To maintain a vista from my terrace I have to top or prune off the top of both my Yellow Bells Tree and my Nance Tree about once a year.
I asked the gardener to write down the official name in Spanish which is “Arbole de vainillo” (Costa Rica only name – click for español description and other Spanish names by country). I just discovered that the Latin name Tecoma stans (click for English description) also has multiple English names listed in this order on Wikipedia: Yellow Trumpetbush, Yellow Bells (which I have been calling it because of the yellow bell-shaped flowers), Yellow Elder, and Ginger-Thomas. It is the official flower of the United States Virgin Islands and the floral emblem of The Bahamas, both using different names!
Topped the Yellow Bell & Nance Trees to preserve my vista.
And is very popular all over Costa Rica as a garden tree bringing 2-4 months of yellow flowers every year. You can see more photos of my trees blooming in my photo gallery named: My Home Gardens.
“In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.”
Coming in October: A visit to Rincón de la Vieja National Park & Hacienda Guachipelin, a volcano park lodge, this one in the north of Guanacaste, above Liberia (a new area for me) and another hotel that promises a great birding experience. I continue to try new places while occasionally repeating favorites like a redo of Arenal Observatory (another volcano birding lodge) coming in November. In Costa Rica – the adventures never end!
Included are shots from their “Rainforest Trail” which is a fairly dense forest with a lot of old growth big trees which is refreshing but difficult to photograph birds in because of all the limbs and leaves!
I did not show my room this time but the rooms are on the hill just above the restaurant and pool seen at top of feature photo above or in the pool photo below at upper left. Rooms 10-14 look directly over the ocean and sunsets, while other rooms like mine have garden views with partial ocean views. (My room views are seen in gallery Day Vistas.) I got more birds from my garden view but the premium rooms have better sunset views (cost more) and with clouds & rain every afternoon in rainy season there is not much sunset to see. See the hotel website for more information at https://www.cristal-ballena.com/
Cristal Ballena Hotel, Uvita
CLICK Image to Enlarge
Rainforest Trail
Ocean Views from Everywhere!
Rainforest Trees
Birds Slide Show in Bar When No Ball Game
Hotel on a Hill
Yoga Chapel? Hmmm!
Cabins
Banana Plant Flower
Beautiful Plants
Entrance Driveway
Trees Everywhere!
Bamboo
Bamboo
Hotel Seen from Ocean Boat
Stairs up to Rooms
In a Beautiful Forest
Restaurant by Pool w/ Meeting Room Above
Weddings Platform
Events Field
Old Growth Big Trees
“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more”
― Lord Byron
Just a few of the beautiful fruits and flowers blooming all over the hotel grounds at Cristal Ballena Hotel with 2 shots made on the river trip in same area.
“Almost every person, from childhood, has been touched by the untamed beauty of wildflowers.” ~Lady Bird Johnson
Though butterfly season is past its prime, there were quite a few at the Cristal Ballena Hotel in Uvita last week. Here’s some I was able to capture photos of (many I couldn’t).
One of the Leafwings
One of the Skippers
Gulf Fritillary
Gulf Fritillary & Banded Peacock
Postman
One of the Leafwings
Banded Peacock
Southern Dogface White
Future Butterfly!
Sara Longwing
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
Here are photos of 20 species of birds I photographed around the grounds of Cristal Ballena Hotel, about a third of them just outside my room! It is a good birding hotel! I actually photographed more species here than on the Mangrove Boat Tour! And I will record all of them on my eBird page, even though I got no new species this trip – but I did get several better photos of some species which is always another goal! Enjoy and as always CLICK image to enlarge or start a slideshow.
Wednesday of my visit to Uvita I took a taxi back close to the Palmar Sur Airport I flew into for the Mangrove Boat Tour on Rio Sierpe – my sixth place to do a Mangrove or River Tour in Costa Rica which always provides a lot of birds and other wildlife to photograph. This one did not disappoint! (Not my best, but very good!)
A Couple of Coincidences
Carlos Gonzales
The big surprise for my solo boat tour with a captain and guide was that Carlos Gonzales was the guide – the same guide I had in Drake Bay at Aguila de Osa Hotel in 2017. He is one of the few “older” guides I’ve had in Costa Rica with the majority looking like they are fresh out of college. Carlos is 71.
Plus the funny coincidence was that the boat captain was also named Carlos and my name in Spanish is Carlos! Tres Carloses!
Birds
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Green Heron
Mangrove Swallows
Scarlet Macaw
Bronzed Cowbird
Little Blue Heron
Gray-cowled Woodrail
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Boat-billed Heron
Barn Owl
White Ibis
Great Egret
Purple Gallinule
Spotted Sandpiper
Social Flycatcher
Common Potoo
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Other Wildlife
American Alligator
White-faced Capuchin Monkey
Green Iguana
Central American Tree Boa
Mantled Howler Monkey
Dragonfly
Yellow-bellied Slider River Turtle
Proboscis Bats
Crab-eating Raccoon
Common Basilisk
Squirrel Monkey
River Scenes
Paid for the tour here.
Other tours
Peaceful
Reflections
Broken bridge
Tourism
If you live here, you have a boat!
Tropical
Many local boats
Fishing is a way of life for some.
Wild
Rivers are everywhere!
“Oh, Eeyore, you are wet!” said Piglet, feeling him. Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to Piglet what happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time.”
― A. A. Milne
An oxymoron? Maybe, because they do sleep about 80% of their time and for why you will have to read about sloths on Wikipedia – the animal, not the cardinal sin! The one sleeping in a tree near my room at Cristal Ballena Hotel near Uvita, Costa Rica decided to move around about the time I went out to check on him and here’s a portfolio of his activity. Click image to enlarge or start slide show:
Wow! Nothing like it anywhere! The featured photo above is the Upper Nauyaca Falls and the one below is the Lower Nauyaca Falls & Swim Hole with my new friends from Portugal in the water before the crowds arrived.
LOWER Nauyaca Falls, Costa Rica
Below is a brief slide show of people in the swim hole and the truck ride up the mountain dirt road to the falls which is alone is quite an experience while others road horses or walked uphill for an hour and a half. Truck for me!
LOWER Nauyaca Falls
Posing in front of waterfall
Some leave “their mark”
He came prepared!
All one lane bridges
Popular Swim Hole for the young
Scenery was a swirl from back of truck! Don’t know how camera did that.