Hidden Gems

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Costa Rica is a country of roads that will take you to places that you never knew existed, even when you live close to them. Take any side road and see where it leads you.

I belong to a lot of different Costa Rica Facebook pages. They can be invaluable when searching for information and everyone is happy to share. 

Recently someone posted that they had found a new brunch restaurant not far from where we live. We’re always ready to try new restaurants. This one is named Briselas Brunch & Pizzeria. It is located on Calle Corinto, San Isidro, and is just 3.5 km from our house.

But wait! There’s more! The restaurant is across from Tennis-Gimnasio Webb. I have been looking for a good gym for a while. It had to have modern equipment, an on-site instructor and be close to our house and this place checked all the boxes. So I signed up and had my first session yesterday. Some light cardio and weights for strength training. The monthly rate is reasonable.

There’s still more! There’s a tennis court, a small wedding chapel and an event hall. I knew there were tennis courts because I saw their sign when we have driven down this road but never imagined what else was there.

Back to the restaurant. I took fotos of the menu but the first page came out blurry. Here is page two:

I ordered the limonada clásica:

And Lance chose a cafe latte.

Our meals - for me it was the huevos rancheros. The cast iron pan was sizzling hot:

With lightly toasted bread on the side, good for dipping in the ranchero sauce:

And Lance decided on the burrito desayuno:

The portion was extremely generous and we ended up taking half of the burrito home for breakfast the next day. Both meals were excellent.

The restaurant has gorgeous views:

In the field below us, workers were cutting sugar cane manually with machetes. This is hard, hard physical work.

Some interior views of the restaurant:

And …. on the driveway into this complex, I saw this:

It’s an outdoor aquarium complete with live fish!

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - June 2024

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During June, visits to this blog were received from the following 11 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. the Caribbean Netherlands - which are special municipalities of the Netherlands and from which 3 visits have been received.

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

The daytime high temperatures are shade temperatures. The average high in June was slightly lower than June last year. The average overnight low was slightly higher.

We have not been subjected to any "heat domes" as are now happening up north in the USA and Canada. Nor have we been subjected to ongoing torrential rainfalls. We get the occasional torrent, but it is typically short lived.

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.

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

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

This and That

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Random ramblings and some fotos of our life here in Costa Rica.

Breakfast at Donde Maye in our town of Grecia. Top foto - the best Denver omelette, bottom foto - the best shrimp omelette.

Bananas from our friend and housekeeper Soleida and fresh coconuts every week from the Coco Guy who delivers them to our gate.

It’s the rainy season and we get fogged in. Views from our house.

The Case of the Mangled Bread Slices

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Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to read is true. No names have been changed to protect the innocent because we do not have a name, just a culprit.

Yesterday morning, as per my usual routine, I arose early and went to the kitchen to put the coffee pot on.

And this is what greeted me:

The package of bread had been opened and two slices taken out. Both slices had pieces missing. Neither I nor my assistant detective had a clue (ha!) as to how this could have occurred.

It had to be an animal that had somehow gained entry to our house during the night. I started my  investigation. All windows had been shut and I thought all the doors were closed. There are five entryways into our house.

My next move was to check the garage. There are two entry/exit points here. One was closed. One was open (I forgot to shut it the day before).

And ……. there was a little face staring at me from the back of the garage. It was the face of this suspect:

The neighbour’s Siamese cat! He has started to come around and visit us. I guess he felt the need for a late night snack and he came in through the open door. How he opened the bread bag and removed two pieces will remain a mystery. Our suspect wasn’t talking.

Case closed.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - May 2024

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During May, visits to this blog were received from the following 14 countries and 1 unidentified location:

Each country is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012. With regard to the unidentified location, see my blog post on August 4, 2023.

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. the U.S. Virgin Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States from which 1 visit has been received.

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

The daytime high temperatures are shade temperatures. The average high in May this year was slightly lower than May last year. At the same time, total rainfall during May this year was higher (and fortunately so) than May last year.

Until the beginning of May, the total rainfall this year was about 42% less than in 2023 and about 72% less than in 2022. This behavior can be attributed to the El Niño climate pattern and is not unique to our area. Reduced rainfall and, in some areas, outright drought conditions developed throughout the country.

The situation recently reached a tipping point. On May 7, the Costa Rica Institute of Electricity (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad) aka ICE (pronounced "ee-say" in Spanish) announced that power rationing with circulating power-outs would begin on May 13 unless depleted water reservoirs of the country's hydroelectric dams were replenished. If things did not improve, we were scheduled to lose power from 1300 hrs to 1600 hrs each day. Others in different parts of Costa Rica may have been scheduled differently.

But, it never happened. Enough rain came to save the day. As the following chart indicates, the rainfall in our area in 2024 is on a trajectory surpassing that in 2023.

Moreover, we understand that the undesirable El Niño climate pattern will soon be drawing to an end.

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.

Thirteen Years!

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As I have done every year on this day since we moved to Costa Rica, I post this photo that I took:

This crossword puzzle was completed on our plane travelling from Dallas, Texas, to Juan Santamaría Airport, Alajuela. We touched down around 8:30 pm I believe and taxied to Hotel Aranjuez in San José. There we stayed for a week seeing our lawyer regarding our residency applications and getting to know some of the city.

We came down with seven suitcases and our cat, Genny. Genny was sent ahead of us with World Pet Travel and boarded in a vet office until we picked her up a week later. We taxied to Finca Huetares in Atenas where we stayed for a month while looking for a house to rent in the Atenas area.

Instead of flying right to Costa Rica, we chose a leisurely trip via train from Vancouver, British Columbia on the Amtrak Cascades and then to San Francisco on the Amtrak Coast Starlight. There we stayed for a few days enjoying that city.

On our way - San Francisco to Dallas to Alajuela airport. And the rest is history. 

Some photos:

Champagne on the train in our roomette.

Goodbye!

First breakfast in Costa Rica at the Hotel Aranjuez.

Off Topic Item

Here is the latest issue of El Residente magazine, published by the Association of Residents of Costa Rica, of which we have been members for many years. They did our initial residency applications and renewals.

Coconuts

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Every Thursday, a nice fellow drives up to our gate with my weekly delivery of five cocos - all ready to have a hole poked in one end and a straw inserted.

Here is this week’s delivery:

To locate where to punch a hole (I use a screwdriver), select the end that has three whitish coloured marks:

One of them will allow your screwdriver to go through to the water. It would be better to punch two holes but I’ve never been able to get the screwdriver through the other two marks. There are gadgets that will do this - I should look for one.

Here is what Healthline has to say about the benefits of coco water. Sometimes I break the shell completely open and scrape out the coco meat and make coconut milk with it. 

We are starting to eat our own mangos now. Picked three today and they will ripen in time inside the house. We also have these fruit trees: avocado, lime and a type of sour orange.