1024x768
This picture was taken in the north end of Alajuela, about 5km from home right before Xmas. I was amuses as it looks someone is going to get a pony for Xmas. Yes, that is a real, live pony.
1024x768
1024x768
I live near coffee fields. By near, there is actually a coffee field directly in back of my house. This picture and the following ones, however, were taken about 4km away on the road to K-Mart (another story). There is nothing special about this coffee field other than it was easy to get these shots from the road. The buildings in the distance are in downtown San Jose, about 20km away.
1024x768
1024x768
1024x768
1024x768
1024x768
Apollo Quince (KEEN-say) is the closest bar to my house.
1024x768
This is the closest football field (realy football, called soccer in the US) to my house.
1024x768
1024x768
This is a picture of where my street (Calle Paula) connects to the main highway from Alajuela to Carrizal. I am standing at the bus stop for the buy to Alajuela (about 23 cents) looking toward the bus stop for the bus to Carrizal. I am half way between the city of Alajuela (second largest city in the country and home of what people think is the San Jose airport) and the town of Carrizal (probably has a population of 200. The city you see in the background is San Jose.
1024x768
This is what you see of my house looking up the street. My house is about 60m from the highway. This picture was taking about half way in between.
1024x768
This is looking south across my front porch. Important points of interest are San Jose in the distance and the dish for my Internet connection.
1024x768
This is looking up the driveway to my house.
1024x768
Taken from my front porch. On a clear day (it was actually clear earlier in the day) you can see the Gulf of Nicoya and the Nicoya Peninsula beyond the depression in the mountains. This is probably 40 miles away.
1024x768
Same spot on the porch but looking northwest.
1024x768
Looking south and a little east (toward San Jose) from my front porch.
576x768
A closeup of a coffee plant. It is just about picking time. The beans are red when they are ripe.
1024x768
Well, not really but it is the first coffee field you can walk into when you head up the hill from my house. It's huge.
1024x768
Not the closest church but the biggest one in Pavas de Alajuela.
576x768
The red ones are the ripe ones.
1024x768
1024x768
Adjacent to the coffee field at the top of the hill are fields covered with black mesh. Ferns are grown under the mesh.
1024x768
1024x768
This is the coffee field at the top of the hill just as the sun is coming up.
1024x768
1024x768
1024x768
Carlos on his early morning coffee field inspection tour.
1024x768
A family on their way to pick coffee.
576x768
Stephanie, my ex-maid, came by last night. She said she wanted to see me. But, as soon as she got inside she asked me to take a picture of her and Carlos. (Carlos is the light colored one.)