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Have your days seemed pass slower or be longer and then your weeks and months passing faster? It is an interesting psychological phenomenon you can read about on BBC at this link: Why time seems to be going faster while we are in lockdown
Or if you are one of those weird Americans who prefers to read American publications, try this one in the LA Times: Is time flying by oddly quickly during COVID-19? Here’s why you may feel that way
Now . . . back to the future in Costa Rica! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Some time ago I canceled my cable TV subscription and used the money for stronger internet service through which I occasionally watch a documentary or older movie from the Costa Rica version of Netflix (fewer titles than in the U.S.). Tonight (Wednesday) during my dinner of a pulled pork sandwich and cole slaw from Atenas Poco Loco (“To Go” or “Para llevar” here), I watched the BBC/Netflix movie The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, based of course on the book by the same title available from Amazon.com Books. I was so touched by the movie that I felt compelled to recommend it or the book written by the boy himself as a now adult engineer.
Having lived in The Gambia West Africa for three years, I of course related to almost everything in this excellent true story of a 14 year old boy in Malawi who had to drop out of school and help the family farm because they could not afford the school fees. In the midst of a common African drought the boy sneaked into his old school library and learned about windmills and thanks to his old science teacher’s device to generate electricity with the moving bike wheel he adapted it to a homemade windmill that generated enough electricity for a small pump to pump water from the well and irrigate the drought-stricken farm. I saw the life-changing effects of windmills in The Gambia too.
A moving family story with authentic African culture, scenery, and hardships. When I returned from The Gambia I often said that every American should live for 3 years in Africa to see what the real world is like. Well, this movie or book will give you a taste! I highly recommend it.
“Extreme poverty anywhere is a threat to human security everywhere.”
¡Pura Vida!
My favorite time in my house is during breakfast on my terrace when I usually have many visitors and sometimes try to photograph them, whether bird, butterfly or other creature. This morning I managed to grab shots of 4 after trying and failing to get shots of two tiny orange & black butterflies that flew as a pair and never lighted on a flower for me. Shooting them in flight is very difficult and I failed. Both these butterflies and birds are regular repeats for me, but each one is a unique individual! 🙂
See my Costa Rica Butterfly Gallery and Bird Gallery for more images.
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” ~Rachel Carson
¡Pura Vida!
My rent house is on the side of a hill above a residential street inside the Roca Verde development. I can look down through the trees and other plants to the street if I wish – not my favorite view! 🙂
A week or so ago I heard a crash below me and a car driven by one of my Tico neighbors had gone into the concrete ditch made for rainwater going down the hill. No curb or barrier or guardrail along the rainwater ditch. Here’s 3 shots on my cellphone of the guy in the ditch, the flatbed truck preparing to pull him out and the guys helping the truck by pushing on the car (which they always do here!). The car was all scratched up and probably had some wheel, axle or alignment problems, but he drove away it away without needing the big truck to take him into a shop. Pura vida! 🙂
Daily I thank God for not owning a car! 🙂
“Walking is the only form of transportation in which a man proceeds erect – like a man – on his own legs, under his own power. There is immense satisfaction in that.”
―
¡Pura Vida!
Today a cloud of mostly Yellows was in my garden plus one brown Skipper I didn’t try to photograph. They don’t stay still, thus very difficult to photograph and with the book full of Yellows & Whites the identification is not always exacting, but my best effort with a few “either/or” IDs! 🙂
And the grasshopper only eats the leaves, while the butterflies go for the flower nectar, so no competition! They share a flower! 🙂
My Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery
¡Pura Vida!
Earlier I shared two videos of virtual night & day rainforest hikes with one of the young female guides at Selva Verde Lodge, Melany Ocón. The kind I experience on my trips, though we see more on our live hikes than these short videos . . .
Today is a hike with one of the young male guides whom I have been hiking with before when there (an expert on frogs). We saw a lot more than they see on this video, but it gives you an idea of what it is like to hike at Selva Verde Lodge & Reserve, one of my many favorite places in Costa Rica. You will see a couple of frogs, a helmeted lizard, a pit viper and an anteater, so worth your effort to watch for 20 minutes and see just a little of why I love to explore the forests of Costa Rica with guides like Iván and Melany. June 30 I head north of Sarapiqui (location of these videos) for a week at Maquenque Lodge with other guides but similar experiences. And remember that English is not their first language! They do much better with English than I do with Spanish! 🙂
“If man doesn’t learn to treat the oceans and the rainforest with respect, man will become extinct.”
~Peter Benchley
And for my photos of two visits to Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui:
2019-May 9-15 — Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiqui
2016 December 23-27 – Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui
¡Pura Vida!
Walking around my little house is one morning joy I can have any day! As good as up the hill or in a faraway place.
There I feel that nothing can befall me.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
My Flora & Forest Gallery
¡Pura Vida!
Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.
~Rabindranath Tagore
You have glimpsed the divine.”
~Vera Nazarian
See my Flora & Forest Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
On the same walk to town with yesterday’s beetle I snapped these 3 flowers that caught my attention. The red & yellow hibiscus is rare or at least for my eyes! 🙂 One of the red flowers (feature photo) appears to be in the poinsettia family but not the traditional one while the other red flower is more common here, but eye-catching none-the-less!
“Life is like a box of crayons.”
~John Mayer
My Flora & Forest GALLERY
¡Pura Vida!
I spent nearly an hour searching my books and all over the internet for an ID on this interesting fellow I saw while walking to town the other day. He is possibly in the large Scarab Beetle family or Stag Beetle family or seems related to our Rhinoceros Beetle and Hercules Beetle, but even with those I can’t find photos of one with these large, wide “horns” or divided head. New surprises every day! 🙂
“Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.”
―
See my “Other Insects of Costa Rica” photo gallery for more insect oddities.
¡Pura Vida!