Just a few of the beautiful fruits and flowers blooming all over the hotel grounds at Cristal Ballena Hotel with 2 shots made on the river trip in same area.
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“Almost every person, from childhood, has been touched by the untamed beauty of wildflowers.” ~Lady Bird Johnson
Though butterfly season is past its prime, there were quite a few at the Cristal Ballena Hotel in Uvita last week. Here’s some I was able to capture photos of (many I couldn’t).
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“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
Here are photos of 20 species of birds I photographed around the grounds of Cristal Ballena Hotel, about a third of them just outside my room! It is a good birding hotel! I actually photographed more species here than on the Mangrove Boat Tour! 🙂 And I will record all of them on my eBird page, even though I got no new species this trip – but I did get several better photos of some species which is always another goal! Enjoy and as always CLICK image to enlarge or start a slideshow.
Wednesday of my visit to Uvita I took a taxi back close to the Palmar Sur Airport I flew into for the Mangrove Boat Tour on Rio Sierpe – my sixth place to do a Mangrove or River Tour in Costa Rica which always provides a lot of birds and other wildlife to photograph. This one did not disappoint! (Not my best, but very good!)
A Couple of Coincidences
The big surprise for my solo boat tour with a captain and guide was that Carlos Gonzales was the guide – the same guide I had in Drake Bay at Aguila de Osa Hotel in 2017. He is one of the few “older” guides I’ve had in Costa Rica with the majority looking like they are fresh out of college. Carlos is 71.
Plus the funny coincidence was that the boat captain was also named Carlos and my name in Spanish is Carlos! 🙂 Tres Carloses!
Birds
Other Wildlife
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River Scenes
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“Oh, Eeyore, you are wet!” said Piglet, feeling him. Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to Piglet what happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time.”
― A. A. Milne
An oxymoron? Maybe, because they do sleep about 80% of their time and for why you will have to read about sloths on Wikipedia – the animal, not the cardinal sin! 🙂 The one sleeping in a tree near my room at Cristal Ballena Hotel near Uvita, Costa Rica decided to move around about the time I went out to check on him and here’s a portfolio of his activity. 🙂 Click image to enlarge or start slide show:
Wow! Nothing like it anywhere! The featured photo above is the Upper Nauyaca Falls and the one below is the Lower Nauyaca Falls & Swim Hole with my new friends from Portugal in the water before the crowds arrived.
Below is a brief slide show of people in the swim hole and the truck ride up the mountain dirt road to the falls which is alone is quite an experience while others road horses or walked uphill for an hour and a half. Truck for me! 🙂
“Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.”
–Sarah Kay
NOTE: We saw most of our whales somewhere near this rock which they seem to like! The name is because of their presence and not its shape. Here every July-October.
Made Possible by the . . .
I just keep loving this country more every day! 🙂
And I’m way behind on reporting events and photos from this trip with Tuesday at the hotel experiencing and photographing a moving sloth, 4 crested guans, a flock of toucans and other birds followed by today’s mangrove boat trip on the Rio Sierpe with an unbelievable collection of photos I’m still sorting. Another great day in paradise with a birding guide tomorrow on the hotel property and Friday the Nauyaca Waterfall. Never a dull moment when you are “Retired in Costa Rica!”
¡Pura Vida!
And continued thanks to Cristal Ballena Hotelfor making all of these exciting tours possible! A great place to stay when in Uvita!