Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - December 2023 & Year End Review

(Click on images to enlarge).

During December, visits to this blog were received from the following 20 countries:

Each country is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012.  In addition, 3 visits were received in December from unidentified locations (which in theory could be the same location). For more information on unidentified locations and where they might be see my blog post on August 4, 2023.

From the time I first started to keep track, the total number of countries and non-independent jurisdictions from which visits have been received rose to 136 in December. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions such as Hong Kong. The latest country is Kenya which is located in East Africa. The visit was from Nairobi, Kenya's capital city.

During 2023 as a whole, visits were received from 35 identifiable countries and non-independent jurisdictions. As of year end, the total number of visits to this blog approached 52,000 according to an app named RevolverMaps. In the right hand sidebar of my blog, the number indicates roughly 27000+ visitors. However, the latter number is for the period from Sep. 29, 2016 to date and does not include visitors during the earlier period from Nov. 13, 2012 to Sep. 29, 2016. The following projection produced using RevolverMaps indicates with red dots locations from where visits have been received since Sep. 29, 2016:

_____________________________________________

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

There were many days which were overcast virtually all day long.  However, except for a couple of those days the overcast produced no rain. On the few days when it did rain, it typically occurred in the afternoons and was preceded by mornings with broken clouds.

For the year as a whole and as the following chart illustrates, the total amount of rainfall in 2023 was significantly less than that in 2022.

As reported in the The Tico Times: "Due to the El Niño phenomenon, Costa Rica experienced lower than normal rainfall in 2023 across most of the country, ending the year with a precipitation deficit in almost all regions."

The Barber of San Roque de Grecia

With apologies to Gioachino Rossini (The Barber of Seville)!

I had the best haircut with the best ambience ever this morning! My hair has been needing a trim for far too long. I had made an appointment with another salon this week but when I arrived they were closed, nobody showed up to open the shop and so we left.

Our town of San Roque de Grecia has a barber shop and salon - Barbería Gómez. We were in San Roque this morning for other reasons and I said to Lance that we should stop at this shop and I’ll see if I can get a cut.

I walked in and there were two men sitting in two traditional barber chairs. One was obviously the barber because he was wearing the traditional white barber jacket. So I apologized for my poor Spanish and indicated I needed a trim.

I thought maybe they would send me to the room where women’s hair seems to be dealt with but, no, I got seated into a real barber chair! It even had small ashtrays built into the chair arms, back in the days when people smoked indoors. I have never been in a barber chair before. On went the hair cutting cape and the cutting began. It was obvious that I was in the hands of a professional.

But it gets better! There was a guitar placed on a small sofa used for seating customers. The second fellow that was there when I arrived picked it up and started playing classical guitar. Then they both started singing Spanish songs. It was amazing. I had live music the whole time I was in the chair.

My hair is wavy/curly and I guess a bit tricky to cut. It came out just the way I wanted it. Other salons have tried to straighten it before cutting and I can never handle it once I get home. Barbería Gómez is the only place I am going to from now on.

Cost: 5,000 CRC (about $9.67 USD) and I gave him a 1 mil tip (1,000 CRC or about $1.93 USD).    

Here is a link to listen to the Singing Barbers:  https://fb.watch/poXeZxUQgV/