Avocados

Luis, our landlord, lives in Guanacaste province. He has a brother who lives on Prince Edward Island, Canada.

We are renting his mother’s house in San Roque de Grecia, Alajuela province. We live in sort of a Tico compound - we are the last house at the end of a lane. Luis has aunties and uncles who live in some of the other houses. It seems that everyone looks out for us!

We have a large avocado tree:

This year it is loaded with avocados. I picked as many as I could by hand and also using a fruit picking pole. Luis contacted me and asked if his two uncles could come by and pick as many as they could. Of course we said yes - there’s more than enough for everyone.

Duque (neighbour’s dog) came by for a visit:

We ended up with a good supply of avocados and the uncles had lots to take home with them.

Some of our haul:

We’ve already eaten quite a few of them. Avocados don’t start ripening until after they are picked  and they don’t all ripen at the same time so we have a continuing supply of ripe avocados.

The Tico Times has this interesting article about avocados in Costa Rica.

We also have a mango tree, two different species of orange trees and lots of limes:

There are still lots of avocados left on the tree.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - July 2025

During July, visits to this blog were received from the following 9 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 137. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions - for example Puerto Rico - an unincorporated territory of the United States from which 1 visit has been received.

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

There is a so-called rainy or green season which generally runs from May to November. However, the season is typically interrupted for a few weeks in July and/or August by a so-called little or mini summer (veranito in Spanish).

This year, the little summer began in early July and carried on throughout the month. On several of the days without rain, otherwise calm air was periodically broken by sudden short lived gusts of wind. On days with rain, the rainfall was minimal. The amount was about 1/5 to 1/3 of that measured in July of the previous 3 years. 

During July, there was a fair amount of dust which travelled from the Sahara Desert across the Atlantic Ocean and over Costa Rica. This not only had an adverse effect on air quality but may have suppressed the build up of humidity needed for rainfall.

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.

Breakfast

Recently we had breakfast at Victoria Cafeteria, a 5 minute drive from our house. We’ve eaten here numerous times, both for breakfast and lunch. Everything we have ordered has been delicious. 

The house it is in is a typical older wooden building with a wrap around covered porch, indoor and outdoor seating, and many different kinds of greenery. Staff remembers us every time. Service is excellent.

I ordered a mocha cappuccino:

This is my food order - breakfast speciality of the house. Two fried eggs atop potatoes. Not just any potatoes …. these ones were filled with onions, bacon, cheese, red peppers …. excellent. Those are plantains to the left of the dish.

Lance’s order - loaded omelette, and I do mean loaded. It even had chicken in it. It too included plantains and also toast.

As usual, portions were quite  large and we took half of each dish home. The omelette was so large that we got two more servings from it.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - June 2025

Click on images to enlarge.

During June, visits to this blog were received from the following 6 countries and unidentified locations:

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 137. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions; for example Martinique - an Overseas Department and Region of France from which 1 visit has been received.

** Any single one of the Unidentified Locations could be a device that uses an IP address that is not registered to any country, region, or place or that is hidden by a proxy or VPN service. It could also be a device that is not connected to the internet directly, but through a satellite or cellular network that does not provide location information. It is also possible that a ship or aircraft, or even the ISS, could use such a device and appear as an unknown location.

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

The rainy (or "green") season continued during June with at least some rain on all but 3 days. During one period of 4 days and nights, the rain was an almost continuous light drizzle (reminiscent of our wintertimes in Vancouver, Canada when it was snowing everywhere else). Otherwise, on most days, rainfall did not begin until the early or late afternoons.

Overall, the amount of rainfall was almost the same as that in June 2024. As well, the average daytime high temperature and average overnight low temperature were almost the same as June 2024.

As a point of clarity for perfectionists, I should note that when I record an "overnight" low temperature it is not necessarily a nighttime temperature - it can be an early morning daytime temperature. Our experience in Costa Rica has been that the temperature can actually drop as the sun rises.

With the advent of AI and chatGPT, I now have the following explanation:

"The air temperature often drops after sunrise due to a phenomenon called radiational cooling and the angle of the sun's rays. While it might seem counterintuitive, the coldest part of the day is typically shortly after sunrise, not just before." 

That was part of chatGPT's response to the question: "Why does the air temperature drop as the sun rises".

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.

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Off topic

ARCR (Association of Residents of Costa Rica) has recently published the 2025 July-August 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.

Off To The Vet

Click on images to enlarge.

As I wrote on April 3rd of this year, a tabby cat had decided to take up residence in our house - totally uninvited. That’s the CDS (Cat Distribution System) at work.

Knowing nothing about his background, we knew we had to eventually take him to a vet for an exam. When he started to sneeze a lot and develop some congestion, we made an appointment at Veterinary Clinic Moralva in Grecia. We did not have a cat carrier so purchased one. It was tricky getting him into it and of course he complained loudly all the way on the short drive to the clinic.

What we learned: he’s probably about five years old and neutered! A good surprise as I thought he was not. That’s how much I know about male feline anatomy. Diagnosis was that he has a respiratory infection.

Home we went with prescriptions which we picked up at Veterinaria Memo. This is the place to buy animal medications. They have a large inventory and also carry high end pet food.

We have a follow up appointment tomorrow morning.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - May 2025

Click on images to enlarge.

During May, visits to this blog were received from the following 9 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 137. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions; for example Macau - a special administrative region (SAR) of China. from which 1 visit has been received.

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

The rainy (or "green") season arrived in full force during May and the amount of rainfall was unusually high. The 27 days with measurable rain compares with19 days in May last year. and the amount was almost double that measured last year. In fact, it was more than May of any year since the time in 2018 when we moved to the Grecia region.

On most days, the sky did not begin to cloud up until the late morning or early afternoon. So, daytime high, low and average temperatures were roughly the same as last year.

The erupting Poás Volcano began to settle down in May. Compared to April, the amount of ashfall with consequent effect on air quality was substantially less.

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.

Here is a photo I took (0450 this morning) from our house of last night’s Strawberry Moon:

Fourteen Years! and Jurassic Park.

Fourteen years ago, we landed in Costa Rica!

 

You can read about our move here. It has been a great fourteen years. Moving sight unseen to a foreign country has been a wonderful experience for us. So much to learn, so many new things, finding our way through the ins and outs of a new culture - we wouldn’t change a thing.

Now we live just outside the town of Grecia in the Central Valley. We live in a Tico neighbourhood with super neighbours. We have Costa Rican and ex-pat friends. Grecia is large enough to offer us many amenities and at the same time it is rural. We are surrounded by sugar cane and coffee fields. 

Here’s to another fourteen years!

Today was Festival del Amor at our Grecia park. There was a children’s show, a healthy cooking show, live concert, food - and dinosaurs!

We were having breaking at Arte Latte across from the park and walked around afterwards to see the dinos.

Here is a short video I made of the dinosaurs.

By the way, footage of Cocos Island (Spanish: Isla del Coco), Costa Rica was used in the opening sequence of "Jurassic Park" the movie.