Category: Nature

My profession is to always find God in nature.

– Henry David Thoreau

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Wilderness Bridges

The several swinging bridges at Arenal Observatory Lodge connecting the many trails are a lot more secure than those rope bridges we made in Boy Scouts, but just as thrilling! 🙂 Here’s some shots of two of the hanging bridges I hiked over during my Arenal Visit Christmas Week. CLICK an image to see larger . . .

  • Danta Bridge
  • Danta Bridge
  • Danta Bridge
  • Approach to Spider Bridge
  • Spider Bridge
  • Spider Bridge
Crossing Rivers & Canyons on Arenal Conservatory Trails

 “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”

― Douglas Adams

Tomorrow Begins Another Adventure . . .

I don’t plan or intend to have trips just 3 weeks apart! It takes me longer than that to process the photos! 🙂

But because I had to reschedule this next trip, originally set for a March-April overlap week, just as the Pandemic was taking over . . . Soooo I told them to “reschedule it around the middle of January, not thinking about my Christmas trip – But anyway . . . I’m shifting gears from a rainforest at the base of a volcano to a cooler Cloud Forest in San Gerardo de Dota, starting tomorrow at the Savegre Hotel and Nature Reserve. (NOTE: their website is under reconstruction and only the home page shows for now.

This is one of the lodges I stayed in on my first trip to Costa Rica in 2009. It’s the best place in the world to see and photograph the Resplendent Quetzal bird. And the coldest place I’ve been in Costa Rica with fireplaces used at night. Since no rain in January, it is a little warmer at 13° C or 54° F average low to high of 27°C or 81°F, but hey guys! I freeze to death here in Atenas when it gets down in the 60’s F. 🙂

The new lodge website linked above is under construction, so instead of their photos, you can see my photo galleries of 3 previous visits, all a very long time ago 🙂 . . .

¡Pura Vida!

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Flowers & Other Nature – Arenal

I enjoy photographing all of nature so much that it is difficult to stop or reduce the number of photos I share on this blog and I know that fewer can be better and simpler but here I go again, with only one more blog post on Arenal tomorrow, then I will begin another photo adventure – so get ready for more but different nature! 🙂 And the above feature photo is the morning walk guide explaining the Breadfruit Tree with a close-up of a breadfruit in “Other Nature Shots” below. And yes, it is edible, mostly by monkeys but some humans cook it and use with other more tasty foods. 🙂

Flowers

Other Nature Shots

  • Guide with Breadfruit Tree
  • Breadfruit
  • Cecropia Leaf
  • Unidentified
  • Wild Fern
  • Berries

“Choose only one master—nature.”

~Rembrandt

My Related Photo Galleries: Flora & Forest or inside it Lichens, Leaves & Nature Things! 🙂

And the LODGE WEBSITE for Arenal Observatory Lodge.

¡Pura Vida!

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Enamored by Trees

Towering above me, ever-present, at Arenal Observatory Lodge – TREES! – – – Just one of so many reasons I love the Observatory! I still haven’t mastered how to photograph the beauty and grandeur of trees, but will keep trying. Here’s a few of my shots and you might be interested also in their own website/blog article The Rainbow Trees of Arenal by my friend & fellow Atenas resident, Shannon Farley. Rainbow Eucalyptus trees (Eucalyptus deglupta) were a part of the award-winning sustainable hotel’s reforestation program along with many more native trees in this natural rainforest area.

Rainbow Eucalyptus Trees at Arenal

Rainbow Eucalyptus Trees at Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica
  • Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree
  • Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree
  • Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree
  • Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree

Evergreen Forest Surrounding one Villa

  • Evergreen Forest
  • Evergreen Forest
  • Evergreen Forest
  • Evergreen Forest
  • Evergreen Forest

And so Many More . . .

  • From a Conservatory Cabin
  • Fern Tree
  • Plants Growing on Trees!
  • Thick Forest at Lodge
  • Silk Cotton Tree at Butterfly Conservatory
  • At Caño Negro
  • Arenal Conservatory
  • Arenal Conservatory
  • At Caño Negro

“A tree is our most intimate contact with nature.”

― George Nakashima

¡Pura Vida!

And maybe My CR Trees Gallery for many more!

Part of my bigger Flora & Forest Gallery

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Lake Arenal Views

Here’s a few views of the big lake below Arenal Volcano. There is a boat taxi that will take you across the lake to a car taxi that will take you up that mountain to Monteverde. The lake is also a favorite for local fishermen. My May 2018 trip here gave me better sunset photos of the lake – time of year does make a difference!

CLICK an image to see larger:

  • Lake Arenal from the Observatory Lodge
  • Lake Arenal
  • Lake Arenal Sunset from Observatory Lodge
  • Lake Arenal
  • Lake Arenal Sunset
  • Lake Arenal from Lodge

¡Pura Vida!

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Volcano Views

I thought I had more different views than this but it is no longer new to me, so didn’t take as many photos and the one I took from the butterfly garden didn’t take so here’s 2 from my room, one from a hotel garden and one from the road in front of the Butterfly Conservatory.

  • From My Room
  • From a Lodge Garden
  • Road in front of Butterfly Conservatory
  • View from My Room

¡Pura Vida!

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Other Wildlife at Arenal

Wednesday I shared my photos of “Other Wildlife at Caño Negro” which was a different wetland world on a day trip away from Arenal and the 3 Monkey species seen there were shown in two separate posts. Now sometimes there are more monkeys and other animals in Arenal Observatory, but this trip I photographed 10 species and I’m sharing just 8 of the “other animals” (not birds or butterflies). All were seen on the grounds of Arenal Observatory Lodge, one of my favorite places. Later I will have my trip galleries completed and will summarize here all the amazing wildlife and other nature seen and photographed on this Christmas week trip. CLICK an image below to see it larger:

  • Red-eyed Tree Frog Sleeping in daytime camouflages.
  • White-nosed Coati
  • Agouti
  • Leafwing Butterfly
  • Water Cockroach
  • Brilliant Forest Frog
  • Eyelash Viper
  • Mantled Howler Monkey

“Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization.” 

– Charles Lindbergh

See my photo galleries OTHER WILDLIFE.

¡Pura Vida!

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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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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!