Category: Costa Rica

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The Beach!

Sunset at Manuel Antonio Beach, Costa Rica

We have very slow internet connection in our motel on the beach, so only one photo which took 20 minutes to upload. The croc, birds, horse and other sunset photos will have to wait until later! We drove to Tarcoles River this morning for our croc and bird safari cruise, then on to Manuel Antonio National Park and beach where we have a hotel on the beach. This photo was made from behind our hotel. Tomorrow we take a guided hike into the rainforest and then chill out the rest of the day.

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San Jose Today

Cost Rica flag flying in front of the National Theater
After Teatro Nacional we visited the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum next door

The National Museum of Costa Rica
Pre-columbian & Indian Cultures
were prominent in the museum
One of the mysterious stone spheres found in prehistoric Costa Rica’s south
Downtown San Jose Graffiti 

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Atenas Coffee Farm Tour

Gabriel (our Juan Valdez) teaches us about the natural way to grow coffee at
El Toledo Coffee Farm, Atenas, Costa Rica
Beans go through roasting machine to become
either light, medium, or dark roasted.
We tasted each and chose our favorite before knowing which roast.
The coffee farm pet Olive-throated Parakeets got my attention of course!
Then a traditional Tico Lunch of beans, rice, veggies, salad, plantains, fish
In Sarchi, Kevin got a taste of the rainforest after photographing
some of the colorful oxcarts made here along with furniture, etc.
A typical Costa Rican Oxcart made in Sarchi
Sarchi Church
Tico family in front of Grecia Church
Made of metal in Belgium in 1800’s
and reassembled in Grecia!

We got a little further away from Atenas today and will go even further tomorrow as we head for Poas Volcano and La Paz Waterfalls.

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A Day in Atenas Costa Rica

Waking up to Yellow Bells blooming out my bedroom window
Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica
Yes, I really could see this while lying in my bed this morning!
Same tree where I made some of those earlier bird photos.

Kevin and I eat breakfast on top of a mountain and photograph the vista at
La Casita del Cafe, Atenas, Costa Rica
Pacific Ocean is on the far horizon
Monumento del Boyero – National Monument to Oxcart Drivers
Atenas, Costa Rica
(Yeah, it was cloudy, but not a drop of rain yet!)
“Adios Snowbirds” dinner party before Canadians and Europeans return north
Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica 

Tomorrow we tour of Atenas’ El Toledo Coffee Farm and eat lunch in a family farm home there.

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Kevin and Motmot Arrive in Atenas!

Kevin Hunter arrived today for his visit and brought good luck to my birding at the apartments. We went down to the river to see waterfall and howler monkeys and found a Blue-crowned Motmot, my first at the apartments! Thanks Kevin!

Blue-crowned Motmot
Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica

Blue-crowned Motmot
Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica

Kevin works on an email under the watchful eye of
My Apartment Nude

Kevin had a safe and uneventful trip to Costa Rica with his flight arriving 30 minutes early, but I checked online and knew and was there early to welcome him. We had a Tico lunch at La Carreta, walked around the central park and beautiful catholic church and he went with me for some business at ICE concerning my cell phone. Then to the apartments, settling in, going down to river to see the Mantled Howler Monkeys and the Blue-crowned Motmot. Then back up the hill to watch two Social Flycatchers chase a cat away from the tree they nest in. Then I served a tropical fruit plate for a lighter dinner with Robbie’s oatmeal cookies and some banana bread I got from an Atenas bakery. Then we both hit the computers.

The Social Flycatcher that chased the house cat in our front yard
Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica

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“Funeral Train”

Funeral Train in downtown Atenas seen from Central Park

I walked downtown for a light lunch around 1:00 and saw that a funeral was in process, leaving the Atenas Catholic Church facing the central park. Street width for a block+ was shoulder to shoulder people walking behind the flower-covered hearse. A big funeral this time!

The whole traditional process can be read about at Death in Costa Rica or a quick summary by me: Someone dies and within an hour or so every family member and friends knows at warp speed. The body is dressed and prepared for burial while another family member arranges the funeral mass for that day or the next morning if death is late in day. There is no embalming (available but very expensive). There may be a brief wake or visitation before the mass. After the mass is when the above “Funeral Train” begins as a hearse, covered in flowers, slowly drives to the cemetery with everyone following on foot, family members first. There is sometimes some low moaning or crying as they slowly walk to the cemetery.

This is the second funeral train I have come upon. I also posted a photo of the first which was much smaller and in a residential neighborhood.

And in spite of an occasional funeral, Costa Rica is still the Number 1 Happiest Country in the world. I just found another website listing of the happy that put us at #1:
http://www.earthporm.com/top-10-happiest-countries-world/?ts_pid=2
Thanks to Natalie for this one!

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Lent Purple

Atenas Catholic Church

Purple-draped crosses also
appear in front of many homes
in Atenas.

February 18 to April 2 is the Season of Lent this year and the color purple proclaims it in many places in Atenas, but none like the Catholic Church which also flies purple flags around the compound wall. The color of reconciliation is a fitting reminder of the mission of Christ we will celebrate on Easter Sunday, April 5.

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Berdelle & Michael Visit

Michael King & Berdelle Campbell at Breakfast this morning
Vista Atenas B&B, Atenas Costa Rica

A flight cancellation and great delay got them into Costa Rica after dark and cancelled our original plans of lunch on their arrival day. So Michael King (Monell’s Restaurant) and Burdelle Campbell (My former Germantown neighbor) came back from their stay in Uvita (With Craig & Marcia Jervis of Mad Platter Restaurant) a day before their flights to stop and visit with me. And they got to see their only Costa Rica monkey right here on the Hacienda La Jacaranda property, our new Mantled Howler Monkeys. We had lunch at El Balcon del Cafe and I showed Berdelle around Atenas & my apartment while Michael worked. We then had dinner at La Trocha del Boyero. Because I could not give two of them much room or privacy in my apartment, I arranged rooms for them at Vista Atenas B&B.

They stayed at Vista Atenas B&B with this nice view of Atenas Valley
Berdelle Campbell in Central Park Atenas
A bouquet of flowers Berdelle brought me
from Craig & Marsha’s yard in Uvita,
just a few typical Costa Rica flowers
sitting on my breakfast bar!  🙂
The Photo Gallery of their visit
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Costa Rica’s National Bird!

When I posted this yesterday I forgot to say that this is Costa Rica’s National Bird! Makes me like the photo even more! Thanks to Richard Barone for reminding me!

Costa Rica’s National Bird – Clay-colored Thrush
On Charlie’s apartment balcony, Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica

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Yellow Trees Now!

Golden Shower Tree or Cassia Fistula
On Highway 3 east of Atenas, Costa Rica

 

“Yellow Bells,” “Trumpet Bush” or officially Tecoma Stans
Zoomed in on one of the mountain sides from my front balcony

Earlier I showed orange-blooming Poro Tree around here, then the bright Pink Trumpet Tree, and there are now a bunch of yellow-blooming trees, two kinds! The first one above is an imported Asian ornamental tree that looks like a yellow lilac tree with delicate flowers hanging down, the one along the highway above. The other has clusters of bell-shaped flowers like this one off my back balcony. And remember, we are near the end of the dry season with no rain since November! Amazing!

 

Yellow Bells behind my apartment at Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas