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| View of Atenas from our veranda in Atenas, Costa Rica. |
Today’s photos are from our post on this date in 2017 while living in a gorgeous home in Atenas, Costa Rica. For more details, please click here.
While reviewing photos from past posts on this date, I stopped looking when I found these from 2017 while we spent four months at the luxurious villa, La Perla, in the sleepy little town of Atenas, Costa Rica. The still-active listing for this fabulous holiday home may be found here.
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| This is a Rufous-naped Wren sitting atop the African Tulip Tree, captured from the veranda. |
Recently, we contacted our friends, the owners, Bev and Sam out of sheer curiosity. Could we return to this property for 90 days to wait while more borders opened up, allowing us to continue on our travels thereafter? Surely, it would be a much better situation than we’re in now!
Unfortunately, it’s impossible for us to commit to a property at this point when we have no idea when we’d be able to fly out of India when international flights out of here limited to only a few locations, all of which, at this point are other locations in India and a few countries we aren’t interested in visiting. That doesn’t do us any good.
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| Frog visitor on the bumper of the rental car while at Supermercado Coopeatenas. |
From this news story, flights that are available at this time, are as follows:
“India has entered into “bilateral air bubble agreements” with 18 countries. Under these agreements, two countries agree to operate direct passenger flights both ways in order to operate normal flights between them once things get back to normal after the pandemic.
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| Giant iguana at Zoo Ave. |
The list of countries India has a travel bubble with is the US, the UK, Germany, France, the UAE, Maldives, Canada, Japan, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Qatar, Iraq, Oman, Bhutan, Kenya, Bangladesh, and Ukraine.
Traveling to Afghanistan from India can be done by Afghan nationals, Indian and foreign nationals with valid visas and passports, and the same for those traveling to India as mentioned by guidelines under the MHA. Similar criteria lie for Bahrain, Kenya, and Bhutan, Iraq, Japan, Maldives, Qatar, UK, USA, and Oman. The airline will have to finally ensure that there are no other travel restrictions for the people traveling under the particular visa permit before issuing their tickets and boarding passes.”
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| Stunning blooms, Pine Cone Ginger. |
We could travel to Kenya but medical care there is horrific, making it unrealistic for us to return during the pandemic. We considered the Maldives but it wasn’t a good possibility due to poor medical care, only 30-day visas, and also very high prices for hotels and holiday homes, far beyond our budget.
The other countries don’t appeal to us due to political unrest, massive cases of COVID-19, poor medical care, and/or a lack of availability of the type of holiday homes we’d be interested in renting. We aren’t interested in traveling to Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, Oman, Bhutan, and Bahrain.
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| An Owl Butterfly we spotted in the courtyard with what appears to be a large eye to scare off predators. |
We have three cruises booked in and around Japan in 2022 and would prefer to wait until that time when we’ll visit various ports of call and possibly stay in a holiday home for a period of time. Hopefully, by that time, we’ll be able to cruise again and the pandemic will be under control.
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| Mom and calf in the neighborhood. |
This is the way that it is. We wait.
Be well.
Photo from one year ago today, November 20, 2019:
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| While in Minnesota last year, we stayed with friends Karen and Rich when their beautiful property was listed for sale and has since sold. They are moving to a warmer climate. For more photos, please click here. |