We had our first rain storm here in Atenas since I moved here from San Pedro/San Jose. It just lasted for 20 minutes or so but it was refreshing. I took a few photos that I'll post soon. The nice thing is that it was still warm outside;) Of course in their rainy season from May through November they get rain almost everyday. But depending on what part of the country your in it might be mostly just in the mid afternoon on. Their rainiest month tends to be September I think. I did a load of wash today...mostly towels and timed it just right with bringing them in off the clothesline just before it started raining. After the rains stopped I took my daily walk into town with the mission of locating a restaurant a ... read more

To pick up where I left off in my last blog, we left San Isidro on Friday morning to head to the beach, Manuel Antonio & Quepos. Eladio had offered more than once to take us there by taxi as he said the bust was not comfortable. The way he put it was that it had many working people that would have a bad odor. He also want to give of a tour or the areas. To save costs we opted to take the bus. So we left Hotel Diamente rather early that morning to catch the bus. It was a decent bus and the ride went fine. But it did end up getting very very full. At each stop more and more people joined us so I did take some photos of that. Barb & ... read more

Today, the first day of February, was a day to get ready for our (Barb & I) bus trip down to San Isidro and eventually to the Pacific Coast. We'll be gone 3-5 days. I've decided not to take my computer so I'm not stuck with carrying it in my backpack for hikes, walking around town or at the beach. So no blogs until we return. I may have brief access to email through Barb's iPod Touch and/or through internet cafes. I got nearly done with packing this morning then Barb and I went to the Balcon Cafe for lunch. A popular place for Gringos to eat. Great food at about the price you'd pay in the states. We then walked to the bank, pharmacy, macrobiotica (health food store) and a few clothing stores as I'm ... read more

Happy Sunday to everyone! Yep I moved again but just to the apartment right next door. It has 2 twin beds instead of one double which is better if my friend comes to visit for a couple days. Also this apartment has more light, a larger fridge and a toaster. Although since I'm on a gluten-free diet I'm not eating much bread as I haven't found any gluten-free bread yet. But no worries since I'm finding plenty to eat between the fresh fruits, veggies, beans, corn tortillas, yogurt & cheese and occasional meat I'm doing well! I'll be downloading photos of my new apartment plus a 2+ minute video taken right outside the apartment that I took in order to get the audio of the neighbor's bird talking in Spanish. You can certainly pick out "hola" ... read more

You can tell by the title of this blog that it wasn't an easy carefree day but I wouldn't call it a bad day either. I had intended to go to Pilates class again but after reading an email from Barb that she wasn't going and having a series of ocular migraines I talked myself out of it. These migraines are relatively minor compared to regular migraines but they do affect vision and here you need to be able to see where you're walking since most sidewalks are in poor condition. Later in the morning I once again walked to one of the banks to see about getting cash in Colones. I may have forgotten to mention this ongoing dilemma in a previous blog but ever since I came to Atenas I've had a lot of ... read more