Living in Atenas

I've been a long time not communicating. To tell you the truth, I was tired and had a lot of internal turmoil going on. Our move from Penas Blancas to Atenas went well. We had a great driver who was friendly and fun. He's studying to become a tour guide. We wish him luck!

I had been battling loss of hope of a good life, starting to think that my time here was in fact limited and the feeling that I'm now pretty useless. You see, my lungs have not been doing well and the oxygen concentrator that we bought before leaving Canada on the insistence of my doctor, did not bring me much of an enhanced quality of life. I was pretty discouraged. I think it's normal when you're life has such a drastic change to become emotional and distressed. OK. Now you know. So let's go on with the show!

As you remember from the last blog, the van we hired was packed at full capacity with our belongings. We had to stop for lunch where Glen almost got swallowed up by a giant crocodile!

We did see some real crocodiles from the Tarcoles bridge where they usually hang out. It's a big tourist attraction.

Of course, it's a prime location for vendors to show off their wares!

We did stop briefly at Jaco where the driver took our picture in front of the large colorful sign but my camera was on the manual setting which resulted in a very washed out picture. Oh well! I'm sure we'll be back.

The big problem is that when we got to our new home, the place had been left very dirty with a ton of old dirty dishes, etc. We had to clean everything and get rid of so much stuff! It was very exhausting and to top it off, there were no bed linens! We slept on the mattress cover that looked new, covered by the bedspread. We were not amused...

The next day I sent a text to our landlord telling her how we had found the place and that we had a lot of unnecessary things to dispose of. She came over right away and was very upset and ashamed that the apartment had not been cleaned. I think she thought the previous tenant would have left it ready to rent. Anyhow, she brought us some bed linens and towels and carted away all the old, dirty kitchen stuff along with the only lamp in the bedroom which was so disgusting that it was beyond savable.

Now that we've been here for a while, we love this place and the landlord is actually very nice. She does speak English which facilitates our relationship. She (her name is Odili) found us a driver who is a neighbour and also a cleaning lady who is also a neighbour and the driver's niece. Neither speak any English which makes conversations interesting. Thank God for Google translate!

I'm still trying hard to learn Spanish taking one lesson per day online but when I go to say something, by the time I try to figure out where to put the words in the sentence the moment is long gone.

We are surrounded by a jungle it seems. It is very private. There is someone living in the downstairs apartment but he lives alone and we rarely see him. He's a good man, a retired hippie in his late 70s.

The back balcony.

The neighbour's car and driveway. The stairs lead to the laundry in the back.

The entrance to our home

Iguanas like to sun themselves on the bridge

The entrance to the property is a nice drive. I don't know if it's been landscaped or just natural but it's lush and green. The security gate at the street keeps us safe and keeps any unwanted guests out.

This is our street: Calle Capre Verde

And this is the street after our house. Very steep hill.

And twisted road.

As you can see from the sign which seems to have been hit by trucks a few times.

Glen has walked down that hill, taking pictures and exploring. So one time he decides to take me along so I could see it. There is very little traffic since there is only one house and then further is a resort. So it's quiet and quite enjoyable. The problem is: I can't walk very far but the biggest snag in his plan is that I absolutely can't walk up any hill, no matter how small.  Well this is a biggy! Not just a big hill but a long one.

I get in the wheelchair and off we go! The first clue that we shouldn't be doing this was the fact that Glen could hardly hold me going down the hill. We had to zigzag down slalom style. After spending some time down there, it's time to go back up. That is when Glen realized that we shouldn't have done this. He's strong and in good shape but pushing someone in a wheelchair up such a steep hill was more than he could do. It was so steep that if we stopped and I put my brakes on, I had to lean forward in the chair to prevent it from tipping backward. Glen was sweating profusely. We would go from shade spot to shade spot and then rest. At one point I thought we were stuck there until rescuers would find us. It was that bad...

After a lot of sweating and with team effort (I helped by pushing the wheels with my arms) we made it up. I thought Glen was going to cry. We decided that it really wasn't necessary for me to go down there ever again. Good decision!

We've been enjoying the pool quite a lot especially during the hot afternoons. I try to exercise in the pool as I don't seem to get so winded in the water.

We always seem to have the pool to ourselves. Pretty nice to have that privilege.

At first, we were disappointed that we weren't seeing any birds. Then we started seeing some on a large tree way back on the property. After taking numerous pictures, we realized they were all birds we would see in Canada. They followed us here! First we saw some Baltimore Orioles, then Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Really? Here we are in Costa Rica and we're taking pictures of birds we saw back at home?

After a while we did see some interesting birds and actually many we hadn't seen yet. But you'll have to wait for the next blog to see them!

And always remember that we're all under the same moon.