Category: Costa Rica

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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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Sunset Awe!

So ends another day in Atenas, Costa Rica!

The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.    -Psalm 65:8 NIV
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Two New Birds & Balcony Shots

This afternoon I photographed birds from my front balcony for the first time. Got two repeats, Great Kiskadee and Scarlet Tanager but also two new ones, Blue-gray Tanager (you can see in aviary at Nashville Zoo Unseen New World) and tried again to photograph one of the several flocks of parakeets that fly over very fast every afternoon. Nearly impossible to photograph, but here’s a fuzzy image!

Blue-gray Tanager at Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica

Someday maybe a good photo of these regular flyovers.
Today I was given an old and worn (like me) leather & wood rocker for my balcony like some of the other residents have. Now I don’t have to take one of my other chairs out for morning coffee and some evening sits. It is on the front balcony which is larger. The back balcony is the second photo and is longer but narrow with bamboo next to it and lots of other trees closer, making it the better bird photo spot. Also have a clothes line there, but usually use the rack on front balcony for the afternoon sun. In Costa Rica an electric clothes dryer is a rarity. We have sunshine every day, even in the rainy season! 

Rocking Chair for the retired old man! My front balcony.

Back Balcony where most birds are photographed.

Today after Spanish Class I tried a different super market, Maxi-Pali, which is a longer walk but has some things The Coopeatenas doesn’t and has cheaper prices on a few items. They also stock some Walmart house brand products, so guess who probably owns them? It is kind of like it was in the states, I’ll now probably use both some, but the closest is the easiest, so we will see. Also ate at another new restaurant for me that does not have a web presence and I just wrote the first review on Trip Advisor, so nothing to link to now, but that link is to my list of reviews and Olivera will be up in a day or so. It is Pizza Olivera, on the square or Central Park and they deliver, so I will probably use the delivery when Kevin is here. It was very good pizza I thought. I got a personal size Supreme and a liter tropical juice drink for $5. I will return! Like most restaurants here, the dining area is covered open air with views of whatever, this time Central Park with old men on benches, children running and playing, and a teen rolling slowly by on a skate board. Just an ordinary little farming town with lots of happy people! 🙂  It is still fun to be here and to be walking everywhere!

And oh yes, this morning after class I said “yes” to my first volunteer opportunity. I will be helping at the gringo-sponsored Annual Chili Cookoff and fiesta as a fund-raiser for the local children’s home. Some 3,000 people are expected. Don’t know yet what I will do.
Tomorrow is bus to San Jose and my appointment at the U.S. Embassy – hopefully getting the last document needed for my residential application. Never a dull moment yet! But I’m resting tonight!
Blessings to all who take the time to read all my ramblings! I’ll work on making this shorter! Promise!

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Relaxing Day in Atenas

Central Park Atenas

I slept late and after breakfast walked to town for some items the Cooperative Super Mercado doesn’t have like a USB Cable extension and small wastebasket for my office, plus for the kitchen a paring knife, measuring cup and cutting board. Little towns have lots of little shops, so you just go around town looking and asking and sure enough I found everything I needed in three different shops and got to walk through our Central Park (at right) in the process. Then I grabbed three items at the Super Mercado and a lunch to go at Restaurante El Mejor Climate and then stayed home all afternoon, catching up on several things. Was planning a fruit plate for dinner, but a neighbor invited me for pasta with sausage and came back in later for a little saucer of fresh Papaya, Mango and Strawberries, a nice ending to a nice day!

And oh yes! I did get my appointment with the Social Security Office at the U.S. Embassy for Thursday morning which will be by bus this time! They were very nice on phone and told me where to get off the bus from Atenas to have the shortest and thus cheapest taxi ride to the embassy. So Spanish class tomorrow and then another San Jose bureaucracy adventure Thursday. 🙂 The fun never stops!

Plus, this afternoon I found the Costa Rica Classical Music Station, 96.7 FM, in case you are ever looking for it! I love it when a plan starts coming together! 🙂

As a daily walker through Atenas now, I have some locals who recognize me and we greet at each passing. This morning I walked by the house where an old man is usually sitting in the yard and we greet, but I didn’t notice him. He hollered “Hola” at me and I responded with “Buenos Dias!” A really friendly small town. And I daily pass houses with various tropical flowers like this Hibiscus I snapped with my phone this morning walking home.

Hibiscus in Atenas

The infrastructure is not great here, like a lot of small farming towns everywhere, but it is the people and relaxed, simple, happy spirit that makes Atenas a good choice! Plus the good weather helps too! Pura Vida! The new name for my website! Over the next year or so it will be transforming more I expect.

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Two More Birds Tonight!

This was my first sighting ever of a Saltator, while I’ve seen many Great Kiskadees and Social Flycatchers, I wanted to include it tonight because I believe it is the larger Kiskadee as opposed to the look-a-like smaller Social Flycatcher shown last night or the night before. Both were photographed from my back balcony. I love it!

Greyish Saltator

Great Kiskadee

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The Autopista del Sol to San Jose

Well, I splurged today and hired a private driver to drive me to San Jose for my residential paperwork appointment and to sign up for medical insurance. Part of the way we drove on the Autopista del Sol (official site), or the newest, access-controlled highway from San Jose to the Pacific Beaches. See also a Nosara Surfer’s Report on the Highway. Here’s three phone photos, then I’ll tell you about the experience in the big city.

Out our way is beautiful scenery driving up the central valley.
Further from the city is only 2 or 3 lanes, but . . .
In and near the city are 6 and 8 lanes, toll plazas, and bumper to bumper in rush hour.

I have a wonderful attorney, Jose Pablo Carter Herrera, the son of another attorney with the Association of Residents of Costa Rica, a service organization for expats living in the country. I’m still waiting for an Apostille on my proof of income which Social Security in the states refused to help me with. The embassy here is supposed to do it easily, but it didn’t happen today! The only unfriendly, unhelpful place I’ve been in Costa Rica is the U.S. Embassy. I wasn’t too surprised that they wanted me to make an appointment but they would not let me make it even though I was there standing at the guard station. The correct procedure is to do it over a certain phone number between 8 AM and 11:30 AM, no exceptions! So me and my driver wasted time there. (The embassy in The Gambia was just as haughty and difficult to work with, but you have to work with them!)

The good thing I did not expect was I got my application for health insurance started and within the next week or so I will receive a call from the doctor to schedule my physical for the insurance company. I’m covered by my Medigap Policy for the first 90 days or until March 24. My Pricose agent, Juan Colero, says I will easily have it secured by or before then. It usually takes about 5 weeks after the physical. So I wait for the doc’s call on this. Then pay a whole year’s premium at once, then after a $300 deductible, 90% of everything is paid. It costs less than my Medigap and Rx insurance in the states. But when my residency is finalized I get the even cheaper government medical service if I wish. 
Tomorrow I will dutifully call the correct embassy number during the correct hours and hopefully get an appointment fairly soon. Jose can’t file my residency application until I get this last legal document. Then it will take from 5 months to more than a year, depending on which bureaucrat is assigned my application in the Immigration Office. It is all part of the laid back life of Tico-land and I will not worry about it after I have done my part. The private insurance can go on indefinitely and I could decide I like it better than the Caja or government health plan – we will wait and see. But government medicine and a long-term Visa are the reasons I’m applying for residency.

After back around 1:00 I had lunch at a new place for me, La Trilla Restaurante. I compared their Casado con Pollo with La Carretta’s and it was very similar, though they add a piece of cheese and some black bean dip and chips. I also drank another Guanabana drink, this time con leche. Muy bien! Now back to my birds!  🙂 And my study of Spanish!

P.S.
Someone asked about the inside of the apartments. During the first two weeks I linked to a photo gallery of the downstairs apartment #4. I have a smaller gallery of my upstairs apartment, since much is the same, all built-ins, granite counters in kitchen, carved doors etc. But anyway, here are the links to the Inside Apartments Galleries:

I’ll figure out how to photograph the balconies soon. They are not super grand inside, but more than adequate for me. When my boxes get here, they might get clutter or crowded.  🙂
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Su Espacio -Your Space

Su Espacio is located in that corner building by the white pickup.
It is across the street from our only gas station in town which is part of
the largest Super Mercado, Coopeatenas – an important intersection for me!

The Spanish words Su Espacio mean “Your Space” in English and is the name of the community center where I had my second Spanish lesson today, located in the building pictured above across from the closest super market for me and the only gas station in town also owned by the super market. Like in small-towns in the States, there are sometimes monopolies by one person or company, though Coopeatenas is technically a cooperative owned by local farmers. 

“Your Space” could also be the theme for my first bus ride yesterday. I walked the 8 or 9 blocks to the bus terminal in Atenas and waited in line for the Alajuela Bus. It was packed with people standing. The 25 to 30 mile ride cost about $1.50 with multiple stops along the highway with people getting on and off. In the city of Alajuela, second largest city in Costa Rica and home of the San Jose International Airport, I get off at their bus terminal in central district and catch a taxi ($2) to Aero Casillas to deliver my last paperwork to make my Miami address work here. It was a notarized form from the U.S. Post Office saying I give Aero Casillas permission to receive and deliver U.S. Mail. One package and two letters are still in Customs waiting for this document before they will release the items. Thus I could not pick them up yesterday. A very nice clerk, the only one to speak English, said she would email me when the mail was released and ready for pickup, possibly by Friday. So I may make another bus trip soon! While in town I took a taxi ($2 again) to Walmart where I ate lunch and checked out the store aisle by aisle. It is pretty much the way I remember it from the August visit. I bought only 4 items: 2 cereals, a big towel, and ice cream on a stick, plus lunch in their cafeteria with typical Tico food. I had fish, rice and guacamole! Weird combo, I know!
After class this morning, I walked back to the apartment first so I could use my bathroom. The water line to Atenas from Grecia is broken, so no water in town meaning public bathrooms don’t work like the one at Su Espacio! Our apartments have a deep well and pump, so we always have water except from 10 PM to 4 AM when they let the pump cool off. Then I walked back up the hill to town to look at a house for rent and eat lunch. La Trilla (my plan) was closed with no water as was Antano. But fortunately the owners of La Caretta have a friend that stores water and they were still operating. I had a chicken casado (plate lunch) and met a couple from Iowa – snow birds! I then went by Coopeatenas and got three cardboard boxes for my move upstairs tomorrow. My friends from the August trip, Mark and Tina are moving to Panama tomorrow to try out that country for four months. I’m getting their 3rd floor end unit with better view, more air flow, more privacy, screens on windows, two balconies and no millipedes!  🙂 I’m literally and figuratively moving up in the apartments! And some of Phons family members are getting my downstairs apartment tomorrow night. 
So I am packing the rest of today, plus friends are picking up me, Mark and Tina for Wednesday night church. I had quit going on Wednesday night in the States, but will start again here since that is the English service each week. I’ll normally walk, but Mark and Tina wanted to be picked up because they are going to finish their yard sale at the church. Me and some of the apartment neighbors have already bought a lot of their stuff. I got the printer, desk chair, bath mats and plastic coat hangers, all at garage sale prices! I let the ladies have the kitchen stuff. The younger couple from Switzerland was so excited to find the muffin tin. It is funny to watch American and European expats function in this culture!
In addition to learning basic Spanish, I’m learning local ways to say things. Only older people still say Buenos Dias, Buenas Tardes, and Buenas Noches. Most just say “Buenas” regardless what time of day it is. So I’m learning to do that. When asked how you are (Como esta usted) and you are just “so so,” as we say in English, you say “mas o menos” which is how Rudy the caretaker answered me today. That is opposed to saying “bien” (good) or “muy bien” (very good). And the teenager on the bus yesterday saw a friend, did a fist bump and said “mae” which is like “hey dude.” This is fun! And everyone is very friendly here, maybe like small towns everywhere. A good place to be and no regular tourists because we don’t have tourist sights here. 
For those few, if any, readers who live in Atenas or are familiar with it, I should add that the rental house I looked at today is where the famous Kay of “Kay’s Gringo Postres” lives and I got to meet her and her husband Tom. They have  been here 7 years, but health issues have caused them to move back to the states near their son in Phoenix which is why the house is about to be available. It was a fun visit and would be a good deal financially and space-wise, but simply not as nice as the apartments. So we will see what happens. A younger couple from Texas bought their restaurant and still operate it under the same name. I haven’t eaten there yet because it is a further walk, but I will soon! Well, got to start packing!
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New, Relaxed Rhythmn

“URBAN FOREST” is the tighter view from my apartment. Noon shot, still too bright!

I’m now sleeping from 9 at night until 6:30 or so each morning, with the window open and a blanket. I get up to birds singing and the cooing of a mourning dove just like most mornings in The Gambia. A warm shower under that wonderful big shower head and on to my breakfast with the views out the front window. Then I take a cup of tea or coffee out front and watch birds fly over and sometimes chat with a neighbor. Even though there are some management/maintenance issues here (like we had at McKendree), I doubt I can find a better location and view anywhere for the price, so I may be here a good while. We will see how the move upstairs works out and the broken a/c.

Yesterday morning by 8:30 I walk to the closest Super Mercado, Coopeatenas, for a few items I carry in my backpack. (Sometimes I carry an extra grocery bag or two. They are much stronger here because so many walk). Yep! It was New Year’s Day, few were at the market that early and I sat in their outdoor cafe with a cup of cafe negro and a pastry or piece of cake which was so delicious! My first coffee since arriving. While sick I drank only tea in morning.

This morning after the breakfast & usual front yard experience, a new neighbor couple from Canada, Gary & Carmella, said they were going to get a chip in their phone which is exactly what I had set as my goal for today. I walked with them to ICE where you go through security to get in, take number to be served and wait. Today they had only one agent who spoke English, so I had to get passed from one to her. Then in just a few minutes (with my passport), a new sim card and Kolbi phone service, the biggest service company here (government run). My phone number is 506-8410-9916. The country code is the 506. It only cost $2 to set up my service and I just have to buy minutes as needed, which can be done at all super markets and many little shops. I will mainly use it when I need to call a cab or occasionally set up an appointment or get information. It will not control me. But I can still use Google Calendar when I have wifi service like in the apartment and yes, text messages too! Not sure what international calls will cost, but I have Skype for that. I just learned that I can recharge my phone online & just did. Check!

Then for mid-morning relaxation (Gary & Carmella had errands to run) I walked around the central park by the big church and checked out La Carretta, a restaurant I had been reading about. They serve all three meals daily, but are known for their free lending library set up by an expat couple from Florida. I went in for a fruit empanada and a cup of coffee. Nice again! Then I walk around the different rooms (an old house) to see all the books that are free for the taking and you don’t even have to sign them out. It is an honor system. One room of Spanish books, two of English books plus one room of children’s books. Then what was really neat is that the sponsoring couple were there, Linda & Bruce, and I got to visit with them for awhile. He was measuring for some more shelves in the Spanish Room that he will build. The restaurant also has local art work hanging on the walls. It will become one of my hangouts.

I also checked out the Three Sisters Soda at the Bus Station Mercado (recommended by a neighbor) where I will eat a casada (plate lunch) for lunch some day, but it was too early this morning. I have already stopped at the Pops Ice Cream on another day at one corner of the park and will eventually try Gelly’s Jardin which is a gelato place I think. And still haven’t just sat on a park bench in the central park. Some towns call this their central plaza, but not here. They call it “Central Park.” I’m learning! Like Coopeatenas Super Mercado is just called “The Coop” or “El Coope.”

Walked back to apartment for lunch. I made a big Dagwood Ham Sandwich on whole grain bread with fresh lettuce, tomato and onion. Then fresh pineapple and papaya for desert. This is living! While writing I have been watching a big pot of veggie soup cook with all fresh vegetables I got from the farmer who drives up to the apartments once a week. Easier than going to the big farmers’ market which has moved out  of downtown. I have no recipe and haven’t made soup in more than 20 years but I just tasted it and think it’s pretty good! Thank goodness for those little jars of mixed herbs you can get even here!  🙂 Today’s soup will last several meals beyond dinner and was made of potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, red bell peppers, and a little cucumber which may have never been included before, but I have ’em and like ’em in anything!

PARDON the long, post today! But I think some of you are interested in daily life here and this is some of it. Of course I did not mention that I listened to a Spanish CD during lunch and that I’m about to do my daily Babbel Online Spanish Class and that I’m of course on computer typing this! Plus I have found a local Spanish class, Su Espacio, which I will enroll in Monday morning along with at least one neighbor in the apartments, Jean Pierre, who will be in his second class there. Adios! Buenos noches!

 

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Waterfalls, Great Kiskadee, and Sickness

This morning’s veranda tea included watching two Great Kiskadees land in the tree next to my neighbor’s apartment along with hearing a flock of parakeets and many other birds, most small and hard to see, plus speed will make it difficult at times as with the speeding toucans yesterday.

I’m staying in bed 9 to 11 hours each night and trying to rest. There was surely a public clinic open over the holidays, but the English-speaking doctor my neighbor knows about is not open until tomorrow morning  (Monday), when I will take a cab to see him.

The first three days I walked up the steep hill to town for groceries and to eat. I did not yesterday nor today, though the fresh air and sunshine might have helped. I did walk across the big yard in front of the apartments to the Rio Cajon, our southern boundary, and photographed some of the waterfalls in our yard.

The first two photos are inside the property and the third just outside the gate on the landmark Rio Cajon Bridge in Barrio Fatima, our neighborhood name, which helps taxi drivers find us. There are not house numbers here, no street addresses, no home delivery of mail. And oh yes, I know better than to photograph in midday sun, but did anyway.  🙂

This is upper part of the one below,
seen from a different angle.

Plunge pool view of above double falls.

The double falls at our entrance gate by the public bridge over Rio Cajon
Last night the Quebec couple invited me to go to dinner with them and then invited to local girls who of course had a big SUV, one being a doctor’s wife, the other her twin sister. The place they wanted to take us was not open (they take holidays seriously here!) so we ended up at Antano just off the main plaza downtown which is where I had eaten lunch the previous day, but well worth a repeat! 
A fun evening even if I don’t feel well. I did not try to go to church this morning because I was feeling worse at the time and pretty lousy right now. It is sore throat, some coughing, some sneezing, runny nose, and achy body all over. It started before I left Nashville. I’m taking Tylenol and two kinds of throat lozenges Millie Goodson got for me the night before leaving. Thanks Millie! They help!
Today I met another resident from Switzerland who is married to the girl from Spain. We are a pretty international group in these apartments! And oh yes, last night in the restaurant an American looking woman came over to our table and said, “I just must find out where this southern drawl is from!” I smiled and said “Nashville” and then learned her and her husband are from North Carolina and have lived here for 9 years. She still works as a photographer, doing weddings and children portraits. Got their phone numbers to call if I ever need help. So it is starting to happen like I expected even without going to church yet. 
Well, this first long post just wore me out. Pray for a quick resolution of my cold, allergies, flu or whatever!

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Dos Toucans, Uno Parrot!

Raphael, my driver from the airport Wednesday.

I’m still not well and the nearest clinic I found today was not open, but my neighbors swear that if I take a gin and lemon juice tonight it will make me well overnight. Not sure I’m brave enough to try, but Jean Pierre said he would make it for me. (Note next morning – I declined their gin treatment and will stay in and rest today and go to clinic Monday.)

Jean Pierre & Elizabeth live next door and are from Switzerland. They speak good English. Then above me (I’m in a 1st floor apartment.) is Ivan & Eloise from Quebec. French is their language, but they do a little English. They let me share a cab to town this morning for them to get some stuff at a health food store and for me to get my cell phone activated at the ICE store, but alas, ICE was closed. It is Christmas week Saturday. Ivan cannot walk well using a crutch, so they go everywhere in taxis. It cost about a $1.80 (800 colonnes). They invited me to join them in a cab tonight to eat at Carreta’s, a popular expat hangout cafe, if it is open!

The apartment is fine, needing some maintenance which they are working on little by little. The setting is beautiful and while drinking tea on my veranda this morning I saw two toucans fly into the the trees down by the river and one green parrot fly into a tree next to the apartment building, plus many other small birds. Just not been up to trying to photograph birds yet.