Tag: country

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Finishing the country road walk today . . .

It bugged me that I did not finish walking Calle Nueva the other day, so today I did so with my friend Jason Quesada. Here are a few nature shots along the road for a total walk of 5.3 miles:

Soccer Fields are the most defining thing of a community in Costa Rica
even along a dirt road among farms out in the country! Necessary!
Calle Nueva
Atenas, Costa Rica
Calle Nueva
Atenas, Costa Rica
Calle Nueva
Atenas, Costa Rica

Calle Nueva
Atenas, Costa Rica

Mango Tree Grove
Calle Nueva
Atenas, Costa Rica

Lots of Purple and Yellow Flowers if you look close
Calle Nueva
Atenas, Costa Rica

Calle Nueva
Atenas, Costa Rica

Calle Nueva
Atenas, Costa Rica

Calle Nueva
Atenas, Costa Rica

After the walk we had a late lunch in a little Soda in the village of Rio Grande on the river of same name and our expressway Ruta 27 where there is an Atenas exit just south of Atenas. In this same little village is a chicken processing plant (low-pay jobs) owned my Walmart and a small air conditioner plant, both on the expressway. We road the local bus back to Atenas Central which went by these two job sources locally. And back in town a political experience which I will share tomorrow.   See the Photo Gallery Walking Calle nueva   –   PS: WARNING! I learned later that two days before this walk an expat man from Canada was walking this same road solo (as I often go) and he was robbed at knifepoint by two young men on motorcycles, supposedly Nicaraguans, which is who most Ticos blame crime on. This is highly unusual in little Atenas, but of course can happen anywhere. It is more common in parts of the big city of San Jose.

-o-

International Living magazine again ranks Costa Rica the #1 Place to Retire!

The USA Today article on Costa Rica, the Country Without an Army & the Happiest Country

“Blessed is the Costa Rican mother who knows her son at birth will never be a soldier.”

¡Pura Vida!
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A Country Adventure in My Front Yard – Calle Nueva

A pastoral vista like this sometimes requires a trip far away from a busy town, yet I found this one
maybe 500 meters from my house as the crow flies and maybe twice as far walking the streets to this spot.
Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica

 

The cow pasture across the street from my house.
A stream runs under that row of trees on opposite side.
On the other side of the stream and to the left is a little known street,
Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica

 

First I walk into town on Avenida 8 and turn left on Calle 1
making another left turn at next street, Avenida 10 for 2 blocks
where I walk past our technical high school above.
The pavement stops just past the school  and I’m on a gravel road called
Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica

 

It is so cool to suddenly be in the country! Past Roca Verde it becomes a dirt road going on to Rio Grande village.
Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica

 

After 200 or 300 meters on a rise you see Roca Verde up ahead, those roofs.
Before I saw this, I saw the pastoral scene photo above, my opening photo.
Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica

 

 

 

Then down that hill to a bridge behind the Roca Verde duplex facing the pasture.
That house is about one block from my house!
But seen here from behind on
Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica

 

The little stream opposite the cow pasture in front of my house.
Which the above bridge crosses over behind the duplex.
Calle Nueva, Atenas Costa Rica

 

At the foot of the bridge I snap this shot of the cow pasture in front of my house from the backside.
The duplex and two single family houses are to the right of those shrubs, all facing the cow pasture.
Calle Nueva, Atenas, Costa Rica
It is fun to discover back roads anywhere and especially when they are this close to where you live! Eventually I will walk the entire road to the village of Rio Grande which is at the intersection of our Radial Atenas (Calle 0) and entrance to Ruta 27, the expressway that comes by Atenas. The day I walked this road (New Years Day) there were other walkers and several bicycles, so it is already a known recreational “greenway” if you please!  🙂  In the mountains or hills of Atenas.
I walked the road up past several Roca Verde houses and noticed at least 3 had back pedestrian gates into this greenway and even met a couple who walked out of one that they are renting for 6 weeks. I got as far as where the gravel turned to dirt and turned around because it was also uphill. But next time I will try to go all the way to Rio Grande and maybe get a taxi back. I like my newly discovered “greenway” which I had heard of earlier, but just now exploring for the first time.
It is impossible to overestimate the value of wild mountains 
and mountain temples as places for people to grow in, 
recreation grounds for soul and body. 

–JOHN MUIR, US naturalist, 1838—1914

 

 See the Photo Gallery Walking Calle nueva