A year in Costa Rica

So now we have been in Costa Rica for a year more or less.  We spent the summer of 2016 traveling around the north part of the country and came back to the area where we started.  We rented a condo here for about a week before I had to be back in Austin for medical appointments.  Before we left we rented a condo on the beach for 6 months, October through March.  I'm glad I had the experience of living right on the beach but it isn't something I have to do again.  It wasn't a quiet place at all.  Lots of people vacation on the beach and when one is on vacation, one tends to do things, loud things, that one might never consider doing at home.

In March we moved into a lovely but small place owned by a lovely couple from Canada.  Things went well until mid April when construction began on the house next door.  By next door, I mean 15 feet from our bedroom window.  By began I mean starting before 7:30 am and continuing until at least 5pm, sometimes later.  If were were out of the house all day, it might not have been such a problem but as it was, we had to get out of there.  It took until July to find our current place, again owned by a man from Canada.  Like every other place we've lived or stayed here, it has been lived in or rented short term and we have had to buy a lot of things that we need for day to day functioning.  In the past year we have bought pots and pans,  dishes and drink ware, kitchen gadgets of various types, sheets and other bedding, a few but not many home decor items such as lamps.  We brought our own cutlery and flatware as well as towels and some bedding.  We are planning to bring more lamps (they are hard to find and very expensive here),  a few kitchen things that I haven't been able to find here, spices and other impossible to find food items, and a few other odds and ends for the car and house.  I mention this to let anyone who is thinking about moving to Costa Rica or another country to let you know that you may not find all the comforts of home.

We are now living in the jungle about 3 to 4 blocks from the beach.  I wish I could walk there but haven't felt strong enough yet.  We can sometimes hear the waves on still quiet nights if they are crashing very loudly.  We are in the last couple of months of the rainy season as I write this.  The mosquitos are starting to get worse.  We will be in the states during most of October and probably part of November trying to avoid them.  However, Hurricane Harvey dumped so much rain on Texas that I think they may be pretty bad there, too.

It will turn hot and dry here starting around Thanksgiving unless there is another unusual event such as Hurricane Otto last year.  Otto was the first hurricane ever recorded to come even close to Costa Rica.  It smashed into the Caribbean side where Costa Rica meets Nicaragua causing a lot of flooding and other damage but crossed over the mountains before it got to us up here in the northwest part of the country.  By the time it got to us, it was some fairly high winds and a lot of rain but not enough to cause flooding which had been the fear.  Since it was moving away from us, we didn't get a storm surge.  All together, we got off pretty lucky.  I have now experienced a hurricane, an earth quake, and various tornado producing storms.  I think that's about enough for one life time although I have to say that the quake was over before we realized what it was.

Photos: Top radon beach shot
Bottom: Lake Arenal


Soundtrack for this post:  Changes in Latitude  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56nHBah7mdE&list=RD56nHBah7mdE