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What a great way to celebrate the UN’s World Wildlife Day, than to introduce the second book in this series about children caring for animals. Title: Tortuga Squad-Kids Saving Sea Turtles in Costa Rica Written and photos by: Cathleen Burnham Additional photos by: … Continue reading →

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For this week’s crowdfunding profile, we travel to Central America where the husband-and-wife team of Guillermo Tovar C. and Nadia Mendoza A. is working feverishly to complete Costa Rica’s first full-length animated feature
“>The Esoteric Birthday (El Cumpleaños Esotérico)

. They have been working on the film for the past two years, and plan to finish it by this December. They describe their unconventional-looking movie as an “experimental digital” animated film:

The Esoteric Birthday tells the story of the coming of age of a peculiar little girl who is about to become a powerful witch. She has to undergo a ceremony of initiation that involves a series of dangerous trials. It all takes place in a fantastic and mysterious tropical island, with over 50 characters, like a group of intergalactic witchdoctors, a religious sect of wild animals, two cannibal Amazonian warrior twins, and lots and lots more.

Guillermo and Nadia, who operate as Interdimensional Studio, are asking for $25,000 for the post production which includes sound design, original music, and hiring a small crew of local animators for lighting, texturing and compositing. The entire 70-minute film will be released online at no charge after its festival run in 2014. The rewards they are offering include drawings from the pre-production phase and having a donor’s face drawn into the film as a background character. They have currently raised just over $4,000 with 51 days left in their campaign.

LINK to The Esoteric Birthday Indiegogo campaign

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My first "review" of 1O1 SECRETS! A KNAPSACK OF INSPIRATION AND HOPE is in, and it comes from a friend who is a very independent thinker. She and her husband Ron retired to Costa Rica. They built a home and turned one of the large rooms in their home into a local library out of the goodness of their hearts. And this is what she wrote about 101 SECRETS!:

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I’m just about done processing the piles of notes and ideas that I brought back from Costa Rica last month. I’ve shared highlights from the beginning of the trip here, and my sense of balance won’t let me move on until I’ve shared a bit from the end, too.

So … after four days on a butterfly farm in Guanacaste, my traveling companions and I set out for San Jose, where we would help collect, sort, package, and ship butterfly pupae from farms around Costa Rica. We took the long way in to the capital, though, in order to see more of the country. I was happiest here:

© Ellen Harasimowicz


That’s the volcano called Arenal, and I thoroughly enjoyed admiring it from the warm hot pools at its base. Thoroughly. I could have soaked there for days. Sadly, Ellen and Lea are CRAZY, and insisted that we dry off and go do this instead:




© Ellen Harasimowicz

Ziplines!

Oh, the stories I could tell! The pictures I could show! Zipling was absolutely the craziest thing I have ever done, and I struggled through every single moment of our eight zip descent. But I did it. And I think I remember a moment or two of pure exhilaration. (Okay, maybe it was only a few seconds. But I will remember them always.)

Once we were safely back in San Jose, I got to do things more my speed, like play with piles of pupae. Check it out:




© Ellen Harasimowicz



Ellen and I have put together a book proposal based on the story we documented in Costa Rica. Here’s to catching the eye of a publisher with it!

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I'm home! I’m home!

I’ve been home for days, actually, but unable to compose anything coherent about my trip to Costa Rica. It was an unforgettable adventure, an experience so rich with sensory details that I haven’t found a way to process them all yet. I’ve decided to start by sharing just one very small moment. Here it is:

© Loree Griffin Burns


Can you see the blue morpho caterpillars all over the leaves in the image? This is just one small branch of one small tree in a greenhouse full of trees. We are talking lots of caterpillars. It was the largest herd of caterpillars I have ever seen in one place. Their brilliant yellow bodies and hot pink hair tufts were stunning against the green leaves, especially as the sun set over the farm. Here's a closer look:



© Loree Griffin Burns


I took photo after photo, none of which did the sight justice. Eventually I gave up, and opted for simply watching them. In this tiny moment of defeat--during which I finally stopped making noise with my camera shutter--I was treated to the most astonishing thing: the sound of hundreds of caterpillars feeding together.

Who even knew such a sound existed? Or that human ears could hear it?

I didn't.

But now that I do, I plan to remember it always. As with the photos, my literal descriptions don’t quite do the sound justice. It was a wet noise. Sharp, but in a whispery sort of way. Nippy. Insistent.

I have pages and pages of trip notes and interviews to read through and transcribe in the coming days. And a book proposal to write. With any luck I'll find time to share more Costa Rican sights and sounds here, too. In the meanwhile, have a great week!

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