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| By 2020 Light Rail will connect the airport with San Jose & Cartago + at each stop will be buses and taxis to help reduce personal cars on streets. |
Read about it from Christopher Howard’s Newsletter “Live in Costa Rica.”
Atenas Info FaceBook Page
It is a “closed group” so you have to join to be able to see the posts. But it is great for a newcomer expat living in Atenas where all your questions are answered and even often asked by someone else. 🙂 Also great for someone about to move here or even thinking about it!
Questions/answers range from where you can buy something to where you can get something fixed. Plus how to accomplish needed tasks, etc.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/atenascostaricainfo/permalink/1028669077248845/
Lots of Lizards Now!
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| Lots of Lizards During the Rainy Season – though rain sparse this week. |
Rotting Fruit a Common Sight
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| Star Fruit rotting along the sidewalk as I walk to town. This expensive fruit in the states is not popular here & often not harvested. But Mangoes have piled up and rotted even more, and they are loved here. |
La Bohéme Opera Sunday Night
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| Teatro Nacional Stage seen from Balcony They asked us to not take photos during the performance. Note the screen for subtitles. Opera was in Italian and subtitles in Spanish! (What did you expect in a Spanish-language country?) I understood maybe 30%. Thanks to Amazon Kindle I had read it in English before the performance AND watched it on YouTube with English Subtitles, so I was ready! 🙂 |
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| Our Atenas Group in the Balcony of Teatro Nacional |
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| Atenas Expat Retirees on Bus to San Jose |
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| Opera Program Book And oh yeah, it was a fabulous performance! Perfect in every way! The arts are very important here and done well in every medium. And I’m interested in something other than just birds! 🙂 |
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| Outside Teatro Nacional (Photo made earlier than today’s visit.) |
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| Inside Lobby of Teatro Nacional (Earlier shot. It was packed full tonight!) There is a great little restaurant off the lobby but packed tonight, so Anthony and I ate burgers at McDonald’s across the street. Shameful! |
We went to a 5:00 PM performance and our bus was back in Atenas by 8:30 PM. Nice!
Watch for Costa Rica in the Rio Olympics!
Yep! It’s volleyball we’re good at here! See this short article and short video at:
http://www.ticotimes.net/2016/07/27/costa-rica-beach-volleyball-rio-olympics
http://www.ticotimes.net/2016/07/27/costa-rica-beach-volleyball-rio-olympics
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| These two girls will be the first to represent Costa Rica in World Olympic Women’s Beach Volleyball. And they are good! |
Bump, set, spike it—that’s the way we like it.
Cows Munching on Neighbor’s Hibiscus
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| Cow Eating Hibiscus Shrubs 1 of 3 cows in a neighbor’s yard from the cow pasture near me. They get out frequently! Someone comes and rounds them up. 🙂 |
Just another day in the neighborhood! And most of us are glad that this is the most exciting thing to happen in Roca Verde! Another neighborhood, possibly richer, does not have a community gate and guard like us. They have had a couple of break-ins recently. We have had none! I feel very safe.
I’m an Official Resident of Costa Rica Today!
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| It is a longer number to memorize than my Passport, but it will become my most important number now. And of course the typical “bad photo” on all such cards! But a nice hard plastic card with electronic strip on back. |
Next I get a gold card for senior adults to ride on bus for free (Yay!) and other discounts.
Then I will get a Costa Rica Driver License and I’m done for two years!
In two years I renew this residency card, called a CEDULA here, and then three years after that I renew a second time for what will become my permanent residency card or Cedula.
Note that my card says “Residente Pensionado” which is for retired foreigners who have a particular set of requirements. There are other categories of residency that have different requirements with people coming here to start a local business having the most complicated requirements. For me, I just had to promise to not take some Tico’s job (I cannot work for a local business) but I could earn money on the internet if I wanted to. And secondly I have to prove that I have income of at least one thousand dollars a month which is done with a Social Security form from the U. S. Embassy. Then the usual paperwork and red tape stuff and qualify for the government healthcare program which I am required to participate in whether I use it or not (called CAJA). It is all done now for me and I’m a legal resident! And fully covered for all medical expenses! Not a worry in the world! 🙂
For those considering it, I can’t imagine doing it without an attorney! And I really needed him today! I was suppose to bring the receipt where I paid for the first month of CAJA and forgot it! He managed to smooth talk the girl in inmigración and she let it slide. I couldn’t have done that! Plus my Spanish is not good enough to carry on this kind of business by myself.
Simple Beauty
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| Heliconia Bud The hint is almost as beautiful as the exotic tropical flower that will follow in my garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica. Shot from my little garden bench by the door. |
Sweeping Out Yesterdays Volcano Dust
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| When my morning sweep includes gray dust, I know it erupted! Yesterday! It is 104 km away or about 65 miles. Wind blows the ash across the valley. No big deal! A broom does wonders! (Or vacuum for some.) |
See the eruption story and video at:
http://www.ticotimes.net/2016/07/25/costa-ricas-turrialba-volcano-erupts-sends-ash-3-km-high
THE GOOD NEWS: Erupting Volcanoes may help slow global warming. Interesting!
And to keep learning: Why are there volcanoes? Why do they erupt?