For the first time ever, U.S. citizens from Tamarindo to Timbuktu will have a chance to vote in February in an online Global Primary to choose the Democratic nominee for president, according to international organization Democrats Abroad.

For the first time ever, U.S. citizens from Tamarindo to Timbuktu will have a chance to vote in February in an online Global Primary to choose the Democratic nominee for president, according to international organization Democrats Abroad.

The Global Primary also provides an opportunity to vote by mail, fax or in-person in Costa Rica.

In the Democratic Party's eyes, citizens living overseas are an important voter bloc – enough so that the political party calls ex-pats the “51st State,” Willy Piessens, co-chair of the Democrats Abroad's voter services committee, told The Tico Times.

While primary election registration rules may vary from state to state, U.S. citizens living in Costa Rica also make up a small but growing part of that borderless U.S. state.

Piessens, who for five years has volunteered to get U.S. citizens to register to vote “colorblind” to which party they register with, added that the U.S. Republican Party has not yet designated such status to its ex-pat constituents.

To participate, voters must either be a member of Democrats Abroad or join by Jan. 31, which can be done at the Web site www.VoteFromAbroad.org.

Democrats in San José can vote in person on Feb. 5 at the Democrats Abroad's drop-in voting center at the Aurola Holiday Inn from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Voters should bring their U.S. passports or other proof of U.S. citizenship and voting address (where registered or lived most recently) in the United States.

Global primary voting, however, remarked Piessens, does not mean you can automatically vote in the Nov. 4 presidential election. Ex-pats must still register to receive an absentee ballot, the application forms for which can also be found at the aforementioned Web site.

Friends and family of Matt McParland, the 42-year-old U.S. chiropractor who drowned while on vacation recently in Costa Rica, are mourning the loss in his home country.

Meanwhile, friends of McParland who reside year-round in Tamarindo, in the northwest province of Guanacaste, are struggling to cope with a tragedy striking so close to their home away from home.

Frustrated by the thought that McParland might still be alive if the beach's privately funded lifeguard program had not been dropped less than four months before, some residents are taking action.

Water safety is a concern that has rippled across the country. The Red Cross reported that drowning last year was the third most common cause of death its volunteers responded to, claiming at least 12 lives. However, because the Red Cross is not present at every beach, pool, river and lake, the number could be much higher.

In 2006, for example, there were 161 drownings, according to the statistical office of the Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ). The office did not yet have complete statistics for 2007.

Sisters-in-law Ann and Cheryl McKillican are going door to door to hotels in Tamarindo to pool money for the Matt McParland Fund, which they hope will reach $20,000 to finance a permanent lifeguard program on the popular but treacherous coast.

Cheryl McKillican said the fund is open to international donors as well, and could involve bringing U.S. lifeguards down to provide training.

Adequate training and equipment are real concerns for Tamarindo residents, who believe that McParland's life might have been saved if the rescue team's automated external defibrillator, an electrical jumpstarter for the heart, had contained fully charged batteries. But residents are also coming to terms with the fact that greater preventive measures are needed.

Those interested in taking part can contact the fund's organizers at e-mail address cherylmckillican@hotmail.com or by telephone at (506) 653-1096, for Cheryl, and (506) 339-5570 for Ann.

I can't believe it, and I've lived in Costa Rica for 17 years. I don't know how I'm going to make you believe it.

Some months ago, I found myself in the United States just in time to catch the last month of “So You Think You Can Dance” on television – a special treat for a dance fanatic like me.

With a couple of small exceptions, what I saw was an inspiring level of professionalism on all sides: dancers, choreographers, presenters, judges, pace, etc. There was a great deal of laughter, tears, hard sweat, triumph and failure. There was never conflict, negativity, gloom or bad health. Of course not. It was national television.

Well, we know that all kinds of stuff went on behind the scenes, where, needless to say, it was kept quiet.

Then I came back to Costa Rica to the finale of “Bailando por un sueño” (“Dancing for a Dream”) to find the whole country crazy about it.

The format for this program, coming from Mexico, was different. Instead of individuals, the contestants were couples, one of whom was a “famoso/a” (celebrity) and the other the “soñador/a” (dreamer). The couple was not trying to win money, but rather to achieve a benevolent dream, which might have been anything from an operation for a sick child to the building of a new school in an impoverished area.

Good, I thought, I get to do it again.

Well, not exactly.

There were some notable differences, and a surprise – a cultural one.

First of all, the finale, when it came, lasted some four hours. Now, I have no problem watching four hours of dancing, but this ended up being an hour and a half of dancing and two and a half hours of talking and other, rather puzzling activities. As for sticking to the schedule, ¡ni hablarlo!

But this was not the surprise.

Second, the quality of the dancing was nowhere near the quality I had seen in the States. All right, this is understandable. Costa Rica is a tiny country where parents generally don't have the money to send their children to expensive dance lessons.

But this was not the surprise.

Winners were decided by a combination of judges and public input. In the end, there remained only two couples dancing, one of which was Ricardo (the soñador) and Shirley (the famosa). The other couple won with the public by a narrow margin.

But it didn't end there.

It turns out that “Bailando por un sueño” leads to one of the couples, for some reason not necessarily the winning one, participating in the first international competition, “Bailando por el mundo” (“Dancing for the World”), to take place in Mexico. Before the final program, the Costa Rican judges decided that the couple to enter the international show would be Ricardo and Shirley.

Though it was called an “international” dance competition, it was a new program, so only nine countries showed up. Seven were from Latin America: Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Panama and Costa Rica. Astonishingly, two were from small European countries: Romania and Slovakia.

But this was not the surprise.

The principal presenter was diminutive and dynamic, and his counterpart, a great horse of a woman, created a comic contrast. The presenter would call a couple from a particular country on stage, command them to position themselves and then, with a dramatic gesture, call out “¡Música, Maestro!” The audience would bellow it with him, and away the dancers went. When they finished, the presenter inevitably roared, “¡Qué bárbaros!”

But this was not the surprise.

Latinos make fun of Gringos for the way they dance Latin numbers because they move their shoulders and arms about, wiggle their bottoms (it's in the legs and sometimes in the hips, not the rump) and take big steps. Be that as it may, it is pure anguish to watch Latinos, their upper bodies rigid, trying to dance disco and rock and roll. This aside, the quality of dance and choreography was not what I expected to see on an “international” level. At times, in fact, it was so bad that I was embarrassed to watch.

But this was not the surprise.

The winner of the competition was determined by a panel of nine judges, one from each country. The scoring went from one to 10. If any country scored the lowest points three times, not necessarily in a row, that country was out of the competition.

But this was not the surprise.

The surprise was… Let's just say it was like Jerry Springer meets “American Bandstand.”

I'm out of room here. You'll just have to wait until next time to find out what the surprise was.