An iguana is basking in the sun.

“Sightings on the Veranda in Costa Rica”

Tom’s photo from the veranda of this Flame-colored Tanager.

Over the next several days, we’ll be posting Tom’s photos (at quite a distance)from where he was seated on the veranda while I was indoors ironing clothes. He considered coming to get me but feared if he moved, his gorgeous subjects would fly away.

Entrance sign to Zoo Ave (In this case, “ave” refers to “aviary” in Spanish.

I was impressed by his photos. Although a bit blurry from the long-distance, many clearly defined various feathered species landing in the vast amount of greenery surrounding this lovely Atenas property.

We’re looking forward to sharing the photos in our “Sightings on the Veranda in Costa Rica” section over the next several days. As we wind down these remaining 12 days in Costa Rica, we’ll finish posting photos we’d yet to share from various sightseeing venues we visited during our over three-month stay in Atenas.

Map of all of the animal rescue areas at Zoo Ave in Alajuela.

With time rapidly wafting away, I knew the time had come for me to order a new laptop. My current Acer laptop is definitely on its last leg after purchasing it while we were on the Big Island, Hawaii, around Christmas-time in 2014, making it almost three years old.

With Africa on the horizon, I’m reminded of my difficulty when I dropped my computer in 2014, breaking the screen, making it entirely unusable. It’s the longest I’ve had a laptop survive since the onset of our travels in 2012. Click on this link here for details.

Giant turtle on a rock.

It was frustrating trying to find a replacement in Nelspruit, South Africa, resulting in my purchasing a low-quality HP with difficulty with the letter “t.” I kept that awful piece of equipment until January 2015, after the family visit on the Big Island in Hawaii when I replaced it, making a new purchase at the Costco store in Hilo.

She was sunning and funning.

Many have asked why we don’t switch to Apple products and why we don’t use iPad or other tablets instead of clunky laptops often weighing more than 5 pounds (2.27 kg.). With Tom’s sturdy backpack, he has no trouble lugging around both of our laptops.

It’s funny how most of us get stuck on name brands and features we’re not willing to forgo. For both of us, they include a 15.6 touchscreen, HDMI outlet, one terabyte of storage, and a lighted keyboard. Such specs aren’t always easy to find.

Turtles are stretching their necks toward the warmth of the sun.

Now that all new PC products have Windows 10 operating systems, which neither of us favors than Windows 8, we found we have no choice but to adapt to this more unique and often painstaking system. 

But, like Tom, who purchased his laptop from Amazon on our site in April 2017, which we had sent to us in Fairlight, Australia, arriving on April 5th, 19 days before our departure on a cruise to the US, at an outrageous expense of US $400 (227,862) for the shipping costs alone.

Pelican is lounging with turtles on a log in a pond.

To avoid a similar shipping expense and being reminded of the difficulty we had making a replacement purchase in South Africa, we decided to purchase a new laptop for me from Amazon now, having it shipped to our mailing service (free shipping with Prime).

Once it arrives on Monday, our mailing service will ship the laptop and our other supplies and clothing purchases for the Antarctica cruise and the lengthy period we’ll spend in Africa. This way, the entire contents can be insured and shipped to the hotel in Florida (where we’ll be for one night on November 22nd). Since it won’t be international shipping (Nevada to Florida), we’re hoping it will arrive on time and intact.

It’s so much more meaningful to see birds in the wild than in cages such as this, although they were rescued.

Since my current Acer product still works, we plan to keep it and bring it to Africa. Once it arrives in Florida, I’ll have time during the 30-nights on the ship to transfer all my data and get everything set up. If the old laptop holds up until February, we’ll keep it and use it as a small TV screen if we don’t have a TV in the vacation property, which is often the case in Africa.

May your day be filled with sunshine and light.

View of the bridge from our veranda where the ship’s navigation is conducted by the captain and his crew. For more photos, please click here.