Category: Costa Rica

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El Silencio

Walter drove me over the mountains in the rain and we arrived in the rain. To explain the “over the mountains” bit – Atenas is in a valley with hills and so is the village of Bajos del Toro and El Silencio Lodge. Between us is a row of mountain, the continental divide. Atenas is on the “Pacific Slope” and Bajos del Toro is on the Caribbean (or Atlantic) Slope. You know, all the rivers have to go into one ocean or the other! 🙂

And from one rural area to another means very narrow roads, and very winding over the mountains with lots of what we called “hairpin curves” in Arkansas or switchbacks. I am so glad I use a driver now! I would have been a nervous wreck (or dead) driving over those narrow mountain roads. BUT it is so beautiful in the mountains around here and that’s why some people have called Costa Rica “The Little Switzerland of the Americas.”

I chose Mon-Fri because local working people go to these places on the weekends when they are off from work and thus they are less crowded on weekdays. But I forgot that the government offices and most businesses celebrate nearly all holidays on Monday now. Our Independence Day is 15 September (tomorrow) and they celebrated it this year on Monday (Today!) and with no parades allowed, many people went to the beach or a lodge like this for the long weekend. So a lot of people still here today from San Jose but nearly everyone leaves tomorrow I was told. So it will be the more typical half empty COVID-era resort! 🙂

Though it rained off and on all afternoon and still raining this evening, I hiked around a little and took a lot more photos than these samples of my arrival here. The restaurant is excellent with gourmet food (and prices) that I enjoyed with a grilled rainbow trout tonight that was raised right here in their own trout ponds. I got back to my room with my bed covers turned down and two little chocolates to make me smile. Another great day! 🙂

  • Many Mountain Streams
  • My Villa’s Jacuzzi
  • My Front Porch
  • My Villa #4
  • Main Building & Restaurant
Before dinner, I soaked in that Jacuzzi! Wow! Love it!

El Silencio Lodge Website

Or see THIS TRIP GALLERY: 2020 El Silencio Lodge & Reserve.

¡Pura Vida!

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Morning Fog

A fog — Covering — My hills

In nature, everything has a job. The job of the fog is to beautify further the existing beauties! ~Mehmet Murat Ildan

These photos were made on an early morning walk yesterday above my house looking for birds but finding a different beauty. I leave at noon today for Bajos del Toro, checking in at about 1:30 this afternoon. I hope for another post this evening and at least one a day from there this week.

See my Vistas Galleries

¡Pura Viida!

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Cabanis’s Wren + 5

I left about 5:30 this morning for a walk to help me shape up for the coming week of hikes and to maybe get some birds on the hill above my house, always hoping for a “lifer” or first time bird. It was cool and very foggy and so I wrote my first blog post on the fog which I’ve already scheduled for tomorrow morning.

THEN I went through my bird photos and found that I did indeed get a “lifer” this morning, even if not a good photo. It is the featured photo, a Cabanis’s Wren (eBird article link) in bad light and too far away with lots of limbs and leaves, but I got it! 🙂 Another new bird in my gallery and that now makes 5 different wrens and a total of 344 identified birds in Costa Rica plus a few unidentified ones. So a nice surprise this morning in my neighborhood. All the other birds today are fairly common, except maybe the Yellow-faced Grassquit which I have photographed in two other places (better photos) plus one juvenile here earlier.

  • Gray-capped Flycatcher
  • Clay-colored Thrush or Yigüirro
  • Cabanis’s Wren
  • Yellow-faced Grassquit
  • Variable Seedeater
  • White-winged Dove
My morning walk birds today. CLICK image to enlarge.

¡Pura Vida!

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Chisos Banded Skipper

My Central America Butterfly book has 119 pages of Skippers, some barely differentiated by the size or shape of a dot or dash on the wing, meaning that I am seldom 100% sure of my identifications and I have a whole folder of photos labeled unidentified skippers and another of unidentified other butterflies, but this is the closest match in the book and online plus I’ve photographed him before in my garden and given this same ID, so I will stick with it or be consistent! 🙂 See all my butterfly photos in CR Butterflies Gallery OR more of my photos of this Chisos Banded Skipper.

This is my last post from home before going to Bajos del Toro (Reviews of town and area on Go Visit CR site, My Tan Feet an expat couple’s folksy site and travel site Anywhere Costa Rica) & where I stay at El Silencio Lodge tomorrow, when/where I hope to post something from there tomorrow night and at least once a day during this week. The nature adventures continue! 🙂

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful. –Alice Walker

¡Pura Vida!

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More Waterfalls Next Week

After my love of birds & butterflies it just might be waterfalls next for me! I love to see and photograph them and there are oh so many in costa Rica! The above Feature Photo is mine of the San Fernando Waterfall in Cinchona, Alajuela Province which is kind of similar to the Bajos del Toro Waterfall I will see next week along with a bunch more.

And if you like waterfalls too, see my Costa Rica Waterfalls Gallery with 38 waterfalls I’ve already seen and photographed here! And that gallery’s about to grow! 🙂

I’m quite excited about wandering north of here about an hour’s drive for the mountains, the falls, and what has been called a luxury lodge by my fellow-traveler doctor friend – we will see! I’m staying at the El Silencio Lodge that has 7 waterfalls on its own property (4 just for repelling which I will not do! but maybe photograph) plus it’s located near several other big waterfalls that attract tourists (when we have them) 🙂 but I will get to see without too many other people around – just us local Ticos! 🙂 In addition to the biggest, Del Toro, I plan to photograph Blue Hole Waterfall and a smaller one called Las Gemelas Waterfall. Plus I’ve heard there are several smaller ones near these two. We will see. I’m going with a masked hotel guide.

I may have already told you, but this is a “replacement trip” for my originally scheduled week on the Caribbean Beach, our east coast, at Puerto Viejo, Hotel Banana Azul where I usually go every September (their lowest rain month), but Sansa Air cancelled both my flights and it is too far to go in a public bus now with the virus and too expensive to use my driver. So . . . I postponed it until next September (2021) and by paying ahead got a good discount while helping their current low cash flow. Teamwork! 🙂 Pura vida!

And if you wonder about Coronavirus in such places, see the El Silencio Health Protocol. This is similar to the many things all hotels/lodges in Costa Rica are doing for protection from COVID-19. We have a lot of cases in country now, but mainly in the big cities, especially in San Jose where I never go now, and I feel safe traveling solo in outdoor places like this. Plus I wear both a mask and face shield now everywhere I go outside my house or hotel room. Plus I’m helping the local economy. 🙂

3 of the El Silencio Falls on lodge property that I can hike to on my on, solo!

Or see THIS TRIP GALLERY: 2020 El Silencio Lodge & Reserve. (Link added here after the trip.)

¡Pura Vida!

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The Happy Wanderer

It was my favorite song growing up, or at least while in Boy Scouts and hiking a lot, which we sang as a group then (Boy Scouts love the “Ha, ha, ha, ha” part), now I only sing when alone. 🙂

“The Happy Wanderer” (“Der fröhliche Wanderer” or “Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann”) is a popular song. The original text was written (in German of course) by Florenz Friedrich Sigismund (1791–1877). It was made famous by the Obernkirchen Children’s Choir, in Germany named Schaumburger Märchensänger. ~Wikipedia (for more info) + Lyrics below.

Off and on I threaten to write a biography of just words – stories, feelings, and challenges (unlike my current photo biographies of mostly pictures) and when done I hope to call it “The Happy Wander” which describes much of my life (even during the difficulties) and especially now being Retired in Costa Rica! Tomorrow I will tell you about my next planned wandering – it’s to a new place for me next week, but for now enjoy the lyrics of my favorite song, then go hiking! 🙂

The Happy Wanderer

I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.

Chorus:
Val-de-ri–Val-de-ra-
Val-de-ri–Val-de ha ha ha ha ha ha
Val-de-ri–Val-de-ra.
My knapsack on my back.

I love to wander by the stream
That dances in the sun,
So joyously it calls to me,
“Come! Join my happy song!”

Chorus:
Val-de-ri–Val-de-ra-
Val-de-ri–Val-de ha ha ha ha ha ha
Val-de-ri–Val-de-ra.
My knapsack on my back.

I wave my hat to all I meet,
And they wave back to me,
And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
From ev’ry green-wood tree.

Chorus:
Val-de-ri–Val-de-ra-
Val-de-ri–Val-de ha ha ha ha ha ha
Val-de-ri–Val-de-ra.
My knapsack on my back.

High overhead, the skylarks wing,
They never rest at home,
But just like me, they love to sing,
As o’er the world we roam.

Chorus:
Val-de-ri–Val-de-ra-
Val-de-ri–Val-de ha ha ha ha ha ha
Val-de-ri–Val-de-ra.
My knapsack on my back.

Oh, may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die!
Oh may I always laugh and sing
Beneath God’s clear blue sky!

Chorus:
Val-de-ri–Val-de-ra-
Val-de-ri–Val-de ha ha ha ha ha ha
Val-de-ri–Val-de-ra.
My knapsack on my back

My Boy Scouts pages tell you when and how my wanderings all began! 🙂 And more walking links on my Hiking & Camping Page.

Photo Galleries of my Costa Rica TRIPS (6+ years of wanderings here)

Photo Galleries of Pre-Costa Rica TENNESSEE Travel (Every state park & lots more)

Photo Galleries of my Pre-Costa Rica WORLDWIDE Travel (17 countries & most U.S. states)

“Oh, may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die!
Oh may I always laugh and sing
Beneath God’s clear blue sky!”

🙂

¡Pura Vida!