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| Iglesia de San Rafael Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Iglesia de San Rafael Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Iglesia de San Rafael Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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Iglesia de San Rafael
Zarcero, Costa Rica
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| Iglesia de San Rafael Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Iglesia de San Rafael Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Iglesia de San Rafael Carnival Setup Zarcero, Costa Rica |
“Trip Gallery” now on my gallery site: 12 October – Zarcero
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| The Central Park in this little town is made up of mostly topiaries created over many years. Here is a double row of arches leading to the main church in Zarcero (see tomorrow’s post). Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Dinosaur Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Bust of Alberto Lizano Hernández “. . . for your altruism, nobility of your heart and humanitarian spirit “. Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Elephant Showing park literally in the center of town. Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Faces Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Boyero with 2 Oxen Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Bird Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Modern Art Head? Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| This sculpture large enough to walk under. Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| You Tell Me?! Bull fighter? Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Shapes Reflecting the Surrounding Mountains Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| The Arches Looking Away from the Church Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Chicken? Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Welcome to the Park! Zarcero, Costa Rica |
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| Two Guys Greeting? Playing a Game? Zarcero, Costa Rica |
To be honest, I was not overly impressed by Zarcero, but glad I finally made a visit. Tomorrow I share photos of the church which inside is especially beautiful, and then the next day the town/area like an alpine village. The surrounding hills and farms are more beautiful than the village but hard to photograph from the winding mountain roads.
Tomorrow I travel to San Jose on a van with a small group of gringos to see a Cuban Ballet performance of “Swan Lake.” I will hold my report for two more days or after the Zarcero posts are finished. It is a part of the “Cuban Culture Festival” this week and is starred by students from the Cuban National School of Ballet Fernando Alonso (largest in the world) and the Costa Rica Ballet. There’s nothing like a little culture in the tropical jungles of Central America! 🙂 But swans are birds, so I guess I’m still bird-watching. 😉 |
| Unknown Flower seen on Today’s Walk Downtown Atenas, Costa Rica |
WORLD CUP
This was my homework for Spanish Class, so you will have to go to my Spanish Blog and read it in very simple Spanish!
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Or if that button doesn’t work, use this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=ddWRAcbg7Fk
Now those cheap minor league baseballs are made in China by machines, but the good ones for MLB games are made or sewn by hand in the Rawlings Factory in Turrialba, Costa Rica. Yep! That’s the
town south of San Jose I traveled to recently by bus to spend 5 days at Rancho Naturalista photographing birds. But I just recently learned that the best baseballs in the world are made there. Its also near the most active volcano in Costa Rica, also named Turrialba.
And What is the Irony of This for Costa Rica? Click and read this interesting article about how the best baseballs in the world are made in a sports-minded country that does not include baseball as one of its major sports. Oh well. Life is full of ironies! As in most of the world, futbol (the real name for soccer) rules with debatable rankings after that for volleyball, surfing, basketball, and then maybe baseball. Interesting for the country where the best baseballs are made! 🙂
Or read this article about the factory in Turrialba and learn how dangerous sewing can be!
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| Workers on Lunch Break at Rawlings Baseball Factory Turrialba, Costa Rica |
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Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Waiting for his turn at the feeder in my garden
on a cloudy, rainy day in
Atenas, Costa Rica
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See my Costa Rica Birds photo gallery.
Sports News:
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| Rose-throated Becard female In my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Rose-throated Becard female In my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
This is my first sighting of this particular bird, a breakfast treat off my terrace. Not super photos because of shooting between leaves, but fun! And I thank Yeral Jiménez Porras for identifying it by the technical name of Hembra de Pachyramphus aglaiae. “Hembra” is Spanish for “female” in the birding world. The common Spanish name is: El anambé degollado He identified it for me in just minutes after I posted these photos on the CR Facebook group Asociación Ornitológica de Costa Rica.
See all my Costa Rica Birds photo gallery.
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| Torch Ginger or El bastón de emperador My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Torch Ginger or El bastón de emperador As seen from the street in front of my house Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
And don’t you love the Spanish name for this flower? El bastón de emperador translates to “The Emperor’s Staff.” This particular one was a gift from my gardener. The first one I got and paid for died because it was in my busy flower bed and did not get enough sun like this gets in the front yard. Note that I have 3 flowers at different stages, bud, small flower and large flower. It is one of my favorite tropical flowers and I have wanted one since I moved here. They are hard to find with most nurseries (viveros) not having any in stock. But my gardener Cristian knows where to find things! 🙂 Like when I wanted the Maraca plant (Shampoo Ginger) none of the nurseries had one, so his partner Alfredo got mine from his uncle’s yard! Wow! They are more than gardners. They are good friends!
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| Costa Rica is directly to the left of the word RAIN |
In Atenas everyone stayed home yesterday (Thursday) with strong winds and heavy rain all day and all night. Today we are getting a little sunshine and I walked to town. It is interesting that all hills, cliffs, dirt walls have lots of water coming out at the bottom. A hill near my house has so much water coming out that it is literally a little creek pouring down to the street drainage ditch. Government and schools are still closed, but banks and most businesses open and we had the regular Friday morning Feria or Farmer’s Market. So almost back to normal with a few trees down and spotty electrical outages. But me and my house are good on all counts! I can even make this blog post, meaning internet works! That’s a big deal here! Here are some more photos and videos of Nate Hitting Costa Rica from Tico Times.
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| The rain just won’t stop! |
Now about our constant rain in Costa Rica through the weekend with flash flooding and mild winds. It started off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica near Tortuguero, one of my fave places to visit, as a tropical depression. As it built up speed it slowly moved north hitting our neighbors Nicaragua first, then Honduras with much more wind than we have and more rain, constant rain, which means lots of flash flooding. It is up there now, maybe at Honduras, gaining speed and strength to become Hurricane Nate by the time it hits Cancun, Mexico. Then it continues to strengthen over the weekend, heading directly for New Orleans by Sunday, but of course can affect Texas to the Florida Panhandle.
The weather people say it may stay just a Category 1 or 2 hurricane which is not as bad as the more recent hurricanes. But this is unusual to have one start as a tropical depression off the coast of Costa Rica! First to my knowledge. Since the 1800’s we have simply not had hurricanes here. Climate change is real!
Here’s a cool video on Weather.com about the hurricane that started in Costa Rica, headed to New Orleans.
Here’s NPR’s tracking of Nate.
And a good video showing some of the lowland flooding in Costa Rica Click the Video Arrow on image to see one of our San Jose TV station’s (7) video of flooding in Cartago, south San Jose, and parts of Guanacaste.
HOW IT IS EFFECTING ATENAS (where I live)
Atenas is a mountain town and I live on a hill overlooking other hills, so we don’t get the lowland flash flooding, though some of our streets have some flash flooding and maybe the yards of some lower level houses.
It has been raining a lot all week, but starting yesterday morning (Wed) the heavier rain and winds started from Nate and have not stopped day and night! It is still raining and predicted to through the weekend. My power went out around midnight last night and was not repaired until about 11 this morning. Other than that, I’m fine and just staying in out of the rain. I plan to visit some more nearby interesting towns like I did Palmares the other day, but not until after the rain slows down! 🙂 Next week will probably be a more normal rainy season week with afternoon showers (I hope!).
Puerto Rico is in the Eastern Caribbean Sea and I (Costa Rica) am between the Southwestern Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is 1,290 miles (2,000+ kilometers) from our San Jose Airport or a more than 5 hour flight. It takes half as long to get to Miami or Houston or Dallas by plane. Above is a Google Map giving directions from San Jose, Costa Rica to San Juan, Puerto Rico. And the “Juan Santamaria” is just the name of our main airport near our capital city of San Jose.
The best explanation map I’ve found online won’t let me copy it, but here is the link:
http://www.distancefromto.net/distance-from-costa-rica-to-puerto-rico
It is very easy for North Americans to get the two places confused because they sound a lot alike, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica, and they are both tropical with beautiful beaches. But believe me, there is a huge difference beyond that!
And I appreciate the prayers and the thankfulness that I am okay. It is rainy season, but no hurricanes or earthquakes hitting us now. We are getting extra rain because of a tropical depression off the coast of Nicaragua & Honduras that is headed north toward the states (TX to FL panhandle) as Hurricane Nate. Unusual for one to start near us but possible. Learn more about it at:
https://weather.com/storms/
And here is another map showing ALL of Latin America and all our relationships.
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| Hoping this will humble my friends in the States. See how you are just one part of the Americas? And more countries speak Spanish than English. |
Pura Vida from COSTA RICA in Central America, 1,290 miles from Puerto Rico! 🙂