My photo gallery of Reagan’s Visit to Costa Rica is now complete. Just click that title! And note that he has his own photo gallery connected to his blog for those of you who follow Reagan: http://reagantravel.blogspot.com/
Motown Fundraiser for Su Espacio
Tonight (Saturday) I helped Gail & Susan who planned a Motown Music Fundraiser Dinner at Etnia Pub here in Atenas with DJ playing Motown Music by a dance floor and we raised a good amount of money for the community center while having fun! Here’s a few pix:
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Thanks to Gail & Susan for all the hard work to make it happen!
Tortuguero Miscellaneous Photos
Okay. I’ll try to make this the last post from Tortuguero, then back to Atenas posts tomorrow! 🙂
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| Bus window view of Chiquita Banana Plantation, Costa Rica |
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| Modern buses like this is how many tourists get around inside Costa Rica. |
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| All the dozen or so lodges have boats making the 1.5 hours trip into park. |
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| Our group on one of the Laguna Lodge boats enroute to lodge. |
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| Robert Umaña, our guide, listening for a bird or other animal. |
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| Robert using sand drawings to tell us about the life cycles of the green sea turtles that lay their eggs on this beach and each baby that makes it goes to ocean and returns years later to lay their own eggs. |
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| One of the many river channels and canals we traveled looking for wildlife. |
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| Another lodge’s guide pointing out a bird, monkey or other animal. |
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| Unidentified butterflies/moths in our Laguna Lodge garden. Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
Pura Vida!
This trip significantly improved some of my photo collections in the PBase Galleries:
Later I will be adding a trip gallery in the travel section of my galleries, but not enough time yet!
Tortuguero Fruits & Flowers
Just a few of the hundreds of fruits and flowers found in this rainforest:
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| Large Heliconia growing wild along the river banks, same as in my garden. Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Small Heliconia also growing wild in forest and here in the lodge garden, similar to my garden! |
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| Cashew Nut is usually a surprise to people when first seen growing! One nut per flower! |
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| Hooker’s Lips or Hot Lips is another surprising plant. |
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| I can’t find the name of this blue berried plant in the rainforest. |
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| Achiote (bixa orellana) is used for food coloring red and sometimes lips |
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| Robert holds an open pod of the above Achiote flower showing the seeds It is those red seeds that have the red coloring for food or lips. A couple of children let him put red dots on their skin to show how it works. |
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| Papaya tree with a very popular fruit This is same one with the Collared Aracari Toucans I photographed Tortuguero Village, Costa Rica |
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| Torch Ginger flower |
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| Neat vine I just had to photograph! 🙂 |
Sloth
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| The hand indicates it is a Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth Though color could work as either 2 or 3-toed. Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
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| There’s a pink-nosed juvenile above what is probably the mother sloth. Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
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| The typical sloth sighting, a ball of fur in the tree. Sleeping sloth! You are lucky to find one awake and moving! Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
See more sloths and other mammal photos in my Costa Rica Mammals PHOTO GALLERY
To learn more about sloths, see Sloth Facts on the livescience website.
And only one or two more posts to finish sharing my nature photos from Tortuguero. Hopefully you can see why I love that park (among others I also love!).
Tortuguero Reptiles
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| Ebony Keelback snake, on banks of Tortuguero River, Costa Rica It is similar to a Mussurana, which is more common in South America than here. |
Many people think that they will see more snakes than anything in the rainforest, but that is not usually the case as they fear humans more than we fear them and many are well camouflaged. I’m including a second photo of the only snake we saw in Tortuguero to show the full length:
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| Ebony Keelback snake, Tortuguero, Costa rica |
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| Green Iguana was the most often seen reptile. This male is orange because he is mating. Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Green Basilisk or “Jesus Christ Lizard” because he walks on water. Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Spectacled Caiman, Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Spectacled Caiman, Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica Note that this is a lighter color than the first photo. Color varies and light makes photos different. |
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| Black River Turtle, Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
Be not in haste, said the tortoise.There is nothing here but time.
If you live long enough, you will see.Of course, though, you will see them from your cage.
Live long enough? I asked. Are there mortal dangers here?
The tortoise chuckled.
The boy doesn’t always take very good care of his prisoners, Rex the lizard chimed in.
What do you mean? He doesn’t feed us enough?
Sometimes he doesn’t understand what we need to survive, Rex answered. Sometimes he plays too rough.
How can a creature able to bend the laws of nature be so cruel? I asked.”
― Patrick Jennings, We Can’t All Be Rattlesnakes
Tortuguero Monkeys
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| Mantled Howler Monkey, Laguna Lodge, Tortuguero, Costa Rica Photo made on cell phone through the guide’s spotting scope. |
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| Central American Spider Monkey (Juvenile) Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Geoffroy’s Spider Monkey, Tortuguero, Costa Rica It is lumped in with the other spider monkey as just one species of the 4 here This is a mature adult while the Central American above is a juvenile They are like first cousins with mainly a color difference. |
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| White-faced Capuchin Monkey, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
Of the four monkeys that live in Costa Rica, three can be found in Tortuguero National Park and I managed to get photos of all three on this trip. The one not here is the Squirrel Monkey found only in and around Manuel Antonio National Park. See one of my photos of Squirrel Monkey at Manuel Antonio.
Read more about the monkeys of Costa Rica on Wikipedia.
OR
See my PHOTO GALLERY: Monkeys of Costa Rica
OR
See my PHOTO GALLERY: Monkeys of Costa Rica
BACK HOME
“A pie” – That is Spanish for “On foot” which is what I now am again! And I love it! Reagan left today and I turned in the expensive rent car at the airport, road a bus back to Atenas and walked from the bus station to my house. Wow! I didn’t realize how much detail in the world you miss from a car. Walking puts you close to people, animals, flowers, other nature and interesting buildings, sounds, odors, things to stump your toe on and the weather! Warning to future visitors: You might be “A pie” which is not said like my favorite dessert because all i’s in Spanish are pronounced like ee, thus it is said something like: “Ah Pee Eh.”
That’s all the Spanish for now but not all of Tortuguero yet! 🙂 I still have more photos to share over the next few days. And must say thanks to Reagan for being a great guest and tourist in my Costa Rica! And for the delicious going away lunch! (American food of course!) 🙂
The Other Birds – Tortuguero
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| Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
From our Tortuguero Trip last week I have already shown photos of 3 Species of Toucans, a Sungrebe, a Red-lored Parrot, and a Snowy Egret. And here are about 15 more species that I got photos of plus of course seeing others. You can see why I love Tortuguero! And a few of these were first-time sightings for me which will be added to my Birds of Costa Rica Photo Gallery.
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| Belted Kingfisher, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Little Blue Heron, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Montezuma Oropendola, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Female Anhinga, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Male Anhinga, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Great Curassow Female, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Tortuguero, Costa Rica Interesting note: This nest was above the outdoor bar at Laguna Lodge. I watched the male bring twigs and female arrange them. Fun! |
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| Royal Tern Juvenile, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Osprey, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Long-tailed Grackle Female, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Northern Jacana, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Common Black Hawk, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Orange-breasted Falcon or Bat Falcon or Black-collared Hawk ???Tortuguero, Costa Rica If you can narrow the identification down, please contact me! Wings only is tough to ID! |
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| Social Flycatcher (most likely) or Great Kiskadee or White-ringed Flycatcher, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
Snowy Egret
Red-lored Parrot
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| Red-lored Parrot, Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
It looks like it will be next week before I get all my shots from Tortuguero processed, so here is one more! He is the only parrot we saw and I am pleased with this shot. But there are still several more shots of birds to share! (And 3 species of monkeys, several lizards, and one snake.) And I assume you know that all of these were shot in the wild! Tortuguero is a terrific place for nature lovers!
“We need the tonic of wildness… We can never have enough of nature.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods