Category: Atenas

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Atenas Homes Prepare for Easter During Lent

Just three examples of the many homes celebrating Lent in Atenas. 
These I walk by almost every day – reminders of the atonement.

From the internet at: 
“In the Catholic and Episcopal churches, purple is the symbol of royalty,” said the Rev. Garry White, pastor of Orangeburg Lutheran Church. “It’s also a symbol of bruising and suffering. That is the color that is used during the season of Lent. In the week immediately prior to Easter on Good Friday, a lot of churches will take the purple cloth down and put up a black cloth as a more stark reminder of Jesus’ death.”
The placement of a white cloth on the cross on Easter Sunday represents the purity and wholeness demonstrated through Christ’s resurrection, White said.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live

John 11:25
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Last Day of Festival de Vida

When I got there the ropers from the nearby agricultural
university were doing roping trick – very good!
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

FlashBack, the gringo oldies rock band played for two hours, 1-3 – Then others but I’m gone.
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

The original benefactor of the food festival.
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

You paid 3,000 Colones (about $5) and got to sample 20 different international food entries & vote on the best.
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

Individuals & restaurants donated small portions of food to taste.
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

For more photos of food and other vendors, see my gallery 2018 Festival de Vida

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Second Day of Festival de Vida

When I left at 2 PM today we were up to 30-something newly registered voters!
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

Mid-day entertainment was mostly dancing today.
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica 

We did hear the community marching band play.
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

And several dance studios show off their work.
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

Another dance studio.
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

And remember that big name bands & singers are at night, too late for this old man! 🙂

A food truck showed up today! (Maybe from San Jose)
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

The two most popular foods at these gatherings are Ceviche (raw seafood soup that I don’t eat!)
 and Granizados (Snow Cones)
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

And next most popular is grilled chicken on a stick with a tortilla of course!
Or sometimes it is grilled pork.
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

It is called ceramicas here and just one of many art vendors.
Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

Including colorful candles and lots of jewelry . . .

More photos have been added to my photo gallery on the 2018 Festival de Vida 


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Started Registering Voters Today at Festival of Life

It took 6 of us to register 12 new absentee voters this morning and hopefully
the afternoon shift will do an ever better job!  🙂
Festiva de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

Registering American Absentee Voters
Learn more at https://www.votefromabroad.org/vote/home.htm
Festiva de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica

During just the first morning we had a guitar-playing singer, DJ, and this Red Cross group
drumming on exercise balls and dancing. Interesting! Along with many tables selling food, arts & crafts.
Festiva de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica
Festiva de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica
This is a fun fiesta in Central Park with lots of booths/tables for many purposes including the one I’m helping at to register Americans for Absentee Voting back in the states. There is live musical entertainment almost constantly all weekend and the big fundraiser is the International Food Festival on Sunday where people can taste samples of all the entries and vote on the best for only 3,000 Colones (about $5). One of the benefactors is Hogar de Vida, the local children’s home that my friends from Nashville are coming to serve in this April. 
It is interesting that the Tico Times article used old photos from past year’s Chili Cook Offs which this replaces. Quite a bit different this year! I’m starting a photo gallery on the 2018 Festival de Vida to which I will add photos each day. 
And those keeping up with Costa Rica might like Photos of Women’s Day March in San Jose
¡Pura Vida!
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Starting a School Blog Yesterday

Escuela Colina Azul
A Private Elementary School Nestled in the Mountains of Atenas, Costa Rica

Belinda, the teacher in a local private school here who helped me get my Cedula renewed, talked to me about having wanted to maybe start a blog with her 6th Grade Computer Science class and asked if I would come tell the class how I started my blog and if they could do one on the same platform, blogspot.com. I was happy to help and went yesterday afternoon. With the school’s projector I showed the class my two blogs and explained the purpose and the importance of keeping posts short and simple, (though I obviously don’t always follow my own rule!).

But, instead of showing them how to blog on the Google platform that I use, my research showed a better place for both them and their teacher, designed just for schools with proper security, spam-free, advertising-free, etc. It is called


Belinda has a young student-teacher who was excited to hear about this and of course wants to set it up which is helpful for the regular teacher!  🙂  The class will have a class page the teacher can post homework on, blog assignments, messages to parents, etc.  AND each student has a blog page which the teacher will have some control over, but students from other schools and countries who are on edublog can comment on their posts and visa-versa. I showed them some samples of 6th Grade blogs and read a short story written on one blog by a 7th grade boy.

I browsed through some posts of other 6th and 7th graders and it was great! At least I thought so! And if I have a little bit to do with the 6th graders at Escuela Colina Azul getting started with blogging, I’m happy! And if you work with a school at any grade level, check it out at https://www.theedublogger.com/     It is a subsidiary of WordPress, but it is free for schools and students/teachers and their teacher website has a lot of good teaching resources.

Belinda also teaches 6th Grade English, thus the blogs will be in English and a tool for both her English class and her computer science class (same students – all the 6th graders in a small school). How cool! And almost all of her students are Ticos! There is another private school that is mostly foreigners and more expensive. I really enjoy being involved in the local community like this when I can. Old people and foreigners can still contribute sometimes!  🙂

Escuela Colina Azul Website  

Or go straight to the school photos

AND THIS IS COOL:
Story of a rare American 2nd Grader at Escuela Colina Azul.  On Mom’s blog.

And my Spanish teachers David & Corinna have there son Nicola in 3rd grade here! It’s a new school for me and I like it!  

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New Graffiti in Sports Park

Not sure what these little colorful shapes are, but they are new on Sports Park retaining wall.
Atenas, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
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Sleet or Hail – In Costa Rica !?

Sleet or Hail !
The fact that it was raining a second afternoon in a row is amazing in February!
But ICE is unheard of in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, at any time! (only at tops of a few high mountains)
I increased the contrast of photo a little – all the white spots are bits of ice – sleet or hail. (cell phone photo)
Ticos were trying to photograph something they had never seen before! It melted fast!
Atenas, Costa Rica

Okay, so you have had some strange weather in the states too! Weather seems to be out of the ordinary everywhere in the world now. And there are still people who don’t believe in climate change or global warming. Wow! Saturday and Sunday afternoon were the first two rains we have had in this calendar year, unusual even without the ice! It is Dry Season here! Shocked tourists?

I was eating a late lunch of fish at Colinas del Sol Hotel Restaurant near my house when it started raining with the first minute or so including ice. Above shot on concrete sidewalk outside restaurant.
¡Pura Vida!


5.2 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Costa Rica This Monday Morning  This was way down south where I will be in two weeks, near Puerto Jimenez and Corcovado National Park. We did have a smaller tremor in Atenas Saturday which strangely I did not feel but “heard!” Mejor clima del mundo?  🙂


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Walking Over my “Jungle Hill” This Morning

I love walking by the gardens of my neighbors
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

Lots of flowers are always blooming, like this Bougainvillea
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica 

This morning a toucan flew into that top tree
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

I got as close as I could and zoomed in with only my cell phone camera
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
Yellow-throated Toucan
I then cropped in further at home and mainly have just a silhouette, oh well.
My 300mm lens would have done better, but always hard as they usually stay high in the trees.
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

A view of central Atenas from above a different house than I’ve shown before (125).
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

And another neighbor house on top of hill I don’t think I’ve shown before.
Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
Before I moved to Costa Rica, I said that I would never live in a rich gated community, so I need to be careful about using that word “never” since after 4 months of searching for a rental house I could afford that also met my needs, this is where I found it! And since most of these big mansions have “casitas” (“little houses” like mine) that they rent out or use for “mother-in-law cottages” or servants, I am certainly not alone living among the rich as a renter and 40% of the owners here are Ticos, so not just all foreigners. Plus it is the only really nice development like this within easy walking distance of Central Atenas; in fact most realtors say Roca Verde is in “Central Atenas” (loosely defined). 
With the Atenas public water system having many shutdown problems and unfulfilled promises from politicians, we are fortunate to have our own water system within Roca Verde that is almost never down, and if that is not enough, my landlord has his own private well and pump right here on our lot!  🙂  That is a bigger deal here than it may sound! I always have good water and good pressure. 
My landlord is one of the best and even though he has this property for sale, it hasn’t sold yet and that can take years here! A German man visited 2 days ago as a prospective buyer and assured me I could continue renting at the same price if he becomes my new landlord. I am not worried. My landlord, Jean-Luc, was also the developer of all of Roca Verde and with his partner in charge of the development maintenance, etc. until this year when a new homeowners’ association took over and they seem to be doing a good job so far and have even increased the security of the property. If you drive in the front gate to visit me, expect to show your ID and have your trunk inspected upon leaving and they may even call me to verify that you are really coming to see me. Interesting. 
I think I have already shared reasons for choosing the “Central Valley” as my place to live, like medical and shopping proximity, plus from here I can easily travel on my many adventures to parks and forests all over Costa Rica and further into Central America. And it will be easy to expand my travels into South America later. As “the next best place to heaven,” Costa Rica is the perfect place for me to live the final years of my life before the real heaven. ¡Perfecto!


¡Pura Vida!

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The Great Kiskadee Sings in a Good Rain!

Great Kiskadee
He was singling loudly on the edge of my terrace today before the rain started.
Sorry that it was shot through both glass and screen of my sliding glass door.
When I opened it, he flew away!
He sang his loudest just before we got a very unusual big February rain!
Atenas, Costa Rica
To hear what his song sounds like (hint: his name), click on the below reference and a button there that says “Listen” to hear him sing: 
And see more in my photo gallery BIRDS
¡Pura Vida!

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Aloe Vera Blooming?

Aloe Vera with Bloom
My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

This particular aloe plant was one of only 2 or 3 plants in my garden when I moved into this house 3 years ago this April. When I planted my big garden I moved this into a big pot, first on my terrace and then here at the end of the sidewalk of my wrap-around garden, the punctuation mark if you please! First the pot was here, then it outgrew the pot and I placed it in the ground and so maybe that is why it is blooming; it likes the ground better than a pot? Or it drains better and they do prefer dry soil. Anyway, I thought this was interesting because I have had aloe plants most of my adult life in TX, TN & FL and this is the first I have seen bloom! Reminds me of a cactus bloom and it may be a type of cactus. Of course it is also important to me as part of my medicine cabinet, my source of treatment of all burns, both physical and sunburn. There is nothing better on the market! And I have another aloe plant not quite this big, plus this one is growing babies! Stop by for a baby aloe!


an interesting article in

Joy Us garden

garden. create. make the world a more beautiful place.

¡Pura Vida!