Monday, June 30, 2025: Welcome to our June cocktail hour.Let’s have some tequila with Fresca, a drink easily made at home here in Costa Rica. We can congregate on the balcony and enjoy breezes and views of Lake Arenal and maybe we’ll even experience a cooling tormenta. Sunset is at around 6:00 every night of the year; twilight brings with it lots of mosquitoes, so be sure to slather on the mosquito repellent.
I have a variety of beers, soda or seltzer water for those of you who don’t drink. Thanks for joining us in our escape into a peaceful corner of the world, not a place completely free from danger, but safe from certain things we cannot abide, like living in a police state.
June marked our first month in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We spent the first couple of weeks settling into the rental house on Lake Arenal that we got through Airbnb. The house has a modern addition, but the original house is old and rather decrepit. The kitchen is certainly not well-stocked, so we had to spend quite some time and money getting it up to par. I hope to get our “settling in” over with as soon as possible so we can spend our time relaxing and exploring not only local spots but areas further afield.
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Mike carries on with consulting & I begin a new blog
Mike has officially retired, but he is not willing to let it all go; he is still doing consulting here and there. Luckily it doesn’t take up big chunks of our days. For my part, I’ve started a new blog which you can find here:
a pura vida year in costa rica
I still need to have some kind of project to keep me occupied and out of trouble. 🙂
A new used car: 2014 Mitsubishi ASX
The day after we moved into our house, on June 2, we bought a red 2014 Mitsubishi ASX from an expat American, Rand, who lives in the community. He had bought the car for his girlfriend Raquel. Since they broke up, he wanted to sell it. Though the car is 11 years old, it only has 40,000 miles on it and we hope we’ll be able to sell it when we leave the country next year. It has a stick shift, which Mike quickly got used to. It took me a while before I was brave enough to try it. With all the hilly roads here AND the fact that I hadn’t driven a stick shift probably since the 1980s, I was a bit nervous about it and knew I needed a straight and flat stretch to practice on.
I finally practiced driving the car on June 16 in nice flat Tronadora. It’s funny how some repetitive actions like riding a bike or driving a stick can come back to you like a familiar old friend. My driving lesson through Tronadora went smoothly. Regained confidence! 🤩🥳
Shopping for big stuff in Liberia
Our neighbor Bruce, who is super friendly, hilarious and helpful, had us follow him to Liberia on our first Thursday, where we spent all day shopping for household items at PriceSmart (like Costco in the U.S.) and Walmart. He also took us to his favorite fish market, Panamar Seafood. We spent a small fortune on food and household items. Our biggest purchases were sturdy plastic tables to serve as computer desks, two giant floor fans, a rice cooker and a blender. We’ll of course take them with us when we move to another place in December, and when we leave Costa Rica next May, I hope we can take them to Adam in Nicaragua.
Monster Gym and exercise options
We got busy immediately scoping out our exercise options. I’m hoping to lose weight while I’m here. We found a couple of hilly walking routes in San Luis and Tonadora. We also joined Monster Gym in Tilaran, run by Diego. Mike rides the exercise bike there while I do the weight machines. I have never enjoyed going to the gym in Virginia, but this place seems to work well for me. We got a month-long membership for $40 each, quite expensive in my eyes. We’ve been going three times a week since we joined on June 9.
We also tried out Yoga with Adrien and Pilates with Sherry on YouTube. I don’t know Adrien, but I’ve taken pilates classes with Sherry at Oakmont Rec Center near my home in Oakton, VA. Now that Mike’s leg has healed, he started swimming in the cove of Lake Arenal near our house. We also hope to try some kayaking there and Mike wants to try paddle boarding, but I’m not sure about my ability to keep my balance. Of course, when we explore further afield in Costa Rica, we’ll do some hiking as well. During our last week, we also found a place to do yoga; I’ll tell more about that later.
Tilarán & Tronadora
We’ve checked out spots in Tilarán, mostly supermarkets and hardware stores, but also eateries. We’ve also explored the town of Tronadora, the tidiest little town imaginable. Residents keep their homes and lawns perfectly manicured. You can tell the townspeople have great pride in their town. Besides walking there, we found a carnicería run by Rigo (Rigoberto) where we bought bacon 🥓, chicken, fish, chorizo, & frozen shrimp 🍤. He threw in the most delicious sweet pineapple for free and even cut it for us. We found a small vegetable market, where we stocked up on veggies, and Soda Doña Chila, a breakfast and lunch restaurant. A “soda” in Costa Rica is a small, often family-owned restaurant that specializes in comida tipica, or traditional Costa Rican food. A soda feels like an extension of a Tico home, where recipes are passed down through generations.
Exploring local cuisine
During the month, we visited Brisas del Lago, Lake Arenal Brewery, Mary’s Restaurante with our friend Bruce, Café & Macadamia, Mystica, Beer Garden Tinajas, and Chicharronera on Peninsula 1 in Tronadora. We went out to eat at the most upscale spot around, Gingerbread in Nuevo Arenal, owned by an Israeli man who has lived in Costa Rica for 23 years. We also cooked in quite a a lot. Our favorite creation so far has been the chorizo, potato and green bean soup we made from the chorizo we got from Rigo in Tronadora. One Saturday night we tried a place just up the road from us in San Luis, Cevichera La Pasadita. I enjoyed a ceviche de camarón, while Mike had Costilla Cerdo BBQ.
Local drives
We took a drive up to a cross on a hill, called Cerro Tovar, Parque del Viento, to see views of Tilaran and the countryside thereabouts. We also visited the towns of Aguacate and Nuevo Arenal.
Peninsula 1 in Tronadora
We walked one Tuesday down and back on Peninsula 1, a beautiful peninsula on the other side of the cove from us. The green rooftops shown in some of the pictures are those in our complex, across the cove. I could live on Peninsula 1. It has great views and, being on a ridge, gets strong breezes off Lake Arenal. The white house at the end of the peninsula, shown in the photo below, houses a group of Germans who wear white everywhere and paint the local bus stops with colorful religious-themed murals. We passed them bicycling and walking on Peninsula 1 and they didn’t even meet our eyes or greet us in any way.
After our walk we stopped at Soda Doña Chila for fruit juices and an empañada for Mike.
Two nights in Playa Hermosa
We took a 2-night break from the rains inundating Lake Arenal to visit Playa Hermosa, only about a 1 1/2-hour drive from our house. We were taking a gamble as it’s rainy season everywhere in Costa Rica, but we mostly lucked out with the weather. We stayed at the same hotel, Hotel el Velero, where we stayed in 2023 when we came here with our son Alex.
After lunch at Café & Macadamia near the Liberia Airport, we arrived at Hotel el Velero and promptly headed out to the beach. The day was beautiful, sunny & breezy and we enjoyed swimming, reading, and relaxing, topped off with drinks at the 3:30 happy hour. I made substantial progress on a book I’ve been reading sporadically for quite some time, Paul Theroux’s The Old Patagonian Express. Though written in 1979 (46 years ago), there are still many pertinent observations by the author about Central and South America. In the evening, we enjoyed sunset at the beach.
After sunset, we went to Ginger, the same Asian-inspired tapas restaurant where we went in 2023 with Alex. We enjoyed talking to fellow American travelers seated on either side of us. We enjoyed glasses of Prosecco and the food was delectable (we shared firecracker shrimp, Ahi Tuna Tostadas, and Cremini and Pepper Jack Flatbread), the night breezy and comfortable, the ambiance great, and the company fabulous. And we topped it off by sharing a lava cake with ice cream.
We enjoyed breakfast at Hotel El Velero Thursday morning. At breakfast we met a super interesting couple from Canada. The woman, Dana, works at the Canadian embassy in San Jose and her husband John is a prominent journalist originally from Scotland but who covers Canadian politics for Canadian media. After breakfast, we walked from one end of Playa Hermosa to the other. It was a beautiful morning!
We drove to Playas del Coco for a lunch of avocado toast with mushrooms and a beef burrito.
We enjoyed dinner our last night at Hacienda Blu Beach Lounge & Grill near Playa Panama. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes but otherwise, the food, staff, and ambiance were fabulous. We shared Chipotle Mussels with ciabatta bread, Tico rolls & Leche frita con helado. Yum! It was our last night at Playa Hermosa before returning to Lake Arenal.
Our last morning at Playa Hermosa, we took an early walk on the beach at low tide then enjoyed our last breakfast at Hotel el Velero.
Errands in Liberia
On our way home, we stopped in Liberia for a couple of errands. We had dreaded going to the Registro de la Propiedad to get a Permiso de Salida to take our car out of Costa Rica into Nicaragua. We had heard we would encounter long lines and that the Permiso lasted for 90 days, meaning we would have to repeat this process 4x over the year. We were pleasantly surprised to find no line at all, an English-speaking agent, and assurance that all our car documents were in order. We also were happy to learn the Permiso lasts for 6 months, meaning we only have to repeat the process once.
Our other errand was to go to Walmart. I hate shopping at Walmart and am supposed to be boycotting it as they support our feckless & despicable president and the Republicans who enable him. However we needed to get an air fryer as we have no oven in our house. We also wanted to get new bedding as the sheets and comforter provided by the Airbnb owners are cheap, ugly, old and made of polyester. There were also food items we wanted that we couldn’t find in Tilaran.
We got all that taken care of in Liberia and drove home in about an hour 15 minutes.
Once we get to Cañas, we drive on two-lane mountain roads to San Luis. It seems every time on these roads we get stuck behind trucks or buses plodding along and belching black smoke! I thought Costa Rica was supposed to be focused on the environment. Why are these horrible vehicles allowed to drive with all these polluting fumes bursting from them? I guess they don’t have to pass emissions inspections here.
Back home in Buena Vista
Once we returned home, we had rain for the rest of the afternoon. At least we enjoyed two sunny days at the beach!
Saturday the 21st, we woke up to pouring rain after a night where it rained nonstop. Finally we found a break in the rain and took a walk uphill through San Luis and then down to a gully where the road to Tronadora is on the verge of washing away. This is the only paved road that connects Tronadora to San Luis (where we live) and Tilaran. With all the rain we’re having, I hope the road doesn’t totally wash away before they get to the repairs.
Meanwhile, back in the homeland …
I’m happy to be in a country, unlike the U.S., that has no standing army. After the Costa Rican Civil War in 1948, it was permanently abolished in 1949, becoming one of only a few sovereign nations without a standing army. It’s a country that values green energy, biodiversity, and ethnic diversity. Sadly, it’s still not the safest country in the world, but then neither is the U.S. these days. The United States (currently the “Divided States”) now has too much rancor, hatred, and racism, encouraged by our utter despicable leadership. Violence is increasingly being not only condoned but actually perpetrated by our government. Democratic lawmakers are being arrested or assassinated for their political beliefs, for god’s sake! People are being disappeared off the streets by masked men who don’t present identification. I will not miss my home country under its current fascist regime. I expect it to get a LOT worse before it gets better, if it EVER does.
Saturday afternoon, we were appalled to find out that Trump bombed several nuclear sites in Iran. He did so without Congressional approval. I don’t know what his end game is, or what the consequences of this action will be, but I’m sure nothing good will come of it. I personally believe his action is a kind of wag-the-dog situation: creating a diversion from damaging issues, usually through military force. The damaging issues include his many losses in courts, his poorly attended birthday military parade and the 5 million people who took to the streets on that same day – “No Kings Day” – to protest him and his administration, the high disapproval toward his “big beautiful bill,” and his sinking poll numbers. I also think he likes to appear the strongman (aka bully) to the rest of the world. He is the most despicable human our country has ever elected and I blame the 77 million assholes who voted for this. Once again, the U.S. is jumping into another forever war, despite the promises by that idiot that there would be no wars under him. And he thinks he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. What a joke! If he ever got it, that award would become meaningless forever.
Another walk to Tronadora
Sunday morning, Mike and I went for another walk in Tronadora; this is my favorite of our walks. However, we are leery about the nearly-washed away road to Tronadora, so we will probably wait a while to return there for further walks or errands. As it’s my favorite little town, I hope the construction crews will repair the road soon.
Tronadora town park
I spent the rest of Sunday working on my blog, catching up on my journal, and watching an episode of My Friends & Family that I missed one night when I fell asleep. Mike and I also played a game of online Scrabble, and I am happy to say I won: 335-284. I so rarely win games against Mike that I’m happy to claim victory when I can.
Expanding our local connections
Our last week in June, we stayed close to home, deepening our connections to our local community. We took our first cash out of an ATM, found a barber for Mike, found La Casa del Plastica (a store that sells plastic goods), ate tacos and listened to live music on Taco Tuesday at Lake Arenal Brewery, attended our first yoga session at Living Forest Lodge & Retreat Center, found a farm where yogurt is sold, went to Nuevo Arenal where we ate at the German Bakery and checked out a Farmacia Organica, and enjoyed the pool.
We took several nice walks, one from our house to Tronadora and back, about 4 hilly miles round-trip. We are still in the midst of the ongoing drama regarding the road to Tronadora. It doesn’t look like much work is going on there yet, and even the people directing traffic seemed to be lackadaisical in their duties. We walked across but no longer trust driving across, even though buses and trucks go across continually. One of these days, if they don’t get it fixed soon, I fear the whole road will collapse.
We had a rare sunny day on Friday. We stopped on the way to the gym where we had a view of Volcán Tenorio popping through the clouds. After our workout we also took a short road up a gravel road where we found amazing views and a couple of beautiful houses.
view of Volcán Tenorio from the Mirador Tilaran on a rare sunny day
At the end of June, we began to look at condos for our December-May time frame. We found some good possibilities but are not ready to make a decision yet.
In August, after we go visit Adam in Nicaragua in July, we’ll make some trips to places further afield where we haven’t been before.
A month of the rainy season. Veranillo soon to come.
Since it’s rainy season from mid-May to November, we get to experience thunderstorms or steady rain, especially in the afternoons and evenings. The storms bring in cool breezes which we love; the rain keeps the house cool and comfortable. Apparently July to August is considered the “little high season” (also known as veranillo or “little summer”) with pleasant weather with minimal rain, moderate crowds and lower prices. The rainiest month is said to be October. I wonder how it will be in the dry season from December-April. Of course by then we’ll be in a different house, so I have no idea what to expect.
Homebody stuff
I finished 2 books in June, bringing my total to 25/48. I enjoyed both: The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux and The Confessions of Frances Godwin by Robert Hellenga. We watched two good movies: The Wrong Track (På Villspor) and the 2022 movie, What’s Love got to do with it? We started watching several series: Togetherness, Pernille (Pørni), The Secrets We Keep, and Sara: Woman in the Shadows. We finished watching Four Seasons, Bad Sisters, and Your Friends & Neighbors. We continued watching Istanbul Encyclopedia, Younger, North of North, The Manny, and Severance.
On my Costa Rica blog, you can find my weekly recaps of our lives in Costa Rica:
- setting up our household in Costa Rica & a few local explorations {week 1/52}
- seeking vistas on gravel roads & miradors, and adventures in cuisine {week 2/52}
- a driving lesson & a brief beach getaway at Playa Hermosa {week 3/52}
- expanding our community around lake Arenal: a yoga session, taco Tuesday, a German bakery & an organic market {week 4/52}
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I hope you’ll share how the year is panning out for you, and what plans you have for the summer and the rest of this year.
How did your June go? Did you have any special family gatherings? Have you welcomed any new additions to your family? Did you celebrate any birthdays or anniversaries? Have you read any good books that can inform your worldview, seen any good movies, binge-watched any television series? Have you planned any adventures or had any summer getaways? Have you dreamed any dreams? Have you gone to any exotic restaurants, cooked any new dishes? Have you been surprised by anything in life? Have you learned anything new, taken any classes or just kept up with the news? Have you sung along with any new songs? Have you undertaken any new exercise routines? Have you marched or otherwise participated in political protests? Have you been battered, or alternately, uplifted by any news?
Please share your June with me by giving me the plot below, or a link to a post in your blog that tells about your month.
~ wander.essence ~ 
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