Rain/Lluvia

On Thursday, the 22nd, we received 3.4 inches of rain, the highest in a single day where we live in Vista Atenas for this month of August. We were in Atenas when it started, just as we were finishing lunch. By the time we got home, it had reached our house. I had laundry drying on the line and managed to get some things unpegged and into the laundry basket but just left the sheets and pillow cases as they were already soaked.

I figured they would get a nice rinsing from the lovely tropical rain and the sun would dry them the next day. Wouldn't they smell wonderful .... wrong! I forgot about the bats. Currently, we have many of them doing bug patrol every night. We haven't actually seen them yet but they leave their calling cards everywhere. Everything got rewashed the following day.

When our garden trash removal guy, Mario, and his workers were here on Wednesday we showed him where the upper level berm had given way earlier in the week and caused the flood in our house. "No problemo" and five minutes later they had dug a ditch and filled in the berm. Thursday's mega rainfall showed their handiwork had done the job to prevent more flooding, although some soil erosion was seen and husband Lance went up the hill to do a bit of repair work.

You can read Lance's monthly weather reports for where we live at Paul and Gloria Yeatman's monthly newsletter, Retire For Less in Costa Rica. Paul keeps weather records for San Ramon, where they live. They live at a higher elevation then we do and it is interesting comparing the weather between the two places.

The repaired berm after Thursday's rain

Lance doing a bit of repair.

 

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Tracking the Weather in Atenas

My husband Lance is collaborating with Paul and Gloria Yeatman on keeping daily rainfall and temperature statistics for both Atenas and San Ramon, a town that is at a higher elevation than Atenas and therefore experiences different rainfall and weather patterns. Costa Rica is a country of microclimates. Many think that the country may be uncomfortably hot and humid. That is simply not so. It depends on where you choose to live.

Paul and Gloria live in San Ramon and have a very informative and interesting website called "Retire For Less in Costa Rica". They share many of our philosophies about living a simpler life with less "stuff" to clutter up your space and mind. Their site offers lots of helpful information about living in Costa Rica.

Lance recently received a rain gauge as a gift from our friends and neighbours, Rose Mary and Tony ... thank you! On the days we have rain, he records the amount of rainfall and also the daily high and low temperatures at our altitude. It is interesting to compare the different figures between Atenas and San Ramon, especially for those people researching living in the Central Valley of Costa Rica and wondering what area would suit them best.

Lance's rain gauge

Notice the nice green pole the gauge is mounted on. It is mounted in an area unobstructed by overhead foliage. We went to the Atenas hardware store, Vargas, and found the perfect piece of wood behind the store in their lumber area. It even had a pointed end to drive into the ground. Then we bought some outdoor green spray paint for the pole and a couple of screws to loosely mount the gauge on the pole. The loose mounting allows the gauge to be lifted away from the pole to eye level for reading, emptied of water, and placed back on the pole with ease - ready and set for the next day's reading.

 

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Information on Costa Rica

For excellent information on the cost of living and other important things people need to know about living in Costa Rica, please go to this site (Retire For Less in Costa Rica).

Paul and Gloria Yeatman live in San Ramon, in the Central Valley. They offer sensible advice on how to live here on a budget and still enjoy everything this wonderful country has to give us. They have kept meticulous records on their spending since arriving here in 2009 from Boston. They have embraced Costa Rica - the people and the culture.

We have the same mindset as Paul and Gloria. They are super people and great friends.

 

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Tortuga Island

This past Saturday, we went on a tour to Tortuga Island. This tour is offered by Varso Travel in conjunction with Gloria and Paul Yeatman of Retire For Less in Costa Rica.

For the very reasonable price of $64 each, an air conditioned shuttle bus picked us up in Atenas at 0700 and drove us to Puntarenas where our boat was waiting to depart at 0800. I think there were about 30 total in our group, which included Ticos, with 19 coming from Atenas. Without the shuttle bus, the price is $54 each but it was so nice not to have to drive oneself to and from Puntarenas.

Tortuga Island lies on the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, in front of the Curu Wildlife Refuge and is a tropical island paradise with white sand beaches.

Our bilingual crew were great - very knowledgeable and safety conscious. We were provided with information about each of the different islands we passed, the bird and sea life we were seeing. A thrill for all was seeing pods of dolphins close by the boat, leaping out of the water and playing in the boat's wake.

Snorkeling was included with all equipment provided. The sea this day was calm and the water crystal clear. We could see multi-colored tropical fish swimming everywhere. I wish now I had tried the snorkeling but figured the ocean was no place to start - a swimming pool would be better for a first try and I want to get my own equipment. One of our crew dived and brought up different sea creatures for us to touch and look at. Of course, everything was put carefully back into the ocean.

Motored on to Tortuga Island - a stunningly beautiful setting with white sands, palm trees and turquoise waters. Our crew started preparing fruit appetizers and lunch on the beach. Water, sodas and iced tea are included. We had several hours to swim or explore the island. We were asked not to take anything - no shells, no coral - and to leave nothing behind.

We left around 3:00 pm, I think - nobody was really keeping track of the time. All too soon, our boat trip was over and we landed at the dock in Puntarenas, where our shuttle bus was waiting for the hour long drive to Atenas.

I highly recommend this tour - we had a wonderful time and I think that was the farthest south in Costa Rica that we have been so far.

Beach towel

Snorkeling 

I've never seen a starfish like this one

Swam here - so beautiful. That 4 master in the background is for hire.

Lunch - rice, salad, BBQ chicken and tortillas. Fresh fruit was served for appetizers.

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.