Category: Rainforest

Posted on

Preparing for Sunday the 15th

All the Schools Prepare for Independence Day Parade

20190912_102200-WEB
Escuela Central, the large main Public Elementary School’s band practices for Sunday’s parade. 

The high school bands have been practicing too with the same monotonous drum beat that it seems all the bands use. Note in the photo above two interesting facts that tell about the culture or a small town:   (1) The band director is almost a kid himself, first job out of college as a low-paid music teacher in rural elementary school.  (2) All the girls play a xylophone and all the boys play a drum, either snare or bass.   🙂   I regret that I will miss this year’s parade, but I’ve seen it several times!   🙂

My Friday Night Treat

20190913_171359-WEB

Every Friday night I have my one steak a week at Parrillada Androvetto which has a big platform deck overlooking the surrounding hills and the Public Cemetery above. Tonight the clouds hung low on the hills, but still no rain. Yes, it is now a semi-drought for rainy season. Met a nice young couple at Androvetto from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. I like the “Small World” effect of living in Costa Rica!

Whale-Watching Starts Sunday

Sunday morning I fly to Palmar Sur and check in to the Cristal Ballena Hotel  in Uvita for the week where I will go Whale Watching on Monday for the first time in my long life and if satisfied (get whale photos) I will use the rest of the week to photo birds and a very special Nauyaca Waterfalls one day.  I drove through Uvita on the 2014 Relocation Tour and have flown over its famous “Whale’s Tail Beach” in my photo below from a Carcovado trip.

20180313_092653-WEB
My hotel is in this little South Pacific town and the whaling boat will probably deport at Dominical, a nearby larger town. The waterfall is up the mountain & birds everywhere!

🙂

Retired in Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Tranquilo Banana Azul

The latest trip book is completed, a short & simple photo book of 36 pages for only $19 which is low price for a photo book + order by 10 September and get 40% off with discount code:   SEPTEMBER4T

Banana Azul is maybe my most relaxing hotel in Costa Rica or certainly the Caribbean, thus I focused on the tranquility of nature there with several sunrise photos along with birds and other nature!   🙂   Click this link or the cover image below to see a FREE PREVIEW electronically of all pages of the book. As always, full screen mode is better for photos!   🙂

https://www.blurb.com/b/9637630-tranquilo-banana-azul

Tranquilo Banana Azul

 

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”   ~ Henry David Thoreau

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Farewell to these trees . . .

A most relaxing time in nature, that top, end/corner room was mine this week, looking through these trees to the ocean daily – – – and now back to my Cecropia and Fig Trees for the surprises of nature there for awhile. Life is great “Retired in Costa Rica” and . . .

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”

~Aristotle

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

IMG_8447-A-WEB
My last shot here.

Trip Gallery:  2019 Banana Azul

Posted on

Green & Black Poison Dart Frog

We seem to have a lot of these neat tropical frogs here at Banana Azul, one of 7 different species of “Poison Dart Frogs” in Costa Rica. Read about them on Wikipedia.  Or see my other photos of them at Poison Dart Frogs: Green & Black. or my whole Amphibians gallery.

 

Why are frogs so happy? They eat whatever bugs them! 

¡Pura Vida!

 

See also my TRIP GALLERY:   2019 Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo

Posted on

Walkin’ the Beach Road

This morning before going to the organic botanical gardens in Puerto Viejo, I walked a ways down the beach road behind Banana Azul along Playa Negra or Black Beach because of some black volcanic sand in places. Its a forest walk or drive and the trees are as impressive as the beach. Here’s a few shots.

Beach Road Walk

 

And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. 

John Muir

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Sloth Sanctuary

Today is a rainy day but I went ahead and visited the Sloth Sanctuary in Cahuita, Costa Rica and really glad I did! We had light rain the first part of the canoe trip and thus I did not take out my big camera until near the end, missing a lot of birds, but I have all of them from other places and enjoyed someone else paddling the canoe!   🙂

The canoe trip is to see where the sloths live in the wild before we go into the building to see the rescued sloths. We saw howler monkeys & lots of birds but no wild sloths. A VERY EXCELLENT TOUR that I highly recommend to anyone in this area! I sure learned a lot about sloths!

Banana Azul provided transportation to the sanctuary, about 15 minutes away. It is just as good as the Jaguar Rescue Center in Puerto Viejo and the Ara Project Manzanillo I had already visited here in the South Caribbean. I highly recommend all three! They all do great work saving animals and our environment! Part of the culture of Costa Rica!    🙂

Canoe Trip

Sloth Center

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Breakfast Color

These 4 species of birds were finding their breakfast as I ate mine on the patio of Hotel Banana Azul in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica this morning. How fortunate I am to live and travel in such a beautiful, peaceful little country!  ¡Pura Vida!

Breakfast at Banana Azul

“The sky’s gone blue: azure, the ocean bluer: cerulean, the trees are swirls of every hella freaking green on earth and bright thick eggy yellow is spilling over everything.” 
― Jandy Nelson, I’ll Give You the Sun

🙂

 ¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

An Adventure of Beauty

“When the destination becomes gracious, the journey becomes an adventure of beauty.”

-John O’Donohue

One week from today I return to the Costa Rica South Caribbean (Atlantic Coast South of Limón) for my 5th trip there, not counting 3 other visits to the North Caribbean (North of Limón or Tortuguero NP).

I’ve been “mulling over” (That’s a late 1800’s English idiom meaning “to think about” or “to ponder.”) what my photography focus would be this time (see previous focuses below–mainly birds!). I originally thought I was going during Carnival week, but got the dates confused (It’s the last week of October not August) so Carnival is no longer the theme for my photos and ultimately a photo book.  🙂   Here’s my previous South Caribe galleries & books:

Browsing Blurb’s Bookstore travel and art photography books (for ideas) I came across the above quotation by John O’Donohue in a book and decided next week’s destination is such a “gracious” place (both the Hotel Banana Azul and the Caribe) that the friendly, loving, kind graciousness of the place will make it truly an “adventure of beauty!” So now my mind is running in a thousand directions of how I can photograph that gracious beauty!

Of course there’s the beauty of nature as my sunrise photo above from another year depicts. The graciousness of the people there presents opportunities for grand portraits or activity shots. While the graciousness of the sea, or the forest, or the wildlife, or the plants . . . oh my, oh my – the destination becomes so gracious!

Soon I start my next adventure of beauty!  ¡Pura Vida!   🙂

 

I arise today Blessed by all things, Wings of breath, Delight of eyes, Wonder of whisper, Intimacy of touch, Eternity of soul, Urgency of thought, Miracle of health, Embrace of God. May I live this day Compassionate of heart, Clear in word, Gracious in awareness, Courageous in thought, Generous in love.”

~John O’Donohue

¡Pura Vida! 

Posted on

Zooming in on Color

I usually use my 600mm zoom lens to zoom in on a bird far away, but with no birds around this morning I was attracted by the bright red or red-orange blooms of the African Tulip Tree on the hill above me. Here’s 3 levels of zooming, 2 with my cell phone and one with the Canon camera and 600mm lens.

20190818_101723-B-WEB
Sort of how it looks to the naked eye from my terrace through the Cecropia Tree.
20190818_101717-A-WEB
Zooming in with the cell phone camera doesn’t help much!
IMG_7494-A-WEB
While zooming in with the 600mm lens give a better idea of the African Tulip Tree. This still doesn’t show the flowers like the “Close-up” of one at gate linked below.

This is not a native tree to Costa Rica but an import from Africa that grows very well here and adds a lot of color. There is another one by the entrance gate to our development. Read about them at Wikipedia,  or  Pacific Horticulture Society,  or  the Gardening Know How website among many other online articles on this interesting tree which evidently will grow in the warmer climates of the southern states. .

And in my Flora & Forest gallery:

A better shot 3 years ago of neighbor’s tree

Close-up of the one at front gate

Distant shot of tree at gate

Or see Three Other Blog Posts on the African Tulip Tree – I must like it to write about it so much!   🙂

 

You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin , or even vagueness – ignorance, credulity – helps your enjoyment of these things.

~Walt Whitman

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

 

Posted on

Rusty-tipped Page

The Rusty-tipped Page (Siproeta epaphus)  was a new butterfly for me last Christmas in Manuel Antonio and today was my second time to see one, right here in my own garden! (These photos made after breakfast on my terrace this morning.)

See my other photos of him in my gallery or if you want more information about this species, see the excellent Wikipedia article or an article on Butterflies and Moths of North America, though rarely seen even in the southern portions of North America above Mexico.

It is basically a year-around Central American butterfly with a few getting into northern South America and southern North America, though they are readily  in Mexico which I think is technically North America.   🙂   A very beautiful and interesting butterfly that the websites say is common here, though I’ve seen it only twice now.

IMG_7491-A-WEB

 

IMG_7467-A-WEB

Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.

~Hans Christian Andersen

 

See also my photo gallery Butterflies & Moths of Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!