The first shot on my cellphone is close, as I step out through my gate onto the road by the cow pasture and begin another walk. The second photo on my camera is a merging of 3 shots of the far mountains in a common panorama vista from my terrace. I love where I live! 🙂 Plus it is not far from some totally different vistas I can visit in rainforests, beaches or cloud forests. Pura vida! 🙂
The cow pasture across the road from my casita on a hill, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.And the distant view from my terrace, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
See the photo gallery titled: From My Roca Verde Terrace for many more similar vistas. And FYI: “Roca Verde” (Green Rock) is the name of the housing development where I live, named after the big green (moss-covered) rock just inside the entrance gate. 🙂
Atenas: “El mejor clima del mundo!” “The best weather in the world!”
So it seems with most birds & butterflies! Except for two! A couple of Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds and a couple of Banded Peacock Butterflies! IT IS VERY WINDY! Yet I caught these two species flying anyway! 🙂
These two Banded Peacocks doing some kind of mating dance in the air!
And this is the male of the two Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds.
¡Pura Vida!
And those were my Monday afternoon photos to get the blog going again! Busy with other things the last two days! 🙂 For more photos of these two hardy creatures, see my Galleries:
This photo from my terrace was made on December 16, so maybe by now those few little gray rain clouds have already disappeared from our skies here. 🙂
December 16 vista from my terrace.
The “Rainy Season” which is sometimes called “Winter” (el invierno) here is generally from May to November, but there can be an overlap of rainy and dry seasons in December with pretty much no rain from January through March or April called “Summer” (el verano) here and then in late April or May the rain starts again to keep beautiful Costa Rica green! (With climate change we’ve had a lot more rain this December!) And that description above is mainly for the Central Valley or center of this little country with both coasts, coastal lowlands, and a few internal low areas called rainforests have rain year around as do some of the cloud forests high in the mountains.
And then there is the northwest part of the country, called Guanacaste (that province name), which is dry most all year with some deserts and only a few really wet areas like Palo Verde NP or Rincón de la Vieja. So if you don’t like the weather one place, go somewhere else! 🙂
Plus a little interesting trivia is that here in the Central Valley our two rainiest or wettest months are usually September & October while the year-around wet and rainy Caribbean Coast has their least amount of rain during those two months. Thus I usually travel to the Caribbean side in September or October! 🙂 But it’s not the same on the mid & south Pacific Coast which can have rain year around like the Caribbean. 🙂
CLICK IMAGE ABOVE to go to the report or click address below (assuming they allow non-members in). AND YES! All those photos in the montage above are ones I submitted to iNaturalist. Their A-I work I guess. 🙂
The above-linked report includes lots of data, graphs, and the actual photos or you can go to My Observations page (linked) to just see which ones I submitted. Just beginning!
I have for 10+ years submitted my bird observations to eBird and in the last 2 or 3 years my butterfly observations to butterfliesandmoths.org, but in May of 2024 I started submitting all of my nature photos to iNaturalist Costa Rica (en español, Naturalista Costa Rica) including the birds and butterflies (double reporting them). 🙂 Though plants are included in iNaturalist, right now I’m only submitting the unusual ones or ones that I need help identifying! 🙂 My online gallery and website/blog will disappear after my death, but photos I submit to these organizations will be there for posterity! 🙂 Maybe that will be my legacy? 🙂
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. 🙂
Solstice Party, Roca Verde, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Solstice Party, Roca Verde, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
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.
SLIDE SHOW . . .
Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
Sunrise Wed, 2 Oct 2024, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
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!
Rainy Day in San JoseMy upstairs room’s deck & my tropical office.Cloudy view from my deck toward the beach.
¡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 . . .
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 . . .
