charliedoggett.net
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| Every other Wednesday they come work my yard & eat lunch on my terrace. Last time William brought ceviche. This coming Wednesday it’s Sopa Azteca. I’ll eat the soup with them this time, but I don’t eat ceviche (raw fish soup). I provide the drinks! La conversación es en español. Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Every day I have bigger flocks of parakeets than this flying over my house, more this year for some reason. But I haven’t gotten a photo over my house. This is one I shot at Rancho Naturalista, Turrialba, Costa Rica. |
See also my Birds Gallery
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| In Atenas you can sell anything from your house. So, maybe I will start sharing interesting signs like this. They are all over town, many on my daily walk. |
Now a new photo gallery: Home Business Signs – Atenas
Well, I did not get my angiogram today after two hours at Hospital Mexico (left) and another hour at Alajuela Hospital (my province hospital). It seems that the bigger hospital wants my regional hospital to perform some preliminary tests that they can do before the big hospital does my angiogram which is now rescheduled for 25 Agosto, oh, that’s August 25! And yes, they did tell me that earlier or the doctor scribbled it on the appointment sheet in Spanish that even my Tico friends could not read. Tough luck!
It is all part of the bureaucracy in the government healthcare that Ticos make fun of all the time but are also more naturally patient than Americans. And hey! I have more time than money! So, just another adventure! Plus Jason and I had a great lunch of Mexican food at Jalapeno Central in Alajuela today! They even have pecan pie! (Not something you find very often here!)
The other thing a learned today is how important it is to speak Spanish if you are going to live here as a local and use services like this! Sure wish I had learned Spanish when I was young! I’m a slow learner now! I really needed my translator today, Jason Quesada. My cardiologist will call me next week when he returns from a trip and get it all worked out. 🙂 Pura vida!
Costa Rican government responds to Trump’s climate accords exit is an article in today’s Tico Times. Plus an older article on Costa Rica’s Legislature ratifying the Paris Accord. REBECCA SOLNIT: THE LONELINESS OF DONALD TRUMP
Anyway, I am going to show up at Hospital Mexico at 7 AM tomorrow with my interpreter and hope I am still scheduled for sometime tomorrow. The devil is in the details and little things like the volume control button on my cellphone! Ugh!
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| My March trip was partly to get this photo, but a closed trail stopped me. I will go back and make my own photo one of these days! Rio Celeste Waterfall Tenorio National Park, Costa Rica |
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LOCAL REPORT: The rain is bringing in some new bugs and while typing I just watched one of my geckos eat one. They are little with long wings, chase the light, and pester me! Life in the jungle! 🙂
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| Flying over Corcovado National Park near Drake Bay Probably one winding river but whatever, a lot of water for one forest! The Richness of a Rainforest! Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
Sometimes I go back and look through photos from a trip and see something new to share. 🙂
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| “Roca Verde” literally translates to “Green Rock” – Is this it? Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| This big rock is just inside our community entrance gate. Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Our Entrance Gate Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
I have no Roca Verde gallery per se, but these include shots in Roca Verde:
“What are men to rocks and mountains?”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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| Garden Art by Anthony |
This morning at about 4:00 I said goodbye to my next door neighbor Anthony who has been a special friend this last year, as he was when he lived on the other side of me during my first few months in this house (before he traveled to Spain & Morocco for 9 months). He is the single artist guy, about 8 years younger than me, who is still driven to create. He did my garden art sculpture I’ve shown before and a painting I promised not to publish. You will have to visit me to see it – another contemporary bird!
Though Costa Rica is a great atmosphere for creativity, it is not the easiest place to get lots of different art supplies, especially for his clay and tile work. So he is moving back to the states, not to his native Indiana, but to an art community in Chicago where he can get everything he needs to create including many customers which he also needs at this particular point in his life. And he plans to take classes in a world renowned tile art school there. So I wish Anthony the best of life in lakeside Chicago and a fabulous new career as an artist in the states.
The house he was in, next door in this same compound, has already been rented and soon I will meet my new neighbor and see what adventures that will bring! And very soon I could be greeting a new landlord, as the whole compound is for sale. I met one lovely couple moving here from Houston who are considering the purchase. They are originally from Louisiana and we hit it off when they visited as “fellow southerners.” It seems that people know immediately when I speak that I’m from “The South.” Wonder why?
We will see what happens. My current French Canadian landlords will still be in Atenas part time in a smaller house, with their main house being built on a Pacific Coast beach north of Jaco. And the now vacant house on the other side of me (Richard’s casita) has a couple moving in for two months that I met through my blog and the local evangelical church, Iglesia Biblical. Change is maybe the most consistent part of life! And it always brings new experiences and new friends! Pura vida! 🙂
The Greatest Threat to the Church Isn’t Islam – It’s Us
Hoping non-subscribers to Christianity Today can get to this linked article by a Nigerian Christian. In many ways Africa is where Christianity is strongest today and there are many things Americans could learn from our African brethren! This article is a good example.