Category: Culture

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Atenas Oxcart Parade Today!

And this small child stole the show as she led her toy oxen in pulling a toy oxcart!

In fact there seemed to be more of an emphasis on the children this year in what has always been a family affair to celebrate and remember the important part boyeros (oxcart drivers) played in the history of Costa Rica as the first land shippers of coffee and bananas to the two big port cities for shipment to the U.S. and Europe.

The parade still had the colorful oxcarts! And the big oxen!
And most included the whole family as usual. A Family farm affair!
But many were led by children this year as the Oxcart Leader or Boyero.

And a few even had young oxen!

While others had their hands full!

But all accepted their responsibility with pride! 
Goat Carts were in parade this year for the first time, led by kids of course!
Pun intended! 

And there are more Women Boyeros each year! 

And the whole time the Central Park is filled with tents, entertainers, arts & crafts, food & drink vendors, a playground, and plenty to do if you get bored with the parade.

A Rooster on Stilts!
and . . .

. . . and another on foot, representing Gollo, a big furniture/appliance store.

Someone leading the children in games before the parade started.
And of course all the food, drink, balloons, etc. available to buy! 

The parade always starts with police and horses, one carrying the
Costa Rica Flag:

Red, white and blue patriotism!

I watched the parade with 3 friends, Anthony, Jean and Carolyn and then afterwards we went to La Finca for pizza and pasta. A fun day! And if you want to see photos of the bigger oxen being led by men and other views, see my photos from last year’s parade at:  2015 Oxcart Parade  on this blog.

Another happy day in Costa Rica!

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Atenas Climate Fair Started Today

Any Excuse for a Fiesta! Climate Fair celebrates our reputation here for
the “best weather in the world!” Mejor Clima del Mundo!
Friday & Saturday is a crafts & food fair with lots of live music including
big bands on the stage at night. I rarely go out at night.  🙂  Old man!

Daytime boring music with the old men playing the Marimba or . . . 

One of the small rhythm and brass bands playing traditional music.
The park is a lot livelier at night with rock, pop and lots of dancing. 

And midday Sunday is our famous annual Oxcart Parade which I will
see and photograph again this year. This is a photo from last year.

I can hear the high school marching band practicing tonight, so I guess they will be in the parade Sunday. And I can hear the lively pop music from the Central Park stage that attracts the young people and those who love to dance. There are lots of “happy sounds” around here most weekend nights and occasionally on a weeknight. 

One of the promotional websites about the Climate Fair and Oxcart Parade

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Nicaragua: The Book

Of course with all those photos, I had to make a book! It is mostly birds but includes culture photos of Granada, people, Semana Santa, and interesting roadside shots across the country. You can click on the image above and electronically thumb through the book for free. No purchase required!  🙂
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Motown Fundraiser for Su Espacio

Tonight (Saturday) I helped Gail & Susan who planned a Motown Music Fundraiser Dinner at Etnia Pub here in Atenas with DJ playing Motown Music by a dance floor and we raised a good amount of money for the community center while having fun! Here’s a few pix:
Thanks to Gail & Susan for all the hard work to make it happen!
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Easiest Place for Retirement in the Whole World!

It is an especially easy place to retire for nature-lovers and birders!  🙂

Costa Rica is rated as “The Easiest Place for Retirement” by a recent report based on “fitting in,” “adapting” to the new culture, and a “happy lifestyle” which of course might relate to an earlier report that Costa Rica has the Happiest People on earth!  🙂

Now that I’ve been here more than a year, I agree that it is an easy place to retire. Like everywhere, there are some things that seem difficult at first or slow, like getting my residency (government bureacracy), but not as difficult or slow as it is for people moving to the states! It is the people of Costa Rica who make it easier with their friendliness and desire to help any way they can. And unlike most countries I have traveled in, the people of Costa Rica like Americans! Amazing!   🙂
Well, click the link above and read the article. It is good and explains the cultural acceptance.

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San Ramon, Costa Rica

This is the second post for today, Saturday, about the town separate from the healthcare tour.

San Ramon is higher in the mountains than Atenas, meaning
it gets much colder and rains more. It rained this morning & in 50’s.

San Ramon’s beautiful Catholic Church facing the Central Park,
like every town in Costa Rica.

They also have a boyero or oxcart driver monument like Atenas.
I like our Atenas metal one better. This one is on church grounds.
Like every town’s Central Park, you will find children playing, old people talking,
teens texting, talking or smooching, and a generally happy, tranquil place.
There is a band-shell for musical programs.

San Ramon is quite a bit larger than Atenas with more businesses and traffic, something in-between Atenas and Alajuela. I do not like it as well as Atenas because of the weather (colder and wetter) and the more crowded conditions. They do have a University campus which is a plus and a couple of museums we don’t have, but I think I will stick with my more walkable small town. Both are very “Costa Rica” in nature with wonderfully friendly people. They have a few hundred expats living there where we have over a thousand in and around Atenas.

The other post today about healthcare tour has more photos of San Ramon and yesterday’s short post has photo of tour group in front of Mural on La Posada Hotel where I stayed.

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Nashville Costa Rican Maestro Starts with Rock Here

Giancarlo Guerrero
Nashville Symphony
Music Director

Giancarlo Guerrero helped me to love classical music more than anyone as the conductor of the Nashville Symphony and his pre-concert “Conversations” I attended every time with my season ticket! Well, if you did not know, he is from Costa Rica! And his love of music started here as a fan with his brother of the Canadian Rock Band Rush. Read this interesting article in the 21 January edition of The Tennessean, my first day of a renewed subscription to digital.

Ticos love music of all kinds as indicated in this interesting article on the wide variety of Costa Rica Music.

It is fun to keep learning about Costa Rica and what it means to me.  🙂   Pura Vida!





Where words fail, music speaks.
~Hans Christian Andersen
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Christmas in San Jose Photos

Big Cities like to do everything bigger and better and San Jose, the capital and largest city in Costa Rica is no exception. See a few photos of Christmas decor and events by Tico Times:

http://www.ticotimes.net/2015/12/25/photos-christmas-2015

Tico Times photos – this of the lighting of tree at Children’s Hospital

AND MY DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS?

I’m hoping to stay home all day with no interruptions to the many things I want to do and some rest! 

WITH CHRISTMAS COMES THE WIND!
It actually started some a couple of weeks ago, but it is here full force now! I’m having to keep the sliding door screen closed and my garden door with no screen closed because so many leaves, flowers, bugs and dust blow in! This will be the norm through February or March with it getting more dusty the longer we go without rain. And if Turrialba erupts again, we will get ash or gray-black dust! That is just part of living in paradise!  🙂

And the crazy thing is that it is during this windy, sometimes dusty period that we have the most tourists and snowbirds trying to get away from cold weather up north. I think I’ve decided I like the rainy season (Jul-Oct) or “green season” better and it’s two shoulder periods (May-Jun & Oct-Nov) which have very little rain but are greener and more pleasant. So for the next 3 months or so we put up with wind, dust and snow birds! Then tranquility begins again!  🙂

And for my Canadian friends:




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día de Navidad: Jesus, Family, Friends and Food!

Christmas Morning Breakfast View
My tamales came from La Coope Supermercado, 2 to a package, 2 meals.

Here’s a recipe for making Costa Rica Christmas Tamales. (Mine didn’t have as many vegetables.)
And to watch them being made, see this YouTube video of a family making them.

I’m sure the homemade ones are better than the ones I got at the Supermercado, but to be honest, I did not care for them. Mine had very few veggies and only a small piece of pork. The cornmeal and lard wrapping is what I don’t like.To much fat and cholesterol and not that tasty. I had to add sauce. These tamales are not part of my tradition unless I find better tasting ones! And maybe a healthier version?

And some more local Christmas decorations:

Maybe typical of governments, but the city hall had one of the few secular
Christmas decoration in town plus their decorated tree in the park.
This is a very contemporary tree with reindeer of all things!
The “Municipal Building” is opposite one corner of Central Park.

And the Catholic Church in center of town had this indoor nativity
and an outdoor one with live people at certain times which I never caught.
More homes have nativities. Jesus is more popular than Santa here!
My nativity collection went fast at the silent auction earlier.

Christmas Dinner with neighbors at Hotel Colinas del Sol nearby.

There is never an excuse for being lonely here! In fact, I sometimes have to work at finding my needed solitude!  🙂

FELIZ NAVIDAD
from Charlie in Costa Rica

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VIP Star Wars in Costa Rica!

 A STAR WARS Christmas Present . . .

Me and Jason with BB-8 at theater.

One of my Spanish language helpers, Jason Quesada in Atenas, has so far not accepted payment by the hour, just lunches, etc. So for his Christmas gift, regalo de Navidad, I took him with me by bus to Alajuela to see his first ever Star Wars movie. Hard to imagine not having the background of 6 previous movies, but he enjoyed it and I guess the plot kind of stands alone with me giving him a little background on who some of the characters are and a little of what happened in the past.

The new theater is nicer than any I have been to in the States! I bought our tickets electronically with a credit card at kiosk out front not knowing what “Premier” meant, but I chose it because the sound tract was in English with Spanish subtitles. I’m not yet ready for the one with Spanish voices dubbed in.

VIP TREATMENT IN LUXURY!
Well we were both shocked! When we gave the ticket taker our tickets he did not point or give directions to our theater but personally escorted us to the Premier door and introduced us to a hostess.

We entered the VIP private lounge area with restaurant as well as usual movie snacks and luxurious seats around little tables and a bar with bar stools. We were given a menu with a great selection including alcoholic drinks and told we could take the menu to our seats and they would come take our order. Shucks! We had already gotten popcorn and cokes at the regular people snack stand in main lobby. So we decided we might eat lunch in the lounge after the movie.

Then our hostess led us up a short flight of stairs to the Premier Balcony with giant lounge chairs with electronic controls to lift the foot rest or lean back and a little fold out table for food in addition to the built-in drink holder. Wide aisles and lots of space for the recliners! She checked on us twice during the movie to see if we needed anything. Wow! I can’t wait to go back and order from my seat or eat lunch during a movie! But lunch in the lounge after the movie was great too! This is livin!

One little corner of the mall just outside the theater with one of about 6 3-story Christmas Trees. No shopping for me today.
They have finished widening the street out front which helps traffic! The snow park is open outside and
an amusement park is on the roof with a giant Ferris Wheel seen as you drive up. Amazing!
It is the largest mall in Costa Rica and second largest in Central America. (One in Panama a tad larger.)
On the bus ride home I told Jason I really meant to get all 6 of the previous Star Wars movies and watch before seeing this latest sequel. But Netflix does not have and the down-streaming ones on Amazon.com are $16 each (if you order all 6) plus their site said they would not work on my browser if I understood the crazy information right. So I gave up. Jason asked, “Did you try our video store across from the ball fields?” I hadn’t, so we walked by it on our way home from the bus station.  This young man has everything! He had all 6 at about the equivalent of $1.15 each but it would be a few minutes because he had to make copies of number 5 & 6. We waited and I expect to enjoy on my computer the whole Star War series now! Legal? Well. . . just a friend giving me a copy of his DVD.  🙂  Reminds me of the video stores in The Gambia! And we will see what the quality is like.

See also Christianity Today’s online article titled: Why We Get Religious About ‘Star Wars’