Miscellanous Photographs/El Residente Magazine

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Here is the gym I go to twice a week:

I go early in the morning. It’s about a 7 minute drive from our house - and that was one of the reasons I chose it. If I had to drive half an hour or more each way I’m pretty sure I would not have stuck with the routine. 

Across the road from the gym, there are tall dirt banks bordering on sugar cane fields. Some creative person carved these images into the bank:

We see some pretty amazing morning skies from our house:

That’s an orchid.

Speaking of orchids, I have several in bloom right now:

We had breakfast recently at Victoria Cafeteria. They are situated in a typical wooden Costa Rican house. We always eat outdoors - it’s the nicest setting.

Walkway from the house.

Just down the road from the restaurant is a large soccer field and this day a game was on.

The palm trees along the road were painted in the colours of the Costa Rican flag. September 15th was Independence Day.

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

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

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - August 2024

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During August, visits to this blog were received from the following 12 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. Curaçao, a Netherlands Constituent in the Caribbean, from which 6 visits have been received.

By the way, I have come to the conclusion that the number of PAGEVIEWS which appear in the right hand sidebar of my blog are a total fiction. On August 17, the number of PAGEVIEWS recorded by the blog app I use was recorded as "1342". I doubt that my blog contains 1342 pages. Concurrently, the number of visits recorded by the RevolverMaps app that I also use was recorded as "6".

Frankly, I think the PAGEVIEWS numbers are significantly inflated. I expect they are the result of automated Web scraping and do not represent the actual number of pages viewed by real persons.

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

The daytime high temperatures are shade temperatures. Both the average high in August this year and the average overnight low were slightly higher than August last year.

Concurrently, the total rainfall in August this year was about 2 inches (25 mm) less than the amount last year. Nevertheless, the year to August month end total was about 11.5 inches (291 mm) higher than for the same period last year. This is a good thing. Otherwise, the water reservoirs for Costa Rica's hydroelectric dams could drop dangerously low and that could lead to power blackouts.

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.

Miscellaneous Happenings - In and Around Grecia

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One common occurrence in Costa Rica is people arriving at the gate of one’s house with something to sell. I have bought pens, a home made apron, etc., and last week Steven arrived. He has been here before selling baked goods that he and his wife make and sell. He’s really nice, as they all are.  He was carrying two large bins of different products. Steven’s English is virtually flawless. 

Regarding English speakers in Costa Rica. This seems to becoming the norm here. Since the time of our arrival in this country in 2011, the fluency of locals in English has improved far beyond our fluency in Spanish. I think this reflects that English as a second language is now being emphasized in Costa Rican schools.

In my view, the most important languages any child might be taught in school are English, Spanish and Chinese. I do Duolingo Spanish lessons every day but will never be fluent because of age. It’s a different story with young folks.

He actually had biscuits made with no sugar so I bought those. They are very good paired with my morning coffee. Also bought some flaky sweet rolls for Lance. He asked me to share his info wherever I can and I promised I would. So give him a call - he will deliver. Here is his info:

His contact information.

Sugarless biscuits on top, sweet buns on bottom.

Recently a neighbourhood cat has been visiting us. I don’t know exactly where her home is but it must be close by. She is in fine shape and obviously someone’s pet. This is not unusual in Costa Rica. Pets are often free to roam around and have a particular route that they follow and people that they visit.

She’s a lovely Siamese.

I have four orchids in bloom right now.

Guarianthe Aurantiaca (I have two of these).

Two phalaenopsis, different colours.

I finished a painting - “Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow”. Acrylic and Prismacolor pencils on Daler board, 24x18 ins. Photo reference courtesy of Terence Porter.

You can see more of my artwork here.

We had breakfast this morning at Victoria Cafeteria, a five minute drive from our house. This photo shows the view just a very short drive away from the restaurant.