Category: Culture

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Today is No Homework Day!

A fun holiday for school kids only if you can convince your teachers!  🙂  I discovered in the Washington Post article about fun and silly holidays . . . March 6 – No Homework Day!

At this point in the school year, you may be tired of homework. Share this holiday with your teachers, and they may give you a one-day break to play soccer with friends or finish the book you started on Read Across America Day, March 2. (We also learned of a No Homework Day in May, but don’t count on getting two of these.)   🙂  I’ll try it on my Spanish teacher!  🙂

March 6 – No Homework Day!

¡Pura Vida!

Meet the Tayra

Tayra in Costa Rica

And to continue my usual emphasis on nature and wildlife, here’s a link to another Tico Times Wildlife Article “Meet the Tayra” which is Costa Rica’s version of a tropical weasel. The linked article has more of the Guanacaste Camera Trap Videos from which the above pix came.

¡Pura Vida!

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Meet Costa Rica’s Gray Fox

Read this Tico Times online article in English about a really different kind of fox that actually climbs trees! Plus the author has camera trap videos put together with several different individuals of this beautiful tropical fox. Unfortunately this is not my photo but one by the article’s author, Vincent Losasso. Simply gorgeous!

Gray Fox, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Margaret’s & Pat’s Costa Rica Adventure

Some of the new friends that have come into my life in Costa Rica are “seasonal” or some say “Snow Birds” who come to our tropical climate as an escape from the snow & ice up north during the coldest months. One, who has in the past stayed in Roca Verde just up the street from me, is Margaret from British Columbia, Canada and like me, a birder in her 80’s.

This year she decided to go beyond Atenas and see the birds and other sights of many areas of Costa Rica and brought her friend Pat with her. Here’s the diary or journal of their very economical adventure by public bus and staying in local B&Bs, like I did in my early years here . She included 45 photos that I could not copy with the story and adding all individually to this blog post would greatly slow it down, so I chose 4 to scatter throughout the story. And her good “storyteller” way of reporting their adventures makes her words the “illustrations.” Her third person references (you and yours) are to Jill, one of their first hostesses she was writing much of this to. The sub-headings are my addition to indicate the general area of Costa Rica they were in at that time of their trip.  Enjoy!  And plan your own adventure!  🙂  ¡Pura vida!

Margaret & Pat with one of their many guides.

Margaret & Pat’s Costa Rica Adventure

By Margaret

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Rainforest Floating Reflexions

I’m up to photos of about 40 bird species plus at least 20 other animals and I don’t leave until noon tomorrow, so it will be a while before I report on all of those, thus here’s a few representative shots from the different boats I floated on through the Tortuguero rivers and canals . . .

The 6 am trip was rainy more than half the two hours but we still saw a lot of wildlife!

Here’s 10 more shots, some of which could be considered art (I think) . . .

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An Iguana from Today & New Bus Station Open in Alajuela

Today was too busy because I had to take tours when they were available – two today! Morning and afternoon, both by boat and both with some rain. Reports on both great tours later but here’s a male Green Iguana who, I know, is orange! The male Green Iguanas turn orange during mating season because that is supposedly more attractive to female iguanas than green! Hmmm! Who am I to question female iguanas?  🙂 I photographed it near my cabin after lunch today between the two boat tours.

Male Green Iguana at Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero, Costa Rica.

 

See my gallery of other Green Iguana photos.

And I read an article today about the new bus station in Alajuela that is finally open! It’s the one I will use regularly.

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My Caribbean Cottage for 4 Nights

I look out over the main river in Tortuguero when in my colorful Caribbean Cottage. I’m in the downstairs one on the left in photo below. It rained off and on much of my arrival afternoon but I got  a few photos  with an Oropendola my only bird. Took the night walk and might have some photos from that later. And in the morning I do my favorite boat tour of the national park with lots of birds and other animal possibilities, then tomorrow afternoon visit a small community in the middle of the rainforest. So lots of photo-ops!  🙂

My room on the left, downstairs overlooking the river.

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Today is HUG Day!

I learned about the fun and silly holidays from a Washington Post article, including February 12 as Hug Day!

This celebration is part of someone’s idea to stretch Valentine’s Day into a week. No need to buy flowers or candy for this day, thankfully. Just offer friends and family something that has been scientifically shown to lift their mood: a hug.

February 12 – National Hug Day!

¡Pura Vida!

🙂

New Trip Blog Posts Start Tonight!

Also TODAY is the day that I fly on a little Sansa Airlines 12 passenger plane to one of my favorite wilderness places in Costa Rica, Tortuguero National Park, as mentioned yesterday. So most likely you will get a post from there tonight, assuming that their internet WiFi is as good at this most expensive lodge in Tortuguero as they claims it is.  🙂   Tortuga Lodge & Gardens

Much wildlife spotting is done from a boat at Tortuguero.

So expect a week or more of photos and comments from what travel magazines call “The Amazon of Costa Rica” and one of the few places in the country where travelers have actually seen a Jaguar (from a boat) though they are mostly nocturnal like all the wild cats here. Plus I expect a lot of birds, some butterflies and several other animals, along with the tropical rainforest and rivers/canals and of course some great Caribbean food and 4 good nights of sleep!  🙂

And to read more about Tortuguero, see this interesting little article on CR Travel Life:  14 EPIC Things to do in Tortuguero, Costa Rica & Guide to Visiting though not necessarily what I will be doing!  🙂

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2023 Tope Nocturno de Atenas

With local activities returning after two years of none because of Covid, Atenas had only the second Tope (= horse show or horse parade). For years the city had stopped it because the horse people had been trashing the town with what was almost a drunken brawl. Well it started again just before Covid and with the pandemic over, is on again. And theirs is unique in that it is at night which supposedly allows for more participation. Well, my evaluation is not very positive. The first two dozen or more horses were ridden by serious horse people with well disciplined horses just before it became dark. Then as if queued by the darkness, hundreds of horses chaotically rode all over the streets, back and forth, with a large percentage of the cowboy wannabes drinking beer and other liquor handed them by people in the audience from their ice chests. There was no order and no particular beauty. I would personally prefer a tope in the daylight with no beer or other alcohol. But I don’t have to go next year and probably will not. I like the Oxcart Parade better anyway!  🙂

2023 Tope Nocturno de Atenas

 

That’s one pix for the email announcement and online is a slide show of my poor quality night photos.

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My Mixed Traveling Philosophies

The main reason I gave to people back in Tennessee when I moved to Costa Rica was that “I could not afford to travel and live in retirement in the United States where everything is too expensive, especially healthcare.”

Tropical River Otter, Tortuguero in 2019 & feature photo is a White-crowned Parrot, also at Tortuguero in 2019.

Nature Travel

And travel into nature was then already my favorite retirement activity. I’m the only one I knew then in Tennessee who had visited all 54 of the state parks there!  🙂 Yet my favorite place for nature had already become Central America and especially Costa Rica, though I did carefully check out Panama for retirement also. So after 4 trips to Costa Rica (+3 to Panama & 3 to Guatemala), I made the big decision and moved to Costa Rica! Never for a single moment have I regretted it! 🙂

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Xandari Landscapes

I got 8 more butterflies today and at least one a “lifer” or new one for me, but identifying and processing hundreds of photos is just too much to share those today and the birds were just a very few! It is quite windy here this time of year.

So for today’s post, the easy way out, a handful of vistas from the hotel, many from my room and most of these are untouched straight out of the camera to facilitate my limited time for this post today!  🙂 One shot of last night’s sunset from my room just for the email announcement, and then all in a slide show that follows . . .

Sunset from Villa 19, Xandari Costa Rica, Alajuela, 31 January 2023

 

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