Birds In My Yard

Good morning! I hope Santa was good to each and everyone of you beyond your expectations.

This was my first Christmas without my very large family. I spent mine with some friends and a Tico family friend of theirs. We had so much fun, but the best part, besides the chicharones, was the full on belly laughing.

I feel as if I have Christmas daily by all the birds that come to my yard. Below are a few of my favorites.

Pura Vida!

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ARIANA, GIGI AND ME! I HOPE YOU ARE BLESSED WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS AROUND YOU ALL THE SEASON LONG.

Pura Vida!

The Earthquakes of 1990

It has been a while since my last post. Between going home to Texas for Thanksgiving and searching for pictures of the wonderful Catholic Church here in Santiago de Puriscal that was ruined in the earthquake of 1990, it's just been too long.

I have been unsuccessful in finding pictures of the church before the earthquake. It's the strangest thing I've every run into. I searched Google and I joined several pages on Facebook in Costa Rica that post old pictures, and not one single one. If this church had been built in the mid 1800's I would understand it, but it was only about 10 years old when the earthquake hit. My post will just have to be a little information on the earthquake and picture of the way the church is today.

March 25, 1990 a 6.5 earthquake with an epicenter 11 miles southwest of Cobano on the Nicoya Peninsula damaged buildings in San José, Puntarenas and Puriscal. The good news was there was some damage in Santiago de Puriscal where I live now but nothing substantial. The bad news was geologists and siesmologists of the National University of Costa Rica said that a shift of two land masses activated certain faults in the area of Puriscal. This quake triggered a swarm of quakes lasting for six straight weeks. The National Emergency Center in Costa Rica tried to calm the public reminding them that quakes had always occurred frequently since the forming of the territory. This did nothing to calm anyone. 3,000 residents of Puriscal abandoned their homes looking for some place to feel safer. I can tell you right now I would have been out of here, too. Six weeks is a long time for trimmers and small earthquakes to continue.

On Dec. 22, 1990 a 5.7 quake with an epicenter less than 3 miles north of Santiago de Puriscal injured 70 people and damaged hundreds of houses in Puriscal, Alajuela and Atenas. This quake damaged the Catholic Church here in Santiago beyond repair.

It breaks my heart every day I go into town and see this amazing building being allowed to just crumble to ruin. I don't understand why nothing has ever been done. I've heard several stories. One being the Church walked away from it because Puriscal declared it a historical monument, so the Church could not do anything. I also heard of groups that tried to raise money to restore it or parts of it and failed. At one point the City was going to have it torn down, but the people of Puriscal raised their voices and it still stands.

I would love to see at least the front façade and bell towers saved. From all over Puriscal you can see the towers standing. It will be a terrible loss if they let it go.

I am still holding out hope that someone will figure a way to either save the whole structure or at the very least the towers.

Pura Vida!

Earthquake!

Isn't it interesting how timing is everything? I have spent 3 days researching the almost destroyed Cathedral in Pursical and the earthquake that caused it. In doing so I also found other information on earthquakes in Puriscal including the power, duration and dates. It made me think. What would I do if one hit here now. I looked around my house at the few collectables I found vulnerable if this happened. I decided I would grab those first and put them on the sofa then run outside. Then it happened! At 8:28 on November 12th a 7.0 that dropped to a 6.5 earthquake hit. I was sitting on my sofa watching TV. Suddenly it sounded like hundreds of meteorites were slamming into my roof all at the same time. My dogs froze in place and looked up at me then the whole house started shaking loudly! I felt a little dizzy like my brain had just sloshed, but I immediately got up, grabbed my collectables and put them on the sofa then went outside. By the time I got out there my neighbors across the street were standing in their doorway. The electricity went off just for a minute then back on thank goodness. All I could do was yell at my neighbors that it had scared me to death. Later my neighbor and landlord, Manuel, came over to check on me telling me not to go outside again. He said if the electrical lines fell I could be killed that way! I never thought of that. He told me to stand in the doorway instead.

The earthquake that hit Puriscal in 1990 and did so much destruction caused the country to develop new building codes. My house was built 3 years ago under these new guidelines. It is built to withstand up to a 9.5 earthquake. That still did not give me a lot of confidence having been my first earthquake. Luckily, even with the earthquake being that strong I did not have any damage. I had paintings on the walls hanging crooked and a couple of cabinet door swung open, but that was it.

Now for the interesting sign. I am just guessing it was a sign, but I will always be watching for it in the future. I was sweeping my walk around my house and hundreds of Cutter Ants were running single file down the side of my house headed North. I have seen these ants ever since I moved here, but never doing anything but their jobs of getting leaves and taking them to their homes. This was the morning of the earthquake. I have heard of animals heading for high ground before a tsunami, so why not ants acting unusually? Good enough for me!

Cutter Ant carrying his leaf.

The funny thing about this is the fact that I knew Costa Rica had earthquakes but, for whatever reason, it honestly never occurred to me that one would happen right under me. I have had tornados headed straight for me and then jumped to the other side of the highway. I guess I have a false sense of protection around me. I was the most shocked person in Costa Rica when that hit. Feels silly now, but it is true.

If anyone is interested in following seismic activity across the world I was given a fantastic site. It's a guy that has his station on Youtube. He only comes on live at certain times of the day unless it is an emergency, but there is always information on there. He warned of the earthquake in Iran the day before, and he warned of this one in Costa Rica starting last week. He is a scientist, and this is all he does. He is live at 10:00 PM or close to it, but I don't know the other times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXFAyj7PViY&feature=youtu.be

My next blog will be about the Cathedral and the earthquake of 1990 in Puriscal.

Pura Vida!

I Am Changing

I love Costa Rica, and I love the changes in me. First of all, I am finally starting to relax. I still have a long way to go, but I'm better. When I first got here I needed the TV on every minute I was up. I needed the noise. I never realized what quiet was like. It's really quiet! It unnerved me. I could not stay seated on my sofa and even play with the computer without feeling nervous. It is a crazy thing. When I was home in Texas no matter what I was doing there was always noise. Cars on the road in front of the house going by and any other noise that might be going on in the neighborhood, but never completely quiet. In the office at work there was always noise even if just the florescent lights. Don't even get me started on driving to and from work. I now normally do not turn the TV on until after 2:00 in the afternoon. I am finally adjusting to the lack of noise.

I am cooking. Really cooking! I cooked two complete meals in 15 years before I moved here. I worked full time and drove over an hour each way. When I got home the last thing I wanted to do was cook for one. I was tired, and I find cooking to be a bore. Cooking has never really been my thing. Well, I am living in a small town with not one fast food place. Not one drive-thru! It's cook or go out every night. I am now on a strict budget, and I can't justify doing that. So, I am cooking. It has not been easy for me. I honestly don't remember how. I had to Google how to cook baked chicken. Honest truth! After living here for almost 5 months I am starting to get a better handle on it. I'm not eating cereal at all. Those who know me know that I ate a lot of cereal. That was my usual dinner. I learned how to make fresh smoothies and am addicted to them every morning. I make a small healthy lunch and a balanced dinner. I started going to the Feria (outdoor vegetable and fruit market) every Saturday. I am buying organic eggs and chicken. Mostly though I make vege dinners. Shrimp fresh from the coast is the best! I am starting to impress myself.

The biggest change? Washing dishes by hand! There has been a dishwasher in my house since I was 12 years old. I have never had to wash dishes. I even put the pots and pans in the dishwasher. Not only do I not have a dishwasher in my house I do not have hot water in the kitchen sink. The only hot water in the house is in the shower. Most Tico houses have no hot water at all. So, I am washing dishes with cold water. It works just fine. I don't even mind washing them. I do not dry them though. They stay in the rack until they are dry. Easy breezy...It has surprised me. It was the only thing I was worried about when I moved here. I was afraid I would hate it so much I would let them sit all day. Nope...I do them the minute I finish my meal. I could use paper plates, but I have not used paper products like plates, paper towels or napkins since the early 70's. I have saved a lot of trees and money.

What it all boils down to is I am living a much simpler life, and I love it.

Pura Vida!

Update on Residency

Since I've been here a little over four months it seems like the right time to give you an update on my quest for Residency.

On March 30, 2017 I wrote my blog about all the different types of Residencies you can file for and what the requirements were for each. I filed for the Pensioner Resident. (If you want to read this blog just go to the bottom left side of my blog and click on the date listed under "Blog Archive")

I turned all my paperwork in to my attorney, Roberto Umana, a couple of weeks after I moved here. I had gathered up everything I needed for all the proof required before I left Texas. The only thing I had to do once I got to Costa Rica was to be finger printed and have my photo made. I took care of that when I met with Roberto. At this time I had read on the government website that it took around three months. Roberto let me know that it was more like 6-9 months.

There is also a law that most people do not know. If your Passport is going to expire within 6 months it cannot be used to travel to Costa Rica. I cannot speak to other country's laws, but here 6 months or less and you are not getting in. I think it probably has to do with the fact that you can stay in the country for 90 days at a time, cross the border, have your passport stamped and return. A 6 month Passport would not last long here.

My passport was due to be up in December. I did get a new one, but my Residency request was filed with the December one. Well, guess what? That's right, my Residency was held up because as the papers were going through all the channels my passport came up on the 6 month rule. It was an easy remedy. All I had to do was copy all the pages of the new passport and send it to Roberto to file with my papers. In the mean time, I do not have to worry about the 90 day stays because I have the paperwork proving I am in the process of getting my Residency.

Patience is the name of the game! If you cannot develop patience and just go on with life you will be doomed here. It is actually a really good trait to grow. This country is not called the Happiest Place on Earth for nothing. You have to work at learning to be laid back. I am still working on it. It is going to take a while, but I'm better....

Just hanging out on top of Cerro Potenciana

Pura Vica!

Continued Aftermath of Nate

As I write this I still have friends without water in their homes and roads they cannot get across. It is a week since all these things happened. Luckily my friends do have a rough back way they are able to get out to get water and groceries. I freak when I get up in the morning and my electricity is out...COFFEE!!!

I drove down the opposite direction from my street yesterday to see how my neighbors down that way fared during the storm. From what I could see there were no major problems. There was one home that got as close as a home can get without going over the side with the mud slide. Also, the bridge I took photos from a few weeks ago was under repair. There was already a hole in it when I was there, so I guess it was made much worse by the storm. I did not go down and see. I used my head and decided to turn around.

This morning I was watching all the butterflies and hummingbirds around my plants outside my living room window and it occurred to me; the things that went terribly wrong during the storms were man made. Not nature made. Yes, rivers overflowed their banks, but it will go back by itself. There were mudslides, but in nature it doesn't care. It will just grow more grass on the new area. After all the horrible rain and wind my banana tree is still producing, my lime tree is ready to be picked and my papaya tree now has papayas growing on it. My Morning Glories are blooming and there was a really big gecko in my bedroom this morning. Nature survived. The sun came back out the skies turned blue as though nothing ever happened. I'm thinking we do not have the power. That belongs to Nature through God.

Please continue to pray for Costa Rica. This is going to cost more money than this country has to repair everything that has happened. The country is in need of wisdom.

Pura Vida!

My First Tropical Storm-Nate

Here I am! I survived my first tropical storm, and it was a doozie. For us it was Tropical Storm Nate. It was not yet a hurricane.

Costa Rica is now in the rainy season, and October is the rainiest month of the year. At first, I thought it was just the October thing. Heavy rain for longer than usual. Then when it was time to go to bed it did not stop at it's usual time of 9:00. I have never in my life heard rain like that. The dogs and I went upstairs to go to bed, and the noise was horrific. I do have a metal roof, and the only thing sticking above this little house is my bedroom and 1/2 bath, so the noise and wind would be more noticeable than down stairs. Took me less than a minute to figure out this was not in anyway normal rain. Even, Gigi, who has never been scared of storms was unnerved. It ended up pouring for two days non stop. The news reported that is was the worst storm Costa Rica has had since 2010, and I was here for it....wild!

I live right outside of Puriscal in Barrio Carit. Puriscal is on the list for towns that are still in danger of continued problems. My particular neighborhood is not in danger. We came out of this storm virtually unaffected. The only thing that happened to my house is the flashing on one side blew off, and I had a leak over the stairs that Manuel come over this morning and got out on the roof and caulked. I do have friends all around that have real problems. Carit has its own water system just for the few houses here, so we are among the blessed ones that have water. The entire town of Puriscal and Barbacoas have been without water for 3 days because of landslides and crushed city wide water pipes. The electricity is back on for everyone in my area. There are roads that have collapsed that have some of my friends trapped. The road that leads to my friend, George's house, has collapsed. There is a back way out, but it's difficult. The county is already working on it to make it passable once again.

I was getting low on some things, so I decided to drive into town early yesterday morning. The road from my house to Puiscal was in pretty good shape. No mudslides and only one large tree had fallen across the road, but someone had already chopped and moved it to the side. There was a large seam running across the road that was raised about 3". I guess if it had continued to rain it would have split like other roads, and we would have had a collapse. There was a large group of bamboo trees that had been blown and bending over the road. It looked like a tunnel.

In the entire country of Costa Rica 8 people are confirmed dead, 7,000 people are in shelters, and 500,000 have no water. Then there is the Crocodile problem! This is not close to me, but Costa Rica is known for having thousands of crocs in the rivers all around the country. I drove over Tarcoles River several weeks back and took pictures of the crocs below it. This river has flooded, and the crocodiles are everywhere in the neighborhoods. It was on the news that some people there had to literally sleep in the trees around their flooded homes before anyone could get them out.

Today is absolutely gorgeous. The skies are blue, the air is fresh and everything is green. Around my neighborhood it looks like nothing ever happened. I wish it was the same for everyone.

Pura Vida!


I did not take any of the pictures below that I am posting from the storm. They were taken all around the country.

A Love Letter To My Family and Friends

As of today, October 5, 2017 I have been living in Costa Rica for 4 months! I cannot believe how fast 4 months have passed by. It honestly feels like a month ago that Meleese and Drew backed out of my drive way leaving me here to start this new chapter of my life.

Today I am experiencing my first tropical storm. It started raining yesterday around 2:00 PM, has not slowed up and the time now is 2:00 PM. It is the loudest sustained rain I have ever heard in my life. I heard from a friend that we have 10" already, and it is not supposed to end until tomorrow evening. I am glad I live up high, or we would be floating. Costa Rica is under a Red Alert, there are mud slides all over the country, roads that have fallen a foot from where they started, trees down, all the schools are closed, many areas have no electricity since yesterday (thank God mine is on), and the airport is closed. From what I've been told this is no big deal. Just stay home if you can. October is the rainiest month of the year, and this is just the norm. This is my initiation to living in the tropics...pura vida!

Because of the storm, I have had time to sit here the last 24 hours and reflect back on my wonderful life. I have experienced many incarnations in this one life time. A child, a daughter, a friend, a teenager, a wife, a mother, a single mother, an employee, a business owner, lived in 5 different cities, then retired and moved to Central America. Some of these changes were more extreme than others, but they all represent different ways of living my life and my role at that time. I could have never made it without the love of my family first and all the friends I have made through out my life.

Obviously, moving to Costa Rica is the biggest risk or change I planned and made the final decision to go through with. There were a few that absolutely said NO I could not do it. I had friends that said I was nuts to try this on my own, but most were just excited for me. Others, did not want me to move because of separation, and that is the hardest for me, too. But, in the end, when I made my final decision and started packing up my house (which made it real for everyone) my family and friends came around to support me 100%.

Isn't that the best part of life? That no matter where it takes you, you always have your family and friends to love you and have your back. I know without a shadow of a doubt I have the best family and friends of anyone I know. I am a truly blessed woman. It is not always deserved, but then that's part of loving someone isn't it?

I love you all...

Pura Vida!

Adventure In My Own Neighborhood

As most of you know we are in the rainy season in Costa Rica. It rains almost every day starting around 2:00 PM. It can be earlier. It can be later, but rarely does it not rain at all. I personally love it. Soon as it gets close to raining the temperatures drop, the wind picks up and the air smells so fresh. If you are smart you get out in the morning and get all your running around done, so you can come home and enjoy the cooler temp and the sound of the rain. Also, the country is beautiful right now. Everything is lush green and in bright bloom. The banana trees have all come up with their gorgeous large leaves and they are producing. I will be sad to see the season go.

My banana tree.

After it rains I always hear rushing water. I knew there was a natural spring close to me where our water comes from for all the homes in my barrio. Manuel had told me when the rainy season is over we will hike up there and see it. Well, you know me! I could not wait. Tuesday I decided to venture back there with my camera and see. Soon as I went through the gates I found the source of the rushing water. There is a creek back there with big rocks. This is literally behind the houses in front of me. All the rain rushes down from the mountain through this creek. I'm sure there are others, but this is the closest to me.

As I continued my walk on the road Javier came toward me. Javier is the sweet man that cuts my grass. Well, surprise of all surprises he is the caretaker of the property back there that belongs to a man named Juan. I was in shock. It is absolutely, out of a fairy tale book, gorgeous. Again, this is literally behind the houses right in front of me. There are a lot of trees and creek between us too, but it was so close. The property included a creek and a beautiful hacienda, detached game room with pool table, extraordinary grounds with stables and show horses trained to high step, an outdoor grill and party area, tilapia pond, citrus trees everywhere, large cages with parrots and cows up the hillside! I did not get to meet the owner as he was not home, but I did meet his horse attendant and walked around his house and grounds.

Needless to say...I never made it to the area where our water comes from. I totally forgot about it when my eyes fell on this place and Javier and his darling son, Adrian, showed me around.

My treat from Javier was a large bag of tangerines!

Pura Vida!