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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Angel Tree Project

Trees in two places to get sponsors.

I volunteered through Su Espacio and met today with some of the other committee members to discuss the approach this year and how we will secure sponsors of 300 very poor children (no parent working full time). We also need to pay for food and entertainment at the party in December when they receive their gifts. I suggested that in addition to angels which is the child a person buys a gift or gifts for, we sell “party angels” to pay for the party. Susan (also from Su Espacio) suggested we make those stars. So now people can take an angel from the tree and get gifts or pay cash for a star to pay for the party. My first contribution to this project.  🙂

Of course Susan and I are in charge of the stars and tomorrow we go to Escazu to see if anyone has silver and gold poster board from which we will cut the stars. Silver for 5,000 colones ($10) and gold for 10,000 colones ($20). David and Corinna at Su Espacio are interviewing the parents to see if their children really qualify for the free Christmas gifts and will host the party. We will all help cut out the angels and write names and Christmas wishes on them. Susan and I want to recruit children to color the angels. We will have a big tree at Su Espacio and a smaller one at Kay’s Gringo Postres where we met today and where we should sign up a lot of gringos. Plus we are promoting it at Kay’s Gringo Halloween Costume Party with a raffle to earn some of the party money.

I’ve become David’s flier maker, so expect I will be doing that again pretty soon about the Angel Tree. And some of you thought all I did was sleep late and sit on the terrace photographing birds!

On Aprendo Espanol en Atenas I tell about Spanish learning for free at Duoling.com 

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Doctor & Dentist in 2 Days

Well, I keep meaning to ask Dr. Candy (my primary care doctor) to recommend one of the many

Oficina de Dra. Karina Valerio Rodriguez

local dentists or dental clinics. How do I choose? Some have shiny new offices, speak English and most of their patients are expats and dental tourists – yes, that is what they are called. Americans and Canadians come here to get dental work done at a fraction of the cost in the states even with insurance. And do a little tourism while they are at it! There are many more in San Jose but there are some here. The English-speaking clinics charge a lot more than the local Spanish language dentists. So how do I choose?

I finally got another excuse to see Dr. Candy since I seemed to have bruised my right heel walking around town in sandals. I just walked in without an appointment thinking her assistant could probably help me with both needs, but she was there and I walked right into her office. They check my vitals, feel of my heel and she says I have some inflammation and gives me 7 anti-inflammatory capsules to take one a day for a week then come back in to see her. In two days my heel quit hurting, but I’m taking all the med and will see her next Wednesday. No charge for anything because I am a member of her clinic now at $42 a month. I have unlimited visits with all meds and supplies included and ambulance service. Her assistants are both EMTs and they have their own ambulance. 🙂 I’ll have to get photos and show her office later.

Then I told her that it was time for a dental check up and teeth cleaning. Would she recommend someone? She said, “Sure!” (She treats me like she’s my mother and is quite direct about some things.) “I think you should see Dr. Karinna just around the corner.” That dental clinic is just a half block from Su Espacio where I have my main Spanish lessons and David, my Spanish teacher, was delighted when he learned this. Dr. Karinna is a dentist the locals use and she speaks only Spanish. “And,” he said, “She charges half what the English speakers charge.” David is not only very price-conscious, but is always trying to put me in situations where I have to speak Spanish (like the barber he sent me to). And that might have been part of Dr. Candy’s motivation for the choice. Candy speaks good English but knows I’m studying Spanish and need to learn and use it.

So, I walk down to the dental clinic and walk in, ask for an appointment and get it for the next day at 1:00. It was a delightful experience with only essential communication needed in Spanish, but then one can’t talk much at the dentist anyway!  🙂  A complete checkup (no x-rays) and a very thorough teeth cleaning by the dentist herself in maybe 45 minutes at a total cost of 18,000 colones which at today’s conversion rate is $33.97 USD. Not bad!  🙂  I told her I would return in six months, Retorno en seis meses. So, one more routine is now transferred to my new country and culture!  I’m settling in!  🙂  And I got her email address for my Nashville dentist to email her my records. Pretty cool!

Telling more briefly about my new dentist in Spanish on Aprendo Español en Atenas.

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Small Town Billboards and Healthcare

The closest thing to a billboard in Atenas.
That is my Roca Verde neighborhood in background.

There are a lot of billboards in San Jose and a few on the toll road between here and there, Ruta 27, but I guess that kind of advertising just doesn’t pay in and around the farm town of Atenas. Nice! This sign is hardly as big as a billboard but about the biggest you might find around here. It is on the connector road to Ruta 27 near the Feria or Farmers’ Market. Behind it is one of several hills in the Roca Verde housing development where I live.

The sign is for my favorite of several Macrobioticas in Atenas. They are kind of like health food stores, herb or vitamin shops in the states. You can get lots of food supplements, vitamins, and herbs of all kinds. This particular shop is where I get my Melatonin or Melatoninia, Hierba de San Juan, Tilo, as an herbal sleep aid, kind of like the sleepy time teas I can also get there, just in a capsule form. I do still sleep on a CPAP machine most of the time and if it wears out, my doc can get me one here for Sleep Apnea, but I may lick that too! 

I no longer take any prescription medications of any kind including allergy meds and I am doing just fine! I brought a lot of the senior adult one-a-day vitamins for men from the states (generic Kroger brand) and when I run out later this year, I can get something similar at my Macrobiotica Tienda (Tienda=Shop). I not only feel healthier but also save money! And oh yes, very little advertising bombarding me here which is also healthy!  (Tomorrow I’ll tell you about seeing both my doctor and dentist in two days.)

One of the amusing forms of advertising here (though not allowed inside Roca Verde) are a few cars or vans that drive around town with loud speakers advertising something with either a live Spanish speaker talking on a microphone or a recording that plays over and over. I think it is local businesses more than individual products, but not sure. Cell phone and cable TV also advertise this way. Glad they can’t come by my house! I heard them more in the apartments and of course still when walking in town. People live on their front porches or front yards, so it is a great way to advertise! 

Another fun way some products advertise is to set up a table or booth on sidewalk in front of a store that sells that product, like beers do this a lot, advertising a special price or discount or premium you get with it. They do this with very loud pop/rock music and one or two absolutely gorgeous young ladies in very short skirts or shorts, often dancing to the music and inviting you to dance with them. It is so much fun to experience different cultures!  🙂   Pura Vida!

On my Spanish Blog read about the second Spanish Class I’ve joined which is at Iglesia Biblica. I’m determined to learn español even if doing it very slowly! It is a beginner class also, so a lot of repetition which helps me, but this one uses a Costa Rica produced book which has more local slang and idioms. Bueno!

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Government Red Tape

I spent a total of about 45 minutes on the phone today with Medicare who is part of the reason Cigna HealthSpring can’t easily disenroll me from my Rx policy, though I think it could have been done in April if they were on the ball. Disenrollment has to be during enrollment periods for Medicare and the next enrollment/disenrollment period for Medicare is October 15 to December 7. Basically, Medicare (after talking with 3 people and the last spending time researching) told me I have to wait until October 15 for disenrollment in the Cigna HealthSpring Rx plan. So I call back in about a month. At least there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. And why didn’t Cigna know this?

All the calls meant I had to buy more time on my Sim Card for the cell phone. As a non-resident, I can’t get a monthly phone bill but must use the pay as you go sim card on my cell phone. I do it over the internet with an easy system called Mobile Recharge. But still something else to do! 

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In the Shadows

My shadow on neighborhood walk.

And I feel like I’m still in the shadows of the U.S. Government and U.S. Big Business! It was very easy to cancel my MediGap Medicare supplemental insurance with Mutual of Omaha. I applaud them for their courtesy, understanding, and simplicity in dropping an unnecessary and unusable insurance plan. 

But the much less expensive or helpful Medicare Rx Plan with Cigna HealthSpring who was not helpful when I was in the states and now that I live in another country and cannot use their plan, they have been less than helpful in what they call “Disenrollment.” Three overseas phone calls since March, promises of sending me a Disenrollment Form, and still I am being charged monthly for a Rx insurance I cannot use. Grrrrrr! After today’s call I wrote a letter I will fax tomorrow that is suppose to do the same thing as the form. (?) Plus they promised again to send me the form to my U.S. address as backup plan 2, and plan 3 (that makes me shudder) is I am going to call the U.S. Medicare office tomorrow. Cigna-HealthSpring will also let the government request disenrollment. I dread another overseas call which costs enough I will need to add more time to my cell phone sim card. And I’m always surprised when a government office actually provides some help. But maybe! The embassy here has, especially with Social Security and voter registration.

Why am I canceling U.S. medical insurance? (Not Medicare) (1) None of it works while living here (not even Medicare),  (2) It is very expensive, and (3) I have private medical insurance here I will continue until my residency is fully processed and I can be on the government medical insurance plan here when I will really save money. The private plan here is less expensive than stateside insurance and similar coverage. Plus medical costs here are so much less expensive that I could come out ahead paying for it with no insurance if nothing big happened! But then, potential catastrophes are why we have insurance in the first place. 🙂  And I’m keeping U.S. Medicare for that reason, just in case I travel to the states and something happens there, I will at least have basic Medicare coverage. And it is more involved to cancel or drop it and I think the hundred something I pay a month for it is worth it for now. Maybe not later. We’ll see.
I also have a sweet deal with my primary care doctor here so that I can come in anytime I need care or just have a question. i.e. I’m going to go by this week or soon and ask for her opinion of the many dentists in town and schedule my first cleaning and checkup. Cheap! Medical tourism is big here, especially for dental work! The cost is a small fraction of the U.S. costs. 
Today my new maid cleaned the house while I went to Alajuela to pick up three internet orders. I prefer to be out of the house when she is cleaning.  I did two little posts on my new Spanish Learning Blog today.  Pura Vida!

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Preparing for 15 September

Escuela Central older students prepare for Independence Day Parade

This is the primary school and these were learning to march with flag poles (sans flags) which will be part of how their school participates in the 15 September Independence Day Parade. This morning at the same school the band was practice marching in this same place but I couldn’t stop, running late for my class. All the high school bands are preparing too as I can hear their drummers and we have a community band that will also participate in the parade next Tuesday morning.

On the night before there will be a lights parade with prizes given for the best decorated lanterns.

Hoy aprendo verbos saber y conocer en Aprendo Español en Atenas. 

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Tour de Atenas? And Bingo!

Some of the hundreds of bikes going by my house for more than an hour today.

I’m not sure what it is, but they don’t act like they are racing but rather completing a tour. For 30 minutes it was almost bumper to bumper bikes then the stragglers continued for an hour or two more. Participants are mostly Tico or local people with a few expats included. You see these large groups of spandex-clad bikers occasionally around here, usually on weekends and even out on the highways and rural roads. While during the week bikers are working people with baskets making deliveries or just getting to work, etc. Neither the town’s narrow streets or the narrow highways are safe for casual or transportation lone bikers, plus we are all hills which makes it difficult as well as dangerous. It is rare to see children biking the streets and neither kids nor teens bike to school. They all walk to school! Like me! 🙂 As much as I like biking, I think I will still to walking and maybe live longer.

After church online in Nashville I went to the Catholic church for another Bingo experience with other Su Espacio Spanish students. This time more students came, two tables full! A lot of fun. I report with photos in my new Español blog Aprendo Español en Atenas, titled Bingo a los números de práctica and I’m getting better with my numbers in spanish!

My table of 7 was one of two tables of students from Su Espacio this time.
Me and David are missing from the photo of this table.

Tico food and drinks are available for sale and this time I ate a big piece of pineapple cornbread with a Pepsi. Nope, I’m not doing without my sugar fixes here! Dulce is the name for sweets here.  🙂

They just call the numbers (No B-16, N-23 like in states) and we have a bowl of corn kernals on the table to mark our numbers. Susan was the only one of our group (1st on left above) who had a winning card but there were two winners and one prize. There was a drawing and she lost the draw. But the prizes are nothing to write home about!

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Evangelical Dancing in the Park

Youth doing expressive movements to Christian music in Parque Central.

I walked through the central park (never called a plaza here like in colonial Latin America) on my way to the Super Mercado. At first I thought it was one of the many dance classes performing, but they were dancing to Christian music, so I assume it was one of the evangelical churches in town. As I passed back through on my way home this Saturday morning, a preacher concluded a prayer and began speaking. So it was definitely a church. Churches here are involving their youth in many different ways and this “expressive movements” to music is just one. The Iglesia Biblica I have attended some does this in some services kind of like First Baptist Nashville did when there. I have mixed feelings about it in worship or for outreach. It doesn’t appear to be natural or “real” praise of God, but something artificial that is taught or staged (to me). Many youth have natural rhythm and need a way to express it, so maybe this is a good way. Secular dancing of all kinds is very popular here with many public dances and many places to take dancing lessons.

I will continue to put Spanish words in bold red in this blog. I may also reference something in my new Spanish language blog, which is just about my efforts to learn Spanish. Today’s post in Aprendo Espanol en Atenas simply acknowledges Su Espacio and David Salas Costillo as my primary source of learning Spanish. In the future I will share my experiences trying to speak Spanish. 

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New Blog in Español Added: Aprender Español en Atenas

No blog here yesterday. I am setting up another blog in Español because as my September 2 blog said, I really need to be using what I am learning with multiple Spanish learning efforts. Since I live alone and write a lot, it makes sense to write more in Spanish since I am not talking with people all day every day. It will be difficult and short for awhile, but hopefully will help my language learning! The title is Aprender Español en Atenas, linked here for your language experience. At least I won’t be so long-winded in a language I’m learning!  🙂

In my second post there I refers to a local book some university students put together on culture and language as the first in a series. This one on music, Dances of the Sun and Moon. I just reviewed it for Goodreads and basically a good idea for teens and young adults, but I will not be continuing the series. See my review for why.

My “Target Audience” for this English blog has been and will continue to be mainly friends and family in the United States, though stats show it is being read all over the world by about 150-200 persons a post!  🙂  It is about my retirement in Costa Rica and the other main audience is people who are thinking about retiring here which is a growing audience and by people already retired here!  🙂

The new Spanish blog is for Spanish-speakers, particularly in Costa Rica, whom I hope will help me in my journey to learn the language. It will NOT be a translation of this blog or visa-verso!

This English blog will continue to be what used to be my “Adventures” blog and “Nature” blog all in one. I’m including some “Spiritual” in this blog but may still restart or continue my old Spiritual Blog, “His Spirit Blog” since it is a more targeted subject and thus maybe audience. Not sure yet.

Pura Vida!