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!
2020 was more than COVID-19 – closed borders & businesses – lockdown – mask-wearing! Like all of life – it’s what you make of it! . . . So I continue my New Year’s Eve tradition of posting 12 photos representing my concluded year . . . not restricted to exactly one per month.
🙂 “PHOTO SMILES” 🙂
The feature photo at top is a vista from my room at Xandari Nature Resort where I had two weekend trips, onein January and one in August. It’s overlooking the great “Central Valley” of Costa Rica where I live to the far right in that photo on one of those hills or mountains. Then from March to July no travel for me beyond walks in the neighborhood where nature still smiles! 🙂
In March I started wearing a bandana for virus protection, then graduated to a layered cloth mask (called mascarilla here) made by a local seamstress, and by summer I added the additional plastic shield seen on me in this photo when completing my application for permanent residency . . .
I took off the mask and shield for the required face photo! 🙂 But I have stayed cautiously safe from the virus.
Since the above photo was made the government Health Ministry has ruled that the plastic shields alone are not adequate and everyone must wear a cloth or surgical mask when outside their home. So I quit using the plastic shield and ordered a cloth mask from my gallerywith one of my sunset photos on it that I photographed last year here in Atenas on Calle Barroeta. The photo doesn’t look as great on a mask, but at least it is unique! 🙂
Selfie with an Atenas Sunset Covid19 Mask. Someday it will be strange to not wear a mask. 🙂
“Make everything an adventure. Otherwise, it will suck.”
― Nita Morgan
When not traveling I found photo smiles in my own garden andneighborhood . . .
Above is a Passion Flower along the road, 100 meters above my house. 🙂Princess Flower in my garden! 🙂Nature playing hide and seek in my neighborhood! 🙂
Man’s heart away from nature becomes hard. —Standing Bear
My last trip before lockdown was to Heredia in February for Spanish Immersion plus . . .
At the heart of everything there lies a stillness and a light.”
― Lynn Thomson
I had several “Lifer” (1st time seen) birds this year including this one literally “handed to me” while at El Silencio Lodge & Reserve in September . . .
Chestnut-capped Brushfinch at El Silencio Lodge in September. 🙂 He flew into a window of the lodge office and this girl was comforting him until he eventually flew away.
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. —William Shakespeare
And also at El Silencio were 5 great waterfalls with my favorite . . .
First, the most popular vacation week for families is the week between Christmas and New Years. Schools are out and many companies and business close this whole week, thus families are freer to travel. The beaches and lodges sometimes have more Ticos than tourists, especially this year with Covid19 reducing our number of tourists.
Second is fireworks at midnight is a big deal, both large organized shows including some Catholic Churches in conjunction with a Midnight Mass and families or individuals in their yards and streets.
Third is the Midnight Mass.
Fourth is the usual happiness and friendliness as everyone wishes you ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!
Fifth & Sixth are best described with part of a newspaper article:
Run around the block with your suitcase.
Though I haven’t seen it done, I have heard about this tradition for some Ticos which was reported in a Washington Post Article this month:
Put your 2021 travel ambitions into the universe by celebrating the new year like a Costa Rican. (The tradition is popular across Latin America.) At midnight, it’s tradition to grab a suitcase and run around the block in the hopes of traveling in the new year.
“The farther we run with our suitcases, my family always says, the farther we’ll travel in the new year,” writes Washington Post reporter, Samantha Schmidt, who has spent New Year’s Eve with her extended family in Costa Rica every year since she was born. “We all do it — from my toddler cousins to my eldest aunts in their high heels. Our neighbors always cheer us on, shouting ‘Feliz Año Nuevo!’ and sometimes join in, as fireworks shoot off in all directions.”
Also reported in that same newspaper article above is the tradition of Spain that is also done all over Latin America, including Costa Rica and I have seen and done this:
Perhaps the easiest tradition to carry out is eating grapes for good luck. The tradition began in Spain, but it is now practiced around the world, particularly in Central and South America.
Here’s how to do it yourself: Have 12 grapes, known as las doce uvas de la suerte, handy. When the clock starts chiming at midnight, eat one with each clang.
Bonus points if you’re wearing special New Year’s Eve underwear while eating your grapes. A pair of red underwear can bring you a new year of love, while yellow may bring joy and fortune.
And part of that story is fewer photo books with fewer trips this year. Three books were drawn from my 5.5 years collection of Costa Rica photos. And one book was on my earlier life in Africa. Plus I did not do a book on every trip like usual, but for now you can enjoy the online photo galleries of every trip! 🙂
NOTE: I’m still doing my usual New Year’s Eve Photo SummaryTOMORROW which I’m calling “2020 Photo Smiles,” twelve favorite photos of life in Costa Rica, just not restricted to a photo-a-month. 🙂
Roca Verde Birds
First book this year was not released until April 6, 2020 and by then I was itching to be creative! I went through my photos of birds photographed right here in our housing development called “Roca Verde” and came up with a book of 40 species of birds photographed in my yard and neighborhood which I was pleased with, and simply called Roca Verde Birds.
Go to the title link or click the cover for a free digital preview. I gave gift copies to the president and vice president of our homeowner’s association, the guards at the front gate, my 2 head gardeners and maid. All seemed to appreciate the book and giving them away is my main reason for making photo books! It’s an 8×10 coffee table book of 56 pages.
The little 7-inch ones I do on lodges or my trips I give one to the lodge and sometimes to a very good birding guide. 🙂 They are always very appreciative!
Pura Vida Birds
My second book this year was also created from my collection of photos from my years here in Costa Rica and one I have been wanting to do from the beginning. I published it June 5, 2020 with over 300 species of birds included and of course I saw a new bird the very next week that did not make my book! 🙂 That’s life!
It’s called Pura Vida Birds and was announced as a celebration of my nearly 6 years of living in Costa Rica. It is maybe the best summary of my first 6 years in Costa Rica and is my “main book” now, an 8×10 coffee table book of 230 pages. Makes a great gift!
Maquenque Mágico
Finally I make a trip in July and produced another little 7 inch photo book about it and this cool lodge! To celebrate my 80th birthday, I spent a week in a treehouse at Maquenque Lodge, Boca Tapada, Alajuela Province and was their only guest for the 1st 3 days and 1 of just 12 guests over the weekend spent solo-hiking away from people during the pandemic.
It was my second great experience there with 60 species of birds photographed! That’s more than at any other lodge so far!
Plus this is my first lodge or trip book published totally in español, Maquenque Mágico. As a photo book you don’t need the language, plus I named the birds in both Spanish & English! 🙂 It was published July 27, 2020, 7×7 inches, 92 pages.
El Silencio, Touching Souls
After Maquenque I had only 3 nights at Xandari in August before my second week-long trip during the pandemic at El Silencio Lodge & Reserve in September, a new place that immediately became a favorite and definitely one of the best in Costa Rica, even if it is also one of the more expensive! 🙂 A beautiful 7×7 inch book of 60 pages.
And if you are a waterfall lover, this is your lodge, with more waterfalls at or nearby than almost any other place in Costa Rica! Similar to Maquenque, there were only 2 or 3 of us there during the week with about 7 over the weekend. Great service, food, waterfalls, birds, and butterflies! I loved it and got 4 lifer birds! El Silencio, Touching Soulswas published September 26, 2020.
Pura Vida Butterflies
More than 120 photos of butterflies and moths in Costa Rica that I’ve made during my first 6 years of retirement in the land of Pura Vida – Pure Life! A colorful coffee table book or guide to help the hobbyist label his Costa Rica butterfly photos. Plus a great gift! Pura Vida Butterflies was Published October 1, 2020. 8×10, 106 pages.
Magical AFRICA
The only book not about Costa Rica! 🙂 One of my many pandemic lockdown activities was putting together a collection of a few of my favorite Africa photos as basically my Africa Portfolio. It includes photos from living in The Gambia West Africa for three years and two trips back in 09 plus my three trips to East Africa, Kenya & Tanzania with two safaris in the Masai Mara Reserve of Kenya. Magical AFRICA was Published October 27, 2020. 7×7 inches, 102 pages.
Faces of Nature
I forgot what motivated me to do this creative project, but it was originally to be one book until I started curating my bird faces photos and with so many, I decided to do a separate book of bird faces, coming soon I hope! 🙂 This first volume is all other animals including a few insects and was a fun project for me! Though I kind of favor the frogs, the monkeys and sloth faces are irresistible! 🙂 Faces of Nature, Book 1 was published November 12, 2020. It’s a colorful little 7×7 inch book of 42 pages.
And that was my 2020 Pandemic Year in 7 photo books! And to see all of my photo books, click Bookstoreon the menu or here! 🙂
Cancelled or Postponed 2020 Trips & Books
I had two little short trips of 3 & 4 nights at Xandari Nature Resort (Jan & Aug) without doing a book but highly recommend that lodge near Alajuela!
My March Trip to Hotel Savegre in San Gerardo de Dota was postponed until January where I look forward to my second visit there after a first in 2009 on a birding tour from the States. That area is the best place in Costa Rica for the unique bird Quetzal and in-between I have visited two other lodges in San Gerardo de Dota, but still prefer Savegre.
My May trip to Talari Lodge, Chirripó I canceled since it required a day-long bus ride to get there and that’s not good in a pandemic. Long range I plan something there or in that area so I can visit Los Cusingos Bird Sanctuary started by the now famous first birder in Costa Rica, Alexander Skutch, and where I can find birds not anywhere else, plus some other good reserves are nearby. This is a location where having a car would be more convenient! 🙂 And I’ve let both my TN and CR driver licenses expire, so can’t even get a rental car until a get a new driver license.
My Rancho Humo trip in November was cancelled because they just didn’t have enough customers to re-open as planned on November 1 after closing in March because of the pandemic. It has been a sad year for so many here in the tourism business. I’ve been there once and will eventually go again. Great birding and plush lodge!
Christmas week was scheduled at Arenal Observatory Lodge with me returning home on December 27, thus I can’t have a book completed from that week in time for this post. But one is very likely in January! 🙂
And to see all of my photo books, click Bookstoreon the menu or here! 🙂
On the Caño Negro river trip Saturday we passed this sow or mother pig with one or more babies between her and the tree and her unique Cattle Egret guard! 🙂
And yes, there was probably a farm somewhere nearby and she just wanted “to get away from it all!” – Down by the riverside! 🙂
Mama Pig with Cattle Egret Guard! 🙂
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
Thanks to Goodreads that provided me with the above images and the list of books I reported to them as having read during 2020, most with a book review. I thought that by the time this blog post was scheduled, I would have finished my current book by Barack Obama, A Promised Land, that is not among the above images, but I was too busy at Arenal to read as much as I expected, meaning it will go down as a January book. And then there are others I’m “working on.” 🙂
I’m not a heavy reader because I tend to be a “doer” of adventures more a reader of adventures, plus I have a sometimes uncontrollable urges to “to create,” mainly with my photos. But I still love to read and no longer go to movies or watch TV. I currently have Netflix Costa Rica mainly for the documentaries and occasionally an old movie, though not as many titles available here as in the states, thus watch just occasionally. I no longer subscribe to any cable TV. So, when not photographing or creating something with my photos, I like to read Agatha Christie mysteries and select non-fiction books such as the Obama book.
Here’s a slide show of the book covers followed by a list of titles and authors. And note that in 2021 I plan to finish the entire series of Hercule Poirot mysteries with just 2 more to go! 🙂
My 12 Books This Year
Assuming I finish the Obama book which I’m sure I will. These are not in any particular order and I don’t remember exactly what order I read them, but most were good books. The sitting kills book was weak I thought and I was disappointed in the book on knowing God. The other 10 I recommend! The first 6 are non-fiction and the last 6 fiction – half and half! 🙂
I use Walter’s Transportation for all my surface trips with Walter driving sometimes and other times one of his drivers, Cristian, takes me. Because Walter had shoulder surgery Cristian took me last Monday and brought me back today (Sunday). He asked my permission to bring his wife and daughter with him on the return trip and I was delighted to have them! A child makes going to a waterfall even more fun! 🙂 And I know . . . I’m actually a child too! 🙂
The Feature Photois my driver Cristian and his family at the middle overlook. The gallery below has different views of the falls and the stream below the plunge pool which is safer for families with children to swim, while teens & young adults go into the plunge pool. Both too cold for me! 🙂 But many of the young seem to enjoy it, including Cristian’s daughter who is wading in last photo below. CLICK image to enlarge or start a manual slideshow:
La Fortuna Waterfall
My Driver & Family
“Tough Guys” Swimming Under the Falls
A Lot of Tourists There – Mostly Tico!
La Fortuna Waterfall
Families Swim in Stream Below Plunge Pool
The Water is Crystal Clear! You Can See Fish Swimming! 🙂
!Pura Vida!
This makes Waterfall Number 43 that I have photographed so far in Costa Rica and I will be adding it to my “Arenal Volcano Area Waterfalls” sub-gallery of my Waterfalls CR Gallery.
I have serval more “significant” falls I want to add to my collection before I publish a Costa Rica Waterfalls book, but maybe in the next year or two! 🙂
“Playing together in nature is as much about us as it is about the child. Children get to celebrate and be themselves, while we are reminded of our inner child – the essence of who we are.”
I have a lot to share from today’s (Saturday’s) excursion to Caño Negro Wetlands Reserve, but the most unusual (and all I have time to present tonight) is the totally orange Howler Monkey. And of course the first question is why?
Albino? That is what the CostaRica.com website says and what I believe is the reason.
Pesticides? That is what this article in Costa Rica Star says, a mutant caused by the sulphur-laden pesticides sprayed on the nearby pineapple plantations. I guess possible.
Our guide today said it was caused by incest which might relate to or be the cause of #1.
Regular Mantled Howler Monkeys are black with an orange spot or streak on their backs (mantled). But this rare mutant fellow is all orange and the first I’ve seen like this.
Today’s (Saturday’s) trip was an all-day affair, not returning until 4 PM, so I am tired and can’t process all the many other photos from today now, but will share later.
Tomorrow morning I return home and will then finish processing many more photos from this great Christmas Week at Arenal Observatory Lodge inside Arenal Volcano National Park. Yes, we had some rain this week but that didn’t dampen my spirits! 🙂 And it was sunny the whole time at Caño Negro today!
After seeing the monkeys but no birds, I hiked on past some beautiful scenery that I’ll share later and on down to the Danta Waterfall. It was a sunny day but evidently the wrong time for the best photographs. For better photos, see my gallery 2018 Danta Waterfall or even the 2019 Shot was better than these. Next time I will come here in April or May which seems to be better for photos. 🙂 CLICK image to enlarge:
December 24 was a beautiful, sunshiny day! And my 6 year anniversary of living Retired in Costa Rica! I arrived on Christmas Eve 2014 and haven’t stopped exploring this tropical paradise a single day and I’m still blogging about it! Except for the first two Christmases getting “settled in” as a Costa Rica Resident, I have traveled every Christmas week since, to a National Park or other nature preserve.
The 23rd (day before yesterday) was when I scheduled Néstor, my birding guide here, and it was totally cloudy and raining all day. With nothing planned the 24th, it was a bright blue sky, sunny day! So I went hiking on my own, figuring maybe I could see some of the same birds in better light for better photos. Nada! Nothing! Almost no birds! Maybe they were in the tree tops “sunning?” 🙂 But . . .
On the other hand, on the first three rainy days I saw no monkeys and yesterday on the trail looking for birds I saw this troop or family of Mantled Howler Monkeys (my gallery link). They were way high in the Cecropia trees eating leaves, but I managed to get a few distant shots of these common monkeys here:
“We’ve just barely stopped being monkeys.”
~Duncan Trussell
🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Christmas Day’s main event was a visit to the nearby Butterfly Conservatory this morning, but it may be a few days before I get to those photos! 🙂 A Merry Weekend to you! And tomorrow, Saturday, I go to Caño Negro Reserve for birding – always a good place for birds.
When on these National Park trips I always get behind in sharing my photos because I am so busy in these wonderful nature places and have so many photos to process it is difficult to keep up. But here’s photos of 18 of the 24 species photographed with the other 6 photos not worth sharing! 🙂 Actually the Long-billed Gnatwren photo is not worth sharing, but since it is one of 4 “Lifers” yesterday, I feel compelled to “prove” I saw it! 🙂
And I know that yesterday I said that the Bicolored Antbird was my only “Lifer” (first time seen bird) but I still had not gone through all the 700+ photos and discovered that I actually had 4 lifers on this hike (plus I had another Lifer Monday not a part of this count: the Emerald Tanager) plus a “first in Costa Rica,” meaning I have photos of it from some other country. Yesterday’s 4 Lifers are:
Bicolored Antbird
Spotted Antbird
Long-billed Gnatwren
Carmiol’s Tanager
My sighting/photo of the immature Cinnamon Becard was my “first time in Costa Rica,” though I made photos of an adult Cinnamon Becard on one of my Panama trips.
Remember that it was cloudy and raining all day yesterday, making photography very difficult, (interestingly it was sunny all day today and I saw fewer birds!) but here’s one photo of each species except the Rufous-winged Tanager where I include one of both the male and the female since they are so different. CLICK image to enlarge:
Bicolored Antbird
Spotted Antbird
Red-legged Honeycreeper
Black-stripped Sparrow
Great Curassow Male
Palm Tanager
Crested Guan
Yellow-throated Toucan
Carmiol’s Tanager
Summer Tanager
Crimson-collared Tanager
Cinnamon Becard Immature
Scarlet-rumped Tanager
Black Phoebe
Pale-billed Woodpecker
Long-billed Gnatwren
Bay-headed Tanager Male
Rufous-winged Tanager Female
Rufous-winged Tanager Male
And notice that there is an overlap of only 4 birds with my first day list. 🙂
