Happy Family Culture in Atenas
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| While waiting on a parade to start last year this Atenas father leads several waiting children in a game. As I did my daily walk through town today, not seeing a memorable photo op, I thought of this old one. It is so typical of the happiest people on earth right here in the center of Costa Rica! Glad I live here! Atenas, Costa Rica |
See also my photo gallery PEOPLE & FIESTAS.
Melodious Blackbird
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| Melodious Blackbird But the pink bump on the chin is not normal, so I have also posted on ornithological FB group asking about it. In my garden at breakfast this morning. Atenas, Costa Rica |
And my photo gallery of BIRDS
Banded Skipper
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| Banded Skipper Butterfly In my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
Photo Gallery of Butterflies & Moths
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| Selfie of Old Man on Daily Walk Atenas, Costa Rica Strangler Fig Tree in Background |
And a gallery of Other Photos of Me for those who say I only have bird photos
New Exercise Equipment in Sports Park
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| New exercise equipment appropriate for children has been installed in park across from Elementary School. Health is emphasized much here. |
Christmas Trees in the Mall
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| This one has blue elves and a train! |
There are more than these two trees at City Mall Alajuela, but these are a sample of how into Christmas people are here. Every store is of course decorated better than the others and people are starting to decorate their homes. Christmas is in the air and Christmas Carols playing everywhere, more in English than in Spanish! In Atenas our Christmas Art Festival is 14-16 December with the Festival of Lights Parade the evening of 16th. It’s really a big deal!
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| And Poinsettias grow in our yards! 🙂 |
¡Pura Vida Christmas!
New Neighborhood Swimming Pool
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| Complete with Racing Lanes, It opened this morning for an event. I think it is a private club promoting triathlons, but no sure. Atenas, Costa Rica |
See my March 6 post on the construction of this commercial facility, complete with sign describing the purpose of it. I think the early morning event here was a small triathlon for primary school children, probably to promote the facility and gain membership. My neighbor walked by between 7:30 and 8:00 this morning seeing a couple of hundred parents and children here and then later saw the children running through town. I missed the activity but cellphone photoed the pool that I walk past every day on my way to town. There is a high interest in health and sports here, though not a lot can afford a private club, if that is what it is.
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| Triathlon “Motivational Quote” |
Early Bloomers
Our “winter” or el invierno (rainy season) generally goes through November with “summer” or el verano (dry season) starting in December, with some flowers like the yellow & orange below not blooming until January. Even though we still have some rain (less now) the flowers indicate summer. It has been a very wet rainy season, so I guess a very dry season coming! 🙂
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| Bougainvillea Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Yellow Bells Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Triquitraque Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Once de Abril Atenas, Costa Rica |
Flowers are restful to look at.
They have neither emotions nor conflicts.
~Sigmund Freud
All of the above flowers snapped on my cellphone in my personal garden yesterday. Love it!
And for more flowers, see my Flora & Forest photo galleries! Beauty year around here!
And for more flowers, see my Flora & Forest photo galleries! Beauty year around here!
¡Pura Vida!
Neighbor’s View of Atenas
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| Atenas as seen from higher up the hill from me in the morning fog. This nice photo was made by Tom & Jessica, here for a couple of months on their trip around the world. See their blog http://www.worldwidewaftage.com/ Like most places you pay more for better view! Of course they zoomed in on the church with camera – they aren’t this close! Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Maybe call my view toward town “more natural” with more trees than even houses & no church. I am barely on the side of a little hill while the other view is from twice as high & zoomed more! Atenas, Costa Rica |
BLOG STATS
I have now written more than 1,000 posts that have received more than 100.000 pageviews online from more than 20 countries. I guess there is a lot of random viewing of blogs by some people. 🙂
Chachalacas in Guarumo Tree
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| Two Gray-headed Chachalacas in the Guarumo Tree at my Terrace My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica Note that the orange blooming tree is more than 100 yards away on a hill. |
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| Closer view of one Gray-headed Chachalaca My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.
~Charles Lindbergh
And since it is Thanksgiving in the states, my American friends can pretend these are my backyard turkeys! 🙂 Though Thursday is just another normal day here! Unfortunately a few businesses are doing “Black Friday” here. Anything to make a buck! And a lot of these rich American expats here still can’t turn loose of the states and feel obligated to buy a $40+ imported American turkey and try to recreate an American Thanksgiving here. Not me. Just a regular day thursday! So, happy Thanksgiving or happy regular day to all my readers! 🙂
And for the fellow birders, I just learned today that the Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab of Ornithology just released a Costa Rica Pack, so now you can use it to identify birds in Costa Rica and I’m hoping it will be better than the local app for identifying birds, but either way I will have two choices now! You have to download the Costa Rica Pack separately to the app. Just got it today, so no time to test it yet except for one bird from the terrace. Merlin ID is free from your app store and then within it you download the free Costa Rica Pack that includes info and photos of 750 Costa Rica Birds! Cool!