Carol Blair Vaughn is an investigative journalist who specializes in crime investigations. She has worked for Inside Costa Rica, El Residente Magazine, and The Costa Rica Star. Crazy Jungle Love is her first book.
The book led her down amazing paths involving scary encounters with several of the book’s characters. It also led her to romance with one of the protagonists, and to a host of friendships with people she would never have otherwise met. Most importantly, the book was her entrée into the culture of Costa Rica’s Southern Zone, where she now happily lives in a wooden cabin on the banks of the Quebradas River, with her dog Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Prior to moving to Costa Rica, Carol was an adjunct professor of Performing Arts in Washington, DC. She is the daughter of Jack Hood Vaughn, former US Ambassador to Panama and Colombia, and Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America. She inherited her love for all things Latin from him!
Crazy Jungle Love continues to haunt Carol, with its bizarre twists and turns, incredibly painful insights into mental illness, scathing examination of the Costa Rican legal system, and the incredible passion the Benders had for each other as well as for Costa Rica. There’s a little of the Bender’s journey in all expats’ experiences, both in Costa Rica and in other Latin countries. As the book states, “You really could not make this shit up.”