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There is plenty to see and photograph on the 5,000+ acres of Rancho Humo, birds, other wildlife, and scenery! But across the river from the ranch is another wonderful and large Costa Rica park: Palo Verde National Park.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) I float down the river for a different experience in the park. But here are 3 slideshows for what was seen on Tuesday on a 6 km hike and posting here on Wednesday. Will post boat trip later today or tomorrow.
“There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.”
― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of SkyAnd today’s story begins as I wake up with that big sky sunrise at the foot of my bed in beautiful Rancho Humo, eat a Tico breakfast of scrambled eggs with beans and rice (Gallo Pinto) and begin a 6 km hike in Palo Verde Park after a 30 minute boat ride to the park entrance. Tired, invigorated, hot and smiling. Today’s story will continue once I’ve sorted the photos 🙂 –another episode of “Retired in Costa Rica.” ¡Pura Vida!
My 4 pm afternoon walk ended up being partly with a young couple from Germany who checked in the hotel today along with a separate American couple, so I no longer get all the attention of the staff! 🙂 This German couple are going with me on the hike into the national park tomorrow morning.
My other new friends were a group of Yellow-naped Parrots that live only in the Northwest of Costa Rica and thus my first time to see. They are also popular for pets and thus now endangered, so a really good photo find and a “Lifer” for me. Click the name link above for Cornell University’s Neotropical Birds article with map of the few places they still live in the wild and a recording of their sounds which I heard live today. This kind of wildness is going to disappear one of these days if humans don’t change their ways.
¡Pura Vida!
All of these birds were photographed on the Rancho Humo hotel property (100’s of acres of farmland) with some fields flooded by a tidal irrigation system from the Tempisque River. Many of the fields are shared with some of the 800 cows they have here along with wild deer, howler monkeys, and all the smaller wildlife like coatis and iguanas, etc. Tomorrow I go into the Palo Verde National Park which will probably give me some new birds along with some of these. CLICK AN IMAGE TO SEE LARGER or to begin a slideshow with larger images than the automated slideshow.
Rancho Humo Estancia on Rio Tempisque
See how I “rough it” in luxury in Costa Rica:
¡Pura Vida!
I photographed so many birds today that I can’t get them all processed to show tonight, so they’ll come tomorrow.
Above was sunrise from my room and below where I road in a safari jeep on the hotel property photographing birds and at bottom the sunset today. Lots of bird photos coming tomorrow!
¡Pura Vida!
Northwest Costa Rica, the Guanacaste Province, is mostly flat, dry and generally with more sun than rain with lots of cattle ranching. Today Walter drove me to and through this area of Costa Rica for my 5-night stay at Rancho Humo where it is near the end of Rainy Season, so nice and green now! Above photo is from my room deck when I arrived. Here’s a few shots enroute and on the first of 6 days at “Home on the Range.”
¡Pura Vida!
First a Turkey Vulture soared overhead like a messenger from God, then 3 simple birds landed in 3 different trees and I felt close to God during breakfast today – even without colorful, rare or gorgeous birds – just plain birds smiling at me as I smiled back!
My heart is like a singing bird.
~Christina Rossetti
And tomorrow morning, Saturday, I leave for Palo Verde National Park. See yesterday’s post for more information.
¡Pura Vida!
Earlier I posted on “Construction Begins on New Park” with photos of the construction screening and architect’s drawings – now it seems that they are going very slowly (Pura Vida!), but there is progress! In this photo they have cleared the central circle of the park of everything (trees, shrubs, benches, sidewalks) for construction of the Kiosk, Band Shelter or Gazebo which locals are calling “quiosco” o “kiosco.” It is the biggest item, so hopefully remodeling will go faster after that is completed but most expect it to be way into next year before finished. Everything is slow here.
¡Pura Vida!
Yesterday afternoon I saw my Dermatologist who presented me the lab’s very detailed report with color microscope photos and the diagnosis en español:
“Carcinoma epidermoide bien diferenciado, invasor, de al menos 4 milímetros de diámetro mayor, que alcanza los márgenes de resección.” Or in English according to SpanishDict.com translation:
“A well-differentiated, invasive epidermoid Carcinoma of at least 4 mm greater diameter, reaching the margins of resection.”
The Doc assures me he can cut it all out by going a prescribed mm distance all the way around it (a big chunk of flesh!) and with several stitches will heal that part of my right forearm back to normal. That’s a $600 surgery or for $4,000 he can do a much tinier section removed while a separate pathologist is testing (continuous biopsy) every little bit of skin to make sure they get all the cancer without taking as much of a chunk! He recommends this for a growth on the nose, etc. where removing more is more obvious. Of course I’m doing the cheaper one which he assures me has always been successful for him and what he recommends. Just a little scar on my right forearm. It is scheduled for 19 November after my next trip which is to Palo Verde National Park 10-15 November. My doctors work around my trips and not vice-a-versa. 🙂
It is interesting that Dermatologists here say the same thing they told me in the states, that these growths that keep popping on my body in old age are caused by getting too much sunshine when I was a little boy. No one told us that back then! Or maybe I was not paying attention when Mom wanted me to use sunscreen? 🙂 The young are invincible and us old ones just smile at our little problems. 🙂
Since this is a retirement blog, I guess this kind of gory medical report is appropriate. Anywhere you live in retirement you must deal with these things and the medical services in Costa Rica are simply great and so much more affordable that I’m just using a private doctor again instead of the free public ones, which are slower but just as good and free! 🙂 I still use a public doctor to monitor my heart arrhythmia, but other things I’ve been happy with the quick responses of private doctors, like this Dermatologist, Dr. Gamboa.
¡Pura Vida Medico!
Some youth in the city of Alajuela left a sidewalk chalk message for pedestrians the other day: something like “Be aware of the city and REDUCE pollution!”
¡Pura Vida!