I Blew Out My Flip-flop, Stepped on a Pop-Top

The last 10 days here in Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste, have been rainsoaked (way more than usual) with some big surf that has eroded the beach significantly (we don't have any surf normally, so big surf is pretty unusual). Tropical depression Irwin was parked off the Pacific coast of southern Mexico for a week or so and threw a whole crapload of angry ocean at us, as well as 3-5 inches of rain every day for the last week and a half.

This afternoon Carla, Laila and I went down to the beach in front of AquaSport to enjoy low tide and an ocean that was back to its normal calm - swim-able for Laila. I was pretty amazed at how the face of Playa Hermosa's beach had changed. The sand has been eroded down anywhere from 1 - 3 meters and had exposed sand bags, beach logs, trash, shells and even some bones that had been long buried under its beautiful sands for years. I've never seen so many shells on our beach. Carla say's she hasn't seen surf like we've had, or this many shells on the beach in over 10 years.

And I don't doubt her. Why? Remember Pull-tabs (a.k.a. pop-tops) on beer and soda cans? Well, they're back on the beach in Playa Hermosa. Pull-tabs tossed by litter bugs sucking down cold ones back in the 80's - and before - have been unearthed by Mother Nature and are now back on the beach in the light of day after being buried for more than 20 years! And they're all over the place.

I showed one that I found to Carla and asked her if she knew what it was. She had no clue. So I filled her in and she looked at me in quasi-disbelief (born 1977). I told her how we would collect these things and make chains out of them by putting the tab through the ring and bending it over. I told here how most ended up underfoot for someone to step on, and how society became so fed up with the ubiquitous pull-tab that a race for a better "no throw-away" solution for opening a beverage can was born - how someone came up with the stay-on-tab in direct response to the proliferation of pull-tabs discarded throughout every corner of the natural landscape - especially on beaches where bare footed beach combers were shredding their feet on aluminum pop tops (Blew out my flipflop! Stepped on a pop top!).

Nothing like a little nostagia here in Paradise!

Pura bierra!

P.S.: Beverage Can history. Pretty interesting. I had forgotten about press-button tops! But then, I'm a geezer! LOL!

Costa Rica's Million Dollar Gift of Happiness Ad Campaign

The Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT) is sponsoring "Costa Rica's Million Dollar Gift of Happiness" campaign to lure tourists from the US and Canada by giving away $1 million worth of vacation packages. Pretty cool! Pura vida!

Here are a couple of ads that I think are pretty hilarious. The ad campaign mascot is sloth with a voice very fitting of one. You can register to enter to win at facebook.com/visitcostarica.






Pura vida! And good luck!

Paradise Social Goes Live!

Last week was a pretty big week for me. I launched my new company, Paradise Social! It was inspired by a perceived need to reach out to small businesses with respect to their social media presence and offer them affordable, out of the box services for them to engage their customers - current and prospective - and grow their businesses. Social media marketing and publicity can be mystifying to many small business owners. And it takes time and effort to cultivate and grow a follower base, which takes small business owners away from actually running their core business.

Paradise Social offers "Affordable Social Media Marketing and Publicity to Small Businesses in Paradise". It's great news and I'm really excited about it. Click the links below to find out more about us. And please LIKE/ADD/FOLLOW me!

Paradise Social's blog

Mike Poynton/Paradise Social on Twitter

Paradise Social on Facebook

Mike Poynton/Paradise Social on Google+

Mike Poynton on LinkedIn

I'm going to be blogging a little less here at Guanacaste CR. But I won't abandon my followers altogether. Look at it this way, now you can follow me at play AND at work! Sometimes I get the two confused. That's just life in Paradise!

Pura vida!

The Super Veterinaria Liberia

My pulse quickens, my testosterone surges and I get a little pep in my step when we go to visit the Super Veterinaria Liberia in Guanacaste! My favorite "guy place" to go shopping in Liberia, Guanacaste! (Gimme a Tim Allen, "Arrh, Arrh, Arrh!").

Though, there are some items available for purchase by women - mostly related to cats - guys can buy just about anything and everything manly here. Gas powered chain saws, weed whackers, guns & rifles, work boots, cowboy boots, horse saddles, fertilizer, dog food, chicken feed, knives, machetes, medicines for horses/cattle/dogs, rope, cowboy hats, roosters, puppies, goldfish, bunny rabbits................ Ummmm.... Ok....... so the last three items only apply to gay men, and maybe the cowboy hats and boots too. But the point is, we're all men and the Super Veterinaria Liberia doesn't disappoint!

Yesterday's mission was to purchase 10 kilos of dog food and a couple of kilos of fertilizer for my fruit trees. But! As is such with many missions, something went awry and my 4-year old daughter left with a plastic bag containing a female Siamese fighting fish. That's right! A girl fighting fish, and in the hands of a little girl! WTF?!

But, hey!! What am I saying?! It was a freakin' Siamese fighting fish, right?!! I mean, if you mentally block out the female part, that's freakin' manly!! Arrh! Arrh! Arrh! Mission accomplished!

Pura vida!

...and I know I will succeed (Repost)

REPOST: I originally posted this on August 16, 2011. But after re-reading it I decided to delete it because I though it made me look unsuccessful and weak, and in certain respects, maybe it did. But today I was reading a blog by Jonathan Fields called "How to Risk Genius When You're Down and Out" and I decided to repost it. In the week or so since my original post, I've received nothing but help, advice and support from friends, family and people I don't even know. So I have been and continue to be successful and I've never felt stronger. I guess the only thing I would add to the original is this: "If America taught me one thing, it's that quitting is right up there with pissing in the Girl Scout's lemonade jar."

It's a gloomy day here in Guanacaste (relatively speaking) with gray, overcast skies and my mood has swung in line with the sky's. It's not raining - yet - and the temp is a comfortable 80 degrees, but there's something about the sky that's just bumming me out right now. It reminds me of how I used to feel towards the end of summer in Chicago - like right now - when I'd get that first hint of fall in the atmosphere. In a single day, the photo period would change, the air density would change, the cloud formations in the sky would change, the direction of the wind would shift... and I would instinctively know that summer's demise was imminent. I would suddenly feel depressed (Solar Affective Disorder) and the urge to migrate to a warmer and sunnier clime would overtake me.

I finally did migrate to a warmer and sunnier clime permanently in June of 2005 when I moved to Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Seems like a lifetime ago, but I've never looked back. Times were good back then with real estate booming here and in the US. I was making enough money to live comfortably in my new found paradise. I met the woman who would become my wife, started a property management business, then got into the real estate business. Life was tuanis!

The property management business was a 24/7 enterprise, and my partner was giving away our services at reduced rates to seal real estate deals, the commissions on which were not shared. I had an epiphany and liquidated my interests. We parted on good terms. She gave me a leg up and a start. I then became partners with a good friend of mine in real estate and operated out of an office in Coco. Let's just say my luck in selling real estate reached in pinnacle with a co-broker's client breaking his neck and nearly drowning while we were both awaiting a signed sales contract after 3 rounds of negotiation on a villa. I interpreted that as God's way of telling me, "Get out of real estate, Mike!"

I then went into the bar/restaurant business when my father-in-law (R.I.P.) presented me with an opportunity to rent a space he owned here in Hermosa about 200 meters from my house for $0/month. I had a good thing going. I mean, I wasn't getting rich and it was hard work, but it was paying the bills and it was a lot of fun. Then, Aurelio, died suddenly, and my verbal agreement died with him. I was forced to relinquish my business for the greater good of his surviving children so they could rent the restaurant out and generate some income. I was angry, at first. But it made sense in the end.

One of my steady clients heard the news that I was closing and gave me a call. He had his own PR business and thought I might be a good fit. He said anyone who can run a bar/restaurant in Costa Rica and keep his client's happy and coming back was perfect for PR. We struck a salary deal which worked for about 3 months. I resigned the other day about 5 minutes after our president was forced to resign. The fact that I hadn't been paid a salary since December made the decision to resign a gimme.

So now I'm out on my own again. I've decided I'm going to make a run at the PR business solo, with baby steps. And as I type this, the tropical sun is making a tremendous effort at peaking out from behind the gray drab, and I feel it's warmth... and I am energized by its light... and I know I will succeed.