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La Casita Vista

La Casita del Cafe Vista
On a clear day you can see the Pacific Ocean on right behind close hill.
 

I finally got to have breakfast at La Casita del Cafe, 8.7 km from my house (but with an Atenas address). It is a tiny little restaurant on the tallest mountain you can see from my balcony. It was a typical Tico breakfast of beans and rice with eggs and I added ham and chose the scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions in them, almost as good as I make. I made the trip as my first trial run in a rent car which I got yesterday afternoon in preparation for two sets of Tennessee visitors next week. I could get spoiled having a car!  🙂

Last week Berdelle Campbell and Michael King (my Germantown friends) came in for a visit with Marcia & Craig Jervis in their lovely Uvita house on the South Pacific Coast. Their plane was delayed and got here after dark, so our planned “lunch date” didn’t happen when they left the airport. 
Berdelle and Michael are returning Wednesday and decided to come up Tuesday to visit with me before I take them to the airport Wednesday morning. They will sleep in a lovely Bed & Breakfast, Vista Atenas, with another killer view! I’ll show it later. But anyway, I needed to learn how to drive around here and get to some of the places I will be taking Kevin later next week (like La Casita) and the following week. So I got it early and find driving is not that difficult here, at least with GPS! There are not many road signs or highway labels, so you either know where you are going or you follow the GPS which thankful is included on my phone. I also found the B&B on the same highway with La Casita and found the little country coffee farm, El Toledo, on another highway that Kevin and I will be visiting next Sunday. 
Today I was unable to find a auto charger for my Samsung Galaxy s4, but was told of a place that will be open Monday here that might have it. If not, I’ll try the Walmart in Alajuela. I have gotten so used to walking and using taxis and buses, that it really feels strange having a car! I can do things at the last minute or on impulse!

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True Grit!

Turrialba Volcano has been erupting recently and my decks were covered yesterday in black dust or volcanic ash I guess. And I’m more than a hundred miles away! See the report. Black dust in the house too!

We get it because of the high winds this year which we are told are caused by exceptionally cold weather up north this year. Therefore your snow and ice caused black dust on my balcony!  🙂

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“Greywater”

“Greywater” in an Atenas Stream near downtown.
Soap Suds into the Drainage Ditch by our road.
This runs into the Rio Cajon, though some goes into the ground.

This explanation from letsgogreen.com:

Greywater is any household wastewater with the exception of wastewater from toilets, which is known as blackwater. Typically, 50-80% of household wastewater is greywater from kitchen sinks, dishwashers, bathroom sinks, tubs and showers. Of course, if you use a composting toilet, 100% of your household wastewater is greywater.

Freshly generated greywater is not as nasty as blackwater, but if it’s not handled properly it can soon become so. Greywater decomposes at a much faster rate than blackwater and if stored for as little as 24 hours, the bacteria in it use up all the oxygen and the greywater becomes anaerobic and turns septic. After this point it is more like blackwater – stinky and a health hazard. In fact, many jurisdictions have strict regulations about disposal of greywater, some even require it to be treated as blackwater.

Not all greywater is equally “grey”. Kitchen sink water laden with food solids and laundry water that has been used to wash diapers are more heavily contaminated than greywater from showers and bathroom sinks. Although greywater from these sources contains less pathogens than blackwater, many regulatory bodies consider it as blackwater.

The safest way to handle greywater is to introduce it directly to the biologically active topsoil layer, where soil bacteria can quickly break it down, rendering the nutrients available to plants. This biological water purification is much more effective than any engineered treatment, thus protecting the quality of groundwater and surface waters.

For more information, please visit his website www.oasisdesign.net 

In brief greywater branched out into the ground can be good and earth is the best filter, which is what we are doing in the apartments. But pouring it into the streets and streams as people are doing in town is not healthy. Again, education is the best solution! 


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Seeing Beauty

Sunset from Charlie’s Balcony, Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
-Confucius
A little selective focus and cropping via my camera
gave me tonight’s sunset as I wanted to see it 
from my immersion in a tropical rainforest. 
It is fun seeing, experiencing beauty!
-Charlie
🙂


Moments before it was just this ordinary sunset in a small town:

I chose to remove the clutter, the noise, and find the tropical beauty I love!
Can you see where I focused as the sun dimmed a little more?
Seventeen minutes later and an effort to see beauty!



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Visa Run to Nicaragua

A long, colorful and productive 15-hour day-trip today!
Our first of 4 lines to wait in at the border. Great people-watching!
Click to enlarge this photo of line to get out of Costa Rica.
Our 7 renewers plus our leader Walter in the hat

Welcome to Nicaragua!

I have many more interesting photos of the people, places and scenery in Costa Rica on this trip in my Visa Run Photo Gallery!  Always click on an image to see a larger version. We left at 5:30 AM and were home by 8:30 PM. We all got our visa’s renewed for 90 days more! Two stops on the Corobici River, our favorite and most beautiful place this day! See photos in the gallery.

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Parrots Landed!

Crimson-fronted Parakeet
Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica

They have been flying over daily for most of my time here, but not landing where I could see them from my apartment. Then they finally did! Once! A small number landed in one of the palm trees on our apartment property for a few minutes. Not sure why they chose the palm tree. No berries that I can see. This is the largest of all parakeets, as large as most parrots, the Crimson-fronted Parakeet. It’s the same one I posted earlier from the power line out front of the apartments. But I like these shots better, more natural. All were made from my front balcony with my Canon Rebel and a 75-300mm lens, then cropped to about 1/4 the original image size for the birds to show up! None tack-sharp, but I’m satisfied after waiting so long for them to land. Later on jungle trips I may get much better shots and when we go to La Paz! I got macaws at Zoo Ave, but no parrots! Same on Tarcoles River.

Crimson-fronted Parakeets
Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica

Crimson-fronted Parakeets
Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica

Crimson-fronted Parakeet
Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica

Crimson-fronted Parakeet
Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Sugarcane

Farmer bringing sugarcane to market while
I am walking up the hill to my Spanish class.

Note: I just added another fallen fruit photo to my March 7 Trodden Under Foot post, if interested. It is the Star Apple or Cainito, a purple fruit the size of an apple or orange and it fell right here in our apartments.

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Central Park is the Center of Atenas

Central Park Atenas, a cell phone 3-photo panorama from Gelly’s Jardin Restaurant

This view is from Gelly’s restaurant facing east. Don Tadeo’s Bar & Restaurant faces the park on the opposite side, facing west, a vista place to eat on both sides! The Atenas Catholic Church is to the right, facing the park from the south side looking north and on the north side is Banco Nacional facing south. On the southeast corner is the Courthouse, called Tribunal, and northwest corner the City Hall. On the northeast corner of the park is POP’S Ice Cream Shop while southwest corner has Pizza Olivera.

The Post Office is a half block west of the back side of the church or block and a half from the park. Another block and a half from the park is the Bus Station, Taxi Stand, and Indoor Farmers’ Market open all week. And this doesn’t count all the many little shops, Sodas, a hardware store, two small supermarkets, a dollar store kind of place, good office and school supply store, and more restaurants as the circle widens. Plus the electric company and phone company two blocks off the square, as is my spanish class, the bigger supermarket, etc. 
And realtors don’t understand why I want to stay close to the Central Park? Each realtor has a house they just know I will love, but I have to pay more for it, get a car or spend more on taxis! I’m now 5 or 6 blocks away and that is far enough to! This is the way towns used to be built! I sometimes feel like I’m living back in the 1940’s or 50’s with this town, and likewise when washing dishes by hand, hanging laundry outside in to dry, and walking everywhere! I love my new retro-life! And I love being near the center of Atenas! Think I’ll stay! And if the apartments don’t work out for any reason, I’ll take an apartment or little house near the city center without the view! 
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Trodden Under Foot

I walk everywhere in Atenas and mostly in shorts and sandals on rough or no sidewalk.
And recently upon fallen fruit.

I have been recently intrigued by how many tropical fruits fall from the trees on the local sidewalks and streets to be “trodden under foot of men” and cars or eaten by animals. Some of these are expensive to buy, especially in the states. Here are a few shots with my phone camera recently. Some fruit is not in season yet and other not planted along the roads/streets or there would be more.

Star Fruit or Carambola

Guava

Guanabana

Mango

Baby green mango in Central Park Atenas

Star Apple or Cainito

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Matthew 5:13 KJV

Maybe I’m not suppose to use scripture like this, but this verse came to my mind when I kept seeing all the fruit being walked upon.  🙂   But then maybe there is a lesson about letting our fruits of the Spirit go to waste? Or has our saltiness lost its savor and being trod upon like this fruit? Or maybe it is our fruits of the spirit that is the salt of the earth and we will share our fruit rather than let it drop out of sight? A “Do it yourself” devotional thought in this!

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Tico Toilet Paper

Sign in Su Espacio bano as in most toilets anywhere in Costa Rica.

Not nasty! Just practical! Anyone who has managed a septic tank understands or maybe you know someone who uses large wads of toilet paper that stop up even sewer lines. Stopped up plumbing is no fun! And I think most of the drain pipes here are smaller. So practicality trumps most sensitivities. Plus the bathroom trash cans (one by each toilet) all have lids and I keep a spray-can of Lysol by mine. No big deal anymore! But if you visit from the states, prepare yourself for this Tico custom.  🙂

The sign you will find in my apartment bathrooms.
At Farmers’ Market you buy your toilet paper from this enterprising couple.
Many public restrooms have no paper, so most women keep some in their purse.
But all restrooms provide a covered wastebasket for your used paper. 🙂

 In the Super Mercado many Central American made and branded toilet papers are available and sometimes you can get Scott Tissue, the only recognizable brand for North Americans. It costs about a dollar for one roll of 1,000 squares. (cheaper in large packages.) I’ve compared Scott and Nevax (a Costa Rica brand) and they are about the same quality and price and I’m moving toward supporting local products in when I can. 

Sorry if this column is offensive, but there is more to living in Costa Rica than photographing birds!  🙂

Or for something a little more spiritual, see my post in my “His Spirit” Blog titled: God, Teach me how to walk barefoot!