This and that about our stay in Costa Rica

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Here is a collection of pictures about stuff we've noticed about coming to Costa Rica.

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Photos

Sunset
Sunsets are beautiful especially on nights when the clouds stay away.

Beach in the morning for our hour+ walk
Probably the very prettiest beach I’ve even been to. We try to avoid high tide because there isn’t much beach at that point but it’s a very gently sloping beach so most of the time there’s a very big area to walk with very warm Pacific Ocean water. Jim and I walked one day for an hour and didn't see one person--usually there are a few people out, especially on weekends.

Weather and Temperature in F
The real reason we come to Costa Rica is February. Every day is the same—sunny and warm. Even when it occasionally reaches 90, it really doesn’t feel too hot. Most days it just gets up to 89. Nights are in the 70’s. I know, pretty boring but we’ve come to love it!

Iggy is back
Iggy is here everyday and a couple of times another bigger one has come around. Iggy gets treats from us--papaya is his favorite but he likes lettuce too.

Brahma cows
I took this while walking down the road to go to the beach but Brahma cows are all over Costa Rica.

Colonies in coins
Money: Colonies run about 500 to $1. To figure out home much something costs, multiply by 2 and take off some zeros. For example, if a bottle of wine costs 7285 colonies, that would be just over $14. Their coins are large and range from 500 down to 5 colonies.

10,000 colonies--front side
About $20 (remember multiply times 2 and take off zeros)

Pretty money
This is a test: How much in American dollars is this worth?

Shells I've collected so far...
I’ve been picking up sand dollars, pretty pink shells and round pointy one. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them but I’ll bring them home and see what comes to mind.

Sand Dollar Collection
The Legend of the Sand Dollar
There's a lovely little legend
that I would like to tell,
of the birth and death of Jesus,
found in this lowly shell.

Sand Dollar Story
If you examine closely,
you'll see that you find here,
four nail holes and a fifth one,
made by a Roman's spear.
On one side the Easter lily,
its center is the star,
that appeared unto the shepherds
and led them from afar.

Back side of Sand Dollar
The Christmas Poinsettia
etched on the other side,
reminds us of His birthday,
our happy Christmastide.

Five doves from the Sand Dollar
Now break the center open,
and here you will release,
the five white doves awaiting,
to spread Good Will and Peace.
This simple little symbol,
Christ left for you and me,
to help us spread His Gospel,
through all Eternity.
Author Unknown

Electric Meter
Electricity: We’ve been told that it’s expensive here. We’re paying for our electricity at the house we’re renting. As I was looking for places to rent I was told that if we ran the AC all of the time it would probably cost about $50 a day. We have individual units in the living area and all of the bedrooms. We only run the AC at night to sleep—the rest of the time we keep windows open and dip in the pool to cool off but if you stay in the shade it’s very comfortable even at the usual afternoon temperature of 89 F. This is the dry season and the humidity is lower than in the rainy season.

Beer--Cervasa--Imperia
Coke light vs beer: We buy and drink both but the coke is actually a little more expensive. They sell it all by the can and at the last store visit, Coke was 570 and beer ranged from 500 to 550 colonies.

Avacadoes, veggies and fruit
Fruits and Veggies: The cost of living here is about the same as in the states except for a few things—pineapple, papaya, watermelon, tomatoes, etc. We’ve been buying 2 or 3 pineapples and papayas a week. Pineapples range from 500—1000 colonies and papayas are sold by the kilo but we figured an average one is about $1.50 or so. We saw a sale for tomatoes for 365 colonies a kilo. Since a kilo is about 2.2 pounds, we bought 4 very nice tomatoes for less than $1. Avocadoes are also sold by the kilo. I couldn’t find the kilo part and kept seeing 2456 (or something like that) and couldn’t believe that would be that much but then found that it takes quite a few to make a kilo. Needless to say we’re eating a lot of fruit and veggies.
Oh, and we wash everything is a light bleach solution—not sure it’s necessary but so far no one’s been sick so we’ll keep doing it.

Veggies and fruit
These came from a fruit stand. The strawberries were a little pricey ($4) but the total for all of this was less than $11.

Tiny bananas
Ken found these is the grocery store. We didn't buy them but thought they were cute!

Frozen beer and coke??
Not really. We put water in empty cans, freeze them and then use them in our cooler in place of ice.

Early afternoon
This side of the pool is shaded, Jim has his beer and Iggy is keeping watch!

lovely picture of macaws I didn't take
We've seen macaws flying and in a tree but it's very hard to get a good pictures of them so I found this on the Internet to show what they look like.

My Macaws picture
There are actually two there but I know it's not very good. I'm hoping for a better picture before we leave here.

Bugs???
This moth was on the outside of our screen door and I thought it was cool but we really don't have a problem with bugs, in fact we don't even close the screen doors during the day.

Comments

[gloria]

cool pics
Iggy is kind of cute, he wouldn't want to live up north with us however, I'm sure he would give me a dirty look...do they talk?...love the shells they look interesting, color that is....fruit looks delicious...:)

[Bob Love]

Pretty money
So is the money in the picture worth about $34 US?

[kcinkansas]

Colones to dollars
Yes

[Joe Harvey]

Trip
The pictures are beautiful of the beach and sunsets. Interesting about the exchange rate for money. We've had one of the mildest winters that I can remember, but 89 degrees beats even what we've had this winter.

[Judy]

Sand Dollars
I loved the story about the Sand Dollars, if you have room to bring an extra one back, I've loved to have one. I'm enjoying reading about your adventure and feeling like I'm there too.