We have returned to Hastings, Michigan, USA, and it is cold and wet. Next year, God willing, we will stay in Bello Oriente a while longer. I can use the extra time in Costa Rica for planting trees and flowers.
In addition to planting fruit trees and ornamental flowers (bougainvillea, etc) I was able to secure a dozen protected Ronron seedlings and transplanted some Poro seedlings from the jungle down below. Both will become forest giants and are supposed to grow about one meter per year.



My rainwater collection system is a huge success, so I will continue to expand it. It supplies us with extremely soft water for our electrical water heating showerhead, and will eventually store enough water to flush our toilets automatically.



Right now, the single 50-gallon storage tank isn't big enough for toilet flushing so we carry pails of water from the overflow tank on the other side of the house for flushing. I have 3 plastic tanks and one steel drum to hook up next year. A political glitch keeps us from having enough pressure in the public water system to reach beyond the half-way point of our driveway, so we fill bottles for drinking and cooking. The good side is that we have become very aware of the amount of water it takes to perform various tasks and conserve out of necessity rather than out of environmental enthusiasm.

Flushing toilets with drinking water now seems so irresponsible.

Verano: The Dry Season

After the November rains subsided, the dry season began. It has now become too dry to plant anything with much hope for success. Even seedlings that are watered have to get daily attention. Most of my time is spent painting and building furnishings, and hacking away at the long grass that grows waist high when you don't allow cows to graze what has become pastureland. I can buy tree seedlings for only 40-cents each, but the limitation is that a small garden plot must be cleared for each one. The good news is that I am strong and healthy and the exercise will make me live longer and enjoy the growing forest longer. When I walk down to the bus stop, I am inspired by the work of Dr. Lynn Carpenter who has grown a jungle right across the highway from me.
I am planting papaya, oranges, lemons and bananos. I probably won't harvest much of this, and fruit is very cheap to buy. The other trees are a selection of large growth forest specimens. Some are protected. I have been promised a single seedling of Ceiba(Kapok), and will build a protection for it to keep it from being trampled by cows that may stray in while it is growing. The planting will wait until just before I return in April so the rainy season can work for me in my absence.

The rainy season ...

is not only rainy, but it is humid as well. nothing gets completely dry. I can only attest to the period since November 11, and the rumor is that we will shift gears soon, perhaps by the weekend when the Nov. 23 First Annual Rancho Amigos Motocross Club will apply their everyday transportation to the jungle paths in an attempt to imitate an extreme sport.

The national beer company has provided a beer tent. Imagine! Socialized beer! I will let you know if beer has to be held in the left hand.

At 12:40 PM, on November 11,...

...Spirit Air will connect me to the beautiful Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) to the west(?) of metropolitan San Jose, Costa Rica, for the winter dry season. Since I was unwilling to pay extra for an assigned seat I will not have had a chance to watch the Russian Navy exercise with the Venezuelan Navy in the Caribbean. Also, by limiting my round-trip fare to $403 I will only have one stuffed duffle bag and my backpack to carry down to the bus stop. According to my daily weather reports the temperature will be reaching 76 degrees F (-32/2=22C).

I want to visit the 7th Ave book store, the national map place, and the Tracopa bus station before they close. I haven't yet decided between the familiar and cheap spartan backpacker Gallileo Hostel and something closer and more expensive ($40+) downtown.

The one thing that I can count on is that it will be an adventure. Perhaps it will rain in the afternoon. I want to buy my bus ticket for about 6:00 AM if the schedule hasn't changed. This will get me over the mountain of death (Cerro del Muerte) before the afternoon clouds rise to obscure the grande vistas. For me, the trip is a seven-and-a-half-hour tour of a dozen or more ecological zones.

My youngest son has recommended that this blog is the best place to post my weekly journals. In the past, I have published a photo-laden attachment to an e-mail to a list of about 50 friends and relatives. You can be added to the list by sending your e-dress to
costajournal07@yahoo.com
or if you agree with my son...comment, here,
gracias, pura vida

Continuing Education

I'm trying to become less "technologically challenged" and perhaps will even reach the point of becoming proficient. Click the triangle to see a short slideshow. Clicking on the lower left corner will take you to see lots of other slideshows.

My objectives are to "embed" some slide shows for you to visit that don't force you to look at them if you are busy.



I also trying to learn how to download full-sized books that I can read at my leisure. Hopefully, this post won't become too complicated.

Over on the right are easy links to important documents that I refer to so much that you may enjoy not having to look them up. I didn't include the Bible, but you probably already have one. If you really want the "whole truth" about how 25% of the other folks in the world think, I also recommend the Koran(Queran?). Create your own spin!

We're back!

Having run out of time and money at the same time, the house has now been closed up with shutters and doors. We have returned to Hastings and a full schedule of birthday celebrations and visits with grandchildren. After six months of building the new house with a fantastic crew of six neighbors who spoke no English I have gained a vocabulary of construction terminology, a tenuous grasp of metric measurements, and an appreciation of techniques used where labor is not expensive.

Livin' the Dream!

(updated to present tense)
This is the spot to stay posted on the progress of the new house, near the Panama border, Agua Buena, and Canas Gorda, in Costa Rica.

You can click on this view from an adjoining hilltop.It is facing to the north. As you can see, we began with nothing but a flat spot. Our hectare (2.2 acres) extends to the left downhill to a creek that joins others to supply the 60' waterfall. Out of sight beyond the bare spot is a public right of way that goes to the right to the Restaurante Rancho Amigos and the highway, where we catch the bus.

The plans include rainwater collection to avoid flushing our toilets with drinking water, although clean water is plentiful. Greywater is separated from sewage water and is filtered through compost and eventually through the vermiculture system, and on to irrigate some organic cultivation of perhaps some spices, etc. that may have economic benefit to the area.
The concept is that only two things require confinement; those that need privacy and those that need to be secure from living creatures. The rest of the house is a viewing platform with amenities.

Feel free to ask anything that pops into your head. I publish a journal with many photos, more or less every week, and it goes out to about 50 "subscribers", mostly relatives and friends. If you would like to receive these, contact me at costajournal07@yahoo.com.
(Don't use this direct link yet, it doesn't work. Just type it in your e-mail. Sorry!)

I will send the "International GeoGrafix" to you as a BCC(blind copy) to protect your identity. If you find my journals too boring or filled with "too much propaganda", just e-mail me an "unsubscribe".

pura vida

Costa Rica

The three most popular countries for retirement are France, Costa Rica, and Ireland. I'm not sure of the order of preference, but mine is obvious. We were attracted by the climate, but we return each winter because of the people.

In 1948, Costa Rica dismantled the military and applied these resources to social programs and education. The other places that have done this are the Vatican, Luxembourg, Monte Carlo, and a few small islands in the Pacific Ocean. After three or four generations of solving problems without weapons, the people have a distinctly different perspective. "Resolving Conflict Without Resorting to Violence" is a mandatory course in the elementary school curriculum. The emblem for the police is an officer with his arms on the shoulders of two small children. They travel about on foot, or two on a dirt bike. The emergency medical teams have modern ambulances.

My Medicare "B" doesn't cover me when I am outside of the USA, so I cancelled it. We have become "residente pensionados" and purchase full coverage health insurance, including dental, for $50 a month. We only pay for it when we are there. Costa Rica has the third best medical care in the world, and life expectancy is three years longer than in the USA.

We live "large" on our Social Security. By cancelling our auto insurances, Medicare "B", trash service, telephone, lowering the thermostat, turning off the water heater, using no water, and not having to cut grass, drive cars, and eating food that doesn't come in fancy packages, we save so much money that the difference in life style pays for our travel and living expenses all winter. We don't own a car there and can go to our volunteer morning jobs at the Wilson for 60 cents each. The beach at Playa Zancudo is two hours away, and we are frequently invited to join our new Tico friends for a day trip in a packed van.

"Culture shock" is going through the airport security check points when we return to the USA, and buying a huge lunch for more than $3.

pura vida!

Livin' Large at Bello Oriente

We have purchased a home site within view of Panama in the southern end of Costa Rica. If you look up the Wilson Botanical Garden website you will see a description and pictures of a similar place. Our intention is to live six months in Costa Rica and six months in the USA.

This view of Volcan Baru, in Panama, will be our view from the bedroom window at sunrise.

The view from the South

I have added a link to the "Tico Times", the largest English-language newspaper in Central America. It has a USA bias, but in general the reporting is current and newsworthy. It won't give you a clear perspective from the point of view of a typical "Tico" (sort of like we call ourselves "Yankees", etc) but it will give you an additional look at the world from another angle.

While most "Americans" think of every country outside of the UN Security Council as being in the "third world", the Ticos consider everybody in the Western Hemisphere to be "Americans" and make a very clear distinction between "third world" impoverishment and "developing countries" evolution.

No place is perfect. Welcome to the struggles of the Developing World!