Category: Costa Rica

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The Butterfly Conservatory

Yesterday’s butterfly post was all photographed at The Butterfly Conservatory, El Castillo – Arenal, Costa Rica. I highly recommend it if you are at or near Arenal Volcano or La Fortuna. I always stay at Arenal Observatory Lodge which is less than a 10 minute drive to the butterflies while from La Fortuna would be about 30 minutes. It’s on Lake Arenal.

See yesterday’s post for the butterflies I photographed. Below are some shots of the facilities, the hiking trails, and flowers. There is a so-so insect museum with dead insects of many species stuck to boards, but not labeled. This competes with if not better than the Monteverde Butterfly Gardens for just the butterflies, my other favorite and both are better than the very commercial Selvatura Adventure Park in Monteverde. And another one surprisingly good on my 3 visits there is the small Restaurant Selva Tropical Butterfly Garden, Guapiles, Costa Rica and sometimes the butterfly garden at La Paz Waterfall Gardens has a good collection. All are up and down with many butterflies only living a day or two and thus a lot of work to keep hatching new butterflies! 🙂

The Facilities & Vistas

  • Volcano View from Gazebo
  • Entrance, Insect Museum & Research Laboratories
  • Road Out Front with Lake & Volcano Nearby
  • Map of Trails & Facilities
  • Highway Sign
  • Well-maintained Pathways

Hiking Trails & Forest

  • Butterfly Creek
  • Butterfly Creek
  • Rainforest Riverwalk
  • Big Trees
  • Rainforest Riverwalk
  • Rainforest Riverwalk
  • Big Trees
  • Good Signage English/Spanish
  • Rainforest Riverwalk
  • To Butterfly Pavilions

Flowers

And then there’s my Butterflies of CR Gallery!

130+ Species!

¡Pura Vida!

Costa Rica Ranks #1 (Again!) Place to Retire

The International Living Magazine again ranks Costa Rica the #1 Place in the world to Retire. I’m not a fan of the magazine because I found them too commercial, with too many ways to take my money, but they do have interesting articles and if you are considering retirement in any other country, read these short articles on the top 10 places to retire.

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Arenal Butterflies

Here’s my photos of just 10 of the many I saw at The Butterfly Conservatory, El Castillo-Arenal, on Christmas Day no less! 🙂 Tomorrow I will do a post on the facility which is a little-known nature gem in Costa Rica. It equals if not excels both butterfly gardens in Monteverde.

My guide there identified a some of these with all other identities found in my usual source, A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America, Second Edition by Jeffrey Glassberg and all were verified with this book.

If you really like the butterflies of Costa Rica, check out my Butterflies of CR Gallery, at about 130 species now! 🙂 I have the largest Costa Rica Butterfly Gallery on the internet.

CLICK image below to see larger:

  • Bordered Patch
  • Tiger Heliconian
  • White-spotted Prepona
  • Thick-tipped Greta
  • Grinning Heliconian
  • Dot-bordered Heliconian,
    Blue Form
  • Dot-bordered Heliconian,
    Red Form
  • Common (Blue) Morpho
  • Gold-bordered Owl Butterfly
  • Ruby-spotted Swallowtail
Butterflies photographed by Charlie Doggett, Butterfly Conservatory, El Castillo-Arenal, Costa Rica

“Adventures are forever!”

¡Pura Vida!

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My Photo Wins Contest

Expats living in Atenas, Costa Rica (mostly retirees) have a Facebook Group Page where expats ask one another “how to” or “where to” kinds of questions and share important information. Each year the group has a photo contest for what will be the group’s page header that year. My shot or our town from a hill in Roca Verde one foggy morning is the winner this year! 🙂

I almost used this photo for my digital Christmas Card this year. Glad I didn’t so it will now be solely the identity of the group.

And my prize? Something yummy from Pat’s kitchen! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

The full photo below lends itself well to the narrow crop for a page header:

Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica — Photo by Charlie Doggett
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Other Wildlife at Caño Negro

And this is it for that day excursion from Arenal Observatory Lodge, having done the birds post yesterday and earlier posts on 3 species of monkeys. Caño Negro is a wildlife-rich place for a 2+ hour boat ride and in our case lunch by the river before returning.

  • Male Green Iguana with two females!
  • Male Green Iguana in Mating Orange Color
  • Emerald Basilisk
  • Tropical Slider
  • Tropical Slider
  • Spectacled Caiman
  • Long-nosed Bats
Other wildlife at Caño Negro Reserve beyond the birds & monkeys already shown.

“By discovering nature, you discover yourself. “

~Maxime Lagacé

For more Costa Rica Wildlife see my OTHER WILDLIFE GALLERIES.

¡Pura Vida!

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Caño Negro BIRDS

Here’s about 20 species from my Christmas week side-trip from Arenal Observatory to the Caño Negro Reserva. We saw more than I photographed of course and about 5 I tried to photograph weren’t good enough to show. This is a bird-rich reserve in northern Costa Rica near the Nicaragua border. CLICK an image to enlarge it:

  • Southern Lapwing
  • American Kestral
  • Wood Stork
  • Nicaraguan Seed-Finch
  • Anhinga Female
  • Green Kingfisher Male
  • Anhinga Catching Fish
  • Anhinga Swallowing Fish
  • Amazon Kingfisher Female
  • Black-headed Trogon
  • Amazon Kingfisher Male
  • Olive-throated Parakeets
  • Gray-cowled Woodrail
  • Mangrove Swallow
  • Great Potoo (disguised as tree part)
  • Cattle Egret
  • Black-crowned Night-Heron
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Black-collared Hawks
  • Great Egret
26 December 2020 at Caño Negro Reserva, Costa Rica.

Two of these were “Lifers” or first-time seen birds for me and unfortunately neither with a very good photo: The Nicaraguan Seed-Finch and the Olive-throated Parakeets. I’ve seen the American Kestrel in Panama but this was the first time in Costa Rica, though not close enough for a decent photo.

And from my 2017 visit to Caño Negro Reserva, two blog posts: Caño Negro Birds Part 1 followed of course by Caño Negro Birds Part 2! Or easier to see them all together in my photo gallery Caño Negro Birds 2017.

See all of my BIRDS Galleries.

¡Pura Vida!

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Illegal Buffet?

Sorry that you got a false email notice of this post two days ago! In short, this old man is sometimes technologically challenged! 🙂 I often schedule posts a day or so ahead and when the scheduling calendar popped up I clicked the 4th and entered. Whoops! I had just clicked the 4th of December! 🙂 I quickly changed it to the 4th of January, but alas, the auto email had already been sent out. 🙂

Since March and the first arrival of COVID19 in Costa Rica, the government Health Ministry prohibits buffet service in restaurants. But I guess that does not include ants eating a spec of food together on my terrace! 🙂

These tiny black ants are eating a tiny spec of something: food, fruit, flower, other insect or I’m not sure what on my terrace, right in front of my rocking chair. I just had to photograph them! 🙂

Ant Buffet on my terrace.

If all humans disappeared today ,the earth would start improving tomorrow. If all the ants disappeared today ,the earth would start dying tomorrow.

~David Suzuki

🙂

See also my MORE INSECTS CR GALLERY.

And more photos from Arenal & Caño Negro are coming! I’m still organizing photos! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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January Yellow – Far and Wide!

Around the first of January every year in Costa Rica the skylines, forest tops and trees in every direction seem to be ablaze in yellow. In my yard it is what we call “Yellow Bells” in English, while many others here and throughout the country are the Yellow Cortez Tree and in other places the Brazilian Fire Tree. These shots are from recent short morning walks through my neighborhood. CLICK image to see larger . . .

  • Yellow – Far & Wide
  • My Yellow Bell Tree
  • Yellow – Far & Wide
  • Yellow – Far & Wide
  • Yellow – Far & Wide
  • My Street
  • Yellow – Far & Wide
  • Up Hill Above My House
  • Another Above My House

“How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun.”

– Vincent Van Gogh

¡Pura Vida!

My related Photo Galleries: Flora & Forest

And more photos from Arenal & Caño Negro are coming! I’m still organizing photos! 🙂

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White-faced Capuchin at Caño Negro

One of the most common monkeys in Costa Rica and I think the most aggressive in their begging tourists for food are also often the most “human-like” or fun to watch. Here’s a few shots I got at Caño Negro and you can see a lot more in my Gallery White-faced Capuchin from all over Costa Rica. You can also learn more about them on Wikipedia. CLICK images below to see larger:

White-faced Capuchin Monkeys, Caño Negro

Other Monkey Blog Posts from This Arenal Trip:

More of My Monkey Photos

“I learned the way a monkey learns by watching its parents.” 

—Prince Charles

¡Pura Vida!

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Central American Spider Monkeys

From my Arenal trip I’ve had photo posts on Regular Mantel Howler Monkeys and an Orange Mutant Howler Monkey with today’s being photos of the only Spider Monkey we have here, Central American Spider Monkey, with our boat and the sunlight positions not helping me get good photos. 🙂 Tomorrow’s post will be on the White-faced Capuchin Monkey before I get back to birds! 🙂

  • Central American Spider Monkey
  • Central American Spider Monkey
  • Silhouettes were most of our views
  • Mother & Child – Central American Spider Monkey
  • Central American Spider Monkey
  • Central American Spider Monkey

See more in my Gallery: Central American Spider Monkeys or learn more about them on Wikipedia.

“Between every two pines there is a doorway to a new world.”

~John Muir

¡Pura Vida!

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New Years Eve Traditions in Costa Rica

What I’ve Observed:

First, the most popular vacation week for families is the week between Christmas and New Years. Schools are out and many companies and business close this whole week, thus families are freer to travel. The beaches and lodges sometimes have more Ticos than tourists, especially this year with Covid19 reducing our number of tourists.

Second is fireworks at midnight is a big deal, both large organized shows including some Catholic Churches in conjunction with a Midnight Mass and families or individuals in their yards and streets.

Third is the Midnight Mass.

Fourth is the usual happiness and friendliness as everyone wishes you ¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Fifth & Sixth are best described with part of a newspaper article:

Run around the block with your suitcase.

Though I haven’t seen it done, I have heard about this tradition for some Ticos which was reported in a Washington Post Article this month:

Put your 2021 travel ambitions into the universe by celebrating the new year like a Costa Rican. (The tradition is popular across Latin America.) At midnight, it’s tradition to grab a suitcase and run around the block in the hopes of traveling in the new year.

“The farther we run with our suitcases, my family always says, the farther we’ll travel in the new year,” writes Washington Post reporter, Samantha Schmidt, who has spent New Year’s Eve with her extended family in Costa Rica every year since she was born. “We all do it — from my toddler cousins to my eldest aunts in their high heels. Our neighbors always cheer us on, shouting ‘Feliz Año Nuevo!’ and sometimes join in, as fireworks shoot off in all directions.”

ARTICLE: 7 international New Year’s Eve traditions to try at home this year, by Washington Post

Eat 12 grapes

Also reported in that same newspaper article above is the tradition of Spain that is also done all over Latin America, including Costa Rica and I have seen and done this:

Perhaps the easiest tradition to carry out is eating grapes for good luck. The tradition began in Spain, but it is now practiced around the world, particularly in Central and South America.

Here’s how to do it yourself: Have 12 grapes, known as las doce uvas de la suerte, handy. When the clock starts chiming at midnight, eat one with each clang.

Bonus points if you’re wearing special New Year’s Eve underwear while eating your grapes. A pair of red underwear can bring you a new year of love, while yellow may bring joy and fortune.

ARTICLE: 7 international New Year’s Eve traditions to try at home this year, by Washington Post

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

y

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!