Category: Hotels-Lodges

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Aging Slider or Mud Turtle

There is a little channel of water on two sides of the outdoor restaurant in Hotel Banana Azul with lots of Mesoamerican Sliders swimming and some fish. This one attracted my attention as he rested on these floating plants and though most likely a Slider, because he doesn’t show the usual yellow stripes on his neck, I gave the option of Mud Turtle in the title. 🙂

Most likely an aging Mesoamerican Slider, though possibly a Mud Turtle at Banana Azul.
Most likely an aging Mesoamerican Slider, though possibly a Mud Turtle at Banana Azul.

¡Pura Vida!

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¡Pura Vida!

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Immature Green Basilisk

Much more popular than yesterday’s Striped Basilisk is the Green or Emerald Basilisk which, when full grown, look like a bright little dinosaur! 🙂 This immature one doesn’t have the head or back crests yet, so not as impressive, but still a colorful little reptile! 🙂 One more of the “Other Wildlife” photographed at Hotel Banana Azul, Caribe Sur. And this one is definitely found on both the Atlantic and Pacific Slopes of Costa Rica, though almost always in the lowlands near water. Both species of Basilisks are often called the “Jesus Christ Lizard” because they walk on water! 🙂

Emerald or Green Basilisk, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica
Emerald or Green Basilisk, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica

See many more and better photos in my Emerald Basilisk GALLERY!

¡Pura Vida!

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Nite in Colinas del Sol

Yesterday I had my house fumigated for insects, mainly for an invasion of two different kinds of ants and believed the treatment would be more effective if I left my house closed up with the fogging and spray overnight and thus not healthy for me to sleep there. So I spent last night at our little neighborhood hotel, Colinas del Sol, which is a group of cabins along with a few larger, long-term rental houses. I was put in Villa 3 and snapped a few shots before the afternoon rain started. I can’t go anywhere without capturing photos of the nature there!

I’m writing this last night and my plans are to enjoy their breakfast included with the room this morning and mid-morning return home to open up and air out the house, with all the ceiling fans on for awhile! 🙂 Then enjoy my ant-free house! And tomorrow’s blog post will return to the continuing reports on Hotel Banana Azul in Caribe Sur! I’m still processing photos with a lot more to share! 🙂

View from my Cabin surrounded by forest-like gardens.
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Birds at Banana Azul

Here’s photos of 8 species of birds I photographed at Hotel Banana Azul which is fewer than usual like everywhere has been this year! And there are 10 photos because the male and female Scarlet-rumped Tanager look like 2 different species 🙂 and the juvenile Tropical Kingbird looks like a different species from the adult, so I included a photo of each. These 8 are all fairly common species all over Costa Rica except the Wood-Rail which is only in wetlands or coastal rainforests like the location of Banana Azul where there has always been a family of Wood-Rails living in their garden by their lily pond. Note that I saw 9 totally different species at Gandoca-Manzanillo (link to those bird photos) and a photo of only one bird at Cahuita but it was my Lifer this trip. 🙂 Thus in this trip gallery there will be a total of 18 species of birds this year, which is fewer than usual but not bad! 🙂 I always get a lot of photos in the Caribbean side of Costa Rica!

Gray-cowled Wood-Rail, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica.
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My “Lifer” Bird on this Trip

And for new readers, the explanation of “Lifer:” It is a bird that someone sees for the first time in his life. You can see on my “life list” that I have observed 552 species from many countries in the Americas and Africa, with 373 of those in Costa Rica. And that does not count this bird because I haven’t reported it on eBird yet! He was the only bird I got a decent shot of at the Cahuita National Park, though I got photos of 14 species of butterflies there! 🙂

It is just an inconspicuous little flycatcher, found only in lowland rainforests of Central America and the northern half of South America. I am pleased with these two shots of both front and side views! It is a Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher, Terenotriccus erythrurus (linked to the eBird description).

Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher, Cahuita National Park, Limón, Costa Rica.
Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher, Cahuita National Park, Limón, Costa Rica.

You will note that I saw and photographed many more birds in Gandoca-Manzanillo (which is always the case) and those birds were linked to in an earlier blog post on Gandoca-Manzanillo which can be seen in the first sub-gallery created for this trip gallery: Refugio Gandoca-Manzanillo. It is a wildlife refuge with fewer people visiting than the national park and has always been a better place for birds than Cahuita for me. I photographed 9 species there, 7 species at the hotel and just this one at Cahuita, BUT IT IS A LIFER! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Saturday Sunrise

Sunrise, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica
Sunrise, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica
Sunrise, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica

The first shot was earliest, about 4:45 am and increasingly later until 3rd at about 5 am. It changes rapidly over the fifteen minutes or so of rising. I also gradually zoomed in on the sky in each progressive shot.

See a free preview of my book: Sunrise Banana Azul with all 2-page spread photos on “lay flat” photo paper.

¡Pura Vida!

¡Pura Vida!

¡Pura Vida!

¡Pura Vida!

¡Pura Vida!

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Zebra-striped Hairstreak

This Zebra-striped Hairstreak, Panthiades bathildis, is the third new species I photographed yesterday on the beach road behind Hotel Banana Azul in Puerto Viejo, Limón. It looks similar to another species I also got this year and last year called Togarna Hairstreak, Arawacus togarna (linked to my gallery where you can see the differences in the stripes and the orange trim on the two species). My two shots of this new species below are of the only one I saw.

Zebra-striped Hairstreak, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica.
Zebra-striped Hairstreak, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

NOTE: This is the 3rd and last of the three new species I photographed yesterday on the beach road behind the hotel. This morning an excellent new local guide named Henis took me birding in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge at 5:30 am, where I got at least one new species of birds and at least two new species of butterflies. And thus I’m beginning to get way behind on reporting from the South Caribbean of Costa Rica – but will eventually catch up! 🙂 This afternoon (Wed) and tomorrow I will continue my nature photo collections at Banana Azul, then on Friday Henis is taking me to Cahuita National Park for more wildlife photography, though they don’t open until 8 am! It’s turning out to be a great week here in the South Caribbean while many of my friends back in Atenas are getting the new ARTenas Gallería ready to open on October 4! A lot is happening in pura vida Costa Rica! 🙂

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Calospila cilissa

Another new species for me and if approved will be a new species for the website I volunteer with, butterflies and moths dot org. I’m requesting the addition and I’m pretty certain of the ID based first on the Jeffrey Glassberg book and then iNaturalist website. Note that I have indicated male and female in my photos, since I managed to photograph both and there is a difference! 🙂 Here’s one shot for the email version and then all four shots below that in a little gallery . . .

Underneath Side of the Male Calospila cilissa, Puerto Viejo, Limón
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1 of 3 New Species Today

The Cabbage White is a common butterfly over most of the United States, but this is my first time to see one here in Costa Rica. The first shot of four here is not as good a photo but it solidifies the identification with that lone black spot on the upper wing and also makes it a male, since the females have two black spots! 🙂

Cabbage White
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