Costa Rica

[Dagger Gordon]

My wife and I are planning a trip to Costa Rica in January.

I don't know much about the music there. Is there a mandolin tradition at all - bandolim maybe? The marimba seems to be one of the main things.

[Jon Hall]

I have some friends, Juan Carlos Urena and his wife Jeana Paul-Urena, who are popular musicians in Costa Rica. They live in Texas but travel frequently to Costa Rica. I can put you in touch with them. If you p.m. me and send me your email address, I will pass it on to Juan Carlos and Jeana. You should check out videos of them on youtube. Jeana plays mandolin but I don't think she performs with the mandolin.

[Dagger Gordon]

Thanks.
I'm not really planning a music trip - I was just generally curious.
I did look at a couple of Juan Carlos videos. Really nice, but I guess I was thinking of more traditional music. This seems to be more singer-songwriter stuff as far as I can tell. He has a lovely voice though, I must say.

[DPrager]

Hi David,

My wife and I spent a couple weeks in CR this past April. I too was hoping to find some live music there, but it seemed almost non-existent. We had a great time and I'm sure you will too.

David

[Jim Roberts]

I've travelled extensively through Central America and don't recall seeing a single mandolin. Some great music, though. Portugal is a different story. Even found a mandolin orchestra in Madiera!!

Have fun in CR. The train over the continental divide is a hoot. It slowly winds its way up and over through coffee and banana plantations. It derails often but at ten miles an hour it doesn't matter. It's fun to watch 'em get it back on track.

If you love coffee, you are going to really in for a treat!

[Marc Ferry]

Sounds interesting! Enjoy the trip... I wonder what kind of music you'll find there!

On a non mandolin-related note, if you're considering learning a bit of Spanish before your trip, check out the site Duolingo (www.duolingo.com). You can learn a good amount of Spanish in a month or less with that site.

[Astro]

I spent a couple weeks there six years ago. Mostly Nosara region on the north west coast. Son and I went on a surf trip. The only music we found were bar bands playing assorted American light rockish stuff in Spainish and English. Some were very good. They did have their own flavor to it. We were in very small towns/villages away from big tourist spots yet we never saw anything resembling native music. Of course we didn't know where to go so it was probably there under our noses. Had a great time zip-lining through the jungle. The waves were incredible-too much for me now. I tried but Im too old, but my son enjoyed them.

Yes if you travel off the tourist circuit you will need to know some Spanish.

[foldedpath]

I spent some time living and working there, six months at a stretch and learning the language, but it was a long time ago in the late 70's and early 80's. I don't recall an indigenous music tradition with mandolins or anything similar. It's a very small country with great people, but at least back then, the cultural traditions like food, music, and literature were more generic Central American than anything specifically Tico.

Actually the best music I remember was on the Atlantic coast, in places like Limon and the smaller towns up the coast, with a heavy black Caribbean reggae influence. There is (or was) a big cultural divide between that coast and the Meseta Central and the rest of the country. Take that train trip mentioned above, if you have a chance. It's a real experience (and sounds like it's the same it was almost 40 years ago when I did it).

I have fond memories of the country but I haven't been back there in years. As a working aerial photographer, it was the first (and thankfully only) place I ever had to experience what it's like to be in a small plane ditching in the ocean, outside Parismina on the Atlantic side. Everyone got out fine, the DeHavilland Otter we were using for the airphoto gig was toast.

So, enjoy the amazing natural wonders of the country, make sure you get your Ceviche (wonderful raw marinated fish cocktail) in a place you can trust, stay out of small planes down there, and you'll be fine.

[Paul Kotapish]

Had a great gig playing for a traveling group of dancers/wilderness enthusiasts down in CR a while back. A week at Manuel Antonio on the west coast and a week in the mountains in the cloud forest at Monteverde. Fabulous trip--stunning country, amazing hikes with serious birding, reptile watching, fer-de-lance avoiding, sloth siting, ND plenty of monkey business.

Spent some time trying to find live music and was told by locals that most of the musicians there tended to borrow music from other countries and that there wasn't that much traditional stuff. I certainly never saw any mandolins. We had a couple of cultural-exchange evenings with local folklore groups, and they all danced to recorded music.

We did hear lots of good, small marimba combos playing at outdoor markets, and spent an amazing evening at a dinner place in San Jose where there were dozens of Mexican-style mariachi ensembles in every possible manner of costume hanging out hoping to serenade tables or get calls for last-minute gigs--everything from trios to small orchestras. The place was pretty well known at the time, so maybe it's still there. Fun and bizarre.

[Dave Hicks]

I once bought a locally made mando in a shoe store (!) in San Jose. (Sorry, don't remember the luthier's name - they were out in Heredia, I believe.) It was deep-bodied with an oval hole, and had a nice tone, but it warped when I took it up north, to the point where it was only playable on about the first 5 frets. I never heard much live acoustic music in CR (I've been there 11 times) other than some Andean bands in the big turismo locales.

Oh, and I did hear marimba a good bit in Guatemala - but, again, it seemed to be mostly for the tourists.

D.H.

[Dagger Gordon]

Did indeed have a great trip.

Spent time in Puerto Viejo, La Fortuna, Monteverde, Drake Bay and Quepos.

Did jungle walks, zip-lining, snorkling, white water rafting, etc. Truly wonderful country. We loved it.

The only music I heard was in Puerto Viejo, which is a very Jamaican influenced place. You seem to hear reggae music coming out of every shop, bar, everywhere. I've got to say that much of this is the well-known Marley songs that must be about 40 years old now.

As ever, I took a mandolin. Always handy in hostels. We had a good singaround in Monteverde, where we met a Canadian woman who is an actress/singer. My wife and she had common ground with Stan Rogers songs. We also had songs from a German jounalist from New York and a French girl. These sorts of impromtu sharing evenings can be very nice.

Great place though!

[Joey Anchors]

Sounds like an amazing trip! Makes me want to go on one

[Clef]

I was just in Costa Rica in November. I was hoping on bringing back a musical instrument. I did not find a single musical instrument for sale the entire time I was there. I did see some cheap wooden flutes at the beach, but that was it.

CR is a beautiful place to visit. The people are super friendly and the food was fantastic.

You might not find any mandolins, but keep looking up in the trees and you might find a sloth....


I got this photo with my cell phone and a pair of binoculars.

[Mandosurf]

Never been to Costa, but I've had my mandolin stuffed in my book bag the last two Nicaragua trips I've been on! Didn't see any live music though.. Enjoy your trip, PURA VIDA!
Not really related, but if you haven't listened to "Costa Rica" by Emmit-Nershi Band, you definitely should look it up.. Killer mandolin playin by Drew Emmitt!

[Mandobart]

I've traveled there twice; for family vacation not music-centric. Beautiful country, beautiful people, wonderful experience. The east coast (Caribbean/Atlantic) is more calypso and reggae oriented music-wise. Central area and Pacific coast are more traditional central-American type of music. Don't miss the Arenal volcano. My favorite travels were on the east coast near Tortuguero National Park and Cahuita National Park. On the Pacific side Manuel Antonio National Park is great. I didn't check out any musical instruments for sale while I was there. ¡PURA VIDA!

[Mandobart]

Don't want to open the CITES can of worms, but I would be a little worried about making sure I had all the required provenance certificates for an instrument purchased outside the country to be sure I could actually get it home.

[Dagger Gordon]

Don't want to open the CITES can of worms, but I would be a little worried about making sure I had all the required provenance certificates for an instrument purchased outside the country to be sure I could actually get it home.

That's a fair point actually, but I've got to say no-one looked too closely at my cheapo 20 year old Korean Encore mandolin (which has served me very well on such trips). Having said that, they did confiscate a can of bug spray from hand luggage in a tiny flight down to Drake Bay

Still, Costa Rica is very eco-oriented with all their national parks, eco-tourism, Earth University etc and so you might well expect them to take CITES quite seriously.

[mandocrucian]

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http://www.amazon.com/The-Rough-Guid.../dp/1848369069

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