charliedoggett.net
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| “Greywater” in an Atenas Stream near downtown. |
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| Soap Suds into the Drainage Ditch by our road. This runs into the Rio Cajon, though some goes into the ground. |
This explanation from letsgogreen.com:
Greywater is any household wastewater with the exception of wastewater from toilets, which is known as blackwater. Typically, 50-80% of household wastewater is greywater from kitchen sinks, dishwashers, bathroom sinks, tubs and showers. Of course, if you use a composting toilet, 100% of your household wastewater is greywater.
Freshly generated greywater is not as nasty as blackwater, but if it’s not handled properly it can soon become so. Greywater decomposes at a much faster rate than blackwater and if stored for as little as 24 hours, the bacteria in it use up all the oxygen and the greywater becomes anaerobic and turns septic. After this point it is more like blackwater – stinky and a health hazard. In fact, many jurisdictions have strict regulations about disposal of greywater, some even require it to be treated as blackwater.
Not all greywater is equally “grey”. Kitchen sink water laden with food solids and laundry water that has been used to wash diapers are more heavily contaminated than greywater from showers and bathroom sinks. Although greywater from these sources contains less pathogens than blackwater, many regulatory bodies consider it as blackwater.
The safest way to handle greywater is to introduce it directly to the biologically active topsoil layer, where soil bacteria can quickly break it down, rendering the nutrients available to plants. This biological water purification is much more effective than any engineered treatment, thus protecting the quality of groundwater and surface waters.
For more information, please visit his website www.oasisdesign.net
In brief greywater branched out into the ground can be good and earth is the best filter, which is what we are doing in the apartments. But pouring it into the streets and streams as people are doing in town is not healthy. Again, education is the best solution!
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| Sunset from Charlie’s Balcony, Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| I chose to remove the clutter, the noise, and find the tropical beauty I love! Can you see where I focused as the sun dimmed a little more? Seventeen minutes later and an effort to see beauty! |
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| Our first of 4 lines to wait in at the border. Great people-watching! Click to enlarge this photo of line to get out of Costa Rica. |
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| Our 7 renewers plus our leader Walter in the hat |
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| Welcome to Nicaragua! |
I have many more interesting photos of the people, places and scenery in Costa Rica on this trip in my Visa Run Photo Gallery! Always click on an image to see a larger version. We left at 5:30 AM and were home by 8:30 PM. We all got our visa’s renewed for 90 days more! Two stops on the Corobici River, our favorite and most beautiful place this day! See photos in the gallery.
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| Crimson-fronted Parakeet Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica |
They have been flying over daily for most of my time here, but not landing where I could see them from my apartment. Then they finally did! Once! A small number landed in one of the palm trees on our apartment property for a few minutes. Not sure why they chose the palm tree. No berries that I can see. This is the largest of all parakeets, as large as most parrots, the Crimson-fronted Parakeet. It’s the same one I posted earlier from the power line out front of the apartments. But I like these shots better, more natural. All were made from my front balcony with my Canon Rebel and a 75-300mm lens, then cropped to about 1/4 the original image size for the birds to show up! None tack-sharp, but I’m satisfied after waiting so long for them to land. Later on jungle trips I may get much better shots and when we go to La Paz! I got macaws at Zoo Ave, but no parrots! Same on Tarcoles River.
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| Crimson-fronted Parakeets Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Crimson-fronted Parakeets Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Crimson-fronted Parakeet Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Crimson-fronted Parakeet Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Farmer bringing sugarcane to market while I am walking up the hill to my Spanish class. |
Note: I just added another fallen fruit photo to my March 7 Trodden Under Foot post, if interested. It is the Star Apple or Cainito, a purple fruit the size of an apple or orange and it fell right here in our apartments.
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| Central Park Atenas, a cell phone 3-photo panorama from Gelly’s Jardin Restaurant |
This view is from Gelly’s restaurant facing east. Don Tadeo’s Bar & Restaurant faces the park on the opposite side, facing west, a vista place to eat on both sides! The Atenas Catholic Church is to the right, facing the park from the south side looking north and on the north side is Banco Nacional facing south. On the southeast corner is the Courthouse, called Tribunal, and northwest corner the City Hall. On the northeast corner of the park is POP’S Ice Cream Shop while southwest corner has Pizza Olivera.
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| I walk everywhere in Atenas and mostly in shorts and sandals on rough or no sidewalk. And recently upon fallen fruit. |
I have been recently intrigued by how many tropical fruits fall from the trees on the local sidewalks and streets to be “trodden under foot of men” and cars or eaten by animals. Some of these are expensive to buy, especially in the states. Here are a few shots with my phone camera recently. Some fruit is not in season yet and other not planted along the roads/streets or there would be more.
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| Star Fruit or Carambola |
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| Guava |
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| Guanabana |
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| Mango |
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| Baby green mango in Central Park Atenas |
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| Star Apple or Cainito |
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Maybe I’m not suppose to use scripture like this, but this verse came to my mind when I kept seeing all the fruit being walked upon. 🙂 But then maybe there is a lesson about letting our fruits of the Spirit go to waste? Or has our saltiness lost its savor and being trod upon like this fruit? Or maybe it is our fruits of the spirit that is the salt of the earth and we will share our fruit rather than let it drop out of sight? A “Do it yourself” devotional thought in this!
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| Sign in Su Espacio bano as in most toilets anywhere in Costa Rica. |
Not nasty! Just practical! Anyone who has managed a septic tank understands or maybe you know someone who uses large wads of toilet paper that stop up even sewer lines. Stopped up plumbing is no fun! And I think most of the drain pipes here are smaller. So practicality trumps most sensitivities. Plus the bathroom trash cans (one by each toilet) all have lids and I keep a spray-can of Lysol by mine. No big deal anymore! But if you visit from the states, prepare yourself for this Tico custom. 🙂
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| The sign you will find in my apartment bathrooms. |
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| At Farmers’ Market you buy your toilet paper from this enterprising couple. Many public restrooms have no paper, so most women keep some in their purse. But all restrooms provide a covered wastebasket for your used paper. 🙂 |
In the Super Mercado many Central American made and branded toilet papers are available and sometimes you can get Scott Tissue, the only recognizable brand for North Americans. It costs about a dollar for one roll of 1,000 squares. (cheaper in large packages.) I’ve compared Scott and Nevax (a Costa Rica brand) and they are about the same quality and price and I’m moving toward supporting local products in when I can.
Or for something a little more spiritual, see my post in my “His Spirit” Blog titled: God, Teach me how to walk barefoot!
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| New business card ordered from Vistaprint with new PO Box & Phone |
NEW BUSINESS CARD EXPLAINED
The palm tree business card I did before leaving Tennessee was nice but it did not have my phone number and that is what I need to share the most here! Plus the PO Box mailing address on it was for the apartment’s mail box. I receive the mail addressed to it, eventually. It is slowed by the additional layer of apartment office manager. Now that I have my own PO Box and a phone number, it was time to get a business card I can use here in Costa Rica. Note the two addresses. The first is mailing address, a box at the Atenas Post Office. The second is called the physical address. With no street signs, house numbers or other physical addresses, one needs landmarks. This is the shorter version of my description. I sometimes add “300 meters north of the blinking light on Ruta 3.” The card has a stock design again which is quicker and easier than working with my photos. Simple and utilitarian!
And if you wonder why Atenas is listed twice in mail address; well, because that is how the PO told me to write it. One is the canton and the other is the town or pueblo. Plus you will notice that Alajuela (the province) is listed first which is the way they said to do it. And the postal code is in front of the country name! Why do we Americans think everyone should do things the way we do? Plus remember that in Spanish, adjectives follow nouns. So this address order is very logical in the Spanish language and culture.
PREPARING FOR A “VISA RUN”
Next Wednesday I am joining a few other expats with Walter, a local tour guide and driver. He is driving us to the Nicaragua border where we cross over and then return into Costa Rica to get another 90 day Visa stamped in our passports. Because I am an official applicant for residency with a document to prove it, I don’t have to do this to stay in the country. BUT, to use my TN Drivers License to drive a car, including getting a rental car, I must have a current Visa. (My current one expires March 24.) Like in the states, one government office does not coordinate with another one. What does Immigration know about Motor Vehicles and visa versa? So they each have different requirements.
Fortunately Immigration now allows you to do it in one day where formerly you had to stay out of the country for 72 hours or 3 days. I would have done it as a vacation, but this one day trip is quicker, easier, and less expensive with all I have happening right now. We leave from the Central Park Church at 5:30 AM and will be back in Atenas by 5:30 PM. That includes stops for breakfast, lunch and Liberia to purchase an exit tax and a bus ticket from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. (Oh! A beautiful Oropendola just flew by! Camera never ready!) Well, the bus ticket is required when they let us back into Costa Rica for 90 days to prove we will be leaving within 90 days. Working the system! Probably about a $30 cost, better than an airline ticket.
Plus I have to get U.S. dollars to pay Walter and the Nicaragua entrance fees. Crazy! It is how they stay ahead of the fluctuating currency rate. But the whole day and three months of Visa will cost only about $200 USD unless I want to buy something in the duty-free shop (not). Worth it for me and I look forward to getting my first rent car here which will make the sight-seeing trips with Kevin a whole lot easier and we will get to see and do more than my usual walking, bus and taxi.
Here’s a photo of me the only other time I was in Nicaragua. We stepped off the boat from our Rio Frio Jungle Cruise to snap photos by this pitiful welcome sign with an armed guard standing nearby. I doubt the visa run Wednesday will be as exciting, but you never know!
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| On the Nicaragua side of the Rio Frio Jungle Cruise, 2010. |