The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
¡Pura Vida!
In the Caribe!
Yep! That little landing strip above is what we landed on, right on the beach south of Limon, parallel to the Atlantic Ocean (or South Caribbean Sea). I got here early before my room was ready, had breakfast, arranged 3 tours, walked the beach to “downtown” Puerto Viejo, photographing people and street scenes before visiting an art gallery then taking a taxi back to the hotel where my room was ready with the best deck view of all the rooms; the only one with a view of the beach. A snack, little nap, on computer and will soon go for my 4 PM relaxation massage, then dinner. Tomorrow I hang out here with tours the following 3 days and then return home.
¡Pura Vida!
Tiny Pleasures
Life is made up of small pleasures. ~Norman Lear
Photo of flower Costa Ricans call “Once de Abril” (11th of April) to commemorate the only war and battle Costa Rica ever fought and of course won with the heroic help of Juan Santamaria (name of San Jose Airport). It is so delicate with such tiny blooms like Santamaria was just a boy.
See more tiny pleasures in my photo gallery Flora & Forest.
¡Pura Vida!
At Home in the Mountains
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…” ~John Muir
Panorama photo of the hills of Atenas from my terrace in Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett. For more see my Vistas photo gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
Tools for Physical Therapy
Every day I do a few simple, light exercises to regain the movement in my right arm toward recovery from the rotator cuff damage and surgery. (Up to 3 times a day.) Thanks to Andrés for loaning me some of his tools to use at home! Photo captions explain the use of each one.
While in the Caribbean next week I will continue to exercise but may not take all of this equipment. 30 pound baggage limit on the small plane.
“And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed!”
– Dr. Seuss
🙂
John McCain Gives Hope for America
“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.
~Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
I watched the funeral of John McCain today all the way down here in Costa Rica thanks to modern technology. His casket sat in the very spot where I partook of communion in the worship service I attended there back during my 2013 Visit to Washington, DC.
With all the ugly divisiveness coming from the White House and Republican Congress now, it was good to see a bipartisan celebration of a truly good man’s life today. There is still hope for America that different political parties, races, religions and lifestyles can come together to make a difference, to build a country on ideas that make it truly “A shining light on a hill” for democracy and equality for all mankind! But it still depends on the actions of every American and the Hemingway quote struck me the most from the funeral, “But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.”
God bless America! I had about given up hope for you.
“De Cabin in de Wata” Next Week
Next Thursday I’m back to the most laid back part of Costa Rica, Caribe Sur! That’s the South Caribbean and my favorite hotel there, Banana Azul (in their best room overlooking the beach!) And now there is a new video about the town it is located in (best seen fullscreen):
And the first song (De Cabin in de Wata) in that video is an original Costa Rica Caribbean and not Jamaican like so many of the singers there use. I immediately thought of the theater movie Güilas, which I wrote about earlier that used this same song in their Limon Province story. The song also has its own video that’s as good if you like more nature instead of people and this one includes the words on the screen:
And the same Costa Rican singer, Walter Ferguson, also has this nice song:
Everything is very relaxed and authentic on the Caribbean side. I try to go every September or October when rain is lowest there and will go again in February to another favorite place, Tortuguero. Part of my . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Building A New Info-Rich Website
One of my regular activities when not traveling and photographing nature has been to work on the total rebuild of my personal website while continuing to build a collection of Blog Posts or Articles about being “Retired in Costa Rica” which is now at the same location of my website, charliedoggett.net.
I moved my personal website that was Joomla-generated and continuing to give me technical problems to an easier-to-use WordPress.com hosting service. And since WordPress.com started as a blogging platform and is considered by many to be the best for blogs. I transferred/moved my blog from Blogger.com to WordPress. The blog part transferred everything but the subscriptions so that I still have my blog history of the big move to Costa Rica and now with many more ways to find articles about different subjects I have written on, though most are under “Nature” and the “Places” I have discovered here. But there are some practical articles about actually moving here, residency processes, healthcare possibilities, and even some more mundane daily life issues for the followers who are considering a move here.
In addition, as with my old website, there are many “static” (WordPress label) pages about me, my adventures, family and family history as aids to those writing and researching their own family history related to my family lines. i.e. I have several family cemetery inventories with photos, lots of old family photos and reports on family reunions, etc. I also have extensive research recorded on my Uncle Earl Doggett whose plane was shot down in World War II.
For both fun and to get to know me better I have an extensive About Page full of details and fun “Life Stories,” “Biographies,” “Schools,” “Doing Good,” “Art Lover,” “Photographer,” and more! And a lot of fun and interesting history is wrapped up in my extensive research on the ship or Frigate Charles Doggett in the 1800’s with ties the Mutiny on the Bounty, the nickname of “Old Glory” for the American Flag, the American Civil War, Nashville, and South Sea Island adventures! As I approach the end of my life I will have it all documented or reported on right here on this website and along with the failures and disappointments, some great experiences and accomplishments to help me see that my life did have value. And maybe a tiny bit of inspiration for someone.
So, for a boring, rainy day you might want to explore my website which is still being built. The Header Menu or Top Menu could be divided into these three sections: (1) BLOG, (2) LINKED PAGES, and (3) STATIC PAGES
BLOG
- Home – has an excerpt from the most current blog post and I may add some more introductory information there later. I have 8 or so favorite Costa Rica Photos that pop up in rotation here full screen which was how I wanted people to enter my website.
- Blog – This is where all my blog posts reside in reverse chronological order, most current on top, going all the way back to my June 2014 emphasis on “The Costa Rica Decision Process” where I debated the pros and cons online and made the decision to move here publicly on this blog. The drop-down menu has “Categories” (WordPress term) and sub categories to help you find the articles of your interest. Plus the right sidebar or right column has several ways to search for articles by category, tags/subjects, and by date.
MY 2 LINKED PAGES
- Gallery – My Costa Rica Photo Gallery, “Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA” is my pride and joy and located on SmugMug.com which simply has a better presentation than I can currently get within my WordPress site. That could change later and reside on the website, but for now I encourage you to see my images of Costa Rica and for birder friends I have quite a collection of about 270 Costa Rica bird species that is growing! Plus more birds from neighboring countries! – – – For those familiar with my old Pbase photo gallery, it is still up now with all my past commercial and Tennessee photos, travel photos and family photos. But I am slowly moving them to this website in the simple galleries and slideshows that my template provides here, which will help liven up my family and travel articles and will be the new residence of my historical photos, in time!
- Bookstore – Since before my time in The Gambia I was trying out different online photo book publishers as a way to preserve my many photos which otherwise got lost in closets, computers, or scrapbooks. By around 2003 I settled on Blurb.com as my book publisher of choice, mainly because they provided me with a free “Bookstore” of just my books that continue to be available for order indefinitely. Here you can see the many subjects and trips I have produced books on and even “Review” every page of every book on your computer. Pretty cool! No pressure to buy! 🙂 These books and the above Photo Gallery are the only places for my photos.
“STATIC” PAGES
- Travel – is where all my many pre-Costa Rica trips will be reported with those photos from Pbase.com, but more than that, with pages on places I lived and about my jobs in these places and just about everything else that doesn’t fit somewhere else on the website! 🙂 I have not started this page yet.
- Family – I have started with Family History pages and will work back through both my family or origin and family of marriage, probably first with photos, but just barely started at the time of this post writing. Only Family History now.
- His Spirit – In some ways I no longer want to be considered “religious, Baptist or Evangelical,” but maybe “a man of faith” or better yet a “Follower of Christ.” I try to explain this here with more writing than photos, though it seemed to be the best place to report on being a missionary in The Gambia, West Africa, thus one of my most exciting adventures is recorded here with lots of old photos or copies of print photos and some of my best stories! It is still in progress, but a lot already here!
- About – Biography, personal interests and hobbies, and the beginning of a collection of “Life Stories” that I hope will be both entertaining and inspirational. I am still in process of writing these! 🙂 It is my personal history and hopefully not too much ego!
- Contact – Your basic online contact form and all my addresses and one phone number. At the strong encouragement of WordPress, I removed my email address from this page which they say spammers and bad guys know how to harvest. The form will give you a response on my email and you can collect it that way. 🙂
I’ll try to make future blog posts shorter!
But I felt like I needed at least one thorough explanation of my new website/blog combination. You got it! Contact me with any questions and I try to respond quickly to all comments on blog posts.
Interesting Link
Why we need to break down the barriers between us and nature.
An article on the BIRDLIFE website. I have to include a little nature in all posts! The birds require it! 🙂
Poas Volcano National Park in Costa Rica Will Open Doors to Visitors Again This Friday, Aug.31
Read all the details at:
This is one of the oldest and most visited national parks in Costa Rica and has been greatly missed for nearly a year now after some serious eruptions. Safety is always the first concern and you can be confident that it is safe to visit again now. Some say that it is the best or one of the best volcano parks in the world to visit. It is the only one here where you can look down inside the cone. Plus it is a beautiful cloud forest and nature reserve! I highly recommend seeing it when in Costa Rica and always best early in the morning since clouds often move in to hide the volcano by or before 10:00 AM!
The photo above is one of many made on a trip to Poas in 2015 with Kevin Hunter. See the TRIP Gallery Poas Volcano 2015.
Keeping Snakes Away
This link is to a website in the U.S. but the common sense suggestions should work equally well in Costa Rica – basically don’t make your yard attractive to snakes! Since I scared people with my Terciopelo articles, I thought I would balance it out with this link to a snake free yard:
https://www.fieldecology.com/blog/snakes-away