Author: Charlie

Retired American nature-lover, living in Costa Rica, photographing birds and other jewels of nature. This site simply reports on my joys of being RETIRED IN COSTA RICA!
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Zarcero – The TOPIARIES

First of 3 posts on Zarcero: Topiaries, Church, and Town/Area

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

Dinosaur 
 Zarcero, Costa Rica

Bust of Alberto Lizano Hernández 
 “. . . for your altruism, nobility of your heart and humanitarian spirit “.
 Zarcero, Costa Rica

Elephant 
 Showing park literally in the center of town.
 Zarcero, Costa Rica

Faces 
 Zarcero, Costa Rica

Boyero with 2 Oxen 
 Zarcero, Costa Rica

Bird 
 Zarcero, Costa Rica

Modern Art Head? 
 Zarcero, Costa Rica

This sculpture large enough to walk under. 
  Zarcero, Costa Rica

You Tell Me?!  Bull fighter? 
  Zarcero, Costa Rica

Shapes Reflecting the Surrounding Mountains 
 Zarcero, Costa Rica

The Arches Looking Away from the Church 
 Zarcero, Costa Rica

Chicken? 
 Zarcero, Costa Rica

Welcome to the Park! 
  Zarcero, Costa Rica

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.

I’m also starting my “Trip Gallery” now on my gallery site: 12 October – Zarcero

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The Latest Language/Technology Challenge
I made this visit to Zarcero by bus Thursday, but when I got home to do this post I had no internet. Cable Tica has a limited number of technicians who can speak English and I never got one after many calls over 3 days and finally Saturday morning stumbled through my plea for help in español. She was never able to get it to work through my Wifi router, so we bypassed it for direct internet into the computer. I have a tech scheduled from my favorite computer store for my house on Tuesday to bring a new router (ditching my old one from BestBuy in TN) and starting all over with a new home Wifi. Modern technology is so wonderful when everything works correctly, but frustrating when not! Plus my language problem (I learn too slow!) made it even more difficult to get help for more than a day. But, as usual, it all worked out in time and with the help of a friendly tech who put up with my baby spanish to communicate our way through limited success! And by Tuesday I will be back in the Wifi world! 
¡Pura Vida!


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And a Sunday Ballet . . . 

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.  😉
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Flower on Today’s Walk

Unknown Flower seen on Today’s Walk Downtown
Atenas, Costa Rica

WORLD CUP

Hope everyone is keeping up with Futbol and noticed that Costa Rica is going to the World Cup in Russia and the U.S. is not! (On that chart only the top 4 teams go.) For Central and North America Costa Rica ranks second only to Mexico. Of course a little country is not expected to go real high in the finals with bigger, richer teams like Brazil, England, Spain, France, etc. But what an honor for Costa Rica! I wear my red, white & blue Costa Rica Futbol shirt with pride on game days!

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How & Where are MLB Baseballs Made?

Ever Wonder How and Where MLB Baseballs are made? Watch this fun video:

 .
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!

Workers on Lunch Break at Rawlings Baseball Factory
Turrialba, Costa Rica
A bigger irony is that in this NY Times article about The Poor Sewing for Millionaires. 
Or maybe even the biggest irony is that the poor man sewing baseballs a low wages is happier than most of the millionaire ballplayers!  🙂   ¡Pura Vida!

And oh yes, a fun aside for this former Tennessean is that the leather is tanned in Tennessee!  🙂

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I am no longer encouraging people to retire in Costa Rica because I think there are already too many North Americans living here, many trying to “Americanize” or change the charming, slow, relaxed culture of this small, simple, peaceful nation. But since I know some of my readers are considering a move here for retirement or otherwise, I share another positive article from Christopher: 
12 Reasons it is Now Easier than ever to Relocate to Costa Rica.   And though I seriously don’t want many more Americans down here, I will gladly advise by friends and readers which starts with advising you to take one of the relocation tours and join the ARCR, Association of Residents of Costa Rica and attend their seminar, which is much better than what International Living offers. Christopher’s “Live in Costa Rica Tour” includes the seminar. 
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Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Waiting for his turn at the feeder in my garden
 on a cloudy, rainy day in
 Atenas, Costa Rica 
A family of these Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds have taken over my two feeders, meaning I watch them literally every morning at breakfast, nice, but . . .  also meaning I do not see other varieties of hummingbirds like I used to. I do still get a wide variety of other kinds of birds in the trees.

See my Costa Rica Birds photo gallery.


Sports News:  

  1. Costa Rica qualified for the International Futbol Event in Russia by tying Honduras last night. 
  2. Costa Rica will have 522 persons running in the Chicago Marathon, 3rd largest group from Latin America after Mexico & Brazil and more than some European countries! 
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Rose-throated Becard

Rose-throated Becard female
In my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + Nothing Escaped Nate

Torch Ginger or El bastón de emperador
My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

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!

And in spite of the horrible weather we have been having, I still have flowers blooming!  🙂

UPDATE ON TROPICAL STORM NATE IN COSTA RICA
Schools have been closed since Wednesday and most government offices. Everything was closed yesterday (Thursday) the main day it hit us with medium high winds and very heavy rain, closing many more roads including parts of the two main highways to Atenas because of mudslides. The saddest was a mudslide just on the edge of Atenas that killed a little boy and destroyed many houses. He was the only death in Atenas. For all of Costa Rica, Nicaragua & Honduras I heard this morning that 23 were killed and 27 missing. The major causes of death are drowning and buried by mudslides, though some in auto accidents. Here is a locally produced slideshow video of rescue and cleanup efforts.  Or the usual live video from Weather.com.  And the Tico Times Article in English. 

If this is just a “tropical storm,” think how bad it will be as a hurricane, which is what it is becoming tonight (Friday) when it hits Cancun, Mexico and moves on to the U.S. Gulf Coast, possibly New Orleans by Sunday morning. This could be a “biggie!” 
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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Costa Rica’s Hurricane headed for New Orleans.

First, an apology for the email recipients of this blog since the Google Map did not stay embed in the yesterday post as an email, but you can see it on the blog online. I think it more clearly shows the difference in location of Costa Rica and Puerto Rica for those still not sure.

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!).

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Still Confusing Costa Rica & Puerto Rico?

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/hurricane/news/tropical-depression-sixteen-tropical-storm-nate-caribbean-gulf-of-mexico

And here is another map showing ALL of Latin America and all our relationships.

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!   🙂

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Remembering the People Who Died in Las Vegas

I cried during Anderson Cooper’s interview of the doctor from a small town in Tennessee whose nurse/husband saved her life during the massacre. He was more than a hero, but also a very special person in his community and family, as were many others killed and wounded, along with many living heros who saved lives. I like Anderson’s idea of helping us remember the ones who died instead of the killer. That kind of history could accomplish some good things in this world.