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| Juan Ramon was excited to show us this bottle with a marble inside. |
“Sightings from the Veranda in Costa Rica”
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| Oranges growing in the yard. |
Soon, at 11:00 am, we’re picking up the rental car at the grocery store cafe. We’ll get most of the grocery shopping done, and then on Saturday, when we return the car, we’ll pick up a few more items to last until we rent the car again, nine days later.
This schedule is working well for us, leaving us stranded for only a part of each month. Also, we’re saving thousands of dollars in outrageous rental fees, insurance, and taxes while we’re continuing our strict budget during this period in Costa Rica.
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| A bucket and miscellaneous tools. |
After today, we’ll have paid for the upcoming 30-night back-to-back cruises on which we’ll embark in 66 days. Next month, we’ll pay the balance of the expensive Antarctica cruise at US $13,875 (CRC 8,003,794).
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| A stone toilet for an outhouse. Notice the corn cobs which were used in place of toilet paper. |
At that point, we won’t have to pay for another cruise until January 1, 2019, for a cruise on March 24, 2019, which sails from Santiago, Chile, to San Diego, California. From there, we’ll spend some time visiting family in the US once again how the time flies! That’s only 19 months from now!
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| Push mowers. We’ve yet to see a power mower being used in Atenas. |
We’ll be jumping around a bit, but this schedule worked out best for us when we were determined to spend about a year in Africa beginning this upcoming February.
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| Some heating equipment. |
Shortly after we decide where we’ll travel after visiting the US in 2019, we’ll be posting a new itinerary. We continue to discuss our options, but the world is a huge place. At that point, we’ll have visited all seven continents and be returning to countries we’d yet to visit.
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| A small kiln is used for cooking. |
Also, watching the world news on TV while in Costa Rica has convinced us it’s unlikely we’ll stay in many big cities where we’d be inclined to use public transportation, dine at outdoor cafes and tour popular tourist venues. The risks are higher in these areas than in more remote locations.
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| Antique jugs and jars. |
Every country has a “countryside” or outlying area packed with desirable vacation/holiday homes, and we have no concern over finding and booking extraordinary properties befitting our tastes and desires as we have over this past almost five years.
In the interim, we’re content in Atenas. We knew we’d be here during the rainy season, but there’s no way to avoid these types of situations when we’re traveling year-round.
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| Coffee-making utensils. |
With most of the rain occurring after 12:00 pm, we’ve managed to spend time in and around the pool as soon as we’ve uploaded the daily post. A day like today, which has started cloudy, almost always ensures we won’t see any sunshine today, putting a damper on the possibility of sightseeing.
Instead, we’ll shop for groceries, pick up a few items at the pharmacy and return to the villa. Putting away all the groceries is a time-consuming process when washing and preparing the produce can take upwards of an hour. I often wonder if it’s just me that takes so long.
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| A potpourri of old tools and other items. |
Do you spend an hour or more time prepping vegetables for the upcoming week? I’d love to hear from you. I understand some shoppers may wash their vegetables as they use them. But, with dirt, excess leaves, and overgrown vegetation on many of the items, I can’t see the point of placing anything into the refrigerator until everything is washed, dried, and appropriately bagged.
Although we’ll still go to the Friday Atenas Farmers Market, we need to purchase enough produce today to last through the next four nights. With our way of eating, we go through tremendous amounts of fresh produce each week.
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| An old-fashioned scale. |
For example, for last night’s dinner alone, we used the following vegetables: onions, tomatoes, celery, cabbage, carrots, green beans, zucchini, bell peppers, and fresh garlic. This results in considerable time spent prepping the veggies upon returning from the market and subsequently chopping and dicing as needed for the specific meal—busy work.
With a taxi coming in 30 minutes to take us to Mercado Coopeatenas to get the car, I’m wrapping this up now. We’ll be back with more new photos again tomorrow. This week, regardless of the weather, we’ll get out and take new photos to share with all of you each day.
Have a pleasant day filled with happy surprises!
Photo from one year ago today, September 18, 2016:
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| Family gatherings on the beach in Sumbersari Bali amid the trash that rolls in with the tide along with trash left behind by locals and visitors. Bali hasn’t yet embraced the concept of keeping its island and beaches less cluttered with garbage. However, a large portion of the beach trash is a result of that left at sea by others. For more details, please click here. |