Category: Art

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Hosting Tennessee Friends

Old friends from Nashville, Gary & Kenna Eaton and their traveling companions, the Huskey’s, recently visited Costa Rica and I had the privilege of sharing some bits of my adopted country both before and after their 8-day CARAVAN “Costa Rica Natural Paradise” TOUR!

Walter does a “Selfie” with our group between the Jade and National Museums of Costa Rica.

They arrived on November 9, a day early for the tour, and my driver, Walter, and I took them to two favorite museums in San Jose on the 10th, mentioned as a postscript in my post that day. We toured both the Jade Museum and the National Museum that gave them an overview of the country they were about to tour. See the very few photos I made that day in the gallery: Nov 10, Jade & National Museums. To be honest, I’m beginning to be too old and feeble to be a very good host! 🙂 But they were very patient with me and Walter was a wonderful host!

They concluded their tour on the 17th and we saw an art museum before taking the Huskey’s to the airport. Then 5 days with the Eaton’s, which the next few posts will summarize. And eventually I will complete the photo gallery of their visit. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Driftwood: Nature’s “Trash Art”

All natural beaches around the world have driftwood, which usually changes during every tropical storm or other reason for big surf! 🙂 The exception is a rare few beaches near big rich corporate hotels that have driftwood removed to maintain their “pristine” beaches. 🙂

This particular piece of driftwood was on Playa Negra (“Black Beach,” named for the dark volcanic sand there) directly behind Hotel Banana Azul in Puerto Viejo and is more like a simple log, partially buried, but it had a nice glow in the early morning sunrise last Saturday along with the color and texture. Of course there are more interesting shapes of driftwood, usually older and often sun-bleached to a light gray, nearly white.

In some coastal towns people display large, unusually shaped pieces of driftwood as works of art in their homes, restaurants and other businesses, both here and in every other coastal area I’ve visited around the world. See the driftwood links below these 2 photos . . .

Driftwood at Sunrise, Playa Negra, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica
Driftwood at Sunrise, Playa Negra, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica

Here’s some driftwood-related websites I found online:

¡Pura Vida!

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This Morning’s Sunrise

Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón

No two are alike and none disappoint me! 🙂 And they may be the highlights of my time here this year as my aches and pains are keeping the beach road walks short and have caused me to cancel my planned hikes in the two national parks nearby. But the hotel manager said he would take me to the end of the beach road in his car tomorrow morning. 🙂 This morning’s short walk on the beach road gave me very few bird or butterfly photos, which I will share in another blog post tonight. Here’s a slide show of 8 sunrise shots from this morning (no 2 of them alike either!) and I will be sharing more from each morning plus non-blog photos will be in a gallery later.

SLIDE SHOW . . .
  • Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
  • Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
  • Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
  • Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
  • Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
  • Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
  • Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
  • Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón

¡Pura Vida!

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2 Charlie Photos in Auction Tomorrow!

for the Democrats Abroad Fundraiser & Voter Help . . .

Keel-billed Toucan photo by Charlie Doggett, 16×20 printed on metal.
Pura Vida Butterflies, 2nd Edition by Charlie Doggett –
Photos of 250 species of butterflies with index of common names in English and scientific names in Latin.

Both of these have a minimum bid well below the retail price, but of course the fundraisers hope you will bid much higher! 🙂 The silent auction is from 1-4 tomorrow, 30 September 2024, at Huaraches Atenas Mexican Restaurant, with auction winners announced promptly at 4 pm. If you are a U.S. citizen and don’t know how to vote from abroad, people will help you. And if you have prepared your overseas ballot for mailing but don’t trust the post office, then people can take your mail-ready ballot and deliver it to the U.S. Embassy for their mail pouch to the states. And while you are there, bid on some of the many wonderful things in the auction including one of my wall art photos and one of my photo books! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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There is a pleasure in the pathless woods

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.

– Lord George Gordon Byron, 1813

9 more photos below . . .

Continue reading “There is a pleasure in the pathless woods”
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2024 Oxcart Parade

I finally got all those photos sorted, culled, and processed to create a nice gallery for this year’s Oxcart Parade, my first since 2018! You can click the image below of the first page of that gallery or go to this address . . . https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/PEOPLE/2024-08-11-OXCART-PARADE

CLICK IMAGE above to go to the gallery.

Or below is one sample photo from each category gallery . . .

Continue reading “2024 Oxcart Parade”
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Oxcart Parade Today . . .

. . . my first to see in 5 years now and hopefully I will be able to handle the heat and sunshine if it’s as hot as yesterday! I’m planning to find a place to sit on the steps of La Tribunal near the point where the parade first enters the Central Park area, so I can leave as soon as over or earlier if it is too hot. Wearing my wide-brim hat, taking an umbrella and yes, smearing myself with that awful sunscreen, 50 SPF! My oncologist requires it! 🙂

Annual Oxcart Parade, Atenas, Costa Rica

It may be another day or two before I get to posting photos of this Oxcart Parade, but below are links to the three previous parades I photographed before Covid. I missed 2015 & 2019 and then it was canceled for 2020 through 2022 during the Covid Pandemic and last year they moved it from April to August and I did not get the word, so glad to try and see it this year. I’m posting my usual nature blog posts a few days ahead, so there will still be one of those today and again on whatever day I post today’s photos! 🙂 And for now, here’s 4 more photos from the past . . .

Continue reading “Oxcart Parade Today . . .”
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Atenas “Oxcart Parade” & Related Activities 2024

I’m posting this because many local people don’t seem to know about it or when what is happening. In short, what expats call the “Oxcart Parade” is at 11 am on Sunday 11 August. You can figure out the rest. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Xandari 2024 GALLERY Completed

I consider my group of galleries titled Costa Rica TRIPS to be my best group of photo galleries, because they cover my trips to all my favorite nature places all over Costa Rica, now numbering 120 including day trips! Though I share some good photography from home here in Atenas, including my garden, the exciting stuff is usually from the trips! 🙂

And the newest one is from last week’s little 2-night trip to Xandari Resort on the edge of my provincial capital of Alajuela, Alajuela with their surprising private rainforest with waterfalls, all kinds of trees and wildlife, along with their gorgeous gardens near the rooms, restaurant, spa and their farm. A great little jungle island near a big city! This gallery is labeled 2024 June 11-13 — Xandari Resort, Alajuela (linked to the gallery) or you can click the image of the first page of the gallery below to get there . . .

CLICK this first page of Gallery to go there.

If you are one of my readers in Costa Rica and want to check out Xandari, which has greatly reduced prices during rainy season, go to their website at Xandari Costa Rica! (Pronounced shaun-dar-ie) It is the Costa Rica location of a chain of resorts based in India, all focused on nature and local culture and people.

Now I will start catching up on some blog posts from my garden that I made before Xandari. 🙂 And my next trip is in July to Maquenque Eco Lodge where I’ve photographed more birds than any other location! 🙂 Plus I will celebrate my 84th birthday there! 🙂 Always something to look forward too when you live “Retired in Costa Rica!”

¡Pura Vida!