Car in Ditch

My rent house is on the side of a hill above a residential street inside the Roca Verde development. I can look down through the trees and other plants to the street if I wish – not my favorite view!   🙂

A week or so ago I heard a crash below me and a car driven by one of my Tico neighbors had gone into the concrete ditch made for rainwater going down the hill. No curb or barrier or guardrail along the rainwater ditch. Here’s 3 shots on my cellphone of the guy in the ditch, the flatbed truck preparing to pull him out and the guys helping the truck by pushing on the car (which they always do here!). The car was all scratched up and probably had some wheel, axle or alignment problems, but he drove away it away without needing the big truck to take him into a shop. Pura vida!   🙂

Daily I thank God for not owning a car!   🙂

 

“Walking is the only form of transportation in which a man proceeds erect – like a man – on his own legs, under his own power. There is immense satisfaction in that.”
― Edward Abbey

¡Pura Vida!

Yellows & Whites + Grasshopper

Today a cloud of mostly Yellows was in my garden plus one brown Skipper I didn’t try to photograph. They don’t stay still, thus very difficult to photograph and with the book full of Yellows & Whites the identification is not always exacting, but my best effort with a few “either/or” IDs!   🙂

And the grasshopper only eats the leaves, while the butterflies go for the flower nectar, so no competition! They share a flower!   🙂

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My Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery

¡Pura Vida!

Virtual Rainforest Hike with Iván Castillo

Earlier I shared two videos of virtual night & day rainforest hikes with one of the young female guides at Selva Verde Lodge, Melany Ocón. The kind I experience on my trips, though we see more on our live hikes than these short videos . . .

Today is a hike with one of the young male guides whom I have been hiking with before when there (an expert on frogs). We saw a lot more than they see on this video, but it gives you an idea of what it is like to hike at Selva Verde Lodge & Reserve, one of my many favorite places in Costa Rica. You will see a couple of frogs, a helmeted lizard, a pit viper and an anteater, so worth your effort to watch for 20 minutes and see just a little of why I love to explore the forests of Costa Rica with guides like Iván and Melany. June 30 I head north of Sarapiqui (location of these videos) for a week at Maquenque Lodge with other guides but similar experiences. And remember that English is not their first language! They do much better with English than I do with Spanish!   🙂

 

“If man doesn’t learn to treat the oceans and the rainforest with respect, man will become extinct.” 
~Peter Benchley

And for my photos of two visits to Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui:

2019-May 9-15 — Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiqui

2016 December 23-27 – Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui

¡Pura Vida!

Color Walk

On the same walk to town with yesterday’s beetle I snapped these 3 flowers that caught my attention. The red & yellow hibiscus is rare or at least for my eyes!   🙂   One of the red flowers (feature photo) appears to be in the poinsettia family but not the traditional one while the other red flower is more common here, but eye-catching none-the-less!

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“Life is like a box of crayons.”

~John Mayer

My Flora & Forest GALLERY

¡Pura Vida!

Unidentified BEETLE

I spent nearly an hour searching my books and all over the internet for an ID on this interesting fellow I saw while walking to town the other day. He is possibly in the large Scarab Beetle family or Stag Beetle family or seems related to our Rhinoceros Beetle and Hercules Beetle, but even with those I can’t find photos of one with these large, wide “horns” or divided head. New surprises every day!   🙂

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Unidentified Beetle, 2 to 3 inches long

“Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

See my “Other Insects of Costa Rica” photo gallery for more insect oddities.

¡Pura Vida!

Flowers = Butterflies

And 4 species today!   🙂   I went out and photographed the above flowers for a one-shot post when I realized there was a dozen or so butterflies beyond them on my Porterweed flowers of these 4 species (one I incorrectly named the other day}:

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Cloudless Sulphur
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Statira Sulphur
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Polydamas Swallowtail, I mistakenly called a Red-sided Swallowtail recently. Sorry!

 

Cloudywing Butterfly (not sure which one of several Cloudywings)

 

See more of these 4 and 100 others in my Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!