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Along the Natchez Trace

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Getting Settled In....

Yesterday, Tuesday, we spent a fair amount of time just getting organized and putting things away.  I'll take photos of our place soon and you can see where we live.  It's fairly large...  has an upstairs bedroom and bath and downstairs a large kitchen/dining/living area and another bath.  There is an automatic washer on the back porch...  only a sidewalk directly in front, but a large area below that with a pool (not in working order) and some nice shrubs and trees.  The bedroom has a deck off the back.  
You can see the place on Google maps....  just put in the coordinates:  N 10 32.701  W 85 42.865 and you'll see our building and the road to both the beach and the town.  More of all that later.

Ney and Yeral stopped by shortly after noon to take us into town.  We had to do some serious grocery shopping.  
 Yikes!  Our groceries came to $145,414.00!
That's the receipt on the left and the total on the right.
Well, we did have to buy everything from dishwashing and laundry detergent to toilet paper and paper towels...  and all the staples that it takes to "furnish" a kitchen.  
But the Costa Rican money is Colones and I checked on our Discover card when we got home and the total American dollars came to $291.56.  I know that's not cheap, but anyone who shops these days knows it's expensive to outfit a kitchen.

Vegetables and fruits are usually sold by the kilo....  even the avocados I bought are sold that way.
This package of mixed veggies included some various squash, carrots,  and I don't know what those long light green things are in the upper left.  They kind of look like corn husks on the outside and okra on the inside.  I sliced them up and sauteed them...  but the husk like part was too tough to eat.

 Chicken (sorry, George...  no Weber grill here) and mixed veggies.  Our dinner last night.
I'm sure I'll be experimenting with all kinds of foods...  we seldom eat out, and the grocery stores are such fun to wander around in.

The following photos are ones I took from our front "step" this morning...
 A flock of parrots fly across the valley into this dead tree about 300' from our condo.  I haven't gotten a positive ID, but we think it's probably a White-fronted parrot.    The blue head and white above the bill.... and while not visible here, red around the eyes.  There aren't a whole lot of different species of parrots here in this area, but I'm sure we'll get a closer view soon.

Across the valley we can see a lot of different kinds of trees...  some are in flower...
This tree is about a half mile away...  
There is so much vegetation that it will take us a long time to ID things.

We heard the kiskadees before we saw them this morning...

These were in that dead tree across the road....
As Carolyn mentioned, the Social flycatcher is also here in this area, but one big difference is the size of the bill...  as well as the birds 6" length.  
Kind of hard to see the 9" size of the birds above, but no mistaking that "Kiskadee" call.

We're going to head out on a walk soon...  got to start exploring what's around us.
So, with camera and binoculars in hand....  we'll soon be off.

That's All For Today!

12 comments:

  1. Getting a grocery bill for over $100,000 would sure scare the daylights out of me!

    Nice to see Parrots in the wild - sure looks lush and green there.

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  2. Love the photos of Costa Rican birds. When you head into the rain forest you'll see plenty to photograph. The local guide at San Antonio National Park was fantastically knowledgeable. He even had a powerful telescope to get an opportunity to get close up pics of animals in the trees and 'hiding' with their natural camouflage. I did find Costa Rica to be rather expensive after having lived in Guatemala. That's life. Looks like you bought some really nice produce.

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  3. Looking forward to seeing your photos. You guys sure are adventurous! Enjoy your stay and happy holidays to you. Starting tomorrow, my commenting will get erratic as we're busy with Christmas and Holiday festivities, but I'll be looking at all my blogs.

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  4. Glad to see you getting all settled in for your new adventure. Can't wait to see more of your photos, and hear all about your adventure.

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  5. You should enjoy that area. I am sure there are many varieties of birds (and wild life) around for you to photograph.

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  6. I bet you forgot bird seed at the grocery store!

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  7. Identifying everything is going to be a real challenge. I, of course, will be especially interested in the birds. :)

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  8. Lucky you! The spouse and I lived in Costa Rica for three months when we were in training for Peace Corps. We loved it. We haven't been back and I imagine much has changed. I look forward to reading about your adventures.

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  9. And I always thought of Central American countries as low cost.... Guess that was 50 years ago! How are native Costa Ricans making a living?

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  10. So much nicer to eat in rather than go out to eat I find. We got tired of restaurants a long time ago, and only venture out to a couple places where we know what to expect. And order the same thing most every time.
    Will you be able to walk down to the water? I didn't/couldn't figure out just how far it is, but it looked like maybe more than a kilometre.
    Have fun!

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  11. Looks like a beautiful area! I can hardly wait....enjoy!
    We rarely eat out either!

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  12. Expensive, but those grilled fresh veggies look good!

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