Category: Atenas

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That Spot of Color is Joy!

Can you see it? In the fork of the guarumo tree on the distant hill. Red-orange.
It is a spot of color I see every time I walk out on my terrace and it brings a smile.
It is an African Tulip Tree I’m glad a neighbor planted!
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

It is a tree like this one by our front gate in Roca Verde, African Tulip Tree, native of Africa
and brought here as an ornamental tree for yards that adds new color to the many natural colors here.
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

And a little closer. 


The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most. 
John Ruskin

See my photo gallery:  Flora & Forest

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Yellow Warbler

Yellow Warbler joined me for Breakfast Friday
 My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

I believe it is a migratory male from the states. The year-around male here has an orange/rust colored head. The female is usually lighter colored than this. This is not an uncommon bird, but all species are fun to see and to have in decent light for a photo. The next shot is not as good, but he’s flying and that to me is always fun to catch!   🙂

Yellow Warbler 
 Atenas, Costa Rica

My Costa Rica Birds photo gallery for more bird photos

THANKS for sending your birds south for your winter as our summer begins!  ~Charlie

North America has more than 50 species of warblers, but few combine brilliant color and easy viewing quite like the Yellow Warbler. In summer, the buttery yellow males sing their sweet whistled song from willows, wet thickets, and roadsides across almost all of North America. The females and immatures aren’t as bright, and lack the male’s rich chestnut streaking, but their overall warm yellow tones, unmarked faces, and prominent black eyes help pick them out.   ~The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

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Nashville Seniors to Help Children’s Home Here

One view of Hogar de Vida campus, Atenas, Costa Rica

I was recently contacted by a fellow senior adult in the church I attended in Nashville, First Baptist Church, Nashville, TN USA. They were interested in doing a mission trip to Costa Rica and so I contacted the director of the Hogar De Vida children’s home here in Atenas and in short the group from Nashville will be coming in April 2018 for a week of assorted service activities at the children’s home. If you are in First Baptist Nashville and are interested, talk to anyone on the SAALT Council or to the project coordinator Fred Linkenhoker. 

If you would like to know more about the non-denominational private Christian children’s home, Hogar de Vida:

Facebook page of Hogar de Vida: 
https://www.facebook.com/HogardeVidaCR/  (See photos of others serving there in the past.) And be sure to see the featured video linked on their page:  What We Do… Video  (I can’t link it here.)

And their web page is actually a Costa Rica section inside the web page of their larger program of children’s homes in multiple countries: 
The work is being directed & coordinated by the children’s home and I am just serving as one of the team members and sort of a local host to my old friends in Nashville, especially if some decide to stay over for some Pura Vida tourism in Costa Rica. 

Speaking Spanish is not required, though very helpful if you do! 🙂


Learn through on-the-ground moments about the world beyond your zip code.   ~Samaritan’s Feet Website
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Color Coordination ? Sun Protection ?

I like, thus my collections of caps and sunglasses for walking.
I almost never go out without a cap.
Here’s my collection!

Similarly I never go out without sunglasses.
 And my collection of those,
A green T-shirt just needs a green cap and sunglasses!
Common sense, huh? 
  🙂   Fun!  ¡Divertido!

And cheap (borato) sunglasses are plentiful here! 
Some less than $2  –  las gafas de sol

While most caps, la gorras, are more expensive (más caro)!
¡Pura Vida!
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Heliconius Hecale Zuleika

Heliconius Hecale Zuleika 
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

This is not a new species, but It seems like I haven’t been photographing as many butterflies this year, so wanting to include one. I got a better shot of this Heliconius in August. Butterflies are fun!

Happiness is a butterfly . . .
 
~Nathaniel Hawthorne
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New Neighbors & Normal Weather

The cow and her growing calf were removed (sold?) and these four brought into pasture in front of my house.
The fourth is a brown cow on right edge of photo. Sorry I couldn’t talk him/her into joining group.
The abundance of rain has given a bumper crop of grass!
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
There’s nothing like sitting back and talking to your cows. 
~Russell Crowe
And finally weather is back to “Normal” with clear skies in the morning!  
View from my terrace this morning at breakfast.
 Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
What I call “normal” weather during the rainy season is sunshine and clear skies in the mornings and early afternoons with showers in the late afternoon or evening. Perfect! We’ll see if we get the showers today. For the last few weeks we have had tropical storms come in first from the Caribbean and then this week from the Pacific, meaning clouds and threat of rain day and night. Being inland we did not get the heavy rains both coasts got, though we got a landslide from Nate’s rains, just on the edge of Atenas. 

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Home Business Sign: General Medicine & Dentistry

Home Business Signs: General Medicine & Dentistry
 It appears that husband is dentists & wife the general doctor
 Atenas, Costa Rica

We are still getting the rains from the big Pacific storm that hit the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica around the little town of Uvita where the “Whale’s Tail” beach is located. Here’s an article about the storm with a beautiful photo of the Whale’s Tail beach made on a sunny day. Also article about the weather closing Manuel Antonio National Park. 

http://www.ticotimes.net/2017/10/24/costa-rica-dreamin

My photo of “Whale’s Tail” Beach is not nearly as good during rainy season in May:
https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/Vistas/Pacific-Beaches/i-z5FjpGf/A

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Cloudy Time of Year

October is usually the wettest of the rainy season months (May-November)
And this year is therefore normal with rain every day in afternoon & evening or night.
With mornings sometimes clear and sunny, but the last week or so just cloudy. Early October.
Earlier this morning you could not even see the hills above for the clouds!
 Atenas, Costa Rica 
A week or two later photo with a Pacific front moving in.
We had very heavy rain with the beginning of Hurricane Nate that started here.
Then 2 or 3 weeks with very little rain and now it may be coming again. We will see!
This shot 25 October.
Atenas, Costa Rica

Mornings are very foggy . . .

Even as the sun comes up!  Though hard to capture in a photo! 


AccuWeather Forecast for Atenas  which is usually pretty accurate, though this week we did not get the quantity of rain they forecast. Now we are suppose to get back to normal afternoon showers until sometime in November when it fades away to the dry season. I prefer the greener rainy season!
Actually I rarely check the forecast unless traveling. It is what it is!  🙂
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Conversational English Club

This is 12 of the 19 in the Conversational English Club meeting after school Mondays.
Optional, not required for very busy teens involved in sports, arts, etc. that sometimes conflict.
They are such a delightful group of kids, so friendly, kind, and respectful. Grades 8-11.
In January they will go as exchange students to a school in a Virginia suburb of D.C.
They are much like teenagers everywhere and yet different in a positive & cultural way.
I have come to love everyone of them!
Colegio Liceo de Atenas
Atenas, Costa Rica

See the school’s Cool YOUTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74S9aFTNN_Q

The school’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/liceodeatenas/about/   where you need to drill down to posts, photos, or videos to learn more about the school. This school is one more reason Atenas is a very special place to me! 
And oh yes, the one’s without uniform shirts changed as soon as school was out!  🙂  One reason for backpacks and lockers! And FYI, I’m the happy old man in the center of the back row.   🙂  ~Photo by George Holmes, my neighbor and helper in the club, made on my cellphone. Gracias Jorge!
Do you think they will go to Virginia speaking with a southern accent because of me?   🙂

-o-
NOTE: For those who read this and knew my artist neighbor Anthony Jeroski, who moved back to the states June 1. I just got word that he died July 16. No explanations. He made my garden art bird sculpture that I like so much. RIP Anthony.

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Central Park, the Center of Atenas

Everyone hangs out at Central Park some of the time!
 Like these 3 men and boy who just road to town, stopping for 3 bottles of beer & a mug of root beer.
Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica

They chose the one bar at the park instead of POPS Ice Cream Shop. It’s the cowboy way!   🙂
 Bar Punga – In Spanish “punga” means “very familiar, nicking, thieving, or pickpocket”
 Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica

It’s an island of green in the center of town with trees, flowers, benches, playground, fiestas, celebrations, & people!
Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica

The playground is always busy!
Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica

A water fountain for a drink or spigot to fill your water bottle as this lady is doing.
 Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica

The center circle radiates 8 sidewalks to all sides of the park.
All are lined with park benches full of gossip, romancing, reading…
and one leads directly to front door of the main Catholic Church.
Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica

And this one leads directly to my bank!  🙂
 I try to walk through the park every day on my walks.
It is a simple blessing that I thank God for!
Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica

Directly across from the full square block park you will find in addition to the above bar and ice cream shop, the courthouse, the municipal office building, one of our banks, several restaurants or places to get something to eat and drink, several clothing stores, one discount grocery store, an office building, a pharmacy, photography shop, bedding shop, the church, and I’m sure I left out at least one something!   🙂

And the interesting thing is that every Costa Rican town of any size has a Central Park in front of their central catholic church. The only layout difference I’ve seen so far is at Playa Coco (Coconut Beach) where their Central Park is the long boardwalk along their beach with the church facing it instead of a square block.

Multiple sub-galleries of photos are about Atenas in Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA gallery.