Farming Hills Surround Zarcero Zarcero, Costa Rica
Farming Hills Surround Zarcero Zarcero, Costa Rica
Farming Hills Surround Zarcero Zarcero, Costa Rica
Church & Central Park Topiaries are in Center of Town Zarcero, Costa Rica
They were setting up for a carnival/fiesta this day Zarcero, Costa Rica
Repaving Main Street Zarcero, Costa Rica
Cogwheel or Assassin Bug (Arilus carinatus) on Steps of the Church If I had a side view, the dotted line on his back would be the top of a half-cogwheel. Cool! Zarcero, Costa Rica
This trip was made by public bus for about USD $4
with some cellphone photos made through bus window.
Unknown Flower seen on Today’s Walk Downtown Atenas, Costa Rica
WORLD CUP
Hope everyone is keeping up with Futbol and noticed that Costa Rica is going to the World Cup in Russia and the U.S. is not! (On that chart only the top 4 teams go.) For Central and North America Costa Rica ranks second only to Mexico. Of course a little country is not expected to go real high in the finals with bigger, richer teams like Brazil, England, Spain, France, etc. But what an honor for Costa Rica! I wear my red, white & blue Costa Rica Futbol shirt with pride on game days!
Now those cheap minor league baseballs are made in China by machines, but the good ones for MLB games are made or sewn by hand in the Rawlings Factory in Turrialba, Costa Rica. Yep! That’s the
town south of San Jose I traveled to recently by bus to spend 5 days at Rancho Naturalista photographing birds. But I just recently learned that the best baseballs in the world are made there. Its also near the most active volcano in Costa Rica, also named Turrialba.
And What is the Irony of This for Costa Rica?Click and read this interesting article about how the best baseballs in the world are made in a sports-minded country that does not include baseball as one of its major sports. Oh well. Life is full of ironies! As in most of the world, futbol (the real name for soccer) rules with debatable rankings after that for volleyball, surfing, basketball, and then maybe baseball. Interesting for the country where the best baseballs are made! 🙂
Or maybe even the biggest irony is that the poor man sewing baseballs a low wages is happier than most of the millionaire ballplayers! 🙂 ¡Pura Vida!
And oh yes, a fun aside for this former Tennessean is that the leather is tanned in Tennessee! 🙂
-o-
I am no longer encouraging people to retire in Costa Rica because I think there are already too many North Americans living here, many trying to “Americanize” or change the charming, slow, relaxed culture of this small, simple, peaceful nation. But since I know some of my readers are considering a move here for retirement or otherwise, I share another positive article from Christopher:
12 Reasons it is Now Easier than ever to Relocate to Costa Rica. And though I seriously don’t want many more Americans down here, I will gladly advise by friends and readers which starts with advising you to take one of the relocation tours and join the ARCR, Association of Residents of Costa Rica and attend their seminar, which is much better than what International Living offers. Christopher’s “Live in Costa Rica Tour” includes the seminar.
A family of these Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds have taken over my two feeders, meaning I watch them literally every morning at breakfast, nice, but . . . also meaning I do not see other varieties of hummingbirds like I used to. I do still get a wide variety of other kinds of birds in the trees.
Costa Rica qualified for the International Futbol Event in Russia by tying Honduras last night.
Costa Rica will have 522 persons running in the Chicago Marathon, 3rd largest group from Latin America after Mexico & Brazil and more than some European countries!
Rose-throated Becard female In my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica
Rose-throated Becard female In my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica
This is my first sighting of this particular bird, a breakfast treat off my terrace. Not super photos because of shooting between leaves, but fun! And I thank Yeral Jiménez Porras for identifying it by the technical name of Hembra de Pachyramphus aglaiae. “Hembra” is Spanish for “female” in the birding world. The common Spanish name is: El anambé degollado He identified it for me in just minutes after I posted these photos on the CR Facebook group Asociación Ornitológica de Costa Rica. See all my Costa Rica Birdsphoto gallery.
Puerto Rico is in the Eastern Caribbean Sea and I (Costa Rica) am between the Southwestern Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is 1,290 miles (2,000+ kilometers) from our San Jose Airport or a more than 5 hour flight. It takes half as long to get to Miami or Houston or Dallas by plane. Above is a Google Map giving directions from San Jose, Costa Rica to San Juan, Puerto Rico. And the “Juan Santamaria” is just the name of our main airport near our capital city of San Jose.
It is very easy for North Americans to get the two places confused because they sound a lot alike, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica, and they are both tropical with beautiful beaches. But believe me, there is a huge difference beyond that!
And I appreciate the prayers and the thankfulness that I am okay. It is rainy season, but no hurricanes or earthquakes hitting us now. We are getting extra rain because of a tropical depression off the coast of Nicaragua & Honduras that is headed north toward the states (TX to FL panhandle) as Hurricane Nate. Unusual for one to start near us but possible. Learn more about it at: https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/tropical-depression-sixteen-tropical-storm-nate-caribbean-gulf-of-mexico
And here is another map showing ALL of Latin America and all our relationships.
Hoping this will humble my friends in the States. See how you are just one part of the Americas? And more countries speak Spanish than English.
Pura Vida from COSTA RICA in Central America, 1,290 miles from Puerto Rico! 🙂
In our conversational English club at the high school yesterday I continued to work on getting them to talk – in English that is! Like most teens, they chatter a lot to each other, but in Spanish! One way is to ask a question and go around the room with their individual answers, in English of course! So . . . One question yesterday was “What do you want to do in the USA when you get there?” One boy answered:
“I want to touch snow.”
Remember, these kids have lived their entire lives in a tropical country that does not have snow. They have never seen nor felt it! They will have a good chance to in January in Virginia. 🙂 Another boy, almost copying him, said “I want to do a snowman.” That gave us an opportunity to talk about “do, make or build” as verbs and how used in the states. This is challenging! But fun! 🙂 And I hope a little bit of help to them! They will get more out of their student exchange trip if they can speak some in English.
OOPS! I found this old post never posted. It was the least important of all the photos I made on my September trip to the South Caribbean, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. The day I walked into town by way of the beach, I found many colorful signs in Puerto Viejo and put together this little collection. Remember, all businesses in Puerto Viejo are locally owned “Mom & Pop” business with no chain hotels or restaurants there. Signs in no particular order. Last one best! 🙂 The simple tourism on the Caribbean coast reminds me of going to Panama City Florida in the early 1950’s.
Downtown Map located most businesses
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica
If you haven’t figured it out yet, Imperial is the main beer company
in Costa Rica and thus makes many of the business signs!
All Over Costa Rica
The Trip Galleryfor this trip a few weeks ago has more interesting photos than these! 🙂
