"It seems Salud [Ministry of Health] in Liberia as well as municipal engineers are interested in not only our opinions but our ideas about what constitutes good septic systems, and we will be assisting them in some design planning as well as helping with pursuing violations."

For decades before the influx of foreign residents, the Lake Arenal region has suffered from pollution due to the clear-cutting of forests for cattle ranches with not only subsequent increased runoff but runoff contaminated by the herds of cattle. Now, with developers intent on selling former ranchlands to hordes of new human residents, the threat of pollution increases to the lake waters which irrigate vast lowland crops. Already last year polluted water from the lake killed off the farmed fish near Cañas, also killing off jobs for hundreds of people. Disposal of human waste has also been ill-supervised, and so Ed's news about better septic design and oversight is welcome as we anticipate the building of hundreds of new homes on lake hillsides. There are, by the way, hundreds of established properties for sale around the lake at much better than coastal prices, so a prospective new resident doesn't have to live cheek by jowl with a lot of other "estranjeros" in a gated enclave.
Christine Larson-Krishnan of Desafio

Adventure Company in La Fortuna summarized the situation near her usually busy end of the lake thusly.
"Tourism is taking a little breather in La Fortuna, as is usual for this time of year, so local businesses took advantage of the downtime to hold a small tourism fair hosted by Banco Popular to highlight the tours, services and lodging available in the area. The volcano has been perfect for evening lava viewing due to light afternoon showers. Plus the little bit of tropical rain makes it perfect for the different kinds of adventures in the Northern Zone such as rafting, safari floats and rappelling down waterfalls."

Another spay clinic will be held on Oct. 21 in Parceles atop the lake's southwestern hills. We don't know the exact time and place yet but will provide that info next week. The G-PAW group (Guanacaste Province Animal Welfare Foundation) as always hopes some people will show up with neighbor animals whose owners can't afford the donation.

The Halloween party is still on schedule for Oct. 28 at Christina Glass's house. Again, it's to help raise money for the Las Damas del Lago library project. We'll have details about the time and donation next week. Costumes are encouraged though there's no local party store to supply you with a scarey Donald Rumsfeld mask or Superman outfit. Our local nudist has been asked to please don a funny costume, funnier than usual, that is. There is indeed a little social life outside of gated communities, farther flung though the revelers may be.