Author: Charlie

Retired American nature-lover, living in Costa Rica, photographing birds and other jewels of nature. This site simply reports on my joys of being RETIRED IN COSTA RICA!
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Nashville Costa Rican Maestro Starts with Rock Here

Giancarlo Guerrero
Nashville Symphony
Music Director

Giancarlo Guerrero helped me to love classical music more than anyone as the conductor of the Nashville Symphony and his pre-concert “Conversations” I attended every time with my season ticket! Well, if you did not know, he is from Costa Rica! And his love of music started here as a fan with his brother of the Canadian Rock Band Rush. Read this interesting article in the 21 January edition of The Tennessean, my first day of a renewed subscription to digital.

Ticos love music of all kinds as indicated in this interesting article on the wide variety of Costa Rica Music.

It is fun to keep learning about Costa Rica and what it means to me.  🙂   Pura Vida!





Where words fail, music speaks.
~Hans Christian Andersen
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Layering My Private Jungle

Year-around blooming flowers for my terrace rocking chair view.
And behind my terrace planters are three layers of plants in my yard
and another in the neighbor’s. Soon we will be separated by a jungle!  🙂
One of the round pots I moved from inside because of a lack of sun there.
The other had ornamental grass which I will replace with something green.
Like my garden, the yard and terrace are always a work in progress!
And my poinsettias are still blooming to the right at terrace entrance!

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Heart Arrhythmia

The Symptom
A couple of weeks ago I went to Dr. Candy because my right foot had been swollen for several days off and on, mainly when I stayed around the house rather than when walking! Strange?

The Standard First Level Treatment
She gave a diuretic to take for 10 days to see if that would reduce the foot inflammation. It did not.

(Side Note on Heel Spur)
You may have caught my earlier report on bone spurs in both heels but hurting only in the right one. This was taken care of by me stopping my 8 month habit of walking all over town in nothing but sandals. (Like walking barefoot!) I now wear tennis shoes, hikers, or regular shoes with a gel orthopedic insert in the heel. Absolutely no pain or problem now from the bone spur! And two doctors now say my new problem is in no way related except for being in the foot!  🙂

Complete Physical
Dr. Candy, my primary care doc, is very thorough and systematic and said it was time for a complete physical with an EKG because she now thinks the problem is circulatory. And I may have done a post on going to the Atenas Laboratorio Clinico for the blood and urine analysis. I walk these reports back to Dr. Candy and she says everything is normal or healthy including blood pressure EXCEPT that the EKG shows an arrhythmia which she thought she heard when listening to my heart. She emailed the EKG to the cardiologist in San Jose she works with and that doc wants me to come in and get wired with a 24-hour heart monitor.

24-Hour Heart Monitor
That was done last Thursday and Friday for my first two bus trips to San Jose and only saw a nurse to be hooked up and then uninstalled. Today I went back for the cardiologist to give me her evaluation. (Note that with a female primary care I’m being sent to female specialists! 🙂 Dr. Bouzid is so good, professional, thorough and explains everything so I can understand it! In English! Thank goodness! I’m slowly improving with my Spanish but not ready for this! She is a part of CIMA, arguably the best private hospital in Costa Rica. My private insurance covers everything after the first $300 which I reached today only when the ultrasound was added! Wow! medical costs are so much less expensive here! And when I get the CAJA, free! And by the way, some people come here from the states for cardiology including heart surgery. They call it “Health Tourism.”

The reason for 24-hour EKG basically is that it shows my real life and not just a couple of minutes in a doc’s office. I do have Heart Arrhythmia as shown in these two contrasting clips from the 24 hours:

This is a fairly regular rhythm which is good – what we want.

This one shows the irregular rhythm and other pages were worse. 

āˈriT͟Hmēə,əˈriT͟Hmēə/
noun
1.         a condition in which the heart beats with an irregular or abnormal rhythm.
Or for a more thorough definition and more info in a sidebar, see Mayo Clinic
Then a Heart Ultrasound
Then she wanted to do an ultrasound of the heart and like everything else, I am given copies of everything. She pointed to parts of the picture on her computer which was moving or a video and tried to explain why not enough blood was being pumped to my right foot. I did not really understand that, but accepted it. And here is my printout of that which doesn’t mean much to me: 
This is actually 5 photos taped to a sheet of paper.
Ultrasound of my heart today. Whatever it means.

More Blood Tests

The cardiologist sent me to Lab San Jose (another Laboratorio Clinico) just two blocks away to check 4 things in my blood related to the heart: NITROGENO UREICO, CREATININA, TSH, PEPTID NATRIURETICO B (BNP) which will be reported to her tomorrow by email. One of these has to do with the thyroid gland which if either over-active or under-active can cause arrhythmia and I’m not sure what the other things are. 
Gave Me a Prescription
I take this for two days twice a day and report to her how I am feeling. This may or may not help. Then
I Go Back to Cardiologist Friday Afternoon
She will then discuss the blood test results and with that may change the prescription or take a different plan of attack. She seems confident that she will get me back into rhythm! 🙂 
And by the way, she says I HAVE A VERY STRONG HEART! It just doesn’t have rhythm!  🙂
🙂  Well, a different kind of rhythm!   🙂
But you should know that they celebrate Elvis’ birthday here!
And most Ticos have lots of rhythm! And love music!
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“I look up to the mountains”

Dinnertime view from my terrace reminds me of the mountains Psalm . . .

Psalm 121The Message (MSG)

A Pilgrim Song

121 1-2 I look up to the mountains;
    does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
    who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
. . . . . . .     



 
7-8 God guards you from every evil,
    he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
    he guards you now, he guards you always.

. . . . . . . . .
Tomorrow night (Tues) I will give you a report on my physical and cardiologist visit which is in the morning. (I’m writing/posting this Monday night.)  Pura Vida!   -Charlie

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You are safe traveling to Costa Rica!

If you are thinking of traveling to Costa Rica, don’t let rumors of Dengue Fever and Zika Virus scare you! The U.S. Issued Warnings for Pregnant Women Travel to 14 Latin America Countries because of the Zika scare, BUT COSTA RICA IS NOT ON THE LIST! We have not had a single case of Zika and besides it only affects the unborn children of pregnant women. In the past we have had 2 or 3 cases of Dengue Fever, but it is considered under control now with mosquito eradication. Some of you may remember that I came back from Gambia in 2002 with Dengue Fever but got over it quickly. If treated it does not kill, just miserable with high temps for awhile.

The CDC Website basically says that for Costa Rica travel you should just be up-to-date with your regular vaccines just as you would in the states. The most common diseases for tourists to get here are the sexually transmitted diseases, so simply avoid that kind of tourism!  🙂

It is interesting that our neighbor Panama is on the Zika no-travel list above and have had many more cases of dengue. And somehow North Americans think Panama is more developed than Costa Rica! Take note if considering Panama for retirement instead of Costa Rica!  🙂

PURA VIDA!

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Musical Chairs at Post Office Now!

A miniature version of the 30-chair line at Banco Nacional.
It has been a line of standing which is hard for some old people, I guess!
For every transaction the clerk goes back to his/her desk to enter it into
a computer, even the purchase of postage for a letter. Can’t get stamps here,
they print a postage strip and stick it on each letter. Sloooow!
Like the bank, when next person is served, you all move up one chair.

I would rather show you the “musical chairs” line at the bank but the high security with armed guards there doesn’t allow me to make a photo or wear my cap or my sunglasses and I must have my real passport and not a copy like other places will use. They keep our money good and safe!  🙂
The above post office (Correos) gives very good and friendly service, just very slow. But I mailed a large box to my sister in Missouri and it got there in less than two weeks! And I get mail in a reasonable time usually. My Apdo. 441 is one of those gray boxes on the left of the above photo. 
Charlie Doggett
Apdo. 441-4013
Alajuela, Atenas, Atenas
20501 Costa Rica
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Hiding the Dog Fence

My landlords who live on the hill above me have a cute little dog that kept getting lost out in the neighborhood and was in danger of being run-over. So, fence time! And about the same time they got a second small dog to keep the first one company and maybe added motivation to stay home. Well, the dog fence was right out my kitchen window across the driveway and I was dreading it. But Jean-Luc is so thoughtful that he immediately had the gardener plant morning glory vines along the fence and now it is beautiful!

It will soon be a flowering hedge

From my kitchen window

Nice!
And by the way, Costa Rica continues to become more eco-friendly as urged in this article: 
5 Tips for Helping the Planet from Costa Rica    (Hint: They help in other countries too!)
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Cool Unknown Insect (NOT a spider!)

Reminds me of a very large tick, but I don’t think so. 6 legs = insect!
Please Comment if you know its name.

A different view, both shots on my terrace table.

I love insects. They are amazing.~Andrea Arnold
And that is a good thing if you live in Costa Rica!
There are more than 300,000 species of insects here!  ~Wikipedia


See also my Costa Rica Insects photo gallery  and  my Costa Rica Butterflies photo gallery
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Changing Garden

 I did what I thought was pretty radical pruning of the overgrown giant Porter Weeds and some of the Overgrown Red Ginger. But my “TuttiFruti,” which had been my most colorful plant, was apparently dying. So the gardeners cut it to the ground which I would have had trouble doing, though we had been pruning it some. They also sprayed for a leaf-eating insect. If it does not come back healthy, we will pull it and plant something different on my border. But we will probably have nothing blooming along the border when Reagan visits in just 4 weeks. Sorry Reagan! Though plants fool you here and some grow really fast!

The colorful border (inset photo) was dying, maybe insects for which he sprayed, but it is cut to ground now,
hoping for a beautiful renewal or revival. If not, I’ll get a different border. But waiting is hard!  🙂

Even without the border and the heavy pruning, the garden looks okay.
The Red Ginger and Purple Petunias will always bloom, even when cut.
And also the Plumbago, though it blooms on new growth, so cutting it back diminishes blooms briefly.
And though not seen above, I am getting new blooms on my Heliconias as seen in below photos. 

The tall plant in the back of garden photo above is where
this large Heliconia sports 4 blooms right now!
This is the biggest of the four.
This smaller Heliconia by my kitchen window also has several blooms.
The other plants like it have red and orange blooms but are dormant now.
I cut back the two big Porterweeds the hummingbirds love, BUT
I still have one smaller plant blooming and attracting hummers!
Though the hummingbirds are mainly in the Yellow Bell Trees now.
And very few butterflies are around this time of year.
May-July was the most butterflies last year.
The TriqueTraque or Orange Trumpet Vine has not done well, but now that I started feeding it fertilizer I’m seeing it grow a little and getting a few flowers, so there is still hope that it will cover that big massive concrete wall in time! That’s my goal!




The Maraca blooms at the
base of a very tall plant.

Also once my Planta Maraca or Shampoo Ginger gets established, I expect to regularly have more blooms, which is more exotic to me than the heliconias! And every time we trim the Blumbago it shoots out new growth with lots of blooms, so everything will have its ups and downs but as I wanted, something is blooming year-aroung, all the time! And it is fun to watch it change, though I have learned (what I really already knew), that maintaining a garden this big and a yard with lots of flowers is a lot of work, even with a hired gardener a couple of times a month! And for any reader living here, my most constant and prolific bloomers have been the Red Ginger and Purple Petunias. And I still don’t have all the Spanish names for these flowers and that sometimes that changes depending on who I talk to or which website I check!  🙂

PURA VIDA!
EDITORIAL CORRECTION: Yesterdays post was of an unusual bug in my bathroom, I tried to call it a stick or matchstick insect, but Kevin & Charles both correctly noticed that it is/was a spider: 

It’s a spider – 8 legs
Insects have 6 legs                        THANKS KEVIN!

AND LATER: A note from Charles Parker with the same 8-leg, 6-leg story! Did I know that? 🙂