A dramatic sunset lights up the sea and sky at Playa Guiones
A series of moments captured by New York data scientist and friend of the Harmony Hotel, Burton DeWilde, during a week spent in Nosara with his boyfriend Nick.
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Guiones Surf Photo of the Week
The Empty Wave as Icon, Totem, Object of Desire. A Force to both Thrill and Fear. Could You? Would You? Where are the Others? Sleeping In? Sitting Outside? Each person, with a singular approach… Worthy through effort, regardless of outcome.
photo provided by Surfing Nosara
“When New Flowers Bloomed”
Carmen Naranjo‘s stories both open and close Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. The final story in the collection, “When New Flowers Bloomed,” was originally published in When New Flowers Bloomed: Short Stories by Women Writers from Costa Rica and Panama (1991). With Naranjo’s beautiful nature imagery and powerful storytelling, it is not surprising that the story was the inspiration for the title of that collection.
Naranjo writes about “A town with eucalyptus, orange trees, cypresses, manzanas de agua, dusty streets, orchards, chayote fields, happy shouts from everyone meeting and greeting one another with joy, chattiness, toads, yigüirros, and a sky convulsed with clouds.” In this town, the time when the new flowers bloom is the time when “the town almost became a village,” and the comings and goings of people brings Eugenia María de los Angeles Rivera Mancilla, whose name precedes her, and José Luis Villacencio, “at your service.” As these two become a couple, strange things begin to happen in the town, until the flowers disappear.
Photo Credit: Michael Castielli / Wikimedia Commons
Source: Ras, Barbara, ed. Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. San Francisco: Whereabouts, 1994.
Detox Holiday Toys
You’re making your list and checking it twice, but do you know what’s in those holidays toys you’re buying? In 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act was passed to regulate lead and phthalates in toys and infant products after a public scare related to those made primarily in China. But it seems like each year another batch of tainted imported holiday toys is discovered in the United States.
If plastic holiday toys are on your Secret Santa list, find out what type of plastic you’re buying by looking for a “chasing arrow” symbol on the bottom of the toy; avoid the numbers 1 (PET), 3 (PVC) and 6 (Styrofoam) and look for those marked “BPA-free.”
In 2012, Hasbro commited to eliminating PVC from toy and game packaging beginning in 2013 and announced that they had already started phasing out PVC from packaging; BPA was voluntarily eliminated from their products in 2011.
There are also amazing sustainable toy manufacturers like Green Toys, which takes plastic water bottles and transforms them into things like a make-your-own pizza puzzle. Order up!
Guiones Surf Photo of the Week
We surfers are often so focused on waves, that seeing a bigger picture can elude us. But once cured of our myopia, we embrace the larger context, often celebrating the overall spectacle and beauty of where land meets sea. Here, ghosting rain tails along the low tide beach, transforming the seemingly mundane surf zone into ethereal elegance.
photo provided by Surfing Nosara
Get Salty
Are you still cooking with chemicals? So-called “table salt” is rock or ocean salt that’s mined, heat blasted, chemically treated and fortified with iodine until it’s devoid of all essential minerals and nutrients.
For better taste and health, look for organic, artisan salts, like those from the Himalayas, which are packed with trace elements and minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper and iron. Straight from the nose-bleeding altitudes of the world’s highest peaks, the 250-million-year-old salt has been used for centuries as a folk remedy for a plethora of health issues including stimulating circulation, lowering blood pressure and removing toxins such as heavy metals from the body.
But most importantly, it makes food taste better.
Guiones Surf Photo of the Week
Reduce wave riding to its essence ! Minimalist, Purist, Luddite- call him what you will, but less is more sometimes. The Body, without the tech, for sheer Joy and Thrill…
photo provided by Surfing Nosara
Carmen Naranjo
Like Pastor in Carmen Lyra’s “Pastor’s Ten Little Old Men,” don Fulminante, also known as the Fulminating Fib, is a storyteller. Carmen Naranjo’s tale about this character, “Believe it or Not,” is the opening story in Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. Don Fulminante, who tells his stories in La Fortuna, begins each tale with, “You’ll never believe this…”
From his story about killing a guan, three rabbits, a deer, and eight fish with one shot to his story about how he earned the nickname “Lord of the Frogs,” don Fulminante brings happiness to his community with his storytelling:
…when a lie is an obvious exaggeration, it’s as welcome as fresh fruit on a hot day. It spreads happiness, and that acknowledges what great tales don Fulminante told us. He would repeat old favorites without sparing any details or expressions.
Carmen Naranjo, of course, is a storyteller herself. She is the author of many books of poetry and fiction, including There Never Was a Once Upon a Time. Her stories can be found in Latin American anthologies And We Sold the Rain, When New Flowers Bloomed, Short Stories by Latin American Women: The Magic and the Real, and Women’s Fiction from Latin America.
Photo Credit: Benjamin Keen / CC by SA-3.0
Source: Ras, Barbara, ed. Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion. San Francisco: Whereabouts, 1994.
