Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - November 20, 2024

During November, visits to this blog were received from Hong Kong and the following 10 countries:

Each country and Hong Kong is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012.

From the time I started to keep track, visits have been received from 123 countries and 13 non-independent jurisdictions. Hong Kong, which is a Special Administrative Region of China, is one of such jurisdictions.

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The following is a summary of the weather for November in the area where we live:

In any given year, Costa Rica has a dry season and a rainy or "green" season. With the exception of the Caribbean side of the country, the monthly amount of rainfall tends to begin ramping up in May and to begin ramping down in November. Normally, September and October are the rainiest months. The following chart shows an uncharacteristic surge of rainfall in November this year compared to last year:

The surge is similarly uncharacteristic of the November rainfall we encountered in 2022 where we currently live and in the years 2018 to 2021 when we lived in Puente de Piedra, a short distance south of Grecia.

In some communities within the Grecia Canton, the surge led to serious flooding and landslides. Fortunately, we were not subjected to such consequences.

It remains to be seen whether the amount of rainfall in December plummets as in previous years. Normally, the dry season begins in December.

Information on current and recent weather conditions, climate change and more in various parts of Costa Rica can be obtained from the website of IMN: Instituto Meteorológico Nacional de Costa Rica (Spanish) or National Institute of Meteorology (English). IMN also has a Facebook page which may be of interest.

Important Event! Mark Your Calendars!

On December 6, 7 and 8, 2024, the artistic event of the season will be held at Colinas del Sol, Atenas, Costa Rica!

Just In Time for Christmas is an annual holiday art sale featuring artists from the Central Valley in Costa Rica. 10% of sales are donated to local charities. On Friday, December 6, the show opens at noon. The restaurant will be open for an evening concert. On Sunday, December 8 a special brunch is on offer with entertainment. 

Here are some images of works I will have on display and for sale:

“Ewe and Me”. 24”x18”, Acrylic on linen. Foto reference Tina Purpleblue Clowes Kay.

“Some Bunny Loves Me”. 18”x24”, Acrylic on canvas. Foto reference Anne Zentara.

“I Dream of Jeanie - She’s a Light Brown Hare”. 23”x17”. Acrylic on canvas. Foto reference: Terence Porter.

Here is a sneak peek of a work still on the easel - a Great White Egret - a bird that is indigenous to Costa Rica. A fish will be painted into the bird’s bill. This painting will be available at the show:

This is a large painting - 3’x4’ - “Gone Fishing’. Acrylic on stretched canvas. Foto reference: Steven Sutcliffe.

Miscellaneous Goings On

It’s official - I’m an honourary Tica! Hernan Agustin Carazo gave me this certificate. Although we moved to Costa Rica sight unseen, we did plenty of research beforehand and were prepared to fully embrace a new culture.

Soleida, our housekeeper, gave me this Schlumbergera cactus and it is loaded with blooms:

This article on the best places to retire in 2024 details several countries. Costa Rica is rated #1 and is at the end of the article. What interested me about all the countries listed is the high quality of health care available in each one.

ARCR (Association of Residents of Costa Rica) has recently published the 2024 November-December issue of its EL RESIDENTE magazine. Lance and I are members of ARCR.

The magazine contains many articles and references which may be of general interest or to those planning a visit or move to Costa Rica.

By the way, and for quite some time, the right hand sidebar of my blog included a widget that identified worldwide locations from which visits to the blog were being received. Sometime yesterday it stopped doing so. No rotating globe or other information appears in the panel below the heading "VISITS SINCE 9/29/2016".

The ongoing source of the information was RevolverMaps and I now have a message that the website is "down for everyone" and not just me. It appears they have failed to renew their HTTPS security certificate. If the problem is not fixed, then I may try something different.

Update

On November 16, the following message appeared when trying to access or use the RevolverMaps website: "RevolverMaps has shut down. Many thanks to all users and supporters of the service!"

I am now trying an alternative service called "ClustrMaps". Its primary purpose is to enable a name or address search in the U.S. But, it also provides a widget that logs the locations of visits to a website or blog from anywhere in the world. A globe display of that widget now appears in the right hand sidebar of my blog. The number of identified locations (green dots) is sparse and just beginning but will increase with time.

If you click on the globe, that should bring up a separate page with a world map projection and detailed visitor location information. Strictly, the location information for any visitor is apt to be the location of the server of the visitor's ISP (Internet Service Provider). That location may not necessarily coincide with the visitor's physical location.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - October 2024

During October, visits to this blog were received from the following 16 countries:

Each country is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012.

From the time I started to keep track, the total number of countries and non-independent jurisdictions from which visits have been received remains at 136. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions - e.g. Guadeloupe, an Overseas Department and Region of France from which 2 visits have been received.

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The following is a summary of weather for October in the area where we live:

In the late morning on October 12 (about 11:43 a.m. to be precise), the alarm on our rain gauge sounded to indicate that a rain event had begun. But there was nary a drop of water falling from the sky. Instead, there was a magnitude 6.2 earthquake taking place just off the coast in the Pacific Ocean near Tamarindo:

The distance from the earthquake epicenter to our house in San Roque de Grecia is about 129 miles (208 km). We felt vibrations from the quake for several seconds but they were small and of no consequence except to trigger the rain guage to falsely register the first 0.01 inches (0.25 mm) of the day.

Information on current and recent weather conditions, climate change and more in various parts of Costa Rica can be obtained from the website of IMN: Instituto Meteorológico Nacional de Costa Rica (Spanish) or National Institute of Meteorology (English). IMN also has a Facebook page which may be of interest.

Hear! Hear!

Last Wednesday morning, I woke up with a spinning sensation in my head. When I tried to sit up I just flopped back down like a rag doll. Eventually I was able to stand up and walk without falling. The sensation gradually eased off during the morning.

The same thing happened on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, the dizziness did not ease off at all and we decided I needed to see a doctor. Our Ebais is not open on weekends. We could have gone to the Grecia hospital but it can be chaos there, especially when one’s Spanish is not up to medical terminology standards.

We decided to call our Costa Rican friend, Minor. He is an EMT (emergency medical technician) and bilingual. I Whatsapp’d him and he replied within a very short time. Minor agreed that I needed attention soon and suggested we go to Clínica Médica Sanchez in Grecia. He knows Dr. Sanchez. Minor even called the clinic and got an appointment for me that same day.

This clinic is very impressive. The waiting area has super comfortable seating and there is an indoor atrium. The nurse came to get me to take my weight, height, blood pressure and heart rate. Back to the waiting area and soon Dr. Sanchez came for me and we went with him to his office. A plus - he is bilingual.

History and examination completed, Dr. Sanchez determined ear blockage was the cause of the vertigo. He wrote me up three prescriptions, one being ear drops. I was taken to a room that had two hospital beds and a really comfy recliner. Into the recliner I went, hooked up to an IV, covered with a blanket, lights dimmed and told to have a nap. Of course that didn’t happen.

About an hour later, I was unhooked from the IV. Instructions: no driving, no gym, back in a week for ear irrigation, and rest. The vertigo meds helped quite a bit but by Tuesday the continuous dizziness had returned. Back we went to see Dr. Sanchez.

This time he irrigated both ears and the results were fast. I was still dizzy but could hear much better and the pressure in my head had improved a lot. It took a few days to feel 100% back to normal.

I’m going to the gym tomorrow and driving myself there.

I highly recommend Clinica Medica Sanchez.

By the way: when you see a price such as 40,000 colones on the Clinica Medica Sánchez Facebook page, that currently translates to about USD $78.00 or CDN $108.00. In Canada, the rub is that it does not allow a public (Ebais) system plus a private (e.g. Sanchez) system to co-exist.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - September 2024

During September, visits to this blog were received from the following 13 countries:

Each country is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012.

From the time I started to keep track, the total number of countries and non-independent jurisdictions from which visits have been received remains at 136. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions - e.g. Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.

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The following is a summary of weather for September in the area where we live:

Information on current and recent weather conditions, climate change and more in various parts of Costa Rica can be obtained from the website of IMN: Instituto Meteorológico Nacional de Costa Rica (Spanish) or National Institute of Meteorology (English). IMN also has a Facebook page which may be of interest.

Miscellanous Photographs/El Residente Magazine

Click on images to enlarge.

Here is the gym I go to twice a week:

I go early in the morning. It’s about a 7 minute drive from our house - and that was one of the reasons I chose it. If I had to drive half an hour or more each way I’m pretty sure I would not have stuck with the routine. 

Across the road from the gym, there are tall dirt banks bordering on sugar cane fields. Some creative person carved these images into the bank:

We see some pretty amazing morning skies from our house:

That’s an orchid.

Speaking of orchids, I have several in bloom right now:

We had breakfast recently at Victoria Cafeteria. They are situated in a typical wooden Costa Rican house. We always eat outdoors - it’s the nicest setting.

Walkway from the house.

Just down the road from the restaurant is a large soccer field and this day a game was on.

The palm trees along the road were painted in the colours of the Costa Rican flag. September 15th was Independence Day.

ARCR (Association of Residents of Costa Rica) has recently published the 2024 September-October issue of its EL RESIDENTE magazine. Lance and I are members of ARCR.

The magazine contains many articles and references which may be of general interest or to those planning a visit or move to Costa Rica.