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One of the neighbor couples, Russ & Holly, had their second Solstice Party yesterday and it was cloudy (but never rained) meaning no really good photos, but an example of expat life in Costa Rica. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
¡Feliz Navidad! — Merry Christmas!
No two are alike and none disappoint me! 🙂 And they may be the highlights of my time here this year as my aches and pains are keeping the beach road walks short and have caused me to cancel my planned hikes in the two national parks nearby. But the hotel manager said he would take me to the end of the beach road in his car tomorrow morning. 🙂 This morning’s short walk on the beach road gave me very few bird or butterfly photos, which I will share in another blog post tonight. Here’s a slide show of 8 sunrise shots from this morning (no 2 of them alike either!) and I will be sharing more from each morning plus non-blog photos will be in a gallery later.
¡Pura Vida!
I flew out of San Jose Airport at noon in the rain and through clouds most of the 25 minute flight to Limón. The taxi drive to Banana Azul was off an on rain and it continued solid until about 4 when I made these cloudy shots of my room and it continued to fade until there is not rain at about 5:30. Three shots today: first leaving San Jose, then my room deck & office where I will prepare all blog posts this week and the view from my deck toward the ocean under clouds. Hopefully nature shots tomorrow!
¡Pura Vida!
Tonight I will watch the Walz-Vance Debate on either CBS internet streaming or on a TV here on CNN International.
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 . . .
¡Pura Vida!
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 . . .
Sometimes people don’t see shadows . . . but I noticed these shadows and I knew it meant it was sunny.
~David Hockney
¡Pura Vida!
More pix in My Home Gardens GALLERY.
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.
Macaw Lodge website
¡Pura Vida!