A Gritty Little Tourist Town

Bar Tales from Costa Rica

By: Willa Goodfellow

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Paperback | 7 April 2026

At a Glance

Paperback
246 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.59 x 13.97 x 0.76

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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.

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