By Carol Blair Vaughn

It’s not often in this era of greed and recklessness that a New Age David and Goliath story unfolds, and there is an author onsite to capture the moment. Such is the story of Jeremy Evans’ new book, The Battle for Paradise: Surfing, Tuna, and One Town’s Quest to Save a Wave (University of Nebraska Press), which comes out on Oct. 1, 2015, and is set in our own little town of Pavones, southern Costa Rica.

Pavones is a scruffy little town on the Golfo Dulce (Sweet Gulf), known by diehard surfers for its long left-hand point breaks, burnt-out expats, serious fishermen, and a small marine sanctuary. That was until Granjas Atuneras (Tuna Farms) decided to install the world’s first yellow-fin tuna farm near the mouth of Golfo Dulce, threatening to ruin it for everybody.

But then a loosely-formed ragtag group of locals, surfers, and environmentalists rose up to fight a multinational company – and won. Author Jeremy Evans (Search of Powder: A Story of America’s Disappearing Ski Bum) was fortuitously on scene and able to capture the entire skirmish, including all the oddball characters; even a shadowy figure from Pavones’ past emerged as unlikely hero for the town.

The locals had discovered that the planned tuna farm would pollute the area, diminish the fish population, endanger precious sea turtles, and jeopardize the world-class waves. Thus was created an unlikely alliance of surfers and others who managed to stall the project and take the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Justice in Costa Rica, thereby saving one of the most biodiverse places on earth.

Says Serge Dedina, Executive Director of Wildcoast, “Jeremy Evans tells the true story of surfers, tuna, drug lords, and jungle fever in the backwaters and blue bays of Costa Rica. For anyone who has traveled the surf coast of Central America, this is a must-read.”

Don’t miss this uplifting tale of fantastic surfing, saving the environment, and a greedy company’s efforts to expand their business at all costs – all in our sleepy little southern town of Pavones.

About the Author

Carol Blair Vaughn holds a Master’s Degree in Performing Arts and is a retired college professor from Washington, D.C. She inherited her love for Latin America from her father, the former U.S. Ambassador
to Colombia, Panama, and Director of the Peace Corps, Jack Vaughn. Carol writes for the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR) and for an English language club in the southern region of Costa Rica. In the past, Carol served as Editor in Chief of What’s on Tap magazine.