Miscellaneous Goings On

It’s official - I’m an honourary Tica! Hernan Agustin Carazo gave me this certificate. Although we moved to Costa Rica sight unseen, we did plenty of research beforehand and were prepared to fully embrace a new culture.

Soleida, our housekeeper, gave me this Schlumbergera cactus and it is loaded with blooms:

This article on the best places to retire in 2024 details several countries. Costa Rica is rated #1 and is at the end of the article. What interested me about all the countries listed is the high quality of health care available in each one.

ARCR (Association of Residents of Costa Rica) has recently published the 2024 November-December issue of its EL RESIDENTE magazine. Lance and I are members of ARCR.

The magazine contains many articles and references which may be of general interest or to those planning a visit or move to Costa Rica.

By the way, and for quite some time, the right hand sidebar of my blog included a widget that identified worldwide locations from which visits to the blog were being received. Sometime yesterday it stopped doing so. No rotating globe or other information appears in the panel below the heading "VISITS SINCE 9/29/2016".

The ongoing source of the information was RevolverMaps and I now have a message that the website is "down for everyone" and not just me. It appears they have failed to renew their HTTPS security certificate. If the problem is not fixed, then I may try something different.

Update

On November 16, the following message appeared when trying to access or use the RevolverMaps website: "RevolverMaps has shut down. Many thanks to all users and supporters of the service!"

I am now trying an alternative service called "ClustrMaps". Its primary purpose is to enable a name or address search in the U.S. But, it also provides a widget that logs the locations of visits to a website or blog from anywhere in the world. A globe display of that widget now appears in the right hand sidebar of my blog. The number of identified locations (green dots) is sparse and just beginning but will increase with time.

If you click on the globe, that should bring up a separate page with a world map projection and detailed visitor location information. Strictly, the location information for any visitor is apt to be the location of the server of the visitor's ISP (Internet Service Provider). That location may not necessarily coincide with the visitor's physical location.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - October 2024

During October, visits to this blog were received from the following 16 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. Guadeloupe, an Overseas Department and Region of France from which 2 visits have been received.

_____________________________________________

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

In the late morning on October 12 (about 11:43 a.m. to be precise), the alarm on our rain gauge sounded to indicate that a rain event had begun. But there was nary a drop of water falling from the sky. Instead, there was a magnitude 6.2 earthquake taking place just off the coast in the Pacific Ocean near Tamarindo:

The distance from the earthquake epicenter to our house in San Roque de Grecia is about 129 miles (208 km). We felt vibrations from the quake for several seconds but they were small and of no consequence except to trigger the rain guage to falsely register the first 0.01 inches (0.25 mm) of the day.

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.

Hear! Hear!

Last Wednesday morning, I woke up with a spinning sensation in my head. When I tried to sit up I just flopped back down like a rag doll. Eventually I was able to stand up and walk without falling. The sensation gradually eased off during the morning.

The same thing happened on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, the dizziness did not ease off at all and we decided I needed to see a doctor. Our Ebais is not open on weekends. We could have gone to the Grecia hospital but it can be chaos there, especially when one’s Spanish is not up to medical terminology standards.

We decided to call our Costa Rican friend, Minor. He is an EMT (emergency medical technician) and bilingual. I Whatsapp’d him and he replied within a very short time. Minor agreed that I needed attention soon and suggested we go to Clínica Médica Sanchez in Grecia. He knows Dr. Sanchez. Minor even called the clinic and got an appointment for me that same day.

This clinic is very impressive. The waiting area has super comfortable seating and there is an indoor atrium. The nurse came to get me to take my weight, height, blood pressure and heart rate. Back to the waiting area and soon Dr. Sanchez came for me and we went with him to his office. A plus - he is bilingual.

History and examination completed, Dr. Sanchez determined ear blockage was the cause of the vertigo. He wrote me up three prescriptions, one being ear drops. I was taken to a room that had two hospital beds and a really comfy recliner. Into the recliner I went, hooked up to an IV, covered with a blanket, lights dimmed and told to have a nap. Of course that didn’t happen.

About an hour later, I was unhooked from the IV. Instructions: no driving, no gym, back in a week for ear irrigation, and rest. The vertigo meds helped quite a bit but by Tuesday the continuous dizziness had returned. Back we went to see Dr. Sanchez.

This time he irrigated both ears and the results were fast. I was still dizzy but could hear much better and the pressure in my head had improved a lot. It took a few days to feel 100% back to normal.

I’m going to the gym tomorrow and driving myself there.

I highly recommend Clinica Medica Sanchez.

By the way: when you see a price such as 40,000 colones on the Clinica Medica Sánchez Facebook page, that currently translates to about USD $78.00 or CDN $108.00. In Canada, the rub is that it does not allow a public (Ebais) system plus a private (e.g. Sanchez) system to co-exist.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - September 2024

During September, visits to this blog were received from the following 13 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. Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.

_____________________________________________

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

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.

Miscellanous Photographs/El Residente Magazine

Click on images to enlarge.

Here is the gym I go to twice a week:

I go early in the morning. It’s about a 7 minute drive from our house - and that was one of the reasons I chose it. If I had to drive half an hour or more each way I’m pretty sure I would not have stuck with the routine. 

Across the road from the gym, there are tall dirt banks bordering on sugar cane fields. Some creative person carved these images into the bank:

We see some pretty amazing morning skies from our house:

That’s an orchid.

Speaking of orchids, I have several in bloom right now:

We had breakfast recently at Victoria Cafeteria. They are situated in a typical wooden Costa Rican house. We always eat outdoors - it’s the nicest setting.

Walkway from the house.

Just down the road from the restaurant is a large soccer field and this day a game was on.

The palm trees along the road were painted in the colours of the Costa Rican flag. September 15th was Independence Day.

ARCR (Association of Residents of Costa Rica) has recently published the 2024 September-October issue of its EL RESIDENTE magazine. Lance and I are members of ARCR.

The magazine contains many articles and references which may be of general interest or to those planning a visit or move to Costa Rica.

Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - August 2024

Click on images to enlarge.

During August, visits to this blog were received from the following 12 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. Curaçao, a Netherlands Constituent in the Caribbean, from which 6 visits have been received.

By the way, I have come to the conclusion that the number of PAGEVIEWS which appear in the right hand sidebar of my blog are a total fiction. On August 17, the number of PAGEVIEWS recorded by the blog app I use was recorded as "1342". I doubt that my blog contains 1342 pages. Concurrently, the number of visits recorded by the RevolverMaps app that I also use was recorded as "6".

Frankly, I think the PAGEVIEWS numbers are significantly inflated. I expect they are the result of automated Web scraping and do not represent the actual number of pages viewed by real persons.

_____________________________________________

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

The daytime high temperatures are shade temperatures. Both the average high in August this year and the average overnight low were slightly higher than August last year.

Concurrently, the total rainfall in August this year was about 2 inches (25 mm) less than the amount last year. Nevertheless, the year to August month end total was about 11.5 inches (291 mm) higher than for the same period last year. This is a good thing. Otherwise, the water reservoirs for Costa Rica's hydroelectric dams could drop dangerously low and that could lead to power blackouts.

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.

Miscellaneous Happenings - In and Around Grecia

 Click on images to enlarge.

One common occurrence in Costa Rica is people arriving at the gate of one’s house with something to sell. I have bought pens, a home made apron, etc., and last week Steven arrived. He has been here before selling baked goods that he and his wife make and sell. He’s really nice, as they all are.  He was carrying two large bins of different products. Steven’s English is virtually flawless. 

Regarding English speakers in Costa Rica. This seems to becoming the norm here. Since the time of our arrival in this country in 2011, the fluency of locals in English has improved far beyond our fluency in Spanish. I think this reflects that English as a second language is now being emphasized in Costa Rican schools.

In my view, the most important languages any child might be taught in school are English, Spanish and Chinese. I do Duolingo Spanish lessons every day but will never be fluent because of age. It’s a different story with young folks.

He actually had biscuits made with no sugar so I bought those. They are very good paired with my morning coffee. Also bought some flaky sweet rolls for Lance. He asked me to share his info wherever I can and I promised I would. So give him a call - he will deliver. Here is his info:

His contact information.

Sugarless biscuits on top, sweet buns on bottom.

Recently a neighbourhood cat has been visiting us. I don’t know exactly where her home is but it must be close by. She is in fine shape and obviously someone’s pet. This is not unusual in Costa Rica. Pets are often free to roam around and have a particular route that they follow and people that they visit.

She’s a lovely Siamese.

I have four orchids in bloom right now.

Guarianthe Aurantiaca (I have two of these).

Two phalaenopsis, different colours.

I finished a painting - “Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow”. Acrylic and Prismacolor pencils on Daler board, 24x18 ins. Photo reference courtesy of Terence Porter.

You can see more of my artwork here.

We had breakfast this morning at Victoria Cafeteria, a five minute drive from our house. This photo shows the view just a very short drive away from the restaurant.