Blog

Posted on

Construction Begins on New Park

Last week they finally began the construction of the new remodeled Central Park Atenas with the shocking removal of several palm trees in the central circle which will be enlarged and a Kiosko built – that’s a Band Shell or Gazebo for most Americans. After the structure is built, new trees will be added, then they will work out through the four quadrants with new sidewalks, benches, recreational activities, gardens, etc.

Across the street from the park on city property in front of the University Extension Building (old high school) there is a presentation of 4 large signs depicting the designs for the remodeled park. See the photo gallery below for those signs and a couple of shots I made of the construction area from a distance.  Or they have a Facebook Page presenting the remodeling for more drawings and a slideshow.

Remodeling Atenas Central Park

Click any image to see enlarged and to begin slide show of larger images.

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

About Birding Guides in Costa Rica

I have never had a bad guide at any of the lodges or national parks I visit though of course some are better than others. Kevin at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge last week was great and helped me get photos of 52 species with 10 lifers! That is amazing and one of my best trips! One of the best I have ever had was my first and thus far only female birding guide while on an earlier visit to Rancho Naturalista, Mercedes “Meche” Alpizar who I think is now a freelance guide and has been honored by the other guides for finding the most birds one year.  She is the one who found the Sunbittern for me to photograph, so I am always thankful to Meche!

Check out her Facebook Page to get an idea of things she is doing.  That’s her new FB Profile Picture I copied here just in case you think all the birders in Costa Rica are rough and dirty boys or old men!   🙂

 

And maybe a more typical guide is the young 20ish David Mora Vargas I had at Danta Corcovado recently. He is high energy and also has an interesting Facebook Page!  

I generally cut back on using Facebook because of all the ugly, angry arguing from the states, but I enjoy using it to keep up with some of my young Tico friends like Meche and David!

Guide Training

All guides have completed the Costa Rica Institute of Tourism’s training course and been certified as a guide. They are trained at either a public university or a private school and have basic skills in at least one other language than Spanish, though most lodges and tour companies require English. I had trouble finding information about their training online, but here’s a tiny bit:

Tourist Guide Requirements

Inside EcoTeach Guide Training

A Private Guide Training (Lapas Rio) Overview – 6 days for $1,760 which is too expensive for most Ticos – You can see the itinerary here.

 

 “Do not follow where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Posted on

Copyright? What does that mean?

The copyright laws are probably broken against Disney more than anyone here. They freely advertise with Disney costumes like this, Disney characters painted on signs, in store windows, etc. One sign painter even advertised that he did “Disney-like Signs.”  🙂

This Mickey Mouse was walking around Central Park Alajuela the other day talking to people in Spanish about something – but I doubt it was about Disney World or a Disney movie!

Posted on

Perfect ending of a perfect day!

This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. 

~Psalm 118:24 Living Bible

Photo above of sunset on Calle Barroeta, Atenas, Costa Rica tonight just before dinner with the Maizan’s. Below are some shots with Paul & Keri Maizan, their daughter Kara and her nanny at their vacation rental house in Atenas. We had a very nice Tico Dinner prepared by their chef of the evening Guillermo. A not-touristy vacation in Atenas!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Esquinas Rainforest THE BOOK!

Preview my latest photo book about my latest trip in Costa Rica free online. Preview is best seen in full screen mode for bigger photos. Click below:

Esquinas Rainforest Lodge – “The Wind in the Trees”

The subtitle comes from a quote of Thomas Merton:

Nothing has ever been said about God that hasn’t already been said better by the wind in the trees.

Posted on

DiosArte

Translation of the above art:  “Give Jesus more room in your life.”   And my post title “DiosArte” is simply Spanish for “GodArt.”

My young friend Jason Quesada liked this FB page (DiosArte) and I liked the interesting and youthful art made by a Catholic young person here. Creativity is used in many ways in Costa Rica! Check out his colorful Facebook Page:

DiosArte

 

 

¡Pura Vida! 

Posted on

Back to My Garden Birds

Montezuma Oropendola in my garden

Another busy day today with Spanish Class here and minor surgery in Alajuela, but always time to photo a bird in my garden!  🙂   The above photo is of a Montezuma Oropendola sitting in my Guarumo or Cecropia Tree – my favorite place to watch birds, but unfortunately the light (for photos) is not good there, especially in the morning. They nest in our neighborhood visiting occasionally. And the bird below in my Yellow Bell Tree is a Melodious Blackbird.  And I saw a squirrel cuckoo this morning, but didn’t get a shot. 

Minor surgery? My dermatologist just went a little deeper on a growth removal for a biopsy. Only two stitches. If it turns out to be cancer, he will go even deeper next time to make sure he gets it all. An almost routine thing for us older people!  🙂  Otherwise I’m very healthy after a great week in a rainforest.

Tomorrow I have breakfast with the niece of David & Lynne Wells (Nashville friends) and her husband, child & nanny. They’ve rented a gorgeous house with an infinity pool for a week here in Atenas and using my driver, Walter, to take them to a few sights (volcano, waterfalls, beach & fishing) on top of resting here with possibly the best vista in Atenas. A great vacation plan!   🙂

Melodious Blackbird in my garden

 

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Home from Maybe Best Birding Trip Yet

I am tempted to declare Esquinas Rainforest Lodge my best birding location yet! In 6 days I photographed 50+ species of birds with 12 of them first timers for me or “lifers” for Costa Rica with two seen before in other Panama.  The Lodge name link above is to their lodge website. Or check out others’ reviews on TripAdvisor.

I highly recommend it! The lodging, food and services were all first class while immersed in a rainforest. You know that I have a lot of places I like all over Costa Rica, but this new one for me just moved near the top of my list! And realize that I was here during the wettest month of the year for them and still had a great experience! And it may have helped that I was the only guest there this week and had a personal birding guide!  Plus a personal chef and maid!   🙂  Hey! This is living! Retired in Costa Rica!

My Trip Gallery is Posted!

See the birds, animals, flowers, lodge and Golfito in my gallery for this trip at   2018 Esquinas Rainforest Lodge Visit.  Photos are the reason I make these trips and this collection is the result of this trip. A photo book will be coming soon! If no one else, the host lodges all love my photo books as I send one to each of them.

My Birds This Trip

Here are the birds I saw and photographed with the “lifers” or ones seen for the first time in boldface type. Presented in the order of the lodge’s bird list which is a little different from the Field Guide:

  • Great Curassow
  • Brown Booby  (1st in CR, got some in Panama in June)
  • Brown Pelican
  • Neotropic Cormorant
  • Magnificent Frigatebird
  • Little Blue Heron
  • Great Egret
  • Cattle Egret
  • Snowy Egret
  • Green Heron
  • Tricolored Heron
  • Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
  • Roseate Spoonbill
  • White Ibis
  • Green Ibis
  • Osprey
  • Gray-cowled Wood-Rail  (formerly Gray-necked Wood-Rail)
  • Willet
  • Spotted Sandpiper
  • Ruddy Turnstone
  • Laughing Gull
  • Short-billed Pigeon
  • White-tipped Dove
  • Gray-chested Dove
  • Squirrel Cuckoo
  • Long-billed Hermit
  • Band-tailed Barbthroat
  • Purple-crowned Fairy
  • Charming Hummingbird
  • Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
  • Violet-headed Hummingbird
  • Ringed Kingfisher
  • Green Kingfisher
  • American Pygmy Kingfisher  (1st in CR, have photo from Panama)
  • Fiery-billed Aracari
  • Wedge-billed Woodcreeper
  • Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet
  • Ochre-bellied Flycatcher
  • Least Flycatcher
  • Great Kiskadee
  • Gray-capped Flycatcher
  • Tropical Kingbird
  • Orange-collared Manakin
  • Gray-breasted Martin
  • Clay-colored Thrush
  • Prothonotary Warbler
  • Bananaquit
  • Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager (endemic to this area)
  • Scarlet-rumped Tanager (formerly Cherrie’s Tanager)
  • Bay-headed Tanager
  • Green Honeycreeper
  • Variable Seedeater
  • Orange-billed Sparrow
  • Scarlet-rumped Cacique
  • Spot-crowned Euphonia

And with many of these I saw both male & female which can be so different it is like another species!  🙂

Spot-crowned Euphonia female eating a berry. Note her tongue.

¡Pura Vida!

 

Posted on

More Than Birds This Morning!

The slideshow photos are in no particular order, just shots from my walk around the campus this morning with no rain! And almost no birds! There were a lot more birds on the rainy days! And now at about 3 in the afternoon the rain is starting for the first time today, so maybe the birds will return. Ahhhh! I just saw two Euphonias but not where I could photograph. Tonight is my last night here and near the end of the most wonderful food that someone else prepares for me. Its been a great week!

Morning Walk Photo Slideshow

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

“The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life and activity; it affords protection to all beings.”
~Buddhist Sutra

 

And I am just now starting the “trip gallery” for this trip at 2018 Esquinas Rainforest Lodge  —  but soon that will be the place to see all my best photos from this week. I have gotten 10 new “lifers” or first-time seen birds this week! That is incredible! Possibly more than on any other trip at least recently.

Posted on

Birds today at the Lodge

All of these birds were photographed in front of my cabin or alongside the main building terrace. It is amazing the wide variety of birds living here!

Birds Seen in One Day at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A Beautiful Rainforest Retreat for Birds & People!

Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica

 

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.

~Robert Louis Stevenson