Beach Day - 2016

A couple of weeks ago, a group of expats from Atenas and San Ramon, Costa Rica, met at Playa Dona Ana for a day of sun, ocean swimming, relaxing, chatting and just enjoying living in Costa Rica.

I made a short video of our day there. The monkeys were particularly bold ... I've never seen them coming down on the ground to grab pieces of bananas before. 

If you wish to watch the video full screen, click on the Youtube icon.

Passport to Paradise

Beach Day, Tuesday, January 14, 2014 ... the first Beach Day of the New Year, at Playa Doña Ana, Puntarenas. We met new people, including a couple from Victoria, British Columbia.

Thank you, Tom and Lee, for offering to take us with you. We stopped for breakfast along the way. The ocean this day was warm, with some swells. The first thing I always do when we arrive is jump into the ocean. I hope I never get tired of seeing the Pacific Ocean at this latitude and walking along all the beaches.

I made this silly video just for fun.

 

 

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Beach Day

On Tuesday of this week, December 3, 2013, a group of us from the Atenas and San Ramon areas of the Central Valley met at Playa Doña Ana, 10 km south of Puntarenas at the mouth of River Canyon on the Gulf of Nicoya.

Playa Doña Ana is a black sand beach (volcanic sand) protected by the ICT (Costa Rica Institute of Tourism). It has been awarded an Ecological Blue Flag by Costa Rica's National Blue Flag Commission. This is an annual certification awarded to communities scoring a minimum of 90% for all requirements: ocean water quality; quality of potable water; quality of coastal sanitation areas; coastal garbage and garbage containers; treated industrial waste; treated runoff water; environmental education; security and administration.

There is a nominal charge to enter, with plenty of parking outside the gates. There are showers, washrooms, change rooms, BBQ's, and covered and uncovered picnic tables. There is now also a restaurant but I do not know their hours of operation or if they are only open for special events. We always bring our own food and drinks so have not tried it.

One thing I like about this beach is that it is a Tico beach. We get to mingle with the Costa Ricans, who come here with their families. On this day, there was a Pops ice cream company picnic, with 72 people attending. Lance heard the number being counted off as he was waiting to pay our entry fees. So there were a lot of people at the beach, but still it was not crowded and not very noisy.

The resident white-throated capuchin monkeys are usually visible and will readily come part way down the trees for bananas. Please don't feed them anything else. I've seen junk food being offered.

Playa Doña Ana was the first Costa Rican beach we went to after moving here. I remember being so amazed, seeing the Pacific Ocean this far south, the waving palms, the tropical breezes, and then floating in the warm, salty water. Overhead flew flocks of brown pelicans and large seabirds (frigatebirds?) massing on the cliffs.

 

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I Was Crapped On (Literally) - A True Story

December 22 was Beach Day and we were delighted to be going again with our friends, Diane and John, and meeting up with the rest of the Beach Day gang. We're becoming such Beach Day addicts that we are planning on buying a proper cooler like the one D&J just bought.

Anyway, we were hauling our gear to a picnic table when .... splat! .... something wet landed on my head.  At first I thought maybe it was rain ... and I rubbed my head and it was sort of sticky. Then I had Lance take a good look and he wiped it with napkins and .... eeewwwhhh .... the napkin came away all yellow and brownish.

It was monkey poop!!!!

I changed into my bathing suit and went into the ocean pretty fast so I could wash the offending matter out of my hair with salt water before it made it's way into my brain ... well, probably that cannot happen but why take the chance.  I've heard that the monkeys will pee on the beach dogs so maybe they were sending me a message ...

Very Busy

Into our seventh month and we have been incredibility busy socially. We are so fortunate to have many wonderful friends and making more all the time. We feel privileged to be invited into their homes and sharing meals and good times.

Enjoyed Beach Day on Monday - how could one not enjoy it. Lots of waves to body surf in, good food, good friends. I'm going to have to get some more bathing suits. Going to the beach a couple of times a month is such a great idea - we get the best of both worlds living in the Atenas area and visiting Playa Dona Ana.

See the cart in the photo? The fellow sitting in the shade operates his little business making granizados -  he shaves ice off a big block, puts it into a cup, adds powdered milk (if you want it), more ice, condensed milk and then covers the whole thing in flavored syrup - they are SO good. Cost: 1 mil (1000 colones), or about 2 Canadian dollars. I hope he is at Playa Dona Ana every time we are. Granizados can also be had at the Atenas park.

I'm still looking for a pipa guy - the vendor takes a young coconut (pipa) from iced water, machetes off the top, sticks a straw through the flesh and there you have it - a refreshing drink. I think there is a vendor in the park - just haven't found him yet.

Jose, one of our gardeners, dropped by last Saturday and we gave him his Christmas bonus. We sat around and had coffee and practiced our Spanish with him. He showed me how to better prepare pineapple tops for planting. I wasn't removing enough of the lower leaves.

We had a large bunch of bananas that were ready to be picked and he showed us how to do that too. His first method was to just punch through the pseudo stem, then he pulled one completely over with his arms. We fetched him a saw - much better. Jose has arms like a weight lifter. So he sawed the whole banana plant down and then it was an easy matter to cut off the banana bunch.

Our first tropical Christmas is only ten days away. I draped a strand of lights over the lime tree stump and that is our Christmas tree.

 I so do not miss the craziness of a modern Canadian Christmas - all that endless mall shopping for stuff nobody needs, all that money spent, people making themselves crazy preparing too much food. It used to be simpler and that is how we want our Costa Rican Christmases to be - more meaningful and involving people, not products. Of course, it must also involve good food! but that doesn't mean I have to prepare it. Lots of businesses out there do it better than I can and we're helping to support the local economy.

The Previous Couple of Weeks

Just thinking back over the last few weeks:

We are now transitioning into the dry season and can expect more winds coming from a different direction - the north or the north northwest - which pushes the humid air coming from the west and southwest offshore. Already, we have experienced far less rain than we did in late October. My tomato plants suffered during those weeks but have bravely ripened a few tomatoes for us. I'll reseed again soon.

Halloween is a non-event in Costa Rica, which suited me fine. I had grown weary of buying overpriced, teeth rotting candy in Cloverdale and watching Genny being scared by the constant ringing of the doorbell. The young tykes are really cute and they finish trick and treating early but when the 16 year olds start showing up, it's time to shut the lights off and lock the door.

Instead, All Souls Day on November 2nd is observed with Catholic masses and Ticos head to cemeteries to pay respects to departed loved ones. Here in Atenas, all the crypts in the graveyard were covered in flowers. One of my taxi drivers drove me by so I could see. By the way, if anyone is interested in what happens to one after death in Costa Rica, go here to The Real Costa Rica and you'll get all the info.

We bought some moisture absorbing bags at WalMart, $22 CAD for a box of three. They are supposed to last 60 days but here is what they look like after two weeks so I guess we had a lot of moisture in our clothes cupboards. The crystals at the top absorb moisture which drips down into the bag at the bottom.

We discovered a new mall in Heredia - Paseo de las Flores - and our friends John and Diane picked me up one day and we went shopping. I bought Lance some badly needed clothes and I found some stuff for me also. The food court was enormous. I have to go back again soon so I can see all of the shops. It really is a big, big mall. Heredia is the capital city of the province of Heredia, and it is home to one of the largest colleges in Costa Rica, the National University of Costa Rica.

I also recently went shopping at one of Atena's Ropa Americana shops and found three cotton shirts for me. I should have listened to the shop keeper who suggested I try them on first. One is way too small (the tag says "petite", didn't notice it), one is too large but I like it because of the color and the larger fit lets the breezes in, and the third one fits more closely. So two out of three ain't bad. Final cost: $20 CAD.

Had another fabulous Beach Day this past Monday at Playa Dona Ana. About 25 like-minded souls showed up. We bobbed in the ocean, yakked, ate our lunches, fed the monkeys. If anyone reading this wants to join us, let me know.

That is Lance on the left.

I cut down a really big bunch of bananas from one of our trees. It must have weighed 50 lbs. at least or so it felt. Dragged it down the hill to our house and we hung it from one of the roof rafters outside. All the bananas are ripening amazingly fast, we can't eat enough of them to keep up. Our gardener Luis took some home with him today and I've set up two bird feeding stations in our lime tree where the over-ripe bananas are going. We are attracting birds we've never seen before.

So, as the sun sets gently tonight in Costa Rica and the air is filled with tropical scents, I wish everyone a peaceful night.

Playa Dona Ana

Last week, we had the good fortune to visit Playa Dona Ana with a great group of people of like minds as ourselves.

If you are already living in Costa Rica and want to join up with Beach Days, contact Paul and Gloria Yeatman at BY CLICKING HERE.  I've been following their web site for quite a while and finally got to meet both of them at last week's Beach Day. We don't have a vehicle so I asked Paul if anyone in the Atenas area was going and could we carpool with them.

Instant response from Sally and Len! Yes, they had two seats to offer in their SUV and we arranged to meet them at 0800 in front of Don YaYo restaurant on highway 3. Sally and Len are super people and we liked their beagle dog, Sprocket, who slept peacefully in his travel crate behind us. We drove the highway 3 route to the coast - the original road - the scenery is so amazing, just beautiful. We climbed up so high, lots of s-curves, then dropped down to the Pacific Coast. Len and Sally filled us in with all the local history of every area we drove through.

I think the drive took about 45 minutes - the traffic was light and road conditions good.

And there it was --- the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. So we have moved from the Pacific Coast of British Columbia to here.... and en route, over the years, we have experienced the Pacific Coasts of Washington, Oregon, California, and Mexico.

CLICK HERE to read more about this beach and where it is located. There is a small charge to park and get into the beach area. The first things we saw at the park gate were monkeys, beautiful white-throated capuchins. The park attendant was feeding them monkey snacks and they were taking them out of his hand. They are, of course, wild animals so they are very cautious. One female had a tiny baby clinging to her back.

Playa Dona Ana is an excellent beach to visit. It is very clean and safe and has a security guard. Workers  were raking the picnic area and beach the whole time we were there. They have washrooms, change rooms and showers. There are a lot of covered picnic areas with BBQ grills. No restaurant so bring your own food and drinks.

And bring bananas for the monkeys! We did and it was such a thrill to have these small monkeys gently and politely take bananas pieces from our outstretched hands.

The picnic area is heavily shaded with lovely trees so you can sit and read or nap. The day started out cloudy, the sun eventually came out, there was a brisk breeze off the ocean - it was marvelous. More humid than in Atenas.

I saw brown pelicans fishing and frigate birds riding the thermals. There are howler monkeys in the area but we neither saw nor heard them this day.

Ah, the water! So warm and salty. Perfect for body or boogie board surfing. The rip tides are very strong though. I couldn't get enough of the ocean and suffered for it the next day with a bright red burn. We need to be using much stronger sun block.

We met really nice people, made new friends and will do this trip as often as we can. One image that remains in my mind is of a Tico father and his son at the beach that day. Dad played with his boy for hours in the water and later they had a nap together on the beach.

Thanks again to Sally and Len!

Paradise

Picnic area

At low tide, it's possible to walk around this rock formation to the other side, which is where the surfers go.

Resident park kitty. Apparently the capuchins like to  chase it with sticks.