St. Patrick's Day Celebration

This St.Patrick's Day 2011 was the 28th anniversary of the day Stef and I met face to face. For those in Nashville, the celebration of this event became an annual Party Day Tradition. There were years when we had as many as 200 people in our house to help us celebrate. - After living here for over 3 years, it was decided that we have a party here to celebrate that special day. This year was going to be the test to see how it would go, and if it went over well, then we would do it on an annual basis. Well, take a look at what happened....

This is Stef and me all dressed in green. The focus of the party was for everyone to just let lose and have a great time. The main course was burgers and hot dogs, which were grilled by Bob and Ed on my famous infra-red grill affectionantly named Big Red. I hired a DJ from San Jose who also just happens to be our new pest control expert. His name is Ozzie and by coinsidence, spent some time in Tennessee. He provided great music and karoke. Ozzie turned out to be a big hit with everyone.

Then, we had the man himself - Big Lee - who wanted to make a real Irish impact with his custom made kilt - No one does it better than Lee.

Here is Lee with the seamstress herself - Karolyn -  who finally got the kilt made to Lee's specific specifications.

Of course, we had to get into the action.










Here is Ozzie and his assistant getting the DJ system set up for the entertainment part of the event.

The party started around 4:00 PM on Saturday the 19th. We held it on that day to make sure everyone would be able to make it - This picture was taken around 4:15 PM where you can see that people weren't waiting around to get here on time.

These are our friends and neighbors Ed and Johanna. They are from Conn. and were not about to miss this party. Ed especially enjoys the cocktail hour part of any party.

This is Jim and June from Texas - They are a great couple.







Part of the deal was that all the guests were supposed to bring a side dish. As you can see, they went all out on that request.

Looks as if everyone had plenty to eat and are having a great time

 

There was dancing and we had a Karoke setup that many took part in

Now remember, the party started at 4:00 PM - and it didn't end until about 11:30 PM

We invited about 90 people to the party, and about 70-75 decided to check it out. The next day, we started getting emails about what a great time everyone had - You remember what I said earlier - We just wanted everyone to have a good time, and it worked out very well

By the responses we had - It now looks like this will become an annual event, but the next one will be even bigger, and better... Hope you will be able to join us....

Kay's Chili Cookoff

Here in Atenas there is a home for abused, abandoned or orphaned children that Stef and I do everything we can to help. It is called "hogar de Vida para la ninez" -  During the last 3 years, Kay & Tom Costello (Kay's Gringo Postres) have put on an event with a Chili Cookoff where the proceeds have gone to the Orphanage. In those years, maybe 50 people would attend. 2011 turned out to be a different story. There was a group formed to get this thing organized and make it a big event. Somehow they found this guy here who used to work at organizing chili cookoff's in the US. Well, the committee worked over a month putting it together. In fact, Stef was up till midnight last night doing her part. The end result - somewhere between 500-600 people attended, and we had a great time. Although all the money has not been tabulated yet, it's a sure bet that there will be a very large donation to the Children's Home. Take a look at some of the day's activities:

The event took place at the Quinta Romavista. This is a very nice place set far back off the road in the rolling hills of Barrio Mercedes just west of Atenas.

The hours were from 11:00 AM until 4:00 PM - When I arrived at 11:30 AM and walked into the main building - this is what I saw - many, many people who came in support of these children.






There were 14 "world renown chili chef's from all parts of the world" competing for the title - yes, they came from all around the world and decided to live in Atenas - about the world renown part of it - I'm not sure. Below are a couple who we know, but never realized their talents for cooking chili.

This is Brad who came in very strong in the finish.

This is Alex who is the manager of U-Save Car Rental that Stef does a lot of business with. He did an outstanding job with his recipe.

This is our friend and neighbor Ed ( his better half Johanna is probably out somewhere having a beer with Stef) - They brought in their Jersey style chili, which was a big hit.

This is what happens to Marines when they retire. A good group of guys who did an outstanding job.

These are the "angels" from the local church. They stressed on providing the mild chili so we wouldn't drink so much beer.











These pictures give you an idea of the beauty of the grounds at Roma Vista. We are probably talking 3-4 acres of this type of landscape.

 Yes, we had music and lots of it. Here you see Francis Jones from Tennessee singing and she is great. She used to sing professionally, but the lure of Costa Rica changed that.

This is the building where the burgers and dogs were being served. The grill they were using was "Big Red" my special infrared grill brought in from the US - so you know the food was good :-)

Then we have the tents where the liquid refreshments
were served. The committee set up a special deal with the people who distribute Imperial Beer - commonly known as the beer of Costa Rica. They were pretty generous so you know we did not run out of beer.

Time to head home - Here you see my good friend Robin waving goodbye. I sure hope he made it home safely.










This year's Chili Cook-off was a huge success, and I think next year will even be better - Thanks to all who attended and contributed to this wonderful cause.

It Has Been a Long Time

I know that I have not really posted everything that has happened for a long time. However, I made a promise to Stef that I would get the events here in Costa Rica caught up soon. I have retired now 3 times, but right now we are busier than we have been in years, but we are having fun.. Thank God, we are in Costa Rica where the weather has been wonderful and the people here are Great!!!

Stay tuned...

Seasons Greetings

Christmas Day 2010 - From: Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Wishing You the Best for a Great Holiday Season

and..

A Healthy and Prosperous New Year

Pete & Stef Bogatinoff

Please Don't Send Your Cold Weather Down Here

Yesterday, it was very cold down here. They said that this was an effect from the cold weather in Florida. Below, is an article from the online news of www.insidecostarica.com

Tuesday Was Coldest Day In Costa Rica In The Last 15 Years
Cold spell to continue to tomorrow

Tuesday was the coldest day in the last 15 for the Central Valley, the temperature dropping to a bone chilling daytime temperature of 10.5 Celsius (50.9 Fahrenheit), according to the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional (IMN) - national weather service.
The low temperature was recorded in El Carmen de Guadalupe, in the northwest corner of San José.

The last time the thermometer dropped was in 1995 when it recorded a low of 13.4 Celsius (56.1 Fahrenheit).

Other record cold temperatures were in San José centre and Montes de Oca (San Pedro) - 12.8 C (55F); Santa Ana with 16.9C (62.4F); and Cerros de Tapezco with 12.6C (54.7F).

In Escazú the temperature dropped to 13.9 C (57.2F), while in Coronado, 11.5C (52.7F).

Cartago recorded 11.9C (53.4F) and Alajuela with 15.9C (60.6F).

Even lower temperatures of 2.9C (37.2F)were recorded in Turrialbla and 2.6C (36.7F) in the Irazu Volcanoes.

The normal daytime temperatures for the Central Valley range from 28C (82F) to 32C (89F)

The cold temperatures are expected to linger until Wednesday afternoon.

Coming to the Rescue

Week of October 25, 2010

During the height of the rainy season, much of the country experienced damage from heavy rains that they had not seen in over 90 years. It was caused by a Hurricane headed up the Pacific Coast. The hurricane did not touch land, but it sure got us wet. In fact, 36 inches of rain in 3 days! There were landslides, bridges out and roads caved in. Bob & Harriet were on their way back from Panama where they took a trip to renew their visas, and got stuck on the South Pacific Coast for 5 days because the road was out. Another part of their mission was to bring back 3 Butterball turkeys for us that were going to be the main course for our Thanksgiving Day Celebration.

Another thing that happened was that there was an incident involving a landslide at the property owned by Charlie and his partners - I called Charlie and said "you really need to come down here and check this out." He and Rick Dixon arrived and inspected the situation. Ricky is a builder and knows a lot about things like this. So they decided he needed to come down with Charlie.

Unfortunately, two days after they got here, Ricky got a call that his Uncle had died and had to head back home the next day. This picture was taken the day before Ricky left.

Now, it was up to Charlie to handle the situation. This he did in fine fashion and the repairs are now being made.

Sure wish you guys could have stayed longer

The Artist at Work Again

In a previous post, you saw that my lovely wife was getting into the world of painting water colors. This is getting to be one of the most pleasurable times for her - when she goes to class on Monday and really gets into painting. Take a look at some of her latest work.

Not bad at all would you say? Stay tuned for more of her fine work.

It Is a Small World

September 20, 2010

On this day, the couple who rented one of our apartments on a long-term basis moved in. They are Bob and Harriet Cates. Bob & Harriet got frustrated with the life in the big city, sold everything they had and moved to Costa Rica in May of this year. They first settled in on the South Pacific Coast, but found that to be too far away from San Jose with not a lot of things to do to occupy their time. In addition, that area can get pretty hot during the day. So, they decided to check out other areas. Somehow, which I'll tell you later, they contacted Stef to get some advice on the Atenas area. They set a date and time to visit us and showed up right on time.

Now, would you believe that Bob & Harriet are from Nashville, Tennessee? Yes, I said Nashville, Tennessee!! They told us that they got Stef's contact information from a friend of theirs who is a mutual friend of our friend Carol Milam - Who would have known. Anyway, after we chatted for awhile, they asked if we knew of any places that were available to rent - Well guess what - Stef leaned back and said "right over there" while pointing at our guest house. They took it on the spot and went back to the coast to give their notice.

This is Bob & Harriet with Stef

These are two very wonderful people who are an absolute joy to have staying with us. Bob is retired from the jewelry business where he owned a store close to Nashville. Harriet is retired from an architectural firm in Nashville. You will be hearing more about Bob & Harriet as I work to get this blog updated.

Folks, you are welcome to stay here as long as you want.

Bob & Carol's Annual November Visit

Our dear friends Bob and  Carol from Nashville made their annual November trip here, but this time they also brought Carol's son TJ and his new bride with them. This year made for their third trip to visit us here, and it was great that they brought the kids with them. Bob & Carol are the reason we started our annual Thanksgiving feast for everyone so they need to make sure they come every year to keep the tradition going.

 

This is TJ and his wife Jennifer - Carol gave them this trip as a Christmas present, so we needed to make sure they had a great time. By the time they left, I think that they were already looking forward to a return trip.

This year we did something a little different by taking a couple of days and stayed in Jaco at a very nice condo. Jaco, is probably one of the best known towns on the Central Pacific Coast, and is a little over an hour drive from our home in Atenas. Now, I am not really a big fan of Jaco anymore because of what a bunch of greedy developers did to it. When Bob and I first came to check out Costa Rica in 2006, Jaco was a great place to go. Then the American and European developers came in and started building hi-rises without any regard for the environment and the lack of infrastructure the town had to support this degree of construction. Would you believe that there are new condo's there that do not have water, and there are skeletons of condos that were never finished. - I just had to put my two cents in on this one because what they did really disgusts me!

Anyway, we made sure we had a good time in Jaco, and TJ and Jennifer really enjoyed everything about it. In addition there are really some nice sites to see there. Below, are some of the pictures we took there.

Relaxing by the pool

The pool from our condo

Check out that Sunset

Well, it was time to leave Jaco and head back to Atenas. On the way, we stopped for lunch at this great place up on a mountain - The driveway to get to it is almost a mile long and there is a stone wall all the way up. The restaurant has some amazing mountain and ocean views.

When we returned home, we only had a couple of days to get ready for our annual Thanksgiving Dinner. This event keeps growing every year. Take a look at the festivities.

It's obvious that everyone had a good time, and we enjoyed a lot of our Costa Rica friends. We had about 36 guests for dinner.  Unfortunately, Bob and  Carol and TJ and Jennifer had to head back to Tennessee the next day. But, I'm sure they will be coming back next year at the same time. And, it's a sure bet that the kids will be back soon. We always enjoy them here, and they don't really have to wait until November to come back.

Birthday Girls

This post is a little late in coming, but I wanted to make sure you knew about this event. It's hard to believe that 4 of our friends had a birthday within 2 weeks of each other, but only in Costa Rica - it happened. Stef's good friends Cathy, Karolyn, Tammy and Julie decided they had to have a party to celebrate this event, so we did - Take a look...

 

 Yep, that's them - from left to right you see Cathy, Tammy, Karolyn and Julie - It's obvious that they are having a very good time and it gets better. - Check it out

There was a pretty big group of us that met at the Guanacaste Restaurant, one of our favorite places. It was apparent that everyone was set to have a good time.

The Guanacaste is a great, well-run place with great food at very reasonable prices - however, it's not that big and when we bring a group of 15-20 people in there - we take up a lot of space, but we always pay the tab.

At this point, things are pretty calm, but watch out.

Yes, that is really Cathy

OMG!

Karolyn, Stef and Kathleen

This is Stef with my good friend Charlie who has a tendency never to get excited

 

Bob & Harriet who are from Nashville and have become good friends

I think that they are starting to calm down a bit? No chance

 

Of course, Stef and me who are always the calm ones who makes sure everyone is safe and sound. Look at Stef's stare - Looks like I have a job on my hands.

As you can see, it is obvious that a good time was had by all. Until next year - same time, same channel - You know what? I forgot to find out the ages of the birthday girls - probably never will.