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Casa Mañana
 
Every Wednesday we do our reportorial thing, submitting to the Tico Times, a national English -language newspaper, a short report of events at Lake Arenal. The reports appear on the Community Connections page of the Weekender section of the Tico Times. We repeat them here.)
Arenal Report for Tico Times September 27 2006
Fuentes Verdes Ecological Association continues its efforts to make sure lake area developers get all necessary permits and meet all regulatory requirements so that further harm will not come to Lake Arenal and buyers will be protected from unanticipated problems. FV President Ed Zurica and Secretary Sandy Shaw spent an hour on local Spanish-language station 88.3 September 22 at 8pm to 9pm being interviewed about the environmental problems facing this region, an extremely important source of Costa Rica's energy and irrigation. Ed included the following comments in a recent email: "We spoke once again at the municipality meeting Wednesday the 20. I was happy to see that with each presentation more of the council is participating in the discussion. Most of those that spoke agreed that the real issue is the Arenal Cuenca and the protection of its resources. Poco a Poco as they say.

"It seems [the Ministerio of] Salud 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."

Sandy Shaw recently compiled for Erin Van Rheenen's book Living Abroad in Costa Rica a set of Buyer Beware points to help those planning on buying property in this country. An early look at her draft can be had on the News page of the website www.casamananabedandbreakfast.com. What the Arenal region lacks in funkiness is

made up for by Equus Bar and Restaurant, located mostly on a hillside at the western end of the lake. The restaurant serves a lot of meats cooked at a barbecue a few feet up the hill. Diners are often forced to wrestle the extremely heavy pieces of log that serve as seats a few feet here or there to avoid the wind-blown smoke. But the food is not only good but inexpensive and so are the drinks. Wilder yet is Equus's mostly open-air Pukku Waiku Discoteque, a rocky sanctuary accessed far up the hillside via a winding path. It opened again on September 16 with promises of a racily clad group helping to inaugurate the season. With or without said draw, it's open Saturday nights from 8 pm to 2 am. There's a cover charge of about $5.

A daytime draw not far from Equus is Casadelagua Café and Art Studio. They're now serving breakfast and lunch as well as coffees and pastries. It's a pleasant lakeview stop between Nuevo Arenal and Tilaran. Federase Cafeteria, an Italian Restaurant, opened September 20 in Tronadora. Early reports were favorable. It turns out there is one other place in Tronadora serving meals. It's the Texas Bar, where you can get pizza.

This US absentee voting information probably comes too late for use this November, but it may depend on the state you're from. If you want to try for an absentee ballot, go to the website www.VoteFromAbroad.com and follow the instructions.

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