Category: Costa Rica

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Smashed Fer-de-Lance in My Street

The markings are very similar to a deadly Fer de Lance snake. Not positive.
On a walk through the neighborhood we saw this on street in front of my house.

Thought you would like this post the day after my”Al fresco Living” post!   🙂

Panic over a snake does not help anyone. Generally they are more afraid of people than we are of them is my belief. This is only the 4th snake I have seen anywhere in Costa Rica in 18 months! And I have been in several national parks where they are known to be more common. Common sense caution is my preferred way to react to something like this. So far no problem! Hope never! And if one ever does get in my house I will be asking the landlord for a screen door on my garden door.  🙂

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Alfresco Living

Simple Definition of alfresco
·     : in the open air
Source: Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary

And that is how I live in Costa Rica – in the open air all of the time! 

The terrace is my favorite room, totally outside with roof, so good in rain!

Living Room Dining Room is always open air during the day.
The sliding glass doors stay open all day when at home. I close at night. 

Inside all windows stay open all the time day and night, They have screens.
Every room in the house is like living outside.
And my “front door” or really garden door stays open during the day.
There is no screen on it. The sliding doors have sliding screens, seldom used
except at night, after dark to before bed when I lock both outside doors. 

Yes, I get lots of bugs! You learn to live with them if you like alfresco living! I’ve had three birds inside the house and they eventually fly out. No other animals yet and I will not worry about snakes. Neighbor dogs are a bigger nuisance! And I have had two of those come in my house.

I sleep at night with two windows open in my bedroom with screens. I have ceiling fans, but do not need at night. They feel good in warm afternoons but not needed when raining. In Fahrenheit it is in the 60’s every night year around and in 70’s and low 80’s in the daytime year around, one reason I chose Central Valley over the coasts. It is always hot and humid on both coasts! We never need air conditioning which I do not have, but on the coast you really need it! The apartments I was in for 4 months had a/c but really not needed. Most houses here do not have air conditioning. ¡Mejor Clima del Mundo! The best weather in the world, the PR slogan for Atenas. A perfect place for alfresco living!

“I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.” –Henry David Thoreau


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One of 270+ Species of Dragonflies Here!

Dragonfly resting on my terrace, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica.
I looked through hundreds of photos online and could not identify.

“Costa Rica is home to more than 500,000 species, which represents nearly 4% of the total species estimated worldwide, making Costa Rica one of the 20 countries with the highest biodiversity in the world. Of these 500,000 species, a little more than 300,000 are insects.

“Costa Rica is considered to possess the highest density of biodiversity of any country worldwide.[3] While encompassing just one third of a percent of Earth’s landmass, approximately the size of West Virginia, Costa Rica contains four percent of species estimated to exist on the planet.[4] Hundreds of these species are endemic to Costa Rica, meaning they exist nowhere else on earth. These endemic species include frogs, snakes, lizards, finches, hummingbirds, gophers, mice, cichlids, and gobies among many more.[5]

“Costa Rica’s biodiversity can be attributed to the variety of ecosystems within the country. Tropical rainforests, deciduous forests, Atlantic and Pacific coastline, cloud forests, and mangrove forests are all represented throughout the 19,730 square miles of Costa Rica’s landmass.[6] The ecological regions are twelve climatic zones. This variation provides numerous niches which are filled by a diversity of species.”
Copied from Wikipedia      (Emphasis in red is mine.)

“In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows.”   –Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Wednesday with The Lehning’s!

The Lehning’s and Charlie at El Restaurante La Carreta, Atenas, Costa Rica

Finally I get a photo of Tim & Joan Lehning with children Hank, Maggie and David plus me included thanks to our friendly waiter at La Carreta. Tonight, Wednesday Dinner in town at one of my favorite restaurants. 

This morning they did not have breakfast at their hotel (long story) and so I met them at El Balcon del Cafe in town for breakfast at another favorite cafe. Then we walked for about two hours through town seeing what life is like in a small coffee farming town including Joan finding a couple of items she needed at my pharmacy, Don Juan Farmacia. We walked by shops, through the central farmer’s market, bus station, by two schools two parks, through a Catholic Church and on to my house. There my friend Michael had lunch just about ready where we feasted on catered Tico Mexican food: Aztec Soup, Quesadillas, cheese sticks, chicken sticks, nachos, chips and salsas, and assorted drinks. It was fun and I think they like my house and my new cook! And gardens!
Just for their arrival today, my neighbor and artist friend Anthony Jeroski finished the bird nest for my garden that lovingly holds the glass egg created by another artist friend in Nashville, Kevin Hunter. It goes well with the bird sculpture at the opposite end of the same garden. Is my garden developing a theme?
After the kids got a little swim in before the afternoon rain, they rested and met me at La Carreta for dinner and the group photo. Then we walked a block over for ice cream at POPS. A fun and tasty Wednesday with the Lehning’s! It was a joy to have them stop by after their Machu Pichu and Costa Rica surfing trips! Tomorrow morning their taxi picks them up at 4 for the trip to airport and return to Nashville. Thanks for the visit guys!  It was great fun having you! Another good memory in Costa Rica!
Pura Vida!

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Waiting Patiently . . .

. . . for the sun to bring out their new leaves. Two trees seen from my terrace.
The fog always passes. The leaves always return.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting. 
~Joyce Meyer


And I’m working on patience as I do the paperwork and legwork to get my CAJA health insurance applied for. Wednesday week I go to the U.S. Embassy SS Department to get my proof of SS income. Then I take it and all my other paperwork and filled in form to the other side of San Jose and Jose Pablo Carter, my attorney, to collect my residency card and make sure I have all my paperwork correct in preparation for my July 8 CAJA appointment. Then I will see what else is needed!  🙂  It has not been easy but it will be worth it to have 100% health care coverage through my new government. Then all I will lack is a CR Driver License to get a rental car occasionally. Then no more new tourist visas every 90 days! But I am doing it at least one more time the end of June. 
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Neighborhood Pastoral

One of my favorite views when I walk through the neighborhood.

And of course it immediately reminds me of Psalm 50:10

. . . for every animal of the forest is Mine,
the cattle on a thousand hills.

 Psalm 50:10, Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Today I went to church with a Tico friend and after church I went to a Tico restaurant with two Tico friends instead of going to the gringo restaurant with a bunch of gringos! I feel good! And my finger is healing very rapidly! Sufrexal is a miracle drug! It causes new skin to grow!

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New Graffiti on Skateboard Ramp

In the city recreation park in front of Central School Elementary is all kinds of recreation from soccer to volleyball that I’ve shown before. Well, the skateboard ramp just got a fresh coat of paint in the form of some new graffiti or public art that should please the skateboarders! Tuanis! Mae!  (Cool! Dude!)

Shot with my cell phone and cropped a little in the computer. I shared some graffiti a year ago that was not as interesting and the more distant shot of skateboard ramp is particularly less vivid! Most of the other graffiti shot last year is about the same with 2 or 3 small new additions on walls. 
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The Lehning’s Passed Through Today

Tim & Joan Lehning and all three kids passed through the San Jose International Airport today where I welcomed them and immediately said goodbye as they got on van transportation to the Pacific Coast beach town of Tamarindo where they will participate in a surfing school for the next four days. They return Tuesday afternoon for two nights in my tranquil little farming town of Atenas before returning to Nashville. They came here from Peru where they hiked up Machu Pichu as the first part of their Latin America trip. They’ve seen coffee farms before, about our only tourist attraction here, so I will just walk them through our little small town life and feed them well! And show off my little rent house and garden and visit! They are staying at Eden Atenas Tuesday & Wednesday nights.

More on Wednesday about their visit in Atenas.

And more things are happening on my CAJA application than I can explain now, but bureaucracy is hard at work in this government health insurance thing but my attorney is back in the middle of it. And I really need it! The Rx cream for my finger to help skin grow (Sufrexal) cost me about $48!