Author: Charlie

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!
Posted on

More of San Jose: Interesting People

After School in the Park with Skateboards
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Fresh Fruit & Veggies on Every Corner
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

And Sometimes In the Street!
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Many Pedestrians Everywhere!
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Old Man American Tourist
Watches Tico Teen Skateboarder Walk By
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Children Play in Fountain
Plaza de Cultura
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Feeding Pigeons in Every Park!
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Clowns Sell Facepainting
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Indigenous People Music
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

And Vendors Everywhere!
San Jose, Costa Rica

My Photo Gallery on San Jose

Posted on

Day 3 San Jose: Interesting Buildings

Claro TV/Internet Building

San Jose, Costa Rica

 

National Theater or Teatro Nacional

San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Unknown Building

San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Unknown Building

San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Historic Old Post Office Building

San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Unknown Building

San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Unknown Building

San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Historic Metal School Building

San Jose, Costa Rica
Also shown in my Thursday post.

 

Charlie’s Restaurant

San Jose, Costa Rica
Well, I had to include this though it looks more like a bar not open in day.

My Photo Gallery of many San Jose shots might interest you.

Posted on

Day 2 San Jose, Churches & Lost Phone

EXPLORING THE CONCRETE JUNGLE!
DAY 2
 
Churches in the order seen, walking 6+ km, found only 6.
If door unlocked or even cracked open (1st one) I shot inside.
 
Iglesia de Barrio Mexico
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Iglesia de Barrio Mexico Inside 
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Iglesia de la Merced 
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

First Baptist Church
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

El Carmen Iglesia 
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

El Carmen Iglesia 
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

El Carmen Iglesia 
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Catedral Metropolitana 
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Catedral Metropolitana 
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Parroquia Nuestra Senora De La Dolorosa 
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Parroquia Nuestra Senora De La Dolorosa 
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Iglesia de la Soledad 
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Iglesia de la Soledad 
San Jose, Costa Rica

With some backtracking this was probably more than 6 kilometers of walking on the hot sidewalk and even with good shoes and two pair of socks, my feet were hot when I returned. I also photographed some other beautiful old building and one colorful modern art painted building. I will share these another day and maybe some people or other shots. Now I collapse. Tired.

THE BAD NEWS: I LOST MY CELLPHONE TODAY. 
I had it in my pocket at breakfast and I thought when I got in the taxi to go to the furthermost church to start the walk back. After photographing the church with my camera I reached for my cellphone and it was not there. I was going to use a new guided tour app on it. That didn’t happen! Fortunately I had printed the map from the app and followed it (but still missed 2 churches). Over the next three hours I asked 6 different people (police, taxistas, and a hotel clerk) to call my number, hoping someone would answer. Nada! Finally I had the hotel clerk call Kolbi/ICE who has my phone contract and I canceled it temporarily. They said that when I get a new phone I can reinstate the same phone number. I’m guessing it slid out of my pocket in the taxi this morning, but who knows? Some Tico today got a very good Samsung Galaxy 4 cellphone. Now do I get another good one or just a cheap one? Kolbi is not open in Atenas until Monday morning for the contract, though I could buy a phone somewhere else before then. So time to think about it! Cry. Cry. Then move on! That’s life! Pura Vida!

My Photo Gallery of Costa Rica Churches has more church photos if interested, and the San Jose gallery has more photos of San Jose.

 
Posted on

First Afternoon in San Jose

EXPLORING THE CONCRETE JUNGLE!
DAY 1
Holiday Inn Downtown San Jose
My room is on the 16th floor, with only
the 17th floor Dining Room above me.
San Joe, Costa Rica
I mainly look south with fewer tall buildings, but parts of sunrise/sunset.
San Joe, Costa Rica

 

Temple of Music in Morazan Park across the street
San Joe, Costa Rica

 

“Kissing Statue”
Is another thing Morazan Park is known for.
San Joe, Costa Rica
1890 Escuelas Graduadas, famous metal school building
San Joe, Costa Rica

 

1890 Escuelas Graduadas, famous metal school building 
San Joe, Costa Rica
This is one block from hotel and my check-in desk clerk Javier
went to school here and was proud that I photographed it.

This metal school building of course reminded me of the metal church building in Grecia, Costa Rica I shared it back in 2015. See a photo of that equally unusual church building in my gallery.

 

Museum of Modern Art??
Well, that was one name and there was some,
but it was mostly a children’s art museum
with a few adult works in one of 4 galleries.
Disappointing.
San Jose, Costa Rica
I did like this adult installation, for
the color in Museum of Modern Art.
San Jose, Costa Rica

In the first gallery, there was a lot of clothing designed in CR, some book covers designed here, and a few other adult-made installations like the umbrellas above. The other three galleries were all work of school children interpreting life on other planets. Those galleries probably rotate or change and I suspect that some of the schools of design here display their work from time to time. So I will check their website before I go again to see what I’m getting into!

Children Play in Water Fountain
Plaza of Culture
San Jose, Costa Rica
NOTE: After I made this image, a security guard came up to me and said
something like, “I’m sorry sir but we do not allow making photos of
children here. Please stop.” I stopped and was amazed! Interesting!
The security of children here is very important!

 

Feeding Pigeons
Is an activity in every park in Costa Rica, by all ages.
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

The National Theater  or  Teatro Nacional
Beside the Plaza of Culture
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Flutist Statue
at the National Theater
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Clowns Sell Face-painting
Plaza of Culture
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

Indigenous People Music
On sidewalk across from Plaza of Culture
San Jose, Costa Rica

 

And You Can Buy CD of the Indigenous MusicOn sidewalk across from Plaza of Culture
San Jose, Costa Rica

Big city life is always colorful and interesting anywhere in the world. No exception here!

“Happy Hour”
By Holiday Inn in a 15th floor corner room watching the sunset.
Lots of free snack food and drinks was my dinner after a big lunch!
And that building above is Banco Nacional, my Costa Rica bank.
San Jose, Costa Rica

And I made loads of photos of interesting old buildings on the streets I walked today. I may eventually add them to my San Jose or other photo gallery at Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA. This city has lots of interesting things to photograph! Tomorrow I start with old historic churches and then see what happens after that. This is almost as much fun as the real jungles, though I like their animals better!  🙂

Posted on

“Walking Grass” AND Super Bowl Champion

I called it “Walking Grass,” but really it’s a green Walking Stick insect
My Terrace, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

I’ve seen several of these all over Costa Rica but so far all have been brown more like a stick. But this one is green and all the websites indicate it is the same bug!  🙂   Cool!

SUPER BOWL CHAMPION IN COSTA RICA
Did you know that Tom Brady has a house in Costa Rica?
http://www.liveincostarica.com/blog/2017/02/costa-rica-has-a-super-bowl-champion.htmlhttp://www.liveincostarica.com/blog/2017/02/costa-rica-has-a-super-bowl-champion.html

Tom and Giselle are in the small Pacific coast town of Santa Teresa.
Neighbors have included Leonardo DeCaprio, Robert Plant,
Matthew McConaughey and Liam Hemsworth, to name a few.

They are not the kind of expats I run into in the Atenas supermercados, but you might if you lived in Santa Teresa.  🙂

Tomorrow I’m headed to downtown San Jose for two days to make photos in the “Concrete Jungle” of Costa Rica and hoping for a lot of nice photos (of something other than birds!). . It will be totally different from my other trips!  🙂

Posted on

More Flame Vine Pix

Close-up of an open bloom, Flamevine or TriquiTraque in Costa Rica
In my garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
My favorite shot so far.

At first the blooms are “capsules” or little tubes before opening up.
My TriquiTraque in Atenas, Costa Rica

TriquiTraque looks best when massed on a wall like I have in my garden.
Atenas, Costa Rica

There is not much online about this flower in the way of information. As “Flamevine” the best I could find was at the University of Florida website. When I Google triquitraque it is my blog that comes up in addition to a lot of photos by different people. So I can’t tell you much about them. I did find this page article in a botanical gardens book which is kind of scientific. And I think I have already noted that in Spanish dictionaries triquitraque means “clattering noise” or a “string of firecrackers.”

🙂
See also my Costa Rica photo gallery called Flora & Forests
Posted on

Temple of Music

Ceiling of the acoustically perfect band shelter in
Morazan Park, San Jose, Costa Rica

“Temple of Music”
Morazan Park, San Jose, Costa Rica
Photographed last week on a trip to San Jose.

The Morazan Park was built in 1887 and was the place where New Year’s Eve festivities were celebrated in the late XIX century. Also music recitals were held in this place and still are nowadays.

This is why in 1920 an investment was made for the construction of the Temple of Music, which has an almost perfect acoustic.

The temple was used for political speeches and also for the exchange of the Power of the Republic. Nowadays, several concerts are presented, from the National Symphonic Orchestra to contemporary music groups.

The Temple of Music is a duplicate of the Temple of Love and Music of Versailles. Its Neoclassical design was made by the architect and painter Jose Francisco Salazar, who also designed the Club Union, the Law School of the University of Costa Rica and the Drugstore of the former University.

The above copied from:
http://www.costaricaexplorerguide.com/php/atracciones2.php?idm=2&atract=65

See the glass building behind the band shelter? It’s Holiday Inn Aurora.
The last night of my 2010 Caravan.com tour of Costa Rica was there and
I’m spending two nights there this week on a “Concrete Jungle” photo trip.
This photo copied from the web.

My trip this week will be to photograph old churches and other interesting or historic old buildings in central San Jose on my walking tour. I discovered a great app for my phone to guide me on many walking tours of San Jose from GPSmyCity.com   with my personal guide, maps, and voice directions each step of the way. Wow! Travel has gotten easier!

I hope to be adding a lot more photos to my already existing photo gallery on San Jose and also to the gallery of Costa Rica Churches. 

The rainforests and cloud forests are my favorite parts of Costa Rica, but sometimes it is exciting to plan on a city visit too! And there is a lot in San Jose for my short Thursday-Saturday trip. Getting there by bus of course!  🙂  Then some taxis though mostly walking.