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| “After the Rain” from my terrace at sunset. |
Staying Local Today!
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!
¡Buenos Dias!
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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! |
Pastoral Hills of Atenas
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.
Walk with me through my neighborhood
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| View from an available lot on top of my hill. You look over Central Valley to northeast, San Jose at left. Your home here? |
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| This is the above lot for your dream home. A large, old-growth tree at entrance. I can give you the phone number if interested. 🙂 Come be my neighbor! |
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| Looking over my house which is below the orange roof, lower center. The orange roof is my landlord Jean Luc & Nicole, brown roof is Richard’s. You can see cow pasture in front of my house, central Atenas beyond that. |
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| Anthony’s house next door to me. He is a Spanish Class friend from Indiana, a bachelor artist who has a clay bird I plan to buy and install in my garden after he has it fired. His house is rented from Richard, is below brown roof, above photo. |
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| Some neighbors can see church steeple at Central Park Atenas. |
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| A few homes are visible from the street, most are not. |
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| All have privacy/security gates & I think this the most creative one on this loop. |
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| All are lushly planted for our tropical weather year around. It is like walking through a garden to walk through my neighborhood. |
Come visit me and you can physically walk with me over this and other hills in Roca Verde. Some of you know that I earlier said I would never live in a rich, gated community like this, but people change their minds! Living in a Tico neighborhood has the closeness and familiarity with the people around you that is not what this old independent, private person is real comfortable with. Plus the closeness of dogs barking, roosters crowing, parties going on, constant music, highway traffic, motorcycles, teenagers, is just more noise than I prefer to put up with all the time. I have some noise here, but nothing like in town or at the apartments where I lived for four months. It is mostly birds singing which I love and the roosters and dogs are further away.
Several of the large houses in Roca Verde have “casitas” (little houses) for either guests, parents, or to rent which is what I have. Some of the main houses are lived in by “Snowbirds” only in the North American Winter or dry season here. I am fortunate that this particular one was for rent by a year-round resident landlord on the hill above me. He is also one of two developers of Roca Verde. Though barely affordable for me (cheaper than McKendree Village!), this is the only one of this quality I was able to find within walking distance of Central Atenas, one mile. Not having a car was always part of the plan for living here.
Walking to town most days is my exercise program and now I have several choice walks in my neighborhood for when I don’t go to town. The above loop is just 1.3 miles and of course I did not show all the views and houses. I am so blessed in so many ways at almost every turn of this retirement adventure. I feel so fortunate! Almost everything has worked out positively, even if slower than an impatient American wants it! Just two more main things to finish: a residency card and conversational Spanish. Both are on track for early next year maybe! I’m starting to relax more and be more creative. Life is fun! Pura Vida! Jubilado!
The Central Sierra
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| The mountain range I watch daily from my balcony includes Grecia, Sarchi, and Poas Volcano. A five-shot panorama. It is La Cordillera Central or in English, The Central Sierra (a jagged mountain range) As always, CLICK PHOTO FOR LARGER VIEW |
I live in Costa Rica’s Central Valley (link is to a map) though if you visit you would say I live in the mountains. It is kind of both. I’m in the little mountains or hills of the big central valley surrounded by two huge mountain ranges, the big mountains with volcanoes and cloud forests, much higher than Atenas hills.
I chose to live here rather than some of the most beautiful beaches in the world because of the weather (70’s and 80’s year-around in Atenas while beaches are hot and humid year-around), the central location is also for me to eventually visit all the national parks, the closeness to San Jose and some of best hospitals in the world, and more shopping and entertainment possibilities nearby in San Jose and Alajuela. Also, the small town atmosphere and friendliness, laid-back way of life, no car required, just an hour and a half bus ride from a beach is perfect for me. I’m really not “a beach person,” as some here claim to be. I’m more of a “nature person,” if you please, and nature is everywhere in Costa Rica!
Once my nest is comfortably feathered in the central valley, I expect to be all over the country in some of the special nature places. Right now I’m enjoying the nature in my yard and nearby places, learning the language, and adapting to a new culture and government! Takes time! And I really enjoy sharing my experiences in this blog, whether anyone reads it or not! It is one of my creative outlets now. And yes, I’m living a dream! I consider myself one of the most fortunate persons in the world to be here and leave all the old junk of my life back in the states and my dim memories. It is a happy last chapter of a 74 year old living in Costa Rica!
Rainforest Beauty
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| View from my bedroom window (between the power lines) during the afternoon rain today. |
The fact that there are power lines, houses, and a street below this scene doesn’t diminish its beauty for me, even though an uncluttered view like this would be nice! This is looking west at end of today’s rain. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” said Oliver Pratt, and that is why I like this kind of selective photography. And yes, it’s a compilation of 4 shots merged into a panorama. Fun!
“People often say that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder. This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.”-Salma Hayek (emphasis mine)
“Your beauty . . . should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.”
1 Peter 3:3-4 NIV
God help me to have a gentle and quiet spirit that people might see your beauty in me! -Charlie
Toucans and a Garden!
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| Three houses over after flying over mine – in lower right. Sorry it is small. |
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| A Pair or a Mother-Child |
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| One big flap of his wings and he glides like a bullet! |
KEEL-BILLED TOUCANS
This was the second of two big excitements today. I sat down on the love seat to catch my breath this afternoon after spending two hours with some gardeners which I’ll tell you about in a second. But I looked out my living room window at the big Strangler Fig tree in my yard and saw a Keel-billed Toucan in it, just his big beak showing. I quietly go get the camera and of course he was gone when I returned, evidently to a tree across the road. Then he flew (above photo) to some distant neighbors where I tried to photograph him and others in some trees there. Some day I’ll get one up closer. But this is the kind of things I see from my deck. And I’m not on vacation! I live here!
GARDEN DESIGNED TODAY
I have watched the neighbor couple my age from Oregon work so hard on planting a garden and knew there had to be an easier way. Well an advertisement went up in our development last week for a landscape company saying they will design and install gardens as well as maintain them and ask for Cristian if you need an English-speaker. I emailed him this morning with photos (below) of the empty corner at the end of my driveway by the entry patio. And scanned my drawing showing the dimensions in meters of course.
I figured I would hear back in a week or so. In less than an hour, as I was preparing lunch, he called and said he was in Roca Verde now working on another house and could come over and look at 2:30. He did with two workers. I explained what I wanted in general and he took notes and explained that I couldn’t have the palm I wanted in this space because of the septic tank and the palm’s long roots, but he promised to provide something against the stark concrete wall and make a garden that I would love with flowers year-around, as well as many butterflies and hummingbirds. I’m so excited! I’d much rather spend a little money like this than a lot on a car!
I ended up getting a Palma Roja at the end of my back sidewalk at the other back corner of the house, expanding my garden visually. I can’t remember all the flower names now that they will install including vines to hang down on the stark concrete wall. Then we went around front and I ordered two pot plants for my deck and one for the living room. The total cost is less than what I would pay for just the plants in the states, AND it includes top soil brought in, three big pots planted, and all the installation labor. And they come install it this Friday! Here’s what the space looks like now, my “before photos”:
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| Seen from the driveway looking toward the entry plaza. I mostly use the sliding glass door on deck for my entry mostly. |
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| The entry patio leading to an entry hall with bath & bedroom to left and kitchen, office, living/dining room and deck to right. |
Of course Friday will be the new, young plants with not as much to showoff yet. But rainy season is starting and by August I think it will be looking good and in another year great! I’m planning to stay here long term! The beach is too hot and too expensive to live at and I’m less than two hours from it anyway! Plus I really like Atenas! My new home!
First Vistas
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| First view is toward downtown Atenas and mountain range. Trees on right are neighbor yards. |
The vista from La Jacaranda was of the close hills of Atenas where this is more expansive, looking over Atenas to the mountain ranges that include Poas and Arenal Volcanoes. So it is quite different. If I walk up to the top of my hill in my landlord’s yard I can see downtown Atenas and the church steeple at Central Park and the mountains to the west (same if I walk up the road in front of my house – photo below).
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| View from about one block up the road from my house with sunshine. The Central Park church steeple is on the left. Amazing difference 50 to 100 feet makes! But they pay for these views! Yet I can walk up there anytime to look or photograph! 🙂 |
My view to the west for sunsets is from the end of the balcony on the left in top photo. You look through trees and power lines, thus no wide view of the sunset. Same from both bedrooms. I’ll show some shots of that tomorrow.
That road you see bottom center in front of my house (1st & 3rd photos) is heading straight toward downtown Atenas, where I walk daily. It is just one mile from my house to Central Park and 1.2 to the supermarket I use most often, the Cooperative. Maxi Pali, the other supermarket, is about 1.6 miles I’m guessing, 2 miles at most. I haven’t measured it yet.
I just made a new shot from my balcony right after the afternoon shower which is not as expansive as the 2-pix panorama at top but what I see in one direction:
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| As the afternoon shower stops, looking northwest from my balcony. I live in the foothills of the mountains, a dream life! |
Unprepared for First Rain
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| Yellow Bells Trees Shedding Blooms Sunny Sidewalk in Atenas |
I walk in the sunshine under the Yellow Bell trees for a late lunch and early dinner out to try the ribs at the Don Yayo Chicharonerra Cafe. Beautiful day with some rain clouds in the sky like we’ve had for weeks with no rain, so of course it will not rain. Well, while eating we got our first rain of the year (not counting one little shower) and it was a “gully washer” as we would say back in Arkansas. I took a photo but rain doesn’t seem to show up in my photos. The streams and canyons were gushing as I walked home.
We were very dry and having grass fires, so we really needed the rain! But it was so unexpected that I left my apartment windows open AND my laundry drying out on the balcony! Guess what? Some floors got mopped and my clothes went back through the spin cycle with hopefully some sun tomorrow. This is a case for the electric dryer in my new house and almost reason enough by itself for the move! 🙂 Can hardly wait!
Then after clean up of the rain, I got this “After the Rain” photo of rain fog on the horizon. Hope I get as many photo ops from the new balcony! I just love nature, even in the middle of a town.
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| “After the Rain” from my balcony, Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica |