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Here’s only 3 shots from our capital city of San Jose, which of course has many more admirable Street Art works that I have just not discovered yet! I don’t hang out in the big city much! I’m a nature photographer! 🙂 Also included is one from Alajuela, my provincial capital, and one from nearby San Ramon. These are the last of my Street Art photos from Costa Rica. Tomorrow I share just 2 from Nicaragua and then around the world we go! 🙂
About 30 of us expat retirees in Atenas went north of here by charter bus to San Ramon (hour drive) where we were fed and entertained by a group of expat retirees in San Ramon. We had a very interesting experience of a 14th Century Madrigal Christmas Banquet with all our hosts in period costumes and a wide variety of entertainment with the excellent meal! There was chamber music while we ate plus afterwards period ceremony, stories, singing by our hosts and group singing of Christmas Carols (in English & Spanish!) by all making it a very special Christmas Dinner. THANKS TO THE EXPATS OF SAN RAMON! And to Tony & Rose Mary for putting it together! Gracias! 🙂
Or to see each of the photos individually and larger, go to my 2018 Madrigal Banquet Photo Gallery where you can also download photos if you wish.
¡Feliz Navidad!
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| San Ramon is higher in the mountains than Atenas, meaning it gets much colder and rains more. It rained this morning & in 50’s. |
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| San Ramon’s beautiful Catholic Church facing the Central Park, like every town in Costa Rica. |
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| They also have a boyero or oxcart driver monument like Atenas. I like our Atenas metal one better. This one is on church grounds. |
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| Like every town’s Central Park, you will find children playing, old people talking, teens texting, talking or smooching, and a generally happy, tranquil place. There is a band-shell for musical programs. |
San Ramon is quite a bit larger than Atenas with more businesses and traffic, something in-between Atenas and Alajuela. I do not like it as well as Atenas because of the weather (colder and wetter) and the more crowded conditions. They do have a University campus which is a plus and a couple of museums we don’t have, but I think I will stick with my more walkable small town. Both are very “Costa Rica” in nature with wonderfully friendly people. They have a few hundred expats living there where we have over a thousand in and around Atenas.
The other post today about healthcare tour has more photos of San Ramon and yesterday’s short post has photo of tour group in front of Mural on La Posada Hotel where I stayed.
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| Old Man Tree in Breakfast Room |
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| A stop by CPI Spanish Immersion School in Heredia for one short lesson. |
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| Visited the smaller public hospital in San Ramon. Public hospitals aren’t as fancy and pretty as private, but very clean and functional inside. |
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| Paul & Gloria’s view with a Poro Tree blooming. Now is time for Poro. |
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| Lunch at home of Paul & Gloria Yeatman with guest speakers. |
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| Visiting the San Ramon Feria or Farmers’ Market Friday afternoon. Paul & Gloria emphasize this as a part of healthcare! |
We also visited a small neighborhood clinic, farmacia, bank, community center, Red Cross which does all the emergency ambulances, a museum, and talked about insurance, the CAJA government healthcare, homecare provided by CAJA, and even a presentation by a volunteer organization encouraging us to volunteer. Whew! A full day! But very helpful. They were showing us what it is really like for medical care in a local community, in this case San Ramon. I will do a separate post on San Ramon and give my comparison to Atenas. This ended the Healthcare Tour at dinner time in San Ramon. I spent the night there and tried to post these photos but the little La Posada Hotel had very slow internet, so I saved them for today, Saturday and will purposefully do two posts. The next one with a few shots of San Ramon sans-healthcare!
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| Our group of 8 who have traveled together for two full days visiting many hospitals & similar facilities. I’m the smiling guy behind the two ladies on the right, in white cap and blue sunglasses, under the toucan. Thanks to Victor, our van driver, for making the photo! Paul Yeatman, tour leader, is in blue cap and from Maryland. Others from Canada, South Africa, Columbia, Minnesota, Florida, Oklahoma & me from Tennessee. Paul and I are the only ones already living here. Others are preparing to move here. |
The internet connection is very slow at my little La Posada Hotel in San Ramon, taking a long time to upload the one photo above. So I will save the several other photos I want to share for after I get home tomorrow, telling what we did. It was another good day with a lot seen and done. Tune in tomorrow for a report! And I have now seen San Ramon for the first time. Opinions tomorrow.
A Lack of Communication?
I guess in the states the car would have been towed – maybe – but in San Ramon, Costa Rica this guy leaves his car parked on a street on paving day and the workers just pave around it. A little funny from Costa Rica!
It is exciting to see how Costa Rica is celebrating the 117th Birthday of the National Theater tomorrow. I look forward to hearing the national symphony or some other performance in that beautiful theater! And by the way, you did know that Nashville, Tennessee’s Symphony Director, Giancarlo Guerrero, is from Costa Rica? Didn’t you?
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| Teatro Nacional, San Jose, Costa Rica |