I’m in Central America — Not on an Island in the Caribbean! :-)

Think of us as near the Panama Canal!
And South America!

We are between Nicaragua & Panama.
Only Panama separates us from Columbia, South America.
And there is a big Colombian influence here
including 1 airline, restaurants, and my barber!  🙂

And there are 5 totally different worlds between us and Mexico!
 And only Panama separating us from Columbia
and South America!
Costa Rica is NOT Puerto Rica, an island in the Caribbean sea just south of Florida USA. (This seems to still be a point of confusion for a lot of my American friends who are geographically challenged!) So I was nowhere near the Hurricane Irma that just ravaged the Caribbean Islands and Florida. There was also a smaller hurricane and earthquake that hit Mexico. I am 5 countries south of Mexico, so no where near their recent hurricane and earthquake either. (But thanks for the prayers anyway!) For more on our location with maps, see Costa Rica on Wikipedia. 
Now, for the last week I’ve been talking about my visit to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica because our east coast is on “The Caribbean Sea” which is really a part of the Atlantic Ocean I think, and I’m right near where ships move from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through the Panama Canal. Again study the above maps. Sorry if my visit last week to our Costa Rica “Caribbean” confused you! And by the way, Sept-Oct are the two driest months in our Caribbean and I had no rain there, though I flew back through rain clouds to San Jose where the central valley is in its two rainiest months now! The opposite of our Caribbean coast. So I travel where the weather is good!  🙂
¡Pura Vida!

My House Location

My House Location  (Red arrow)
The big orange roof above & to left is my landlord from Montreal.
Little orange to right & down is Anthony of Indiana. Big gray house is Richard from England.
Towards mountains is downtown Atenas, white church steeple seen, top center-right.
I walk this whole valley almost daily, one great advantage of not owning a car!
Life in a rural small town. Pura vida!

Note that it is the end of dry season which is therefore the wildfire season, But we are starting to get some rain. Had a shower early this evening. Happy days are here again! (Rainy Season! May-Nov.)
Note to my relatives in Warren, Arkansas (Where I was born): Atenas is the same size town as Warren with about the same population (6,000 +/-), farming community, county seat, 4 supermarkets, 2 or 3 hardware stores, and only small shops for other needs with a 45 minute drive to Alajuela or hour drive to San Jose for big shopping and hospitals. Small towns are a lot alike around the world! Though we have a different kind of immigrants here than does Warren. Never thought I would be an immigrant in a small farm town! Life is full of surprises! And I did not consciously have this in mine when I chose Atenas. 
Check out the “official” video on Atenas, just 2 1/2 min.
See my photo gallery of Public Art & Graffiti in Atenas

Or the general gallery on Atenas,     or    Walking in Atenas (flowers/trees),

Or the People & Fiestas of Atenas