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I know, it looks like a grasshopper and it may be, but the AI on iNaturalist would only go so for as the genus in identification, so I will wait for a bug expert to identify which grasshopper this is! 🙂 Here’s two shots, the top view with my cell phone and the side view with my telephoto lens on a Canon camera. And I do expect it to be identified eventually.
I like looking up the big hills on two sides of my little house on the side of a small hill. The other day I snapped photos through my zoom lens of two trees that I liked the looks of: First is an African Tulip Tree which I know the identity of, but the second one and my feature photo is labeled by Google LENS as a Ficus Thonningii Tree which is native to Africa, though the iNaturalist AI would not specify a species, it just said that is is probably one of the Ficus Trees or one of the Squirrel Trees. (First I’ve heard of squirrel trees!). 🙂 But anyway, I like both trees and I’m sharing these two by photos. And if both are from Africa, it is not that unusual here for people to plant trees and shrubs/flowers from other tropical continents.
This large bird usually moves around my trees in groups or families and always “chattering.” 🙂 Here in a Nance Tree. See more photos in my gallery: Gray-headed Chachalaca.
. . . is finished and ready for visits! Just click the gallery image or go to this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2025-12-23-27-Punta-Leona
Read on for my dislikes and a gallery of more hotel photos.
Continue reading “Likes & Dislikes – Punta Leona”
That title is because tomorrow I will show some “Crowded Views” (Not pleasant to me) of the beach as sort of a contrast and then the following day I will report on all my “Likes and Dislikes” of Punta Leona and why. And I know that one of these pix shows some of the crowds, but I included it here for the lush forest that Punta Leona has right up to the beach and the new maybe 15-20 story beachside hotel that is under construction on Mantas Beach as a part of Punta Leona Beach Club & Nature Resort.
Now some Mantas Beach views that I like . . .
This little brown skipper with a historic-sounding name was at Punta Leona Nature Resort as he sometimes is in my garden. See my gallery Pompeius Skipper – Pompeius pompeius for more photos of this “brown is beautiful” little butterfly. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
My 2025 Punta Leona GALLERY is now finished!
“Sendero de Gigantes” is the unofficial nickname for the main forest trail at Punta Leona Nature Resort because of some really large trees on the trail. It took me two tries (2 days) to get the 100+ meters uphill from my room to the trail entrance on the main entrance road and then I didn’t even hike it because after a rain it was a muddy, slippery mountainous trail with lots of steep climbs and I tend to fall on wet surfaces, especially on wet steep inclines like this trail had. In fact I nearly fell going downhill into the trail entrance, so I decided not to hike it for my own safety. The occasional disappointments of being old! 🙂
After this introductory photo, there is a gallery of 4 more shots at the entrance. For younger people who love forest trails, this would be a good one! Especially for the big trees! And maybe some wildlife! 🙂
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”
– Kahlil Gibran
A slideshow of poems in the sky . . .
Continue reading “Poems in the Sky”
One of my plans for this second visit to Punta Leona was to photograph lots of interesting sea creatures in the Tidepools of Playa Mantas at low tide. Well, the low tide time I could go out for was cloudy and misty rain, but that is okay if there are sea creatures! 🙂 But I was disappointed with no starfish, seahorses, blowfish, crabs, etc! Only a couple of minnow-like fish, lots of broken up coral and shells and some fossils and lichen. But below this introductory photo are photos of what I did find and it was interesting, even if not what I was expecting. I will try tidepools again in September when I’m on the Caribbean Coast and see if my luck is any better there. 🙂
