The view of the main pool from the master bedroom. These sliding doors and others on the adjacent wall open wide with fine screens to keep out insects. It’s such a treat for us to have screens! The louvered slats above the sliding doors allow cool air to enter the room when the doors are closed.

“Sightings from the Veranda in Costa Rica”

This morning at 6:00 am as the clouds continued to roll in.

Since taking the above photo at 6:00 am this morning, the clouds and fog have rolled into a greater degree and we can’t see across the valley at 7:30 am as I sat down to begin posting.  The temperature is in the low 70F’s, (21C) but the humidity is high and everything feels sticky.

Other than the moisture we feel under our feet while gingerly walking barefoot on the somewhat slippery-when-wet tile floor of the veranda this type of weather doesn’t bother us a bit. 

The sauna/steam room is accessible via a door in the master en suite bathroom which also has a door leading out to the veranda to the cold plunge pool.

We have much more to face in the way of inclement weather in the many months to come, particularly in Antarctica and Africa upcoming in the next many months. 

As we observe today’s date of August 9th, we predict we’ll be landing in Mpumalanga Nelspruit-Kruger Airport six months from today or tomorrow, depending on which flight we choose.

This short walk from the sauna/steam room toward to the cold plunge pool for a refreshing event after the heat.

Now, reveling in this peaceful, relatively uneventful period in Costa Rica, as we spend time bird watching over the lush canopy of trees surrounding us, we’re on a mission to get a number of tasks accomplished that we’ve put off for awhile. 

Although neither of us is procrastinators, the nature of our lifestyle often leaves us prioritizing based on its level of importance and/or urgency.  Spending the last over two months in the US, left us little time or motivation to work on some of the project’s we’re mentioning today.

Even this hallway between the living room and screening room has ample closets and decor.

In the past 24 hours, we’ve handled the following appointments:
1.  Friday’s upcoming phone meeting with our accountant in order to get 2016’s taxes completed before October’s due date (we had to get an extension when the box of our documents was lost and later found).
2.  Dentist appointments for both of us on August 21st (a 45-minute drive from Atenas.
3.  A car rental for five days beginning on August 21st enabling us to drive ourselves the long distance.
4.  Found a hotel for the 31-nights in Buenos Aires from December 23, 2017, through January 23, 2018, plus one additional night when the Antarctica cruise ends on February 8th (after which we’ll fly to South Africa as indicated above).

Once the hotel booking for Buenos Aires is wrapped up at the corporate rate, we’ll share the details and the excellent pricing in what appears to be an ideal hotel for our needs over this extended period. 

The villa is not only tastefully decorated but has many useful special areas.

We don’t love staying in hotels for a month or more but we needed to be able to store our luggage since the round trips flights to Ushuaia Argentina where we’ll board the ship, have serious weight restrictions (smaller planes).

As for the dentist appointments, they’re long overdue.  The last time we had our teeth cleaned and checked was in Trinity Beach in July 2015.  Since that period, Tom had an abscessed tooth pulled (a wisdom tooth) in New Plymouth New Zealand in 2016.  At the time we couldn’t find a dentist that did cleaning or we could have had it done then.

This courtyard creates a pleasing entrance to the property!

Not only do we both desperately need a cleaning but Tom’s lost two fillings and I’ve lost one.  Neither of us cares to have more dental crowns so we’re hoping they can refill the teeth. 

Yesterday, we called and spoke and spoke to an English speaking staff member who explained it would be no problem to refill/repair the broken fillings.  They have nine English speaking dentists in the clinic and are highly rated by the expat community in Costa Rica.  This was quite a relief.  We’ll report back how this goes.

Fountain in the center courtyard.

It feels good to finally be addressing these issues.  That’s not to say we don’t have plenty of work ahead of us to get these items wrapped up but at least the ball is rolling after a lengthy period of distractions.

At the moment, Tom’s sitting in the screening room watching US news he found on the TV while I’m comfortably situated outdoors on the veranda on this cloudy damp day.  Perhaps, I’m preparing myself for spending entire days on the veranda as we contemplate doing the same upcoming in Marloth Park.  Bugs?  Snakes?  Heat?  Humidity?  Bring it on, baby!

Plants and flowers in the entrance center courtyard.

Enjoy the beginning of a series of interior photos of this amazing villa in Atenas, Costa Rica!

Happy day to all!

Photo from one year ago today, August 9, 2016:

Memorial markers at a local cemetery in Phuket Thailand.  For more photos, please click here.