Going Out of Business Sale!

This is my last week (8-13 January) in the Galería Artenas in the Calle 2 Plaza next to Linea Vital Medical Plaza. Everything there is available below my cost and I will no longer be selling my photo art directly in Atenas or anywhere else except for awhile the photo greeting cards will be available at Hotel Colinas del Sol (after 13 January).

Everything else I have been selling will continue to be available online through links above on this website, charliedoggett.net, in my Gallery, Bookstore, and CafePress “Costa Rica Photo Art!” Happy shopping! :-)

And for the last time this week you can see and touch before you buy as you help me clear out my inventory at Galería Artenas! :-)

Floral Accent Pillows available now at Galería Artenas!
Wall Art Available Now at Galería Artenas!

Nature as Art

¡Pura Vida!

Thank You for 2023!

I am immensely grateful for each and every one of you who read my blog regularly, occasionally or just look at the photos! My site host reports more that 2,000+ “hits” online at my website/blog every month! 🙂 And that doesn’t count many of the 500+ subscribers who only look at the email version nor most of the 650 Facebook Friends who look at the one feature photo without clicking the the link to the post! 

I also appreciate the hundreds of comments left on the posts monthly and many “contacts” or messages through my contact page or by email. Just yesterday I responded to a man in England with questions about photographing wildlife at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and a friend in the States commented with a meaningful Bible verse about my post yesterday on hugging the 800 year old tree. Nature is fun! :-) And you who read or just look at the pictures are the ones who make it fun for me! :-) THANKS! Keep reading or looking at the pix! And click the gallery links for more pix!

As usual, I’m ending the year with 12 photos from this year, equaling one per month but not literally from each month, since some months have weaker or fewer photos. Nor are these necessarily my top 12 favorite photos from this year, but are representative 2023 photos from “Retired in Costa Rica” this year, with birds and butterflies obviously being two favorite subjects again! :-) One shot here for the email version and eleven more online with a quick click below of “Read More”!

Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Maquenque Eco Lodge, Boca Tapada, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Thank You for 2023!”

4×4 Jeep Up the Mountain

Of course many choose to hike all the way up to several different trails and the Mirador (vista platform) which I did last time here, but I chose the jeep ride up and down this time with just a short nature trail which I will tell about tomorrow. Here’s one shot of the jeep we road up in with its dog co-pilot! :-) I road with a 3-generation Tico family on vacation there, a 3 or 4 year old boy, his parents and grandparents. The two weeks either side of Christmas are vacation time for most government employees and many big companies not involved in retail sales of course! :-) Thus half or more of the people at the hotel were Ticos. The rest were tourists from the States, Canada, Australia, and all over Europe. Another charming thing about traveling about Costa Rica! :-)

The jeep we road up and down the mountain in with it’s dog co-pilot. 🙂

See some other photos in my gallery: 4×4 Jeep Ride up the Mountain. And tomorrow some photos from our hike on the Pioneers Trail!

¡Pura Vida!

A “Lifer” Bird First Morning!

Right after breakfast in a garden behind the restaurant I got several shots of this male and a few weaker shots of the female Yellow-bellied Siskin – Spinus xanthogastrus (eBird link). Because the wifi or internet is weaker or slower here I will be trying to use only one photo per post but to include both male & female, two photos today! :-)

Yellow-bellied Siskin, Male, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.
Yellow-bellied Siskin, Female, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.

See my gallery of Yellow-bellied Siskin with more shots from this morning. This morning I went to a new garden on the hotel campus and have a lot of photos of a lot of birds that I will slowly share, one bird at a time and then tomorrow morning I plan to go to Batsu Gardens across the road for even more birds. I did get a couple of butterflies this morning and a caterpillar, but this trip will be mostly birds it appears! :-)

¡Pura Vida!

Beginning My Christmas Retreat

As always, my faithful driver, Walter, got me through all the Christmas traffic going around San Jose and up to my mountain hideaway in Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota. This time his wife Gabby and their year old daughter got to ride with us through the traffic of one wreck, lots of Christmas shoppers and half of Costa Rica beginning their summer vacation this weekend! I treated them to a late lunch at Savegre and the waiter made this photo. And believe it or not a Resplendent Quetzal visited us in a tree by our outside dining area. And my camera was not with me! 🙁

Walter Ramirez Family with me at Savegre.

Mountain flowers are different from those in the lowlands, so one of my first shots was of flowers and there will be many more! :-)

Mountain Flowers, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota.

¡Pura Vida!

No Laptop No Blog Post

My laptop computer just went into the local repair shop and it takes 24 hours to get the needed part from San José, meaning it will barely be ready before I leave Friday morning for my Christmas trip to San Gerardo de Dota, thus no posts until Friday niģht from the mountains. This is the only post I will type on this tiny phone screen! I hate it! :-) And I can only figure out how to include a photo already used – sorry!

Today is “Underdog Day!”

Underdog Day (December 15): If you watched this past year’s World Cup, you know the power of an underdog story. Unknowns Morocco and Croatia gained millions of fans as they upset top-ranked soccer teams. But underdogs are everywhere. The shy classmate running for student government. The teammate who is usually on the bench. Cheer for them today. Your support may be what helps them achieve their goals. And feel better about themselves.  I know. As one of the shy, unknown kids in my 1958 H.S. graduating class of a thousand other kids, I received a citizenship award that the local newspaper called “The Typical Jane and Joe Award,” with a photo of me and an equally shy and unknown girl. It made us both feel better about ourselves!   🙂  Try to make someone you know feel better about themselves today!

“Underdog” receives Citizenship Award” in 1958.

¡Pura Vida!

November Macaw Lodge GALLERY!

Finally, I have the photo gallery for my November trip to Macaw Lodge completed, just 6 days before I begin my Christmas Trip to San Gerardo de Dota! I have been very busy since that last trip! 🙂 I will now blog those 6 days before Christmas trip on my garden and some more from Macaw Lodge. :-)

This was just my second time to go to Macaw Lodge which is at the closest national park to where I live. And though I’ve visited 4 other lodges/hotels near that park, Macaw is my favorite and I’m likely to be returning! :-) You can read about the lodge on their website linked here: Macaw Lodge, and it is a lot more than a yoga retreat which the site seems to emphasize! :-) And now for my unique (and I think good) collection of photos from just 3 nights at Macaw Lodge last month, click the gallery image below or go to this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-November-21-24-Macaw-Lodge-Carara-NP

CLICK image to visit this gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

AND ABOUT MY OTHER BLOG POST TODAY: Back in January I read an article about fun or funny “Annual National Days” in the U.S. and quickly did a blog post on what I thought was the most interesting one for each of the 12 months and today is the last one on “Underdog Day!” I promise not to do anything like that again, though it was kind of fun when I put together all 12 posts! :-) Tomorrow I’m back to only one nature blog post each day! My real passion! :-) 

¡Hasta luego!

2nd Sighting of Rare Butterfly!

On butterfliesandmoths.org I have the only reports of this Yellow-haired Skipper, Typhedanus cajeta. My first sighting was earlier this year in my garden and this time it was at Macaw Lodge, Carara National Park. The above link is to the online butterfly site I volunteer for with only my sightings included there now. Plus here is a link to my Yellow-haired Skipper GALLERY. And below are 3 photos of this simple brown butterfly from my November visit to Macaw Lodge . . .

Yellow-haired Skipper, Macaw Lodge, Carara, Costa Rica
Continue reading “2nd Sighting of Rare Butterfly!”

My Table & Pix at Art Fair

This was where I spent most of last weekend at my table in the pre-Christmas art fair called Just In Time or JIT. I sold more than a lot of the others but not near enough to make it worth the work, time and expense. This will be my last time for this show and I’m out of the Galería January 14, meaning that after that if you want any of my pix for wall art, in books, on merchandise, etc., you will have to go through my website and order online. I’m no longer selling stuff in person! :-)

Interesting side note: In one of the photos below you will see the word “Pizza” on the next building. It was not open last weekend but will be sometime this week and it will be the very first American chain fast food in Atenas: Papa John’s Pizza! :-) It will be interesting to see if they make it with locally owned pizza places literally all over town! Plus other themed restaurants here also serve pizza, so I question the business decision, but pizza is very popular here (especially with the young) and they may have the marketing skills, the money (and lower prices) to put all the locals out of business like Walmart does when they move into other communities. Fortunately Walmart is not in Atenas as such, though they are the owners of two local supermarkets, Maxi-Pali and the smaller Pali Supermercado which do have lower prices and Walmart-brand stuff, but neither the quality overall nor service of the local cooperative supermercado that I prefer. I try to avoid such American places and don’t plan to eat pizza at Papa John’s! :-) As a smaller town we have been fortunate to avoid the invasion of American fast-food joints that are all over San Jose and Alajuela. Here’s 4 photos of my stuff at the weekend art fair . . .

My Table at the top of stairs going up to most of shops, including Galería Artenas.
Continue reading “My Table & Pix at Art Fair”