A New Life In Costa Rica

Hoffmann's Woodpecker

 

The most common of the woodpeckers around our home.

Notice the foggy background? Not a lot of sun lately.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

We've been freezing lately! Okay, not literally but 56 degrees IS cold in paradise. Add 15 to 25 mph winds and it's down right bone chilling. Bill and I went through four pots of coffee the other morning trying to warm up. That's a lot of coffee for us.

 

Sunday morning we even had a little rain.Nothing much really, not enough to make mud but enough to give the plants a drink. Many think of Costa Rica as always warm. Well, it may be at the beaches but in the mountains it gets down right cold in the summers.

Bad Omen

 

Black Vulture, one of many surrounding the Puntarenas fish market at days end. Not a seagull in sight. No wonder, these guys scared me as well.

 

Buying shrimp at the end of the day off a truck outside the closed fish market surrounded by vultures. Not the best idea we've ever had. The shrimp, (mediums with a couple of jumbos tossed in) wasn't bad but it wasn't the freshest we've had either. A kilo of shrimp from this guy ran us 5000 colones, about $10.

San Ramon de Alajuela, another view

 

A sunset view of San Ramon from the west side.

Fiestas Palmares 2009

We've managed to avoid Palmares for the most part this year during the festival. Wise decision. We did pass through early last week to see the final preparations being make. I noticed this sign at the entrance advertising the festival as a "family"event. Hmmm, I wouldn't say that about years past.

Yesterday, Sunday we went into San Jose. The number of cop stops the opposite direction was what we expected. They were out in force for people headed towards Palmares. Funny thing, on our return trip there was less of a police presence for those leaving the festival. Interesting. How many drunks head to the festival? How many leave the festival? Interesting.

Another interesting thing we noticed different from previous years was the lack of Imperial or any beer advertising for that matter. NONE! It seems Coke won the advertising campaign for the Palmares Festival and Pepsi for the upcoming Puntarenas Carnival. In years past Imperial was the clear winner of all festival promotion.

 

The prize for the most disgusting this year goes to the local news. Last year we were appalled with what was at the tope. So much so that we'll likely never attend again. I don't care how much they try to change the image, our near death experience will not be forgotten. What we hope to forget this year is the clip shown repeatedly by Channel 7 of a woman peeing on the side of the road. What kind of journalism is that? Was it necessary to show a woman squatting and pulling up her pants on the side of the road? They didn't show it once, they kept showing it over and over and over.

Again, Fiestas Palmares may be fun for some but not in our eyes. Along with all the horse parade and beautiful women apparently what's important to broadcast countrywide is the public urination. Not a family friendly event in my eyes. Sure makes me look forward to next years event, NOT!

 I received a comment from someone who was at the festival this year. She said there were no signs of a depressed economy around Palmares. Some people enjoy the event. We're glad there are those who do as the money raised is a boost to the local economy. We read part of the proceeds this year will go to earthquake relief. GREAT, but I'll spend/donate my money elsewhere.

Promoters, good job getting rid of beer ads but you may want to check with the local press next year about what they think is news worthy.

   

 

For those interested there are still a couple of days left to attend and form your own opinion. In all honesty we believe the day of the horse parade to be the worst of the worst. We've not attended on any other day so... you be the judge. My opinion is just that, my opinion.