Not sure why I didn’t shoot the road! 🙂 But I guess the surrounding farmland and hills captivated me too much. Here’ a few favorite vistas:
Calle Balsilla Landscapes
Morning Clouds
I can’t seem to quit photographing the clouds on the hills opposite my terrace! 🙂 See many other better vistas from my terrace in my gallery titled: From My Roca Verde Terrace! The vistas from my terrace are just one of the many blessings I have from my decision to color my sunset years “Retired in Costa Rica.” The two shown here were made on different days, June 2 & 15, one zoomed in on the distant clouds with my Tamron zoom lens and the second one with my cell phone camera. 🙂
Go to the top of my GALLERY and browse through many topics including especially my TRIPS galleries (my favorites) to see many more reasons I enjoy Costa Rica beyond the vistas!
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”
~Rabindranath Tagore
¡Pura Vida!
My “Hill Walk” Vista
Well, just one of many vistas from the hill above my house, but one of my favorite, the hilltop farm of the local farmers’ university here in Atenas, usually covered in cows. 🙂
And that’s the last photo to share from my “Walk up the Hill!” 🙂 Just 4 more days before I go to a Pacific Coast resort south of here for Christmas where I will do daily “same day” reports on that part of my paradise! 🙂 Happy Holidays!
¡Pura Vida!
Driving Into the Hills of Atenas
As with any good coffee farming town, Atenas is in the hills below the big mountains and away from the plains of the big city of San Jose. Yesterday as my taxista drove me back home from a doctor appointment in the city, I cellphone-snapped these photos of the approaching hills as we neared Atenas. No great photos but they bear testimony of the terrain of my little pueblo.
“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.”
~John Muir
¡Pura Vida!
“The Best Art”
“Land really is the best art.”
—Andy Warhol
Land as Art Land as Art 
Land as Art 
Land as Art
“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.”
– John Muir
¡Pura Vida!
The four photos today were made on the last two mornings, 2-each, from my terrace of some of the hills surrounding Atenas Pueblo in Alajuela Province, Costa Rica. You can see more of my Terrace Vistas in that linked gallery or go for all the many different CR Vistas. 🙂
Hills of Atenas
Here I zoom in on the hills northwest of Atenas as seen at three levels from my terrace.
The Broad View
Zoom Level 1
Zoom Level 2
This was the last post I did in advance of my surgery, hoping to be back online by today! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
And then there are the Atenas Galleries.
🙂
I Keep Shooting the Hills
I never get tired of photographing the hills across our little valley and just keep trying to make a different image or view of the same hills I see daily. I would prefer them without the cell phone towers, but the modern society would argue that they are absolutely necessary! 🙂 Debatable! 🙂
If you like hills too, you might also like my CR Vistas Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
Green
Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.
~Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Featured Photo: Zoomed in on surrounding hills, Atenas.
“Rainy Season” = “Green Season”
My Galleries: Flora & Forest or Vistas
¡Pura Vida!
At Home in the Mountains
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…” ~John Muir
Panorama photo of the hills of Atenas from my terrace in Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett. For more see my Vistas photo gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
A Country Adventure in My Front Yard – Calle Nueva
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| A pastoral vista like this sometimes requires a trip far away from a busy town, yet I found this one maybe 500 meters from my house as the crow flies and maybe twice as far walking the streets to this spot. Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica |
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| The cow pasture across the street from my house. A stream runs under that row of trees on opposite side. On the other side of the stream and to the left is a little known street, Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica |
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| First I walk into town on Avenida 8 and turn left on Calle 1 making another left turn at next street, Avenida 10 for 2 blocks where I walk past our technical high school above. The pavement stops just past the school and I’m on a gravel road called Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica |
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| It is so cool to suddenly be in the country! Past Roca Verde it becomes a dirt road going on to Rio Grande village. Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica |
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| After 200 or 300 meters on a rise you see Roca Verde up ahead, those roofs. Before I saw this, I saw the pastoral scene photo above, my opening photo. Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica |
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| Then down that hill to a bridge behind the Roca Verde duplex facing the pasture. That house is about one block from my house! But seen here from behind on Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica |
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| The little stream opposite the cow pasture in front of my house. Which the above bridge crosses over behind the duplex. Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica |
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| At the foot of the bridge I snap this shot of the cow pasture in front of my house from the backside. The duplex and two single family houses are to the right of those shrubs, all facing the cow pasture. Calle Nueva, Atenas, Costa Rica |
It is fun to discover back roads anywhere and especially when they are this close to where you live! Eventually I will walk the entire road to the village of Rio Grande which is at the intersection of our Radial Atenas (Calle 0) and entrance to Ruta 27, the expressway that comes by Atenas. The day I walked this road (New Years Day) there were other walkers and several bicycles, so it is already a known recreational “greenway” if you please! 🙂 In the mountains or hills of Atenas.
I walked the road up past several Roca Verde houses and noticed at least 3 had back pedestrian gates into this greenway and even met a couple who walked out of one that they are renting for 6 weeks. I got as far as where the gravel turned to dirt and turned around because it was also uphill. But next time I will try to go all the way to Rio Grande and maybe get a taxi back. I like my newly discovered “greenway” which I had heard of earlier, but just now exploring for the first time.
It is impossible to overestimate the value of wild mountains
and mountain temples as places for people to grow in,
recreation grounds for soul and body.
–JOHN MUIR, US naturalist, 1838—1914
See the Photo Gallery Walking Calle nueva
If it the link works, here is the Google Map showing where I walked: