Or one of the many other brown skippers! 🙂 This one was on the glass-top table on my terrace this morning and I snapped him/her with my cellphone. Interesting and my first for this particular species.

Or one of the many other brown skippers! 🙂 This one was on the glass-top table on my terrace this morning and I snapped him/her with my cellphone. Interesting and my first for this particular species.

They usually have a nativity, but for now just this tree and laurels around the entrance.



My 2021 Christmas Photos Gallery
¡Feliz Navidad!
The family that does “Two Weeks in Costa Rica” blog/newsletter has an article about what Ticos do during the holidays which is also “Summer Vacation” from school for all ages with graduations the middle of December and the start of new school year in February. Thus lots of “family vacations” during this time, especially the week between Christmas and New Years when many businesses and factories, etc are closed. The beaches and mountain lodges are full of Ticos that week! Everything is already festive by December 1 with many decorations up and special meal preparations started. Read about it in the Two Weeks guy’s article:
Christmas And New Years In Costa Rica: A Festive Time (“2 Weeks in CR” Blog Page)
Attending a Tamale-Making Class en Español 2017
This Year’s Mall Christmas Trees 2021 Blog Post
2019 Christmas Trees here
2020 Monkeying Around on Christmas Eve at Arenal Observatory where I will be again next Christmas or 2022. Good lodges like this one are booked solid for Christmas a year ahead. I just made my ’22 reservations.
Birds & Tapir – A Perfect Christmas!
Christmas in Costa Rica 2018 (including a cute TV ad)
Madrigal Renaissance Christmas Banquet 2018 (all expats)
2017 Atenas Christmas Parade – one of the best!
Well . . . too many to list them all! You can do a blog search on “Christmas” for more! 🙂

My 2021 Year in Books Read (Goodreads page).
Merry Christmas! – ¡Feliz Navidad!
¡Pura Vida!
Well, just one of many vistas from the hill above my house, but one of my favorite, the hilltop farm of the local farmers’ university here in Atenas, usually covered in cows. 🙂

And that’s the last photo to share from my “Walk up the Hill!” 🙂 Just 4 more days before I go to a Pacific Coast resort south of here for Christmas where I will do daily “same day” reports on that part of my paradise! 🙂 Happy Holidays!
¡Pura Vida!
On my walk up the hill the other morning a couple of little planes flew over and I decided to “capture” the second one in a photo! It is not one of our commercial passenger planes, Sansa Airlines, but some older private plane doing who knows what? 🙂

¡Pura Vida!
This is the last bird I will show from that nice morning walk up my hill with camera in hand! It is the fairly common Tropical Kingbird (eBird description link) and of course I have a lot more photos in my Tropical Kingbird Gallery from 18 different locations in Costa Rica! 🙂

Costa Rica is issuing a new Sloth Postage Stamp. ~Tico Times article 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
The “resident big bird” in Roca Verde neighborhood with a lot of them is the Gray-headed Chachalaca (eBird description link) and you can see some of my many photos from here and other locations in Costa Rica in my Gray-headed Chachalaca Gallery.

Thanks to Tico Times for this good short article and great photos that are so much better than my photos of the theater: https://ticotimes.net/2021/12/10/the-national-theatre-of-costa-rica-a-historic-landmark

¡Pura Vida!
Earlier I shared my shots of the Blue Grosbeak female from this same walk up the hill, now a couple of shots of a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak (eBird description link) which doesn’t have the “rose breast” that the male has, and I saw no males of either of these grosbeaks today. You can see my other photos of both male and female in my Rose-breasted Grosbeak Gallery seen earlier here near my house plus at Monteverde and at Xandari Resort Alajuela and as with most birds, the male is more colorful. 🙂

This White-winged Dove (eBird description) is the most common in my neighborhood closely followed by the Inca Dove. Its a beautiful bird and you can see more of my photos of him in my White-winged Dove Gallery from all over Costa Rica!

¡Pura Vida!
There are several African Tulip Trees (Wikipedia Link) in Roca Verde which I have highlighted before with their bright orange flowers, but the one on the hill above me is such a bright spot, it is hard to not keep featuring it! 🙂 Another sign that summer is beginning.
