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!
Monday morning Walter will drive me to Xandari Nature Resort, just about an hour away, north of our Provincial Capital, Alajuela (location of San Jose Airport) for my second visit to a very “arty” nature reserve, farm and hotel made the way I think Frank Lloyd Wright would have designed it! And every room and garden is filled with art!
Restaurant & lobby building at Xandar
The gardens, nature trails (many birds) and 5 waterfalls are fabulous as are all the meals and the Spa where you can have a private Jacuzzi overlooking the Central Valley, as will my room! Though I will be hiking and birding every morning, this is more of a relaxation retreat than some of my trips and I might even get a relaxation massage! 🙂
Sorry guys! But it sort of looks like what we used to call a “Flying Saucer” in the States when UFOs were a big thing there! 🙂
Trim 1st then remove.
This is just my occasional UPDATE on the progress on the REMODELING OF CENTRAL PARK ATENAS – excruciatingly slow to me! This big round metal thing will be the “Kiosk” or Band Shell or Stage in the center of the park. (See link to pictures of it at bottom of post.) It will be great for “Theater in the Round.”
They still have to redo the landscaping and add new benches, picnic tables and some recreation items. Maybe the landscaping has started with the cutting down of several big trees. Hard to tell. And the underside of that kiosk roof is going to have artwork added, so still a ways to go there too. Here’s shots of 3 stages of the kiosk in the last 4 days – faster than usual progress:
25 June 201925 June 201928 June 2019
All images are cell phone photos by Charlie Doggett.
“A little progress every day adds up to big results.”
~Satya
The city has a Facebook Page presenting the remodeling with architect drawings of how they expect it to look. Nice! The vision of an architect! AND BEST VIEWED AS A MANUAL SLIDESHOW! Click on a picture, then the right or left arrows.
I completed my “Trip Gallery” of the 6 nights at Macaw Lodge, Carara National Park, Costa Rica. It is another fabulous nature retreat in Costa Rica and I hope you check out some of the photos I have posted. You can click the print screen image below or this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2019-06-18-24-Macaw-Lodge
Click gallery page above to visit it.
“A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels.”
— Ansel Adams
One of the best things about Macaw Lodge is the beautiful grounds! The owner Pablo’s hobby of horticulture helps! 🙂 I have already done posts on Flowers and Other Green Things,The Waterfall, and yesterday on my Cabin in the Woods – thus you’ve seen some of the grounds but here is a whole lot more photos of just the general look of the grounds and chocolate farm and in my gallery I’m adding a Trails gallery because that is a big part of the grounds, though I barely photographed trails, mostly the trail to the waterfall & spa.
Click on an image in the montage below to see it larger and/or start a manual slideshow.
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Chocolate Farm
Sunrise near Cabin 10
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Rain from Dining Room
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Yoga Session
Main Lake Spillway
Entrance Road Fern Trees
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Actually butterflies are everywhere!
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Fruit Trees Orchard
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Main building, dining, etc.
Rain from Dining Room
Walking Palm Trees
Main Building
Bamboo Tunnel & 2nd Yoga Platform
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Chocolate Farm
“Bee Hotel”
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Lake by main building
One of two Yoga Platforms
Second Yoga Platform by Stream & Bamboo
Sunrise near Cabin 10
One of multiple lakes
Entrance Walkway from Parking Lot
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Some kind of “Bee Therapy”
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Main Building Entrance
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Lake by Main Building
Entrance Road Fern Trees
Macaw Lodge Grounds
Macaw Lodge Grounds
There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more.
~Lord Byron
See my “Trip Photo Gallery” titled: 2019-06–18-24–Macaw Lodge(finished except for a few more bird photos)
My Quick Evaluation: It is one of the better “eco lodges” and more isolated than most at 45+ minutes from a town of any size and no houses or farms nearby. The rainforest surroundings match or surpass most other eco lodge I’ve visited. The rooms are excellent as is the food, though note that you have to request daily maid service and a change of towels. And you need lots of towels because it is the hottest most humid place I think I’ve been to yet (in the middle of rainy season) and hanging towels never dry.
Birding is good or basic, not my best source of birds with one “lifer” here if I labeled the Indigo Bunting correctly. Though note that I did see a Sunbittern which is a rare find anywhere (though this photo not good)! As a comparison, I photographed 30 species here and 53 at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and about that many at Selva Verde Sarapiqui my first trip there. But this was still good!
There were lots of lizards but I saw no monkeys or other wildlife (though supposedly there). For my morning guided birding hike they secured a local Carara Park area guide who was good but not the best I’ve had. The Muscovy Ducks on the lake are entertaining and they, along with other birds, have babies this time of year (June).
I would return here but probably not anytime soon, since I know of eco lodges that have given me more birds. It was a great location for the Yoga Retreat going on while I was there! And for anyone wanting to just “get away!” About 45 minutes from Tarcoles or an hour from Jaco Beach on a terrible road. Though not required, 4WD would be safer.
It is adjacent to Carara National Park, but on the backside, thus about an hour drive to the entrance on Ruta 34. The Lodge can arrange a driver from San Jose Airport at about $140 each way. I’m glad to answer other questions you may have about this unique place.
Mine was so surrounded by forest on top of a hill that I could not get a distance shot of it, thus the featured photo is of another cabin, #9, not quite as big as mine (#12) since mine had a kitchen which I did not need but used like an office for my computer & camera stuff. I guess the kitchen is good for families.
I sat on the porch every day with my camera but did not photograph many birds there, just a dove, kiskadee, clay-colored thrush and one little lizard with a dewlap. But a nice peaceful place!
The electricity is from solar-powered batteries (a bunch of batteries!). The “hot” water was a separate device with a long pipe running back and forth on a board out in the sun. Since it is rainy season and limited sun I barely had warmish water after letting it run for three minutes. Showering first thing in the morning means a cold shower. Ahhh nature! 🙂
These “eco” lodges all encourage you to reuse your towel, hanging it on the towel rack for multiple uses all for ecology (but even more to save on their laundry costs!). The problem is that in a coastal rainforest like the one I was in, It is very hot 24-7 with humidity in the 90 percentiles, thus hanging towels never get dry (unless in direct sunlight). A wet towel will not dry you! I was not very ecological! 🙂
Macaw Lodge Cabins
Click an image to enlarge it.
View from Cabin 12
Cabin 9
My Cabin 12 Entrance & Porch
My Cabin 12 Porch that wrapped around all 4 sides!
My Cabin 12 Kitchen – Office for me!
Cabin 9 from entrance trail
My bedroom
View from Cabin 12
My bathroom
Yes, you have to walk up a trail to your cabin, uphill! But they have strong young men on staff to carry your luggage up! A part of the remoteness!
There are elements of intrinsic beauty in the simplification of a house built on the log cabin idea.
~Gustav Stickley
I’m starting a “Trip Gallery” on my visit to Macaw Lodge, but it may be a week before finished. It is titled: 2019-06–18-24–Macaw Lodge
This is not all that I saw! There were really a lot of lizards of all kinds, especially a lot of Common Basilisks, which I never got a good photo of except the one juvenile below without the crown on his head. And as usual a lot more butterflies than I could ever get photos of. Plus my main focus is always birds! 🙂 But here is some “other wildlife”:
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Green Iguana
Brilliant Forest Frog
Dragonfly
Juvenile Common Basilisk
Butterfly
Little Yellow Sulphur Butterfly
Wasp
White Peacock Butterfly
Bloomfield Beauty Butterfly
Bees
Walking is my main method of relaxation. I don’t go over my lines or try to solve the world’s problems, I just enjoy the scenery and the wildlife.
In these last 2 or 3 days I’ve seen a lot of the same birds but also got 5 new species shown here plus I’m adding the juvenile of the kingfisher and a new shot of a Muscovy Duck in the rain that I really like which is different from the Mom and babies I shared earlier. Enjoy!
Final Birds, Macaw Lodge
Palm Tanager
Yellow-throated Toucan
Juvenile Belted Kingfisher
Masked Tityra feeding young in nest
Female Belted Kingfisher
Buff-rumped Warbler
Muscovy Duck in Rain
Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.
In a very wet rainforest like this one where it rains every day, there are a lot of “interesting” things growing on trees, on the ground, etc. Here is just a little sample. There is so much more that I am tempted to photograph! It’s such a beautiful and visually stimulating place!
Tomorrow I will share some new birds I got in the last 2 or 3 days here and tomorrow is when I return home to Atenas. Got more to share after that! So keep reading or looking at my photos!
“Rainforest Greens”
Click an image to see larger or start a manual slideshow.
“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul”
― John Muir
There are so many beautiful, tropical flowers everywhere I go in Costa Rica that I just can’t not photograph some of them, but please know that this is just a few I managed to grab shots of. There are so many more here! Pablo, the owner and director of the lodge is a horticulturalist, a lover of plants and he just keeps adding more plants, more gardens, more trees (like the new orchard of almond trees to attract macaws. The place is beautiful! And I am still trying to grab photos of the grounds which is hard to depict in a few photos!
When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.
The first photo below is of the back of the frog made on my cell phone and the other, a side view, with my Canon. To avoid scaring him away, both had to be shot from a distance in little forest light,f thus had to be cropped a lot, so not very good shots, but you can see what he basically looks like and online you will see some varieties of colors, etc.
