A Gritty Little Tourist Town: Bar Tales from Costa Rica - Paperback

by Willa Goodfellow (Author)

Fans of Bill Bryson will love this intimate and humorous memoir surrounding a group of expats as they entertain each other with their stories at a bar in a Costa Rican village.

Willa and her wife travel to Costa Rica to visit family--but what they discover is far more than they expected . In a sleepy fishing village on the Pacific coast, they meet a vibrant, curious group of expats who have come looking for paradise--or at least cheap beer.

At the Pato Loco, a local bar where stories flow as freely as the drinks, they meet Mama, the blind seventy-two-year-old co-owner of the place; her partner Mary, Willa's sister, a bartender and installation artist; Richie, the aging hippie whose words are few but weighty; and a whole cast of unforgettable characters who will answer questions like:

• What is it really like to live in another country?
• How important is it to learn the local language?
• How does a tight-knit community face the pressure of development?
• Can you survive dengue--and would you want to?
• Oh, and how do you perform CPR on a fish?

A collection of stories full of humor, heart, and wisdom from unexpected places, A Gritty Little Tourist Town follows Willa as she discovers connection within this community of strangers--one bar tale at a time.

Author Biography

Willa Goodfellow likes to travel. In college she hitchhiked through Germany and cleaned hotel rooms in Liechtenstein. She comet-gazed in Australia and camped in Arches National Park. She gambled in Mexico and won a pasta-making contest in Tuscany. She swam in the Irish Sea. No, she jumped in, screamed, and jumped out. It was cold! She also likes to write. Some of her best stories come from sitting still and listening at the Pato Loco, her sister's bar in Costa Rica. But there is more to come--today she lives and is listening to pub tales in County Kerry, Ireland.