Category: Atenas

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Sitting on Rocks? Park Remodel Update…

The other day I showed that they were now building the concrete seating in a circle around the “Kiosk” or Band Shell. Well today as I walked by before my haircut I noticed something interesting. Instead of using re-barb inside the huge concrete two-level seating they are using locally harvested rocks – yep – big rocks around which they hand-pour concrete from buckets. Hmmm. Well, it does help fill in the space with something more than just concrete! And I’m not an engineer, so maybe it is as good as re-barb though I have my doubts, especially since we regularly have earthquake tremors around here. Oh well, not my problem!   🙂   Pura vida!

Step 1: Fill each level of form with rocks.

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Step 2: Hand pour concrete around rocks.

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Step 3: Finish with smooth concrete.

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Step 4: Finished product looks great!

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“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”      ~George S. Patton

¡Pura Vida!

 

My growing gallery of progress on the Atenas Central Park Remodeling.

The city has  a Facebook Page presenting the remodeling with architect drawings of how they expect it to look.

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Potluck Supper Last Night

You guys considering a move to Costa Rica might be interested to know that it is common for neighborhoods to get together for potluck dinners occasionally. We did when in the apartments and we have in Roca Verde as last night. I’m on the RV Social Committee and we are now planning on 3 or 4 potluck suppers a year to get to know your neighbors better. And another fun part is how international it is in most neighborhoods with Costa Ricans, Europeans from multiple countries, and of course persons from the U.S. and Canada. Great food too!   🙂   Plus I got an invite for an American Thanksgiving Day Feast at one of the homes!   🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Sorry I did not get any photos last night but I have other social and fiesta photos in my photo gallery!    🙂

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Progress?

Architects have forever been changing the look of our world, all around the world, including in this little coffee farming town of Atenas, Costa Rica. The other day I snapped this photo as just one example of many modern buildings coming up in Atenas. Some, like this one will, soon sit adjacent a “historic” or “antique” building providing the continued contrast of old and new across Atenas and around the world. My response is to just “go with the flow” and find beauty and joy in everything! ¡Pura Vida!

“You can’t stop the future
You can’t rewind the past
The only way to learn the secret
…is to press play.”
― Jay Asher

For more images of Atenas, see my gallery  Atenas.  Check out other galleries to see how I have adapted to “change” – old age, retirement, loss of family and work and encroachment of the future by embracing nature in this beautiful country dominated by nature.   ¡Pura Vida!  Retired in Costa Rica!

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Central Park Update – SEATING

They continue to work very slow (muy despacio) but have started the concrete seats that will circle the round stage or theater in the round. As some say here “It will be nice if they ever finish it!   🙂

The city has  a Facebook Page presenting the remodeling with architect drawings of how they expect it to look. Nice! The vision of an architect! AND BEST VIEWED AS A MANUAL SLIDESHOW! Click on a picture, then the right or left arrows.

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.”    – Margaret J. Wheatley

And these photos are being added to the others in my photo gallery called:   Remodeling Central Park Atenas  for a pictorial history of the park remodel.

¡Pura Vida!

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New Butterflies

Two butterflies scurrying around my garden the other day captured my attention much because of how fast they traveled and thus difficult to photograph. The one with red & pink is a Transandean Cattleheart (Parides iphidamas), while the one with turquoise is a Short-tailed Flasher (Astraptes brevicauda). These are both identifications using A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America, Second Edition. On the Cattleheart especially, I trust the book more than the internet where the many different types of Cattleheart butterflies do not have their photos as finely separated as in the book.

The unknown yellow butterfly was on the parking lot by gym at Colegio Liceo (college-prep high school) – must have been pretty when alive but can’t find him in the book. CLICK images to see larger.

Transandean Cattleheart

 

Short-Tailed Flasher

 

Unidentified Butterfly

 

So we’ll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh at gilded butterflies.     ~William Shakespeare

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

 

And check out my Butterflies & Moths of Costa Rica photo gallery! I have not found another online Costa Rica Butterfly gallery yet with as many labeled butterfly photos, more than 80 with names!

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Pruned My Yellow Bells Again

To maintain a vista from my terrace I have to top or prune off the top of both my Yellow Bells Tree and my Nance Tree about once a year.

I asked the gardener to write down the official name in Spanish which is “Arbole de vainillo” (Costa Rica only name – click for español description and other Spanish names by country). I just discovered that the Latin name Tecoma stans  (click for English description) also has multiple English names listed in this order on Wikipedia: Yellow Trumpetbush, Yellow Bells (which I have been calling it because of the yellow bell-shaped flowers), Yellow Elder, and Ginger-Thomas. It is the official flower of the United States Virgin Islands and the floral emblem of The Bahamas, both using different names!

Topped the Yellow Bell & Nance Trees to preserve my vista.   🙂

And is very popular all over Costa Rica as a garden tree bringing 2-4 months of yellow flowers every year. You can see more photos of my trees blooming in my photo gallery named:  My Home Gardens.

 

“In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.”
~Okakura Kakuzo
¡Pura Vida!
See my photo galleries  Flora & Forest  and  Vistas for more of life here!

Trip Gallery

And the trip gallery is finished for my week-ago trip at:

October & November Adventures

Coming in October: A visit to Rincón de la Vieja National Park & Hacienda Guachipelin, a volcano park lodge, this one in the north of Guanacaste, above Liberia (a new area for me)  and another hotel that promises a great birding experience. I continue to try new places while occasionally repeating favorites like a redo of Arenal Observatory (another volcano birding lodge) coming in November. In Costa Rica – the adventures never end!
¡Pura Vida!
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Baile folklórico – Historical village dancing

Independence Day activities sometimes start early and they did today in front of the city hall across the corner from my bank which had 20+ people waiting for only one working ATM. Pura vida! I got to watch the dancing while I waited and make a few cell phone photos, though lower quality, zoomed in from a half block away. The people are always as interesting as “the show,” thus two little slideshows which is my substitute for the parade I will miss tomorrow.

See my photos of previous parades in  People, Fiestas & Arts Gallery.

Waiting & Watching

 

Dancing

Happy Independence Day Costa Rica!

¡Pura Vida!

 

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Preparing for Sunday the 15th

All the Schools Prepare for Independence Day Parade

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Escuela Central, the large main Public Elementary School’s band practices for Sunday’s parade. 

The high school bands have been practicing too with the same monotonous drum beat that it seems all the bands use. Note in the photo above two interesting facts that tell about the culture or a small town:   (1) The band director is almost a kid himself, first job out of college as a low-paid music teacher in rural elementary school.  (2) All the girls play a xylophone and all the boys play a drum, either snare or bass.   🙂   I regret that I will miss this year’s parade, but I’ve seen it several times!   🙂

My Friday Night Treat

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Every Friday night I have my one steak a week at Parrillada Androvetto which has a big platform deck overlooking the surrounding hills and the Public Cemetery above. Tonight the clouds hung low on the hills, but still no rain. Yes, it is now a semi-drought for rainy season. Met a nice young couple at Androvetto from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. I like the “Small World” effect of living in Costa Rica!

Whale-Watching Starts Sunday

Sunday morning I fly to Palmar Sur and check in to the Cristal Ballena Hotel  in Uvita for the week where I will go Whale Watching on Monday for the first time in my long life and if satisfied (get whale photos) I will use the rest of the week to photo birds and a very special Nauyaca Waterfalls one day.  I drove through Uvita on the 2014 Relocation Tour and have flown over its famous “Whale’s Tail Beach” in my photo below from a Carcovado trip.

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My hotel is in this little South Pacific town and the whaling boat will probably deport at Dominical, a nearby larger town. The waterfall is up the mountain & birds everywhere!

🙂

Retired in Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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New Skipper in Garden

There are hundreds of species of Skippers and many are similar, but I thought I had narrowed this one down to two in the book and favored as first choice the Gold-costa Skipper but none of online maps nor the book show it as far south as Costa Rica. My second choice from book was Chiapas Groundskipper, but the book shows it only in Mexico and it is not even online. So, I guess this is another of my many “Unidentified” butterflies.” And I want so much to identify all my nature photos! Oh well . . . ¡Es la vida! — It’s life!   🙂

¡Pura Vida!

See also my Gallery: Butterflies & Moths of Costa Rica  (80+ species)

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Two Hours in Bank Today – Lessons Learned

After waiting  only a short time for a teller, she could not help with my problem, I was therefore sent to “la platforma” or set of desks with persons supposedly more knowledgeable than a teller. My problem was that I got an email, in Spanish of course, that told me the auto-debit of my TV/Internet Service monthly bill failed. Well, it was because they used my local bank debit card to get their money and this month my card was replaced with a new one to include “a chip” which also meant a new number. The teller did pay my TV/Internet bill with a transfer, so at least no disconnect for now! 🙂

After waiting nearly an hour (15th in line) for one of the three “specialists,” she worked and worked on her computer and called the cable company talking at least 10 minutes to someone there and finally used a translator on her computer to tell me in English that the only way CableTica would correct it was for me personally to respond to the email (in Spanish of course) with my new card number. They are not allowed to let the bank or anyone else speak for me! I came straight home and did that. Hope it works!   🙂   Just another little irritation of living in a modern society in any country! 🙂

But this is also another lesson in the importance of learning the local language! I’m doing much better and communicated with all in the bank in Spanish though understanding what they say back to me is more difficult!   🙂  To make me feel a little better, a French couple was at the next desk to mine and the man was going on and on about something in the French language, raising his voice and I felt sorry for the banker helping him. She too used her computer translator and a cell phone. It is disrespectful to not learn and use the local language and that was part of the reason our waits were so long at the bank!

“You live a new life for every language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.”     – Czech proverb

¡Pura Vida!