Category: Places

A view of Roca Verde just before I begin the descent down a hill to our main entrance. Above is some of my neighbors in Atenas, Costa Rica

I leave the modern Banco Nacional (the only place I visit with air conditioning), crossing the street between two red taxis as they wait out front for customers, one of two red taxi stands in central Atenas. The other colors of taxis are not legally registered with the government and don’t have taxi stands, you just have to call them. As I step into the shade of mango trees in Central Park, I’m careful not to step on a rotting mango on the sidewalk and try to avoid staring at the teenage couple kissing on a park bench. The next park bench has a couple with small child and though less romantic, seem happy and peaceful in their little rural piece of tranquility. The second sidewalk to the right is where the old men sit and talk all morning and parrots gather in the treetops chattering away, while straight ahead the diagonal sidewalk takes me to the opposite corner of the park from the bank where a little corner “cafeteria,” or “sidewalk cafe” (for westerners), sits on the only corner not occupied by the stately courthouse, the imposing Catholic Church or the park. A great spot to be!

And if you are wondering about this descriptive writing I am attempting, it is motivated by one of the books I am currently reading, the first novel written by Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises. I will never be able to write descriptions of my surroundings like Hemingway, but it was fun to try.  🙂   I will probably stick to mostly photo captions in the future on this blog, but I am enjoying reading Hemingway again and will probably read some more of him in between my Agatha Christie mysteries and an occasional serious book and my effort to go back to reading more classics.  Books give you a lot more choices than TV or movies! And more quality!