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Just 2 minutes, showing the river and waterfall I’m visiting next Saturday. This video is on a competitor lodge’s website, not the one I’m staying in. Interesting & in español!
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| Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, South Caribbean Coast, Costa Rica |
Popular or “good” hotels and lodges stay booked sometimes up to a year ahead, so even though I live in Costa Rica, I too have to plan ahead even in the “off season” which most say includes September. Though I have also read that the best time to visit the Caribbean Coast and its year-a-round rainy season is August and September when they have the lowest amount of rain all year. Thus my last two trips to the Caribe have been in either August or September and I’m staying with that plan for this year too. Both of the other times I studied hotels and wanted the Banana Azul Adults Only Hotel and they had no vacancy. Well, this year I planned far enough ahead and got in! And don’t let the adults thing confuse you. Not XX adult, just peace & quiet adult. Most hotels in CR emphasize families and lots of families come! And often dozens of kids dominate the space and the sound waves. So this will be interesting! And maybe quiet, though they do allow age 16 and older. 🙂
They have already, within 2 hours, put me in contact with a local guide service that will take me to some new and different birding locations not seen last year. So I’m hoping for more new species! The Caribbean side of CR is not as popular as the Pacific beaches, with fewer tourists, smaller hotels, and a much quieter, calmer beach and jungle to explore. My kind of place! And snorkeling is better but not surfing.
And I have my public bus schedule printed out already. I will be traveling to three of my next four locations by public bus, really cheap as a senior adult. And even my small plane trip to Drake Bay is cheaper than a rent car. Even though I now have a CR Driver License, I will rarely rent a car. And I’m so glad I did not buy a car! You can literally go anywhere in the country on a bus! And for my local friends or others who may want to see Costa Rica by bus, you need to know about this website for bus schedules in English: http://thebusschedule.com/EN/cr/ or “Travel Planner” as they call it. Cool! Easy! You pay before boarding bus. Of course it helps to know a little Spanish, since most drivers speak little or no English, but they are exceptionally helpful and will do everything possible to get you to your destination. Lots of brave foreign travelers tour the country by bus, especially young singles and us old singles! 🙂
My birding trips scheduled for balance of 2017 now:
MARCH: Tenorio Volcano National Park with Celeste Falls and visit to Caño Negro, Rio Frio.
MAY: Drake Bay and Corcovado National Park Rainforest + island visit for snorkeling
JULY: Return visit to Rancho Naturalista near Turrialba Volcano, east of Cartago.
SEPTEMBER: Puerto Viejo on the South Caribbean Coast and rainforests.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER: Not planned yet. I’m debating with myself about either returning to Tortuguero (North Caribbean) or exploring some new places on the Nicoya Peninsula or another National Park southwest of Cartago, called Tapanti. So much to see and do!
A lot of trips? Yeah! Isn’t that what retirement is suppose to be? A continuous vacation! 🙂
KIND OF FUNNY: Most of you know that I have geckos living in all of my rooms now as my free pest control service – eating virtually all of my insects! I rarely play a CD but tonight I played the one I have of a Costa Rica Rainforest sounds with birds, insects, waterfalls, etc. It really excited the geckos! 🙂
See all my Costa Rica Photo Galleries at:
Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA
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| I am not sure, but maybe the Archangel San Rafael, Patron Saint of Atenas & maybe they added the fish, a pitcher of oil, and the two geese. Need research! |
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| He looks out over the Atenas Central Market Courtyard. An enclosed circle of indoor shops or vendors surrounds the courtyard. Straight ahead behind the big tree and two rows of vendors is the bus station. The last row of vendors are all places to eat on bar stools. Most called sodas where you can eat a meal for $2. |
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| Mural on Central Market Wall |
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| Mural on Central Market Wall |
See my photo gallery of Public Art & Graffiti in Atenas
Or the general gallery on Atenas, or Walking in Atenas (flowers),
Or the People & Fiestas of Atenas
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| Construction has begun in a large vacant lot behind one high school. And they cut down at least 8 large trees! Sob, sob! Sign enlsrged below. Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Basically a Membership Health Club focused on Triathlon Athletes It appears to be mainly a large swimming pool and track for running and bicycles. Atenas, Costa Rica |
CULTURAL RAMBLING:
We are slowly becoming more than a sleepy little farm town, good or bad. At least there are no typical U.S. fast food places yet! Welllll . . . Atenas does have a POPS Ice Cream Parlor which is owned by Pops Costa Rica, but it is something like a franchise from General Mills USA and modeled after the Pops Ice Cream Parlors in Virginia, but locally owned like the franchised McDonald’s in the bigger cities (and tourist towns) of Costa Rica.
My observation is that Fried Chicken and Ice Cream are possibly the two top comfort foods in Costa Rica and it interested me to see that all the stand-alone McDonald’s in San Jose and Alajuela have two separate windows and lines for nothing but their soft-serve ice cream! And there is nearly always two ice cream lines waiting from around 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning when they quit serving much breakfast. Ice Cream Rules! Although there are a lot of KFC’s in the cities, they have more competition than McDonald’s with many Latin American Fried Chicken (el pollo frito) franchises. There are major fried chicken chains from Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Mexico. So the Colonel has to work harder here! 🙂 And yes, the traditionally thin Costa Rican (Tico/Tica) is beginning to get heavier, though not as fat as North Americans. And the popularity of hamburgers (hamburguesas) is growing with several local Tico restaurants having them! And they are good! And pizza is following!
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| Inca Dove on Nest She sat on this for about 3 days in terribly fierce winds, palm fronds like sails! |
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| Empty Nest this Morning Was the wind too much? Did something happen to her? I never saw a mate and wondered where Daddy bird was! |
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| Eggs Rolled down Palm Frond & Cracked I’m so sorry to miss the birth of two Inca Doves & Sorry for the Mom! I have no way to save them and doubt they could be. |
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| Poor Choice of Nest Tree The nest is in this small palm surrounded by red/yellow crotons below my deck. Nest in lower of two fronds on the left, tiny gray spot halfway up. |
Check out our Weather and note that right now the wind is at 42 mph with gusts to 61 mph. The poor bird never had a chance! January-February is the usual windy time, but last year was never with as strong a wind as we’ve had this year. and it is still blowing strong into March, but hopefully dying down soon! Then a couple of months of windless, hot, dry days before the rain starts, May-Oct.
POSTSCRIPT: Before dark I checked the palm again and both eggs were gone, maybe by wind or maybe by an animal.
PS again: Today I finished my Income Tax with only one call to the TurboTax help desk! 🙂 The problem was not with the form but getting past their security into my file online. It seems that I had two accounts with them with two different user names and passwords and I was mixing them up. Crazy! But done now!
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| Helmeted Guineafowl Just one block out of the Roca Verde Gate, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Helmeted Guineafowl Zooming in for a closer look Atenas, Costa Rica |
These don’t have much of a “helmet,” but they are possibly juveniles and I am certain they are the same bird I saw wild in The Gambia, West Africa. Here they were near a stream, but actually in the ditch of a residential street.
For more information, see Helmeted Guineafowl, Wikipedia
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| On one of my two walks to town today, I snapped these with my phone. You do know that the red of Poinsettias is actually leaves & not flowers? |
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| Yes. Poinsettias grow in yards here and in different months. I’ve seen them in February & March now. |
See my Photo Gallery called Flora & Forests
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| Nesting Inca Dove On palm frond of small palm in my yard, Atenas, Costa Rica |
Honestly I don’t see how it can last very long with all the heavy winds we have been having, but birds can be tenacious! We will see. I have much more stable trees you could have used!
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| I continue to love my garden! |
No new birds or other nature photos to share in last couple of days, just slowing down and relaxing a little since I was getting low on energy and not feeling my best. But tomorrow I go with a group of expats to San Jose for the Little Theater again for a play titled “Little Wars” by Steven Carl McCasland, that takes place in 1940 based on a real dinner party with 6 well-know women at the time: Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein, Agatha Christie, Alice B. Toklas, and Muriel Gardiner. (I get to see what women talk about when they have too much to drink!) Then we go out to eat at a nice restaurant.
I’ve also been busy planning future birding trips:
In March: Rio Celeste Waterfall & Cañon Negro on Rio Frio, staying at Celeste Mountain Lodge. where there are many birding trails on their property (4 nights). Getting there and back on public bus.
In May: Drake Bay and Corcovado National Park. Staying at the Aguila de Osa Rainforest Lodge (5 nights). Getting there and back on small public plane.
In July: A return visit to a pure birding lodge, Rancho Naturalista near Turrialba, Costa Rica, in the shadow of the active Turrialba Volcano (4 nights). Getting there and back on public bus.
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| PURA VIDA! |
