Tag: visit

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Visit to Jade Museum Today

One of the retired Americans in Atenas organizes trips like this occasionally.
 Today’s trip was to San Jose to visit the famous Jade Museum.

Like the gold museum here it is a museum of Pre-Columbian Culture
 with modern exhibits of not only historic jade pieces but dioramas and
 videos of the pre-Columbian indigenous people here in Costa Rica.
Magnificent
San Jose, Costa Rica

The modern building of 5 stories has
 the latest educational presentations
assisting schools in history education.
San Jose, Costa Rica

Even a Jade-Jaguar monster for the kids!
 San Jose, Costa Rica

Afterwards we have lunch at Porky’s Burger Bar,
 Home of 50 types of hamburgers and 100 beers!
 San Jose, Costa Rica 
Enjoying Retirement in Costa Rica
Charlie Doggett
¡Pura Vida!


My other photos of San Jose from earlier trips San Jose

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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! 

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My Library

My library recharges at night, Kindle Fire & Samsung Cellphone (Kindle App).

One of the smartest things I did before the move south was get a Kindle Fire and then add the Kindle App to my cellphone! I read everything from the Bible to novels, National Geographic and occasionally the news, all electronically on my Kindle. When riding a bus or eating in a restaurant I read on my phone. As a quote I used yesterday in the butterfly post says,

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”  
-Marcus Tullius Cicero
FYI, I’m currently reading the latest English version of Don Quixote and it is too early for me to have a judgement on it yet (but a little weird so far).  A couple of days ago I finished reading Pay It Forward, one of the best books I’ve ever read! It is by Catherine Ryan Hyde whom I discovered by accident from a little 99 cent Kindle book by her titled Electric God which was very good and pointed me to Pay It Forward which was also made into a movie. Sorry that Netflix is not streaming it, just on DVD which I can’t get here. It is about how a little boy’s school project to “change the world” actually did! Of course the movies are never as good as the books!  🙂

Locally made bookcase with doors
to protect from dry season dust. It
is between book boxes & guest
room wardrobe.

After arriving I started by reading all of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit,  and all the books in Lord of the Rings series. Great ways to escape the American culture! Those lengthy readings were broken up by two John Grisham mysteries, Agatha Christie, Louis L’Amour, three books on Costa Rica, two science fiction books, and The Psalmist (a mystery) by James Lillieford, a new and interesting writer for me. I’ll try him again.

Because I did bring two hard copy Bibles, my photo books, a couple of books on simple life, and my bird, butterfly, plants and other Central America nature & travel guides, I got a little bookcase (Pequeña Biblioteca), with doors to help with the dry season dust. It is simple, handmade locally, and serves my purpose well. I will also be keeping a few of the genealogy books as I go through them, but all my scrapbooks are going to be photographed and become electronic files as most of genealogy stuff will.

Mostly, my library now is my Kindle Fire! Best library yet!

Nature is my theme, so here’s one nature photo:     🙂

Rainy Day Green! Even with dull, overcast sky, greens seem brighter in rain!
Another view from my balcony in Atenas, Costa Rica!

And for those of you who know Reagan Frazier, he just scheduled a visit with me for two weeks in February 2016, just 8 months away!  🙂  But if thinking about it, February is off limits now.

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La Casita Vista

La Casita del Cafe Vista
On a clear day you can see the Pacific Ocean on right behind close hill.
 

I finally got to have breakfast at La Casita del Cafe, 8.7 km from my house (but with an Atenas address). It is a tiny little restaurant on the tallest mountain you can see from my balcony. It was a typical Tico breakfast of beans and rice with eggs and I added ham and chose the scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions in them, almost as good as I make. I made the trip as my first trial run in a rent car which I got yesterday afternoon in preparation for two sets of Tennessee visitors next week. I could get spoiled having a car!  🙂

Last week Berdelle Campbell and Michael King (my Germantown friends) came in for a visit with Marcia & Craig Jervis in their lovely Uvita house on the South Pacific Coast. Their plane was delayed and got here after dark, so our planned “lunch date” didn’t happen when they left the airport. 
Berdelle and Michael are returning Wednesday and decided to come up Tuesday to visit with me before I take them to the airport Wednesday morning. They will sleep in a lovely Bed & Breakfast, Vista Atenas, with another killer view! I’ll show it later. But anyway, I needed to learn how to drive around here and get to some of the places I will be taking Kevin later next week (like La Casita) and the following week. So I got it early and find driving is not that difficult here, at least with GPS! There are not many road signs or highway labels, so you either know where you are going or you follow the GPS which thankful is included on my phone. I also found the B&B on the same highway with La Casita and found the little country coffee farm, El Toledo, on another highway that Kevin and I will be visiting next Sunday. 
Today I was unable to find a auto charger for my Samsung Galaxy s4, but was told of a place that will be open Monday here that might have it. If not, I’ll try the Walmart in Alajuela. I have gotten so used to walking and using taxis and buses, that it really feels strange having a car! I can do things at the last minute or on impulse!