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| Sunset Over the Pacific From our little 12 passenger Sansa airplane on the hour-late flight back to San Jose. Along the West Coast of Costa Rica ¡Pura Vida! |
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| Baño Frog Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Large Cave-man Bathroom (outdoors or out of screened-in area, but private) The lizard behind the mirror is art – not real. But we have real ones too! Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Eagle Holds the Shower Head And not shown, a snake is one of the towel hooks Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
This has been a very interesting “rustic” lodge where I cannot wear shoes inside my room, the dining room or the lobby area. That part reminds me of Lookout Inn at Carate with the same rule. The food has been excellent, sort of a blend of Gourmet Tico with items like gazpacho or pumpkin soup before dinner, but still plenty of beans and rice if wanted and all kinds of meat dishes with lots of different veggies and salads. Most tours are with their guides, but a few like kayaks in the bay or the zip-line are provided by other vendors that Danta transports you to. Tomorrow’s park hike will be with one of the Danta guides and they provide our sack lunches and car to park entrance.
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| Whale’s Tail Beach Uvita, Costa Rica |
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| Landing Strip Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica |
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| Driving Out of Puerto Jimenez On 30 Minute Drive to Danta Corcovado Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica |
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| My Huge Bedroom! A pleasant surprise when shown to my cabin. Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Outside Entrance to My CabinDanta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Daaaaa – viiiid Welcome receptionist, bartender, waiter, and sometimes cook! Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Unknown Lizard (I will look him up when I get home, probably an Ameiva) Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Unknown Insect (Look him up at home too!) On my cabin screen, outside! Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
At 6:45 AM my driver takes me through suburban traffic to the airport and the start of one of my more pleasant experiences here, flying in a small plane over the magical mountains to the ocean, Pacific this time. Though the pilot was too close, I still got a different view of “Whale’s Tail Beach” at Uvita and a different view of the landing strip in Puerto Jimenez.
A thirty minute drive to Danta Corcovado is a whole lot easier than the rough hour and a half drive to Carate on the other side of the park (my 2009 trip). Like everywhere in Costa Rica all the people are so welcoming and always smiling. My driver Eduardo helped me with my Spanish and got me to David (pronounced Daaaaa-viiiid here) as the receptionist and later the waiter and bartender in the restaurant. He arranged three tours for me and also put up with me speaking Spanish poorly to him. I later met the birding guide who is also named David.
By noon I was hotter than I can remember ever being here but a little afternoon shower has cooled it down and the two fans in my room help! Ooops! Just as I got to the WiFi spot in lobby the little shower turned to a long and heavy downpour!
I was expecting more primitive housing, though some of you might consider this primitive. I’m basically in a large screened-in porch on a platform above ground with a solid tin roof. Plus I have mosquito netting for my bed. Only cold water, but in the hot tropical humidity, that is what one prefers. The bed is very comfortable and the bathroom is chic primitive and big!
Tomorrow is my morning bird hike and evening night hike. Thursday will be the hike into Corcovado Park – all day! Friday and Saturday will probably be around the property here unless I decide to add another tour. And for unknown reasons Sansa canceled my Sunday flight back, so I am now on a Saturday evening flight home, meaning one less night here. And now you are all caught up on this trip for now! – The adventure continues!
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| Corcovado is the largest protected coastal rainforest in Central America Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| My Room is basically a wall tent on platform with mosquito netting on bed. Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Lobby and Dining Room feature rustic furniture and I will eat lots of beans & rice, other basic Tico food Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Hope I get this close to an Anteater! And maybe a Tapir! Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| Night Hike promises frogs, snakes, insects & surprises! Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
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| It is one of the few places for the endangered Squirrel Monkey Danta Corcovado Lodge, Costa Rica |
My days will be filled with hiking on the lodge trails on my own, and tours with professional guides
for a birding hike, interior of park hike, kayaking a river, a night hike, and possibly a visit to an indigenous people village, panning for gold, or I might even be ziplining above the forest. This could be one of my most adventurous trips since moving here. All of the above photos were copied from the internet, but I hope to return with many more of my own! They are suppose to have wifi in the lobby, but I doubt it will be strong enough for regular nightly posts. We will see! I had scheduled 5 nights, but this afternoon, Monday, Sansa Airlines canceled the Sunday flight, so I now come back Saturday evening. Adventure is good! said Aesop
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| When I got there the ropers from the nearby agricultural university were doing roping trick – very good! Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| FlashBack, the gringo oldies rock band played for two hours, 1-3 – Then others but I’m gone. Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| The original benefactor of the food festival. Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| You paid 3,000 Colones (about $5) and got to sample 20 different international food entries & vote on the best. Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Individuals & restaurants donated small portions of food to taste. Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
For more photos of food and other vendors, see my gallery 2018 Festival de Vida
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| When I left at 2 PM today we were up to 30-something newly registered voters! Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Mid-day entertainment was mostly dancing today. Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| We did hear the community marching band play. Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| And several dance studios show off their work. Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Another dance studio. Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
And remember that big name bands & singers are at night, too late for this old man! 🙂
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| A food truck showed up today! (Maybe from San Jose) Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| The two most popular foods at these gatherings are Ceviche (raw seafood soup that I don’t eat!) and Granizados (Snow Cones) Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| And next most popular is grilled chicken on a stick with a tortilla of course! Or sometimes it is grilled pork. Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| It is called ceramicas here and just one of many art vendors. Festival de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Including colorful candles and lots of jewelry . . . |
More photos have been added to my photo gallery on the 2018 Festival de Vida
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| It took 6 of us to register 12 new absentee voters this morning and hopefully the afternoon shift will do an ever better job! 🙂 Festiva de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Registering American Absentee Voters Learn more at https://www.votefromabroad.org/vote/home.htm Festiva de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| During just the first morning we had a guitar-playing singer, DJ, and this Red Cross group drumming on exercise balls and dancing. Interesting! Along with many tables selling food, arts & crafts. Festiva de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Festiva de Vida, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Escuela Colina Azul A Private Elementary School Nestled in the Mountains of Atenas, Costa Rica |
Belinda, the teacher in a local private school here who helped me get my Cedula renewed, talked to me about having wanted to maybe start a blog with her 6th Grade Computer Science class and asked if I would come tell the class how I started my blog and if they could do one on the same platform, blogspot.com. I was happy to help and went yesterday afternoon. With the school’s projector I showed the class my two blogs and explained the purpose and the importance of keeping posts short and simple, (though I obviously don’t always follow my own rule!).
But, instead of showing them how to blog on the Google platform that I use, my research showed a better place for both them and their teacher, designed just for schools with proper security, spam-free, advertising-free, etc. It is called
Belinda has a young student-teacher who was excited to hear about this and of course wants to set it up which is helpful for the regular teacher! 🙂 The class will have a class page the teacher can post homework on, blog assignments, messages to parents, etc. AND each student has a blog page which the teacher will have some control over, but students from other schools and countries who are on edublog can comment on their posts and visa-versa. I showed them some samples of 6th Grade blogs and read a short story written on one blog by a 7th grade boy.
I browsed through some posts of other 6th and 7th graders and it was great! At least I thought so! And if I have a little bit to do with the 6th graders at Escuela Colina Azul getting started with blogging, I’m happy! And if you work with a school at any grade level, check it out at https://www.theedublogger.com/ It is a subsidiary of WordPress, but it is free for schools and students/teachers and their teacher website has a lot of good teaching resources.
Belinda also teaches 6th Grade English, thus the blogs will be in English and a tool for both her English class and her computer science class (same students – all the 6th graders in a small school). How cool! And almost all of her students are Ticos! There is another private school that is mostly foreigners and more expensive. I really enjoy being involved in the local community like this when I can. Old people and foreigners can still contribute sometimes! 🙂
Escuela Colina Azul Website
Or go straight to the school photos
AND THIS IS COOL:
Story of a rare American 2nd Grader at Escuela Colina Azul. On Mom’s blog.
And my Spanish teachers David & Corinna have there son Nicola in 3rd grade here! It’s a new school for me and I like it!
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| Not sure what these little colorful shapes are, but they are new on Sports Park retaining wall. Atenas, Costa Rica |
Costa Rica Invests Over $100 Million In Environmental Protection English online news article
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| I know! I’m always talking! And usually on the front row! Frank capture part of the group very well. There is another smaller wing of seating. Little Theater, San Jose |
