SUNSETS

(I want everyone to know that I did nothing to change the color of any of the photos in this Blog.  The photos were all taken from approximately the same place on the beach but on different days.)

Tamarindo is one of the top ten places in the world for beautiful sunsets.  I tried to find out what makes the various colors in a sunset but it was hard to understand.  It has to do with the distance the light travels and the scattering of the particles of light as it travels from the sun to our eyes.  It did say that the cleaner the air the more beautiful the colors.

"Because the sun is low on the horizon, sunlight passes through more air at sunset than during the day. More atmosphere means more molecules to scatter the blue light away from our eyes. If the path is long enough, all of the blue light scatters out of our line of sight. The other colors continue on their way to our eyes. This is why sunsets are often yellow, orange, and red.”

Here is an example of a reddish-orange colored sunset.

The colors can also be lighter in the pink range.

And sometimes they still have a little blue in them.

 

There are some that have a gold tone.

I think some of the best pictures of the sunset are those that have other objects in the picture, like a surfer,

Or fishermen in their boat at the end of the day,

Or just a sailboat.

Or just the outline of a tree.

Wouldn't a massage on the beach at sunset be heavenly?

After the sun sets there is always an afterglow.  The colors of this vary depending on the clouds in the sky.

We go down to the beach almost every day to watch the sun set. 

Every one is different and we have never been disappointed in the beauty.  I can see why this is in the top ten places in the world for beautiful sunsets.

(I did use a flash on this picture to make Gail stand out a little.)

They tell us that if you show up to watch the sunset without a drink in your hand you can get arrested, so it is off to get Gail a Cuba Libra before the "policia" catch her.

The SAGA Ends

So here we are in Costa Rica, on a Sunday night, and I have a tooth that has just erupted.  I tell myself to just take some Tylenol and it will be better in the morning.  I did make it through the night but in the morning we began asking folks in the condo if they knew of a good dentist.

Surprisingly enough almost everyone we talked to had work done on their teeth here—some repair work but a lot of cosmetic work like cleaning and whitening.  All recommended Dra. Virna Alicia Serrano Hidalgo, and wonderfully, her office is located just down the street from our condo.   A quick jog got me to the Coastal Emergency Medical Clinic.

In this office there is a myriad of services available including a Dermatologist, Cardiac Rehabilitation, two family doctors, a dentist, and quite a few other services. 

Unfortunately, when I got there the waiting room was empty and the only person there was a man in a guard uniform who did not speak English. 

Waiting Room

It was easy for me to make him understand I had a tooth ache and he gave me Dra. Hidalgo’s business card and indicated I should call the Emergency number.  Since we don’t have a phone I emailed our condo manager asked if she would contact the dentist.  In about an hour the guard here at the condos came and got me and told me the manager was on the telephone.  Our manager said the Dra. would be in her office at 3:00.  Another quick jog and I was there when Dra. Hidalgo walked in at 3:00 on the button.

There was only one dentist chair in a small room. Each instrument she used was in an individual sterilized package. She never left the room and made sure throughout the process that I was in as little pain as possible. 

I spent the next two and a half hours one-on-one with this dentist.She took an Xray to determine the problem, drew me pictures to explain what was happening to the tooth, explained the options to me, and the consequences of each.We finally decided to pull the tooth. 

I have never known a dentist to spend that much time with a patient being so thorough and so concerned that I understood everything that was happening. The whole thing has turned out great, although I am minus a tooth, and the charge was only $95. 

  

This kind of attention is unheard of in the US and I now understand why many people are coming to foreign countries to have medical procedures done. 

SAGA Page 2

I did not mention in the initial chapter of this story that Tamarindo Bay is one of the top ten places in the world to watch the sun set.  This is one of the reasons we wanted to go to Witches Rock.  The music was rousing and the beach style drinks made it even better.  But, the sunsets that night, and every night, are majestic.

 (I will do a posting on the blog of just sunsets when I have a few more pictures.)

After listening to the music on the beach, dancing, enjoying the beach drinks, and getting John home safely, we remembered we had not eaten dinner.  We had nothing easily fixable in the condo so we decided to venture out again.  By this time it was after eight o’clock on Sunday night but we found a wonderful local BBQ place that had quite a few people there.  We figured that was a good sign, and we were right.

Gail and I both had a pulled pork sandwich.  She had sweet potato fries and I had some kind of local potato chip.  The BBQ sauce came in three different grades of hotness-just like it does at Whole Hog in Arkansas. 

Our waitress was named Eileen, from the Philippines.  She was about five feet tall and weighed in at less than one hundred pounds.  She was thirty eight and looked twelve.  She has been here for four years and works twelve hours a day six days a week.  She loves this life because it is much more lucrative than anything available to her in the Philippines.  He goal is to move to Canada and work as a live-in care giver.

After we finished our sandwiches I was using my plastic toothpick with the Roto- rooter attachment on the end to get deep within the abysses’ of the teeth.   When we got home it felt like I had released a volcanic flow equal to that of Mt. Vesuvius.

OH MAN!!!!

SAGA Page 1

Yesterday I had a rather traumatic but still, in a way, a good experience. 

To fully explain I have to go back and begin the story on Sunday night.

We, and several other couples from the condo complex, went to a restaurant/bar known as Witches Rock.  There is a group who plays music there several nights a week called the Banana Kings.  They play mostly sixties music and can really get the crowd wound up.  We had seen them before but this time they were playing on the beach rather than inside. 

The leader of the group looks very much like Willie Nelson.  He is a fantastic guitar player and actually played some with his tongue.  (I didn’t get a picture of that so you will just have to take my word for it.)

The base guitar player has probably never sung a note of music in his life but he can scream on key with the best of them. 

The drummer is also excellent and actually has another band he plays with and has made a CD with them that is wonderful. 

This night the people were enjoying the music and the drinks in typical beach fashion.  One of the gentlemen from our group, John, was joining in and dancing on the rocky dance floor.

Unfortunately, John fell and we all scrambled and got him vertical again.  He has a wonderfully hearty spirit so this did not slow him down in the slightest; at least until it was time to head home. 

You have to know that the streets here are not paved, have stones sticking up everywhere and ditches along the side to help the water runoff during the rainy season. 

This was after dark and the walking was tough so John was doing the Tim Conway Shuffle all the way home.  We had a flashlight to guide our way and one of us was holding each of John’s arms while John was making sure his “to go” drink did not spill.

We made it home but that was just the beginning.

Tides

Tamarindo, Costa Rica is located in a bay.  It is protected on all sides by a rising shoreline.  The waves come into the bay and create some excellent surfing.  The entire town is based on the tourists coming to enjoy the beach and the surfing.  When there is low tide the beach is several hundred feet wide.  When it is high tide the beach is very narrow and many of the restaurants have sea walls for protection at certain times of the year when the tides are at their highest.  The tides do not happen at the same time each day but are approximately tewlve hours apart.  Here is the chart for the tides today:

Sunday, February 12, 2012 5:45 AM CST
High tide 9.25 Feet
5:59 AM CST Sunrise
9:32 AM CST Moonset
11:48 AM CST Low tide -0.69 Feet
5:47 PM CST Sunset
6:10 PM CST High tide 9.83 Feet
10:22 PM CST Moonrise

As you can see the tides change over nine feet from low to high.  (By the way, since this is so close to the equator, the sun rises and sets at approximately the same time each day.)

Yesterday morning we took a walk on the west end of the beach at low tide.    The tracks that are left in the sand as the water recedes are amazing.

It even leaves small waterfalls and pools in the rocks that are beautiful and provide great places for the children to play and build sand castles.

We have walked several mornings and every day it looks different and is totally amazing.

Flowers

I took a walk with my camera around the condo complex and along the street beyond.  I wish I could give you the sounds of the birds, and the Howler monkeys in the background.  Even though it is the dry season and all of the plants seem extremely parched, there still is a lot of  color. 

As I walk out of our condo I see a grouping of plants that includes a small palm tree, Bird of Paradise and some small blue flowers.

Along the fence there are plants with multicolored leaves and beautiful red flowers.

Along the sidewalk is a bush that has reddish orange flowers.

There is a tree just outside our gate that looks like a yellow Wisteria.

A little further are Bougainvilleas.

Beyond that are little blue flowers that are so prolific they cover the entire side of this building.

And finally, at the end of the street is a wonderful Banyan Tree where there is always a fleet of taxis and at noon a lady serves lunch out of the back of ther car.

Our Condo

Our condo is quite nice although much smaller than we had last year.   The kitchen has all of the appliances we need.  It even has the clothes washer there.  You have to take your clothes downstairs to dry them though.

It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms.  The main bedroom is large and even has a king size bed.  The bathrooms have showers—no tubs—and the showers are basically a slight step down in the floor with a drain.

We are on the second floor overlooking a very nice pool.

Beyond the fence surrounding the complex it is very rugged.   I have seen people using the dirt path beyond the fence.   I am not sure, but it looks like it just goes up into the hills.   

There is a maintenance man here all day long that keeps the place spotless and will also fix any problem you might have.  (He put a new screen in our patio door for us today.) 

After dark the entrance to the condo complex is locked and we have a separate key to access the grounds.  There is also a guard that stays on the premises at night.  The wall around the rear of the complex is lined with glass and barbed wire.

We have talked to some of the people here who say the complex and the entire town is very safe.  There is a problem with petty theft in the country as a whole but here it is very safe even to be out after dark. 

We feel good!