merrry Christmas, and happy football playoffs (and new year)

This was a pretty sweet Christmas. Last year Otis was only 9 months old and a bit too young to get the concept of Santa and snowmen and reindeer and presents and tons of food that isn't necessarily good for you but sure tastes great. This year was different, and grandma and grandpa spoiled Otis with so many presents, it was overwhelming. We ate way too much, which I'm sure is the same story with most people I know. Santa was feeling good and gave us Charger fans a solid win over the Broncos on Christmas Eve... now if we win on Sunday in Oakland we're the third seed in the playoffs, which is a good thing. I'm still holding tight to my vision that the Chargers meet the Patriots in the AFC Championship and that we return the favor dealt to us in last year's playoffs. Mr Patrick McNulty, this means I'm calling you up 30 seconds after the game and telling you to go to hell, as I still remember that phone call right after our loss in the first round of the post-season. If there is a team that can break the Patriot's perfect season, its SD... perhaps I'm speaking out of my ass but I'm keeping the faith. I'm really happy the holiday madness has been settling down, at least here in SD. In Tamarindo its just craziness. I was watching the web cam the day after Christmas and literally saw barrel after barrel reeling across the sandbar in front of WRSC. People were getting tubed like mad. I guess that web cam is good and bad at the same time, as you get to see what you're missing but sometimes you're missing perfection. The winds were howling offshore and the beach was filled with people on vacation, which is quite opposite from my freezing house. I guess I shouldn't complain, I'm always there and when I'm not I'm there in my head. I know I mentioned the new beach bar that I was building on the WRSC property next to the parking lot, I've included some photos. As I said before, this project is being built 100% sustainable.
I'm using earth bags for the core material of the walls. This means that I'm using material found on-site and am not having to transport concrete block or other materials from some factory 5 hours away. This cuts down on emissions in a big way. Plus, building with earth is an age-old method that has been used for thousands of years. It was good then, its good now. The roof of the bar is built 100% from palm frawns. There is a special way that palm frawns need to be tied in order to not let rain pass through. This is similar to how we built the rancho tables in the WRSC restaurant. I found an old builder from the town of Jicaral named Cooper who has been building with palm for most of his life. We brought him up to oversee that we were doing things right. I really like using the experience of the locals and getting back to the basics of how things need to be done. It makes you realize that you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
The columns and roof structure are all built out of reforested teak and other local woods. Costa Rica has tons of teak farms and plenty of awesome wood that can be used, that doesn't deplete natural resources. Its important to understand the difference. Mountain Almond, for example, is a great wood that lasts for decades, but it is rare and now illegal to build with. Some builders still offer this wood but shouldn't. The beach bar, to be named the Sand Bar, will be Tamarindo's first 100% sustainable beach bar. I built it next to one of town's main storm drains and hope to use the construction of the bar as a means to education sustainable development and methods that ordinary folks can undertake to reduce their carbon footprint. I'm currently looking for solar panels to power the bar as well as gas refrigeration units to keep the beers and sodas nice and cold. Please feel free to come by and check it out, the bar should be open in the next couple of weeks (this could mean a couple of months when talking about tico time, but my fingers are crossed). Feel free to park in the parking lot and walk through the WRSC gardens if you want to chill in the bar or restaurant or for your surf lesson etc. I'm glad I undertook this project as it is a great way to become more accustomed to building with earth bags. This is the core material I plan to use for the construction of the Zephyr Eco Resort project that I'm very much involved in in Alemania. I visited the finca the weekend before returning to SD, here I am with Larry and my friend Chris Hickman on horses (check out the ghetto Gallo Mas Gallo hat, gotta love it).
After this last rainy season's torrential rains, the roads are in need of slight repair. We spent the day on horses instead, and it was great. I'm getting ready to invest in a tractor, a backhoe, and a dump truck, which is really funny to me because I remember being Otis' age and having these trucks as toys. Otis actually has a toy tractor and dump truck that he was playing with this morning. If you don't know, I'm building an eco resort that is built 100% sustainable and produces its own energy. I have a project manager named Eduardo, a really mellow guy who is an experienced builder from San Jose and very much interested in furthering this project. We have a team of guys on the finca right now marking out property lines, planting seeds of local plants and trees, and building a nice footpath along the river that bisects the entire finca. It was kind of difficult managing this project over the last two years (I started it in March 2006) but now that I've got Eduardo involved things have gotten much easier. I also have my friend Larry McKinney (dancin' Larry) who is going to be spending most of his time in Tamarindo/Alemania taking interested parties to the property to educate them on what I'm working on. I think that sustainable development is a must for the world, and what better place than Costa Rica? I'll continue to update you all on this project as things progress, which they are now doing at an exponential rate. pura vida- joe