Central Park, the Center of Atenas
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| Everyone hangs out at Central Park some of the time! Like these 3 men and boy who just road to town, stopping for 3 bottles of beer & a mug of root beer. Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| They chose the one bar at the park instead of POPS Ice Cream Shop. It’s the cowboy way! 🙂 Bar Punga – In Spanish “punga” means “very familiar, nicking, thieving, or pickpocket” Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| It’s an island of green in the center of town with trees, flowers, benches, playground, fiestas, celebrations, & people! Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| The playground is always busy! Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| A water fountain for a drink or spigot to fill your water bottle as this lady is doing. Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| The center circle radiates 8 sidewalks to all sides of the park. All are lined with park benches full of gossip, romancing, reading… and one leads directly to front door of the main Catholic Church. Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| And this one leads directly to my bank! 🙂 I try to walk through the park every day on my walks. It is a simple blessing that I thank God for! Central Park, Atenas, Costa Rica |
Directly across from the full square block park you will find in addition to the above bar and ice cream shop, the courthouse, the municipal office building, one of our banks, several restaurants or places to get something to eat and drink, several clothing stores, one discount grocery store, an office building, a pharmacy, photography shop, bedding shop, the church, and I’m sure I left out at least one something! 🙂
And the interesting thing is that every Costa Rican town of any size has a Central Park in front of their central catholic church. The only layout difference I’ve seen so far is at Playa Coco (Coconut Beach) where their Central Park is the long boardwalk along their beach with the church facing it instead of a square block.
Multiple sub-galleries of photos are about Atenas in Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA gallery.
Atenas Climate Fair Started Today
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| Any Excuse for a Fiesta! Climate Fair celebrates our reputation here for the “best weather in the world!” Mejor Clima del Mundo! Friday & Saturday is a crafts & food fair with lots of live music including big bands on the stage at night. I rarely go out at night. 🙂 Old man! |
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| Daytime boring music with the old men playing the Marimba or . . . |
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| One of the small rhythm and brass bands playing traditional music. The park is a lot livelier at night with rock, pop and lots of dancing. |
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| And midday Sunday is our famous annual Oxcart Parade which I will see and photograph again this year. This is a photo from last year. |
I can hear the high school marching band practicing tonight, so I guess they will be in the parade Sunday. And I can hear the lively pop music from the Central Park stage that attracts the young people and those who love to dance. There are lots of “happy sounds” around here most weekend nights and occasionally on a weeknight.
One of the promotional websites about the Climate Fair and Oxcart Parade