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Funny Fungi

The feature photo is a “Pixie Cup Fungus” (link to Wikipedia), the second time I have seen this species (on the Cativo Jungle Waterfall Trail) with the other time being in Carara National Park near Tarcoles & Jaco in 2015, the closest national park to where I live in Atenas. The many other fungi I saw at Playa Cativo were the ones you usually see on trees and dead trees or stumps. I saw no “toad stools” or common mushrooms this trip like usual.

Pixi Cup Fungus at Playa Cativo Lodge, Golfo Dulce, Piedras Blancas NP, Costa Rica

Plus three more fungi photos from Playa Cativo . . .

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“How beautiful the leaves grow old.”

“How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.”

~John Burroughs
“How beautiful . . . “

I have already done one post on dead leaves, titled: Beauty in Death about the final days of a Heliconia leaf in my garden with one of my favorite photos. Then the above quote of John Burroughs and some cool dead leaves at Playa Cativo Lodge motivated me to move on with another dead leaf post! 🙂

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Flowers at Playa Cativo

Everywhere I go in Costa Rica there are many beautiful flowers! Playa Cativo on Golfo Dulce near Golfito is no exception. Here is a collection of my flower photos from Cativo without comments. One single photo for the emailed post and then a gallery of favorites . . .

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Inside a Coastal Rainforest

I included “coastal” because it is a little different from an inland rainforest like I was in in May at Chachagua Rainforest Lodge – both with lots of rain and streams & ponds but the ocean front has more severe weather and a global warming rising ocean that is washing away the land and the trees one row at a time as shown in one of these photos. Further into the forest is dark and thicker trees and potentially more dangerous wildlife. I did not go too far! 🙂

I am still amazed every time I see a big tree with big roots.

Nine more photos follow . . .

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Reptiles & Crabs

A strange combination! The last of my wildlife photos from Playa Cativo Lodge with Landscapes, Leaves and Flowers coming next! 🙂

American Crocodile, Playa Cativo Lodge, Golfo Dulce & Parque Nacional Piedras Blancas, Costa Rica.

And several more photos . . .

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Cativo’s Other Wildlife

My nature experiences in a Playa Cativo Lodge this past week did include more than the birds & butterflies that I love to photograph! Here’s a few that I was able to “catch” in the camera and of course the biggies like Jaguar and Puma are there but seldom seen by us humans, even on night hikes! 🙂

DISCLAIMER/POSTPONEMENT: I did this post last night and couldn’t finish processing my photo-folders of Crabs and of Reptiles that I intended to include here, so now those two categories will come later in a separate post. 🙂

Mantled Howler Monkey, Playa Cativo Lodge, Golfo Dulce & Piedras Blancas NP

And more . . .

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Cativo Butterflies

Butterflies often liven a garden or forest as much as birds and that was pretty much true visually at Playa Cativo Lodge this week and of course also as usual, they were difficult to photograph! There were probably more than twice this many flitting about, impossible to photograph, but here’s 14 I managed to “capture,” even if not all very good photos. 🙂 And I’m including 2 cool moths from my cabin but could not capture the one Dragonfly I saw. I’m not as fast with the camera as I used be! 🙂

Here’s one to go in the emailed version of the post and the rest will follow in the continued post online . . .

Ash Sphinx Moth on a curtain in my cabin.
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My Radiation Treatment Testimony

Siglo XXI Radioterapia, the private clinic that treated me post-cancer surgery asked if they could interview me on camera as a way of helping future patients understand a little more of what they will go through. So I did and it is now on YouTube with me speaking in English and of course they added Spanish Subtitles. I’m always embarrassed to see and hear myself on a video, but if it helps even one other patient face the treatment, then more power to them! 🙂

My Cancer Treatment Testimonial Video for Siglo XXI.

¡Pura Vida!

And that book in the feature photo can be previewed free at True Grit in my bookstore.

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Departing the Rainforest

First — awakening to the singing birds and howler monkeys as I looked up at my cabin’s vaulted wood ceiling . . .

. . . then a final beachside walk before a hearty breakfast and . . .

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