Also called in Spanish: Tango, chiltote, chorro de oro, and San Carlos.
In English, most commonly called the Flame Vine
Translation of Triquitraque = Clatter
As in the clatter of a train going down the track
As in a string of firecrackers popping
As in jumping jack
OR
The first definition of triquitraque in the dictionary of the real academy of the Spanish language is noise as of repeated and disordered blows. Another meaning of triquitraque in the dictionary is those same hits.
So why is this flower called Triquitraque?
I wish someone would tell me! Maybe the scattered bright flowers along a vine reminds someone of a string of firecrackers exploding? Or a visual clatter? Please comment if you know! 🙂
Today, February 8, 2021, is the first time students will be in the physical school buildings in almost a year, having closed last March because of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Primary School – Los Angeles
Some schools will offer the option of a “hybrid plan” mixing in-person with online school, fewer days in-person. And the many students who have no internet access for online school will be prioritized for in-person classes and parents who are not comfortable with in-person school for their kids can continue online schooling.
Those in the physical school buildings must wear masks and desks will be 1.8 meters apart, with hand-washing and other precautions in place. Read more details in theEnglish-language Tico Times article. Or readers here in Costa Rica can get questions answered on the Spanish language Education Ministry’s Coronavirus Website.
High School – Colegio Liceo
All photos are my older file photos from earlier years. The feature photo as header of page is of Escuela Central, the largest and main primary school, K-6. The kids in costumes are at Los Angeles Primary School and the teens at bottom are at Colegio Liceo, the university-prep public high school.
This past school year will have a major impact on several generations of students around the world with so many poorer students unable to participate in online education. Much work and prayer needs to go into helping these students around the world to “catch up” or fit in with the more affluent. And Costa Rica will do it well, always being a leader in education.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”
Yeah! I know, it seems that I like every tree! And maybe I do, but this one by the cow pasture in front of my house is special I think because of its shape. Though that one little tree to its left sort of takes away from the shape 🙂 it’s still a neat tree!
The Featured Photo above is the broad look from the cow pasture with that tiny sliver of roof on the far left edge of photo being my house on the hill. The tree is the one in center of above photo to the left of the 3 big houses. And below is a closer view.
Big Green Tree by the Pasture.
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”
The #1 best country to retire in according to International Living Magazine (Again!)
The #1 best country to visit or vacation inaccording to National Geographic for 2021.
The highest inoculation rate against Covid -19 virus in Latin America with goal of every adult in the country!
“Rumor” is that Costa Rica may host the 2022 Miss Universe Contest. A new convention center in San Jose makes things like this more likely, though final decision not made yet.
FOR ME? It is the Best Place to Experience NATURE!
On my round of errands this morning, one stop was at the public clinic to sign up for my Coronavirus Vaccine as one of an expected. 3.7 million to be vaccinated in Costa Rica this year, basically the whole population. It has begun all over the country as a free vaccination provided by the government with millions of doses already in country. As an older adult I should be called in before younger people and within the month the technician told me. I just wait for the phone call, in Spanish, and hope they speak slow enough for me to understand! 🙂
I also saw my female private practice GP doctor this week and already my hurting knee is much better and less swollen. Medical services here are really good! Both public and private and cheap or free!
On one of my walks on the nearby “Country Lane,” I found this simple little tree covered in yellow blooms, like many Costa Rica trees now, and liked it!
The Feature Photo is the broad view of the landscape with the little solo tree, while below I include a closer view from another angle, all from behind a fence, and I never cross fences! 🙂
Country Lane Yellow Tree
“Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy.”
~Isaac Newton
¡Pura Vida!
Tonight or tomorrow I will begin reporting on the Cloud Forests of San Gerardo de Dota in Savegre Hotel. It is a lot different from my Central Valley coffee farming town of Atenas! 🙂
Expats living in Atenas, Costa Rica (mostly retirees) have a Facebook Group Page where expats ask one another “how to” or “where to” kinds of questions and share important information. Each year the group has a photo contest for what will be the group’s page header that year. My shot or our town from a hill in Roca Verde one foggy morning is the winner this year! 🙂
I almost used this photo for my digital Christmas Card this year. Glad I didn’t so it will now be solely the identity of the group.
And my prize? Something yummy from Pat’s kitchen! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
The full photo below lends itself well to the narrow crop for a page header:
Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica — Photo by Charlie Doggett
Sorry that you got a false email notice of this post two days ago! In short, this old man is sometimes technologically challenged! 🙂 I often schedule posts a day or so ahead and when the scheduling calendar popped up I clicked the 4th and entered. Whoops! I had just clicked the 4th of December! 🙂 I quickly changed it to the 4th of January, but alas, the auto email had already been sent out. 🙂
Since March and the first arrival of COVID19 in Costa Rica, the government Health Ministry prohibits buffet service in restaurants. But I guess that does not include ants eating a spec of food together on my terrace! 🙂
These tiny black ants are eating a tiny spec of something: food, fruit, flower, other insect or I’m not sure what on my terrace, right in front of my rocking chair. I just had to photograph them! 🙂
Ant Buffet on my terrace.
If all humans disappeared today ,the earth would start improving tomorrow. If all the ants disappeared today ,the earth would start dying tomorrow.
Around the first of January every year in Costa Rica the skylines, forest tops and trees in every direction seem to be ablaze in yellow. In my yard it is what we call “Yellow Bells” in English, while many others here and throughout the country are the Yellow Cortez Tree and in other places the Brazilian Fire Tree. These shots are from recent short morning walks through my neighborhood. CLICK image to see larger . . .
I arrived at Arenal Observatory Lodge in time for lunch with my driver and my first afternoon of looking for birds with 11 species photographed including the above Emerald Tanager (link to eBird description) which is a “Lifer” or first-time-seen bird for me! And a colorful one found only in Central America plus Columbia & Ecuador.
I did lots of walking including to the top of the 28 meters or 92 ft. tall observation tower with 146 steps on stairs. I’ve gotten lots of birds and monkeys from this tower in the past, but not today with it being overcast and very windy when I went up today, but I got several landscape shots including this one I call “A Sea of Treetops.”
My “Sea of Treetops” shot today from the top of Arenal Observatory’s observation tower.
“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”
