By Charlie Doggett
Click to preview the book online. Best if viewed full screen.
Carara Park & Tarcoles River – A New Book!
Triquitraque or Flame Vine Blooming for This Year
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| The brilliant orange flowers of Triquitraque or Flame Vine is a great contrast to the blue Plumbago flowers. I saturated the color so they’re not really this red, but are a deeper orange than next untouched photos. |
If I remember correctly they will bloom 2 to maybe 3 months, February-April. I had hoped for year around blooms like some of my other plants, but this gives me something special for this time of year. And this year they cover more of my stark concrete wall, which is what I wanted! 🙂 ¡Me gusta!
AND PHOTOS FROM LAST YEAR:
See also my photo gallery Flora & Forests
And read about Flamevine which Costa Ricans call Triquitraque, Spanish for “a string of firecrackers” or sometimes can mean “creaking” or “rattling” in colorful conversations. 🙂
Atenas Clinic Murals-Graffiti
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| In the alley/back street to the back entrance of the public clinic of Atenas is this graffiti + the next photos |
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| To the right of the above 3-pix panorama is this painting. |
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| And around the corner on the cross alley seen when you walk out the door. |
There is a lot of this kind of graffiti or “public art” in Atenas. I don’t know the origin or if someone is helping to keep kids out of trouble, or art class projects, “professional artists,” or what? But it is interesting for a small rural town and does add a lot of color to the community. If you go to the front door of the clinic you might not see these, but this door is more convenient for most of us walkers which is most of the patients!
I personally like “Public Art” for all cities and towns even when the style or images are not appealing to me. It seems prudent to me for a community to have a local committee or Art Commission as my former hometown of Nashville had to manage it, the locations, and even the nature of the art. I do not know if Atenas has such a group.
See my photo gallery of MORE PUBLIC ART IN ATENAS
Flowers Up Close and Personal
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| Heliconia & Blue Plumbago My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Red Ginger among the Maraca Plants My Home Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| “Parrot Flower” or a type of Heliconia |
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| Fern My Home Garden, Atenas, Costa Rica |
See also my photo gallery of Flora & Forests
Kitchen Window View
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| View Out My Kitchen Window Today It changes daily and above this is landlord’s fence covered in morning glories. |
See my photo gallery Flora & Forests
¡tenga paz! Stay Calm!
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| My new Tico T-shirt (la camiseta) It has a local slang expression to ask another person to “stay calm.” |
For locals, I got this at Arteria, a little shop with many items using local slang, located on 1st Avenue in San Jose, across from Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones. (The link tells of other locations.)
I will wear it to my Su Espacio Lingua Fiesta tonight. 🙂
LITERAL TRANSLATION?
SpanishDict.com & GoogleTranslate both say: “have peace”
Sarapiquí Birds Book Available
New Looks in Garden
My photo gallery Flora & Forests or directly to the sub-gallery My Home Gardens
Note that in these and all of my photo galleries at Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA I have added the new gallery header that is available at Smugmug which features one of the photos in that gallery. An improvement by Smugmug I think.
Politics
Yesterday I told you that there were versions of the Women’s March on Washington in more than one town in Costa Rica. Well, today I learned that some of my rich Republican friends in Atenas had an Inauguration Celebration Party at one of their large houses on Friday night. Unfortunately it is not just poor Democrats migrating to Costa Rica. But I think I can safely say that most Costa Ricans are horrified at the prospects of the Trump presidency.
Banded Skipper
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| Banded Skipper My Home Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica The gardener found it and came got me for the photo. I have other shots of one inside my house. |
Women’s March in Washington is also happening in Costa Rica Saturday in multiple locations. Respect for women is very important here and the new U.S. President’s attitude toward women is shocking to Costa Ricans! People still ask me “How can your country elect a man like that as president?” I have no good answer beyond my embarrassment and to say that I did not vote for him, nor did the majority of the voting citizens. But I’m glad I live in Costa Rica now! With a Republican congress and president the states will soon be in multiple wars and huge debt. I have a different idea of greatness.
See also my photo gallery for Butterflies & Moths
Chachalacas at My Breakfast Table
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| Immature Gray-headed Chachalaca Flying out of a Yellow-bell Tree in my gardens, Atenas, Costa Rica |
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| Two Immature Gray-headed Chachalacas Sitting in a Yellow-bell Tree in my gardens, Atenas, Costa Rica |
Identification Explanations for the Birders Who Read This
When I first saw them I thought “Black Guan” which can be in this part of the country, but on closer examination, they do not have the red eyes and legs that all black guans have, nor the blue facial skin. I knew we had Chachalacas in Roca Verde, so I resigned myself to darker than usual Chachalacas and thought maybe Plain rather than Gray-headed, BUT, the book says Plain don’t live in this part of the country, only in Guanacaste. And my earlier photo of one in my garden (note how much lighter) fit the Gray-headed description and they live in the Central Valley. Plus some online investigation shows some juvenile Gray-headed Chachalacas to be very dark or black. Also the white tips on the tail feathers are only seen in the Gray-headed Chachalaca. Here’s another one at Rancho Naturalista which is darker but not black.
Whew! Identification can be a challenge sometimes and every species seem to have some exceptions!
See my photo gallery of BIRDS
Read about Gray-headed Chachalacas on NeotropicalBirds by Cornell University
Or a different kind of article on Wikipedia