This and That

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Random ramblings and some fotos of our life here in Costa Rica.

Breakfast at Donde Maye in our town of Grecia. Top foto - the best Denver omelette, bottom foto - the best shrimp omelette.

Bananas from our friend and housekeeper Soleida and fresh coconuts every week from the Coco Guy who delivers them to our gate.

It’s the rainy season and we get fogged in. Views from our house.

The Case of the Mangled Bread Slices

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Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to read is true. No names have been changed to protect the innocent because we do not have a name, just a culprit.

Yesterday morning, as per my usual routine, I arose early and went to the kitchen to put the coffee pot on.

And this is what greeted me:

The package of bread had been opened and two slices taken out. Both slices had pieces missing. Neither I nor my assistant detective had a clue (ha!) as to how this could have occurred.

It had to be an animal that had somehow gained entry to our house during the night. I started my  investigation. All windows had been shut and I thought all the doors were closed. There are five entryways into our house.

My next move was to check the garage. There are two entry/exit points here. One was closed. One was open (I forgot to shut it the day before).

And ……. there was a little face staring at me from the back of the garage. It was the face of this suspect:

The neighbour’s Siamese cat! He has started to come around and visit us. I guess he felt the need for a late night snack and he came in through the open door. How he opened the bread bag and removed two pieces will remain a mystery. Our suspect wasn’t talking.

Case closed.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - May 2024

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During May, visits to this blog were received from the following 14 countries and 1 unidentified location:

Each country is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012. With regard to the unidentified location, see my blog post on August 4, 2023.

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. the U.S. Virgin Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States from which 1 visit has been received.

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

The daytime high temperatures are shade temperatures. The average high in May this year was slightly lower than May last year. At the same time, total rainfall during May this year was higher (and fortunately so) than May last year.

Until the beginning of May, the total rainfall this year was about 42% less than in 2023 and about 72% less than in 2022. This behavior can be attributed to the El Niño climate pattern and is not unique to our area. Reduced rainfall and, in some areas, outright drought conditions developed throughout the country.

The situation recently reached a tipping point. On May 7, the Costa Rica Institute of Electricity (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad) aka ICE (pronounced "ee-say" in Spanish) announced that power rationing with circulating power-outs would begin on May 13 unless depleted water reservoirs of the country's hydroelectric dams were replenished. If things did not improve, we were scheduled to lose power from 1300 hrs to 1600 hrs each day. Others in different parts of Costa Rica may have been scheduled differently.

But, it never happened. Enough rain came to save the day. As the following chart indicates, the rainfall in our area in 2024 is on a trajectory surpassing that in 2023.

Moreover, we understand that the undesirable El Niño climate pattern will soon be drawing to an end.

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.

Thirteen Years!

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As I have done every year on this day since we moved to Costa Rica, I post this photo that I took:

This crossword puzzle was completed on our plane travelling from Dallas, Texas, to Juan Santamaría Airport, Alajuela. We touched down around 8:30 pm I believe and taxied to Hotel Aranjuez in San José. There we stayed for a week seeing our lawyer regarding our residency applications and getting to know some of the city.

We came down with seven suitcases and our cat, Genny. Genny was sent ahead of us with World Pet Travel and boarded in a vet office until we picked her up a week later. We taxied to Finca Huetares in Atenas where we stayed for a month while looking for a house to rent in the Atenas area.

Instead of flying right to Costa Rica, we chose a leisurely trip via train from Vancouver, British Columbia on the Amtrak Cascades and then to San Francisco on the Amtrak Coast Starlight. There we stayed for a few days enjoying that city.

On our way - San Francisco to Dallas to Alajuela airport. And the rest is history. 

Some photos:

Champagne on the train in our roomette.

Goodbye!

First breakfast in Costa Rica at the Hotel Aranjuez.

Off Topic Item

Here is the latest issue of El Residente magazine, published by the Association of Residents of Costa Rica, of which we have been members for many years. They did our initial residency applications and renewals.

Coconuts

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Every Thursday, a nice fellow drives up to our gate with my weekly delivery of five cocos - all ready to have a hole poked in one end and a straw inserted.

Here is this week’s delivery:

To locate where to punch a hole (I use a screwdriver), select the end that has three whitish coloured marks:

One of them will allow your screwdriver to go through to the water. It would be better to punch two holes but I’ve never been able to get the screwdriver through the other two marks. There are gadgets that will do this - I should look for one.

Here is what Healthline has to say about the benefits of coco water. Sometimes I break the shell completely open and scrape out the coco meat and make coconut milk with it. 

We are starting to eat our own mangos now. Picked three today and they will ripen in time inside the house. We also have these fruit trees: avocado, lime and a type of sour orange.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - April 2024

Click on images to enlarge.

During April, visits to this blog were received from the following 15 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. Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States from which 13 visits have been received.

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

The temperatures are shade temperatures. The average daytime high in April this year was slightly higher than April last year. At the same time, total rainfall during April this year was about 1 inch (25 mm) higher than April last. There were 10 days with measurable rain in April this year. There were only 3 such days last year.

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.

El Yigüirro and White Wing Wasps

(Click on images to enlarge).

The national bird of Costa Rica is the yigüirro (Turdus grayi), also known as the clay-colored robin. This bird is widespread and common up to 2,400 m. although uncommon in the northwest pacific.

We have them around our house and their singing heralds the start of the rainy season. You can read more about them here. Their song is very similar to the red-breasted robin (aka American robin) found in Canada and the USA.

Recently some small wasps with white wing tips decided to take up residence on one of our outdoor wall ornaments. They built a small structure (about 3” high) and are busy going in and out of the cells - laying eggs I guess.

The nest has not increased in size and they don’t bother us. They just go about their waspy business.

I’m guessing that they are white wing wasps. If anyone has an accurate ID, I would like to have it.

I made a video of the yigüirros singing one morning and also included some footage of the wasps.