charliedoggett.net
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| When in Alajuela I often start at McDonald’s for the restroom and then coffee and sometimes pancakes, eating upstairs overlooking the Cathedral of Alajuela – all cellphone photos Alajuela, Costa Rica |
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| And Central Park Alajuela Alajuela, Costa Rica |
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| Pigeons & Grackles often join me on the balcony Alajuela, Costa Rica |
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| And as I board my bus back to Atenas A guitar-pickin’ & singing preacher. Alajuela is interesting! |
My Photo Gallery of Alajuela
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| My House Location (Red arrow) The big orange roof above & to left is my landlord from Montreal. Little orange to right & down is Anthony of Indiana. Big gray house is Richard from England. Towards mountains is downtown Atenas, white church steeple seen, top center-right. I walk this whole valley almost daily, one great advantage of not owning a car! Life in a rural small town. Pura vida! |
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| My Breakfast View this Morning It is summer here, school is out for summer break & more flowers are blooming. Jan-Feb are also the windy months, but at least the volcano has slowed issuing ash. |
What Our Costa Rica President Says about Immigration, an article in Tico Times today.
You guys in the U.S. feel free to share this article with your new president-elect. The quick summary is “If you want to get through a border, you’ll be able to sooner or later.” 🙂 And read about how CR deals with the flow of Cubans en-route to the U.S. through Costa Rica and the Nicaraguans and Colombians who come here to stay. Personal Disclosure: My maid is a Nica and my haircuts are at a Colombino peluquería and nobody seems to have a problem with that here. Everyone is welcome in Costa Rica, even arrogant Americans. Though there’s already enough in Atenas, so I’m not issuing an invitation! 🙂
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| Overlooking my house on a cloudy sunset around 5:15. “And all is well on the western front!” 🙂 Yep, the sun shines from between 5 & 5:30 AM to the same in PM Every day, year around – 12 hours of dark & 12 hours of light! Nice! That’s because we are close to the equator. Same sunrise/sunset daily. |
And to my fellow Americans, forgive me for saying I was ashamed last night. The election did not go the way I thought was best, but God just may have something much better in store for us! So today I posted on Facebook the following quote and Scripture verse that better reflects my faith:
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| “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea.” Psalm 41:1 |
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| Tamarindo Beach was my least favorite, yet it had the most people and was the biggest and busiest beach town with most housing, shops, restaurants. There were a lot of surfers here who I guess go out beyond those rocks or at a different spot. This is where we saw possible rent houses, but the last I heard from John, he is probably not going to buy one. |
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| Playa Hermosa or “Beautiful Beach” The one in Guanacaste – there are 3 or 4 in Costa Rica with this name! I think it is prettier than the bigger one in Flamingo, just not as long. |
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| Coco Beach (As sun is setting) North of Flamingo and Hermosa with brown sand but more recreational. It is the “Central Park” of the local community with big Catholic Church across from it and the big soccer field. There is a long boardwalk (sidewalk) along the whole beach with children’s playgrounds, skateboard ramp, volleyball, basketball, and many restaurants and bars right on the beach, plus statues, showers, water fountains, flower gardens, etc. The best beach for local people and children! |
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| Coco Beach Restaurant/Bar We sat in this restaurant for a drink and watched Tico families walk by with little children on tricycles or running and playing beyond those flowers. Further down teens were skateboarding or playing volley ball and a few were on the beach. Sorry I didn’t make more photos! A people place! Then back to Flamingo Beach . . . |
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| Another Flamingo Beach Sunset We went back to our favorite restaurant for dinner, Coco Loco & sunset! |
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| Flamingo Beach Sunset Changes Color! Watching the sun set while eating a great seafood meal is the perfect way to end another day of adventure in Costa Rica! And I found another A+ restaurant! I would even consider living on the beach just for these scenes if it were not SO VERY HOT, VERY HUMID, VERY EXPENSIVE! So I am sticking with my mountain sunsets, perfect weather, and lower costs. 🙂 |
I am thankful that John invited me to go with him to the beaches and the jungle boat ride! I got to see a whole new part of Costa Rica this week and it is as cool as all the other parts I’ve seen. Plus seeing several condos and how people live there compared to Atenas was fun and educational. Of course my favorite part was the boat trip on Rio Tempisque in Palo Verde Park! My next trip is the end of September to Manzanilla on the southern Caribbean coast where I will stay in a luxury safari tent hotel on the beach adjacent to a wildlife reserve. Hoping for more new birds and experiences. I got two new birds photographed this trip! (Crested Caracara & Crane Hawk) Now here’s one last photo from this trip, shot through the glaring windshield on our way to Palo Verde:
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| A Tamandua Anteater ran across this road as did an Agouti, but sorry, no photos! 🙂 |
For more beaches and other scenery, see my VISTAS Photo Gallery.
Or go directly to my total Costa Rica Photo Gallery called Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA
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| My favorite view from the mountain trail in Lost Canyon Nature Reserve. There are volcanoes way over there! |
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| The new reserve’s nice, small sign at the farm house where we ate lunch. Like most private reserves it is operated by a foreigner. |
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| Our van driver finds the hammock at Lost Canyon! |
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| From the reserve and enroute there we saw several volcanoes. |
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| One volcano from the van window. Yep, I had a whole van! Me, a driver and my guide. That is the transportation for all tours with Tours Nicaragua. By the way, I highly recommend them if going to Nicaragua for any reason! |
And don’t miss my Nicaragua Birds photo gallery for 98 different species! |
| “After the Rain” from my terrace at sunset. |
We started today after breakfast with a visit to the Feria or Farmers’ Market. See my photos from earlier post or how I use fresh fruits in an earlier post. The Feria is always a place my visitors want to see even if we don’t purchase anything.
The little Railroad Museum is nearby, so we went by it to make sure I knew how to get there Sunday afternoon which is the only time it is open. So some snaps of it before . . .
Ice cream at POPS, then we hang out at home rest of today.
And have dinner at a neighbor’s house nearby, Richard next door. It was really nice! I’ve included a shot of the view from his house looking over the roof of my landlord’s house. Quite a bit more expansive than my view! 🙂
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| View from Richard’s house at dinner tonight, looking over the roof of my landlord’s house. |
Follow Reagan’s Blog for his view of his visit here!
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| My terrace view while eating breakfast and reading the Washington Post online! Looking over Atenas toward Grecia. It doesn’t show all the Yellow Bell Trees that surround the left end of my terrace. Nice! |
On the walk through my neighborhood I just couldn’t include all the images, so here are two more that a few of our homes have as their vista, the pastoral farm hills around Atenas. And the third is a similar view from my bedroom and office/guest room.
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| Some have farms, cattle, coffee, or other use while other hills are investments. Hopefully they will not all be developed as the wildness around us disappears! |
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| Some have roads over them like above, for what reason I know not. Some of these hills are coffee farms or were in earlier times. |
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| And from my office/guest room before I added fishtail palms for privacy. |
And how appropriate that on the day I post these pastoral scenes Sarah Bartlett at McKendree sends this link to a visual version of Ode to Joy by Beethoven.