Here in Costa Rica, I miss walking as much as I used to in the U.S.

 

Other than my friends, walking is what I miss most

 

I’m in the mountains here in El Cajon, so everything within walking distance is either steeply uphill or downhill. Which means that in whichever direction I walk, if I decide to go very far, I will be faced with a steep hill, coming and going.  This cools my ardor for walking considerably!

 

I can walk Calle Esteban ten times to get sufficient exercise to satisfy my wanderlust, but that’s just about all. Otherwise, there are hills that would stymy me.  At 74 years old, it isn’t a good idea to risk getting a knee injury…

 

So I’m kinda stuck in that way.

 

Options

 

I could take a bus to a soccer/futbol field or to the central park in Grecia and walk there. It would be affordable, for sure. I’ll probably start doing that once or twice a week.  That will give me additional opportunities to eat at local sodas — which are super affordable — and converse with more Ticos and other immigrants, too!

 

Cleaned the Patio

 

I cleaned the patio this morning.  Although I’ve been sweeping it regularly since I got here  a month ago yesterday, I hadn’t washed it down yet with a mop.

 

Birds perch on the railings in certain spots and poop on them. Sometimes the poop even makes  it to the patio floor.

 

So, I pulled out and uncoiled the hose that hangs in a tree next to my casita, and then got my mop and scrubbed anything down that required a little elbow grease.  It only took about five minutes, but now the place looks as pristine as it did the day I arrived, and that makes me happy. It also helped me take several hundred more steps. Every single one counts!  I’m up to 1159 steps today so far. (Pitiful.) If I can find a way to do 6000 more, I will be very happy!

 

I usually only manage 5000-700 steps on days when I go into Grecia, which has been only once a week, so my weight is slowly creeping up.  Not a good thing! Although it’s only three pounds, I want to treat my weight like a fever and take steps to lower it when it gets “three degrees/pounds” higher than I want it to be! It’s easier and faster to manage/maintain/correct when the “fever” (the number on the scale) stays lower, ya know???

 

I will go take a walk now on Calle Esteban and see if I can rack up some more mileage.  More later!

 

UPDATE:

 

I went for a walk. This time I headed in the other direction on Calle Esteban Salas to see how far it goes beyond where my casita is. It doesn’t go a whole lot farther, but there aren’t any massive hills, so it was a pleasant walk and I took a lot of new pictures.  That’s because I saw additional, new-to-me types of foliage in that direction.

 

 

While I was meandering in that area and taking pictures, a car with four adults (most of them male) backed out of a driveway not far ahead of me. They were super slow leaving after backing out, very likely taking account of this stranger who was taking pictures in their area.

 

Their windows were rolled down as I approached them, so I quickly assembled (in my mind) the best possible, briefest self-introduction that would ease their minds. I smiled, “Buenas dias. Estoy nuevo aqui. Vivo en la Casita Tucana21” — to let them know I was more or less in the right neck of the woods to be legitimately (and benignly) walking on the calle we share as neighbors.

 

The driver responded, “Welcome to the neighborhood” in flawless English — at which time I noticed they were immigrants, too.  <Blush> Absolutamente.  They even looked like gringos. But by golly, I had prepared my intro in advance and I didn’t think to alter it when I came alongside them, so …   damn… what the hell!

 

After I explored in that direction, I reversed course and walked all the way to the main road via the usual route.  When I got there, I headed to the cattle pen to see if my Brahma buddies were there. They were so I took more pictures of them, including a couple videos that I published on my Facebook page.

To see the white one, you’ll have to visit my Facebook page and watch the videos.

I gave them both head, neck and shoulder scratching as soon

as they convinced me they weren’t going to come through the fence at me.

The one above pawed the ground once once, so I waited for him to make the next move.

He came over to the fence, put his face partway through between the barbed wire

and then licked my hand, so I knew we were good.

On the way back toward home I saw that the coffee trees/bushes had put out coffee beans, so I got a picture of those for you coffee and cocoa drinkers but it didn’t turn out as well as I wanted it to, so I’ll catch a better image next time I walk to the main road to deposit trash again, probably tomorrow.

 

During my extended trek today, I managed to get in another 3000+ steps. so I’m at 4,069 for the day. With the rain rolling in, that’s probably as far as I’m going to get for the rest of the day except for puddling around here in my wee casita…