The small village of Colonia Libertad, a short distance down the road from La Anita Rain Forest Ranch, contains a small Catholic Church where I watched an early afternoon Christmas Eve ceremony and held a toddler dressed in her Christmas finery.  Meanwhile a short distance away my grandson, other tourist children, and locals played soccer in this field.

It alternated between dark and rainy and periods when the clouds zoomed away and everything lightened up a bit. When the game ended, everyone was a muddy mess.

The village contains the small church, this soccer field, a school–in green on the left, and a recycling center.

They recycle nearly everything.  You can see the sign for plastic above.  I could hardly believe it.  Here I am in the middle of nowhere in Costa Rica and they recycle; yet where I live in the Panhandle of Texas, recycling remains extremely limited.

Several of us walked down the road from the soccer field and found the neighborhood bar. A local couple joined us.

To the right, behind the bar, a stream ran rapidly along.  The local couple happily posed.

Besides these buildings and the soccer field, we visited a shop where local women make and sell necklaces, bracelets, and earrings to supplement their less than lavish income.  Many of the people in the town work for La Anita Rain Forest Ranch.