www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Zebra

Those words describe a great philosophy to live by and would be very useful indeed.
Thank you.

Muffdiver

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Respectfully,

Muff

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So has it been established that the blood pressure guys are legit or not. I don't think they are because I saw them at DR one night and two days later I saw them in Jaco.


Xman

I overheard the lady talking to my buddies at the NY Bar on two separate occasions...once last April...and again this month. It turns out she is a Quaker from Burlington County in South Jersey. I believe if she really wants to help the impoverished ch*ldren of the world, she should focus on the ones closer to home...like Camden, NJ.

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Blue Devil

Pura Vida...enjoying life to the fullest...

The problem with that is.....her home now is not Camden, New Jersey. She's lived in San Jose, Costa Rica for at least the past 20 years.

Zebra

I soke with the Gringa in question last January when she came into the New York Bar collecting donations.

She gave me an brochure with her organizations website and the address of her organization's location in Desamparados.

Apparently, they help Ch*ldren and battered women.

I know they're tons of both in Desamparados.

She invited me to visit her organization's address/house in Desamparados and to see for myself.

I gave her some money.

I checked out her organization's website and it seems legit even if it's heavy into the religious stuff (crap)...did you say that?)

Anyway, this discussion reminds me of a converastion I had with an old timer in the New York Bar....he said he went one day to visit Nicaragua and to see the buildings in Grenada....

well, he was bugged non-stop by begggers. Finally, he said, a priest hit him up for a donation...he started to blow off the priest, but the priest told him to come along for a moment and to see the conditions the priest was talking about....

the old timer follwed the priest and said he saw such poverty and desperation that he felt ashamed and gave the priest all his money and begged the priest to take him away from all of it....

I know all the guys on this thread have good hearts and have given many, many donations to different individuals/organizations....

however, I do understand the frustration with rampant and incesssant demands for donations and the difficulty in figuring out the legit from the fraudalent ones.....

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The difference between a Sea Story and a Fairy Tale is that a Fairy Tale starts out 'Once Upon a Time..' and a Sea Story starts out 'This is no Shit...'

(export version only, some restrictions may apply, some assembly required, not valid where the sun don't shine...

if you live in the states of Poverty, Darkness or anywhere outside of The Blessings of Civilization Trust, Inc...other rules may apply)

I just uploaded a photo taken in front of the Hotel Presidente showing three tourists surrounded by six street vendors or beggars.
A guy selling flutes, a shoeshine guy, unknown vendor, some guy selling art work, a beggar and finally a guy selling fake Cuban cigars.

This is why the sidewalk in front of the Hotel Presidente and Hotel Del Rey is so crowded.

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PacoLoco: "You pay for it one way or another."
Ace: "Rent everything, do not buy in Costa Rica"

While i was in Costa Rica, both Witling and RBC100 gently chided me for being too nice to the beggars. I could feel the desperation from the street urchins, and I always tossed fifty colones or so, sometimes giving as much as a whopping 100 (20 cents). It didn't kill me and it made me feel good at the time. My regular driver Memo told me that I shouldn't do it; that these little bastards were actually collecting crack money for themselves and their handlers. The idea of an eleven year old street boy begging money to smoke a rock repels me.

There was a guy in Minneapolis who was well known. Blind, he sat every day outside the Medical Arts building on Nicollet Mall, selling pencils and Bic pens from a tray. He was always neatly dressed in suit and tie, was always polite, gave directions to lost tourists and was generally well regarded by local folks. The cops never hassled him.

After doing his begging routine for nearly forty years, a local TV station revealed that this guy owned a $350,000.00 home in an exclusive suburb of Minneapolis. Keep in mind, $350,000 in 1983 (the year the story broke) in Minneapolis would be equivalent to a $2.4 million home on Long Island or in a nice town in NJ today.

I'm not opposed to helping the needy, and I've often tossed coins or given lunch money to a vagrant. Despite the cons and scams, perhaps I am too easy a mark, too soft a touch... because even with all I know, I'll still give coins to beggars in San Jose. Maybe I'm part of the problem? Incidentally, the little beggar-bastards became my friends, giving me guidance, helping me across streets etc. One K*D even called me the Blind Angel.

Angel, I ain't...

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Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

Yes, I can attest to the fact that most of the young beggar boys on the street are using crack. I witnessed it several times first hand, watching as they lit up crack pipes in the vicinity of the New York Bar. One boy, in particular, who the day before begged me for money, rubbing his belly and saying "comida, comida." The next day as I saw this boy lighting the pipe, I said to him "comida, comida?.......no, crack, crack!" He said nothing in response.

Zebra

Heya Ace I checked out that picture what is that hot tica selling )

Surfdog