October 10 Yesterday, Tuesday the 9th, the money was wire transferred and the paperwork was finished. I'm not exactly the owner of three lots. What I am is the major (only) shareholder of three different corporations which each own one lot. And I am the president of each corporation. Everything is bought in Costa Rica through corporations. The lawyer did the title searches to make sure the property had no liens or other problems. Then we met at 5 p.m. for the developer (another American) to sign over his shares to me. But, in actuality, most of the transactions were done [View Full Entry]

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October 5 I´m sitting in the internet cafe adjacent the land developer´s office who I just made a deal with to purchase 3 ocean view lots about 40 minutes from the airport. One of the lots is actually for Jurgen, but if he doesn´t pay me for it within a year, I´ll keep it. Too bad the internet cafe in Atenas where I´m staying isn´t as nice as this one. Anyway, here´s a website that shows the property and the views from the lots. The lots I bought are L9, L2 (for Jurgen), and S9. www.butterflydance.co.cr I hope to be on [View Full Entry]

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October 4 It's Thursday morning in Atenas. I'm sitting at an internet cafe lined with 7 slow computers and 5 young school girls dressed in their standard light blue uniforms. I don't know why they aren't in school right now. Anyway, I trekked through the jungle the last two days, but not on a guided rain forest tour. I'm looking at possible real estate investments. The first place was down a rocky road where we parked my Toyota Echo, then walked - then a farmer-land owner we ran into drove us around in his 4 wheel drive truck. I've got videos, [View Full Entry]

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October 1 I'm back in Atenas, hanging out at the Colinas del Sol with Jurgen, the owner. And do I have videos. I've got 'em of Jurgen bargaining with a shop owner, Jurgen being corrected by a Tica about the myth he's been telling everyone about a metal church in Grecia that was supposed to be delivered to Peru but was shipped to Costa Rica in error, and I've got your Costa Rica Karaoke videos. I've been to 3 Karaoke places in 3 nights. It's the happenin' thing around here, and the places are packed. Jurgen is in love with the [View Full Entry]

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Sept 27 A dirt road connects Quepos on the Pacific to Dominical, also on the Pacific. It's been a few years since I've been here, and not much has changed except there's a few more real estate offices, and several developments up in the hills. I drove around with Brian Skinner from South Coast Realty, and he showed me several develpments. The nicest / best deal was an area called Cascada Azul, about 15 minutes from the beach. The lots are about 3 acres, all have nice jungle and valley views, and most have some ocean views. The prices range from [View Full Entry]

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Sept 24 http://www.journeysbypaul.com/ for more stories and pics I'm still Jaco at the Best Western. The waves were pretty nice outside the hotel at around noon. That's when the tide was almost at peak high. I caught several head high to 2 feet overhead lefts. The peaks were shifting which I liked because it gave the five of us that were out there plenty of waves. The rides weren't real long, but they were long enough to work the curl and try to beat closed out sections as you looked up at the impending crash and wondered if you would make [View Full Entry]

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Sept 24 I made it into San Jose with no problems. Both flights were early. I rented a car at the airport for $205 for a week (it's the off season), and got to my hotel, Colinas del Sol, by about 8:15 p.m. local time (mountain time). The place was dead when I got there so the yards keeper let me into my room. He told me Jurgen (pronounced Yur-gun) was around, but was a bar or restaurant at the time. Normally, Jurgen lives in Germany and comes to stay in his house overlooking the cabinas December through March, so I [View Full Entry]

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Sept 22 I'll be heading down to Costa Rica on Sept 22. I'm going to be traveling sans laptop for a change. (I'm taking a cue from Marie - remember her? - and will try to live life rather than write about it.) By the way, I got an email from Robert in France. He's going to do a photo shoot in Africa later this month, but he said he has an assignment in Mexico next month, and he wants me to meet him in the Chiapas area because I can speak Spanish. The only thing I know about Chiapas is [View Full Entry]

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For a unique perspective on France, check out Paul Ogier's www.journeysbypaul.com [View Full Entry]

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It was a pretty smooth ride. I had minimal traffic navigating through Cleveland (home of the rock and roll hall of fame). I finally got off highway 80 and got onto highway 90 for the rest of the trip. Highway 90 parallels Lake Erie through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York until it gets to Buffalo. After Buffalo, the road heads pretty much due east passing Rochester and Syracuse to the north and the New York finger lakes (see picture) to the south. I turned south at Albany and drove alongside the Hudson River for about 20 miles before crossing the Hudson [View Full Entry]

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