Category: Places

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Untamed Costa Rica

National Geographic has been producing a series of 5 minute videos, first about wildlife in the states, now on much of Costa Rica’s wildlife called “Untamed Costa Rica” for use on their TV Channel and available online at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/untamed/

Wow! I just watched the first in the series about the negative relationship between the Olive Ridley Turtle and the Jaguar in northern Guanacaste at the Santa Rosa National Park here. I’ve bookmarked the website and will watch episode 2 soon which is about hummingbirds.

If you love nature but are short on time, a 5 minute nature fix may be just what you need! Give it a try!

Or come visit one of our hundreds of parks and reserves for a live nature fix here! Costa Rica is truly THE PLACE for Nature Lovers!

 

 

And here’s a 2 minute intro to the young dudes making these videos. They started first in the USA as shown in this intro:

And the Tico Times Newspaper article introducing Untamed Costa Rica to me is at:

http://www.ticotimes.net/2018/12/01/national-geographic-highlights-costa-rica-in-untamed-series

¡Pura Vida!

And oh yes, this month Costa Rica Celebrates 70 Years Without an Army!     🙂

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New “Murals Parking Lot”

Earlier I showed a photo of one side that was being painted as a mural, but had no idea it would become like this and it appears to be nearly finished. Click an image to see it larger and/or start a manual slide show:

Atenas is a small rural town where people expect to park on the street, but as it has grown and gained a lot of rich foreigners with multiple cars, parking lots are becoming necessary, though people everywhere are slow to adapt. This colorful place to park should help those not wanting to change and pay to park. It is colorful like our beautiful little town. See also the “old town” in the video below in the right column, titled “Atenas: Best Weather in the World.”  A cool place to live!

¡Pura Vida!

 

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Two Gifts This Morning

I opened two gifts this morning – my eyes.

 

Photo is of a Caribe sunrise, Hotel Banana Azul,

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

 

My prayers go to the Bush Family in their loss . . .

. . . a truly great & humble man!

George H. W. Bush

Humility is not thinking less of yourself,

it’s thinking of yourself less.

~C. S. Lewis

REPORT ON MY BIOPSY:  After removing the 10 stitches from my arm (where all that cancer was confirmed removed) and the two stitches from my face for the biopsy, Dr. Gamboa gave me the facial biopsy report:

In brief, it says I have another carcinoma cancer on my face which is a smaller and slower growing type than the one on my arm. No problem waiting until January to remove the rest of it (the biopsy took most of it). Because of the delicate and thinner skin location next to my eye, we will be doing a more complicated and more efficient (more expensive) “Mohs Surgery” with two doctors doing it with a pathologist standing by to make sure they get all of the cancer as he examines each layer as removed (continuous biopsy). It will not be in his office this time but in a clinic, hospital-like, operating room, but still out-patient. He is checking on availability of other doctor and the clinic for the week of 21 January – after my Boca Tapada trip.  Remember —  the doctors work around my trips!  🙂    Important! That is where I sleep in a tree house 5 nights!

Dr. Gamboa also “PRESCRIBED” wearing a wide-brim hat instead of the ball caps I’ve been wearing and of course sunscreen every day when out. I sure love sunny Costa Rica, just 673 miles north of the equator, but with the value of the sun also comes with some potential dangers for someone like me who loves the outdoors. I have already become more careful, even though the doc says these current growths and cancers were probably caused by sun I got as a child or teen, more sun now can make it worse, so I must be cautious.

¡Still Pura Vida!    🙂

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Parajeles Bridge Done Nicely By The Monkey Space

This street I cross almost every day in Atenas ended at one street and across the vacant lots you could see it continued on the other side of that block. I wondered why they didn’t just continue the street or connect the two ends. Then one day more than a year ago they started.

First they graded the land on either side of the creek running down the middle of the block. Then they brought in a bunch of huge concrete culverts, placing two rows of them down the stream. Then covered those with gravel and dirt and more on top of everything until they finally black-topped a street where there was none. I figured they were finished.

No, they then added sidewalks on both sides of the street which is unheard of in Atenas. Still not enough! They built these beautiful stone walls above where the culverts were placed to make it look like a bridge. Finally (I think), they added ornaments, a 150th Anniversary Logo and a Municipal Council sign on the stone walls and someone else painted a mural on the wall protecting a house with a little sign saying “The Monkey Space.”  I looked it up and found their Facebook Page as a gathering place for young adults wanting to volunteer in the community. Totally cool and another wonderful little spot in Atenas!  What a cool town I live in!

Mural on the wall by “The Monkey Space” next to new bridge

 

 

 

 

Photos of New Street & Bridge

Click images below to enlarge or start a manual slideshow:

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Remodeling Central Park

It is difficult to figure out everything they are doing or why they went 2 weeks doing nothing, but now they seem to be lowering the central portion where the band shell or gazebo will go -quite a bit lower – possibly for a good foundation. And now I can see that the square-block park was not as level all the way across as I thought. Possibly they will level it. Now they are removing dump trucks full of dirt from the center.

Taking many dump truck loads of dirt from the center of park.

 

On the right side it appears to be 3 to 4 feet lower than surrounding land.

 

See my original post on Remodeling Central Park    (architect drawings)

Or go to Government Park Remodel Page   (architect drawings)

¡Pura Vida Atenas!

 

Yep! I missed a couple of days posting anything. Always busy with daily chores and necessary trips to town and I have also been busy adding content to this website. I’ll tell you about that in the next couple of days’ posts. Exciting Stories!

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Atenas Teens Paint Sidewalks for Environmental Awareness

The other day I came across this youth group painting an environmental message on the sidewalk at one of the busiest corners in Atenas Central in front of a furniture store, across the street from Mercado Central and across another street from our University Extension campus.

Everything can have another life: RECYCLE

They are painting messages on several well-traveled sidewalk corners in town too create ecological awareness (conciencias de ecologica) or awareness of global warming (conciencias de calentamiento global) for the people of Atenas. The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow and their actions speak well for our future.

Atenas Youth Create Ecological Awareness

 

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

—Margaret Mead

 

Earth University

People from around the world study ecology at Costa Rica’s Earth University   people who are changing the world for good (link is to English Language site)

Also a visitor’s English-Language Report on Costa Rica’s Earth University

 

¡Pura Vida!

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Spring in the Tropics!

Yes, it’s “Spring” here (la primavera) and almost the beginning of “Summer” (el verano) or Dry Season which starts in December. There are some trees and flowers that bloom this time of year while other bloom at the end of dry season and I can’t explain why because I don’t know.  🙂

I call these my “Yellow Bell Trees” because the flowers are bell-shaped, but that is not the name of them and I can’t seem to get an agreement here on what their English name is. I recently lost two of these trees, so less yellow this year in my garden, but it calls for a Haiku anyway:

¡Pura Vida!

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Colorful Neighbors

African Tulip Tree on hill above my house.

On the hill above my little casita are blooming some brilliant orange African Tulip Trees (an immigrant or invasive species?) and above those the ever-present pink-to-purple bougainvillea which I see here through the limbs of my Guarumo or Cecropia tree. Having “colorful neighbors” can be a plus! And colorful flowers add to my happiness!    🙂

Just living is not enough…

one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.

~Hans Christian Andersen

Flowers help boost happiness and I was just introduced to a new website that you might want to check out:    Garden & Happy     for a little boost in your happiness, try gardening!   🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Mountains

Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery.

~John Ruskin

Zoomed in on mountains seen from my terrace, Atenas, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

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Medical Thanksgiving + A Grand Feast!

The Medical

As I continue choose between the free government healthcare (with monthly payment like states do with Medicare) and the mostly affordable private doctors using my MediSmart discount card I have so far been well cared for in my various medical needs and either free or at very reasonable private costs.

In earlier reports I have explained how the public system includes a cardiologist I like and I feel well cared for. When my various “tags” and other skin growths began to increase, I decided to try a private dermatologist and have been equally pleased with his services and prices.

One growth on my right arm he suspected and did a biopsy which proved positive for a melanoma cancer, Tuesday afternoon he cut a chunk out of my arm and is pretty sure he “got it all.” His guideline is to take 4mm to 5mm all the way around the growth. That meant 10 stitches in my arm, but that will heal. I decided that a photo of it would be too gross. He also took a sample from a growth on my face that has not healed from an earlier nitrogen treatment (freezing it off). So when I go back for my stitches to be removed in 2 weeks I will get the biopsy report on that. Hoping for no more malignancies, but we do what we have to do and I’m still enjoying my monthly adventures with doctors working around my travel schedule!   🙂   And by the way, my rotator cuff surgery has healed very well, thanks a lot to the physical therapist Andres! Pretty much back to normal use, though now I have 10 stitches in that same arm!  Sigh.

I walk regularly and eat reasonably well if not maybe too much! 🙂 So my overall health and heart condition is great, just this little skin cancer bother that is caused by too much sun when I was a kid or teen, says the doc. I’m more careful about the sun now!

The Grand Feast

Tony & Rose Mary, the couple who plan our expat trips almost every month put together a group eating traditional American Thanksgiving Dinner at the Baron’s Resort on top of a hill here in Atenas with beautiful views. It was delicious in every way and the turkey was cooked perfectly – moist not dry! And they even had pecan pie! (My favorite if you don’t know.) The resort is now owned by my local attorney, Cecelia Tristan, and she is doing a lot of extras to make their restaurant appealing to locals. I will eat there again from time to time.

And no excuse for not snapping a cell phone photo – just didn’t!