 April 16, 2019 |
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This is not advice, just my ramblings. All misspellings are mine.
Yes, let’s jump into the deep end of the pool and get into the sometimes controversial topic of climate or climate change whatever floats your boat.
Why? Climate is a BIG reason why people come to Costa Rica. There were two recent articles in the AM Costa Rica news on climate. The first article addressed the dryness in the province of Guanacaste, which is up in the Northwest part of Costa Rica. Click here for the story.
The second article was written by the Gardner Lady and gives a bit more depth on the complexity of weather. You can find that story here.
Most of us are aware of the simple fact that the weather has been changing ever since this very small rock popped into existence for whatever reason. Pick one.
Let’s Look At Costa Rica:
The climate here, according to Donaldo (yours truly), can be broken down into somewhat geographical areas that might go like this: Northwest is hot and dry; Southwest is hot and humid; East coast is hot and humid; Central Valley, where most of the population lives, varies but the valley is warmer than the area that we live in, which is the Zona Sul. We have hot on the beach and cool in the mountains. The mountains in Costa Rica can range from warm (at the base of the mountain) to downright cold at the higher elevations.
As you can ‘pick’ your retirement climate here, it behooves you to start with the basics of what type of climate suits you. Hot, humid, dry, wet, cool? What’s your personal climate?
Lots of people like the beach, but for me it’s just too hot. I did not come here to live inside with the AC going full blast. So, the beach was scratched off of the list. Need a beach dip, then we can make a day trip or do a mini-vacation trip and enjoy the beach, good food and generally goof off. We also get to pick the time of the year that suits us best. No beach or close proximity to a beach because of the heat and humidity leaves a lot of country to look into.
Warm to cool or cool to cooler? Just pick a mountain area and start climbing. From what I see a lot of people like the elevations around 3,000 feet or 1,000 meters if you are a metric person. And quite often around 4,000 or 5,000 feet. That gives us a general range of 3 to 5,000 feet in which to find our perfect place. You have the options of higher or lower to fine tune your personal climate, but now we need to add some other parts of the weather. As a reference point our house is around 3,000 feet.
Wind:There are certain areas of Costa Rica that get some strong seasonal winds. From the information I have or have read about most of the seasonal winds come off of the Pacific Ocean heading East. These winds, up to 50 + miles per hour, start in the Guanacaste area (Northwest) and scream down into the Central Valley bringing sand and dust. A sand or dust storm in Costa Rica? That is what some of the Central Valley people have told me! As is normal, distance dissipates the force of the winds, so it is not as strong when it gets to San Jose. Then there are the Caribbean winds, which to my understanding, are not as strong as the Guanacaste winds. But they do occur and go from the East to the West into the Central Valley. The most obvious effect of these winds is when the volcano Poas or Turrialba blows its top and the resulting ash quite often blows west to San Jose and closes down the airport while giving the people breathing problems.
Volcanos:While my Lady and I were looking for the ‘perfect place’ we took into account the volcanos and their effect on the weather plus our Quality of Life. The volcanos of Costa Rica can be found here.
Of course, volcanos put out other emissions than just ash. Try acid rain, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, water vapor, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen, argon, helium, neon, methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen to name some of them. Do you want this as part of your ‘sometimes’ weather pattern? Not us, so we went South of the volcanos and hid behind the Cerro de la Muerte or Mountain of Death, which you can read about here.
My thinking is that if the stuff gets over this mountain range then it really doesn’t matter! Have a cool one and hold hands as the lights go out. Next day, pick up the pieces and get on with life or with rebuilding life.
Rain: Yes, rain is a serious weather item to consider. Yes, Costa Rica gets rain here and it varies around the country. How much rain do you want or can stand? Mmm?
We know that the Guanacaste area is sort of dry, so if rain is a really big problem you might want to look at settling there but remember, they do have more water rationing in Guanacaste than other parts of the country. Some local areas here have instituted “No Watering of Lawns” and so on. I would ask you to look at the water situation of any area that you are considering. WATER is the most important resource on planet Earth. Pay attention to it and please stop wasting it.
Now let’s take a look at this pageand look at rain. See San Jose? Now go South (down) to San Isidro El General. Now look to the right at San Gerardo de Rivas. We are to the left of San Gerardo and above San Isidro. Up above San Gerardo you will see a dark blue area that gets 240 and more inches of rain a year. That is 20 feet or more a year! Better have webbed feet if you live here! Yet, as the crow flies it is just over the mountains from us where we might get a mere 6 to 10 feet of rain a year.
Check out this linkfor some more info. Compare, compare, and compare again to get a possibly reasonable idea of reality. This link is an ad for a book that I haven’t read, but it does provide some info that maybe we can use. Look and think.
Now that we have beat up on Costa Rica and have an idea where to look to visit or settle for our Golden Years how about we take a look at the world?
World Wide Weather and Confusion:
Yes, I have to admit that I am a bit confused on Climate Change or Global Warming. Pick one as it doesn’t matter to me.
Why am I confused? Look at all of the conflicting data that is being put forth. We are going to die in 12 years! Unless what? More taxes as they did in the EU?
I am not going into Climate Change (Global Warming) except to point an item or two.
Most of the climate models are based on the last 100 years or less. I do not know why as we have thousands of years of data showing that the temps go up and the temps go down. Sometimes drastically! Some of the models predicted that my log house in Florida would be ocean front property about 30 years ago. Well Mr. Gore you were wrong about that and you were wrong about Manhattan being underwater by now. But, you did make millions of dollars off of Global Warming!
How about two items for your perusal and then we call it a day on Climate Change? The first one is a chart on the Younger Dryas Ageat this USA Government site. Please check it out.
To me, just eyeballing it, it looks as if it was warmer in the Medieval warm period than now. How about backing up to about 3500 years ago and it was still warmer! Can’t blame that on my car. Yes, I do agree that my lifestyle is affecting the planet, but there is a lot more here than what we are being told or so it seems as the models of imminent death do not go back this far for data. Why?
In the notes at the bottom the Medieval warm interval (warm period in the chart) time is from 1100 to 1300 C.E. (boy do I wish that they would pick a time reference and stick with it).
Anybody remember anything happening at this time from their world history class? How about the Vikings settling Greenland which was not just a very large ice cube? Take a look at this reportfor a study.
It seems like we are now ‘about’ as warm as it was back around 985 C. E. Mmm? Should I be worried that I will die in 11 years and 11 months? Don’t think that I will worry about it, but I will keep an eye on it. And, of course, I will attempt to be kind to Mother Earth in ALL ways. Reducing pollution and conserving water are my two biggies.
Back to Costa Rica!
We were sitting on the deck, for the daily coffee break, when our helpers are here and up drives a Visiting Nurse on his motorcycle. What is he up to?
This nurse travels the Backwoods out here on his motorcycle checking up on the local people. So, how did it go?
A very pleasant person with smiles and easy going manner. He inquired if we were
registered at the local clinic and my Lady was, which also means me as I am the ‘Kept Man’, but not the Boy Toy. Other Ladies here have them.
He inquired about our health problems. We are both in decent health with no major problems unless being an absolute nut case in my case, is a problem. Let the delusional old fool be!
After taking our heath info he did a Blood Pressure test. Both of us passed and it should be noted that we do not take medication for blood pressure. How is it possible at our age to be in the ‘normal’ as the medical profession generally add some numbers for old age but then again, I don’t consider us to be old. As one of my sons says: “You think young”. So, start thinking young and you too can be a nut case.
Our visiting nurse also stressed eating a healthy diet, (fruits, veggies and less meat) with some form of moderate exercise such as walking. It seems like walking is one of the best things that you can do for yourself. A mile at a time is very good, so get up off of your duff and start hoofing it. You will feel better and might be able to reduce your meds (with your Dr’s advice) or get off of them entirely. WOW! Wouldn’t that be great?
Our nurse also inquired about shots and vaccinations. We explained that we did not take a flu shot as our Dr. didn’t take them. But yes, a Tetanus shot was a good idea as we are digging in the dirt. Plus, I sometimes go a round or two with the rusty barbwire fencing. We are getting rid of that hazard!
One shot later we had our up-to-date Costa Rica shot records. Our gardener also got a shot! Good deal. Bottom line is that the local socialized medicine has some good features, but the bad feature of wait times for serious stuff is still very, very bad. You can die waiting and some have! Plan ahead as much as you can!
A job well done and off he went to the next house. Just another benefit of living here in the boonies of Costa Rica. He will return next year.
Let’s call is a day. It is nicely raining, and the flowers are wafting their scent into the house while the thunder rumbles in the valley. This poor guy flew into the closed window and has a throbbing head. He recovered and flew off:
Remember: Walk Softly Upon The Earth As We Leave It To Our Loved Ones
Donaldo
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