Category: Photography

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Nature Unfolding

In October or November every year my Strangler Fig Tree or Ficus Tree locally looses all of its leaves in a week or two and immediately, before the last leaf falls, starts the replacement with new leaves, making beautiful picture of rebirth. The last time I blogged about it was in November 2015, called FALL? The Interesting Strangler Fig.

This year I decided to just focus on the growth of new leaves, the literal “Unfolding of Nature!” In Spanish the word for growth is crecimiento, which just sounds like what this tree is doing. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Check out my GALLERY Flora & Forest

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Central Park Work Resuming?

I had been trying to keep readers up-to-date on the renovation of Atenas Central Park but they mostly stopped work after February when the park was closed to the public because of COVID19, which would seem to me a good time to get the renovation finished without the bother of people. But no, they stopped work or maybe ran out of money? No one seems to know. Then in June they completed this one radial sidewalk, almost.

Well, the other day there was one man working on that one section of radial sidewalk they had finished and I then discovered that he was planting flowers! Great! Maybe we will have beautiful flowers like a few of Costa Rica towns central parks have. Well . . . it was just marigolds! Made me think of that great movie The Hotel Marigold! 🙂

Anyway, remaining faithful to my duty to report on the “Progress” in the renovation of Central Park Atenas, here is the latest! Marigolds! And the mass of color IS nice! 🙂

And don’t forget that I have a gallery of the step by step progress on the park, at first it was week by week, then month by month and I hope it is not now year by year! 🙂

Remodeling Central Park Atenas Gallery

¡Pura Vida!

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COVID19 Precautions at Bus Station

Going to Alajuela the other day I snapped a cellphone photo of the mask-requirement sign and the markers on the sidewalk to make sure we stand in line 1.8 meters apart (the same as 6 feet), but failed to snap the hand-washing station you must use before going in bus or in the little coffee shop.



Mask-wearing is required in public by national law now and almost everyone wears a mask. I only occasionally see a man or young person cheating but they usually have a mask in their hand or in their pocket.

¡Pura Vida!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=1135006880247553&ref=notif&notif_id=1602615272924463&notif_t=live_video
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Every Walk Colorful

I generally walk to town three or four days a week, 3-4 km+, and love every step of the way. On the same walk I photographed that new building in yesterday’s post, I also phone-snapped these two flowers in the yards of houses that have not yet been torn down for a new modern building! 🙂

My Flora & Forest Gallery

¡Pura Vida!

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Progress?

I’ve shared this kind of photo from Atenas before and it continues as one by one a traditional house with front porch, front and back yards (called gardens or terraces here), and all the signs of having raised one or more families over the year – boom! The house is torn down and occasionally modern apartments or more often now a business is built in its place. Since Diacsa is a construction company here, I assume that this will be their offices with what looks like a drive-through and place to park construction equipment behind it?

On either side of this attractive modern office building still stand traditional, spanish-influenced single-family houses that will of course never be the same now. The price of progress? Maybe. Or just the modern world we live in wherever it may be world-wide. I can’t help but remember similar progress during those years in Serekunda, The Gambia and yes, even in Nashville, Tennessee where I for a while lived in a modern row house where old traditional houses used to stand. World-wide!

This new building here is on Calle 3, just two blocks from Central Park and already this old residential street has many businesses and offices of all kinds, so it is likely to continue to become more commercial while our little farming town of what was not long ago around 5,000 people now has more than 8,000 and is becoming a distant suburb of the big cities of Alajuela & San Jose (where some residents work) + a magnet for foreign retirees (like me) with its claim of “The best weather in the world!” (¡El Mejor clima del mundo!).

Even little, natural Costa Rica succumbs to progress and with mixed emotions for some of us. But yes, I’m glad I live in a modern house with all the modern conveniences in a very nice development on the edge of downtown Atenas (because I can still walk to town!). 🙂 But I also cherish being close to nature and away from the big city of San Jose (an hour+ away). And best of all for my retirement lifestyle, living in the center of the country means I can easily travel to nature reserves and national parks all over Costa Rica. Plus my garden and neighborhood still have a lot of nature, birds, butterflies, etc. And it is close enough to town that I walk and do not own a car! Doing my little part in fighting climate change! The best of both worlds for me! 🙂 I love it here, progress or not! 🙂

POSTSCRIPT: See the conversation with the building owner below in the COMMENTS. And how I now see that this “house replacement” building truly is progress as told by one who grew up as a child in that house! I jumped to conclusions on thinking about progress as negative and truly such changes can be very good.

My Atenas Galleries

¡Pura Vida!

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All Americans can enter Costa Rica Starting Nov. 1

If Coronavirus Lockdown has created a need for you to take a vacation into nature, you can visit the most popular nature vacation country in the world, Costa Rica, starting November 1. Just test negative for the virus, wear your mask, and come social distance in paradise! But first read the Entry Requirements. We’ve been working hard to keep down the number of cases in Costa Rica and you will have to help us continue that. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

And to be motivated see my photo gallery Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA!

Featured Photo is a Keel-billed Toucan on my terrace at home in Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica. See more of my Keel-billed photos in my Keel-billed Gallery.

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Unnamed Skipper

And I continue to be frustrated by the difficulty of identifying many of the Skipper Butterflies. this one is patterned similar to 3 or 4 of the longtails but does not have a long tail! The white pattern is similar to some of the Poans, but none of them have the dark brown or black pattern. If anyone knows for sure the ID, I would love to label him! 🙂 Just click CONTACT on the menu to message me with the name. ¡Muchas gracias!

My Butterfly Gallery

¡Pura Vida!

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Ant Carries Leaf

I’m not positive that this is a Leafcutter Ant, though they are usually the ones carrying leaves like this or pieces of leaves. But they are usually a group of hundreds marching in a line like a well trained army! This guy was solo and when he go to my doormat at entrance to my terrace, he did not go around but marched right over it, moving to the left, holding the leaf in his mouth! The ant house is underground next to my terrace.

The little things in nature can keep you occupied for hours if you wanted! 🙂

“If an ant carries an object a hundred times its weight, you can carry burdens many times your size.”

― Matshona Dhliwayo

¡Pura Vida!

See my Leafcutter Ants gallery.