Beautiful Beach at Santa Theresa (Malpais), Costa Rica

It’s great to be on the road again. I haven’t been to a new place in a while, especially a beach, so it was refreshing to arrive here in Malpais and Santa Theresa from San Jose and before that Turrialba, Costa Rica two days ago. It is pretty far out there and removed from the rest of Costa Rica both physically and in vibrational level. From what I understand it is a recent phenomena in the sense of becoming popular and getting bigger, more tourists, etc.

This of course is no phenomena at all in the sense that newly discovered beach towns which expand have been going on for ages. I find this one to be a pretty refreshing one in the sense that it hasn’t been really built out too much yet. What seems most amazing is that there appears to be virtually no construction right on the beach so, no beach bars, no hotels, etc. right there. This is kind of great and kind of not so great in the sense that it’s pretty pristine, but it’s hard to have the creature comforts that I sometimes like to indulge in. There are two exceptions, however, to this: Day + Night and another restaurant way down in Santa Theresa that apparently has been there for ten years.

What I find interesting is how there’s nobody building there on the beach, just a couple of places. I have heard that the coastal commission (or Costa rica) s strong and prevents it. What I can’t help but notice when I compare it to scenes in Goa, India or Ko Phan Gang, Thailand or Tulum, Mexico is that there doesn’t really seem to be the locals there and the sort of homegrown little businesses and families making a living off of the beach who had been there always. What seems to have happened is that the land all over the world has been so massively commodified, restricted and legalized for the corporations and rich. The current crisis seems to have confirmed this. The results are higher prices for the tourists and the locals don’t make that much. Most the people making money here seem to be a lot of Americans, Israelis and Europeans. This scene will continue to blow up, but the complete privatization of the world seems to continue at the price of humanity and society causing distinctions and a separation from oneself to the other.

It’s a beautiful place to visit, come and help make it the next Playa del Carmen, there’s always the next beach up the way (unfortunately it’s most likely now owned by a bank, an investor, a rich person) so the barbed wire might be surrounding it. Nothing against the rich, but the institutions are getting to strong in domination of every aspect of our realities these days.

http://icehousedetroit.blogspot.com

I like seeing the artwork of my fellow Americans check out what they are up to in Detroit.

Artist Doing Their Best in Hard Times

Health Insurance Rates Skyrocket in California 39%

I am a healthy adult, vegetarian, etc, etc. I had health insurance for about four years. From that time about 2005 to 2009 my premiums went up from about $111 to $267. From what I was reading in the above article they would be most likely $390 by now. This is and was outrageous. When I found out my wife was pregnant (and she was visiting from another country), I realized that it was going to be virtually impossible to get health insurance or pay for the birth simply in a hospital.

We determined that it was going to be best to do it in Costa Rica instead, and from what I am reading I am so glad for that decision. In Costa Rica when you go to a private hospital to give birth, you get a detailed list of the prices and what they cover IN ADVANCE. I first experienced that in Thailand almost 20 years ago when I had to go to the hospital there. They gave you a list: One price for private room, another for shared with one person, and a cheaper for a group room. Pretty straight forward. Why can’t this be done in America?

Our cars when they are sick have more rights then their owners. The mechanic has to give you a signed quote in order to “operate” on them.

Most countries in the world you can ask in advance what the price is going to be, and then make an informed decision, this more than anything so that people can comparison shop instead of the hoping insurance might cover it, is what needs to happen for true insurance.

Price control must be done as well that is the only way that we are going to move forward on this (oops, did I say a dirty word?).

This has been a big year for me. Aside from the birth of my first daughter (ok technically within the past year), I finally decided to give up my PC habit. It was hard. I loved my PC so much. In fact, I think I was practically the only person in Los Angeles who ever defended them, in fact I loved antagonizing everyone I could down there with how PCs were better. And I am a graphic designer, but I swore to it. I even was giving Sony Vegas (a video editing program) a lot of my time.

The past couple days I have been getting a little bit into the internet again. This time it is Wordpress. I have been trying to get a little bit more savvy on it and find it really exciting to do. After eight months off of the interenet for the most part working on my new album in the mountains here in Costa Rica, I had a need to get online more and attempt to communicate and generate income.

While it is kind of a whole new way of doing the web then what I had been doing, I can really see the power of it.

The databases are taking over.

What I have been working on mostly is the website CostaRicanWeddingPhotos.com with my new partner Maria-Jose Sanchez.  Check it out and if you have a need of photography let us know. E-Mail Travis