Category: Places

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Sunrise at Drake Bay

Sunrise from my cabin at Aguila Inn
Drake Bay, Costa Rica
You generally awake early here with 5 am sunrise, birds singing and today howler monkeys! Three of us guests had a 5:30 am two-hour birding walk down the bay to town of Drake Bay, up in the hills, and back to lodge for 8 am breakfast. A good morning, seeing a lot of birds, though my only camera is the cellphone, which means not as many photos. My camera has been in a bag of rice for two days, and still doesn’t work, so it may not be humidity. Just don’t know. 
Relaxing around the lodge the rest of today with maybe a walk through forest. I’m posting this in the morning today, Friday, my last full day here. Tomorrow a relaxed morning here and a 2 pm flight back to San Jose and home by 4!
I highly recommend Aguila de Osa Inn! Relaxing place, fantastic food, great tours and other possible activities.

My TRIPS Photo Gallery on this Drake Bay Trip

About Corcovado National Park (Wikipedia)  and  About Drake Bay (Wikipedia)
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Mangrove Visit Today

Juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Mangroves off Drake Bay, Costa Rica

Today’s boat trip was one of the best with Carlos leading and we seeing more animals and birds than seen in the National Park! I am physically exhausted and a tiny bit sunburned from a clear, sunny morning, but tomorrow I rest with only a little bird walk before breakfast and maybe some more exploring on my on. Then Saturday afternoon I return home. Its been a very good week! Great staff at Aguila Inn! It is kind of nice to be pampered a little every once in a while which so many of these lodges in Costa Rica do!

About the photo: Because his is juvenile, he does not have his “yellow crown” which may make you question if he is. He was standing straight which was okay, but then did this one-leg thing with his wing out that I thought made a more interesting photo. And yes, the heliconia flower is growing wild in this particular mangrove forest. Another cool place! And all my photos had to be made on my phone today because the good camera is not working. I have it in a bag of uncooked rice hoping it is just the humidity. Very humid on the coast! And mechanical things can be a pain sometimes!

¡Buenos noches!

My TRIPS Photo Gallery on this Drake Bay Trip

About Corcovado National Park (Wikipedia)  and  About Drake Bay (Wikipedia)

Website of the Hotel Aguila de Osa

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Dolphins & Snorkeling Today

Adult Dolphin
Drake Bay, Costa Rica

Watching Dolphins from Snorkeling Boat
Drake Bay, Costa Rica
Then Snorkeling to See Smaller Fish!
At Caño Island, Drake Bay, Costa Rica

It was another nice trip today though we got heavy rain on the way back meaning no picnic lunch on the beach. The snorkle leader decided to take us to the little town of Drake Bay to eat the fruit and sandwich makings he had, so I had them drop me off at our Aguila Inn pier on the way and had a nice chicken salad lunch out of the rain. (And no wet landing of the boat!) Tomorrow I think I will get to do the Mangrove Float Trip for a lot of birds, having found two couples here who are interested. There is a minimum of 4 required to do the tour which is led by Aguila’s guide Carlos who welcomed me with a Boa Constrictor the first day.

The internet is slow still, but I decided to take time to post 3 photos above anyway. It is hard to tell a story with just one! And yesterday’s hike into Corcovado just showed the beach. But I need to give another Aguila guide, Tony, as much attention as I did Carlos with his Boa. So here he is with his “Living Ear Ring!” On the hike he grabbed this lizard and held it up to his ear. The lizard bit it and held on for 30 seconds or longer. Weird but entertaining!

Tony’s “Living Ear Ring”
Aguila de Osa Lodge Hiking Guide
Drake Bay, Costa Ricas

About Corcovado National Park (Wikipedia)  and  About Drake Bay (Wikipedia)


And Aguila de Osa Inn

My TRIPS Photo Gallery on this Drake Bay Trip

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Hiking Corcovado Rainforest Today

Rainforest Meets Pacific Ocean
Corcovdo National Park, Costa Rica

A big gourmet breakfast and off by 6:30 by boat to San Pedrillo Ranger Station by boat in the rain through some pretty big swells along the Pacific coast – about 30 minutes and another wet landing in the surf and knee-deep wading to shore. We hiked three trails including part of the beach above seeing an unbelievable number of tree species and other cool plants, many animals and two new birds for me. We also saw a beautiful waterfall that I will show later. Then another rough boat ride back after our sandwich lunch, but no more rain! But it is cloudy and I do expect rain tonight.

I’m already worn out and have another boat trip tomorrow to the little island nearby where we will snorkle the coral reef and maybe see some wildlife on the island. Bumped my head on a low hanging tree limb today that brought a little blood, but I have Neosporin and the salt water tormorrow might help it heal even faster.

About Corcovado National Park (Wikipedia)  and  About Drake Bay (Wikipedia)


And Aguila de Osa Inn

My TRIPS Photo Gallery on this Drake Bay Trip

See also my Pacific Coast Flora & Forests photo gallery


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Aguila de Osa Arrival

Carlos Welcomes Me at Dock
With a Baby Boa Constrictor
Aguila de Osa Lodge, Drake Bay, Costa Rica
Great flight down with some cool shots out the window of our little Sansa plane. Got detoured by way of Puerto Jimenez so made it even more interesting! 4WD taxi from plane down dirt roads, fording streams to a port where I got a boat from my lodge for the rest of my delivery. I had to remove shoes and wade barefoot through the tide to the boat. I’ve set up room, explored grounds, hiked one trail, taken lots of photos, had lunch and will soon go for appetizers before dinner with beautiful vista of Drake Bay. 
I will limit the blog to one photo per day because of very slow internet connection and I was slowed some more for this post with computer problem (or my computer ignorance problem). . .   🙂  You who are regular readers will be glad I’m limited to one photo a post! Because I do get carried away with a lot of photos sometimes! But keep watching for my one photo a day!

About Corcovado National Park (Wikipedia)  and  About Drake Bay (Wikipedia)


And Aguila de Osa Inn

My TRIPS Photo Gallery on this Drake Bay Trip

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Pre-parade Dancing is Most Colorful!

In some ways this was my favorite part of the parade today because it was so colorful and new! We did not have this during the last two years’ parades. I love latin music and dance and the color! Nice!
Music is the best cure for a sorrowing mind.
Latin Proverb
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2017 Atenas Oxcart Parade

Just a sample of nearly 300 cart entries:

Most cart are filled with family members!
Atenas, Costa Rica

Errrrrr, hmmmmm, son, this is an oxcart parade!
Kids pushing their limits everywhere! 🙂
And here, people just say “¡Pura Vida!”

And the line goes on and on!
Three years of these and I’ve had enough, leaving early for lunch!
They used to all be so unique, now they all look the same! 🙂

Hey! You need to get in the spirit of the parade!
Cowboy hats and belts!

As with all fiestas here, the Central Park is filled with venders selling
everything from food to arts & crafts and even kitchen utensils!
I had a caramel-filled churro and a Churchill to drink. See below.

Costa Rica Churchill, is sort of a drink and a dessert found in lots of fiestas across the country, but mainly associated with Punterenas, the port city on the Pacific. Click the title to read an article about them and started in my birth year, 1940. Mine here was a little different than the one he describes. It was about 1/3 vanilla ice cream, 1/3 red snow cone (strawberry I think), and 1/3 canned fruit cocktail, not the fresh fruit in the article. Needless to say, Ticos love sugar! Me too! Like, would you ever find a churro in Mexico that is relleno with caramel? Costa Rica is just a sweeter place!  🙂

And little town kiddie thrills! A bouncy house too!

Blog Post on 2016 Atenas Oxcart Parade  some of my favorite photos made last year
Photo gallery of past oxcart parades in Atenas

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Orange Yellow Haiku & Next Week Plans

Still playing around with Haiku!  And my garden!   🙂  
-o-
Tomorrow is the annual oxcart parade in Atenas. I plan to be there again and post a few photos from it tomorrow night.

-o-

http://www.greentiquehotels.com/

NEXT WEEK:
Then Monday morning I plan to take off for Corcovado National Park (largest rainforest preserve in Central America) & Drake Bay for 6 days of nature adventure & photography. I will have three trips into the park and one to an island out in this bay of the Pacific. I’m ready!

And I’m staying in what looks like a really nice lodge, Aguila de Osa Rainforest Lodge with all meals included and all trips/guides pre-scheduled. This is going to be one of my better trips!  🙂  Boat & hiking in the rainforest, explore a little tropical island, snorkle in the Pacific, and hopefully photograph a lot of birds!   🙂  I fly down.

http://www.aguiladeosa.com/
¡Pura Vida!
Charlie Doggett
Retired in Costa Rica!
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Chromatic Ginger Haiku

Red Ginger flower
My Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Count it a coincidence that my ex-wife’s nickname was “Ginger.” She died last summer of cancer in Gatesville, Texas. And that she too was chromatically colorful in her own way.  🙂

Photo Gallery of My Home Garden
Link to post About Ginger & Jason just before she died.  
And the announcement of her death: Ginger Is Gone
Some may call it poetic justice that my garden has many of two kinds of flowers called “Ginger,” this Red Ginger and a yellow Shampoo Ginger flower. Only fellow divorcees can understand all the many mixed feelings when something reminds you of your ex, especially after her death. Then life goes on!