New Neighborhood Swimming Pool
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| Complete with Racing Lanes, It opened this morning for an event. I think it is a private club promoting triathlons, but no sure. Atenas, Costa Rica |
See my March 6 post on the construction of this commercial facility, complete with sign describing the purpose of it. I think the early morning event here was a small triathlon for primary school children, probably to promote the facility and gain membership. My neighbor walked by between 7:30 and 8:00 this morning seeing a couple of hundred parents and children here and then later saw the children running through town. I missed the activity but cellphone photoed the pool that I walk past every day on my way to town. There is a high interest in health and sports here, though not a lot can afford a private club, if that is what it is.
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| Triathlon “Motivational Quote” |
Early Bloomers
Our “winter” or el invierno (rainy season) generally goes through November with “summer” or el verano (dry season) starting in December, with some flowers like the yellow & orange below not blooming until January. Even though we still have some rain (less now) the flowers indicate summer. It has been a very wet rainy season, so I guess a very dry season coming! 🙂
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| Bougainvillea Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Yellow Bells Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Triquitraque Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Once de Abril Atenas, Costa Rica |
Flowers are restful to look at.
They have neither emotions nor conflicts.
~Sigmund Freud
All of the above flowers snapped on my cellphone in my personal garden yesterday. Love it!
And for more flowers, see my Flora & Forest photo galleries! Beauty year around here!
And for more flowers, see my Flora & Forest photo galleries! Beauty year around here!
¡Pura Vida!
300+ Days of Renewable Energy
http://www.ticotimes.net/2017/11/21/happy-birthday-costa-rica-300-days-of-renewable-energy-that-is
As of today ICE (electric company) broke past record of number of days without using any fossil fuels to produce electricity country-wide. Most comes from hydro-electric, then wind, thermal, and solar in that order. We also broke a record on how much wind energy produced so far this year. Read the above linked article in the English online newspaper.
Neighbor’s View of Atenas
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| Atenas as seen from higher up the hill from me in the morning fog. This nice photo was made by Tom & Jessica, here for a couple of months on their trip around the world. See their blog http://www.worldwidewaftage.com/ Like most places you pay more for better view! Of course they zoomed in on the church with camera – they aren’t this close! Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Maybe call my view toward town “more natural” with more trees than even houses & no church. I am barely on the side of a little hill while the other view is from twice as high & zoomed more! Atenas, Costa Rica |
BLOG STATS
I have now written more than 1,000 posts that have received more than 100.000 pageviews online from more than 20 countries. I guess there is a lot of random viewing of blogs by some people. 🙂
Chachalacas in Guarumo Tree
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| Two Gray-headed Chachalacas in the Guarumo Tree at my Terrace My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica Note that the orange blooming tree is more than 100 yards away on a hill. |
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| Closer view of one Gray-headed Chachalaca My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.
~Charles Lindbergh
And since it is Thanksgiving in the states, my American friends can pretend these are my backyard turkeys! 🙂 Though Thursday is just another normal day here! Unfortunately a few businesses are doing “Black Friday” here. Anything to make a buck! And a lot of these rich American expats here still can’t turn loose of the states and feel obligated to buy a $40+ imported American turkey and try to recreate an American Thanksgiving here. Not me. Just a regular day thursday! So, happy Thanksgiving or happy regular day to all my readers! 🙂
And for the fellow birders, I just learned today that the Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab of Ornithology just released a Costa Rica Pack, so now you can use it to identify birds in Costa Rica and I’m hoping it will be better than the local app for identifying birds, but either way I will have two choices now! You have to download the Costa Rica Pack separately to the app. Just got it today, so no time to test it yet except for one bird from the terrace. Merlin ID is free from your app store and then within it you download the free Costa Rica Pack that includes info and photos of 750 Costa Rica Birds! Cool!
Home Business Sign Replaced
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| The lady I use as my seamstress got a new sign this week. The old one I posted in June is shown below. Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Somehow this old sign seemed to have more “character,” whatever that means! |
See my photo gallery of Home Business Signs – Atenas
That Spot of Color is Joy!
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| Can you see it? In the fork of the guarumo tree on the distant hill. Red-orange. It is a spot of color I see every time I walk out on my terrace and it brings a smile. It is an African Tulip Tree I’m glad a neighbor planted! Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| It is a tree like this one by our front gate in Roca Verde, African Tulip Tree, native of Africa and brought here as an ornamental tree for yards that adds new color to the many natural colors here. Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| And a little closer. |
The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most.
John Ruskin
See my photo gallery: Flora & Forest
Hotel Don Carlos, San Jose
A boutique hotel in an old house featuring the owner’s grand art collection:
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| Front Entrance to Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Tile Paintings of Farm Life on outside walls Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| A tile painting depicting farm life on outside walls Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Don Quixote Tiles Next Door Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Private House Next Door to Hotel Don Carlos San Jose, Costa Rica |
Trip Gallery: 2017 Nov 14 – San Jose Tour
Or my San Jose Gallery with photos from several trips to the capital.
And a separate gallery for Costa Rica Churches, most in San Jose
AND A FUN EXTRA:
10 Great Reasons for Living Abroad an article on internations.org
LO SIENTO
I did not intend to post 3 articles on one day! But here they are and now I’m finished with all my posts on two trips, Villa Blanca and San Jose. Back to the boring daily stuff! 🙂
National Park in San Jose
Yes, it is a city park called “National Park” partly because of the Battle of Rivas statue, I guess.
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| Statue honoring women who fought in Battle of Rivas, Nicaragua which kept American William Walker from making us a slave state. National Park Downtown San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Tour guide Michael Miller explaining the statue. National Park Downtown San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| National Park Downtown San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| National Park Downtown San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Great-tailed Grackle male National Park Downtown San Jose, Costa Rica |
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| Zoom on statue on a cloudy day. National Park Downtown San Jose, Costa Rica |
Trip Gallery: 2017 Nov 14 – San Jose Tour
Or my San Jose Gallery with photos from several trips to the capital.
And a separate gallery for Costa Rica Churches, most in San Jose