Category: Central Park

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cm by cm Progress

And you people in the states think I meant “Inch by Inch” as you forget that the rest of the whole world uses the metric system!   🙂   The renovation of Atenas Central Park slowly takes shape with the outer ring of two-level bench seats completed and the city workers focus on storm drains now with evidently a long way to go before new sidewalks, benches, picnic tables, playground, landscaping and artwork on the ceiling of the kiosko! But it will happen, poco a poco!    🙂   See my gallery Remodeling Central Park. 

¡Pura Vida!

And oh yes!   Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2020  includes Costa Rica — of course!    🙂   In fact, the waterfall they feature is on my to-do list for 2020!   🙂

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Joys of Flight

Not only does flying save me time and tiredness but I nearly always get at least one surprise photo on the little 30 to 40 minutes flights over Costa Rica. This latest flight to Liberia and back gave me many photos, but just two special ones today: The above photo of a very tall  unknown waterfall with no roads around it! — My main prize! Saw it just south of Liberia and hope to find out its name, though I think it is isolated from tourists!

And again we fly over Atenas and I get a good photo showing much in Central Atenas (Central Park, church, schools) plus the roof of my house in the upper left corner to left of the little roundish cow pasture. The string of houses over the hill is Phase 1 of Roca Verde where I live near the bottom of the hill by cow pasture.   🙂

Flying over Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

 

“There is no sport equal to that which aviators enjoy while being carried through the air on great white wings.”
~Wilbur Wright, 1905

¡Pura Vida!

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Sitting on Rocks? Park Remodel Update…

The other day I showed that they were now building the concrete seating in a circle around the “Kiosk” or Band Shell. Well today as I walked by before my haircut I noticed something interesting. Instead of using re-barb inside the huge concrete two-level seating they are using locally harvested rocks – yep – big rocks around which they hand-pour concrete from buckets. Hmmm. Well, it does help fill in the space with something more than just concrete! And I’m not an engineer, so maybe it is as good as re-barb though I have my doubts, especially since we regularly have earthquake tremors around here. Oh well, not my problem!   🙂   Pura vida!

Step 1: Fill each level of form with rocks.

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Step 2: Hand pour concrete around rocks.

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Step 3: Finish with smooth concrete.

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Step 4: Finished product looks great!

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“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”      ~George S. Patton

¡Pura Vida!

 

My growing gallery of progress on the Atenas Central Park Remodeling.

The city has  a Facebook Page presenting the remodeling with architect drawings of how they expect it to look.

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Central Park Update – SEATING

They continue to work very slow (muy despacio) but have started the concrete seats that will circle the round stage or theater in the round. As some say here “It will be nice if they ever finish it!   🙂

The city has  a Facebook Page presenting the remodeling with architect drawings of how they expect it to look. Nice! The vision of an architect! AND BEST VIEWED AS A MANUAL SLIDESHOW! Click on a picture, then the right or left arrows.

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.”    – Margaret J. Wheatley

And these photos are being added to the others in my photo gallery called:   Remodeling Central Park Atenas  for a pictorial history of the park remodel.

¡Pura Vida!

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Baile folklórico – Historical village dancing

Independence Day activities sometimes start early and they did today in front of the city hall across the corner from my bank which had 20+ people waiting for only one working ATM. Pura vida! I got to watch the dancing while I waited and make a few cell phone photos, though lower quality, zoomed in from a half block away. The people are always as interesting as “the show,” thus two little slideshows which is my substitute for the parade I will miss tomorrow.

See my photos of previous parades in  People, Fiestas & Arts Gallery.

Waiting & Watching

 

Dancing

Happy Independence Day Costa Rica!

¡Pura Vida!

 

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Park Renovation – Poco a Poco

Well, this morning they seem to be burying large pipes all around the circular concrete base for the Central Park Kiosk or stage. It could be for electrical and sound wiring underground or simply storm sewer drainage from the roof. No sé! I don’t know! And “poco a poco” means “little by little” they are completing the work. Pura vida! No rush here!    🙂   Without deadline stress you live longer and happier! Hey! We’re one of the happiest countries in the world for a reason!   🙂

See the gallery:  Remodeling Central Park inside my Atenas Gallery (my contribution to local history)   🙂

Or the city’s architect drawings   (can be seen as slide show)

¡Pura Vida!

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Senior Adults Dancing, Alajuela

That’s Costa Rican Senior Adults! And most love to dance, but to “their kind of music” and not what the young people have today.

So . . . on my way to pick up a package at Aeropost in Alajuela today I walk by a happy and lively Central Park Alajuela with a Marimba Band playing “their kind of music!” A few cell phone snapshots and I move on for my package and a Tex Mex lunch at Jalopeños Central. As I rushed by the park at 2:20 for my 2:30 bus the music and dancing was still going on! Pura Vida!

It is at the same place I photographed some young people break dancing a month or two ago.    🙂

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Marimba Music is common and popular here among older people.
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You don’t have to have a partner to dance!

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We have this in Atenas too, I just haven’t been looking for it lately.
For more culture photos see my photo gallery PEOPLE, FIESTAS & ARTS CR.

 

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.”
~Martha Graham

 

¡Pura vida!

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One Step at a Time Park Remodeling

This morning I noticed that the builder’s screen was removed and the new concrete floor was being washed down with a water hose (even though it is raining today). It is taking shape and according to the architect drawings that outer ring of pipes/steel will have some kind of roof on it to protect at least part of the audience for concerts. And the bandshell roof will be painted with some kind of art, I hope the oxcart wheel version!   🙂

One step at a time is all it takes to get you there.

~Emily Dickinson

14 August 2019 Update

And to see all of my Central Park Remodeling Photos, there’s a gallery!   🙂   With dates on each stage of course!

¡Pura Vida!

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Central Park Atenas Update (Very Slow!)

At Central Park today, one local old man who wanted to impress me with his Ingles, looked at me and said “Very slow!”  To that I replied “Muy despacio!” He went on to say something like “at this rate it will take years instead of months. ”  🙂

They are currently using a small hand mixer of concrete and wheelbarrows to make and pour the cement base to the central circle in and around the kiosk, one square at a time. Yes, there are cement trucks here that could come in and pour the whole floor in one day, after the forms are built of course. Maybe there is something romantic about doing it the old fashion way?

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“All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.”

– Charlie Chaplin

¡Pura Vida!

 

POSTSCRIPT:  Earthquake!

Yep! Just a little while after I posted this I felt the whole house shake, like a giant stepped on the ground by the house. THEN – the “aftershock” or second shake was much larger and more violent. The neighbor dogs are still barking from it. Nine days ago we had one at 5 on the richter scale. A funny feeling!

 

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Free WiFi in Costa Rica!

One of the things the government is doing with the increased taxes is providing free WiFi all over Costa Rica in most public places: national and city parks, libraries, all government and public buildings and for university students access anywhere for free. The online world is expanding everywhere and more countries like Costa Rica are providing it for everyone. Read this article in Living in Costa Rica Blog:

Free WiFi Country-wide

If I wasn’t so lazy I could save about $30 a month on internet charges, but I really like the convenience of having it in my house!   🙂

¡Pura Vida!