Category: Culture

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Surprise WhatsApp Message Today

MonteverdeThis morning I received a WhatsApp Voice Message with the above photo from Rodiber, my guide at Monteverde last month. He was thanking me profusely for the autographed copy of my Monteverde photo book for himself, Costa Rica Expeditions (who service this hotel) and the hotel Monteverde Lodge & Gardens. The girl in photo is one of the several front desk persons who were all very helpful to me during my stay. I sent two copies of book, one for my guide and one for the hotel to use at front desk, in lobby or in their little loaner-library of books for guests.

Since I make a book for most of my trips or the first trip to a lodge, I usually send two books like this. I just concluded my second trip to Selva Verde Lodge and right now not planning a second book. Their two guides on my first visit plus the front desk got copies of my 2016 Selva Verde trip book.

I really enjoy surprising my hosts in thanks for a good experience with the little photo books – not something they expect nor receive from other guests. This is the first one to send me a photo with their thank-you note. A surprise for me now! My response was the typical Costa Rican response to a “Thank You!” which is ¡Con mucho gusto! “With much pleasure!” Ticos are such beautiful people!     🙂

Art must take reality by surprise.

Francoise Sagan

¡Pura Vida!

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Art is 1 Reason for San Jose Visits

I decided early in my visiting of Costa Rica to not live in the big capital city of San Jose because I wanted a more tranquil retirement life than most big cities can provide in their, busy, hectic, crowded, expensive and sometimes dangerous ways.

My first choice was always to live in the woods away from everything, but that would require an expensive 4WD car which I early decided I would do without plus in many cases it is actually more expensive, plus generally no where near the needed shopping and medical care a retiree needs.

Thus the “happy medium” or compromise location of the “Central Valley” of Costa Rica within easy bus or other transportation to the best shopping and medical facilities in the country (like most retirees to CR), yet still a somewhat easy trip to escape into the national parks and forests of Costa Rica which has worked well for me. And nature in the far corners of Costa Rica continues to be my focus.   🙂

BUT . . . sometimes there are fun reasons to visit the big city and especially an old, historic and artsy Latin-American city like San Jose (see my Trip Galleries below). Christopher Howard also explains it well in one of his latest blog posts:

Why Expat Retirees Shouldn’t Ignore Costa Rica’s Capital

And in that article you can see why I love the many parks in the city, plus the architecture, a tour I made of just the old colonial churches, the arts, the many museums, art in general and as shown here, as an example, some of the many public art sculptures in San Jose:

 

See my photo gallery San Jose     and/or

My SAN JOSE TRIP GALLERIES: 

San Jose Tented Production of the Cirque du Soleil

¡Pura Vida!

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The Heart of the Evangelical Crisis

Featured Photo above is of a Mandinka Potter in the Makasutu Forest of The Gambia, West Africa using an old foot-treadle potter’s wheel. Scripture is my addition to a favorite photo from my 3 years in The Gambia, a print of which hangs in my bedroom here.

Though I dropped my paid subscription to Christianity Today, I continue to get the free CT Newsletter and just read this article that speaks to my desire for a new church and new identity: The Heart of the Evangelical Crisis. I hope the link works for you to read it. Like other writers on the subject, he does not have all the answers, but describes the problem in an interesting way that rings true with much of my life experiences.

While serving as a missionary in The Gambia, West Africa, I soon quit calling myself a “Christian,” a “Baptist” or an “Evangelical” as I related to Muslim friends calling myself “A Follower of Jesus.” The difference in our relationships was amazing with a new label and I found other reasons for the title when I returned to the states for the first 12 years of my retirement and even now while living as an expat American Retiree in the Roman Catholic Costa Rica. I’m a follower of Jesus!   🙂

The primary focus of this blog is retirement in Costa Rica, my love of nature and especially the birds here in Costa Rica, but occasionally I feel the need to speak my deep feelings about what I consider a crisis in America today, for which I partly blame Southern Baptists (the largest of the Evangelicals) for whom I worked my total adult working life. I now have no pride in those years, even though the denomination was different when I started. I apologize to the readers whom I offend when I speak like this, but it is a sincere concern of mine that I feel compelled to express at times. We who follow Jesus cannot allow the “Republican Trump America” of today to define Christianity! Far from it!

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 

Matthew 16:24-26

And it was accentuated by this morning’s Bible reading in The Message, Matthew 7:13-29 titled “Being and Doing,” a sort of warning to us believers.
WWJD?
¡Pura vida!
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FLOWERS de Selva Verde

God’s artistry is different in each and every little blossom and so I continue to show photos of flowers from almost everywhere I visit. Enjoy the photos below as what I call “Nature As Art!” – the name of my short-lived photo business in the states.

Selva Verde Flowers

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Considering a Move to Costa Rica?

If you are one of those readers considering living here or retiring here, I strongly encourage you to get acquainted with the ARCR, Association of Residents of Costa Rica, who will become your best help as you consider and then plan for a move here, with their two-day seminar an absolute necessity for your preparation. In the meantime you might want to consider joining now and receiving the bi-monthly digital magazine El Residente. Hoping that link gets you to the current edition without membership, so you can see all the interesting & helpful articles other expats here write every two months.

And by the way, for those keeping up with me I got back from Selva Verde Wednesday afternoon with a doctor appointment Thursday afternoon and back into life in Atenas when not on a trip. I’m also finishing up my reports on Selva Verde, a good hotel/lodge for nature lovers!

¡Pura Vida!

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Living Among Trees

My January week at Maquenque Lodge was special in many way, especially because I lived in a treehouse for a week – well I recently realized that I almost live in a treehouse in Atenas, on the side of a hill with trees and treetops surrounding me! It is beautiful with their myriad of birds singing, movement by the breezes, and my “galleries” for photographing birds! They are the most valuable thing about my little rental cottage:

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.

~Martin Luther

From My Kitchen & Living Room:

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Trees all around! The same from my office, bedroom and even bathroom!   🙂

 

Entering My Favorite Room, the Terrace:

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Where I eat, read and relax, surrounded by trees.

And 2 “Gallery Trees” for Photographing Birds

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Cecropia Tree I planted 4 years ago – the perfect open bird perch!
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Ficus or “Strangler Fig Tree” is the bird’s favorite “Hiding Place.”

¡Pura Vida!

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Saving a Wetland “in the nick of time”

An old English saying “in the nick of time” or Just in Time could be applied to the saving of a wetland near my old home of The Gambia West Africa on the Dakar Senegal Peninsula:  Diplomats visit a key biodiversity site (article on BirdLife.org which I encourage nature-lovers to subscribe to).

If you have ever been to the sprawling metropolis of Dakar you have seen the danger of another city getting too big and another wetland destroyed like New Orleans did in the states. The great Niaye of Pikine, commonly known as the Technopole, is an exceptional urban wetland located in the heart of Dakar. And a big chunk of this one has been saved and hopefully the biodiversity that goes with it. Though getting less news coverage, scientists say that the loss of biodiversity around the world is as big a danger to the future of life on earth as is climate change. Yet modern man continues to destroy the natural worlds of places like this in Africa, in Amazon, etc. I’m thankful to live in a small country trying to do its part in saving the world’s biodiversity!

Read more about Birdlife International and sign up for email alerts.

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”       ~Albert Einstein

 

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Central Park Bandshell Update

It continues to slowly progress even if not fast enough for impatient Americans!  🙂  The center circle (reddish steel) will be the actual stage and the big black circle is the covered part including audience covered seating. They have stopped work again this week so the city can have its annual Climate Fair and Oxcart Parade. They are using all of the space including a temporary round stage in the center. I’m not feeling great this week and opted to miss the festivities, so I will have no photos of the temporary use. Here’s also a photo of the safety signs for the workers on the site. Interesting.   🙂

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Sorry its at an angle but I was shooting through a fence.

 

I had a “bad cold” or actually allergies due to the wind still blowing dust. Got that licked with some good medicine and good advice (close windows when wind blows) from my doctor’s young intern whom I really liked. Then I got up the wrong way from sitting and “popped” my lower back and now dealing with lower back pain. Saw my physical therapist who recommends stretching exercises of course!  🙂  So I kind of dropped the blog for a week or so with lower energy than usual. Next trip is 2 weeks away. Resting now!   🙂

I’m also working on my “Pre-Costa Rica Travel” photo galleries and just completed the gallery for my 2012 Tour of the Grand Canyon and Nearby Canyons. A good photo trip!

¡Pura Vida!

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SOUTH AMERICA Pages & Galleries

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The Prehistoric Hoatzin Bird found only in the Amazon – photographed in the Mamiraua Reserve, Brazil, August 2006

I continue to dig up my old photos and stories of past travels in my blessed retirement days for the TRAVEL pages of this website with the bulk being links to my new “Pre-Costa Rica TRAVEL” photo galleries.

The newest web page and set of photo galleries is summarized on SOUTH AMERICA. The feature photo at top is of a boat similar to what we traveled & lived on for a week of the mission trip on a tributary to the Amazon River, Rio Purus. Just a few more reports on the blessings of my retirement.

If you prefer to go straight to the photo galleries they are linked here:

South America Travel Photo Galleries

In Pericatuba, Amazonas, Brazil, August 19, 2006.
In Paricatuba, Amazonas, Brazil, August 19, 2006.

 

Magical!

 

 

My two guides, Fran & Raimundo, in Mamiraua Reserve, Amazon River, Tefe, Brazil

 

“I will look back at it and smile because it was life and I decided to live it.”

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Monteverde Gallery Completed

Finally, all the photos made during a week in Monteverde, Costa Rica have been sorted, culled, labeled and organized into the few best in each category as one of my “Trip Galleries” labeled as:

2019 April 7-13 — Monteverde, Costa Rica

Now I will start working on the photo book about Monteverde and making more photos around here as I report on things in Atenas like the progress on our central park remodeling and the climate fair here next week with our annual oxcart parade – always something happening!    🙂

Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

~John Muir

¡Pura Vida!