Down South Perspective

 Originally posted June 20, 2005

Dan Fowlie Returns, Part 1
by Allan Weisbecker

Note: The following was written and posted in June, 2005. The situation in Pavones has changed considerably, for me at least. I’m not there now and can never return, for one thing. My new book, Can’t You Get Along With Anyone? A Writer’s Memoir, and a Tale of a Lost Surfer’s Paradise tells the story. If you’re interested in Pavones, and certainly if you’re considering moving there or investing there, you should read it.

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Our dog honey enjoying the trail through the rainforest before Marc Sherman and Eric Kloos sent in their bulldozer

Honey… after the bulldozer

Trees killed and toppled, the watershed damaged, courtesy of Marc Sherman and Eric Kloos

Marc Sheman and Eric Kloos’s bulldozing of the rainforest was at the beginning of the rainy season – the worst possible time, since the ground cover is at a precarious state (of dryness) to begin with. The watershed damage appears to be long term. The water shown in the bottles came out of my kitchen faucet. It used to be clear.

Many of you have written wanting to hear of Dan Fowlie’s return to Pavones, which I briefly mentioned in my last DSP. (To a great degree, Fowlie “founded” Pavones back in the late ‘70s - a bit of his colorful history is recounted in my story, “A Night at the Cantina,” which appeared in The Surfer’s Journal and is archived on the Members Contents page.)

If I’m up to it, I’ll do my best on the story in upcoming DSPs. As I say, I’m committed to the screenplay right now. Please don’t write asking questions, although your personal anecdotes and stories about Fowlie and the old days are most welcome (I’ve gotten a bunch); I archive them for future reference.

Some of you may have noticed that on my site’s Your Paradise page, I’ve deleted the land listings. my girlfriend and I have a house we built near ours that will be listed soon — it will be my last involvement in the land business in Costa Rica. There are several reasons for this change of heart.

Over the last year or so, I’ve steered a couple land buyers to two of my neighbors, who are partners in the land-selling business. Marc Sherman and Eric Kloos are their names. Sherman is an old associate of Dan Fowlie; I first checked with Fowlie to make sure that the land Sherman was offering was not in fact Fowlie’s land – there are many examples down here of people selling land that is morally and ethically (and probably legally) Fowlie’s; land the title to which may in some way be tainted. Fowlie told me that he’d been in touch with Sherman and had no problem with him.

Turns out that Sherman HAD been selling land that was formerly Fowlie’s and (Fowlie asserts) still is. Whether the land in question really is Fowlie’s is not my point here (although, from the paperwork I’ve seen, I believe at least some of the land is Fowlie’s). The point is that it appears that Sherman lied to both Fowlie and to me.

And I contributed to the deceit by helping Sherman. This angers me and saddens me. (One of the results of Fowlie’s return to Pavones is that he’s started legal proceedings against Sherman and Kloos.)

Unfortunately, I did not keep record of the two people I sent to these guys, and now I hear that they have had problems getting clear title. So if you’re out there, I can only say I’m really sorry; I was duped, as was Fowlie. If it is indeed the case that you’re having title problems, get in touch with me. If it comes down to it, I’ll do what I can to help; and I’ll refund to you the (piddling) commission I got from Sherman.

In my last DSP I made reference to people “running amok with bulldozers in the rainforest.” This was also Sherman and Kloos, who (in theory) used the money I helped them make to cut a mile-long swath through the jungle up behind my house, in order to connect their land development to the main road. (This was to be a shortcut since they already had access via a public road.) The destruction was mostly through land that I believe really belongs to Fowlie, although someone else has title, according to the registry. The damage to the watershed was so severe that for a month the water coming from my house’s system was brown with mud.

When I (plus another person) notified the Costa Rican environmental police of Sherman and Kloos’s activities, Kloos retaliated by planting trees in front of my fence line to block my water view.

The End of the Road attracts the best and the worst of people.

If you have been thinking of buying land in Pavones and all this is making you nervous, fine: The End of the Road is not for nervous types. Truth is, buying land in Pavones (or anywhere else in Costa Rica) is just as safe (or dangerous) as in the States. With Pavones, however, there is one sure way of ensuring you won’t have future legal problems (aside from hiring a good lawyer to do a title search). Do what I did:

Call Dan Fowlie. (I actually traveled up the States to interview him.) I found him to be a goodhearted, honest person. (In our 8 hours of taped conversations, I did not catch him in a single inconsistency, never mind lie, and everything he said jibed with what I’d learned in Pavones, independently.)

So if you’re in the process of buying land in Pavones, email me and I’ll put you in touch with Dan Fowlie: include the plano number, description of the land, and the seller’s name. I will not give out contact information otherwise.

In researching the land conflict in Pavones (in 1997, for Men’s Journal) I could not find one single person who had anything negative to say about Dan Fowlie, which is amazing, given his controversial, borderline legendary image; even the precaristas (squatters) who had invaded his land liked him. Most said something to the effect that he has “un corazon grande,” a big heart. Recent stories in the Costa Rican press portraying Fowlie as somehow a threat to people in Pavones have, no doubt, been instigated by people who do indeed have something to fear from Fowlie: legal action. They are trying to discredit him, possibly have him banned from Costa Rica so he can’t defend himself in court.

A related issue: One of the contacts I made in 1997 was a higher up in the San Jose offices of the OIJ (the Costa Rican FBI). In talking to this fellow recently, I was informed that someone from Pavones recently told the local OIJ office that I should be investigated for my past criminal activities. We both got a laugh out of this, since if the OIJ or anyone else were inclined to investigate my past criminal activities they wouldn’t have to go far. They could just read my memoir, In Search of Captain Zero, which describes my pot running days back in the 1970s. The OIJ guy I was talking to in fact had a copy, which I gave him as a gift when the book was published in 2001. (Cops out to investigate me that are not in a hurry could wait for the movie version to come out.)

As a writer I’m always on the lookout for hypocrisies. Exposing them is more or less what I live for. Well, there’s a real beaut here. I’m pretty sure I know which of the people mentioned here informed on me to the OIJ. If so, it must have slipped his mind that he himself was a drug trafficker and recently too, not 35 years ago as in my case. Hard drugs, by the way, not pot. Great stuff, no? I mean, a hard drug trafficker pointing the finger, trying to discredit me (and, in effect, what I am writing here), figuring it will somehow take the heat off his nefarious land dealings.

Point being, though, is that I have to watch my back. Telling the truth can be dangerous.

A final note: I get an occasional email accusing me of “selling out paradise” or of “attracting kooks” or whatever to Pavones – these people are presumably thinking that if I have problems I deserve them. These types of emails invariably begin with “I came to Pavones in (some year prior to my arrival in ’97) and you’re an asshole blah blah blah…” The one thing in common with these people is that they’re not in Pavones now (although they’d surely like to be). Virtually everyone who lives the expat life in Pavones is somehow involved in “selling out” or “attracting kooks” to the area. They own cabinas or restaurants or surf camps or are selling land they’ve invested in. It’s the only way a foreigner can get by. (Ironically, aside from a couple trust fund types, I’m probably the only exception, since I make my living as a writer.)

And the small amount of land I bought as an investment is adjacent to my home – as a protection against someone else perpetrating some nightmare development. And I’ve set aside a (very expensive) green zone that will never be built upon.

So don’t bother me with your bullshit.

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