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A Golden Leaf

Front Side

Back Side

I picked up this leaf along the side of the road walking home from the bus stop after a trip to Alajuela. It just attracted me, and I felt the need to photograph it with more than my cellphone. (I know, “Get a life Charlie.”) Living slow in Costa Rica, I now pause to “smell the roses” or enjoy the simple beauty of a leaf, its design, shape, colors (front & back totally different), textures, and what was simply pleasing to me. 
After getting it home and photographing it, I gave to my artist neighbor Anthony who painted the back side (lighter color) and pressed it on art paper to use as part of the background for one of his bird paintings. Neat, huh? Now I will pay more attention to leaves, for awhile anyway. 
For more leaves, shot in Tennessee, see my older Closeups gallery, scrolling down
Or if you want a more spiritual application, see my Gambia Journal Miracle Leaf Stories. 

For more leaves in Costa Rica browse through the tree and flower photos in my Flora & Forests gallery with a lot more of the cool leaves here in Costa Rica! It is a nature lover’s paradise in Costa Rica and my today’s find of a “golden leaf” is just a tiny sample of the simple pleasures I find here.

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Costa Rica Driver License Obtained

My Costa Rica Driver License or Licencia de Conducir.
Slightly out-of-focus and my thumb over it to make it not copy-able.
Security you know!

Before I got residency I could drive a rent car with my Tennessee Driver License IF I had a current Visa in my U.S. Passport. The same is true now that I am a legal resident, but the Visa has to be renewed every 90 days! That means spending a lot of money and leaving the country. To get a Costa Rica Driver License you have to:

  1. Have a Cedula or a legal residency card with what amounts to a national ID number
  2. Your last Visa has to have expired
  3. Go to the San Jose office for your first driver license (renewals are okay at several regional ones but not the first one)
  4. Have a current legal driver license from any other country OR take a written test in español and a driving test. If using another license, you must bring two copies of the front and back.
  5. Bring two photo copies of your cedula front and back and your passport main page and page with last visa.
  6. If you haven’t had a special physical for a driver license before coming, you will have to go outside to one of several doctor offices and pay $20 for this. I got mine in advance from my local primary care doctor and had the needed number called a Código Dictamen.
  7. I hired a driver to take me and serve as translator if needed (not needed)
  8. We spent 4.5 hours in a complex of buildings for transportation department and a bank next door. All federal fees are paid at banks here. The license itself is only 5,000 colones or $10.
  9. In the transportation office I waited in long lines in four different places on two floors to get all the proper paperwork approved and typed into the computer system, then after paying at bank returned to have my photo made, finger print, electronic signature and license printed on the spot. Each window or office did their job quickly, but the long time was because of very long lines at each place, 4.5 hours! There were hundreds of people waiting! Most of the people in my lines for people with other country licenses were from other Latin countries, though I was mostly between a man from Spain and another from the Netherlands. And I saw lots of Asians. The world is getting smaller and Costa Rica is quite international!
It helps to take a local person with you who knows the system! I left with a driver license that is good for 3 years. For my renewal I can go to Alajuela or San Ramon, closer and hopefully faster. And oh yes, I have already scheduled a rent car for one day next week and 6 days over Christmas. 🙂
As far as I know, this is the last government document I need to get. From now on it is just renewals. Next week I see a specialist in the government healthcare system, CAJA, but really not a big deal, just my first time to do it and I only waited a month. Not bad for a very busy system! 
¡Pura Vida!

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Becoming a Part of the Silence

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

― Robert Lynd

By Charlie Doggett

My latest book is nearly 350 photos of bird, mostly in Costa Rica, but also from our surrounding countries.

Click book image to Blurb website, then click the image there to “preview” electronically.
This one has to be ordered through Amazon.com – trying something new.

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Arbolitos de Pajaros

My “Little Christmas Tree” or Arbolitos de Navidad is actually a “Little Tree of Birds” or Arbolitos de Pajaros.  Here is a so-so cell-phone photo of the tree now that I have received the additional bird ornaments I ordered from Guatemala and Peru. I earlier showed you 4 of the ornaments I got here in Costa Rica and called them Animales Fantasticos. Click to see them again. Today I will show some of the ornaments made of gourds from both Guatemala and Peru. More close-ups later.

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Its a Jungle Out There!

From my kitchen looking across the DR/LR and terrace at another rain.
Our rainiest rainy season in years has everything growing. 

Step out my back door and the flower garden is 6-7 feet tall!

And the screen of little palms outside my office/guest room is growing too! 

Usually by December the “Dry Season” or our summer has begun, but it is raining again today and forecasts are for more. Its a good thing that I love the jungle!  🙂

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My New Toy: Macro Lens

Not the expensive one, just a simple Canon 100mm zoom, 1:28, Image Stabilizer (for hand-held) and auto focus. Here’s a few flowers with it and MY VERY FIRST HIBISCUS in my garden! I only recently got the plant which is slow-growing, but here’s the first bloom!

 

Hibiscus
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Once de Abril  (haven’t found an English name yet)
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Heliconia
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Plumbago
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Red Ginger
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Porter Weed
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

I think I did okay on close-ups of flowers before with a telephoto lens from a distance, but this is suppose to be better! It has the capability of a 1:1 ratio if I get close enough. Insects will be more difficult because they scare off, so I’ll probably continue with my 300 mm for them. Though, note the little tiny ant on the Porter Weed above.  🙂 And it is so nice having flowers blooming year around!

My Flora & Forests photo gallery

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Trogon During Class

Gartered Trogon
in the Cecropia Tree beside my terrace
during Spanish Class Tuesday morning at my house.
Quick cell phone shot & he flew away.
I’ve traveled many miles to get a photo of this guy
and he finally comes to me when I’m without good camera.
🙂
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Do all the good you can.

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”       ~John Wesley

Children playing in Havana, Cuba
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No Official “Thanksgiving” BUT “Black Friday” Everywhere!

Thanksgiving Day is a unique American Holiday only, not here, so the banks are open here today and there are no parades or football games! BUT, tomorrow is a huge day here as Black Friday or Viernes Negro as possibly the biggest shopping day of the year here too! The malls are so crowded I wouldn’t think of going tomorrow! Even for the big sales! Not even for Star Wars which I will see next week. 🙂

We have a neighborhood chef now who prepares very good dinners to be picked up at his house Monday to Friday and today he prepared a traditional turkey & dressing dinner which I enjoyed with my neighbor Anthony along with a cranberry salad and pumpkin pie Anthony had prepared. I’m stuffed and ready to take a nap!

Our Thanksgiving turkey dinners came in decorated bags,
here on plates at Anthony’s house ready for us to eat. 

And at my Spanish Class this morning we joined with another class for coffee and homemade goodies, language games, and each of us presented what we are thankful for, en español of course! Here is my paragraph as presented this morning: 

Gracias a Dios
Doy gracias por una vida lenta y tranquila en Costa Rica. ¡También para una casa muy agradable y propietario excelente! Y para la gente amable de Atenas y muchos buenos amigos. Y muchos hermosos pájaros y mariposas.

¡Y oh sí! ¡Para el mejor clima del mundo!   J  Cuando me mudé aquí, yo era el único en Atenas que lo creía.
The second paragraph is kind of a joke about the slogan Atenas uses everywhere, saying “Atenas – The best weather in the world” which most locals don’t believe and often joke about. But I still sorta believe it! And definitely thankful for the weather here!
And oh yes, Hurricane Otto passed north of us with only a little more rain this morning and no major winds, so that “best weather” town of Atenas still is!  🙂 We had no flooding, power loss, trees down, evacuations, or anythingf else that was going on in the path. Fortunate again! ¡Gracias a Dios!
Read about it in La Nacion. 
¡Pura Vida!