Some questions regarding Nicaragua...

***Warning, Moderator and Readers...this post contains words that many would construe as "foul language", the Moderator may take the liberty to delete them of course...As an "Ex Pat" of over 20 years "Way down South" myself, I am far from prudish, and from time to time one must deal with the "bad and the ugly" as well as the "good", some days it is just another ------ ------- day in paradise and other days it all seems worth it..so sorry if anyone is offended. Alan is a long term resident of Costa Rica and has some good Nicaragua info. on this mailing....Donald T. Lee www.centralamericalanguagetours.com Hi folks,

Just a couple or so things then I'll let you go on to the new addition to the site; something that at least some of you have been waiting a long time for.

My last DSP elicited a lot of concern regarding the psychopath that Lisa said is threatening us. (One of you even offered to come down and fuck the psychopath up. If it was just a matter of that, I'd do it myself. But thanks for the thought.) You're concern moved us, but not to worry.

Although it was time consuming and costly, I've protected my family on as many levels as possible.

By the way: The source of the psychopath's rage is my website. He doesn't like it. And it's not that I'm selling some land on the site, anything like that. (I'm using the profits to preserve as much rainforest as I can). I mean it can't be that since this fellow has been selling land for many years. He's been doing that all right. Among other things.

But hey: Hit me with a feather, I'll hit you with a brick.

Okay.

The computers for schools project is coming along great. It even looks like we might get help from The Surf Rider Foundation. (By the way, if you're not a member, get on it!) I'll keep you informed.

Due to my semi-stress overload and my work on the Cosmic Banditos screenplay (Lisa is even busier than I am, with the 11 dogs we're caring for and the little house we're building, of which she is the project jefa) and our lack of www access for the last week, we're a little behind on correspondence on the computers project. (Plus I've been unable to answer any of your other emails.) Hang in! We will get back to you. The first four laptops are, as I write, in San Jose, and will be at the Comte school in a week or so. Thanks again to Rebecca and Bill Wheeler for bringing them. The donors will get their gifts from Lisa and me via snail mail. So you guys hang in too.

I have some books to recommend.

If you have plans to visit Nicaragua, do so, it's a cool place. (Say hi to my bud Dale Daggar in San Juan Del Sur.) BUT: Before you leave, get Moon Handbook's Nicaragua. Absolutely get it. Forget the other guide books. Okay? Okay.

John Decure's Bluebird Rising is courtroom drama stuff, but cool and eccentric, and better written than, say, John Grisham. Picture a surfy John D. McDonald meets Scott Turrow. Decure surfs – he's written for The Surfer's Journal -- and it shows. Good stuff. You like Bluebird Rising, get John's Reef Dance (great title, no?).

In the Author's Note to In Search of Captain Zero I claim that on my website I'd recommend books on surfing. Well, I never got around to it. Going to fix that here, if in a roundabout, semi-half-assed way.

In Zero, I wax cranky over the dissolution of style in the water and in landward creative endeavors, and opine that there is an interconnection between the two. To make my point, I allude to the descent in quality of what used to be known as the "surf movie," now the "surf video."

Okay. I stand by that. (There are exceptions: J. Brother being my favorite. Go to jbrother.com and order Adrift or Longer to see what I mean.)

Luckily, in the arena of surfy prose, the situation isn't quite so dismal, partially (if not mostly) because some of the Old Farts are still at it, and haven't lost their pizzazz. One said Old Fart being Drew Kampion. And Drew's got a new book out.

Let me quote from an autobiographical essay by Bob Shacochis, National Book Award winning author of Swimming in the Volcano. Regarding Surfer magazine, circa 1969: "(Surfer) championed a counterculture subcult for loners, and developed a new language, and a new style of writing about the intensity of experience." I'm not kidding about this: Surfer magazine (along with the likes of Tom Wolfe and Thomas Pynchon) made the first, and most enduring, impression on those sensibilities that I would follow into the writing life.

He's talking about Drew Kampion here. Drew WAS Surfer magazine, circa 1969, in terms of "develop(ing) a new language, and a new style of writing about the intensity of experience." But before I get around to Drew's new book, let me make another point, or rather finish up the one I started regarding various sorts of descents.

Do you think that 30 plus years from now a National Book Award winner is going to claim Surfer magazine as a seminal influence on his writing? Or even The Surfer's Journal?

Surfing used to be interesting, sociologically and culturally. Now it's a sport. Which means that in terms of being interesting, we are left with only the activity itself. Which, come to think of it, is fine with me.

Okay. Drew's new book is The Way of the Surfer. Drew's as good as ever. So: Buy the fucking thing. That's my review. Okay?

Other surfy books. I'll make it simple. Buy Drew's other books, and the books of Matt Warshaw, another Old Fart (though not quite as Old as Drew; Drew, by the way, is my age). Start there. Then Dan Duane's Caught Inside. Kem Nunn's Tapping the Source and his surf-noir masterpiece The Dogs of Winter are musts for a surf library as well.

Okay. That's all you need for the moment. There are a few other good surf writers out there, which I'll get to in future DSPs, but first read these guys.

A lot of you have asked if I'm ever going to post my In Search of Captain Zero screenplay. Well, here it is. It's downloadable via Acrobat Reader. I suggest you print it out and read it whilst relaxing in a chair or in bed, not upright squinting at your PC screen.

Here's the link: http://www.aweisbecker.com/contents/zero_script_dec2003.pdf

If that link gives you trouble, go to my Members Homepage at http://www.aweisbecker.com/contents/members.shtml and download it from there. You'll need Acrobat Reader to read it. There's a link to Acrobat on my Members Page.

I'm expecting to get some shit from those of you who are fans of the book, the screen story being somewhat different from the book.

But: Before you go off half-cocked and cranky, take a look at my nonfiction, first person, internally-driven, largely anecdotal memoir that rambles all over the place and answer me this, in terms of narrative drive: Where's the story?

And I have a favor to ask. The main reason I agreed to the movie deal in the first place was Sean Penn's participation as a producer, my assurance that "Sean gets involved early in the script stage." Having had a lot experiences with studio executives and producers in the past, I wanted someone on board I could relate to creatively.

Sean was never given any of my drafts and neither was I allowed to talk to him, after our first meeting. This pisses me off. I don't like being lied to.

So if you know Sean, or know someone who knows him (etc.), do me a favor and try to get the screenplay to him. Send the link to whomever you think might be interested in the thing. As a writer I like to be read.

Okay. Here's the link: http://www.aweisbecker.com/contents/zero_script_dec2003.pdf

I'll be in touch.

Pura vida, Allan ---------------------------------------- If you have any questions about life in paradise, do not write me until you have gone to my FAQ link: http://www.aweisbecker.com/faq/index.php?category=Living+in+Paradise

Central America Language Tours Your Vertical Portal to Travel, Trade and Language Study in all of Central America... www.centralamericalanguagetours.com info@centralamericalanguagetours.com

Yes just one U.S. Embassy in Managua, Rivas is the large inland town near San Juan del Sur on the Pacific Coast heading towards the Costa Rican Border. To visit Nicaragua you bring valid US Passport, pay $9 US on entry and $2 on exit, for a 30 day stay, which can be extended to 90 days. Residency usually takes several months to complete and you must have an income of at least $500USD a Month from the US and a clean police record, etc. If you wish I will get you lodging and guides there in advance. Donald Lee www.centralamericalanguagetours.com E mail info@centralamericalanguagetours.com

Central America Language Tours Your Vertical Portal to Travel, Trade and Language Study in all of Central America... www.centralamericalanguagetours.com info@centralamericalanguagetours.com

I don't think the price was $75 per month! You pay for a year up front when you apply for residency. We just got that all last month for my whole family, and the price for everyone and everything was about $400 for a year. You automatically receive a 90 day visa when you enter the country. You can then get another three month extension, but it is costly, I think we paid $500 for that extension. We had to go that route because we didn't have nearly all of our papers to apply for residency. I don't know of any web site to help you with that! At least in English I don't know. The only web site I know about for real estate is discovernica.com or at least that is what the signs say. I am pretty sure the only US Embassy is in Managua. It is pretty much a pain to go to, as well. When you need something authenitcated you can only go Tues or Thurs from 1 - 3. Those hours can change, it is best to call ahead. I don't know about the vanilla. I use regular repellant when necessary. Probably near the coast you would need ot use something more regularly.