Today is Good Friday when the Christian world remembers the death of Jesus. This Friday is part of Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum which precedes Easter Sunday. It also coincides with the Jewish observance of Passover. The title "good" possibly comes from the original "God's Friday" although exact reason for calling it "good" is unclear. For Christians it is a day to reflect on the meaning of the the death of Christ on the cross. On this day I…
Sunday was the first really hot day we have had in Costa Rica. There was little breeze and it was in the high 80's here. We spent a good part of the day of the day cooling off in the pool and reading in the shade. The office staff arrived last night and were out in full force that morning. They spent time in the pool and made trips to the small town of Taramindo near here. We had our welcome…
Yesterday we went to the pool reserved for adults. There some covered canopy set up’s with a sign says it’s a no reservation arrangement so if you are gone more then thirty minutes you lose it. The empty ones all had a towel or book or personal item on them so we sat elsewhere and read. No one appeared to claim the empty ones for a couple of hours so we asked the attendant who was very reluctant to take…
We have moved from the Four Seasons to the Paradisus Playa Conchal Resort about an hour away by car. The trip here gave us a chance to see the country a little bit. The road is a two lane asphalt road without shoulders. Cars pass people on bikes riding on the edge of the road with only inches of clearance. But, the speed limit is 40 mph and our driver averaged 37 mph so it wasn't too bad. This was a Rural…
It's a little hard to report on events in Costa Rica when you only leave your room for meals, but since this room has an outdoor patio looking out over the water and a dip pool there is little reason to leave. Yesterday, at daybreak, Lita got a driver in a golf cart and had him take her to where the Howler Monkeys were making racket. She took some pictures of them and she was thrilled she saw them up…
"Pura vida" is literally translated as "pure life." In Costa Rica it is a greeting and good by common phrase. For Costa Rican’s it implies a philosophy of a happy spirit, difficulties overcome and life enjoyed leisurely. Our unit is above the beach. It has a patio outside and a small dip pool. So, we spent the entire day there reading and doing nothing Monday. We went to the lobby only for lunch and dinner. The rest of the day…
Today is Monday March 23rd. We are in Costa Rica. We are at a Four Seasons Resort about a one hour drive from Liberia at Peninsula de Papagayo, Guanacaste, Costa Rica. We left about 6:00 am Sunday and after a two hour layover in Houston flew on to Costa Rica arriving after dark. The time difference is one hour ahead of Seattle. On arrival our luggage was off quickly and clearing customs was quick. People from the resort were waiting and transferred our…
It’s reported this week that Pope Benedict XVI, flying on the papal airplane to Africa, told reporters that condoms were not the answer to Africa’s problem of HIV. He claimed that the Church was "in the forefront" of the battle against AIDS and that the Vatican’s answer to this problem was "sexual abstinence. The Vatican hasn’t budged from its position that the use of condoms is immoral since the1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae. As recently as 2003 a Vatican document Values…
Here is a report of some books I’ve recently read. Zen and the Art of Anything Hal W. French has written Zen and the Art of Anything and, in it, he tells about his teacher Edwin Prince Booth, who told a story of his childhood. He had been on a picnic with his father and had wandered unto a train trestle when a train whistle sounded. It was too far for the father to get to him in time so …
My maternal grandfather Peter (Petar) Babarovich was born April 12, 1861 in the village of Splitska on the island of Brac in the Adriatic Sea. He died in Anacortes, Washington March 5, 1935. Peter was the second child Ernest Babarovich and his wife Louise Setelich. The family exported wine and olive oil which they grew in their vineyards and olive orchards. He married Marija Mattia Vulic) in 1888, who was also born in Splitska. Peter's wife, my grandmother, was born September…
