The rain makes everything green and when it is not raining or cloudy, it is beautiful wherever you look. But when overcast or raining you can sometime see only a few meters away as these two shots from my room at Xandari show, looking out over the city of Alajuela and the Central Valley . . .
Vista from my room at Xandari Resort in Alajuela, Alajuela, Costa RicaVista from my room at Xandari Resort in Alajuela, Alajuela, Costa Rica
The rain seemed to arrive about the same time I did at Xandari this mid-day, but I managed to photograph 2 birds & 2 butterflies in either rain or mist. Those four photos are below and I continue to be amazed with Xandari and they upgraded me to a huge villa that is really nice! Hoping for clear skies the next two mornings and then my photo collection will grow! 🙂
From earlier trips, I’ve shared the aerial views of the beautiful, thick forests at Arenal Volcano National Park, so this time some different views from my May 6-11, 2024 visit. Five shots . . .
One of my main reasons for going to Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails in May this year is because it is one of the few months you can see the sun setting over Lake Arenal. Well, we had more rain this year than the last time I went in May and thus the last four of the five were in rain or semi-rain, yet only the last two nights were gray, with no color. Here’s my 5 nights of sunsets over Lake Arenal with three colorful and two gray, though each are beautiful in their own ways! 🙂 Here’s the first night’s for the email and the other four follow in the online blog . . .
Soon after I arrived at about 2:30, the rain started and hasn’t stopped. I shot photos of leaves and many things in the rain from the porch of my cabin, but prefer this shot of my cabin vista just before the rain began and hoping for a sunrise from this same direction in the morning – depending on what the rain does! 😊 Instead of printing trail maps they ask guests to photograph this posted map (below) and use your cell phone when a map is needed. That’s becoming more common in many of the lodges here since literally everyone has a cellphone.
View from my cabin porch just before rain started. Macaw Lodge Trail Map
The light fog around this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is maybe what provided a light purple background as a contrast to his bright green top – a nice compliment of colors! Nature as Art! 🙂
The amount of rain has finally reached the norm for this portion of our “Rainy Season” after a May to September of dryer than usual. I’ve never done a good job of capturing the raindrops falling but here’s some shots of the clouds and a couple of plants with raindrops hanging on 🙂 . . .
Here’s what I see when I walk out my gate walking to town in the first shot, looking NNW, and the second shot is looking NNE from the driveway behind my house just before the rain started. 🙂
View from my driveway exit as I was walking to town.Looking up one hill behind my house over George’s roof.