Category: Atenas

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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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Swallow

Maybe Blue & White Swallow, Bank Swallow, or even a Martin. Not sure.

Hundreds of swallows fly over every day and all around the apartments, very fast! I’ve never been able to catch one in my camera, though this is one of my best efforts. We also have Keel-billed Toucans fly over occasionally, usually in pairs and very fast! No photos! Same with the Montezuma Oropendola! And parrots and parakeet flocks which are often even higher in sky. None of these birds ever land in the trees around us. 

Church and rest today. No adventures! Back to the bank tomorrow and that will be an adventure!

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Today’s Alajuela Adventures

I travel by bus to our province’s capital every week or two, mainly for Aerocasillas & Walmart. Here’s today’s story with phone pix:

Iglesia Bautista 1946, Alajuela
I got the 9 AM bus to Alajuela ($1.43) and it got there in 30 minutes, the fastest time yet! Walking from the Alajuela bus terminal to Aerocasillas, as always, I saw for the first time the Baptist Church of Alajuela. I have walked by it before without noticing the small “Iglesia Bautista 1946” sign. It was started when I was just 6 years old! I know it is the date because we don’t use house numbers here! It is behind and overshadowed by the Alajuela Cathedral pictured in my January 15 post. 

Aerocasillas Alajuela Office

From the bus station to Aerocasillas (the blue sign on gray building) is an 11 block walk or as they say here, “about 1100 meters” or actually “oncecientos metres.” Today I had one letter, a check from the sale of my dining room table and chairs, finally! So worth the trip! Then this afternoon when I got home I received notice via email that a package will be ready for me to pick up tomorrow. Grrr! Maybe I go tomorrow or maybe next week! ! It is the replacement blades for my electric razor that I couldn’t find here. Oh well! Another adventure!

Then around the corner from Aerocasillas are two of my favorite landmarks and the cab stand:

Church of the Agony, Alajuela

La Bohemia Rock Bar across the street from Church of the Agony

Cab Stand at Church of the Agony – $3 to Walmart – All official taxis are red!
Maybe I’ll show a photo of the Walmart sometime, but it is just a big box! Today I walked across the street from Walmart to a new modern strip center with several nice restaurants. I chose Mexican, Taconteinto. It was very good and very expensive!
Then another cab back to the bus station where I just barely caught it as leaving and packed full. The first time I have had to stand all the way to Atenas, well, nearly all the way. Between La Garita and Atenas our bus broke down and we all had to stand on the side of the road at a partly covered bus stop for 20+ minutes waiting for a replacement bus to pick us up. We were all patient. “These things happen!” People don’t get bent out of shape when things go wrong here. Everyone just visited or used their cell phones. And 20-30 minutes for a replacement bus is actually pretty quick!
Waiting for a replacement bus on the western edge of La Garita. 

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La Muchacha

West End 3rd floor landing balcony, La Muchacha & door to my apartment.

In the dictionary, “muchacha” is just another Spanish word for girl, but in real life Costa Rica it is more; what the young men call a good-looking young lady, like “chick” in the states. My taxi driver in a barrio of San Jose whistled at a couple of teenage girls, looked at me, smiled, and said “Barrio’s Muchachas!” Well, we have one at Hacienda La Jacaranda too – at my front door!
“Muchacha” is what two-year old Matthaeus in the apartments calls the only statue in our building. It is a wood carving of a nude girl (sun worshipping?) that stands on the west end 3rd floor landing right across from my front door and and my neighbor’s door. Hmmmmm . . . you say! Well, it’s just art! Phons, the previous owner, loved nudes! (Has more around his house.) And I didn’t put it there! Wait until you see the paintings he put in my living room! But for now enjoy these photos of Matthaeus’ Muchacha! 🙂 Our wooden chick!
Carved from one piece of wood, dated 2004.

Looks like sun worshipping to me!

You hardly notice it when you walk up the hill.
Today I had lunch with a couple and their lady friend from New Jersey. Tomorrow I’m taking the retired man birding on the Tarcoles River. My first time to get that far away from Atenas for nature photography. I’m looking forward to it. Lots of birds tomorrow!

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Jubilado!

Jubilado is the most common word used here to name or describe a retired person (Jubilada for feminine). Even though there is a Spanish word that sounds more like our English “Retired” (retirarse), no one uses it here – always jubilado(a)! It comes from the root noun jubilo, “jubilation or joy,” and the corresponding adjective jubiloso(a), “jubilant, joyful.” And in the land of Pura Vida, what a great way to describe retirement! And it is becoming pure joy for me!

One view of our apartments while walking back from town.
Far from a retirement home!

Though the government talked in 2010 about creating “Jubilado Communities” like Retirement Communities in the states, it never materialized with most Ticos preferring to retire in place, stay a part of the total community and their extended family, says an article in La Nacion, the primary Spanish language newspaper here.

Of course there are North Americans who bought up property to create many gated communities of retired North Americans here, even in Atenas. I’m trying to avoid that. My apartments are gated for security, but we are not all gringo, not all retired, and not all old. I love the mix of peoples, ages, incomes, nationalities and the 300 meter walk to a real town! It is better than a retirement community! At least for me. We have two young couples who go to work daily, a couple of older working people,  an unwed young mother with a 2-year old, a community of teenagers next door (New Summit Academy), and all ages of snowbirds. Who knows who will move in when the snowbirds go home in April and May for their summer? We are surrounded by Tico houses plus a church and shopping within walking distance! It is a good balance.

Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate
I believe that happiness is something we create
Line from Sugarland’s song 
“Something More”

Happy to be a Jubilado!
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Day of the Iguana! And Eating Report . . .

Spiny-tailed Iguana in Downtown Atenas

I’ve seen one on the apartment grounds, a female with a nest we think, but very skittish and never close enough to photograph. Today I saw this Spiny-tailed Iguana on the back side of ICE, the electric and cell phone company, on the base of their tower. It’s a cell phone image. There are three kinds of iguanas in Costa Rica, Green, Spiny-tailed, and Helmeted. On earlier trips I always saw mostly the Green Iguana and maybe a few spiny-tailed, but never a helmeted yet.

Eating Report . . .
And unrelated to the iguana, except it was on the same walk, I photographed my lunch plate at La Trocha del Boyero. My first time to eat there and I got a typical Tico lunch plate called a “Casado.” It is another one of the better restaurants that I will return to. They also have the reputation of “the best steak in town.” Maybe someday when I’m really hungry! You can get a casado like this for $4 in the little corner “Sodas” (Mom & Pop cafes) or about $5 at El Mejor Clima Restaurant. This nicer placed charged $8. But I got real china and a linen tablecloth! And a nice patio with many plants on a quiet street with just me and one other party at the time. And I read another chapter in the latest book.
Typical Costa Rican Lunch
Fried sea bass, onions, peppers, beans, rice, fried plantains, plantain fritters, and salad. 
La Trocha del Boyero, Atenas, Costa Rica
Covered Outdoor Patios are the most common style restaurant here.

And for Supper . . .

Since I’m on food, let me tell you about my “light” supper. When I buy fresh fruit now, it is usually too much to eat all fresh, so I cut up some and put in sandwich baggies in the freezer. Then; like tonight, I sometimes make a fresh fruit smoothie with some frozen fruits rather than ice cubes. Tonight’s was frozen pineapple, papaya, and strawberries with a not-frozen banana, a small container of yogurt, and some chilled guanabana drink for the liquid (I make this from the pulp of guanabanas and keep in frig as another drink choice along with a similar one from mango pulp). My supper smoothie all blended together to the texture of an icy milkshake and was really yummy! With that I ate a slice of watermelon and a little peanut butter sandwich on whole grain “fruit bread.” That’s like raisin bread with more than raisins and in the whole grain bread! Eating is fun here! And I am not losing weight! But I walk enough to not be gaining weight! 3.5 miles today, 5.5 yesterday! My phone measures mileage, along with being my camera, portable Kindle, calendar, and other neat tools. Life is good! Pura Vida!

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, 
it would be a merrier world.” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien
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Stumbled Upon Yesterday’s Tree

Pink trumpet tree or Roble de sabana
My apartment complex entrance is 100 meters to the left

Walking back from town today I suddenly realized I was walking across the street from the tree I posted yesterday as shot from my balcony. It is located just after I duck my head to walk under this bougainvillea over the sidewalk (photo below). I’ll try to create an album of neighborhood flowers soon. There are many!

Bougainvillea Arch over Atenas Sidewalk
“The earth laughs in flowers.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Pink Trumpet Tree

Roble de sabana or Pink trumpet tree

The Pink Trumpet Tree (in English) or Roble de sabana (in Spanish) and the scientific or Latin name of Tabebuia rosea is a popular flowering three for this elevation of the Central Valley hills of 698 meters or 2300 feet. This is a shot from my balcony of two of these trees in a neighbor’s yard. You can see a lot living on a hill!   🙂   I love the views from my hill and balcony! Remember a couple of weeks ago the orange flowering Poro Tree I shared? Those orange flowers are fading now as different blossoms appear elsewhere. After a whole year I should have a good flowering tree collection – Photos, smiles, and memories!

“You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, and even vagueness – ignorance, credulity – helps your enjoyment of these things.”

― Henry David Thoreau
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What’s Different About Costa Rica? And My Buses…

So what is really so different from the U.S. about Costa Rica, note these interesting habits, traditions, & weird facts from an article in The Costa Rica News, one of the online English newspapers here. Just click the link above – It’s worth the time! We are different!

AND ABOUT THE BUSES I RIDE . . .

Here I’m waiting in line to board a bus to Atenas from Alajuela. 23 km, 15 miles.
Buses go everywhere cheaply, just don’t be in a hurry! This one is $1.43 USD,
or 715 Colones, and as a “collectivo” making local stops, takes about 45 minutes.
Nice vehicles, made in China, window for air & curtain to shield the sunshine.
One trip I had a large package and driver put it under the bus at no extra charge.

If I go to Alajuela to pick up mail at Aerocasillas or shop at Walmart, that is one day’s activity, usually just one or two things accomplished per day. That trip is usually a half day or more if I eat lunch in Alajuela. San Jose trips can take longer and I have combined the two cities for most of a day. Below is photo of bus schedule in Atenas for Alajuela & San Jose. I have this printed and on my refrigerator to check for when the next bus leaves:

Bus Schedule from Atenas to San Jose & Alajuela.
First column is Mon-Fri, Second Saturdays & Holidays, Third Sundays
Most buses are packed full to standing room only.
The most popular way to travel.