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Because I know there are several readers of my blog who are considering relocation to Costa Rica for retirement like me or other reasons, I must link to this article: Due Diligence when relocating to Costa Rica on the Live in Costa Rica Blog and Tour website. It is one of the best summaries I’ve seen yet of some basics which you must consider if you are even thinking about moving to Costa Rica.
And the feature photo at top is my shot of “Whale’s Tail Beach” Uvita from a plane.
It could be either good news or bad news, and I hope good news! I just read that a baby Yigüirro can fly at one week of age (they were older) and are usually independent by three weeks old, thus, even if motivated a little early by the noise and lights of a rock concert Saturday night, I think they flew away and are safe somewhere.
Below is what the nest looks like mid-day Monday from Room 407 and the second photo what it looked like mid-day Friday from the same Room 407. The concert was Saturday night with the band only 30 meters away. so if the birds were still there then, the band could certainly have been their motivation to “grow up” and fly away. 🙂 I hope so! We will probably never know. But still glad I left my “nest” before the concert! Or I might have tried to fly away too. 🙂
Other Birds at Best Western San Jose
¡Pura Vida!
These are some of the houses and businesses that are along my 650 meter walk every day from the hotel to Radioterapia Siglo XXI clinic for my radiation treatments. Bear in mind that in the early days this neighborhood, called Uruca, was a “suburb” of downtown San Jose, a 10+ minute drive away now.
As in most urban development, some residential slowly turns to business and this neighborhood is no exception. I thought some readers would enjoy seeing what urban houses in this part of Latin America look like today. As a point of comparison, note that Costa Rica tends to be more modern and less traditional than Latin countries like Guatemala and Mexico. On this walk there is only one old house that would be considered “Spanish Colonial” with the tile roof and high compound wall. I think the neighborhood is interesting, but to help you not be bored, it’s a fast-moving slide show 🙂
Continue reading “Take an Urban Walk with Me”
I am missing the final concert for the Summer (May begins Winter here). It is the last in a series of hotel concerts called “Summer in the city – From your balcony” or really “Verano en la ciudad – Desde tu balcón” with a Covid-safe Rock Concert at my Best Western San Jose Hotel and they’ve been doing it once a month since January or December. See the hotel’s website photos & videos of the concerts.
The only way you can see/hear the concert is to rent one of the 150 upstairs rooms with balconies overlooking the pool and watch the concert live from your balcony! Pretty cool ideal that helps both young adults have fun during the pandemic and a struggling hotel with no tourists and almost no customers fill several rooms at an advertised “special price” of $61 USD (more than I’m paying) with a limit to 4 per room/balcony. Tonight, Saturday, May 8 is this month’s concert and the final one in this summer series.
Friday before I left I snapped these cellphone shots of them setting up the stage over one end of the pool. This month American Express is the sponsor.
And more photos . . .
Continue reading “Balcony Concert Tonight”
Yes, they look like parrots and are as big as some parrots, but are officially parakeets. We have this Crimson-fronted Parakeet (eBird link) and an orange-chinned one in Atenas and I have photos of them at my house and on a nearby country road, but they are usually higher up the hills and always in the tops of the trees, generally in flocks. Very difficult to photograph. See my other photos in my Crimson-fronted Parakeet Gallery.
Here they are in the top of the hotel’s big tree and even from the 4th floor they are hard to photograph as they come through just before sunset in poor light, snacking on the berries before going uphill to their night roosting tree. A colorful addition to this colorful garden!
And more photos . . .
Continue reading “Crimson-fronted Parakeet”And more awards for Costa Rica! We rank #1 in Latin American and #5 in the world, after Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark in the 2021 Press Freedom Index. Check out that link on the “Reporters Without Borders” website. Meanwhile the arrogant USA ranks 44th while one of its political parties fights against freedom of the press, calling them “Fake News.” Sad.
¡Pura Vida!
Way back whenever I first started reading Agatha Christie books, it was always paperbacks. Then I got a Kindle and read so many more electronically – until I got to the last two books or stories about Hercule Poirot (33) and when I downloaded the last two of his mysteries, neither would open up on my Kindle (the only 2 books I’ve ever had trouble with electronically).
So the cumbersome effort of calling Amazon Help and finally getting a live person then the wasted time of several efforts to make the books load, none of which worked. And finally given credit for the electronic books which they removed from my bookshelf. Soooo . . . to complete my goal of reading all the Poirot books (including that book of short stories), I order the last two books she wrote as paperbacks – back to how I started his stories! Poetic justice to modern electronics! 🙂
And bear in mind that this is not as easy to happen with a U.S. company when you live in another country! But finally I receive and finish the last in the Poirot series, Halloween Party and Curtains, and of course enjoyed these old-world England stories as much as the first two back whenever.
I’m still experimenting with other types of books that sound good or I think I may like – most of which I don’t. And if I don’t enjoy a book after a few pages or chapters, I now just quit reading it. Like I just started reading (again) All God’s Creatures Great and Small and then remembered that I had tried it once before and just did not enjoy his detailed description of birthing a calf with his arm up inside the womb of the cow and will probably drop this book again. I report on most of my book reading through Goodreads.
Along with Poirot, I did read some of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple books and may next try to finish that shorter series. Of course I saw most if not all of the TV series “Murder She Wrote,” based on the Miss Marple books, but that is never the same as the books. The same with the TV series on Poirot.
When on my only trip to London, I did get to see Agatha Christie’s play, The Mousetrap, the world’s longest running play. Cool! A great British experience!
And I’m afraid my reading will be slowing down now with only one good eye. Though I can read for short periods with my left eye uncovered, it soon starts burning and watering and I cannot continue long. One-eye reading is possible but not as good and soon that eye gets tired too. Just one of the many side-effects of my cancer and the loss of a facial nerve. You just do the best you can with what you have in life. 🙂 And at 80 I no longer expect all of my body to work perfectly! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
The second book in my “Faces of Nature” series is all birds or faces of birds with 265 photos. It’s an amazing up-close experience with nature and you can preview every page of the book in my online bookstore at:
https://www.blurb.com/b/10692886-faces-of-nature-2
Or browse through all 67 of my photo books.
¡Pura Vida!
At breakfast the other morning the wind had stopped and these two birds came to my Cecropia Tree, though reluctantly showing themselves, hiding in the glare of morning sun.
“Birds learn how to fly, never knowing where the flight will take them.”
-Mark Nepo
See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
I will be doing separate posts concerning my radiotherapy, though I hope for more nature to share from my month-plus hotel nearby! 🙂
Well, tribal in one sense, with only certain ones of us in the Radiotherapy Tribe! 🙂
This first day of radiation treatment took longer because I had to meet with the nurse to explain all the side affects and things I can do to make it go smoother. Then they had to readjust the mask made more than a week ago which is a mold of my head and shoulders. They screw it down to the table over my body and I can’t move my head at all. This is necessary to get the radiation in the right places which afterwards Dr. Bonilla showed me computer graphics of my head & neck and where the radiation is scheduled to go. Amazing how targeted they can be when I am in forced stillness! 🙂
Once I’m set up, the machine scans my head and neck from two angles, 33 seconds each time. This will continue for 33 days which now boosts me up to 6.5 weeks. I am now scheduled for 11:45 AM each day, Monday to Friday.
After today’s treatment I walked the 6 blocks back to my hotel which I love and will tell you about later. I looked in the mirror and was surprised that the left side of my face and head was a little pink, even on the first treatment! I have an expensive “Radiocare” lotion I will use on my face to help avoid the “sunburn effect” and sure enough, the pinkness went away with the first usage of the lotion. I also must wear a wide-brimmed hat and avoid all sunshine on my face and neck. I jokingly told the nurse that I would just make a larger “Covid mask” to cover my whole head! 🙂
Another “new normal” being developed here! 🙂 ¡Hasta mañana!
¡Pura Vida!