I’ve started checking out the various exercise classes available in town. So far I’ve been to two Zumba classes and today I went to my first outdoor Yoga class. It felt amazing to practice Yoga while gazing at the trees and sky. Can you recognize me in the back row with the pink top?
Look at this beautiful bird who lives on this property.
The flowering plant below was actually taken in Jaco and since I forgot to put it on the Jaco posting I decided to post it here.
Below is a photo Randie took during one of our walks in Roca Verde. I wouldn’t want that job!
These photos were all taken the same night. They are all so beautiful and since I couldn’t decide which one to post I chose to post them all. Which one do you like best?
We were invited to go to Jaco Beach with Penny and Lisa who we met recently. Jaco is about an hour away from Atenas. It would only be about 40 minutes away if the new highway was open. However, with the recent mudslides, this highway is closed.
It was a great day for the beach and we had lots of fun playing with the waves.
We enjoyed having lunch at an outdoor restaurant overlooking the ocean.
We also did a little shopping and look what we saw under the bridge as we were walking down the street…
On our way home we stopped by a fruit stand to pick up some fresh coconut milk and some mangos.
Although we are not interested in purchasing artwork, we decided to attend this event with our new friends Penny (on the left) and Lisa. Penny and her husband have moved to the Atenas area recently and Lisa is visiting with Penny for a couple of weeks.
We met Jerome and Jeanita who were selling photo art. You can get a better look at what they have for sale by visiting their website at: www.ivesimages.com. Below is Jerome standing in their booth.
We enjoyed the wine tasting that was available and it was great to meet some new people who live in the area. As it turned out, we met someone who knows about a place we might be interested in renting.
After the wine tasting we went out for dinner with Penny and Lisa and had a wonderful evening. On the way home we stopped to get photos of some Christmas lights. Although the photo did not turn out very well, you can get a sense of how beautiful this particular house was decorated.
Many people ask us what we do while we are here in Costa Rica. Let me share with you a typical day along with a variety of things we do throughout the week.
First of all, we love the fact that we get up in the morning when we are finished sleeping. No need for an alarm clock…unless Randie plans to play tennis at 6:00 a.m. The first thing we do every morning is spend about 15 minutes meditating. We find this is a great way to start our day in a peaceful place. After taking our daily Immunocal drink to keep our immune system in top shape, we often go for a walk in the mountains. This is a great workout since there are many very steep areas.
Sometimes during our walk we meet people and stop to talk. Other times we drop by to visit a friend. When we get home, we look forward to sitting on our terrace enjoying our Costa Rican coffee and my homemade muffins. Sometimes I will read a book aloud that Randie is also interested in and we enjoy sharing our thoughts and reflections about what we are learning.
Once a week we walk into town to buy groceries and other items that are not available at the weekly Feria (farmer’s market). We love going to the Feria every Friday morning to get all our fresh produce.
Here is Randie buying some potatoes.
After the Feria we sometimes have breakfast at a local outdoor restaurant overlooking the park. It feels amazing to sit outside sipping our coffee and enjoying a leisurely breakfast. It fills us with such happiness and feelings of gratitude.
They have an interesting way of serving coffee at this restaurant. Take a look.
On occasion, during our breakfast, we have the pleasure of listening to a musician who is playing the flute in the park across the street.
When we are not out walking or shopping for food or meeting friends for lunch, we do a variety of things. We spend time reading and responding to emails or posts on Facebook, listening to audio trainings or watching webinars on topics that are of interest to us. I spend time on this Blog and on another Blog I started recently called, Magnificent Life Creations. In addition to enjoying sharing my thoughts, reflections and experiences about the book I am currently reading called, "Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires," I am really enjoying learning more about how to add things on Blog pages like a subscription link and videos.
I have an interest in learning more about Internet Marketing including how to provide more value to people who visit my websites; how to attract more visitors to my sites and also how I can generate income from the sites by offering products and services that are of interest to subscribers. With our new lifestyle, we are choosing to focus on creating multiple streams of income in ways that can be done anywhere in the world.
Randie and I both spend time on our new home-based business sharing information and meeting with people who are interested in learning more about a New Energy Healing Technology that recently came to North America. In addition to doing demos, etc. we also spend time on training calls and webinars so we can learn more about the technology, products and how they can help people. When people choose to join our team they often have a number of questions, not only about the products and technology, but also on how to build their own home-based business. Responding to their questions by email, phone call or Skype is another activity we engage in whenever needed.
In addition to all of the above, we also spend time going around with Real Estate Agents looking for a place to rent starting in January. Our current rental is only available until the end of December.
I really want to learn how to speak Spanish and yet I still haven’t taken time to focus on the Rosetta Stone Spanish ProgramI purchased before leaving Toronto. Randie and I also haven’t yet created our audio product and ebook on relationships that has been put on the shelf for over a year now.
As you can see, we have a very full life here in Costa Rica with so many choices on how to spend our time. The great thing is that we have the freedom and flexibility to choose what we want to do and when we want to do it.
We truly are living, as the Costa Ricans say, "La Pura Vida" and we are loving it!
We are enjoying our time here at Hotel Colinas del Sol. Although it is called a Hotel, it has more than the standard hotel rooms. As I mentioned before, we are renting a 2 bedroom house on the property and there are also efficiency apartments available (rooms with a kitchenette). We finally took a photo of the entrance to the property from the main road and also of Jurgen, the owner.
Here is a photo of a beautiful tree located near the reception area.
We were very sad to see another very old tree chopped down because it was damaged by a heavy rain storm.
Here are a few more photos of the grounds at Colinas del Sol. You can see some of the accommodations in the background of the pool. Our house is a short walk to the pool although it is not visible from the pool area.
We heard about a non profit organization in Atenas called Su Espacio, that was asking for donations to support their "Angel Tree Program." Volunteers went door-to-door in neighbourhoods where parents would not be able to afford Christmas gifts for their children. They recorded the name, age and sex of each child. In some cases they also recorded what the child would like to receive as a gift.
All the information collected (with the exception of names) was recorded on the back of an Angel decoration and was hung on a Christmas Tree. Anyone who wanted to support this program would take Angels off the tree and purchase a gift suitable for the age and sex recorded.
Here is a picture of the Angel Tree.
Randie and I were excited to participate and chose 4 Angels; 2 boys and 2 girls between the ages of 5 and 9. We had lots of fun shopping for gifts for these children as we imagined how excited they will be on Christmas Day. Here are the gifts we chose.
When we brought the wrapped gifts to the office of Su Espacio, we were very happy to see that all the Angels on the tree were gone. The founder of this organization, Tina Newton, told us that there were initially 400 Angels on the tree. We also found out that the gifts will be given to the children at a Christmas Party that this organization is sponsoring on December 20th. We immediately offered to volunteer and help out at the party. I can hardly wait!
After dropping off the gifts and picking up a few groceries we decided to have lunch at a new restaurant in town called Don Tadeo. Our friend Barbara happened to walk by and joined us. We are so blessed and give thanks for the freedom and abundance we experience every day.
Costa Rica is filled with natural beauty and some surprises. Take a look at what we saw running across our terrace one night. Yes, this frog is huge, about 5 or 6 inches high.
We even have butterflies that fly into our house on a regular basis. These photos were taken inside our home. It took some patience to get these shots since the butterflies where wildly flapping their wings trying to get out through the closed window. We had to take several shots in order to catch them with their wings open. We succeeded with most of them and even the one with wings closed is beautiful! Of course, once we got the photo we carefully helped each one find freedom outdoors.
There are a variety of flowering bushes that are found everywhere. Here are a couple of them.
Last, but not least, I had to get a picture of this gorgeous orchid plant being sold at the Feria (farmer’s market).
It is still rainy season in Costa Rica and it has been raining almost every day. We are happy that the rain usually doesn’t start until mid afternoon giving us a good part of the day with sunshine.
One night we were blessed with the most spectacular view that we could see from our living room. Of course we ran outside to take a closer look and Randie got some great photos.
When we went for a walk exploring the area where we are currently staying, we came to a dead end that overlooks the new highway that goes through Atenas. We heard the highway was closed and when we looked down from the mountain overlooking the highway we could see why.
This is what we saw when we looked to the left.
This is what we saw when we looked to the right.
Since there was no one cleaning this up on this side we wondered if there was a clean up crew working on the other side. We happened to see someone walking across from the other side and when we asked him how much of the highway was covered by the mudslide, he told us that it took him about 10 minutes to get through the section of the highway that was blocked. He also said there was no one on the other side cleaning it up. Who knows how long this highway will be closed, after all, Costa Rica is on mañana time.
.jpg)
.jpg)
," 
