Walk With Me

Walk with me today from our home in Vista Atenas to the town of Atenas. It's all downhill and will take about 45 minutes. It's a great day for a walk, overcast with a breeze.

East towards Atenas. Highway 3 is on the left.

Restaurante Bar Rill - another popular spot for a good meal - on the south side of Highway 3.

Bougainvillea

Three doggies having a snooze in a laneway.

I walked across Highway 3 to take this photo of the view facing north. This looks like a mango tree.

Grego's Bar - a good place to meet with friends on Thirsty Thursday nights.

Local pulparia (small grocery store).

Facing north, Highway 3

Bella Vista, newly opened Italian restaurant. Really good pizza and pasta. On the south side of Highway 3.

One of Costa Rica's famous hand painted ox carts.

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If you were going into Atenas, you would turn right here. I was going to the Supermercado Coopeatenas so kept walking straight ahead.

Impatiens plant - they grow wild here, even under sewer grates.

Another road into Atenas.

Soda Dona Elina - we've enjoyed inexpensive and good traditional Tico food here several times.

Atenas' one and only traffic light.

Our one and only gas station, north side of highway 3.

My final destination, the Supermercado Coopatenas,where I picked up a few groceries. Waiting for my taxi when this lovely fellow came over for a pat. In really nice condition.

And that's the end of today's walk. I hope the photos gave you some idea of our lovely town.

Mothers' Day in Costa Rica

Monday, August 15, is Mothers' Day here in Costa Rica. I was aware that the date was different from ours in Canada (the second Sunday in May). It's a big holiday here - Dia de la Madre, Feast of the Assumption-Mothers' Day - and is a national bank, school and business holiday.

We were grocery shopping at the Supermercado Coopeatenas this morning and had much more than 10 items to run through a till. However, the very nice fellow at the 10 or less till waved us over anyway. When he got close to ringing up our purchases, he asked me in Spanish if I understood Spanish, to which I replied "poco" (a bit, ha! and that's an exaggeration), and then I thought he asked if I knew tomorrow was Mothers' Day and I proudly said "Si"!

At that response, another fellow stepped up and handed me a lovely bouquet of flowers - apparently the actual question asked was "are you a mother?" and I said yes. Well, I'm not a mother but I have a mother ... so does that count? At least I was listening to what I was being asked and trying to understand what I was hearing.

Anyway, mother or not, I am so impressed that a grocery store was making this effort to honor the mothers that live in Atenas and area. I don't know how many grocery stores in Canada do this sort of thing. Here is a picture of the bouquet I was given - and the rose smells so nice.