Before going to breakfast, I step out on my deck and catch this toucan in a nearby tree.
A Costa Rica Merry Christmas! or ¡Feliz Navidad!
See this TRIP GALLERY 2018 December Si Como No.
Christmas Morning Visitor
Good Night from a Seaside Rainforest
The sunsets from my room are worth every penny of the trip here! Every night is absolutely beautiful!
“Harry looked down and saw deep green mountains and lakes, coppery in the sunset.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Yes, just a cellphone camera, as with all of my sunset shots.
See this TRIP GALLERY 2018 December Si Como No.
Night Hike
This was last night’s hike at Si Como No Greentique Wildlife Refuge and as with all night hikes, photography was difficult and our conscientious guide would not let us shine lights on sleeping birds or a couple of other animals. I would loved to have gotten a photo of the sleeping Kingfisher and the sleeping Gray-necked Wood Rail. We saw but could not photo a sloth and a Kinkajou (too high in tree & moving). None of these pix are particularly good, but they give an idea of what you see on night hikes all over Costa Rica. Though I think my Red-eyed Tree Frog, Glass Frog, & Bullfrog are pretty good. There were also a lot of insects, especially spiders & scorpions of which I got no useable photos.
Night Hike Slideshow
“I often think that the night is more alive
and more richly colored than the day.”
~Vincent Van Gogh
¡Pura Vida!
See this TRIP GALLERY 2018 December Si Como No.
Manuel Antonio National Park Tour
Yesterday, 23rd, was a full day with tour of the park and the night hike here at hotel wildlife refuge – thus I did not get photos all processed until today, the 24th, the anniversary of me living in Costa Rica four years now.
I think I have said this before in the blog, but I will repeat that Manuel Antonio National Park is the most visited of all 28 or so national parks in Costa Rica and thus generally my least favorite because it is “loved to death” with too many people (think Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the states with the Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge mess). My last time here was in 2015 with Kevin Hunter and the park tour was different in that we saw some different animals and probably had a better guide who grew up in the area. We saw squirrel monkeys then which we did not this time nor the parrot snake I photographed on that visit, but otherwise similar. And this time we went to all three beaches in the park, while only going to the one main beach last time.
And this time there are now more trails and a really nice series of bridges or elevated walkways through the mangrove swamp, handicap accessible with braille signs! Though behind the U.S. in handicap accessibility, Costa Rica is moving fast in that direction!
I go mainly for the wildlife, so that is the main slideshow below, but many people come here for the three different beaches inside the park and pay the $16 admission just to spend the day on one of the beaches, so a shot of each of the three beaches is in the second slideshow. Overall, Manuel Antonio is just too “touristy” for me and I have no desire to return here. The hotel with its own wildlife refuge is nice and I love the views from the hillside, but it too is rather “touristy” and overpriced, so I don’t see myself returning here either. But glad I’ve had all these experiences! The Costa Rica tourists see.
Manuel Antonio Wildlife
Beaches of Manuel Antonio
“Adventure is worthwhile.”
-Aesop
See this TRIP GALLERY 2018 December Si Como No.
Sunset from Room
I just had to make a second post tonight with this sunset from the deck of my room. Even though I think the room is overpriced, I really like having vistas like this from my room. 🙂
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”
― Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds
See this TRIP GALLERY 2018 December Si Como No.
Butterflies
On the hotel property’s “Wildlife Refuge” or nature trail is a “Butterfly Garden” like you find all over Costa Rica, a big, high ceiling cage with lots of flowering plants and continuously hatching butterflies. Here’s some of the ones I saw there today in a simple little slideshow. I do not have my butterfly book with me, meaning I could have mis-labeled one or two and there is one I have no idea of the name and there was no attendant to help me label them. Most I already knew from all I have photographed all over Costa Rica. Enjoy what Robert Frost calls “Flying Flowers!”
Today’s Butterflies
“Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
See all my butterflies in my Costa Rica Butterfly Gallery
See this TRIP GALLERY 2018 December Si Como No.
Stress to Tranquility
¡Tranquilo! is a favorite Spanish word in Costa Rica and is used in many ways to encourage or recognize tranquility and the easy-going ways here (except in the big city). My day started with a little bit of stress (in the big city) but ended very tranquil! (in a forest)
A different driver than expected picked me up early today which was good because of pre-Christmas traffic, but when I got to the airport the new girl at the counter told me my flight had been cancelled. What?! (Feel the stress building? She did.) But fortunately the supervisor she called over was exceptionally kind and helpful and not only got me on another flight but gave me a discount! Then I go and wait and wait for the plane which was 40 minutes late leaving with a driver waiting on me in Quepos. And being a Tico, he was not upset that the plane was late. ¡Pura Vida! Then when I got to my expensive hotel they could not schedule all the tours I wanted for various reasons (grrrr), but fortunately . . .
The Spa had space for one more person this afternoon and I got my “Relaxation Massage” and then went to a lovely dinner with monkeys entertaining and the nice sunset beside the building my room is in, with an ocean view by the way! 🙂
Phone Shots Today
All’s well that ends well! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
See this TRIP GALLERY 2018 December Si Como No.
Sun Setting on 2018 & My Celebration Begins!
The above photo is one of my sunsets at Manuel Antonio National Park in 2015, my first year here! I go back to celebrate 4 years living here! Photographing new birds and other animals, walking forest trails and one of the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica, getting one or more relaxation massages, and eating gourmet food every day for a week as I create more Costa Rica Nature Photos! That is my kind of Christmas Celebration and I anticipate a fabulous week! Here’s one of the resort’s several videos:
Or browse the Si Como No Website — This is living! 🙂
Retired in Costa Rica 4 Years Christmas Celebration
Starts Tomorrow, 21 December 2018
¡Pura Vida!
Christmas in Costa Rica
For you North Americans to get an idea of how much Costa Rica is into Christmas, take a look at this TV Ad last Christmas for “MoviStar” which is a TV-Internet-Phone company selling subscriptions. I think it is very entertaining and typical of Christmas mania here in Costa Rica. By far the biggest holiday of the year in Costa Rica! And also a time to go to the beach! Go figure! 🙂
Or try out 5 Spanish Christmas Songs that Are Not “Feliz Navidad.”
¡Feliz Navidad!
Website/Gallery Adds
For anyone interested in improved details, that is what I have been doing for a couple of weeks and for my stay-home day today:
BIRD GALLERIES
In all of the BIRD galleries (1 for each country) I have now arranged the birds by families in the order found in that country’s field guide, which is a big improvement for serious birders! In the case of a couple of countries that I had no good guidebook for, I used the “official” list for that country on Wikipedia which is arranged by families like the field guides.- Folder with multiple galleries — And in Costa Rica and eventually in other countries with a lot of birds, that gallery becomes a “folder” with a sub-gallery for each bird, giving you multiple photos or different views of that species, male & female, front & back, and often with activity like eating, flying. This is particularly important for my Costa Rica birds now that I have 294 species which is too many photos for one gallery! Yet I see the need for multiple shots of many birds.
- And I realize that most people don’t really care about this, but a few might and it is more helpful to me. 🙂
TRAVEL PAGES & GALLERIES – MEXICO ADDED
I announced earlier that I was starting my website TRAVEL pages with AFRICA as the first section and thus a new Pre-Costa Rica TRAVELS Photo Gallery inside my big gallery as I start to move all my old photos from Pbase.com to this new gallery on Smugmug.com. All of my photos from multiple trips to 4 African countries are in the gallery and I will soon be adding more stories beyond the one already online about Gambia. The beginning pages (with links to photo galleries):
- For some reason I chose MEXICO to be second and I now have all my photos from 6 different trips to Mexico in the Pre-Costa Rica TRAVELS Photo Gallery. Like my Costa Rica TRIPS gallery they are arranged chronologically with most recent trips on top. That means that Africa & Mexico trips and soon many others will be mixed together as they are arranged by dates. But to focus on one country, go to my TRAVEL Page and in this case the MEXICO sub-page where eventually there will be links to lots of stories along with the links to photos. Or to go to the photos of a specific Mexico trip now, click below:
This is just the beginning of how I will share photos and stories about my exciting life BEFORE COSTA RICA! More is coming – It’s a Wonderful Life! 🙂 And as I finish writing I hear from across my little valley a children’s choir singing beautiful Christmas music in Spanish. What a delight! 🙂
Merry Christmas!
¡Feliz Navidad!