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Above: Molasses Avenue, Tamarindo. Easily discerned is the point where the molasses application ended. Molasses,
a plentiful byproduct of cane sugar refining, is commonly used as a dust suppressant on Costa Rican roads. (I made up the
name Molasses Avenue, in case you wondered.) The street is under construction and it is said there will be multiple lanes
and even sidewalks. But during my stay at Hotel Chocolate, which is situated on the right at the very point where the molasses
application ended, very little progress was made in construction.
Below: An example of a bache, which is the type of shanty where Nicas, the Nicaraguan construction
laborers who work for around $2 per hour, live in Tamarindo. There is electric power and, at a central point out back, running
water. The residents are all male, at least two per compartment, some sleeping on hammocks suspended from the ceiling. On
the morning I took this picture, some visitors in a car, including the woman seen at the right, had just arrived.
Lulu, the hog, lives in the enclosed yard across the alley. I used
this alley on my way to and from the beach and began leaving potato and cucumber peels on the step of the restaurant where
Lulu called for slops whenever she was released from her yard. In the background is Carminia Moncada's Rasta shop. Carminia
is one of the local activists opposed to high-density development. Her shop is adjacent to the sex shop and tattoo parlor.
A howler monkey
prowls one the
low-rise beachfront resorts.
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