Well, here it is kids, I’m headed to Costa Rica again. Similar drill as last time, except this time I had no errands to run in the US, so I’ve simply bussed down to Seattle, and I am in the Radisson Hotel, which by the way is an amazing hotel. My room is very comfortable with a King size bed and a separate living room with a couch, and a nice office piece.

Won’t be writing much as I’m very sleepy right now - just wanted to give you guys a heads up on the upcoming ventures.

There’s a very good chance I will be hooking up with Gary Lee and Danielle Nagami in Las Vegas to have some threesome fun (eh-hem).

Photos coming up - beware!

The airline lost one of my luggages. Thankfully my guitar in its hardshell case turned up fine, however, my big suitcase which contains my suit, toiletries, clothes, shoes, as well as some coffee liquer I bought for some friends, did NOT show up at the airport. I’m crossing my fingers that it has not been stolen or anything like that.

One thing that continues to amaze me is the complete lack of security at the baggage claim section. They have almost zero method of preventing anybody from taking another person’s suitcase and taking off. I know it sounds like negative thinking, and I really bloody well hope it is not stolen - that it is simply in transit somewhere on a wrong plane, to eventually make it back.

Yes, that was the shiny ending to my fabulous trip in Costa Rica.

Many of you have been asking what the hell I am doing in Costa Rica on this business trip of mine, and I’ve held off explaining it for a while. But as the trip is winding down to an end (I fly out of Costa Rica tomorrow, Tuesday), I would like to disclose a little bit of it.

I am working with some people who have the right connections to provide marketing, design as well as other operational assistance to recruit skilled tradespeople from Costa Rica (and in the future, other countries) to work in Canada. The agencies set up in both countries provide the training, integration services and what not. As some of you may be aware, Canada is going into a labour shortage (or already is in one), especially in the skilled trade and construction industry, as well as the hospitality industry.

This is not my own venture, but rather one I am involved in, with an undisclosed amount of renumeration in some other undisclosed methods of payment (don’t get me wrong - I’m not rich yet, if you are able to read between the lines). I obviously do not have the kind of funds or the credit to arrange trips, invest in marketing, organize events and gatherings of government officials and other important figures in the industries, but I am involved as the right-hand man to my client. In the future we plan to venture into other countries (mainly Korea, as I already have connections, not to mention I already speak perfect Korean) to supplement the demand for foreign workers.

This has been a challenging venture for many businesspeople and they have failed due to any combination of barriers poised by bureaucracies, inefficiencies in the government systems, funding, getting the right support from the destination countries etc., and we feel that we have found some good ways to get around those things, and we have made a lot of the right connections so far in both Canada, Costa Rica, and Korea, spanning across the public and private sectors. After all, business at this level involves who you know and who likes you and how influential you are, as well as the guts to spend some of your own money before any funding is given or revenue is made.

I can’t divulge any more details in terms of names and what not until a few months later but it should be a very interesting project to keep a tab on. All I can say at this point is that we have a great team of energetic and ambitious people together to get things done.

On the side while my client and myself were staying in Costa Rica, we got deeply involved with a large real estate development company here, and I will be involved in the marketing of such things through North American channels as well. You may be asking how I can venture into so many different branches of businesses - I won’t be doing it all obviously. I have a talented and reliable network of designers, developers, marketeers, printers, and other human resources to assemble and outsource to at the snap of a finger (or more literally, a phonecall or two), and I have strong confidence that it is one of the most highly qualified team of marketing engineers (it’s a term I just coined) you can find.

I am still closely involved with my existing clients in Vancouver who rely heavily on me for my marketing and design services, and that won’t stop either. But any new clients will be accepted in a very selective manner, and I am already sending out many projects to my associates. So I’ve got a busy few years ahead of me as everything is taking a more clear form.

This blog won’t be another one of those “How to blog to make money” or “How to do affiliate marketing” or any of that sort - that’s over saturated. Blogs existing for the sake of figuring out how to make money from itself is another fad that is all over the place, just like how the .COM companies spread up like bean sprouts and then got weeded out. Instead I will be talking more about my businesses and my strategies, as well as the challenges I face in these businesses, and quite frankly I don’t care how much money I make off Google adsense - I just love writing and sharing.

If you’re wondering how a 21 year old, who grew up through his family finances going into demise, who only graduated highschool (partly because he couldn’t afford university) can land such offers and become successful, and venture into foreign countries to do business, read on.

If you would like to see some past photos and stories from Costa Rica over the last month from my stay, these are the posts.

Jeff In Costa Rica - June 26~June 28

Jeff In Costa Rica - June 29

Jeff In Costa Rica - July 1st

Jeff In Costa Rica - July 2nd & July 3rd

Jeff In Costa Rica - July 4th ~ July 6th

Jeff In Costa Rica - July 4th

Jeff In Costa Rica - July 17th~20th

On the evening of the 17th I was out on the deck playing my guitar, and while I was doing so, our dog, named Bella, fell asleep in my guitar case. What an adorable photo!

Her neck fits perfectly into the slot where the neck of my acoustic guitar (named Layla) fits in! She loves my guitar case and goes into it whenever I have it open!

On the 18th we took a plane out to a beach called the Tambor beach. It’s on the outskirt coast, on the peninsula off the Pacific ocean. It was a 12 seater plane plus seats for the pilots - a small plane that gives you a bit of a bumpy ride which makes it so much more interesting. I’m sure it would make some people sketchy though.

It was the smallest plane I’ve ever been on, through the slackest airport security I’ve ever experienced, with the most informal looking tickets ever. The tickets honestly resembled the stubs you get at government offices or banks with your number on it to tell you when it’s your turn to deal with the idiot employee behind the counter!

I had the fortune of sitting right behind the pilots’ seats, so I got to see how the controls work and all while we flew! Also, this was the first time I managed to see the runway ahead of me as the plane takes off/lands, instead of out to the side. This was really cool actually.

We landed at the Airplane Stop. I call it that because it really looks more like a bus-station with a runway attached to it. There’s the runway, a fence, and a covered bench that pretty much looks like a bus-stop! There are taxis waiting outside to pick up the passengers.

We stayed at the guest house of this property owned by a guy named David. He’s from Victoria, BC, and he owns a large property out here in Mal Pais. The property consists of a small bilingual school, some houses for himself, family, vacation rental and guests, as well as a soccer field, tennis court, weight-room, and tonnes of open ground with trees and grass and iguanas running around.

There’s David and my client, walking onto the soccer field which leads to the school buildings. This place also had dial-up internet, with a linksys G-class router attached to it. What a mismatch!

I went out to the beach to explore. Here are some beautiful beach shots of this uncrowded beach!

Well, I know I said there were no photos for July 4th but I had completely forgotten about the cocktail party we had that night.

It was at the La Monastere Restaurant which is one of the most upscale restaurant-bars in San Jose, on a mountain side which offers great views from the dining lounge. However, we were in the La Cava, which is a cave in the mountain, usually used for reserved parties. In the photos you can see the walls are natural stone. It is literally carved out of the mountain and was reserved exclusively for us with its own bar, and its own music stage. We had some very influential figures in Costa Rica there. Unfortunately the President of Costa Rica never made it, but the Director of Immigration, as well as some of the top surgeons and dentists along with some land developers and other figures were present.

Also note the two very beautiful girls - they were brought in by a modelling agency in Costa Rica that we have a connection with, to entertain the crowd and take care of the guest registry!

It so happens that I’m a musician - I did some great songs after I took over from the other dude on the classical guitar. The bassist was very talented and followed my lead well even on songs he did not know!!

And after such a performance come the rewards.

The model in the black dress named Ingrid was a good dancer and believe it or not I kept up with her Latin dancing (or she kept up with me).

The women took turns with me. I felt like a 10 cent whore and it felt damn good!

Booty booty booty booty booty booty booty… yeah.

Many of you are asking “Why are you in Costa Rica, Jeff? What business are you involved in?” Well, I promise to reveal these to you all in time, but at this moment the details are being ironed out between us, the Canadian gov’t people as well as the Costa Rican gov’t people, and we are still in the process of recruiting some bilingual assistants and what not, and the details are changing at times. I won’t reveal anything but the fact that the business plan is developing quite well, and also that I am very much enjoying my fabulous trip to Costa Rica.

July 4th was a photo-less day. We had a meeting with the Minister of Labour, Sr. Morales, at his office in San Jose, Costa Rica. He as well as his directers and aides attended the meeting, and we were a party of 4 ourselves. I wasn’t going to snap photos at such a spot, obviously.

July 5th - Friday was the beginning of our days off, and we took off to a resort owned by my client’s old family friends, in the San Carlos region. It’s called the Tilajari Resort. It is a 2.5 hour drive, but we sent our driver off with our luggage, and we took a helicoptor in the morning.

I’m not supposed to do that but I managed to climb on while the airfield staff were not around. It was a private airfield.

There’s the rest of my group onboard before take-off.

View of the city right after taking off.

Foggy countryside of Costa Rica

More fields, ranches, pastures, trees and all that stuff.

These gorges are incredibly deep, although you cannot see how deep it is. The gorges are all covered with thick forrests like this.

A mill that my client used to own/run. Well, she still owns it but nothing goes on other than land value increase.

Fields after fields of crop.

We arrived at the resort within 30 minutes of take-off, even after circling and zig-zagging a bit trying to find that mill that my client used to run! We landed on their soccer field.

The first thing I noticed was the wealth of wild animals in the resort. Here are some gigantic iguanas!!!

An array of tropical plants.

This is the trail/driveway that runs through it.

Unfortunately I was having too much fun that I forgot to take photos of the pool and jacuzzi… sorry. But apparanlty I’m being treated to that place again before I leave so I’ll see what I can do!

We had a fabulous dinner with the owners of the resort:

Notice the orange canister of “Off” bug spray? Yeah, most place in Costa Rica has a lot of mosquitos, and you need to diligently keep that stuff on you to avoid itchy spots.

The downside of this resort was the fact that they had no wireless internet whatsoever, but instead, 1 computer with a small CRT monitor, which was hooked up to a 12kb/s dial-up type modem (a Motorola Brand) which was basically hell for me. Considering that Cable internet is rated at 100Mbps (although you never get the full speed), this internet speed was 1/8333 of the usual speed I am used to!!! One of the reasons why it’s tough to get internet into rural places in Costa Rica is that the telecommunications industry is under a monopoly through a government agency, and that is simply destined to bring inefficiency, lack of speed and service to the industry.

We came back to San Jose today by car. The drive would have been beautiful had it not been for the fog on the way - no pictures of the white misty landscape.

July 2nd :

A few days ago my client bought a puppy (she’ll be living here, more or less, so she bought a house and a puppy, and will be buying a car soon too), so I thought I’d put some photos up.

The dog literally licked my eyeball in that photo actually. If the camera went off a few tenth of a second earlier it would have caught the disgusting moment. And as you can tell by the big noticeable red spots on my face, there are mosquitos in Costa Rica. The rest.. well. Do I need a facial or something?

The dog’s name is Bella, and she loves the new place.

At night, our good friend Jose, who is in charge of driving us while we’re here (that’s right, I have a maid and a driver! muhahaha), took me out to the bars while the rest of the group did their own things. We went out about 15 minutes away from where our house is at, and checked out some bars.

I tried talking to some Latin girls but my Spanish is still weak so I had no luck. But then I met some beautiful girls from the USA. Here they are :

From the left : Dori (I hope my memory is correct), Jose-Migul, Myself, and Kristen. Odd thing : Vancouver’s area code (aka my area code) is 604, and Kristen, who is from New Hampshire, USA, has an area code of 603. I wonder how area codes are distributed anyways…

July 3rd:

On July 2nd, we picked up our friend, Sukh Dhaliwal, who happens to be a Canadian Liberal Party MP (Member of Parliament… US equivalent would be a Congressman, if you don’t know what that position is) in the Greater Vancouver Area. Today we picked up our friend Jag, who is visiting and is interested in buying property in Costa Rica.

Our friends Carmen and George (in espanol, pronounced “Hor-Hei”), who are local developers of fine condos and beachside properties, as well as the above mentioned parties, and our friend and driver, Jose-Migul, who is a 23 year old local guy who knows his way around, went out for dinner. We went to a place that is supposed to be one of the top places in Costa Rica for steaks.

From the left : Sukh Dhaliwal, Myself, Carmen, George, My client, her friend, and Jose-Migul.

The veal steak I had was delicious, but it’s pretty common - a steak, so I didn’t bother taking a picture of that dish. However, there is this thing called “Palmito”, although I’m not sure if it is spelled that way. It’s the center of a palm tree trunk, and it is a delicacy in Central America. And, apparantly it’s illegal, and not served in too many restaurants. But it’s a country where you can get off with $50 US if you get pulled over after drinking and driving - for a restaurant of this statute in this country, they could serve up Pandas and get away with it!

It’s a very soft, tender appetizer, and it had an interesting taste to it - a very clean and mild one yet with some sort of taste. It was served with that sauce (I believe it’s a special kind of tomato sauce) and other vegetables such as avocadoes on the side. It was quite an experience.

The best part of this :  dining out at one of the finest restaurants in San Jose, Costa Rica, cost us only $125 US. A meal like this in an exquisite restaurant in Vancouver for 6 of us, with drinks, would have easiliy blown $1,500!!! How?

Well, the bill came to about $250 US, or, 104,918 colones (Costa Rican currency), but MasterCard is running a promotion in this country with select restaurants, where they burden 50% of any food bill on Tuesdays and Thursdays! So it came out to $125 or so, plus tip.

It was quite a dining experience. And, once again, the veal (baby beef) steak - so freaking delicious!!!