Here’s the view of the San Isidro sunrise that I woke up to this morning at about 6:20 a.m., taken from my back patio window.
Sublime!
The second best consecutive thing to happen this morning is that I took my first HOT shower since arriving in Costa Rica on Sept 4, 2025! The shower in the casita was lukewarm at best, and then only sporadically, so I only stayed in that one long enough to wash at warp speed and then get the heck out!
This morning, I ventured into the shower and found it an amazing experience. I loved it so much I wanted to stay for ten or fifteen minutes, but being environmentally conscious, I only stayed in for about four minutes — still twice as long as I needed to but I just couldn’t drag myself away this first time. It was such a pleasure to not half-freeze to death while stark naked!
5988 steps so far today (4:38 p.m.)
I walked down to the “shopping center” closest to me in San Isidro this morning. It’s about 2000 steps in one direction on a very walkable low incline, so it was pretty much a breeze both ways. Most of the distance has sidewalks, too. The parts that don’t are easy to navigate because the roadsides are smooth and grassy (or what passes for grass here near the equator).
One side of the street (Crystal’s and Dale’s side) is mostly in shade, too, that early in the day (about 7:45) so it’s a pleasant, perfect stroll and if I want to walk more, I can always go across to the soccer (futbol) field and walk on its sidewalk perimeter. The field is in full sun from early in the day, though, so it would have to be early. I could take several laps and probably get the balance of my 7500 step goal there before shopping (or just walking) and heading back.
Crystal says she will join me on my walks at least two days a week.
There are three tiendas (stores) in close proximity there
I will try to remember to take pictures of them next time I go.
At the super tienda, I bought frozen dark meat chicken, a dozen eggs, frozen chicken burritos, a package of potato and bacon soup, two small cans of sweet corn, a couple tiny packets of TANG, vanilla cookies and hot chocolate.
At the fruit and vegetable tienda, I bought two apples, six small white potatoes and two lovely large avocados. One has already gone into my gullet. Heaven on earth!
At the smaller tienda, I bought two small cartons of peach nectar.
That amount of food almost filled the small rolling cart that I bring along when I shop. It’s several days’ worth of food since my main dish is usually rice and black beans.
Spotted Crystal, Dale and Daisy in their front yard during the walk down
…so I stopped to say, “Hola!” and chat for about five or ten minutes. That was the THIRD great consecutive thing that happened to me today!
I chatted with my landlady a little bit, too, and took her the flatscreen TV (since I never watch TV) and several of the books she placed in here for renters. (I’m keeping her Costa Rica books until I read them!)
Her cat, Mao, is also a spayed female tuxedo like Charli
They’re about the same size but Mao is younger and weighs less (normal weight!).
Mao and Charli are presently in “oh, hell no!” mutual hissing mode when they’re near each other, but they are rarely in close proximity. This is a HUGE place for them, so they can avoid each other at will.
I keep my patio screen doors shut so Mao can’t come in and violate Carli’s sanctuary and my landlady does the same. This way each cat has her “home territory” and the yard and acreage can be their “terror-tory” — the places where encounters between them CAN happen while they figure out what kind of relationship they want.
Hopefully they’ll decide to be friends, but if not, each still has us, their house staff, to bond with and rely on.
The gale force winds have died down, fortunately!
It was wild again last night, but by morning, there was very little moving air, just an occasional slight breeze.
LISA WILL BE HERE IN EIGHT DAYS!!!
It’s hard to believe, but I’m sooo happy because I know it’s TRUE! She’s gonna love this place as much as I do. It’s truly magnificent. And I can’t wait to introduce her to my Costa Rica family!
There is the CUTEST Toucan wood cutout in this kitchen:
I want to find one like it to get for Lisa as a souvenir and one for myself and future guests, as well. Hope my landlady rememebers where she bought it…
UV RATING IS 11 TODAY
Had to stay out of the sun most of the day even though it only reached 68 degrees F here in the heights. It has been such a pleasant, glorious, quiet day. I even took a noon nap since I only slept about 6 and a half hours last night, according to my watch.
San Isidro Critters
Butterflies were flitting around in abundance and there were Chachalacas eating bananas or plantains in the trees here this afternoon. The trees here are low to the ground, so harvestable if the birds don’t get to the fruit first!
There’s also a coffee field within 25 feet of my patio. I plan to take pictures of the area tomorrow morning and maybe I’ll even walk down the driveway to the garden and beyond tomorrow morning, to see what I can find there.
I may even walk as far down as the river. Gonna do some research first to see if there are crocodiles or gar alligators that I need to be aware of in high altitude places like this. I don’t want to run afoul of their territory, if there are!
Here are a few more pictures I took yesterday that didn’t make it into the blog post I published yesterday:
That’s all for now!