Magical Mystery Fruit Tour of Costa Rica

I had a request a while back to document the different fruits that are available here that we don’t have in the states. That includes a majority of what is available in the markets here. There are spiky red things and small green things. There are bunches of fruit that look like huge clumps of grapes. There are papayas that range is size from about the size of an eggplant up to something that requires two hands to carry. The list goes on.

We went to the large ferria(market) south of downtown San Jose with the sole intent of buying fruit that we had no idea what it was. I think that cruising around and buying the fruit was as much fun as sampling it all. In the picture there are obviously some pinapples, bananas, and a papaya. Those are our main meals down here a majority of the time.


Click on the link to check out the pictures and the write-up of our mystery fruit sampling:


Fruity Link

Mal Pais: Beach, Surfing, and Dirt Biking - Oh Yeah!

We took a four day trip to Mal Pais and it was sooo much fun. The trip to the area was precarious. We rented a four wheel drive, and needed it. We drove two hours to Puntarenas the port town and caught a ferry across the bay. Drove a hour and a half on bumpy paved road and than hit serious dirt roads. It just rained (it always just rained during the rainy season) so the mud holes where the size of houses. I felt like I was a rally car racer taking the four wheeler through the mud and sliding it around the corner. Adam's mom Charlotte was in the back and seriously scared. You're not having fun unless your a little bit scared! I'm not sure why Adam kept telling me the bumps were easier to take if you go faster, he knows I WILL go faster!

So we make it to Mal Pais and after looking at a a few hotels we settle on Hotel Casa Azul. Casa Azul was right on the beach, most hotels weren't. The caretaker was really friendly and relaxed and we would recommend this hotel. It's close to a few restaurants and shops. Most of Mal Pais or Santa Theresa is just strung along a road that parallels the beach, with most hotels on the non-beach side of the road.


The first full day we played in the water and went beach combing. The second day I rented a surf board for about $8 dollars and Adam and Charlotte went and found some tide pools. Luckily there are no pictures of me surfing, that would have amounted to a lot of crash pictures, but I did manage to stand up a couple of times. Overall though, the ocean just worked me like a wet cat in a washing machine. I was exhausted and grateful to go have dinner at Mary's for some fresh seafood.


The second day we went to Montezuma. Out past Montezuma is an island that is only accessible at low tides and this is where a cemetery is located. Kind of eerie in a Tim Burton kind of way, very isolated. We walked out to it, paid our respect, and collected huge shells on the way back. I would recommend that little trip if you are in the area, it's pretty interesting.

Later we went and had lunch in Montezuma. Montezuma is a beach town with a lot of hippies, drugs, and mom and pop tourists. Luckily we had found some home made ice cream that was delicious. I'm not sure if I would recommend Montezuma. It's OK for some people, but not Adam and I. Adam got offered coke and weed on his way to the bathroom.

That evening we returned to Mal Pais were we found that the next door neighbors were the host of the evening party. It was a dj party were you could hear the base a few hundred meters away. I'm told that Mal Pais has a party every night, except at a different bar. Our friends who were staying at the Mal Pais surf camp where the party was the night before clued us in on these party tidbits. Apparently two hundred tourists/surfers show up with a few local dealers and likely a few other scammers. Definitely not our scene but this is what we heard, thought you'd like to know.


The next day we were scheduled to return home to get Charlotte on her flight back to PDX. But before that we rented some dirt bikes and went on a two hour ride up the coast and than up into the mountains. It was some pretty intense riding for me because I have never been on a dirt bike, only street bikes. Adam told me the terrain was a challenge for him and he knows dirt biking. The hills were insanely steep with a lot of different sized gravel. The holes in the road were huge, muddy, and you couldn't see the bottom. But, we got to some isolated beaches that you just can't get to without a dirt bike, it was amazing. I can't wait to rent a dirt bike again.

Here's a link to the rest of the trips pictures.

Nicaragua Trip: Bull Fight, Historic Granada, and Ometepe

Day 1 started the evening before when we had a dinner party. We invited a few friends over where Charlotte shared the home made goat cheese she brought. It was so yummy! It's hard to find good cheese in Costa Rica. Unfortunately I've been cutting out dairy products and alcohol so my stomach was not prepared for the wine and cheese. Needless to say I required a barf bag on the bus trip to Nicaraqua, luckily didn't have to use it, but scared the hippy kids in front of me.

We crossed the border with no problems. The bus service is responsible for doing a lot of the paper work, so that made it easy.

We take a cab to downtown Granada and have lunch before obtaining a room. We must of walked across the central downtown three times comparing prices before settling on the Hotel Alfambra.

Walked around the spanish colonial downtown before heading to the lakefront. We just missed the large horse parade, but we didn't miss the bull fight. This was not a traditional bull fight, no bulls died. But they did harasas the bulls enough to make them very angry. Than they set some teenager boy on the bull and let them loose in a pin just larger than a basketball court. Than inside the pin boys and men of all ages would taunt the bull trying to get it to chase them. Some would have a red blanket. If the bull charged them they would dive under the fence or climb over it. We only saw one guy get seriously gored. We only lasted for two bulls, I think somebody said they were going to go through 14 bulls.

It was really sad seeing the bulls being taunted, the horn section was blazing in the back of our heads, the crowd began to surge forward into personal space because we had front row seats, the ancient wooden stadium was swaying precariously under the load of the anxious crowd, mothers could be seen down near the pin preventing their boys from entering the pin, and with my barf bag still in my pocket unused it was time to find our bed for the night.

Some 50
+ Pictures of Trip





Day two was spent walking historic and colonial Granada. I was happy to learn at the local museum that Granada is beautiful because of a plan implemented during the 80's and 90's to protect the historical charm of city. Successful plans are cool to see after the fact. Beautiful cities don't just happen, they are grown with plans. I went to planning school.



Day 3 was spent on Ometepe. Ometepe is the largest island in a fresh water lake. It is two volcanoes connected by an isthmus.

And I thought that I didn't like snakes.

We have a house cleaner come once per week because we are lazy bastards and its fairly cheap down here. Well she came over today and was doing her thing for a couple hours when she came running down from upstairs hysterical. She was sobbing and shaking. She was mumbling something about a serpent upstairs. I actually started to get scared too at the thought of a snake in the upstairs of our house. Then it hit me. While at the Bioparque the other day Luis had bought us a wooden snake at the gift shop. It is one of those green ones with all the segments so it kind of moves like a real snake when you play with it. She was scared to death of it. I went upstairs and just the head was poking out from under a bag. She told me that she has a phobia of snakes. The rest of the time that she was here cleaning she was sobbing.

Mental note: hide the pet snakes before she comes over next time.

My cat is not stupid.

My mom offended me the other day while she was here.  We were upstairs on the roof-deck hanging out in the sun and my cat Vida poked her head out the door.  She is not supposed to get on the roof because she will hop onto the roof which connects our apartments to our neighbors’.  If their upstairs doors are open then she will wander into their apartments.  She has been banned from the roof for a while now.

So she poked her head out the door and was just kind of staring into space like cats who are about to do something bad do.  My mom said “Your cat isn’t too smart is she?  She is just staring into space.”  I puffed up and defended my cat.  I just told her to watch and learn.   After a bit Vida slinked back into the upstairs door out of site.  Then about 30 seconds later she comes running out the door.  She runs full speed at the spot where she jumps onto to get on the roof.  I run after her and right before she makes a clean getaway onto the roof I grab her by the fur on her back and carry her like a suitcase back into the house.  The funny part was that once I grabbed her she didn’t fight it.  Busted.

That proved to my mom that my cat is a diabolical little bastard.  I also think that Vida only does stuff like that because she knows that I don’t want her to.

On a side note, Roberta and my mom will be getting back from Nicaragua either today or tomorrow.  Sounds like they have had a wonderful time.  They saw a real bull fight and went to Omatepe.  Also Roberta said that she got me a present that money couldn’t buy.  Hopefully that present is them getting back without being abducted.  I can’t wait.

Vamanos Pal Monte

Roberta and my mom left to Nicaragua for a few days so I am home all alone. Not bored by any means. Although I do eat crappier and watch more TV. For dinner I polished off a half bag of chips and a chunk of cheese. Mmmm..

Anyhow, before they left for Nicaragua we went up to the White House above Escazu for a "fancy" lunch. I quoted the fancy because it was really poor quality food at high dollar prices. My mom put it best in that the food could be served at Denny's. $4 for an Imperial and $3 for glass of Coke for example. Don't waste your time on eating up there although they went to the Spa after lunch and absolutely loved it.

Here are some pictures of the trip to the White House and the following day at the IN Bioparque in Heredia.

Click for pictures



I have also been working on my recording projects so here is the first pass. Click on the Oral History or Music links to find them.

http://www.kingnerd.com

More on TetraPak

First off I want to thank Jim and Joan for their kind offer of help. Unfortunately the current recycling problem is with Dos Pinos. TetraPak, I'm told, has a strong commitment to environmental stewardism. The environmental committee I've been working with has had a trouble getting an initial meeting with Dos Pinos to get this ball rolling.

A student from Earth University here in Costa Rica did a major research project on TetraPak and the recycling possibility and has given me permission to post here, but blogger does not seem to support posting powerpoint. If you are interested in reading this powerpoint (in english) please e-mail me and I will forward it. Or if somebody has an FTP site that I could host it too, please let me know.

I will be in Nicaragua for the next couple days, but will respond after that.

Also one big EEEWWWW, a very large cockroach just ran across my keyboard....adventure blogging!

Recent Happenings

I haven't posted in a while so here's what's been happening lately.

-We found the organic farmers market. It took a bit of a fortitude to find this place. We picked up our friend Clair and we go to the round about where she thinks it is, but we can't find it. She calls her friend and they speak in French and so we figure we are at the wrong round about. So we finally find it. This market was a bit smaller than the big market we are used to. There is much nicer produce though. The white pineapples are about half the size as the non-organic. There are more prepared food at the organic market such as cheese, breads, jams, and yogurt. We'll have to go back and test these things later. Seems like there is a community of people that go there every weekend. Maybe they will let us join their club.

-We went to see Madame Butterfly. Adam didn't want to go so we met up with some other friends and Charlotte and I went. Adam's mom, Charlotte is in town for the next 'not three weeks'. It's 'not three weeks' because Adam's dad Gene bought a ticket for 20 days instead of a week or two so that he could save $40 dollars. Get it, "Not three weeks" aka twenty days? Anyhoo Madame butterfly was in Italian with Spanish subtitles. I could mostly follow what was happening, but it was kind of hard to appreciate the art of opera when you are reading the subtitles in a foreign language. Shar reassured us what was happening with the plot line. At least somebody in our group new what this play was about. Costa Rica brought in some professional opera singers and orchestra director. It was mostly a very professional production. Remember, you are in a Central American country. But, you could tell the level of professionalism between the Japanese and Costa Rican artists, just the mannerism and stage presence.

-Charlotte and I are heading to Nicaragua for three day. I have to leave the country for 72 hours to renew my passport. Since I am on a tourist visa you have to leave the country every 90 days for 72 hours.

I received a bunch of e-mails with pictures of my family back in the states so I will post those since I don't have any other good pictures. We'll have some when we get back from Nicarauga.

Oregon Family Pictures

The Patron Saint of Costa: La Negrita

Roberta and I were driving back from seeing a movie last night and came across a huge traffic jam heading towards the San Pedro mall. We took some side streets and were confronted with huge masses of people walking down the road that goes from San Joes to Tres Rios. Thousands of people happily strolling east. Then we remembered that there was a large religious procession heading to Cartago. This was a constant stream of people about five wide for as far as we could see. Like salmon up a stream.

According to legend, on the morning of August 2, 1635, a young girl named Juana Pereira was out collecting wood to cook when she found the figure of the La Negrita on a rock that was the source of a water spring. Pereira took the figure home, but the next day the figure had disappeared and was again found on the rock.


Photo from infocostarica.com

Therefore, now over one million people walk from wherever they are in CR to the big church in Cartago and get there on the morning of August 2nd. Seeing as how there are only about 4 million people in Costa Rica that is a good chunk.

More info on La Negrita

CR: Paradise or Environmental Disaster?

So I went to the Costa Rican Democrats Abroad monthly speaker meeting. The speaker was introduced as the number one Costa Rican activists. But first they had a debate and openings and blah blah a lot of talking. Basically a bunch of retired people debating CAFTA, oil, war, upcoming elections. They track each state to make sure they are involved. They also do a lot of letter writing. Pretty active group, surprisingly.

Basically there are a number of environmental disasters going on down here:
1. Garbage! Lots of garbage. The city of San Jose's landfill is full and they still haven't finalized a contract for a new spot. Seems like there are some allegations of corruption.

2. Recycling! There are recycling facilities here, but there are not any pick up systems for it. So recycling is dependent on very poor people mining the trash for goods. I've volunteered on the environmental committee and we are going to be working on tetrapak. Tetrapak is from some European country that is encouraging recycling of their products by providing technical expertise, etc. Tetrapak is the packaging for soy milk, regular milk, wine, etc.... Wine from a box is popular down here because of the moist hot weather. You can get some good wine from a box! Milk in a box is also very popular down here. Unfortunately the queen activist mentioned earlier says that Dos Pinos (the big milk manufacurer and user of tetrapak) has been promising to establish a recycling program for years but hasn't.

3. Transportation! Ask anybody who lives here and they will tell you that the roads are hell. That's bad because it increases the maintanence on cars. But that's not the point. Taxes on cars are extremely high, therefore people hold onto older gas guzzling polluters for longer than they should (although getting new cars is a form of consumption), when higher efficiency vehicles could be used. Additionally the only people who use the busses are people who can't afford a car. The bus system down here is privately operated because their are market forces that insure that they will make money. Unfortunately these busses are also big polluters. I can't find the source, but I read an article that if the governemnt reduced the tax on cars pollution would go down because people would buy more fuel efficient cars. I'm not sure, that just might encourage people to buy more cars. Needless to say in San Jose pollution is a pretty big deal. The government has an incentive to reduce it, nationalized health care has to pay for all of the ailments attributed to pollution.

4. Chemicals! There are chemicals here for everything. Every public bathroom you go into is laced with these smelly pucks. They make my nose burn worse than any thing else you would smell in a bathroom down here. In San Jose the bathrooms seem generally cleaner, I don't think they need all those smelly crap pucks. They should just put flowers in the bathrooms. We have a bouquet of flowers in our house and you can smell it outside before you even walk in the house, mmmmm beautiful flowers for super cheap. No seriously though Costa Rica has the worst record for banning dangerous chemicals. This activist passed around a list of Central American countries and the chemicals they've banned. Costa Rica had the lowest number of banned chemicals, something like 23; whereas Nica, Guat, Hond, Pan and other countries had higher numbers of banned chemicals. Assuming banning more chemicals is better. According to the speaker the government officials say yes they are working on it, but they never are and have no intention of working on it. Remember this is costa rican culture. It's better to tell somebody a lie than to tell them the truth if you think it will cause ill feeling. Kind of like the ill feeling I have in my nose from chemical pucks.

5. Endangered Species: Everybody knows that Costa Rica has some of the highest concentrations of wildlife diversity than anywhere on the planet. The Costa Rican government has placed protections on certain species. Take for instance certain species of trees. There are a numbered of endangered trees that have been listed. The problem is that the guards who are suppose to be on the look out for these special trees do not know how to identify them. So there is very little enforcement of these laws. There are a lot more species in danger that she elaborated on but I can't remember enough of the details.

6. Shark finning: Shark finning is when they capture a bunch of sharks hack off the fins and sell them to the Taiwanese who use it for an aphrodesiac. Can't they just use ginger or X, com on! Completely illegal but it happens anyways. Shark numbers have been going down drastically in the last few years. The costa rican government is suppose to send an official on every boat to watch out for this but they never do. They don't have enough resources.

Funny joke, my friend Abby who works at the Tico Times has been doing a great job of following the shark finning problem and writing about it. When they heard that Shar Cayman was coming to town they gave her a nickname: Shark Coming. They have a cute little dance that goes with it. Shar was a good sport and laughs, but won't answer to the nickname.

Read more about it here

Rio Picaure

So Shar and I just got back from a two day rafting trip on the River Picaure. It was so much fun.

First we get picked up in downtown San Jose at the Gran Hotel Costa Rica. Than we drive about an hour and a half to the rafting company headquarters and have breakfast. Than drive a few more minutes to the river. We let the other one day groups go than we pack up the rafts and head down. This was a pretty active river, with a lot of section 3's and 4's with very few flat spots. I would say that it was more intense than the Rogue River and the Deschutes, but not the Klamath River. The river was the best part about the tour. The scenery, the smells and the rapids were amazing. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures on the river because the river was so active there were very few spots to get the camera out and take pictures.

The guides were very nice and the company was very organized. You never know with Costa Rica what you are going to get but this company had their shit together, so to speak. The lodge was rustic, but very nice. It had hot water, which is more than you can say for some hotels. They cooked all the meals. They were not gourment, but very nice. The best part was the view from the dining hall.



We also had a chance to do some canopy touring, which is just a bunch of cables strung across trees and you just zip down the line. I guess it's just scary because you are so high up. You just step off this platform into nothing, you are just hooked to this cable. I guess if you are a climber you might be used to this. This canopy tour was included in the package so I did it, but I don't think I would pay to do a canopy tour. I kind of saw it as a way to entertain tourists in the jungles. If the terrain, new smells, sights, animals, plants, bugs weren't enough to keep you entertained, which they are for me, they will take you up into this canopy tour and scare the crap out of you if you are afraid of heights, which I'm not. Though, the bugs and the snakes on the ground really scare me.

You can see the rest of the Rio Pacaures pictures.

I am not a Tica whore

There are pros and cons to looking like a Tica (Costa Rican woman). Brown hair, brown eyes and olive skin go a long way in avoiding taxi drivers ripping you off, random cat calls and stupid stuff Latin guys say to gringas. I know this because I was walking around town with my friend Shar who is really tall and a real redhead. We got soooo many rude cat calls and the taxi drivers trying to jack the prices up.

It's not that bad when I am walking around with Adam. The taxi drivers sometimes try to jack us but luckily there are no cat calls. The flip side to that is people think I'm a Tica who has just found herself an American sugar daddy. You can see the looks and you know what they are thinking. It's not unusual to see some young Tica girl with an older man walking out of the Del Rey hotel, a notorious prostitution house. Prostitution is legal here and 'sex vacations' are pretty big here.

Sex vacations are guys coming down here for a 'fishing trip', where they catch more than fish on the boats. If their wives want to come they just leave their wives at a spa or medical facility where she can get a quick nip and tuck. Adam and I found this out by sitting next to a guy on the plane that was a pimp. Yes, a pimp! He had a charter fishing boat.

But no, I am not a Tica whore, I do have a real job.

Ok ok breathe....

I have been holding back the criticism of Houston Texas just because "If you don't have anything nice to say". That was until I went to the mall to go to the book store to get a few English books before heading back to CR. I went to the Galleria mall which is huge. It had all the money stores in it. My urge to run away was strong while in this mall. I was able to find my way to the book store and it was tiny. Probably slightly larger than one of the three Starbucks that I passed on the way there. I actually laughed out loud when I saw it. Coming from Portland where book stores can take up whole city blocks and be four stories tall.

Needless to say they didn't have any of the books that I was looking for so I got Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. I really enjoyed The Davinci Code and have heard that A&Ds was good too.

Job Duties

Yesterday I flew from Costa Rica to Houston for work. When I got to Houston I realized that I didn't have my driver's license, it was waiting for me in my PO box in town. That meant that I couldn't get the rental car that I had reserved. I hopped into a cab at the airport and started heading towards town. The guy driving was of latino descent so I started talking to him in Spanish. He could speak English but he was excited that a gringo could actually understand and (sort of) speak Spanish. He was from Guatamala and had been in Texas for 15 years. Originally in Guatamala he was a teacher and had some good advice on learning Spanish.

1) Buy a dictionary
2) Live where you are required to speak/listen to Spanish daily.
3) Watch telenovelas (Soaps) on TV.

Roberta has always said that she is watching the telenovelas to learn Spanish. I always made fun of her in the past. Sorry.

The Tico Time's Girls

If you get the Tico Times you will know that this week there was an 'entertainment' section where the Tico Times describes Karaoke in Costa Rica. There were some great photos of people singing their hearts out.

Backup a little bit...

So a friend from the United States introduced me to her friend Shar via e-mail. Shar just moved to Costa Rica and will be teaching at a private school Escazu, she's been staying with us for the last week. Shar was introduced to another teacher who knows some reporters at the Tico Times, who used to work at the same private school (it's a very small world in the english speaking circles of Costa Rica).

Well we meet the girls at a popular taxi pick up place, and low and behold the pictures in the newspaper matches who we are having dinner with. Needless to say there was a lot of teasing going on. But, I guess Karaoke is very popular with the Tico Times crew.

We end up at Machu Pichu (after getting ripped off my the cab driver, grrr). Machu Pichu is a very famous Peruvian restaurant that sells pisco sours. Pisco sours are now my new favorite drink, not that I drink that much. They are made out of some sort of brandy, lemon juice, and sugar. The brandy has a higher alchohol content than vodka so the first drink is all you need, but that is different than how much you want! By the second pisco sour we were ready to head to the karaoke bar. Luckily it was so crowded that only one person from our crowd made it up to sing. After that we went home because I just can't do that all night thing anymore, especially with karaoke involved.

Here is a picture of Shar,Roberta, and Adam.

Click for pic

Straight razors in the mechanic district.

That sounds like a good band name even though that is what I did today.

Two days ago our wonderful truck that we got a deal on overheated. Luckily we caught it before all the water drained out of the motor. We were heading over to try the restaurant Matsuri Sushi in Plaza Cristal in San Pedro. Right when we pull in the parking lot I smelled motor water in aerosol form. I look over at the temperature gauge and it is pegged. We pull over quickly and watch all the water drain out of the motor.

That set a nice mood for eating dinner. The sushi was ok but so damn expensive. The Spider Roll was very fishy and oddly crunchy. I don't think that we will eat sushi in Costa Rica again.

Anyhow, back to the story, we had to leave the truck in the parking lot at plaza Cristal for the evening and our mechanic came the next day and towed it to his shop. Turned out a water hose had cracked. He replaced the hose and that fixed it.

Our mechanic is over by Plaza Vicquez which is where we swim for lunch. After swimming today I walked over to the mechanic's and noticed a barber on the corner. After paying for the truck I went back and got my hair cut. I got my point across that I wanted to get it all shaved off. After shaving my head with an electric razor he busted out the straight razor and started to even everything up. All that I could think was "What is the Spanish word for ouch?", especially when he started shaving my neck. No blood, the guy was good. Good job for about $3.

Now I need to find some people who want to start and band and call it "Straight Razors in the Mechanic District".

You won't like me when I'm angry.

We went and saw Batman last night again for the second time, great movie by the way. We got back home at around midnight and I tried to check email and such and noticed that the internet was down. I decided that it could wait until morning.

It was still broken this morning so I called up tech support and the guy on the phone said that it was a problem with my computer. I hate having to pull the "I do computer networking for a living." bit but after about 30 minutes of him telling me that I needed to take my computer to a technician I did. It didn't help. Lo and behold, it made it to the front page of the paper this morning that ICE screwed up a router and knocked out internet service. But the funny part was that they broke the router last night and when I called this morning they didn't inform me that there was a current known problem.

It takes a lot to make me rant. Breaking my internet and then telling me that I need to take my computer to a professional is probably the easiest way. I am gonna head to a dark room and do some breathing exercise.

Sunny day trip to the park

Roberta and I had been meaning to go to this park where they fly kites and check it out. It was a sunny Sunday so we decided to go. It was packed with people and there was the usual kid chaos and there were ponies and a ton of people flying kites. The pictures will speak for themselves.

Pictures of the park

4th of July Picnic

We went to the 4th of July picnic and had a great time. There were probably a few thousand people there. It was very similar to going to a county fair except without the animals. A petting zoo here would be kinda sad since the animals are so skinny because it is so hot(except my kitty). I really think that the pictures and captions will speak for themselves.

Pictures here

Bzzzt zap crzzzzt!!!

For a lunch break today I decided to drive over to my favorite Cuban cigar store to pick up a couple for the party tomorrow(I will get back to the party). I was driving my normal route and typically where I take this one left right after a bank there were a bunch of cars stopped. I had my window rolled down and I heard what sounded like a crew of workers demolishing something. Almost like a jackhammer crossed with an arc welder. A guy came running to the end of the street and waved us on past that street. At that point I heard a Firetruck coming. The traffic started to move and as I drove by the road I saw that there was a powerline down in the middle of the road arcing. Huge showers of sparks and really loud poppings. The cable was literally jumping around the street like a firehose. Exciting.

Ok, now back to the party.

There is a huge party tomorrow to celebrate the 4th of July. It is put on by the US Embassy and has an expected turnout of around 5000 Americans. You have to show a valid passport to get in and there is all the free beer, cotton candy, icecream, bagels, etc that you can handle. There are games and two stages with music and performers and a water balloon toss and much more. Sounds like a crazy messed up zoo. Should be fun. Oh yeah, the best part is that it is from 8:00AM until noon. You have to have it that early because it starts raining at around 1:00 every day.