A Clear Day in Atenas

Monday, March 4

We awoke this morning to the noise of traffic and to a surprise - it is sunny and clear today! This was not in yesterday's weather prediction and is an unexpected gift. We can now see almost all of the mountains to the north. Where before they had so much cloud cover that we could not tell where they ended, today only a small ridge of cloud cover remains, and we have our best view yet from our balcony. (Yes, the wires can be distracting. We are learning to look past them and ignore them.)

View from the balcony of the Rodrigo Urena guest apartment, Atenas. (Photo by Connie)

We learned today that the mountains we are looking at are volcanos. The one just to the right of the pole is Poas - a popular tourist destination. The one to the right of Poas is Barva. They are closer than we thought they would be. We are planning to take a trip to Poas at some point.

Later this morning, we take a walk around town. First stop, Musmanni - the coffee shop and bakery that reminds me of Dunkin Donuts. After that, we visit the two bus stations in town. The one across the street from Musmanni is the local bus station. Another one in the next block is the one where we would catch the bus for San Jose or Alajuela. We are planning a trip to San Jose on Wednesday with our new friends, Diana and Phil, who will be joining us for lunch today.

Our walkabout this morning included these sights:

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Street scene in Atenas. El Balcon Cafe is on this street, just before Gollo. (Photo by Bob)

Palacio Municipal, Atenas, Costa Rica. (Photo by Connie)

Parque Central, Atenas, Costa Rica. (Photo by Connie)

Our new friends, Diana and Phil from Iowa, came into town to do some shopping and we met up for lunch. We went to Balcon del Cafe y Bistro - a place we had tried once before and is our friends' favorite spot for lunch. Over lunch, we had a long and lively discussion about the American health care system in comparison to the one in Costa Rica and other countries. Costa Rica has a universal health care system and services are free to all residents. How they pay for this is still unknown to us. But we did bat around some ideas about how we Americans might devise ways to make health care affordable to all, including the government. (This could be a blog post all of its own.)

Diana, Bob, and Phil at El Balcon, Atenas, Costa Rica. (Photo by Connie)

 

We four have planned an excursion into San Jose by bus for Thursday. None of us have done this trip by bus, and this is an exploratory venture. I am a little nervous because of the reputation San Jose has for petty thievery, especially at the bus stations. I think Diana is too. But the guys want to see for themselves, and we are being brave and going too. The reward will be visits to a few tourist spots, especially a museum or two or three. More about this after Thursday.

 

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