To Costa Rica and Back, Again
- By Karen Wright
Moro Books of San Jose.
By Karen Wright
We are back again after two months in the lovely country of Costa Rica. Three years ago, after our first trip, I did a couple of stories about book shopping in Costa Rica and came to the conclusion that there weren't a whole lot of readers there. That still holds true to some extent for most Costa Ricans, but this time I discovered several new and interesting bookstores that cater to fiction-starved ex-pats and tourists.
We covered a whole lot more of the country this time, from 10,000 foot peaks to hot, muggy jungles, to Pacific seashores, to rich farmland. We saw monkeys, snakes, an ocelot, a pair of pumas, a crocodile, an alligator, a zillion vividly-colored birds, bugs in all sizes, shapes, and colors, and some amazing frogs. The country is so varied that one could pick just about any type of climate and find it there. In some ways, it was very difficult to come home, but one thing they don't have is a proper high desert, and we are, after all, desert rats. They also have the world's most annoying showerheads, commonly referred to as "suicide showers," probably because after using them for a while you want to commit suicide (or murder).
Our most infuriating mishap was when my backpack was stolen right from under a chair (while I was sitting in it) in a bus station. The worst part was that our camera was in it, so I apologize for the quality of the accompanying pictures. Otherwise they got dirty laundry and, woe is me, my supply of unread paperbacks, curse them! So, we bought a couple of throw-away cameras and replaced the lost clothes at one of the Ropa Americanas, great little clothing stores that carry seconds and second hand American clothing for $1.00 to $3.00. It was easy to replace T-shirts, a sweater, and a couple of pairs of pedal pushers.
But, where to find something to read! So, we revisited Morro Books in the capital city of San Jose. Last time we were there it was just a funky, badly lit, and poorly laid out bookstore with nothing to recommend it and barely any books worth reading. This time, however, they had moved to another building. The store didn't look like much from the outside (that's typical of C.R.), but inside it had possibilities. The layout and stock were both greatly improved. They were still in the process of unpacking hundreds of boxes of books, but had a very good selection of what I call "traveler's books" which included a number of English language paperback mysteries that we had not read. I also found a first edition of one of my favorite mystery writers, Jacqueline Winspear; the first of the Maisie Dobbs series. They have a decent selection of nearly new and used books which includes some Costa Rica travel books. Sometimes, you may also find the New York Times and/or the Washington Post. They do a reader's exchange and carry some good foreign language tomes.
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To Costa Rica and Back, Again
- By Karen Wright
Libreria Chunches of Santa Elena.
Books are still pricey in Costa Rica - a used paperback in mediocre to fair condition can be ¢2825 colones which is about $5.00, but when you don't have something to read, you are willing to put out a bit of cash. I did get a chance to speak briefly with the owner, Darren Morro, this time. He is originally from Costa Rica. He speaks English quite well and between my much-improved Spanish and his English, we managed to chat for a while. He was enthusiastic about his move to his new location. I talked to Calvin Robinson, the man who is leasing the building in which the bookstore dwells, and he plans to put in a small coffee shop, which should be good for Morro Books' business.
Later that first month, we climbed some very high mountains on the "chicken bus," which was our term for the local buses. We like to travel the way the Ticos travel because we see more of the country and don't have to pay the excessive rental car rates. After many hours on the bus on one-lane roads with two buses passing side by side, we arrived at St. Elena in Monteverde, which is sort of the "Aspen" of Costa Rica. It was the most expensive place we went, but still quite affordable, and had all sorts of interesting things to do. We aren't exactly hikers or mountain climbers and the thought of flying down a zip line through the jungle does not appeal to recipients of Social Security. Also, it was quite windy and a bit chilly. We went to three amazing critter places there, the Serpentario (yes, snakes, Eek!), the Ranario, or frog pond, and a fabulous Mundo del Insectivos, the bug house. We saw many more species of creatures than we would have otherwise seen wandering around in the jungles. Also, after reading The Mapmaker's Wife by Robert Whittaker, I didn't want to wander around in the jungle at all. I highly recommend the book before you go for a stroll.
My husband, who loves to grow orchids, found El Jardin de Orquideas San Bosco and we whiled away many hours looking at their 500 species, many of which were in bloom. We found a very friendly and more reasonably priced Hotel El Sueño, than the place we stayed the first night. My favorite restaurant had a huge strangler fig tree (three stories high) and you could sit and eat among the branches. Costa Ricans seem to eat to live, not live to eat, so I won't say much about the food other than we did find a great Mediterranean tapas place and several really good seafood joints near the ocean.
In Spanish, biblioteca is a library and libreria is a bookstore. In Santa Elena, we found Libreria Chunches. It is owned by an American gal, Debra Hamilton and her Tico partner Victorino Molina Rojas. It is a very nice little bookstore with a good restaurant and coffee house upstairs. They had a small selection of fairly pricey used books and a very good selection of new fiction, and books in English and Spanish on Costa Rica and its critters, birds, flora, and food. They also had plenty of kids' books and school supplies. Amid all these tomes were lots and lots of local crafts as well as tourist souvenirs.
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To Costa Rica and Back, Again
- By Karen Wright
Libreria Topsy of Montezuma Beach.
From the very mountainous Monteverde, we did another monumental bus ride to the Pacific Coast and Montezuma Beach. The road is pretty passable most of the way then one suddenly comes around a corner and sees the ocean. From there it is a very steep descent on a very steep, curvy road amidst clouds of fine, brown dust, to the town of Montezuma. It was a picture postcard beach and palm tree setting with a lot of surfer kids, stray dogs, and several pretty good restaurants, including a pizza joint. Our favorite was a little coffee shop where the birds sat on the edge of the table and took bits of banana bread out of our hands.
It was a good bit hotter than Monteverde, but we found a great little Tico hotel, Mar y Cielo (Sea and Sky), right on the beach with shade and palm trees and hammocks. We developed a habit of sitting on our balcony and reading or watching the tide come in and out from after lunch to about three, then walking the beach in the afternoon when it cooled down a bit. We hiked to two different places where a river forms a series of small ponds, one of which had a monumental waterfall at the end and a big pool underneath, just like the Tarzan movies. It was quite a hike to reach it, but well worth it.
Montezuma has an interesting little bookstore, Libreria Topsy. The owner, Joelle, is originally from Connecticut. She first came to Costa Rica to take Spanish lessons, fell in love with it, went home, sold her car, and came back to open her bookstore. She's been in C.R. fifteen years and has no plans to return to the U.S. She had a rather dismal selection of well worn, used paperbacks for sale, but had a fairly good selection of books that she rents out to people while they are in town. It's too darn hot to do much but sit in the shade and read there, so she had a pretty good thing going. She also carried the New York Times, which is at a premium in Costa Rica. A week-old copy sells for $10-$15.
By far the best bookstore in C.R., and our most interesting interview was with Larry Coulter of Good Light Books in Alejuela, one of the larger towns in C.R., close to the airport. Larry moved to C.R. from Sebastapol in Northern California, where he had been a contractor for thirty-five years. His store is very nicely organized with a great selection at decent prices. He had a few I almost brought home for resale, but luggage space was limited. He has about 20,000, mostly used books, and a selection of new books about Costa Rica. His clientele is made up of gringo ex-pats, American, Canadian, and European tourists, and only about 7% Ticos. He does do some selling on ABE, but doesn't like their completion rate thing. We compared what we don't like about the online giants, but quickly realized there wasn't much we could do about their practices. He loves the weather and hates the fact that robbery is a constant threat. He was robbed twice, so he had to alarm his store and put in burglar bars and razor wire, like every other merchant in a big C.R. city. Though the violent crime rate in C.R. is not terribly high, petty theft is a national pastime in the cities and one must be constantly alert.
I asked him how he replenishes his inventory, which is an ongoing problem in C.R. because of the high cost of shipping and the general inefficiency of the shipping companies and post offices in C.R. One way, he told me, is to buy back at half price books that he has previously sold. He also has a connection with someone who works at the plane-cleaning service at the airport and who very often finds books that have been left on planes. Once each year he goes to the California Bay Area and buys large quantities of books which he ships reasonably cheaply to his shop in Alejuela.
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To Costa Rica and Back, Again
- By Karen Wright
Larry Coulter of Good Light Books.
It was interesting to note that, other than Larry, almost all the booksellers I spoke to in C.R. said that they have a huge problem finding good books. Larry tells me that he has gone to most of the English language bookstores in Costa Rica and offered to sell them his good quality, relatively current duplicates and sale paperbacks for $1.00 a book and they declined to buy because they don't want to come to Alajuela. Having searched in vain for a book to read in some of those small town bookstores I wondered what the heck their problem was. If I were a bookseller there I'd be at his shop once a month restocking. It isn't a long distance to anywhere from anywhere in C.R. and hotels are cheap, so you could go to Alejuela from almost anywhere, stock up, spend the night for about $25, and go home to your store with some new books for those desperate tourists such as my husband and I. Larry told us that he sometimes takes his truck, which is fitted out with bookshelves, and goes to the beach to sell books to the tourists. The others really should take him up on his offer as none of them really carry any good, current books and the tourists are crying for them. I would have killed to have him show up at Montezuma with his truck full of books when I snapped closed the last page of my last paperback. If you want to see what Larry has to offer, go to www.goodlightbooks.com.
We ran out of time, but we heard that there were several more bookstores in Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean Coast, so now we have an excuse to go back. Oh boy! Ta, ta 'til then.
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