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Saturday, January 4, 2025

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - December 2024 & Year End Review

Click on images to enlarge.

During November, visits to this blog were received from Hong Kong and the following 13 countries:


Each country and Hong Kong 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, the total number of countries and non-independent jurisdictions from which visits have been received rose to 137 in December. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions such as Hong Kong. The latest country was Iran. The location indicated by the visitor's IP address was Tehran which is Iran's capital city.



For 2024 as a whole, visits were received from 48 identifiable countries and non-independent jurisdictions. Also, the number of viewers of my YouTube video showing our landing back in 2017 at the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) in Costa Rica surpassed 10,000 in 2024. 

So far as I can tell, the video is somewhat unique - especially as it was taken while aboard a relatively large aircraft (a Boeing 757-200). There are many YouTube videos taken while a large aircraft descends from a distance to the SJO runway along a straight line flight path. In our case, the aircraft first flew from west to east slowly descending until over San José. Then it did a 180° turn ending with a low altitude steeply banked portion before straightening out and heading westward to land.


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


Compared to November which saw an uncharacteristic surge in rainfall, the amount in December was characteristically low and signaled the beginning of the dry season. As shown in the following chart, the amount of rain in December 2024 was about the same as December 2023.


However, all was not normal. On many days, there was a substantial amount of cloud cover throughout the day.  Often the cloud cover did not produce any rain but it shielded the sun and kept temperatures down. The average daytime high in December 2024 was 3.5°F (2.0°C) less than that in December 2023.

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.

Thursday, January 2, 2025

¡Feliz Año Nuevo! 2025

Another new year already. 2025 will mark our 14th year of living in this beautiful country. We have made lots of Costa Rican Tico friends and of course fellow expats.

Our Canadian friends Diane and John have returned here for six months and we’re planning a beach day in the future. 

I have paintings to finish. For instance, this one - “The Moo Crew”. Photo reference courtesy Nicola Butt.


This is another large one - 36”x24”. 

My Coco Man was here today and I was rewarded with a big smile and a hug when I greeted him with “Feliz Año Nuevo”. If you make the effort to speak Spanish, even if it comes out wonky, it is much appreciated. He shows up at our gate about every second week with prepared cocos that I keep in the fridge so I can enjoy cool coco water. It does have health benefits.

On New Year’s day we had lunch at Los Jardins Vivero y Cafe here in Grecia. Good food and a super ambience.

Happy New Year everyone!