Walk With Me

Walk with me today from our home in Vista Atenas to the town of Atenas. It's all downhill and will take about 45 minutes. It's a great day for a walk, overcast with a breeze.

East towards Atenas. Highway 3 is on the left.

Restaurante Bar Rill - another popular spot for a good meal - on the south side of Highway 3.

Bougainvillea

Three doggies having a snooze in a laneway.

I walked across Highway 3 to take this photo of the view facing north. This looks like a mango tree.

Grego's Bar - a good place to meet with friends on Thirsty Thursday nights.

Local pulparia (small grocery store).

Facing north, Highway 3

Bella Vista, newly opened Italian restaurant. Really good pizza and pasta. On the south side of Highway 3.

One of Costa Rica's famous hand painted ox carts.

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If you were going into Atenas, you would turn right here. I was going to the Supermercado Coopeatenas so kept walking straight ahead.

Impatiens plant - they grow wild here, even under sewer grates.

Another road into Atenas.

Soda Dona Elina - we've enjoyed inexpensive and good traditional Tico food here several times.

Atenas' one and only traffic light.

Our one and only gas station, north side of highway 3.

My final destination, the Supermercado Coopatenas,where I picked up a few groceries. Waiting for my taxi when this lovely fellow came over for a pat. In really nice condition.

And that's the end of today's walk. I hope the photos gave you some idea of our lovely town.

And The Culprit Is ....

... the common opossum. Yes, we finally caught our interloper in the act.

We were awakened last night by the sound of breaking glass outside. Looking out the patio door, we saw an opossum climbing over the patio table, knocking things off it left and right.

It must have been up on the window ledges too because more things had fallen and broken. Genny was sitting inside looking out. I couldn't grab my camera fast enough before it moved on so do not have a photo. May have to sacrifice another pineapple if I want photos.

Whodunnit?

Last week, I bought a lovely fresh Costa Rican pineapple. I left it outside overnight on the patio table as I did not want to attract fruit flies into the house.

The next morning, this is all that was left of it:

 Pineapple juice and pieces all over the place! Had to hose everything down so ants wouldn't be attracted.

There were chunks of pineapple peel all over the place. I found the green leaf top under the orange tree.
I did the same thing the following week and the same thing happened. Our neighbours have seen a opposum at their house so maybe that is who our thief is. One of these nights, I'm going to sit up with my camera and see who the thief is.

Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica

This post is in remembrance of my nephew, Allan Michael Miskell, November 10, 1983 - March 22, 2006. He was a gifted musician and would have loved going to the Teatro Nacional.

This past Sunday, November 4, we had tickets for the X Concierto of Los Gavilanes (The Hawks) at the historic National Theatre of Costa Rica (Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica).

Construction was started in 1891 and it opened in 1897. The building is considered the finest historic building in San Jose. The lobby is beautiful, with marble floors and paintings depicting life in the 19th century. There is a very good café on site also.

We went with our neighbors, Rosemary and Tony - the four of us took the 0900 bus from Atenas to San Jose. We had a real cowboy of a bus driver this time - only 48 minutes from Atenas to San Jose, a new record. Rounding some of those mountain s-curves on the bus was a new experience.

Arriving at the Coca Cola bus station in San Jose, it was a short taxi ride to Teatro Nacional. We picked up our tickets and climbed up to the third balcony. We were fortunate to get our tickets at a reduced price through the Atenas School of Music. The concert started at 1030.

Ono Mora, Atenas' very own tenor.

No flash allowed, so it was hard to take a clear photo. The ceiling is completely painted in a mural.

The white panel hanging from the ceiling displays the words to the music, in Spanish of course.

It was amazing to be in this historic theatre listening to a live performance. The orchestra was excellent and, of course, so too were the choir and the invited soloists. Imagine all the people from the past who have sat right where we were sitting.

The concert ended at noon and we started walking towards the Coca Cola bus station, stopping en route at a food fair for lunch. We thought our bus left at 1300 on Sundays but turns out it is 1330. No problem - benches to sit on and people to watch. Cost for one person to ride from San Jose to Atenas: 855 colones or about $1.70 CAD or USD. The buses are very comfortable. Sometimes the driver plays Latin music or has a radio station playing.

There is a fellow who often shows up selling water, pop, snacks and so on and there are no rules against consuming them on the bus - another thing I like about Costa Rica. This guy knows us now and  we get hugs and handshakes - he speaks Spanish, English and French. He always hands us water bottles.

Our bus arrives.

How did the Coca Cola bus station get it's name, you ask? There used to be a Coca Cola bottling facility here, now long gone, but the name remains because navigation in Costa Rica is by landmarks. This is changing in San Jose though - street signs are starting to go up.

Fun With Gumby

Here is Gumby enjoying a ride in a Costa Rican ox cart:

Oh no!! he slips under the wheels!

Poor Gumby.