It began with a small splash in September, 2001, when a corner commercial office in downtown Puerto Jimenez was remodeled, a satellite dish plunked on its roof, and seven new computers installed with satellite Internet access. By the time last year’s high season rolled around in December, CafeNet El Sol, owned by Paul Collar, your humble correspondent, provided: 1) high-speed Internet access; 2) tourist information and bookings for lodges, tours, and transport; 3) telephone, fax, and messages support to tourists and residents alike; and 4) Internet classes for first time resident Internauts. Behind the scenes, CafeNet’s parent company, Friction Zero Concepts, S.A. was designing and hosting web sites, relational database information management systems, and advertising support for regional businesses involved directly or indirectly with the tourist trade. Two doors down in the same building Ann Marie Fischer was wholesaling fish and selling fish-burgers and fish tacos out of the “Fish Store,” a business started and operated for the two previous years as Pescadería La Sirena by Deborah Clift.

In December, the first, 8-page, black and white edition of El Sol de Osa was launched from CafeNet El Sol, and negotiations began between Fischer, Collar, and David Wheeler (owner of Restaurant Arco Iris down the street) to expand the Fish Store and integrate the two existing tourist businesses with greater tourism linkages for mutual promotion and support. Those negotiations broke down upon Wheeler’s conclusion that I wanted something for nothing, and Fischer begrudgingly entered into a short-lived partnership with Wheeler that brought a face-lift and some minor capital improvements to the Fish Store.

Meanwhile, Osa Water Works, an engineering and consulting form comprised by the principals Paul Clift, David Rice, and Paul Collar, had secured a long-term lease on the upper story of the Fish Store and divided the commercial space into two offices. Osa-Agg, Paul Clift’s construction firm completed the remodeling of both sides of the upstairs property, and Mas Fresco, a beauty salon conceived and operated by professional hair stylist Silke Friedebold was opened for business in March. At about the same time, Fischer put an end to her partnership with Wheeler and sent him packing, AND Osa Water Works moved into its upstairs offices next door to Mas Fresco. Though conventional wisdom at the time had Wheeler tucking his tail between his legs and heading on to greener pastures, he had a few tricks up his sleeve yet, and re-emerged onto the scene within weeks with a lease on the former Restaurant Josette’s and with blinding speed opened his Restaurante y Bar Arco Iris in April.

When Fischer was offered a managerial position at Perla de Osa on Playa Platanares, she abandoned the Fish Store to her boyfriend. Terms of the purchase of Fish Store equipment by Fischer from Clift having never been satisfied, the dos Pablos watched the decline in food quality and fish availability in the Fish Store and lay the foundation for what, nine months later would become The Epicenter.

During the flurry of activity, Clift moved the administration of his construction company into the Osa Water Works office, and Collar did the same with the administration of Friction Zero Concepts, leaving CafeNet El Sol manager Jessica Fonseca free (at last) from the whimsical vagaries of an inconstant presence behind the cluttered desk in the back of the Internet.

The external signs of something afoot—construction workers hustling back and forth, sand in the street, bamboo piled on the sidewalk—could well have gone unnoticed by much of the town and most of the tourists that pass through. However, when Michael Crawford got out his paintbrush all that changed, and in the chromo-thematic linkage of the building, residents and tourists alike began to see the unity of purpose that was originally envisaged for The Epicenter.

It was Steve Bell, in June, upon visiting that circumspectly christened the tourist mini-mall in the making. “What is this?” he wanted to know as he bought several kilos of mahi-mahi for a dinner party he was hosting at La Resbalosa, “the nascent Epicenter?”

Today there are nine businesses operational within the boundaries of The Epicenter and one more, an arts and crafts souvenir shop planned for the commercial property temporarily occupied by Pedro Vega. All the downstairs businesses are connected by internal doors to Juanita’s, and the upstairs offices also share an internal connection, though spill-over between pedicure and styling clients and engineering and consulting clients is not that extensive. The companies providing goods and services in support of the tourism industry in the region from within Epicenter walls are given in the accompanying table.

CafeNet El Sol in October became the second business on the peninsula (after Bomba Osa) to expand its hours to 24 hours. It is open 365 days per year. Juanita’s is expected to follow suit in mid-December, offering tourists for the first time ever complete freedom at all times of the day or night to buy food and navigate the Internet or plan their next move with the help of friendly staff with all the information visitors might need.

The Osa Peninsula is unquestionably the richest and most diverse tourist destination in Costa Rica, if not in all of Central America. Nestled snugly smack-dab in downtown Puerto Jimenez, the Osa’s capital, the Epicenter is the visitor’s one-stop shop for all information and logistics needs, as well as the best margaritas and fajitas in town, for the arriving tourist’s obligatory transit through this dusty backwater of Costa Rica’s final frontier. Come by to see what we have to offer for your vacation, business, or vacation-home in planning.