The following was written by the Naturalist/Conservationist Henry Kantrowitz, who resides in Costa Rica.There are many who preach about “saving whales, polar bears and flying, ten-toed Hornswoggles".However, discovering a person who not only advances his Eco-philosophy with extreme knowledge but lives his life completely within the Earth-Truths he expounds, deserves recognition.
Mankind’s Divine role as the Earth’s Caretaker infuses Henry’s soul, although he would not describe it as such.Here is an example of a Man of Nature who, inspired by what he sees all around him, creates prose as breathtaking as the sounds of thunder and searing as bolts of lightning during a Tropical Costa Rican deluge.
"Ancient Mother Earth, We don't own her, we are a part of her. Her pulse can be watched as the waves approach the shore. Each wave is a sign she is still alive. We see the beauty in her life blood which is precious to her and to us. Water keeps us both alive. After all she is called the water planet. Her arteries keep flowing over much of her body. We need them as much as she does. Without her arteries (our rivers) we can't continue nor can she.
As she continues to develop she needs to stretch and exercise her tremendous muscles frequently. We get scared but she really isn't purposely trying to hurt us with her tremors. She needs to do this to grow and change, just like we need to grow and change as we get older and hopefully more evolved. I think she is trying to tell us we need to grow and change with her not conquer her. We take her for granted and think she is stronger than she really appears. She seems to have survived every crisis so far. She has adapted well for her age and continues to go strong, or is she? I have noticed over time her health is degenerating. Her arteries are getting more and more clogged; So clogged, that we can't drink her life giving blood without a purifier.
She has become clogged in every one of her major arteries throughout her body, with huge formations of cholesterol and plaque (our garbage and pollutants). Her massive lungs, our forests, are being reduced at a phenomenal rate and are taking on so much work that she has a hard time breathing, as so do we in our cities. Her cilia hairs (forest trees) are being cut down and are dying from air pollution.
Mother Earth has yet another problem; she has a fever that is on the slow rise. This too is an indicator that she is not feeling so well. Her cooling system is beginning to deteriorate. Huge chunks of her structure are breaking off and melting away. Even her aura ( the ozone layer) comes and goes in some areas. We now witness huge gaps of her aura causing large parts of her immune system to break apart. As a result excessive ultra violet light waves penetrate our system which injures our fellow inhabitants (plants and animals) and our own skin and eyes as well. we need to learn not to cause such problems in the first place.
Mother Earth has taken care of us since our beginning. Now that we have grown up, shouldn't we take some responsibility and take care of her? Here are several life changes that can help save her and us, so we can all live happily ever after. Conserve her life blood (water) don't waste it or pollute it, use biodegradable detergents and cleaners.
Practice the Three R's, Recycle, Buy Returnable bottles, Reuse plastic water bottles and resealable plastic bags Don't buy products overly wrapped with plastic and/or Styrofoam. Don't use aluminum wrap. Much aluminum is mined in the tropics and causes catastrophic pollution in the rivers that flow through the rain forests.
Mother Nature would prefer if you would eat organic foods and drink shade grown/organic coffee to keep her arteries clean from pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilizers. You and I will be healthier and so will she. Help stop air pollution, get out and walk or bicycle instead of hopping in your pollution producing car, it's good for Mother Nature and the air you breath too.
We all need to take responsibility to care for Mother Nature and to pass on her good health to the next generation. Place this letter on your refrigerator, which I hope is energy efficient, to remind you daily how you can make a difference."
Henry Kantrowitz Interpretive Naturalist Conservationist
Veteran Hollywood comedienne Joan Rivers, returning to the U.S. from a New Year’s family holiday, was prevented from boarding a Continental Airlines flight in Costa Rica this week due to the name on her ticket not matching her passport.
A combination of human errors and the sudden increase in airport security, due to the Christmas day “exploding underpants”-terrorist’s failed attempt to blow up Delta/KLM flight 253 were the reasons for her problems. The entertainer’s name appeared as Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers on her passport but her boarding pass had been mistakenly typed as Joseph Rivers.
FAMILY FUN IN COSTA RICA
This discrepancy was not challenged at multiple checkpoints until the last one, as Rivers was about to board the plane.By the time everything was sorted out, she had missed her flight and was stuck in the middle of Central America, alone, 76 years old, little money, speaking zero Spanish but wearing her lucky Manolo Blahnik Campari $645 designer shoes (which would have been luckier had they contained $645).
$645 TRAVELING SHOES FOR COSTA RICA
Fortunately for Joan Rivers, she would be spending an additional night in one of the most friendly, caring, beautiful countries in the world (even though she said she felt like she was being held captive).What then happened to poor Joan is what always happens here in the land of Pura Vida, especially when a woman or an elderly person is in trouble---she was rescued by local citizens who don’t think twice about helping a person in need.
This time her first rescuer was the porter who was pushing her luggage cart. Rivers remembers the porter’s name as Elton, who gave some great advise, arranged for a car to take her from Liberia to San Jose airport, a 6 ½ hour drive in the night, where she was able to book a hotel room and get on another Continental flight back to New York the next morning.
Of course, Rivers was outraged and vented on the Larry King Show but she doesn’t yet realize how fortunate she really was.Many tourists who come to visit Costa Rica show up thinking that the same rules, actions and attitudes they’ve used successfully in their home countries will be applicable here.
OUTRAGED
To those future Costa Rica visitors; 1st, do the research.Use the internet to get real time information and email or Tweet or Facebook people who live where you will be going.Read travel books.
2nd, Hire a local bilingual helper when you first arrive.Most will go out of their way to help and guide you.One of the best ways to find a good guide is to inquire at your hotel.The small amount of money spent on this person will be more than worth it, especially if it’s your first time “in country”.
3rd, Have back up supplies and plans.Keep your I-phone or laptop fully charged—WiFi signals or internet cafes are almost everywhere.Many U.S. cell phones however still do not function in Costa Rica.Save and hide some money and your ATM/credit card; U.S. dollars in small denominations---not $50, not $100 bills, not traveler’s checks, in case you get bumped off or miss your flight.
OUTRAGED
Buy snacks and water after you pass the final security checkpoint in case your plane gets held up on the runway for any reason. (This food/water situation may be changing so keep repeating #1) Missing a flight is more likely to happen now with the increased, longer security checks.
4th, Stay together.If you’re in a group, stay together as much as possible. Electronic communication can be impossible in many parts of Costa Rica so have contingency plans to meet or leave written messages at specific locations; even an email message plan will work in city areas.
5th, Do not rent a car and drive yourself, especially at night.Use the reasonably priced, professional, local drivers.This piece of advice is based on a lot of sad stories from capable, excellent, competent, super drivers from the United States who just didn’t understand what could happen to their rental vehicle or themselves.
Joan Rivers obviously has led a well pampered life in New York City where everyone knows her and treats her with reverence and respect.She has traveled internationally before, apparently with no problems.
http://tv.gawker.com/5441125/ (Larry King Interview) Everyone surrounding her on her voyages to “Russia, Nepal, China, Japan, Korea and everywhere else I’ve been” made sure she was treated well.Here in Costa Rica, Rules 1-4 were not adhered to by JR.She failed to do enough research about Costa Rica since she violated some major rules.
OUTRAGED
She failed to have back up plans and back up money and a back up bilingual contact person; just in case.She failed (or her family and friends failed) to stay together in a group, leaving her totally by herself.This situation may have been unavoidable but being alone in a foreign country is never recommended, no matter how much your shoes cost or how famous you are.
There are other rules and traveler’s tips that are out there which can make your Costa Rica visit even better than it will be.Email us at
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or go to http://www.jacosun.com/ (and type in TIPS in the search box) or use comments at; http://jacosunblog.blogspot.com/.
Here’s a video of an extreme reaction to a missed flight that failed to change or improve the situation; (ALMOST GUARANTEED THAT HER SHOES DID NOT COST $645). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3E-PAPiuyE
Good news---if you bring your laptop computer to JacóBeach, the airport security guards won’t shoot it full of holes!An increasing number of Costa Rica visitors bring their computers along during their vacations, finding WiFi signals abundant in most population centers.
Airport security here is used to seeing them and properly inspects the electronic devices with nary a shot fired, so far.Israeli security however, being the world’s most strict (for good reason), has decided that there are some laptops that pose elevated security risks.
It appears that the well known “Apple Snooty Attitude” was detected by a well trained Israeli border agent and a Red Alert was immediately issued.Of course, this dangerous and annoying breach of security has yet to be found emanating from PC machines carried by “commoners”.
Sadly, an American student, Lily Sussman, had to identify her suddenly lighter, bullet hole-ridden, see through Mac after a one sided “laptop shootout” broke out as she was crossing into Taba, Israel from Egypt.After 2 hours of questions and inspections of everything in her possession, the border guards made the decision that Lily Sussman’s Apple Macbook must die.
For reasons known only to the security detail, it was decided that 3 rounds strategically placed would accomplish the cruel task.We have learned that the Macbook was unable to return fire (being unarmed), and died almost instantly; further bloodshed was therefore avoided.
Fortunately for Lily, it appears that she may be reimbursed for the Mac but the cost of the funeral and her pain and suffering will not be.
SHOT TOUGHBOOK
This tragic incident further damages Apple’s image as a well made computer since the whole world now realizes what a poor bullet proof shield their little computer actually is.If Apple were to enter the armored laptop marketplace, they would do well to emulate the Panasonic Toughbook, which in March of 2009 took a fatal round to its heart, saving the life of a U.S. soldier from the 82nd Airborne Division serving in Iraq.
Editor’s note—after reading an entry in Lily’s blog http://lilysussman.wordpress.com/ where she agrees with a comment from a reader that every day the Israeli military shoots unarmed people, including children, it would seem to give a bit more “perspective” about this entire incident.Here is the actual quote;
“First, I completely agree with Freitas’s comment. ‘These guys shoot every day at unarmed people, even children. Why so much surprise about a simple laptop?’ ”
OK then---after rereading some of Lily’s details about her 2 hour “interview” with the border guards who found an anti-Israel photo in her camera that she forgot to erase and that she left her bag unattended as per the guards’ instructions and a link on her blog to an anti-Israel story about the terrible conditions for children in Gaza…we are seeing a little better through the smoke that often arises from one side of a recounted story.Wouldn’t be surprised if the border guards became a little ornery after the 2 hour discussion with Lily and just decided to take a 10 minute break for some recreational target practice.
Crime in Costa Rica, statistically speaking, is mostly theft.
In fact, based on anemic laws and penalties for theft, it has been accepted as a cultural norm.
The winds of change may be about to shift however, if some of the stories we read in the local newspapers are any indication.
For instance this story, which appeared in El Diario along with the photo taken by a local truck driver named Michael Chacon, documents a defeated and humiliated "alleged" thief who was pounced upon by neighbors, stripped naked (except for his “pulserilla” [watch] and socks), and “held” for police to arrive after he stole a little girl’s cell phone.
The thief doesn’t appear to have been physically beaten by the locals and doesn’t appear to want to run away.This method of “humiliation” as a means of deterring petty criminals may be something to more seriously consider, since it has been successfully used in the past in many parts of the world.
THE WAY IT WAS
The use of wooden stocks, where criminals were publicly punished with humility and embarrassment, usually in the town square, had its day and perhaps should be resurrected again.
Who knows, maybe it would have an educational effect for perpetrators of even more serious crimes; we should at least give it a try.
Meet Hanna Gabriel, the best professional woman boxer in Costa Rica---and the only woman boxer in Costa Rica.
That fact does not, however mean that Gabriel is a mediocre fighter.Her nickname is “Bombardera Tica”, (the “Tica Bomber”) and is currently ranked as the world’s number 8 Junior Middleweight female boxer.
A converted track and field athlete, Gabriel fights at the 154 pound level but has the look of a much bigger fighter.
If you’ve ever watched women boxers, many look like “women boxers”---not Gabriel.Hanna Gabriel’s dedication to training and good genetics has contributed to her becoming so muscular (without steroids), that she sometimes “psyches” out her opponents before they even step into the ring.
Because of being a woman boxer in a country with very conservative ideas about the roles of women in sports and also having the unique, powerfully built body, Gabriel has had to deal with insults and altercations outside the ring.
Also, living in Costa Rica is a big handicap for a world class boxer since the better skilled opponents are not here.
She has already earned the Latin American Championship belt, sanctioned by the World Boxing Association, but Hanna Gabriel’s goal is a world title within 15 months.
If she receives additional recognition and sponsorship she may have a legitimate shot.She keeps her family close to her for support; with her father Leslie acting as her manager.
She is a “scary” 25 year old talent with only 2 small sponsors at present.One is a local pizza company called Oter’s Pizza and the other is the EbonyCommunity Center.
The word needs to get out that a world class boxer trains and resides here in Costa Rica.
She actually would be a savvy promoter’s dream, since she has the chameleon-like ability to transform herself from a powerful knockout-delivering fighting machine into an exotic lens-loving beauty.
We believe Gabriel will eventually catch the eye of some multinational company’s advertising department and then the rest of the world will know Hanna Gabriel.
People 
The following was written by the Naturalist/Conservationist Henry Kantrowitz, who resides in 
Meet Hanna Gabriel, the best professional woman boxer in 
If you’ve ever watched women boxers, many look like “women boxers”---not Gabriel.
