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I finally got all those photos sorted, culled, and processed to create a nice gallery for this year’s Oxcart Parade, my first since 2018! You can click the image below of the first page of that gallery or go to this address . . . https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/PEOPLE/2024-08-11-OXCART-PARADE
Or below is one sample photo from each category gallery . . .
Continue reading “2024 Oxcart Parade”
. . . my first to see in 5 years now and hopefully I will be able to handle the heat and sunshine if it’s as hot as yesterday! I’m planning to find a place to sit on the steps of La Tribunal near the point where the parade first enters the Central Park area, so I can leave as soon as over or earlier if it is too hot. Wearing my wide-brim hat, taking an umbrella and yes, smearing myself with that awful sunscreen, 50 SPF! My oncologist requires it! 🙂
It may be another day or two before I get to posting photos of this Oxcart Parade, but below are links to the three previous parades I photographed before Covid. I missed 2015 & 2019 and then it was canceled for 2020 through 2022 during the Covid Pandemic and last year they moved it from April to August and I did not get the word, so glad to try and see it this year. I’m posting my usual nature blog posts a few days ahead, so there will still be one of those today and again on whatever day I post today’s photos! 🙂 And for now, here’s 4 more photos from the past . . .
Continue reading “Oxcart Parade Today . . .”
are the 10th & 11th of August. The public is invited . . .
I’m posting this because many local people don’t seem to know about it or when what is happening. In short, what expats call the “Oxcart Parade” is at 11 am on Sunday 11 August. You can figure out the rest. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Juan Santamaria was a young man from Alajuela who became one of the few ever “war heroes” in the only significant battle Costa Rica fought in the 1800s when a renegade army of southern Americans came down to claim Central America as slave states and a part of the confederacy. Well, they had temporary control of Nicaragua above us and so the Costa Rica army marched in to keep them out of Costa Rica. Young Juan sneaked behind the enemy line with a torch and set fire to all of the American tents and barracks that had been set up. They all ran and that was the end of making Central America a slave state!
Juan Santamaria Day is actually April 11 (once de abril) but like the U.S., government workers and bankers have moved most of such holidays to the nearest Monday, thus this year is today, Monday, 15 April 2024.
The hometown of Juan still celebrates it on the real day, once de abril, and I happened to be in Alajuela on April 11 getting a letter from Aeropost and on my way to my favorite Mexican Restaurant, Jalapenos, I had to cross the parade street and phone-snapped these two shots of the band from private Catholic High School, Colegio Gregorio Jose Ramirez Castro. Work that name into a ball game cheer! 🙂
The Mexican food was better than the parade, so glad I kept walking! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Semana Santa is Spanish for “Holy Week” or “Easter Week” if you prefer and my most memorable and colorful one since moving to Costa Rica was 8 years ago (2016, my 2nd year here) while on a birding tour of Nicaragua and during Semana Santa I was for 3 days in the historical colonial town of Grenada where from my old hotel across from the oldest church I could watch the nightly processionals that along with architecture and the later 87 species of birds photographed made it my most colorful and memorable Easter Week here! (Linked to my photo gallery of that week.)
He is Risen!
¡Pura Vida!
Because I no longer print my images to sell through a galeria or seasonal shows here, I will make it a little easier for you to order Wall Art or other art image by narrowing down the possibilities some. Every image in every gallery is available but this new gallery includes both the images I’ve sold before and some I think would possibly make good art! And remember that in the buying process menu you can crop the images more or differently than I have.
SmugMug (my gallery host) uses the very best printers for each type of art and I recommend for wall art high gloss metal prints to stand out or for a softer look, try photos printed on canvas (and I prefer the wrap-around canvas). They have many other items you can print any of my photos on from greeting cards to coffee mugs, etc. Have fun exploring! Just click the shopping bag pix on any photo or the BUY PHOTO button on an enlarged photo and follow the menu! Easy! 🙂
And for COSTA RICA CUSTOMERS, you will need a shipping service that provides you a U.S. address like Atenas Webshop or Costa Rica Shipping with both getting the package to Atenas and if picking up in Alajuela is no problem, Aeropost is a little faster because they have their own daily planes. All three of these give you a Miami Address to use on your orders.
Check out the new: Suggested Images for ART PRINTS gallery:
¡Pura Vida!
20 Things I Do Living in Costa Rica That I’d Never Do in the USA
Now it is not me writing, but it tells a lot about life for one expat from the states living here, and of course not everything applies to me! I do not have a car, I don’t drink alcohol, and though I like beans and rice I don’t eat them every morning for breakfast! 🙂 But it is still an interesting article supposedly about the life of one North American expat living here and the relaxed culture that many Americans adopt here! And one thing that is like him, I too live in T-shirt and shorts all day every day! 🙂
¡Retired in Costa Rica!
¡Pura Vida!
See all the good photos in the GALLERY: 2023 Christmas Parade Atenas. And to introduce the gallery, here’s 5 shots from the 4 sub-galleries . . .
This was where I spent most of last weekend at my table in the pre-Christmas art fair called Just In Time or JIT. I sold more than a lot of the others but not near enough to make it worth the work, time and expense. This will be my last time for this show and I’m out of the Galería January 14, meaning that after that if you want any of my pix for wall art, in books, on merchandise, etc., you will have to go through my website and order online. I’m no longer selling stuff in person! :-)
Interesting side note: In one of the photos below you will see the word “Pizza” on the next building. It was not open last weekend but will be sometime this week and it will be the very first American chain fast food in Atenas: Papa John’s Pizza! :-) It will be interesting to see if they make it with locally owned pizza places literally all over town! Plus other themed restaurants here also serve pizza, so I question the business decision, but pizza is very popular here (especially with the young) and they may have the marketing skills, the money (and lower prices) to put all the locals out of business like Walmart does when they move into other communities. Fortunately Walmart is not in Atenas as such, though they are the owners of two local supermarkets, Maxi-Pali and the smaller Pali Supermercado which do have lower prices and Walmart-brand stuff, but neither the quality overall nor service of the local cooperative supermercado that I prefer. I try to avoid such American places and don’t plan to eat pizza at Papa John’s! :-) As a smaller town we have been fortunate to avoid the invasion of American fast-food joints that are all over San Jose and Alajuela. Here’s 4 photos of my stuff at the weekend art fair . . .
Today is your last chance to get some great deals on unique art as gifts or for yourself, 10 am to 2 pm today at Calle 2 Plaza adjacent Linea Vital. DON’T MISS THIS!
¡Pura Vida!