¡Welcome to Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste, Costa Rica!

¡Hola, Everyone!

We hope all is well with you.

We are currently in the beach town of Playa Hermosa in the Northwest part of Costa Rica. We're enjoying the beach and exploring the towns around the beaches. We have a lovely apartment that we're staying in. The owners of the house are really nice and the place has an infinity pool that looks out at the Pacific Ocean! We go swimming every afternoon to cool off.  We are working on our tans right now! Gotta be careful because we're only about 10 degrees north of the equator, so the sun can really get you here.  We've met some other ex-pats and are enjoying hearing their stories of how they ended up in Costa Rica. I found a website called boomersoffshore.com almost 2 years ago and follow Fran and Andy Browne on their adventure to CR. Well, they live here in Hermosa and we've hung out with them a few times! Some of you may have seen some pictures of us on FB that Andy posted from the sunset we watched with them last week. They are lots of fun to hang around with and through them, we've met others, including Toni, Gilles and Kathy. Toni has a horse here, so Kathy and I went with Toni last week to see the horse and feed her. We may go riding next week! Haven't been on a horse in years, so that'll be exciting....! We are going out every couple of days to different beaches down the coast. The color of the sand really varies a lot~from brown to much lighter, and from sandy to shells to rocks! Tomorrow we are heading south to a beach about 2 hours away near a town called Nosara to check it out. We have about 8 days left to enjoy this area, then we head several hours south to the South Pacific region near the towns of Dominical and Uvita. As always, we love hearing from everyone, so comment here or email us @ lorien32@gmail.com.

¡Enjoy the pictures!

This is Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste, CR

This is more Playa Hermosa, showing the mountainside

Sunset at Playa Hermosa~see the sailboat?

It was a beautiful sunset that night, and many nights since!

Sunset

Toni and her horse Jacquelin who is very fond of watermelon rinds

Toni and Kathy at the barn

This is Playas del Coco, a town just south of Playa Hermosa~very touristy and young! This is their new boardwalk

There was a festival at the new boardwalk and the President came to dedicate it~her name is Laura Chincilla

¡Look at the kids watching the guys playing!

There were lots of booths set up on the new boardwalk~all women's businesses

More of the booths along the boardwalk

Jerry checking out the foods for sale

This is our veranda at our place in Playa Hermosa

The infinity pool at the house where we're staying~we go swimming almost every afternoon to cool off and gaze out at the Pacific Ocean

A different view of the pool looking at the countryside

One more of the pool~we really, really like it!




¡Hasta Luego, Amigos!

Tina y Jerry

Leo the Iguana

This is Leo

Just wanted to share a picture of our neighbor, Leo. He lives next door in our neighbor's yard. They have 6 acres and a pond that Leo really enjoys. He's 5 feet long and a very handsome devil, don't you think?

Hasta Luego,
Tina y Jerry

Welcome to Nuevo Arenal!

The Amazing Arenal Volcano~Jerry took this picture early one morning

!Hola from Arenal!

We can't believe it's been over a week since we got here....we left Grecia on July 1st and drove north and a bit west to Nuevo Arenal. On the way we went through La Fortuna which is where the Arenal Volcano is. What a site!  You can see it in the pictures we've posted. We continued around the volcano and the north shore of the lake for about 40 kilometers to get to Nuevo Arenal. What a cute town! There is one road in and it continues right on out after about 2-3 blocks. Then there is another street we have dubbed Main Street. Considering this is a pretty small town, there are a bunch of restaurants with really good food. Our favorite, so far, is Moya's. Excellent pizza! I've only cooked once since we arrived. This could become a habit! Anyway, the lake and volcano views, plus really nice weather are making this very interesting to us. The temperature is in the low 80's during the day with a wonderful breeze and into the 60's at night. Perfect for sleeping with a light blanket. Again, no one has heat or air conditioning in their homes here. The rain tends to come later in the day, about 4-6 pm. Sometimes it rains all night, but always is done by 7 am. Some days are a bit cloudy, some very sunny. Kinda perfect to us!

Nuevo Arenal has many ex-pats and we've met several. All very nice, including our new "landlords" Allison and Jeff. Last Sunday they took us for a drive around the lake. The most southwestern part of the lake gets very windy and it's the home to windsurfing and kitesurfing. There are also a bunch of those gigantic windmills. Along with the windmills, there is hydroelectric power generated by the lake and those sources provide about 25-30% of the power for the entire country!

The people here in Arenal, as it's called, are very friendly. We say "hi" to everyone and the other day an elderly gentleman in his cowboy boots and hat passed us and we said "hi". He shook Jerry's hand and then took mine in both his and shook it, smiling all the time. There are a lot of farms here with cattle, goats and horses. It's not unusual to see a man or boy riding down the street in town on his horse.

There are TONS of things to do in this area: horseback riding, ziplining, hiking the volcano (only part way~it's one of the most active in the world), visiting the hot springs (we're going this week), white water rafting, wind and kitesurfing, kayaking, boating, sailing, bird and monkey watching, swimming in the lake, fishing, parasailing, kite flying and much more. Plus near by is another volcano (dormant) and 2 very large national parks.  I saw my first monkey yesterday, plus we heard a troop in the trees on a walk! They're very loud and the males tend to sound ferocious because they are protecting the rest of the troop. Hopefully we'll get some pictures so we can post them.

Friday we leave this area to go to Playa Hermosa on the beach on the Pacific Ocean. We'll be there for 3 weeks and see what life at the beach is like.

On the way to Nuevo Arenal

Our new house~is 800 square feet and used to have 4 bedrooms! Now is one bedroom and totally remodeled and Gringoized!

Our Side Yard-tons of plants and birds

The living room and kitchen~dining room behind me and bedroom off on the left

Our kitchen with all the conveniences! Small, but it's nice

Our Front Door~isn't it beautiful--all hand carved!

Flowers from the garden

More flowers and bushes

This is "Main Street"~Moya's is on the right where the bikes are, and the gas station is across the street

Un Caballero (cowboy) riding down our street

Rainbow outside our front door

The Bullring~they don't really fight the bulls, more like ride them until they fall off!

Jerry opening our gate

Hasta luego,
Tina y Jerry

The Streets of Grecia and the Feria

Grecia's Municipal Building
The sign says Clean City

¡Hola Amigos!

The town of Grecia, Costa Rica

We wanted to share some information about the town of Grecia. We are staying just outside town, but go into Grecia often. The population is about 20,000 or so and it is a bustling place. Just a few facts about Costa Rican towns in general: there is usually a church in the center of town and also a park and/or soccer field (known as football here). The church in almost every single town faces west. This is so the people facing the alter are facing east toward Rome. This is a very Catholic country! Anyway, knowing that the church faces west can help you when you are trying to find your way around. There are no addresses here~none! To find a house or store you will be told directions from a well known landmark, like the church. Things are in meters here, so directions to someone's house may be told to you as:  go 200 meters south of the church, turn left and go 300 meters to the blue building, then go left again and the house is 100 meters down on the right.  Generally in towns, 100 meters means one block. But when you are in the countryside, it could mean anything from one block to a half mile or more! And sometimes the landmark is no longer there or has been painted a different color. Even in the capital of San José there are very few street signs. Makes for some interesting driving! (Driving is a whole other subject we'll have to talk about one of these days). 

We have come to really like Grecia and are getting to enjoy it more and more. We are beginning to recognize some of the people and they are recognizing us. We've included some pictures of Grecia and the streets and sidewalks. You MUST always watch were you are walking! Even if the sidewalk is fairly level, the gutters are usually really deep and falling into one could easily break a leg. The reason for the deep gutters is because of the amount of rain that falls here and how fast it comes down. Let us know what you think of "our" town!

The Central Park in Grecia

The Park with the Church in the background

The street coming into town

Lots of traffic during the day

Dog sleeping outside the bank--everyone just walks around him

Near the Park

Typical street in Grecia

The Central Bus Station

Another view of the bus station

Gotta watch your step! This is very common here!

More trouble

The Feria in Grecia

At the Grecia feria

Another thing we wanted to share with you is about the feria, or farmer's market. In Grecia it is held on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. It is an open air market although it is covered, which is really nice during the rainy season like now. It is as much a social event as a place to get all kinds of fresh goodies for the week ahead. It brings farmers and vendors together from around the area to compete for your business with fresh fruits, vegetables, baked goods, meats, fish, cheeses and coffee as well as clothing, purses, shoes, leather goods and beautiful fresh cut flowers. There's even a booth in Grecia that sells dogs outfits! You can also enjoy a typical meal here of chicken, rice, beans, salad and potatoes (yep, 2 starches!). Delicious! Through our neighbors Dave and Marcia, we met Tom who is from Pennsylvania and a baker. OMG! We've been spending more on baked goods than on all the fruits and veggies combined! We are really gonna miss Tom when we move on to Nuevo Arenal!

Check out the pictures from the feria in Grecia.

Our favorite baker--Tom

Need shoes?

Lots of great veggies and fruits

Open air market

They sell lots of things @ the feria

Great Watermelon and Onions!

Enjoy the pictures and we'll post more soon.

Hasta luego,
Tina and Jerry