Category: Alajuela

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Getting an X-Ray Here

Clinica Santa Fe in Alajuela where I went for my foot X-ray

Clinica Linea Vital in Atenas where I see Drs. Candy and Anna. (Google Photo)

Okay – I’ll try to make a long story short. The last two weeks my right heel has been painful to walk on, especially during the night (getting up to go to bathroom) and when I first arise in morning. (I’m afraid it is because I have been living in sandals for 9 months, walking everywhere in them. Now I’m using walking shoes with a heel cushion.) Dr. Candy looked at it maybe two weeks ago and gave me an anti-inflammatory which worked great during the 1 week I was taking it. Then the pain came back. So I return and was surprised she now has an associate, Dr. Anna who was on duty. (Yeah, I know, all my docs are women here, including the dentist!)  🙂  Anyway, Dr. Anna questioned me and felt of it an said she believed it is a bone spur on my heel (plantillo espolon). In addition to a different medication I am to take 3 times a day for two weeks and soaking my foot in warm Epsom salt water followed by ice cold water daily, I was asked to go get an x-ray (de rayos x or imagen radiológica). She wrote the prescription and said her assistant at the front desk would give directions (he is also a nurse and EMT and ambulance driver – 2nd photo at Clinica Linea Vital with ambulance). This is all happening yesterday morning.

The Map  –  In case you need
to go to Clinica Santa Fe, Alajuela
🙂
He told me there was a place in Atenas for an x-ray, but he did not recommend it and that it would be better if I went to Alajuela, our province capital, where I go by bus regularly anyway. (I did not ask what was wrong with the place here in Atenas.) So I ask him for an address (Silly me! There are no addresses here.). First he said it is easy to find, just opposite Santamaria Park (as I give him that blank stare and say “Not Parque Central which I know?”). So then he drew one map and decided it was not good enough and drew a second map of how to get to it from the bus station (parada de autobús) of Atenas in Alajuela. Perfecto! I call for an appointment and she did not speak English, so I hand phone to my EMT and he learns an appointment is not necessary, just walk in. Gracias! Adios Amigo!
So, I walk straight to our bus station here and when I get to Alajuela his directions easily take me straight to the Clinica Santa Fe in top photo. It is about four blocks from the bus station near Parque Juan Santamaria which I will tell you about tomorrow! I walked in at about 11:20, was x-rayed before 12, but told they had a lunch break and to come back at 1:00 for my film. So I went to eat a quesadilla, check out the park that is new to me, and some public art I found. Back in clinic at 12:55 and she handed me my x-ray film to take to my doctor. I had already paid the 14,000 colones or $28 USD for the pictures of both heels. (Bet your insurance company pays more than that in the states!) I rush back to bus station but just missed the 1:00. (Buses are the only thing punctual here.) Since the next bus was not until 2:00, I took a $2 taxi to PriceSmart for some items I was needing and another more expensive taxi all the way back to Atenas (20 miles) with my large shopping load and home by 2:00. My Alajuela driver I now call personally, is named Carlos and loves to help me with my Spanish and will drive me all the way to Atenas for a little more than $20. Not bad! And still a lot cheaper than owning a car! 
Carlos stops by the Atenas clinic where I leave the x-ray film and then home for the rest of the day, I think. I have been so busy lately I can’t remember how my days stay so full. Glad I cancelled the Manzanillo trip. I’ll share more about Alajuela the next two days, a really interesting city. 
And that is how we do x-rays in Costa Rica!  🙂    Pura Vida!

“The art of medicine is in amusing a patient while nature affects the cure.”  
~Voltaire
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Iglesia La Soledad

Iglesia La Soledad, Alajuela
A Simple Elegance

And a young church for Costa Rica!
Many are dated to the 1500’s!

When I took Anthony for his going away lunch at his favorite restaurant in San Jose (Tin Jo), we saw this nearby church and made a brief visit. In Latin cities there is a church in almost every barrio or neighborhood. This is one of those. A simple beauty that I like and part of my “Costa Rica Churches” photo collection that is bound to begin soon!  🙂

I never weary of great churches. It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral.
~Robert Louis Stevenson
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I walk in beauty!

Frangipani (or Plumeria) tree in Alajuela.

Beauty is before me.  

Beauty is behind me
Beauty is above me
Beauty is below me


I walk in beauty!

         – Navajo Poem


All of nature is beauty to me and in Costa Rica I feel like I am surrounded by nature more than anywhere else I have ever been. And as a walker, I truly walk in beauty! (You see more walking!)

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Walking Snaps Today

Walking by Alajuela Cathedral this morning
I was struck by this beautiful flowering shrub.
Cell phone snap

Walking through Atenas later today, I caught this Blue-crowned Motmot
with my cellphone in someone’s yard. I did have to crop in a bit on this one.

It was a very busy day today and I did not get everything accomplished that I intended, but did get a lot done. Tomorrow Cristian and his crew come to finish my garden and add some trees and shrubs to my yard. You will probably hear about them tomorrow! And eventually I will get around to making and showing some photos of my new house. A busy two weeks!

By the way, Trip Advisor, for which I write reviews, has just published its “Top 10 Beaches in Central America” list and 8 of them are in Costa Rica! Or see the actual Trip Advisor site listing where you have to hit the arrow to scroll through the photos of each beach.  Makes me want to reconsider living at a beach, but probably not! 🙂  Beaches are hotter, more humid, and more expensive for living. I can get to a beach in 2 hours or less any time I want to.

Interested in the Nicaragua Canal? Click to read the latest news and how construction has begun. 

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Alajuela & La Garita

Museo Histórico Cultural Juan Santamaría, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Kevin’s kind of museum! And a country without an army finds
all forts to be historical! This is across from the central plaza.
Alajuela Plaza Cathedral

Church of the Agony, Alajuela

We stop in La Garita at a plant nursery called a Vivero in Costa Rica
Kevin enjoyed shooting flowers there

We also tried to find a sugar cane mill we had passed earlier in the week, but failed to get on the right country road. So missed that photo op!

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Today’s Alajuela Adventures

I travel by bus to our province’s capital every week or two, mainly for Aerocasillas & Walmart. Here’s today’s story with phone pix:

Iglesia Bautista 1946, Alajuela
I got the 9 AM bus to Alajuela ($1.43) and it got there in 30 minutes, the fastest time yet! Walking from the Alajuela bus terminal to Aerocasillas, as always, I saw for the first time the Baptist Church of Alajuela. I have walked by it before without noticing the small “Iglesia Bautista 1946” sign. It was started when I was just 6 years old! I know it is the date because we don’t use house numbers here! It is behind and overshadowed by the Alajuela Cathedral pictured in my January 15 post. 

Aerocasillas Alajuela Office

From the bus station to Aerocasillas (the blue sign on gray building) is an 11 block walk or as they say here, “about 1100 meters” or actually “oncecientos metres.” Today I had one letter, a check from the sale of my dining room table and chairs, finally! So worth the trip! Then this afternoon when I got home I received notice via email that a package will be ready for me to pick up tomorrow. Grrr! Maybe I go tomorrow or maybe next week! ! It is the replacement blades for my electric razor that I couldn’t find here. Oh well! Another adventure!

Then around the corner from Aerocasillas are two of my favorite landmarks and the cab stand:

Church of the Agony, Alajuela

La Bohemia Rock Bar across the street from Church of the Agony

Cab Stand at Church of the Agony – $3 to Walmart – All official taxis are red!
Maybe I’ll show a photo of the Walmart sometime, but it is just a big box! Today I walked across the street from Walmart to a new modern strip center with several nice restaurants. I chose Mexican, Taconteinto. It was very good and very expensive!
Then another cab back to the bus station where I just barely caught it as leaving and packed full. The first time I have had to stand all the way to Atenas, well, nearly all the way. Between La Garita and Atenas our bus broke down and we all had to stand on the side of the road at a partly covered bus stop for 20+ minutes waiting for a replacement bus to pick us up. We were all patient. “These things happen!” People don’t get bent out of shape when things go wrong here. Everyone just visited or used their cell phones. And 20-30 minutes for a replacement bus is actually pretty quick!
Waiting for a replacement bus on the western edge of La Garita. 

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Cardiologist’s Office?

Cell Phone Capture of Alajuela House that is now a Cardiologist Office.

At first glance I thought it was some kind of government building! Why? Because all government buildings are two-tone blue and white. But most have a lot more white than this one. The sign is for a cardiologist, Dr. Luis Fernando Valerio Soto. Yet he could work for the government as part of the universal health plan and it may be a government building after all.

Then all over Alajuela are these modern, curving park benches – giving the city a cosmopolitan look maybe? Or at least some city councilman thought!  🙂  Downtown Alajuela where I go a lot is mostly, old and dirty looking, so this building kind of stands out! Later I may do a post on colorful buildings in Atenas and in Alajuela. The Walmart in Alajuela where I went today is not colorful.

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Bus Riding with Grace and Two Churches Today

 All photos are by my Samsung Galaxy 4 Cellphone. Surprisingly good! Click photos to enlarge.

Iglesia La Angonia – The Church of Agony in Alajuela

Today I left the house at 6:15 AM to walk to bus terminal for the 6:55 bus to San Jose, the collectivo or slow route, because the embassy told me I would save taxi money if I got off at Hotel Corobici and road a taxi from there. A lady on the bus told me when we were at the hotel (I didn’t know what I was looking for) and I got a cab for about $3 to the U.S. Embassy after my $1 bus ride to the big city. First bus-riding grace (undeserved or unearned favor).

It went smoothly at the U.S. Embassy and I got my last needed document for the filing a residential application. Took it immediately to my attorney’s office ($2 taxi) where with this last document and nearly $1,500 of my money he will be filing my retiree residential application. He says it can take from 5 months to a year and a half. So I’m finished with it and will let him do his job, however long it takes! No more worries!
Second act of grace on bus riding: I asked the receptionist at the ARCR Office which bus terminal I should get a taxi to if I want a bus to Alajuela (since I had a package to pick up at Aerocasillas), and she said, oh you don’t need a taxi for bus to Alajuela, just go 300 meters to your left (3 blocks) and turn right for another 300 meters to the bus stop. I walked straight there and the Alajuela bus arrives in about 2 minutes!
Third act of grace on my bus riding (with little Spanish skills): I was going to the central bus station in Alajuela and then walk the 10 blocks to Aerocasillas, but as we came into town I saw the church pictured above that I thought was Iglesia La Angonia and asked the lady next to me, she said “Si.” I pulled the buzzer and only walked one block instead of ten to Aerocasillas which is near this church built in 1941. God is good! (Or I’m incredibly lucky!)
Then I walked the 10 blocks to the bus terminal to catch my Atenas bus, but stopped at the Central Plaza and the 1863 Alajuela Cathedral below for photos. Afterwards I ate lunch at McDonald’s across the street. Can’t believe I patronized them, but it was my first hamburger since getting here and it was very good! Home by 1:30 and staying in this afternoon. Pura vida!
Alajuela Cathedral, Finished in 1863

“Central Plaza Alajuela” is what most call it, or officially
“Plaza del Benemento General Guardia”
The cathedral is in background

Towering Palms & Mango Trees
Kind of like our’s in Atenas

Alajuela is a city (ciudad) of 300,000+ while Atenas is a small rural town (pueblo) of about 8,000. And I’m really glad we don’t have a McDonald’s! Pizza and fried chicken by locals is enough westernization for me! I’m loving small town life! Pura vida!

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The Mailing Addresses

I don’t think I’ve shared them on the blog yet, though you may have received my new bus. card and Christmas post card with the new mailing addresses:

REQUIRING AN INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE STAMP AT $1.15:
Charlie Doggett
Hacienda La Jacaranda
03-4013
Atenas, Alajuela 20501
COSTA RICA

I PAY A COURIER SERVICE TO FLY IT TO COSTA RICA ONCE A WEEK:

PO BOX FOR MAIL & MAGAZINES ONLY:
Charlie Doggett
PO Box 025-331
SJO 170066
Miami, FL 33102-5331

STREET ADDRESS FOR PACKAGES ONLY:
Charlie Doggett
6703 NW 7th St.
SJO 170066
Miami, FL 33126-6007

If interested in knowing, these two Miami addresses are with Aero Post or Aero Casillas in Spanish, which is a courier service helping residents of all of Central and South America to have a U.S. address which is needed for some internet orders and other purposes. They fly to San Jose (the SJO code in the address) once a week with accumulated mail and packages and take it to my nearest Aero Post desk which happens to be in the town of Alajuela in the same province as me, also Alajuela. It is also the location town for the International Airport and about 20 minute drive from where I will live.

AND A LITTLE SERENDIPITY:
One of the two young men who came in a truck to pick up my boxes for Craters and Freighters of Nashville today was born in Alajuela and lived there until age 7 when his parents brought him to Nashville. Now how about that for a coincidence!