Category: Places

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First Night and Forgot Something!

Somewhere beyond La Paz was this
 roadside waterfall that had tourists stopping
 and trucks slowing down. Cell phone shot
in a misty rain.
The first adventure was driving to Selva Verde. To avoid the horrible traffic in San Jose I chose the mountain route north of Alajuela which did involve driving through downtown Alajuela, but before businesses opened, so not as bad as San Jose at all hours! Then it was mountain curves (hairpin curves) and farmers almost all the way from Alajuela to Puerto Viejo Sarapiqui. The total drive from Atenas to the lodge was just 99 km or about 53 miles and took me 2 hours and 45 minutes, which is approximately averaging around 33 km an hour or 17 miles an hour. No muy rapido! For the visitors whom I’ve taken to Poas Volcano and/or La Paz Waterfall Gardens, I drove right by both and you know what those roads are like!  J

Soon after arriving I started photographing birds on my SLR camera but I screwed up on this trip and forgot to bring the USB cable to connect my camera to the computer. So no bird photos until I return home. Sorry, but maybe meant to be. I have to go to hotel lobby or dining room for Wifi service, and that is a long walk since my room is down by the river, the furthermost away. Lesson learned: Use check-lists when packing!

SO ALL I CAN SHOW FROM HERE IS WHAT I DO ON THE CELLPHONE WHICH IS SELDOM A BIRD! My favorite today is of a Golden-fronted Woodpecker. You will see bird photos after the trip.

The front porch of my room overlooking the Sarapiqui River.
You can see the swinging bridge in the distant that I already walked over.

The Sarapiqui River by my room with good sleeping noise.
Its a mountain stream that here is down to the flat lands near banana farms.

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Where I’m Going for 4 Nights

Yellow-throated Toucan
I photographed at Manzanillo

Somehow I have missed going to one of the most popular birding areas in Costa Rica during my first two years here, so that is my Christmas present to myself, leaving tomorrow (23rd). The Sarapiqui River runs along the base of the mountain chain down the center spine of the country that separates the Pacific and Atlantic (or Caribbean) slopes. It is on the Caribbean slope just northeast of San Jose, about 3.5 hours drive from Atenas unless I’m told a mountain shortcut is in good condition, then maybe 2.5 hours drive through the countryside north of San Jose (otherwise it takes an extra hour to drive through San Jose and over mountains of Braulio Carillo National Park). An adventure either way!  🙂  When I feel more confident with my Spanish, I will make these trips more adventurous by riding the bus to the closest town to a park or lodge, in this case Puerto Viejo Sarapiqui.

The Google Map is the most accurate presentation except that the time does not allow for the hour lost driving through San Jose and the park, bumper to bumper.

I am staying at Selva Verde Lodge which I would not have to leave to see and photograph hundreds of birds! But what made the place famous is the research and educational center La Selva Biological Research Station which I will get to visit my last day there. And then there is one commercial place I may visit that friends have bragged about called Dave & Dave’s Nature Park. I will be busy with morning and afternoon birding hikes plus one boat trip on the Sarapiqui River. A great Christmas plan for me!  🙂

Selva Verde Lodge, Puerto Viejo Sarapiqui, Costa Rica

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New Luxury Health Retreat in Atenas!

Yoga, Massages, Therapy and Detox are available in addition to
pools, hiking, birds, views, etc.

Expect to eat healthy and enjoy spectacular vistas.

It is known as a Yoga Retreat, maybe the best in Costa Rica, but available as hotel, other retreats, or just to relax if you are willing to pay $221+ per night for luxury rooms in the mountains above Atenas with gardens, walking trails, a natural stream with waterfalls, and many optional activities, some at extra cost. Breakfast is included with all room prices. I just became aware of this and sorry I did not know of it for earlier visitors, though it is fairly new, this year I think.

They are offering us residents a Christmas Dinner with wine and entertainment for just $61 which I might do if I weren’t already scheduled for my jungle adventure at Selva Verde Lodge on the Sarapiqui River! They are likewise offering us a New Years Eve Celebration for $75 including fireworks! Yeah, just about anything you guys in the states have, we can find here, for a price!  🙂

And it is also now another option you have to my free couch-bed or the several Mom & Pop B&Bs or simple hotels in Atenas. Note: We are NOT a tourist town! But a coffee farming town. Yet being in the center of Costa Rica makes it a great place to headquarter or travel out from or just start and stop your visit to Costa Rica here, 45 minutes from the airport or an hour from San Jose.

CHECK OUT THE NEW PLACE!
Or just look at their site’s photo gallery! 
The Retreat at Atenas
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Panama Flycatcher & “Blue Boat”

Panama Flycatcher
Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

For the birder readers, this is my first sighting of one of these here and in Costa Rica they are found only along the Pacific Coast. They are also seen in most of Panama. They look most like the Nutting’s Flycatcher which has more of a rufous tail and in Costa Rica is found only in the Northwest corner or Guanacaste Province and also in most of Nicaragua. 

Blue Boat
Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Anytime I’m near water I look for what might be considered a “picturesque boat.” This one only barely qualifies, but really stood out against the brown water and bank with green trees. 

Anytime I have a guest who wants an easy half day adventure or birding experience, I take them to Tarcoles River, just a little more than an hour drive west of Atenas – if one of us has a rent car. My next post(s) will show more birds seen on this particular trip which I really enjoyed even if most of the birds are not new sightings. I can never get too many photos of a particular bird, only hopefully a better photo!  🙂
My BIRDS Photo Gallery, including the biggest sub-gallery of just Costa Rica Birds!

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Cardiólogo hoy

Cardiologist today (cardiólogo hoy) for the appointment (1 pm) I started making 4 months ago.

10:15 – Left the house walking to bus station
11:00 – Bus to Alajuela then taxi to Hospital Alajuela
12:15 – In line to check in on 4th floor Cardiology Department (cardiólogia)
12:30 – Behind the gray screen for weight and blood pressure
12:35 – Wait in front of Door 8
1:00 – Called into Door 8 where she asked questions in español of course. Then created an EKG (ecg) and then sent me to Door 4
2:00 – Dr. Hernandez calls me in behind Door 4. My first and only person of the day who spoke English. We mixed it up, Spanish/English, as he created a little heart-related medical history of me to begin my cardiology file. At one point he had me both sit and lay down on the examining table where he listened to my chest and back and then felt around in my abdomen. He read and wrote notes on the reports I brought from the private cardiologist I had seen earlier and the medication she had prescribed. He told me he would have be back for an ecocardiogram along with blood and urine workup to give him a total picture of my health to help him better monitor my heart. I feel very good about making this young (30-something) cardiologist my primary heart doctor with the government healthcare program generally called CAJA here.
2:50 – I go back to the front desk with really nice young adults who only speak Spanish to make my appointments (citas). The young man had to use his phone to translate to tell me I must first go to the first floor to a desk and have them make a file on me, mi experiencia, which took a while to find the right desk where I took a number and waited.
3:20 – I took my beautifully created large folder for all my medical records there back to 4th floor where the young man called me past the line and put everything in the folder except my two appointments for March 24 & 25 and multiple copies of my prescription for a different but similar treatment of my arrhythmia.
3:30 – Got a taxi to bus station
4:00 – Bus to Atenas
5:15 – I’m eating one of Chef Dan’s Meatloaf Dinners before watching ABC news.

Now all of this cost me exactly $0. The prescription is good until my March visit and it too is FREE! While the prescription from the private doctor even in generic form costs me between $40 and $50 per month.

Yeah, this first visit cost me most of the day and I had to wait a few months for it, but my heart will be monitored and cared for until I die at no other cost than the required $100 a month CAJA cost which is required if I live in Costa Rica, use it or not. I’m going to use it! Save money! And I like most of it even if rather slow! 🙂 Later I will explain how I plan to work the free government system with some limited private system healthcare and a great little local insurance for a private hospital if or when ever needed for just $12 USD per month! Later!

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A Birds and the Bees Problem

A swarm of bees building a nest on neighbor’s carport ceiling.
Don’t know the name.
Cropped in closer on hundreds of bees and corner of hive.

These bees have taken over Anthony’s hummingbird feeders and he is looking for a solution to that problem. Let me know if you have one. Knocking down this nest did not do it.

His bees stay on his hummingbird feeders, thus no birds now!
I have no such problem since my hummingbirds eat from my flowers and there are enough flowers for both the birds and the bees!  🙂  My favorite bee in my garden is the Green Orchid Bee I think I may have shown on the blog before. 
Green Orchid Bee
My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
The hummingbirds and bees don’t seem to fight over the flowers.

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More Birds on My Tree & Little Theater Experience

See also my other posts of tree birds:  Animales Fantasticos,  Arbolitos de Pajaros and still one more coming!

LITTLE THEATER EXPERIENCE
For you guys back in the states who think I just live with the birds and have no social outlets, you couldn’t be more wrong! Sometimes I have too much going on to live the slow, simple life I’m here for. One group I belong to is expats that take charter bus trips to San Jose for cultural activities plus some local recreational activities. Last week we went to the San Jose Little Theatre Group for a very interesting little play titled The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. It was about a teen boy with Asperger’s syndrome that was a little emotional to me since that was one of Juli’s problems. But I enjoyed it and our group of 40 filled the theater which we had to ourselves. It was a late afternoon private performance and then we went to an Argentina Steak House for a very good dinner before returning to Atenas. Thanks to Tony Phillips who puts these trips together!

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Live Slow

My latest T-shirt
I live in T-shirts & cargo shorts!
This one features a Costa Rica Sloth and
my new way of living.
“And so taking the long way home through the market I slow my pace down. It doesn’t come naturally. My legs are programmed to trot briskly and my arms to pump up and down like pistons, but I force myself to stroll past the stalls and pavement cafes. To enjoy just being somewhere, rather than rushing from somewhere, to somewhere. Inhaling deep lungfuls of air, instead of my usual shallow breaths. I take a moment to just stop and look around me. And smile to myself.

For the first time in a long time, I can, quite literally, smell the coffee.” 
― Alexandra Potter, The Two Lives of Miss Charlotte Merryweather
“Wisely and slowly; they stumble that run fast.” 

― Hugh Howey, Wool Omnibus


“Sometimes our stop-doing list needs to be bigger than our to-do list.” 


― Patti Digh, Four-Word Self-Help: Simple Wisdom for Complex Lives


¡Pura Vida!
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A Golden Leaf

Front Side

Back Side

I picked up this leaf along the side of the road walking home from the bus stop after a trip to Alajuela. It just attracted me, and I felt the need to photograph it with more than my cellphone. (I know, “Get a life Charlie.”) Living slow in Costa Rica, I now pause to “smell the roses” or enjoy the simple beauty of a leaf, its design, shape, colors (front & back totally different), textures, and what was simply pleasing to me. 
After getting it home and photographing it, I gave to my artist neighbor Anthony who painted the back side (lighter color) and pressed it on art paper to use as part of the background for one of his bird paintings. Neat, huh? Now I will pay more attention to leaves, for awhile anyway. 
For more leaves, shot in Tennessee, see my older Closeups gallery, scrolling down
Or if you want a more spiritual application, see my Gambia Journal Miracle Leaf Stories. 

For more leaves in Costa Rica browse through the tree and flower photos in my Flora & Forests gallery with a lot more of the cool leaves here in Costa Rica! It is a nature lover’s paradise in Costa Rica and my today’s find of a “golden leaf” is just a tiny sample of the simple pleasures I find here.