailed typical Tico drug dealer covered with tattoos and on whom we have never seen a shirt.  As we live next door, we have spent countless sleepless nights listening to the parade of drunk clients and public buses delivering the drugs to the distribution point;. One morning about two months ago he jumped on his motorcycle, all hopped up on drugs, and drove into a truck coming down our street.  Martha is now available.

This article is inspired by a vendor, who came to our home today as I was washing my car. He was selling junk to "rid Tamarindo of drugs". I pointed to the house and said: How about cleaning up that place?" and he responded that the dealers had the Tamarindo police on the payroll, and so they could do nothing. He continued by saying that was where he bought his drugs until he got "clean". So if you do not wish to pay 1 Dream Getaway prices for a nice resort with a genuine woman, you can find Martha (or her daughter) and spend your entire vacation in ecstasy (although you likely won't remember it when you get home.). As luck would have it, a customer came while writing this, and we took this photo so you can see Martha and the conditions in which two little tots live:...

IT HARDLY SEEMS POSSIBLE, but Tamarindo has actually gotten worse. They are tearing up the cobblestone road, and the normal standstill of busses, trucks and taxis has actually multiplied.  Because of the crap in their water (drinking and beach) Costa Rica has cancelled plans to run an aqueduct from Arenal to Tamarindo, in fear that the entire waterway will become polluted. Bulldozers and Immigration are plowing down illegal buildings and deporting illegals (don't worry, the thieves and drug dealers are safe) but the bars, stores, realtors and supers are still selling the most expensive items anywhere in Costa Rica.  They do have a new police department, so now at least there is a likelihood that you can get a theft report to give to your insurance company when you get home.

A CLIENT  HAS SHARED A GREAT SITE FOR US SQUAREHEADS (Scandinavians) with really great flight fares to Liberia from the cold country of the US.  Here it is:  

http://www.worryfreevacations.com/

I enjoyed his comment that: Tomorrow it will warm up 60 degrees, but still be below freezing. Thanks Larry. (He's in Minnesota)

As reported in Costa Rica News archives, Tamarindo has long been known for drugs, whores, crime, disease and filth.  The Residents' Association made arrangements to run an aqueduct from Arenal to give them clean water.  AYA (the Costa Rican water company) has now denied them the aqueduct in fear of Tamarindo polluting the aqueduct.  As one must drink shit (literally) when opening the tap in his $million condo, he must swim in the same when going to the beach. Our President, Oscar Arias, got in trouble for publicly stating that Quepos and Tamarindo are "lost", but he was right. Although Costa Rica's streets have no names, Tamarindo has one called Dengue Ally because its garbage collects water and becomes a breeding ground for the Dengue mosquito. We recommend that tourists avoid Tamarindo as well as Coco Beach.  We do not know anyone who has not had Dengue in Coco, and thievery is rampant.

OUR CANADIAN CLIENTS now have their own terminal at LIR.  Skyservice flies from numerous Canadian cities directly to LIR on Thursdays, and can be booked through Signature Vacations at 667-0923 (note: this is a Liberia phone number, so dial 011-506 first.  They speak English. Or you can write to us at info(at)1dreamgetaway.com. .

UNTIL 1994, Costa Rica had 6-digit phone numbers. As of March 12, 2008 we will have 8-digit phone numbers. Existing landlines will add the digit 2 to the beginning, and existing cell phones will add the digit 8. So at the stroke of midnight on March 12, our office number will be: (011 506) 2652-9017, and our cell number will be: (011 506) 8389-7479.

2008 begins with the most beautiful weather imaginable, all resorts full, and condos, condos, condos reaching for the sky.  The trade winds have brought cooler water to the beaches, and fishing is great. 1 Dream Getaway is hiding out and waiting for things to open up and settle down. They are paving Paradise and putting up a parking lot, but we can still show you the real Costa Rica.  Our most popular resort, HPH, will close for extensive remodeling in April, so get your reservations in soon.  AND DON'T FORGET OUR MAY BIRTHDAY PARTY.  Write to info(at)1dreamgetaway.com to reserve your spot. The wars go on-and-on-and-on, but we have no army---just friendly people, gorgeous beaches, volcanoes, horses, ox carts and beautiful women.

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CLICK HERE TO SHARE OUR MAY, 2007 BIRTHDAY PARTY

Costa Rica May 2008 Birthday Party photos are here!

As two of our guests were born in July, we're opening the May 2009 Party NOW!

You don't have to wait until 2009, and it doesn't have to be in May.

It's PARTY TIME when 3 to 7 people sign up and give us a date!

$2500 for a week in an ocean view mansion with companion.

You get the people, we set it up.  Write info(at)1dreamgetaway.com

for the birthday party of your life!

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