Category: Rainforest

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Experiencing Nature

My newest photo book is my cheapest ($8.83), smallest ( 6×9 in, 15×23 cm) and shortest (30 pages) as an introduction to why I retired in Costa Rica with 47 photos demonstrating my nature photography here. It’s not exactly a portfolio because of the cheaper paper, but . . . it actually is a cheaper version of a portfolio 🙂 and it also describes the 5 ways I experience nature and share it. As with all my books there is a FREE PREVIEW electronically of all pages in the bookstore at:

https://www.blurb.com/b/10782574-experiencing-nature-retired-in-costa-rica

Or click the front cover image below:

My Newest Book

This will become my “give-away” book to guides, lodges and others here in Costa Rica, since some of my other books are too expensive to keep giving them away as I have been. But I’m still not in the photo-selling or book-selling business. I’m retired! 🙂 I make my photos to share with others online and the books become ways to do that physically on occasions. Prints and wall art are available in my gallery with no profit for me, just a good service of (and profit for) my gallery host. 🙂

And while you’re in my bookstore, check out some of my other photo books! They have free previews too!

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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El Camino de Costa Rica – New Info

A Hiker Guide

One of my blog readers, Patrick, who is thinking about beginning his retirement in Costa Rica (like I should have!) shared with me the just-released new hiking guide available on hiking coast to coast across Costa Rica. It’s first on his agenda here! Are you interested in such a hike?

Available on Amazon as paperback or Kindle edition: El Camino de Costa Rica Hiker Guide

There’s also a newer video of the trail than the one I showed earlier plus more new info on the website and I found a good “Make the Leap” story I’m also linking! 🙂 . . .

Continue reading “El Camino de Costa Rica – New Info”
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Watching Wildlife

Something I’ve always enjoyed is catching a bird with live food like this Anhinga with a fish at Caño Negro Reserva on that river in the feature photo at top.

Anhinga fishing in Caño Negro Reserva, Costa Rica

If all goes according to the doctor’s plans I am today at home still recuperating from surgery and hope to give more “live updates” in the next 2 or 3 days. Thanks for putting up with a week of “pre-scheduled” blog posts! I hope to be current again by the end of this week.

The Trip Gallery for the above two Photos:

December-2020 Arenal & Caño Negro

¡Pura Vida!

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“It All Came Together!”

That is what I said about this particular pix when the way the Montezuma Oropendola perched in relation to the tree limb with both in focus is not always the way my bird photo come together! 🙂 But this one did!

And since this is the morning of my serious 6-hour surgery to remove a cancer from the left side of my head, I am praying that this surgery too “will all come together” for a successful removal of all cancer! Thanks for your prayers! No updated posts on my health for probably 3 days or more! 🙂 But here is where I will post it first!

¡Pura Vida!

This photo was made on my last December Trip to Arenal Observatory.

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4 Emeralds of the Rainforest

By name and by color, the rainforest sparkles with these emeralds . . .

Emerald Tanager

Photographed by Charlie at Arenal Observatory Lodge, my only time to see one.

Emerald Basilisk

Photographed by Charlie at Tortuguero National Park. Called “Jesus Christ Lizard” as it walks on water.

My Gallery of Emerald Basilisks (lots of good shots!)

Emerald Toucanet

Photographed by Charlie at Cinchona Soda & Mirador.

My Gallery of Emerald Toucanets. (lots of good shots!)

Canivet’s Emerald Hummingbird

Photographed by Charlie in his garden back in 2015, the only one ever seen (assuming correct ID).

EMERALD

Signifying nature and new beginnings,

Emerald stands for renewal and health,

its powerful attributes help to ground us,

refreshing and regenerating our minds.

from the internet

¡Pura Vida!

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Beloved Tree

“If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.”

― Hal Borland
A mighty old tree at Caño Negro Reserva, Costa Rica, loved by ferns & air plants & a family of bats. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

And more of my December 2020 at Caño Negro Reserva:

The Landscapes! – AND – The Birds!

HEALTH UPDATE: Yesterday morning I had my Covid Test and by last night an email report that it is negative as required – my last pre-operation requirement completed until leaving my house at 5:15 AM Monday morning. 🙂

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To Be in a Forest

To be in a forest may be my favorite activity in Costa Rica, like looking out over the forest below at Arenal Volcano National Park . . .

Arenal Forest from the Observation Tower, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica.

Or seeing the inter-connectedness of everything in the forest like Jane Goodall says in this minute and a half YouTube Video:

Or to know that I’ve helped save an endangered globe by Planting One Tree! Check out that link for how you can plant a tree in parts of the world needing them most, OR go plant one in your own backyard or nearby park! 🙂

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Costa Rica: “Best of the World!”

Check out this National Geographic Traveler Article online listing Costa Rica as #2 on their list of Best of the World: eight sustainable destinations for 2021 and beyond.

The above photo is one of mine from Drake Bay since Nat Geo used their Drake Bay photo and I think mine is just about as good! 🙂 It’s sunrise from Aguila de Osa Lodge and the full post online also has my Drake Bay snorkeling photo. 🙂

And for those email recipients who won’t click the magazine link above, I copied the CR part of the article into my full blog post on my site, just click below . . .

Continue reading “Costa Rica: “Best of the World!””
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December 2020 Arenal Gallery

Just in time! The night before I leave on another trip I finished my photos from the Christmas 2020 trip to Arenal Observatory Lodge with more than 50 species of birds! And 5 are lifers for me! Plus a whole lot of other photos from this favorite lodge. For now the birds are presented alphabetically by their English Common Name. Later I will make time to arrange by species families according to my birding guide book. Overall I’m pleased with this collection of photos and moving on to the next collection! 🙂 To see gallery CLICK above link or the image below:

¡Pura Vida!

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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!