Retired American nature-lover, living in Costa Rica, photographing birds and other jewels of nature. This site simply reports on my joys of being RETIRED IN COSTA RICA!
I do not know a single person here in Costa Rica who has or has had the Coronavirus or died of it, but I keep seeing death of small businesses. The featured photo is of small shops closed in Alajuela on my trip there today. Typical of all over the country.
And this week I sadly report the permanent closing of one of my two favorite restaurants, Poco Loco (“A Little Crazy” in Spanish). He seldom had big crowds, but steady customers until the pandemic came and now there simply is not enough business (even with home delivery & “take-out” orders) to pay the expenses and he has permanently closed much to my dismay.
It was my favorite place for soup and salad (fabulous!) or almost any kind of sandwich as the best in town and he made the best Sangria in Atenas! But no more. Poco Loco is gone due people being afraid to get out of their houses now. My other favorite, Parillada Androvetto (my Friday night steak place), is still hanging on but just barely with one brother supplementing their income driving a taxi. Likewise an old favorite, Donde Bocha, is hanging on and I ate there yesterday. It’s hard for a lot of people right now. But they all keep their spirits high here and continue to say . . .
¡Pura Vida!
“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”
Yeah, that’s the Spanish name which I like better than the English name of Torch Ginger – but by either name this morning I noticed that one plant off my terrace had flowers in three stages and I liked that picture of progression. There could actually be an earlier stage with a tighter bud, but not this morning. 🙂
Tropical flowers continue to be a part of the magic of my retiree life in Costa Rica, both in my own gardens surrounding my little rental house andin my travels around the country. Click either above link for more of my flower photos – what a joy to live in paradise! 🙂
Torch Ginger Bud
Torch Ginger Opening
Torch Ginger Fully Opened
There could be a closed bud before this but not one today.
“A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.”
As I continue to see more butterflies than birds in my garden, I found this one yesterday morning after breakfast which I haven’t seen in awhile, the Banded Peacock. He is very common all over Costa Rica and I was seeing more in May and June here. I do have better photos than these in my Banded Peacock Gallery, if interested.
This butterfly (above) was on my kitchen window screen yesterday and not new to me but they are all exciting to see for me! In my old age I’m more like a little kid and enjoy that! 🙂
I have better shots in my White-banded Satyr Gallery or the Butterflies & Moths of North America doesn’t have much info, but the map shows they are only in Central America, so somewhat unique, though at bottom of page they have a photo from Honduras that is something else, not this butterfly.
The Satyr Family of Butterflies is very interesting and I have galleries on these six:
I know. We are suppose to stay home during the pandemic and travel only to the supermarket, bank and pharmacy. And that is pretty much what I am doing while here in Atenas other than some neighborhood walks for photos. But the struggling tourism businesses in Costa Rica needs business bad and their COVID19 precautions are at the highest levels and still have only a handful of local Tico business. When I go my solo hiking for photos is safe from the virus. At Xandari I even had to walk my shoes through a sanitizer going in the double-masked restaurant. I feel safe and I am very careful to wear my double-masks now anytime around people except the moments I am eating or of course at home or in a hotel room alone. Plus they have discounts now too attract locals. My fear will be when the Americans start coming back.
OK – the change! Every September now I stay a week in my favorite beach hotel, Banana Azul on the Caribbean side in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. I also fly to avoid a long, tiring drive. Well, unfortunately Sansa Airlines is hurting for customers and canceled both my flights to and from Limon Airport. I’m afraid to ride the public bus that far during the pandemic and my private driver here would cost too much, so I canceled my Caribbean Beach vacation this September, always September because that rainy rainforest beach has the least rain during September. 🙂 So I will wait until next September and I do have a Pacific beach trip to Tambor Bay in March, which is enough beach for me.
Then I remembered I have been wanting my driver Walter to take me about an hour & a half north of here to see several big waterfalls and was going to schedule that when I then remembered that my Dermatologist’s favorite hotel is up there by the waterfalls, El SilencioLodge. Expensive with gourmet food, and wonderful private villas, but with their pandemic discount and staying fewer nights, I can use my Caribe money to stay there for about the same price AND see several waterfalls! So expect some waterfall photos in September! 🙂
Bajos del Toro Waterfall near El Silencio Lodge. (Photo from the internet.)
And if you like waterfalls, see my CR Waterfalls Gallery of more here.
ONWARD:
Beyond September I have nothing planned for October, a return visit to Rancho Humo at Palo Verde National Park in November and Christmas at another favorite, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Arenal Volcano National Park. For next year, only January & March are set: Sevegre Mountain Lodge in San Gerardo de Dota for special birds and then Tambor Tropical Resort, Tambor Bay on the Pacific at the southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula for sea turtles and birds! I like being retired! 🙂
Or is it another type of White? Yellow? Sulphur? You butterfly enthusiasts, especially in Costa Rica, let me know if you know for sure. It was in my garden in Atenas this morning. The closest match in my Swift Guide is the Common Melwhite (though the yellow-white color placement seems a little different), while the flying photo looks a little bit like the White-angled Sulphur, the yellow is greatly different and it doesn’t have the four brown spots, eliminating that option. For now I’m sticking with Common Melwhite (Melete lycimnia isandra) (Butterflies of America link). Whew! Butterfly ID is hard sometimes! 🙂
The “4” can mean my 4th trip to Xandari or the 4th Gallery on Xandari or the fact that I was there for 4 days this time! 🙂 The featured photo is on my walk to the restaurant from my villa.
It is a magical getaway every visit and I tend to photograph many new things or the same things in different ways each time, like this time I didn’t even hike to the waterfalls but spent more time with flowers & butterflies and a feature on the bamboo forest. So if considering a visit to Xandari, check out each of my photo galleries from 4 different trips there with 4 different perspectives:
2020 August 21-24 – A Weekend Retreat during a World Pandemic with masks & solo activities in nature. Most butterflies & flowers this time.
2020 January 12-16 – Five days when I installed my photo books library and photographed all kinds of nature with more birds than above.
2019 July 1-6 – My birthday week with them providing a cake and great celebration and me making another different set of nature photos all over. A very good week! Or see the Photo Book,Brilliant! My Birthday Week at Xandari!
Xandari is on a hill overlooking the great central valley of Costa Rica between the mountain in all four directions. My last morning here had maybe the clearest sky of the weekend and thus this expansive view of our Central Valley. Atenas is located somewhere in the right side of the photo or west of Xandari which is pretty much in the center of the valley.
Central Valley of Costa Rica from Room #4 at Xandari Resort, Alajuela. Atenas is somewhere on the right side of photo.
¡Pura Vida!
For more Costa Rica vistas see my gallery with a long name:
Merriam-Webster defines “bewitching” as “powerfully or seductively attractive or charming” which well-describes the effect of over 900 species of birds in Costa Rica on me, along with my love of alliterations! 🙂
I usually photograph more birds than this at Xandari, but with rain and fog blanketing that mountain most of the time this past weekend, I got usable photos of only 9 species, but as indicated yesterday, I made up the difference with butterflies and flowers! 🙂 I’m never without something to photograph at Xandari! 🙂
No new species this time, but as always, I love trying to get a different view, perspective, or activity of a bird to make my bird galleries more interesting. CLICK image to enlarge.
Melodious Blackbird
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Keel-billed Toucan
Rufous-naped Wren
Turkey Vulture
Lesson’s Motmot
Great Kiskadee
Keel-billed Toucan
White-eared Ground-Sparrow
Gray-headed Chachalaca
Whether perching, flying, eating or singing, they continue to bewitch me!
Meet some of the Xandari family . . .
AND . . . They treat me like family! I love this place and these people!
I return to my home in Atenas today but will have more posts about this weekend trip to Xandari and a gallery of the best photos from the weekend posted by the end of the week. In the meantime you might be interested in some of my other Costa Rica Travel galleries at CR Trips. Some of my Tico friends tell me that I’ve seen more of their home country than they have. I love it all!
This trip to Xandari I photographed more butterflies than birds, which I think is a first for anywhere I have visited in Costa Rica. Xandari has always given me a lot of butterflies, partly because of their lush gardens, but today I have photos of 16 different species, a new record! Multiple are new species for me, bringing my butterfly collection up to somewhere near 120 in my Butterfly Gallery. Check it out! Quite a variety!
The only WordPress inline Gallery that now allows labels, which I want to include, is their “regular” gallery which crops each image to same size/shape, meaning you need to click on an image to see the full-size presentation of each and I prefer my framing than their boxes. Clicking one also can start a manual slide show of all 16.
My first afternoon at Xandari was mostly in the rain, but I managed get these close-ups of a few of their many flowers plus a toucan and a butterfly which I will share later. For now enjoy the beautiful art of flowers! CLICK image to enlarge . . .
Some of the best gardens I’ve visited and you can meet one of the gardeners in this video:
restaurants, Poco Loco (“A Little Crazy” in Spanish). He seldom had big crowds, but steady customers until the pandemic came and now there simply is not enough business (even with home delivery & “take-out” orders) to pay the expenses and he has permanently closed much to my dismay.
