At Last! The Video Series of Our Road Trip to Buena Vista Beach Villas Completed!

On September 15, 2021, we left our house in Puente de Piedra, Grecia, for a road trip to the Buena Vista Beach Villas in Quepos. We spent two nights there and returned home on September 17, 2021.

I did a blog post on our little trip and you can read it here.

We also recorded our drive there and back with our car cam. There was a lot of footage to organize - Lance did a great job with this. I did the editing and posting to YouTube.

So here they finally are - nine videos of about 15 minutes each starting with number 1 through to number 9. Some people may enjoy seeing what the roads and driving conditions are like.

Video 1 - off we go!

Video 2 - Entering Atenas and then Hwy. 27 west:

Video 3 - Hwy. 27 continued and through the coast mountains, bypass highway 34, and carry on to the Tarcoles/crocodile bridge:

Video 4 - Hwy. 34 continued:

Video 5 - Hwy. 34 continued, thru Parrita, palm tree plantations:

Video 6 - Arrive at El Avion restaurant in Manuel Antonio, end at Buena Vista Beach Villas, then heading home:

Video 7 - Heading home, Hwy. 34 north:

Video 8 - off Hwy. 34 north, onto Hwy. 757 east, then Hwy. 27 east, then radial to Atenas:

Video 9 - Through Atenas, then shortcut to Grecia via Hwy. 716  and onto home:

“Alberta Wildie” Goes to Washington, D.C.!

I painted this picture of a wild horse that lives in the foothills and eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada.

It is acrylic on stretched canvas, 24”x36”.

Reference image courtesy of Sandy Sharkey Photography, Ontario, Canada.

More of my art can be seen here.

To learn all about the wild horses (or “wildies”) of Alberta, an excellent source of information is the Wild Horses of Alberta Society (WHOAS). Their mission is to ensure the provision of all aspects of the conservation and humane treatment of wild horses in Alberta.

A similar organization in the U.S.A. is Save Our Wild Horses. They are holding their first annual conference in Washington, D.C. April 26 to 30, 2022, with an art show on April 29th and “Alberta Wildie” will be there. The show is open to the public and all members of Congress and staffers are invited.

The art show will feature photographs, paintings and drawings of wild horses and wildlife that live on public lands. This is an excellent opportunity to help the wild horses and wildlife and also raise funds for this worthwhile organization.

So “Alberta Wildie” will soon be securely wrapped for shipping and on his way to Washington, D.C. from Costa Rica! I think he is a good ambassador for the beleaguered wild horses.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - February 2022 / Covid-19 Update

During February, visits to this blog were received from the following 9 countries:

The number is down from the same period last year. I have no way of knowing, but I would not be surprised if it is somehow connected with the current situation in the Ukraine. Many who might otherwise contemplate a visit or a move to Costa Rica may now have other priorities.

The total number of countries and non-independent jurisdictions from which visits have been received remains at 134. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions such as the Isle of Man, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, etc.

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

February 2022 had cooler overnight lows and hotter daytime highs than February 2021. The average low was about 2.6 °F (1.4 °C) cooler. The average high was about 1.3 °F (0.6 °C) hotter.

As is characteristic of February during the dry season, there was no rain. Also, many days were accompanied by fairly strong trade winds. These two factors when combined with a barren property of land under development led to numerous dust storms day after day. The dust went everywhere both inside and outside our house and presumably will continue to do so long as the trade winds continue or until the property is more fully developed. The following is a satellite view (annotated in yellow) showing the location of the house relative to the property:

The yellow star indicates where on March 6 Lance and I drove onto the property and took the following ground level photo (looking west to east):

It may be noted that the yellow star in the satellite view is adjacent to a green area. But, that is not so anymore. Subsequent to whenever the satellite view was taken, that area has also been filled with brown dirt and graded just like the rest of the development.

The name "Condominio Corteza" in the satellite view caught our attention and led Lance and I to a web page of Fusion Inmobiliaracr. Amongst other things, the web page shows a planned layout of roads, lots and costs of building a home. The plan is ambitious and will hopefully come to fruition sooner rather than later. We do not want another season of dust storms like the present. The advertised costs of buying a lot and building may come as an eye opener to some who live in Canada and the USA (and maybe elsewhere).

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Covid-19 Update

The following table updates information which appeared in my blog entry posted on February 6, 2022:

It appears that the Omnicron variant with its lower mortality rate has now taken full hold in Costa Rica. Once again, it seems that if you are inclined to catch any version of Covid-19, then you may have a better chance of survival in Costa Rica.

Overall, the death rate in Costa Rica is down 0.09% since my last post. It is unchanged in Canada and up 0.02% in the U.S.

If you want to see how some other country is doing in comparison to Costa Rica, then visit the website of Worldometer. Numbers for populations, reported cases and reported deaths can be obtained from that site. All that is then needed is some simple math to calculate the percentage death rate for the other country and the death rate in that country compared to Costa Rica.

If you want more up to date information and statistics on the situation in Costa Rica, including various locales in Costa Rica, then the web site of the Costa Rican Ministry of Health ("Ministerio de Salud") is a good source. If you do not understand Spanish, then you should enable translation features on your web browser if they are available.

Click on images to enlarge.