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Yes, I’m still working on all my photos from Arenal, but with so few Toucans in my Guarumo Tree this year, I had to share this afternoon’s rapid stop by two Keel-billed Toucans to snack on some Cecropia Flowers before flying off to wherever they spend the night! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
And you might enjoy my Keel-billed Toucan GALLERY.
This was my fourth time to visit Arenal Observatory Lodge (link to lodge website) and the second time as my annual “Christmas Getaway!” The first two days we had a lot of rain & wind unlike the other Christmas visit and I thought it was not going to be a good place for Christmas this year, but then Christmas Day was a bright blue-sky, sunshiny day and we had a mixture of weather my remaining 4 nights there, and though I initially thought I didn’t see as much wildlife, I actually did pretty good with 27 species of birds and more butterflies and “other wildlife” than before! So – No big toucans or monkeys! I had a lot of other wildlife and some of my best frog photos plus more butterflies! 🙂
Also, I had less energy than on the previous trips here (cancer recovery is slow) and I scheduled no early-morning guided bird walk like usual, so to have 27 birds on my own is okay! 🙂 And I will be sharing those bird and butterfly photos in future days on this blog when I finally get them organized.
So . . . YES! I continue to rate Arenal Observatory Lodge as one of the best places in Costa Rica for birds and for my nature fix AND also for the lodge services with an excellent room and gourmet food, surrounded by one of the largest rainforests in the country! And yes, it is not cheap, but worth what you pay in my opinion. Superb guides, the best of other services, plus the best maintained wilderness trails that are featured below in this post, a birding tower, a big waterfall, and more birds, butterflies and trails than almost anywhere else! So yes – I will return to Arenal Observatory Lodge! But next time I’m going in May again, for the beautiful sunsets over the lake every night, and maybe monkeys then! 🙂 I think the sun moves further south this time of year, putting the sunset behind the mountains, but in May, it’s right over the lake! 🙂
Below is a Gallery of some rainforest trails at Arenal Observatory, then links to the photo galleries of my other 3 previous visits with a comparison of birds and other wildlife photographed. 🙂
From the top of a volcano to the mangroves at the ocean’s edge and even in the tiny garden behind my casita, I’ve daily photographed nature for 8 years here and called that photography “Nature as Art!” and shared it in this blog. 🙂
I like this Collins Online Dictionary definition:
Nature is all the animals, plants, and other things in the world that are not made by people, and all the events and processes that are not caused by people.
Thus in nature I worship God and find my peace & inspiration from Him, the creator of it all!
Each year I find it difficult to select only 12 photos from the year and I first tried to come up with 12 “categories” of nature to make sure I selected a variety, but that became as cumbersome as trying to have a “photo-a-month.” So I decided to just stick with “12 favorites,” even if more than 12 are favorites! 🙂
So, however labeled, here’s 12 photos I made in 2022!
Happy New Year and Pura vida! 🙂
To the nearly 500 email subscribers: I hope you read on for the other 11 favorite photos . . .
For my final morning post from Arenal Observatory Lodge, three photos which are sort of representative of what I photographed most while here this time with the weather eliminating some of my favorite subjects here, though there are still more things I photographed to be shared in the next few days or weeks including more of these three categories! 🙂
And these are not my favorites in each category, but rather representative ones from my last full day here . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Tomorrow I will give an evaluation of this visit and whether I recommend Arenal Observatory for Christmas Week.
As a waterfall lover, I don’t miss any waterfall that a lodge or park has and this “main” falls at Arenal Observatory Lodge is one of the nicer ones, and it’s my third time to visit it! There are other “seasonal” waterfalls here for when the rain is heavy, but the longer trails to them are more dangerous when wet for this old man who falls easily, so I haven’t tried any of them. 🙂
The people who were at the falls the same time as me were all Europeans from England, Holland, Germany and maybe one more country. We also have other countries represented at the lodge this week including Canada, Japan and China and though I haven’t met anyone from the states yet, there are most likely some here. The ones playing in the waterfall plunge pool are Europeans – 4 shots including this first scenic one for the email notice . . .
As I celebrated living in Costa Rica for 8 years, I had a very special Christmas Eve Dinner and this morning went to the Butterfly Conservancy in El Castillo on the lake, then hiked one of the trails here at Arenal Observatory and after another great dinner of baby back ribs, I’m going on a private Night Hike, just me and the guide! It was their suggestion since with the regular night hike of a group of 10 they knew I would find it difficult to make photos. Most of “my” lodges here really take care of this old man! 🙂 Photos from the night hike will come tomorrow.
And I haven’t had time to process photos of butterflies or anything else today, so here’s photos of the great sunny weather we had today and my first view this week of the volcano! The lake shot was at about sunset time, though the sun is not seen there this time of year, it’s still more pleasant with clear skies! 🙂 Much more to share tomorrow!
¡Pura Vida!
Even though it was cloudy and beginning to rain, the main characters of this place were there to welcome all! In addition to the above Coatis there were the usual birds, many more than shown below . . .
Continue reading “Observatory Welcome Committee”
I asked my gardener to plant some different species of Heliconia in my Heliconia flower bed that then had only three species of the dozens available here. Four weeks ago he planted 4 different plants, not indicating what any of them were. This first one was the most different-looking for a Heliconia (which I just learned it’s not!) but I was still pleased to see that it is the first of the four new plants to bloom! I’m writing this ahead on Sunday with 3 photos, each a day apart (Fri-Sat-Sun), and if it changes as much as I expect by Tuesday (the 5th day) I will add another photo of a much fuller bloom for this post scheduled for Wednesday morning the 21st. 🙂
After searching heliconia species online and not finding this, I tried other searches and finally discovered that it is “Hedychium gardnerianum, the Kahili ginger, Yellow ginger lily, Kahila garland-lily, wild ginger or ginger lily.“ It is in the ginger family of flowers (Zingiberaceae), native to India, which makes it fine for our tropical climate here, and I’m already pleased with this new flower, even if not a heliconia! 🙂
For the emailed post announcement, I have only “Day 1” photo, the green plant with a green bud here (last Friday). You will have to click the “Read More” link to see the progressive versions of this beautiful flower! 🙂
The park staff has finished everything for the playground quadrant except installing the new playground equipment which someone who knows says will be here in January. 🙂 Here’s the area of the playground with swings and monkey bars (or whatever) to go on that gravel area seen from two directions in these two photos.
¡Pura Vida!
My gallery of ongoing park renovations arranged chronologically with most recent on top. Slow but sure! 🙂
REPORT ON THE RECENT ART SHOW: I sold more than a thousand dollars worth of photos when all was tabulated, much better than I expected! And I was even more pleased with how many local readers of my blog I have, with many showing up at the art show, and buying something and asking for my autograph in one of my photo books! It is nice to have your work appreciated, even when it is a hobby in retirement! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
I was told that I could plant my potted Poinsettia from last year but it would not bloom in my garden because the ones they sell at Christmas are specially treated to bloom just that one Christmas and for gardens there is another species or variety. Well . . . they were half-way correct. Mine has three red petals (which are really leaves that turn red) and is nice in my garden, but not really the same as the big multi-red-leaves version I got before Christmas last year. And on my walks through town I also cellphone-snapped a photo of someone else’s Poinsettia which is obviously a different variety and probably one of the garden species that do bloom in the gardens. It is below this photo of the one in my garden . . .