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Tropical Kingbird

Tropical Kingbird is one of the more common birds in Costa Rica and I have seen him in my gardens several times before this photo. Yes, there are two other birds with similar coloring but clear distinctions can be seen between this and the Western Kingbird and Gray-capped Flycatcher. Click above name link for more information on the Tropical Kingbird.

Seeing and sometimes photographing birds like this in my garden is just one of the many joys I have in living here. Tranquilo is a favorite Spanish word used here to describe Atenas and translated to English that means “calm, quiet or peaceful.” Fellow residents like this Tropical Kingbird help make it so as do  other birds in my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

“A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.”

—Cicero

¡Pura Vida!

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My Best Helps in Moving to CR

Helps not necessarily in order of priority:

  1. ARCR 2-Day Seminar  and their “countdown” checklist of what to do by number of months, weeks, and days before move.
  2. ARCR website and magazine El Residente  is there to help you. 
  3. Christopher Howard Live in Costa Rica Tour  and his website/blog   (Feature photo above is of his tour group I was with, 2014) and note that his tour includes the ARCR 2-Day Seminar that answers all your questions.
  4. Retire for Less in Costa Rica  website and newsletter and also their
    On Healthcare Tour after I moved here – very helpful to me!

    “Healthcare Tour” is excellent and I highly recommend.

  5. Checking out many other websites, books, organizations, though the above were the most helpful for me personally
  6. Securing a Costa Rica Attorney BEFORE the move really helped me! I did it through ARCR but there are other sources.
  7. Starting the Residency Requirements while still in the states makes it easier to get the needed apostille legal documents BEFORE the move and your attorney here will help you with what to get before leaving states.
  8. Make several visits here BEFORE you move, getting acquainted with places to live, people, and your options, and always rent before you buy!
  9. Starting Spanish classes BEFORE the move and continuing here. You can live here without the Spanish language, but you will then always be an outsider, a foreigner and life will be more difficult than the difficulty of learning the language. I’m still struggling, but locals appreciate my efforts.
  10. Getting acquainted with local expats who came here before you. Their experience is always helpful even if their situation is different.
  11. And when zeroing in on a town or community, join any expat groups or Facebook groups there to learn more from the expats now doing it! In Atenas we have Atenas CR Info Facebook Group which you have to join for free to read the posts and answers to questions (like all FB Groups). It is at:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/atenascostaricainfo/about/

A few people like the organization and its magazine International Living. I did not like them nor find them helpful to me. They were more about getting my money – that was my personal experience. And I question their motives for promoting certain countries, places, etc. But you may want to check them out.

After 4 months in an apartment, I found this rent house on hillside overlooking Atenas Central. Love it – walk to town!

And for the final decision, follow both your heart and your head, but most important is to follow your heart! Where do you want to be? Doing what?

For me, Costa Rica is true   ¡Pura Vida¡   

Charlie – Retired in Costa Rica!

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Glowing Orange

Triquitraque or Mexican Flame Vine was the name of my article last April when my vine was at its best. This year it seems to be peaking a lot earlier or hopefully it will be for longer! As stated then, “Triquitraque” is the Costa Rica name of this profusely blooming and glowing vine while most Americans call it “Mexican Flame Vine” and now I read online line that in Florida they are actually calling it “Florida Flame Vine.”    🙂

As planned when I planted it around three years ago, it is mostly covering the stark concrete wall behind my tropical garden giving a blaze of color when traveling up or down the hill. My landlord likes it along his driveway! The butterflies & hummingbirds do too! Here’s a couple of views from above and one from the kitchen window through its glare and reflection of my hands and the kitchen sink. When not traveling, I enjoy my gardens!  ¡Pura Vida!

Orange is the happiest color. 

Frank Sinatra

Click image to enlarge:

This sun-loving, evergreen vine is also known as the flame flower or the golden shower. It’s native to Brazil and Paraguay, where it flourishes in rocky scrub habitats and forests that are seasonally dry. It grows quickly, spreading with tendrils; a single stem can be 80 feet (24 meters) long! Its genus name Pyrostegia comes from Greek words for “fire” (pyr-) and “cover” (steg-), and when it flowers in fall and early winter, it is engulfed in spectacular, flame-colored blooms that attract hummingbirds.    ~San Diego Zoo

University of Florida Article on growing Flame Vine 

San Diego Zoo Article on Flame Vine

Report on My “Weekly Post” Survey

Basically everyone who responded to my request for comments are simply very kind and flexible people; meaning I did not get any strong opinions one way or the other and you readers are divided on your interests, so I am probably going to continue mostly the way I have been blogging, with no more pressure to have a daily post, feeling free to skip days every once-in-awhile, maybe several in a row.

I will not legalistically stick to my original theme of “Retirement in Costa Rica” though that is who I am, thus all related! Even the above flowers!   🙂    And I will always strive for better quality writing and photography! I live a “Pura Vida” life here and will continue to report on it, sometimes daily, sometimes every few days or weekly. Since it was flowers today, I’ll do a serious article tomorrow and then back into my usual groove!   🙂   And by the way, if you ever wondered, those 3 “Related” earlier posts at the bottom of each post are not my choices but something the WordPress blogging computer chooses based on subjects and key words. Interesting!f And usually very well related!

 

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A Weekly Blog Post?

A Change in the Blog . . .

I am thinking about a purpose and need for this blog, my goals, and what the 20 to 100 actual readers per day want to see here.  (Tell me!)

As I re-evaluate the blog I see it in danger of becoming a personal journal, more about me than my original purpose of “How to Retire in Costa Rica” or now about “Being Retired in Costa Rica.” My retirement hobbies of travel, birding and photography don’t speak to all, but that’s a given.

Beginning this coming weekend, my new “trial approach” is to post only one weekly, quality article on Friday, Saturday or Sunday (flexible day).  I will seek to:

  1. Use fewer/better photos with a gallery link for those wanting more.

  2. Try for shorter, easier to read posts. This is already too long!   🙂

  3. Try to include some “inspiration” though not always my purpose.

  4. Try to improve my photography so one photo says it all!

Please Give Your Input  —  Reader Survey

Use the Comments box below or email saying:

  • Keel-billed Toucan on my Terrace

    What subjects you would like me to include?

  • What you think of a weekly approach?
  • Do you read this for information or photos?
  • Are your interests (1) Retirement in CR?  (2) Costa Rica in general?  (3) Nature photography?  (4) Travel?  (5) Birding?   or  (6) Keeping up with me?

If your prefer a private message click Contact on top menu to email me.

 ¡Pura Vida!

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God’s Glory in the Skies

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Psalm 19 The Message (MSG)
A David Psalm
19 1-2 God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
Professor Night lectures each evening.
3-4 Their words aren’t heard,
their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
4-5 God makes a huge dome
for the sun—a superdome!
The morning sun’s a new husband
leaping from his honeymoon bed,
The daybreaking sun an athlete
racing to the tape.
6 That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies
from sunrise to sunset,
Melting ice, scorching deserts,
warming hearts to faith.
7-9 The revelation of God is whole
and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain
and easy on the eyes.
God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold,
with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate
down to the nth degree.
10 God’s Word is better than a diamond,
better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring,
better than red, ripe strawberries.
11-14 There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger
and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way?
Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
Keep me from stupid sins,
from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in my mouth;
these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them
on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
God, Priest-of-My-Altar.

(Emphasis is mine.)  Sharing what struck me in my devotional reading 3 mornings ago as I read this Psalm. And really, everything in nature has God speaking to me whether in a Bible passage or a famous quotation or not. I am in closer harmony with God in the natural places of Costa Rica than anywhere I’ve been before – like an anteroom to Heaven!   🙂    No predictions intended, but I’m ready!   🙂   Being close to nature is one of my ideas of heaven!

¡Pura Vida!

See also my GALLERY:    VISTAS, BEACHES, SUNRISES, SUNSETS 

One little slice of the joys of being “Retired in Costa Rica!”

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This Mountain

This mountain, the arched back of the earth risen before us, it made me feel humble, like a beggar, just lucky to be here at all, even briefly.          ~ Bridget Asher

Mountains surrounding Atenas seen from my terrace at breakfast.

Cellphone photo by Charlie Doggett –click panorama to see larger.

After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone. 

~ Matthew 14:23

¡Pura Vida!

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Weird Drums of Pipes & Pots

Just another one of the unusual things I see in Central Park Alajuela. Yesterday this guy was drumming away on his psychedelic apparatus in the park for tips. A quick snap of it  on my way to the bus station. He looks and acts more like a young American, but some young Ticos try to be that way.

¡Pura Vida!

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Tortuguero – THE BOOK

The book is now finished with photos from 3 different trips to Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica and I think it is pretty interesting. You can go to the book online and Preview it electronically free! And of course best seen at fullscreen since it is all photos. Click this link or the book image below for the preview:

http://www.blurb.com/b/9315463-tortuguero

Tortuguero

 

“A brave heart and a courteous tongue. They shall carry thee far through the jungle, manling.”
~Rudyard Kipling

 

See my 2019 Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge Visit Gallery for more on this exciting rainforest trip!

Or the Turtle Beach Lodge website or Laguna Lodge of my previous visits.

¡Pura Vida!

 

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Welcome to the Anthropocene

Anthropocene – noun
An·​thro·​po·​cene | \ ˈan(t)-thrə-pə-ˌsēn , an-ˈthrä-\
Definition of Anthropocene
: the period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth regarded as constituting a distinct geological age
Most scientists agree that humans have had a hand in warming Earth’s climate since the industrial revolution—some even argue that we are living in a new geological epoch, dubbed the Anthropocene.
— Nature, 12 Feb. 2004    (Copied from Webster’s Dictionary Online)

Alice Major (Canadian Poet Laureate) observes the comedy and the tragedy of this human-dominated moment on Earth. Major’s most persistent question—“Where do we fit in the universe?”—is made more urgent by the ecological calamity of human-driven climate change. Her poetry leads us to question human hierarchies, loyalties, and consciousness, and challenges us to find some humility in our overblown sense of our cosmic significance.

“Now, welcome to the Anthropocene

you battered, tilting globe. Still you gleam,

a blue pearl on the necklace of the planets.

This home. Clouds, oceans, life forms span it

from pole to pole, within a peel of air

as thin as lace lapped round an apple. Fair

and fragile bounded sphere, yet strangely tough—

this world that life could never love enough.

And yet its loving-care has been entrusted

to a feckless species, more invested

in the partial, while the total goes unnoticed.”

— from “Welcome to the Anthropocene” by Alice Major

Get the book on Amazon

Or from Book Publishers Association of Alberta

Read a review on Goodreads.com

Or join the action with  Population Matters

And if you don’t believe in Global Warming, maybe this book of poetry will help you see what is happening to planet Earth. Our grandchildren could enter the year 2100 in a desolate place if earth is even still here.

Retired in the “Ideal Climate” of Costa Rica

That also is in danger of Global Warming.

The climate is changing. Will we change? 

¡Pura Vida!

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Tortuguero Photo Gallery

My usual next step after a series of blog posts on a Costa Rica lodge visit is to post in my GALLERY another TRIPS sub-gallery on that particular visit and here it is:

2019 Feb 9-13–Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge   or click image:

2019-02-19

“To Travel is to Live”

– Hans Christian Andersen

 

¡Pura Vida!