Category: Hotels-Lodges

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I’M HERE! — In the Rainforest!

I got here in time to dump my stuff in my cabin before a delicious lunch that I was able to eat all of! Yay! 🙂 It’s overcast with some scattered showers but I explored the trails a little and scheduled 4 activities this week with the rest of time exploring on my own! And the 4? Well, boring old-man activities compared to some available here: Morning & Afternoon Birding hikes in 2 totally different locations, a sunset/night hike looking for night creatures, and a morning Primary Rainforest 3-hour conservation hike. The rest of the week is photographing a lot, resting, and finally eating real food for a week! My radiation taste is not totally gone, but greatly improved and I’m eating just about everything now! 🙂

My thatched-roof open-air hut with a cool breeze off the Pacific now! 🙂
The Pacific Ocean View from my room porch on an overcast day.

I’ve seen a Crested Caracara (on the road here), and here: lots of Scarlet Macaws, lots of little birds not identified and a family of Spider Monkeys, all by my thatched roof cabin. And I’m looking forward to happy hour snacks before a great dinner. There are about 25 tourists in this lodge (from all over the world including children), which is not bad with Covid still raging around the globe! And it is a 45 minute drive (fording streams) from the primitive landing strip in Puerto Jiménez to the lodge or if you must, an 8-hour+ drive from the San Jose Airport. 

On the Road to Bosque Del Cabo.

Bosque del Cabo Website

And finally . . .

My Rainforest “Internet Cafe” for the Week!

The “Boa Bar” at Bosque Del Cabo Rainforest Lodge . . .

Your nightly report from the rainforest will be uploaded each afternoon from the above poolside location! And oh yes, the internet connection is great (at least today!).

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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New Ranking of Birding Lodges

On January 5, 2020 I did a Blog Post 2020 Ranking of My Birding Lodges, which is now out of date and it even included Nicaragua and Panama lodges, where today’s is only Costa Rica and I have included the multiple trips to places I repeat with each bird count, but only those with 10 or more birds photographed by me. Even on eBird I count only the ones I get a photo of. These are from my birding visits since 2015, my first year living in Costa Rica.

Montezuma Oropendola at Arenal Observatory

The Feature Photo at top is my Treehouse Room at Maquenque Lodge, Boca Tapada.

And the 2021 Rankings by number of species are . . .

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My CANCER Adventure Book

Mostly my real time journal and blog posts plus photos and other information that is meant to be inspirational for someone else going through cancer, especially my specific Parotid Tumor Cancer with 68 pages and 87 photos, including a few of my nature posts during that time. 🙂

I also emphasize the value of nature in healing for me. And the title “True Grit” is explained in the book and on back cover, kind of funny! 🙂

You can see a free electronic preview at https://www.blurb.com/b/10778284-true-grit Or click the cover image below:

Me in front of Radiation Machine on book cover.

You can also browse through all my nature photo books while in the bookstore or click on Bookstore on the menu bar above.

¡Pura Vida!

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Pre-Rain Walk

It was cloudy before the rain (better for my radiation-damaged skin) but I could see, hear and smell the rain coming. Soon after I was back from my “Country Lane” Walk, our afternoon shower started which has become regular now, meaning that the rainy season has really started, after severa false-starts. 🙂 The above feature photo is from my terrace with rain in the hills behind Atenas Centro and soon it came all over. I never tire of trying to make a photo of those hills which are never the same. This one is a 4-shot panorama.

One of my favorite shots from the walk . . .

Cacti along the entry wall of Hotel Colinas Del Sol.

And four more shots from the walk + . . .

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San Jose Finale

Final for this trip or purpose here, but I will be back! Everyone who lives in the country has to go to the big city sometimes. 🙂

And because nature walks have helped me get through this cancer treatment more than maybe anything else, I chose nature shots from my last couple of days here. And for those who don’t know, today was my last radiation treatment and that is why I can return to Atenas and enjoy the nature there while taking possibly months to recover from the side effects of radiation. I will report on that progress along with the joys of nature in my little coffee farming town of Atenas. Pura vida! And now, MY LAST NATURE SHOTS FROM THIS SAN JOSE TRIP . . .

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These Berries are Ripe . . .

. . . and so am I, almost! I’m redder or pinker now on my face from the radiation 🙂 and also ripe at the point of being almost finished. Today, Tuesday, I lack only 2 more radiation treatments, meaning I’m finished by noon Thursday! Yay! Starting Thursday afternoon I’m home to stay for at least 5 weeks before I have a trip planned. And hoping I have some taste and swallowing ability back by then (the lodge food is said to be excellent!), though my doc says to not count on the taste totally returning that soon. She says it can take up to 6 months for some people to have it totally but gain it little by little, week by week. Since my radiation was only on the left side of my mouth, maybe I will get it back sooner. Hoping! 🙂

The red berries are on the big tree at the hotel that had been yellow berries for weeks but now red, ripe and ready for the birds and other creatures! The blue or black berries below are in a yard I walk by everyday to and from the clinic and Walter, my driver, says they are sweet and if people can pick them before the birds and animals, they add them to dishes for sweetness or just eat as berries.

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Another Summer Concert & Health Notes

Friday and Saturday (after I’ve gone back to Atenas) the hotel is hosting another concert weekend featuring Debi Nova singing on Friday night from the stage in the swimming pool! Since the Ministry of health is not allowing public venue concerts because of Covid, the hotel gets around that by renting rooms with balconies overlooking the swimming pool, priced by quality of view! 🙂 And a max of 4 to a room. The above link on hotel’s site has photos of earlier concerts with people watching from balconies and below is this Friday’s singer Debi Nova . . .

Debi Nova

There won’t be a crowd of thousands but a fun experience for a lot of young adults I’m sure and a tiny boost to one of the many hotels suffering from the Pandemic lack of tourists. Below are my photos of the setup as it looked on Thursday and I won’t be here to photograph the concert. 🙂 . . .

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Hotel Art

As Friday’s post featured a few works of art at the Radiotherapy Clinic, this post shows some of the art I’ve enjoyed being around at my hotel during this therapy time. It’s not a replacement for visiting the closed museums, but it is always enjoyable to be around good artwork anytime and anywhere!

Breakfast Bar Art



And a short slide show of more . . .

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Oxen Art

At one point in the early 2000’s it seemed to have been a popular community art project to create a bunch of statues of something representing a community or state and have an art contest with local painters. Well, that was done in Costa Rica sometime prior to 2009 and the oxen animal (not the more famous ox cart) was chosen. A winner is chosen with his/her cash prize and then all the entries become “Public Art” placed around town in parks or other public places or businesses and individuals can buy with a large donation to “Public Art” in that community. (See below how that was done 3 times during my years in Nashville.)

Long story short, one of the “Art Ox” ended up in the gardens of Best Western Irazú it was called then, now Best Western Plus San Jose. FYI, that is coffee beans painted on the side of the oxen and the basket he is figuratively eating out of is one of the traditional coffee bean picking baskets used by workers to harvest coffee beans when ripe. The only other painted ox I have photographed was at Hampton Inn Airport and I can’t find that photo.

Ox Art, Best Western Plus, San Jose, Costa Rica

A Similar Public Art Project in Nashville 3 times

And with those three contests and additions of art I managed to photograph most if not all of the entries which are now public art like the oxen here in Costa Rica:

It is fun to live in places when neat things like these art projects happen! Just a small part of my many memories of 37 years in Nashville!

More Art in Costa Rica Galleries

¡Pura Vida!