Category: Atenas

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Add-On Business: Phone Minutes

  All you need is one to three little signs telling the public you sell their phone minutes:

Phone company only, with widest call coverage
My cellphone is with kolbi
Atenas, Costa Rica
Cellphone AND  Dish Television
Atenas, Costa Rica

Cellphone AND  Dish Television
Atenas, Costa Rica

Most people in Costa Rica have a cellphone and no landline and most simply add minutes every month or whenever they think they are low. It is theoretically cheaper if you don’t talk too much or download too much data. I was required to do that as a newcomer. Later I switched to a monthly plan with an automatic debit of my bill to my local bank account. The easy or lazy way! And I use a different company for my cable TV and Internet WiFi in my house. They also debit my local bank with the monthly bill which again is a real convenience for me!

But if you have a phone with minutes added as needed you can get them at the grocery store or just about any other shop, even a home business. So easy to get a dollar’s worth of minutes just about anywhere! The two phone companies that also sell dish TV sell the TV plans separate from the phone minutes.

See my photo gallery of Home Business Signs in Atenas
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Home Businesses: Ropa Americano (interesting phenomenon)

Interesting because nearly all of the home businesses AND store fronts advertising “Ropa Americano” or “American Clothing” are selling used clothing that they buy by the kilo from Goodwill Industries in the states. Goodwill simply has too much clothing for the demand in a rich country, so they sell surpluses to entrepreneurs in other countries. We had this same phenomenon in The Gambia also. It meets a real need for more affordable clothing and especially younger people world-wide like to dress like Americans or what they see on TV and in movies. 
And yes, the second photo is a home too. They just took the curtains off the windows in two rooms to give them essentially display windows on a street I regularly walk down to my favorite Supermercado. We have two kinds of clothing store fronts, ones that sell this used clothing and more who sell brand new clothing at much higher prices. The new clothing stores are not all American clothing with lots of Central American manufacturers and even new clothing from the Orient and Europe. 
But Goodwill has helped some women maintain successful home businesses that depend more on word of mouth than signs. 
See more photos of Atenas in several of my photo galleries. 
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Orange-chinned Parakeets

Orange-chinned Parakeets
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Orange-chinned Parakeets
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
Fly-away Orange-chinned Parakeets
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Orange-chinned Parakeets
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

These parakeets and some red-lored parrots fly over my house every afternoon going up the mountain, but seldom stop at my house. The Orange-chinned Parakeets did stop briefly today in a tree in my yard and a dead tree across the street. They were in the tops of the trees and very difficult to photograph with little good light. So this is my feeble attempt to capture them.

The orange chin is seldom seen unless in very good light, but I am sure of the ID because of the prominent brown shoulders and the little yellow dash below the shoulder in the bottom photo. Bird ID in bad photos is real detective work!  🙂
My BIRDS Photo Galleries


“A prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages.” 

― Tennessee Williams, Stairs to the Roof


-o-


Anyone considering a move to Costa Rica should read this article by someone who decided it was not for them. Why We are Leaving Costa Rica.  As I have said before, living here is not for everyone and this is only one example. There are many other reasons people try it and decide it is not for them, like impatience with the slow culture, language, lack of infrastructure, “its not the way we do it back home,” missing family, and many more. But this article relates to something else I have always believed, that life is not about being happy but about having purpose and meaning in life. Only you can determine that and whether living in Costa Rica would help fulfill it. And certainly several long visits here before you make a move would help you find your place, both here and in life! 
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Cuckoo Eating Nance Berries

Squirrel Cuckoo
My Gardens, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
Squirrel Cuckoo
My Gardens, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Squirrel Cuckoo
My Gardens, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Another breakfast visitor off my terrace, in the Nance Tree where the yellow berries are ripe. The underside of the long tail is beautiful but this one would never show it. This shot at Cañon Negro Reserve shows it somewhat. And there are other shots in my Costa Rica Birds Photo Gallery though he doesn’t seem to often show off his bright tail.

For more info on this beautiful bird, see Neotropical Birds Overview with a songs recording. The are fairly common from Central America down through the northern portions of South America. They are not on any endangered list.

¡Feliz Dia de Mamá!
Happy Mother’s Day!
A national holiday with almost everything closed today and
most mother’s getting a lot of attention from their families.
15th of August every year! Regardless which day of the week.
The restaurant I ate in today had tables of 8 or 10 honoring Moms.

¡Pura Vida!
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These Incas are “Love Doves”

Inca Doves
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

This young couple will probably soon mate and will be partners for life. Read more about Inca Doves at Cornell University’s All About Birds. 


See my other bird photos in my Photo Gallery BIRDS

Cute love

Dove and sprinkle cling together
Searching warm and partner
In a pool splash
Kissed nature

Under a mirror image
Cute couple
Love together
~Rnayak

-o-


Thinking about moving to Costa Rica? Check out this article in Christopher’s “Living in Costa Rica” blog:  TAX RESPONSIBILITIES FOR EXPATS FROM THE U.S. 
And there is even a link there to an online booklet with more specific information, plus links to other helpful articles. 

Actually I still file my income tax report every year just like I did in the states (with TurboTax), but mine is quite simple with SS & pension income, no investments beyond a 401k and savings accounts, no business, no other investments, no property owned (neither house nor car) and no debt. But you who have more and more complicated finances might want to read up on it or even use a tax attorney here in Costa Rica who specializes in U.S. taxes. There are several here because so many rich Americans live here.  🙂  

Living here does not change the tax responsibilities of being a U.S. Citizen, even after becoming a legal resident here. I don’t know what would happen if you renounced U.S. Citizenship and don’t know anyone who has done that. But if your income still comes from the states . . .?
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Blue-crowned Motmot at Breakfast

Blue-crowned Motmot
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Blue-crowned Motmot
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Check out my Photo Gallery of Costa Rica Birds with 235 species at this date.

Want to learn more about the Blue-crowned Motmot? Check out: 
¡Pura Vida!

Retired in Costa Rica
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More Chachalacas!

Friday morning in tree behind my neighbor’s house.
 This is another juvenile Chachalaca among adults and kids chattering.
Atenas, Costa Rica

Adult Gray-headed Chachalaca 
 Atenas, Costa Rica

Adult Gray-headed Chachalaca 
 Atenas, Costa Rica

They were lower in the tree than at my house the morning before and thus a little easier to photograph when not behind leaves where they were most of the time!  🙂

See all of my Costa Rica Birds  photographed (235 species so far)
¡Pura Vida!

Retired in Costa Rica – THE BLOG
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A Butterfly’s Demise – Spider Web

I was walking up the hill to 214 to get my dinner from Chef Dan,
At this driveway entrance (101) a German family was photographing
something! I stopped and saw a cobweb stretched over the red plants.
I pulled out my cellphone and opened the camera.
Atenas, Costa Rica

 

A butterfly had flown into a Golden Orb Spider Web and was already being eaten
by the Golden Orb Spider. “The law of the jungle!” or “The food chain!”
Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Another Golden Orb Spider waited nearby.
Will he eat the leftovers? Or do they share?
Atenas, Costa Rica

Doesn’t this remind you of the giant spiders in the Forbidden Forest of the Harry Potter books?  🙂

Related photo galleries:

Butterflies & Moths       and         Other Insects
 

This was yesterday afternoon’s experience. This morning yielded another photo op which I am saving for tomorrow’s post. Never a dull moment in the Costa Rica Rainforests!       ¡Pura Vida!      🙂

¡Hasta mañana!
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Heliconius Hecale Zuleika

Heliconius Hecale Zuleika
My home garden in
Atenas, Costa Rica
This is one of the most common butterflies in Costa Rica. To see more, go to my photo gallery Butterflies & Moths   (65 species and still adding!)
¡Pura Vida! 
Costa Rica Flag Butterfly Art
Not a real butterfly!
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Ser chachalaca – to talk too much

“Ser chachalaca” is a Tico slang expression meaning “To talk too much.”  And here are photos of juvenile (teenagers maybe) Chachalacas, the bird the expression came from. These large birds chatter a lot and very loudly. In fact the juveniles pictured here woke me up around 5:00 AM today and later I tried to snap some photos which is difficult because they stay in the tops of the trees mostly.

Gray-headed Chachalaca juvenile
Atenas, Costa Rica

Gray-headed Chachalaca 
Atenas, Costa Rica

Gray-headed Chachalaca 
Atenas, Costa Rica

I have photos of adult Gray-headed Chachalacas in my photo gallery Costa Rica Birds
And to read more Classic Tico Expressions


“A fool is made more of a fool, 
when their mouth is more open than their mind.”