Breakfast with Garlic - Costa Rica

Yesterday, Saturday, September 26, 2020, we decided to go out for breakfast. The week had been sort of busy - Lance had a dentist appointment on Monday, his birthday was on Wednesday and our gardener Jaime was here that day also. On Tuesday we went to Ekono to buy Lance some new clothes. Came away with two shirts 70% off! 

I ordered Lance two pairs of Lee jeans online  Sometimes it is easier to shop this way then to drive around looking for the right shop and then never finding the correct size. I have an account with Aeropost in Miami. I have my orders shipped there, pre-alert them as to what will be arriving, and they calculate the shipping costs from Miami to our Aeropost counter in Grecia plus the duty and taxes for Costa Rica. When our order is ready to be picked up in Grecia, I’m notified by e-mail.

So we had breakfast at Restaurante La Casona del Maiz  in La Garita on ruta 3, not a very long drive from our house in Grecia. We have eaten there on more then one occasion and their breakfasts are always good. It’s an open air restaurant, they follow Covid-19 protocols very well, and everyone was wearing a mask. They had a table full of local products for sale - tomatoes, baked goods, and a big bag of garlic for one mil (1,000 colones, about $2.50 Canadian). I decided to buy one of the garlic bags.

Back at our vehicle, I checked our bill and saw that the garlic was not included. I went back inside with a one mil note to pay for them. Turns out that the bag of garlic was included with our meal!

I counted the heads of garlic - there appears to be twenty! I don’t believe this is garlic from China. The bulbs aren’t dried out, they have red line patterns and they look different then the Chinese imported ones.

Lance’s birthday dinner was the one he always asks for - his mother’s macaroni and cheese! It’s really good. I bought a small tres leches cake for dessert.

Our cat, named Cat, absolutely hates dogs. Yesterday, a neighbour dog got out of its yard and started to come up our laneway. Our Cat fluffed up his fur, arched his back and literally charged right down to the dog - by the way, it was a miniature Doberman Pinscher. Cat stood on his hind legs, his front legs open wide and launched a full attack on that dog’s face. The dog yipped, yelped, cried and went running home. We didn’t have time to grab Cat before all this took place. It’s the third time he has attacked dogs. In Atenas, he took on three dogs in our yard, taught two of them a good lesson and the third one wisely ran off before he was next. I wish he wouldn’t do this. One day he will meet his match.

As everyone knows, Costa Rican coffee is excellent. I’m always trying the different brand names. We like a darker roast. My recent purchase was this one:

We drink our coffee black and Volio brand has a deep, dark taste.

Around Our House Today

Like everyone else, because of Covid-19, we are still mostly staying home, not physically socializing and wearing our masks when we do go out. We’ve been to restaurants twice for breakfast so that was a nice break. The grocery stores we patronize follow strict protocols so we have no hesitation shopping in them. Twice I ordered groceries on line and they were delivered to our house. Many restaurants are also offering this service - here it is called “express”. We also feel comfortable in our dentist and medical clinic offices.

So it seems like we have become really boring but today we had a bit of excitement! A turkey buzzard landed on our internet cable connection pole and I managed to make a small video. It’s a bit jerky because I was trying to walk down our sloping laneway, holding my iPad and trying to zoom in at the same time. If this is not a turkey buzzard, please let me know.

Still on the theme of birds, we have parrots visiting our backyard coco tree and I made a video of them also.

I walked around our house today and took plant photos.

This is a peperomia, aka watermelon plant. The leaves do resemble watermelons. Our housekeeper Flor Maria gave me one small leaf cutting several months ago and look at it now - it’s flowering!

This one is called Dutchman’s pipe - it’s growing on the tall retaining wall between our house and the vacant lot next door. If this is not Dutchman’s pipe, please let me know.

Ginger flower.

We have lots of cocos this year.

Our mandarina trees are fruiting for the second time this year. These ones are unripe.

I have too many easels!

And one final foto - this is the rainy or green season. And when it rains in the late afternoon, our Cat likes to climb up onto the top of our vehicle and watch the world go by under shelter of our carport. Here he is early this evening - we are fogged in.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - August 2020

During August, visits to this blog were received from the following 22 countries:

For all years, the total number of countries from which visits have been received remains at 130.

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

August was marked by more rain and cooler daytime high temperatures than last month. The maximum rainfall for any one day was a record for the year.

Friends who live south of us on the Osa Peninsula have reported incredible amounts of rain over the last couple of months - far more than our experience in Grecia where we now live and in Atenas where we previously lived.

Though it cannot be blamed on the weather, a significant magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred mid-afternoon on August 24. The epicenter was about 40 miles (64 km) from where we live as the crow flies. We felt it for about 5 to 10 seconds. Apparently, it was more intense in other regions near where we live but with little or no damage.

Sourdough Bread, El Residente and Heavy Rain Storms, Costa Rica

Recently I had the urge to make sourdough bread. I used the recipe provided by Gemma at her website Bigger Bolder Baking. The recipe is for sourdough beginner bakers and wasn’t too complicated. Watching the sourdough starter bubble and grow is fun. Here is what mine looked like at day 3:

Today I baked a loaf and here it is:

We haven’t tried it yet but will have some slices with dinner tonight. I found out that when you feed the starter every day and have to discard half of the starter, the discard can still be used for baking. King Arthur Flour has some good ideas - I made their cracker recipe and the results were excellent.

Here is the latest edition of El Residente magazine, published by the Association of Residents of Costa Rica (ARCR). As usual, it is full of interesting articles and useful information.

Lance had a dentist appointment yesterday at 4:00 pm in Grecia. By the time we arrived in town, the rain was coming down in torrents. We found a parking spot very close to our dentist’s office which just happened to be situated under a pipe spewing out rain water. The rear end of our vehicle is super clean! The building in the background is the Grecia municipal building.

Headed home after Lance’s appointment. As we arrived at the gates to our complex, we noticed the resident rooster has an interés amoroso (love interest). He was flapping his wings as if to say, “look, look!”. Beside him was a sweet little hen. I’ll try to get a photo of them together.

It was starting to get dark when we arrived home. We sat outside to enjoy the rain and the storm and eat some Pop’s ice cream. Here is a video I made of the storm. Our Cat likes to lie on the roof of our vehicle when it is raining.