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Pre-Rain Walk

It was cloudy before the rain (better for my radiation-damaged skin) but I could see, hear and smell the rain coming. Soon after I was back from my “Country Lane” Walk, our afternoon shower started which has become regular now, meaning that the rainy season has really started, after severa false-starts. 🙂 The above feature photo is from my terrace with rain in the hills behind Atenas Centro and soon it came all over. I never tire of trying to make a photo of those hills which are never the same. This one is a 4-shot panorama.

One of my favorite shots from the walk . . .

Cacti along the entry wall of Hotel Colinas Del Sol.

And four more shots from the walk + . . .

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Green Field

I’m back home for awhile and one of the first contrasts with the big city was the green field across from my house, seen here at ground level . . .

Grazing place for cows, hiding place for Fer-de-lance and a peaceful place for me!

And online I found a poem that expresses some feeling of my front yard “green field,” though I would never lay down in this one with the cow patties and snakes! 🙂

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El Camino de Costa Rica – New Info

A Hiker Guide

One of my blog readers, Patrick, who is thinking about beginning his retirement in Costa Rica (like I should have!) shared with me the just-released new hiking guide available on hiking coast to coast across Costa Rica. It’s first on his agenda here! Are you interested in such a hike?

Available on Amazon as paperback or Kindle edition: El Camino de Costa Rica Hiker Guide

There’s also a newer video of the trail than the one I showed earlier plus more new info on the website and I found a good “Make the Leap” story I’m also linking! 🙂 . . .

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Living Alone but Never Alone

I have been receiving support from so many people around the world that yesterday’s article in Washington Post motivated me to say something here about it. The article is titled I had ovarian cancer, was single and living by myself. But going through treatment, I was never alone. – dated 23 May 2021.

Though everything about us is different (age, sex, location, cancer type, treatment, etc.) – we both experienced the marvelous good nature of most people and both of us enjoy living alone though appreciating the help and concerns of other people. 🙂

Some ladies of Roca Verde are still bringing me meals even though I told them it is no longer necessary. Several have shared their experiences with cancer, and sometimes it feels like everyone in this little farm town of Atenas knows I have cancer and lovingly ask me how I’m doing and offer to help. I know most of the taxistas here and they are all so caring and helpful. The wonderful, loving people of Costa Rica are a big part of the “Pura vida!” I’m so fortunate to live here.

Likewise through the internet, my blog and its links to Facebook plus emails I feel like there are literally thousands praying for me around the world and staying in touch, from old friends to never-met new ones, as is possible on the internet.

I am at peace and believe the Lord is watching over me just like all these friends and neighbors or is it God working through them? I believe so and I’m optimistic about the future with many more nature trips around Costa Rica with my camera that I can still use, even with one eye, and the trip I have scheduled 5.5 weeks after radiation concludes will have given me time to recover some from most side-effects and now gives me something to look forward to. . .

. . . I will be flying to the southern tip of the Osa Peninsula, near Panama border, overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the mouth of Golfo Dulce where you sometimes see whales, while also hiking around the southern end of the largest protected rainforest in Central America. What could be better than that? And I’m still alive to enjoy it! 🙂 Bosque del Cabo Rainforest Lodge is west of Puerto Jimenez at the village of Cabo Matapalo, south of Corcovado National Park. Places like this are the reason I moved my retirement to Costa Rica! 🙂 For photos of other places I’ve already visited here see: My Costa Rica Trips Gallery. And you’ll know why I’m “Retired in Costa Rica,” the name of my blog and website.

In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. 

Proverbs 16:9

¡Pura Vida!

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Dragonflies and Damselflies

Saturday morning in Atenas I checked with my new internet order-delivery service called “Atenas WebShop” and had two packages, one a new paperback book from Amazon.com, Dragonflies and Damselflies of Costa Rica, A Field Guide by Dennis Paulson and William Haber (Link to Amazon ordering). It’s also available direct from the publisher, Cornell University Press.

It is a very thorough and scientific book and the first I’ve found anywhere here to help me identify these odonatan insects that I occasionally photograph. They have detailed descriptions and photographs of all 283 Dragonflies and Damselflies identified in Costa Rica with more being discovered frequently here.


I will use it to try and identify the ones I already have in my Dragonflies and Damselflies Photo Galleries, though it will not always be easy as there are some finely detailed differences between many species that all of my photos are not good enough to show, but at least I will have more labeled than before! 🙂


Now I just wish someone would develop as good a field guide for the butterflies of Costa Rica! A much bigger job! And until then I will continue to use the Butterflies of Mexico & Central America book for my IDs.


¡Pura Vida!

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Hotel Art

As Friday’s post featured a few works of art at the Radiotherapy Clinic, this post shows some of the art I’ve enjoyed being around at my hotel during this therapy time. It’s not a replacement for visiting the closed museums, but it is always enjoyable to be around good artwork anytime and anywhere!

Breakfast Bar Art



And a short slide show of more . . .

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Age 107 and “My Abandonment” – Related?

This and Feature Photo at Top are Sunrise from Hotel Banana Azul, Caribe, Costa Rica

Many days an older women in a wheel chair is treated at Radioterapia just before me. The other day I asked the therapists how old she was and in unison they said, “107.” She’s obviously a fighter, still battling cancer at this age! And always smiles when I speak to her, though I don’t have her name or photo yet, I hope to one day.

In Costa Rica many people live to be over 100 years of age. Five areas of the world with a high concentration of people living past 100 are called “Blue Zones” (Wikipedia link), including one in the Nicoya rural area of Costa Rica.

The ingredients of health and long life, are great temperance, open air, easy labor, and little care.

~Philip Sidney

This 107 year old woman reminded me of the many motivations that led to my radical decision to move to Costa Rica in 2014 – including health and old age – while many Americans were questioning me “abandoning” the security, safety, and richness of the U.S. (though I had trouble “making ends meet” living there). 🙂

I spoke to this in my December 21, 2014 blog post (just 3 days before arriving in Costa Rica) sharing one of my favorite Thomas Merton poem-prayers which I repeat here as one example of my Costa Rica Adventure being as much about faith as it is retirement in nature:

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Tired and Tasteless

Well, that second adjective is probably not used correctly, but I like alliterations! 🙂

By the end of the third week of radiation I am more tired than ever. And none of my food has a taste or very much of one. Over the weekend a neighbor brought me a spicy soup that had more flavor than most things now. And this is perfectly normal as radiation progresses. But they say in 5 or 6 weeks after completing treatments I will regain my taste. And I’m also sleeping later and later every morning with even nap in the day.

The photo was made by the technicians (their photo coming tomorrow) of me right after I completed the treatment Friday and put my shirt back on but no mask or eye patch! Just the one-sided smile! 🙂

Me in front of the big radiation machine by my treatment mask & table.

And you may have missed the post with me getting the treatment.

¡Pura Vida!