Blog - Retired in Costa Rica

January 22, 2020January 22, 2020

My Windows – My World

As Frank Lloyd Wright said,

“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

And as he created his magnificent houses always integrated with nature – I have tried to create views through all my windows & doors that bring nature in and take me out! I love traveling in the nature places of Costa Rica, but living in nature day to day keeps me going! The luckiest guy in the world!

Look through My Pura Vida Windows on life!

Terrace – My Biggest Window

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Garden Door View

This garden greets me upon every departure and arrival! 🙂

Living Room Window

A Strangler Fig Tree – shades from afternoon sun.

Kitchen Window

Laundry Room Window

Office-Guest Room Window

I planted a row of palms for privacy from street

Bedroom Window

Pot plant in front of the outside palms.

“Dormer windows” above my bed in the jungle!

Bathroom Windows

Above sink & toilet – my beautiful hill!

I am Rich in Nature!

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature. ~Socrates

For the wealth of nature surrounding me in Costa Rica, see my photo galleries: “Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA.”

See why I love it here!

¡Pura Vida!

January 21, 2020January 20, 2020

Xandari Scenery

Okay – my last post for Xandari! You may get tired of seeing photos from there, but hopefully they reveal why it is one of my favorite hotels in Costa Rica! I never tire of it and hope to keep going back! And like other great places, the friendliness and helpfulness of the people there is one great reason I may not have mentioned much! And that has nothing to do with my photography library being there – they treat everyone like royalty! I highly recommend Xandari Costa Rica anytime you are here and need a hotel near the airport or better yet for a luxurious nature experience over a longer period of time. You need several days to hike, see, photograph, and do all there is to do in this hotel!

And one of my many reasons for liking it is the beautiful scenery I have grouped here in two categories. As always, click a photo to see it larger and then you can return or take the option to see the photos in that gallery as a manual slide show. Enjoy!

Xandari Vistas

Xandari Trails & Grounds

And in case you wondered why no flowers here, I did a Xandari Flowers post last week or for those from all my trips there, see the photo gallery Xandari Flowers.

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” ~Rachel Carson

¡Pura Vida!

Xandari Costa Rica (hotel website)

For the photo report on my latest and third trip to Xandari see my CR Trips Gallery 2020 Xandari Nature Resort, Alajuela. NOW READY! And includes for the first time my visit to the Starbucks Alsacia Coffee Farm.:

Photo gallery of my latest visit to Xandari Resort

Or if researching Xandari, see photos from my 2 earlier trips in both galleries and in books:

2019 Xandari Birthday Week Celebration: GALLERY –or– BOOK

2018 July Xandari First Visit: GALLERY –or– BOOK

January 20, 2020January 19, 2020

My Xandari Villa

My third time to visit one of the most expensive hotels that I like in Costa Rica gives me a third different and bigger room/villa. I rarely show this many photos of a room, but because it is unique, I decided to this time along with the Art in My Villa, yesterday’s post.

This “room” is called a “King Junior Suite” meaning just one king size bed in multiple rooms or spaces, a large suite or villa. They call all their rooms villas because most are in separate buildings and all are large.

From the lobby and restaurant main building, you walk through the gardens on a beautiful winding, paved path to the entrance of #5 in this case:

Private Entrance Compound

A compound wall with lockable gate.

Inside wall is front terrace by front door while bath looks out into private garden.

Kitchenette by front Terrace

Bar for eating looks over living room to big terrace.

Frig, sink, coffee pot with snacks/drinks available.

Looking out to front Terrace

Living Room

From Kitchen Over to Bedroom

Bar for eating looks over living room to big terrace.

Seen from Bedroom

Valley-View Terrace

Private Valley-View Terrace

Private Valley-View Terrace, Looking over to other Villas.

Private Valley-View Terrace

Bedroom

Spacious with computer desk and entrance to big terrace. Seen from bathroom.

From Kitchen Over to Bedroom

Bathroom

20200112_144317-WEB — Shower behind blue wall overlooking private garden. Toilet in separate room behind me.

This exceptional hotel is just 20 minutes from the San Jose Airport, thus a starting and ending location for many international tourists coming here, like the people I visited with this time from England, Germany, France, Canada and the U.S.

Yet they are immersed in a tropical rainforest with hiking trails, 5 waterfalls on the river, wildlife, both wild and cultivated flowers, a small farm for the kitchen, a wonderful Spa and restaurant. Some things are worth paying more for! 🙂 I do this occasionally here while other times I “rough it” in the wilderness to be closer to nature. I like both experiences! And the way Xandari combines both luxury AND nature! Plus now they house the Charlie Doggett Photography Library! 🙂 That alone makes the visit worthwhile! 🙂

Luxury is attention to detail, originality, exclusivity and above all quality.
~Angelo Bonati

¡Pura Vida!

Xandari Costa Rica

January 19, 2020January 18, 2020

Art in My Villa

Yes, the rooms at Xandari are actually villas or little houses, even for one person! My one-bedroom villa was larger this time and as big as my house in Atenas, with smaller kitchen but everything else bigger – but I will share photos of that tomorrow.

Now, here are some cell phone shots of most of the art displayed in my villa. Most date back to another era of art when the original artist-owners, the Broudy’s (now deceased), built the place. It is kind of a mixture of “folk art,” maybe “hippie art,” woodcraft, stained glass, pottery, and some other styles I can’t label – just unique and colorful and thus, along with the immersion in nature, gives this place its own personality. And remember, this is just the art in my one room out of thirty-something rooms/villas (many bigger)! Plus art in the gardens & restaurant! 🙂 And I realize that a lot of people today will not like this art, but I find it refreshing & creative! 🙂

One Villa’s ART

In Villa #5

Front Door to Villa #5

In Villa #5

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

~Thomas Merton

Xandari Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

January 18, 2020January 18, 2020

Dragonfly & Squirrel

Dragonfly

This dragonfly and squirrel round out my photos of wildlife at Xandari, having already done posts on Birds and Butterflies. The latter giving me 4 new species! Dragonflies seem to interest everyone almost as if magical or “fairy-like” as butterflies, though the larger ones are easier to photograph than these tiny blue ones. See my separate photo galleries for Costa Rica Dragonflies and for Costa Rica Damselflies for more of this magic!

Variegated Squirrel

And finally, every man’s pest, the squirrel, in this case the Variegated Squirrel, the most common in Costa Rica. But there are other species of squirrels and I have galleries on 3 of them:

Alfaro’s or Central American Pygmy Squirrel
Red-tailed Squirrel
Variegated Squirrel

An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.

~Martin Buber

¡Pura Vida!

Xandari Costa Rica

January 17, 2020January 17, 2020

Xandari Birds

I’ve seen more birds at Xandari in the past, but 15+ is not bad for this close to the city on very windy days! No new birds for me though this second time to photograph a Rose-breasted Grosbeak shows up the “rose” color more than my earlier shots in Monteverde. And I love the way the Yellow-throated Euphonia appears to be hollering at me in the feature photo!

Otherwise most of these are pretty bad photos which I will blame on the wind and the dense dark forest, making birds most difficult to photograph. The pair of Lesson’s Motmots are more interesting than my usual solo shots of them and that blue tail maybe the best motmot tail yet for me! 🙂

My main reason for going to Xandari this time was to install my “Charlie Doggett Photo Books Library” in the lobby of the hotel for guests from around the world to enjoy and I even got to observe some guests using the books already! Plus I just love this little nature retreat with 5 waterfalls, 4 miles of nature trails, some of the best flower gardens anywhere along with spacious villas for rooms and super-good food and private jacuzzis! A very relaxing retreat again!

Xandari Birds 2020

Palm Tanager

Tropical Kingbird

Yellow-throated Euphonia

Summer Tanager Female

Yellow-throated Euphonia

Lesson’s Motmot

Black Vulture

Rose-throated Grosbeak

Gray-headed Chachalacas

Painted Bunting

Blue-gray Tanager

Rufous-naped Wren

Chestnut-sided Warbler Juvenile

Gray Cowled Woodrail

Red-billed Pigeons

Clay-colored Thrush

Xandari Nature Resort

“In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.”

― Robert Lynd

¡Pura Vida!

My Costa Rica Birds Gallery

January 15, 2020January 18, 2020

Butterflies

January is not considered the best month for butterflies like June and July but I seem to always see a lot at Xandari and this week is no exception! Only 6 species this time, BUT 4 ARE LIFERS! That is 4 new species I have not photographed before, so not bad! 🙂 Maybe it is the different time of year that gives me new species – whatever, I’m glad! I am now up to 95 butterfly species in Costa Rica! See my CR Butterfly Gallery.

I will try to do a birds at Xandari post tomorrow, my leaving day, or the following day. Just not as many as in the past, being very windy in January!

This Week’s Butterflies

Banded Peacock

Variable Tigerwing – NEW

White-dotted Crescent – NEW

Malachite

Nicaraguan Satyr – NEW

Yellow-fronted Owl – NEW

See my Costa Rica Butterfly Gallery

Butterflies are God’s confetti, thrown upon the Earth in celebration of His love. – K. D’Angelo

¡Pura Vida!

Xandari Costa Rica

January 14, 2020January 14, 2020

My Photos in an Art Gallery

One reason I was happy that Xandari would house my library of Photo Books is that the entire hotel is an art gallery with art literally everywhere, inside and outside. It was built by an Artist/Architect and his wife an Art Teacher. In another post I will display the art in my villa this time – different every visit!

The above stained glass window is in the reading room of the lobby and my photo books are on a book shelf at the entrance to that reading room. In earlier Tennessee days I tried to sell photos at art fairs calling them “Nature as Art” which fits this arty nature retreat very well. I’m happy to be a part of Xandari!

Today was my very full day with an early morning birding hike with excellent guide Jose and a lovely couple from England, followed by breakfast and a tour of the only Starbucks-owned coffee farm in the world which I will tell you more about later, then an afternoon late lunch, relaxation massage, a desert at dinner time and I’m ready for bed! With lots of photos to process tomorrow, my last full day here.

¡Pura Vida!

Xandari 2018-Enchanted by Nature — Just one of 29 books in the library!

Brilliant Book cover — And the other one about Xandari! Plus all of my other Costa Rica photo books!

To see all of my Costa Rica Photo books, go to My Bookstore at Blurb where you can preview any of the books for free electronically! Best if viewed in full screen mode of course! 🙂

January 13, 2020

Better Sunsets Tonight

If I keep trying maybe I will get a really good one on one of my 4 nights here! 🙂

When I admire the wonders of a sunset . . . my soul expands in the worship of the creator. ~Mahatma Gandhi

¡Pura Vida!

January 13, 2020January 13, 2020

Xandari Flowers

Here are 25 works of art found as both wildflowers on the trails and cultivated flowers in the gardens around Xandari. Because my previous trips were here at different times of the year my gallery of Xandari Flowers has many other kinds than these.

“Every flower blooms in its own time.”

– Ken Petti

¡Pura Vida!