I encourage you to watch this brief 1 minute video ad that will be appearing in larger city TV markets in the U.S. and Canada this year. Then plan your trip to Costa Rica for the “Essentials of Life!” in Costa Rica! – 🙂 – ¡Pura Vida!
And for the bird-lovers & nature-lovers up north, are you aware of the tragedy of our lifetime? Nearly 3 Billion Birds Gone from U.S. & Canada – staggering! Link is to article from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. We are destroying the earth little by little. I’m thankful to live in a small haven of nature, Costa Rica!
They continue to work very slow (muy despacio) but have started the concrete seats that will circle the round stage or theater in the round. As some say here “It will be nice if they ever finish it! 🙂
The city has a Facebook Page presenting the remodeling with architect drawings of how they expect it to look. Nice! The vision of an architect! AND BEST VIEWED AS A MANUAL SLIDESHOW! Click on a picture, then the right or left arrows.
“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” – Margaret J. Wheatley
And these photos are being added to the others in my photo gallery called: Remodeling Central Park Atenasfor a pictorial history of the park remodel.
You do not see strikes often here outside the capital city of San Jose (where they shut down the already horrible traffic), but the other day when in Alajuela a small group of city workers (police, fire, others) were striking across the street from City Hall which had police barricades to keep them off city property (sorry I didn’t photo that!). The homemade signs or posters taped to the railing of a closed business were complaining about waste of money by city and low salaries for employees – plus they were blowing horns and beating drums to attract attention and possibly annoy city offices across the street. Common low pay complaint around the world I guess.
Public employees picketing for better wages, Alajuela.
Though life is much better here than in the states for the poor, greed still causes the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. Life is not always fair.
Safe working conditions, fair wages, protection from forced labor, and freedom from harassment and discrimination – these must become standard global operating conditions. ~Paul Polman
¡Pura Vida!
I have an Alajuela photo gallery if interested in more from our provincial capital and home of the San Jose Airport.
Bonus for CR Travelers
One of the CR Travel Agencies I use is Costa Rica Expeditions and they just sent out this message with 5 Secrets of Visiting Costa Rica in October.Helpful information for traveling here near the end of our “Green Season.” (Rainy Season) Anytime is a good time to visit Costa Rica!
Included are shots from their “Rainforest Trail” which is a fairly dense forest with a lot of old growth big trees which is refreshing but difficult to photograph birds in because of all the limbs and leaves! 🙂
I did not show my room this time but the rooms are on the hill just above the restaurant and pool seen at top of feature photo above or in the pool photo below at upper left. Rooms 10-14 look directly over the ocean and sunsets, while other rooms like mine have garden views with partial ocean views. (My room views are seen in gallery Day Vistas.) I got more birds from my garden view but the premium rooms have better sunset views (cost more) and with clouds & rain every afternoon in rainy season there is not much sunset to see. See the hotel website for more information at https://www.cristal-ballena.com/
Cristal Ballena Hotel, Uvita
CLICK Image to Enlarge
Stairs up to Rooms
Beautiful Plants
Events Field
In a Beautiful Forest
Entrance Driveway
Old Growth Big Trees
Hotel on a Hill
Yoga Chapel? Hmmm!
Weddings Platform
Trees Everywhere!
Rainforest Trees
Bamboo
Birds Slide Show in Bar When No Ball Game
Cabins
Hotel Seen from Ocean Boat
Ocean Views from Everywhere!
Bamboo
Banana Plant Flower
Restaurant by Pool w/ Meeting Room Above
Rainforest Trail
“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”
― Lord Byron
Wednesday of my visit to Uvita I took a taxi back close to the Palmar Sur Airport I flew into for the Mangrove Boat Tour on Rio Sierpe – my sixth place to do a Mangrove or River Tour in Costa Rica which always provides a lot of birds and other wildlife to photograph. This one did not disappoint! (Not my best, but very good!)
A Couple of Coincidences
Carlos Gonzales
The big surprise for my solo boat tour with a captain and guide was that Carlos Gonzales was the guide – the same guide I had in Drake Bay at Aguila de Osa Hotel in 2017. He is one of the few “older” guides I’ve had in Costa Rica with the majority looking like they are fresh out of college. Carlos is 71.
Plus the funny coincidence was that the boat captain was also named Carlos and my name in Spanish is Carlos! 🙂 Tres Carloses!
Birds
Great Kiskadee
Purple Gallinule
Green Heron
Boat-billed Heron
Barn Owl
White Ibis
Tropical Kingbird
Scarlet Macaw
Bronzed Cowbird
Mangrove Swallows
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Spotted Sandpiper
Little Blue Heron
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Common Potoo
Social Flycatcher
Gray-cowled Woodrail
Great Egret
Other Wildlife
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River Scenes
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“Oh, Eeyore, you are wet!” said Piglet, feeling him. Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to Piglet what happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time.”
― A. A. Milne
An oxymoron? Maybe, because they do sleep about 80% of their time and for why you will have to read about sloths on Wikipedia – the animal, not the cardinal sin! 🙂 The one sleeping in a tree near my room at Cristal Ballena Hotel near Uvita, Costa Rica decided to move around about the time I went out to check on him and here’s a portfolio of his activity. 🙂 Click image to enlarge or start slide show:
Wow! Nothing like it anywhere! The featured photo above is the Upper Nauyaca Falls and the one below is the Lower Nauyaca Falls & Swim Hole with my new friends from Portugal in the water before the crowds arrived.
LOWER Nauyaca Falls, Costa Rica
Below is a brief slide show of people in the swim hole and the truck ride up the mountain dirt road to the falls which is alone is quite an experience while others road horses or walked uphill for an hour and a half. Truck for me! 🙂
I planned to post the report on Rio Sierpe Boat Trip today but still not finished – so just a quick glimpse at today, another nature day! 🙂
A Roadside Hawk at hotel on my 5:30 AM Hike.This morning moon reminded me of what a beautiful world we live in.Another rainy-cloudy sunset tonight colored my daily dreams living in nature – beautiful!
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”– Edgar Allan Poe
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