charliedoggett.net
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| Javier mowing the hill behind my house. All mowing is done by weed-eaters. Only in Central Atenas are there flat lots where a regular lawnmower might work. |
I close the doors to avoid flying debris. I am feeling a little better, so virus med & diet is working.
I have meds and electrolytes to take and a list of what foods I can eat and not eat. So I should feel better soon. I am to go back if not better by Thursday. Medical care here is done very well, just mostly in Spanish! 🙂
Since all my posts have photos, here’s an unrelated butterfly shot made recently:
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| Colored like a Duskywing and tail like a Swallowtail but no match so far! And a green head! If you know what it is, please contact me! charlie@charliedoggett.net |
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| Limon mandarinas is the full or official name. They are neither lemon nor lime. |
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| They are the green things in the middle that look like limes, though tree-ripened ones can be almost orange in color. Sold in bags of 12! |
They are squeezed on everything from salads to your favorite meat, yet I am yet to see them made into a drink. A wedge of one is stuck on or in the glass of some drinks in bars and restaurants. I no longer use any kind of salad dressing, but just cut up a limon and squeeze it over my salad with some herbs. Delicious! You can read more about them online. But another surprise about Ticos is their love affair with Mayonaise!
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| More varieties of Mayonnaise than any other condiment at Coopeatenas! And an even larger variety at Walmart! But the unquestionable favorite is Mayonnaise con Limon! |
Yep, in that photo everything to the right of the brown bottles is mayonnaise! And the brown bottles are another Tico favorite, Salsa Lizano! It is particularly loved on Gallo Pintos (special beans and rice dish) eaten most often at breakfast with eggs. It is somewhere between Worcestershire Sauce and a vinegary steak sauce. More about food here later!
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| Green Tree Anole went across my garden and up the wall. Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Notice how long the tail is, making him similar to a Pug-nosed Anole, but I’ll stick to my identification of Green Tree Anole. The line shadows are from ornamental grasses above the wall. Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| A 4 or 5 shot panorama of wall behind high school that I walk by almost every day. There’s more beyond gate at right, next. |
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| More behind the high school gym to the right of above image. |
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| The front of the high school however would never have graffiti. |
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| Wall on big city recreation park in front of primary school, more in next photo. This park has soccer, basketball, volleyball, skateboard, and more recreation. |
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| Though not all great art, it too seems too well organized to be vandalism. Note the skate board ramp is also painted with graffiti above & below. |
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| Skateboard ramp in city park in front of Escuela Central. |
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| The one and only gas station in Atenas! A part of the farmers’ cooperative in front of their Mercado where I buy most of my groceries, Coopeatenas. |
I have only used it two times during the couple of weeks I had a rent car. It is straight out of one of those 1950’s Texaco TV ads where the attendant runs up to your car as soon as you pull in, asking what kind of gas you want and if you want your fluids checked. Then while the tank is filling, he washes your windshield. The way gas stations were meant to operate. Only the well-off have cars here. Most people walk and ride taxis and buses.
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| Four-lined Ameiva or Four-lined Whiptail found only in Costa Rica and our two neighbor countries of Panama & Nicaragua Okay, this one’s on the floor, but I tend to notice them more on the walls They crawl in under closed door, so no keeping them out! |
Yeah, I told a lot of people I was going to live in the rainforests of Costa Rica. Thus some envisioned me in the pith helmet fighting off wild creatures and vines overtaking my house. Then I start showing photos of my apartment and its great views and four months later photos of one of the nicest houses I have lived in anywhere. One friend in Nashville wrote, “It doesn’t look like you are roughing it!” And for me who loved camping for years, I am not! But let me tell you of a few things that some of you might consider “roughing it:”
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| The lizards in garden are bigger than what come in the house – at least so far! 🙂 |
They are good things you want because they eat bugs and especially mosquitoes when they come.
They don’t bother me and in fact I’m glad to have them! It is just not like living in Tennessee! It is more like living in The Gambia, but easier!
SNAKES
They are here, but I have not encountered one in either house yet! One of my neighbors here and one at the apartment have seen them close to their door. Hope not because both my doors are open all day long when I’m here.
INFRASTRUCTURE
This is what really bugs some Americans because we are a developing country with roads, sidewalks, utilities, and other services not quite up to par with 21st Century United States (Like “Smells” above). As I have said before, some things about living here remind me of growing up in El Dorado, Arkansas in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. And there is something pleasant about the simplicity of a small town (el pueblo). Glad I chose both Costa Rica and Atenas!
And I have never yet considered myself “roughing it!” I love it here! Living here is like traveling and my favorite travel quote is by Mark Twain in his 1872 book titled, of all things, Roughing It. From my personal website travel page:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It
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| Blue-breasted Hummingbird grounded on my balcony. Another first for me. He did fly away later. Guess he was resting. |
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| Blue-breasted Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica |
They are in my garden, on my balcony, and I’ve even had one fly inside the house! This is the third species of Hummingbird I have photographed here. Yesterday I posted a Cinnamon Hummingbird and my first week here was a Blue-tailed Hummingbird. They and the butterflies are little flying jewels around my house! And below is the butterfly in my garden this afternoon:
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| Great Southern White Butterfly on my Tutti Frutti today! You can also see where the leaf-cutter ants are eating it! I’m treating the ants with Mirex-S! |
Today I also planted some new plants in my garden after purchasing them in Spanish (with the help of my driver Nelson). My gardener will make some more improvements, but I couldn’t wait and went plant shopping today!
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| Philodendron Xanadu, 6 plants added to garden. Leaves will fill in, in time. I wanted to put them together in a blank spot, but only about 3 inches of dirt there above my septic tank cover. So, I have to wait on ground cover. The little light green leaves bottom right is my ground cover, Pilea. |
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| Polka Dot plants were added along my back walk where there is more shade. I think these are a type of philodendron too. Can’t remember what called in states. |
A very full and fun day between my two Spanish lesson days! Doing what I enjoy!
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| Cinnamon Hummingbird in my garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Cinnamon Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Cinnamon Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica |
Finally! One stays long enough for me to go get the camera and a few shots! Most have been diving into the foxglove and straight back up in the air, hard to catch even if with camera. But this little guy hung around the Plumbago for awhile, sipping nectar. You may remember that during my first week in the new house I shot this Blue-tailed Hummingbird in my neighbor’s shrub/tree. I’ll try for more of course!
A Route of Evanescence
With a revolving Wheel —
A Resonance of Emerald —
A Rush of Cochineal —
And every Blossom on the Bush
Adjusts its tumbled Head —
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy Morning’s Ride –
—Emily Dickinson
Above the flower bed. Over the lawn …
A flashing dip and it is gone.
And all it lends to the eye is this —
A sunbeam giving the air a kiss.
—Harry Kemp
I have a gallery of Costa Rica Birds by Charlie Doggett over 100 species!
On the walk through my neighborhood I just couldn’t include all the images, so here are two more that a few of our homes have as their vista, the pastoral farm hills around Atenas. And the third is a similar view from my bedroom and office/guest room.
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| Some have farms, cattle, coffee, or other use while other hills are investments. Hopefully they will not all be developed as the wildness around us disappears! |
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| Some have roads over them like above, for what reason I know not. Some of these hills are coffee farms or were in earlier times. |
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| And from my office/guest room before I added fishtail palms for privacy. |
And how appropriate that on the day I post these pastoral scenes Sarah Bartlett at McKendree sends this link to a visual version of Ode to Joy by Beethoven.