Category: Travel

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Hiking at “Backdoor” of Cahuita NP

Whether coming as a tourist or a local who visits national parks here, you might want to know that there are two entrances to Cahuita National Park. There is a “main entrance” in the little town of Cahuita where most people enter, including a lot of locals for the easily accessed beaches, coral reef for snorkeling, plus very good hiking trails both along the beach and through the interior rainforest. You can see my previous photos from 2 hikes at that main entrance in these galleries:

Now here’s just 4 shots of the “back door” hiking trail also called officially Sector Puerto Vargas, as basically a 2 km long boardwalk (or bridge) over land that is sometimes under water. It leads you through a beautiful second growth rainforest with lots of wildlife possibilities to a connection with the two trails from the main entrance, one along the beach and one through the forest for a one-way total of about 8 km (using 1 of the main entrance trails + boardwalk) if you go all the way! Me and my guide, Henis, settled for the 4 km round trip on the boardwalk 🙂 where I got my “lifer” bird photo of a Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher, photos of 14 Butterfly Species and some Other Wildlife! Plus these four general shots . . .

My guide Henis on the Boardwalk Trail in Sector Puerto Vargas, Cahuita National Park, Limón, Costa Rica.
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Saturday Sunrise

Sunrise, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica
Sunrise, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica
Sunrise, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica

The first shot was earliest, about 4:45 am and increasingly later until 3rd at about 5 am. It changes rapidly over the fifteen minutes or so of rising. I also gradually zoomed in on the sky in each progressive shot.

See a free preview of my book: Sunrise Banana Azul with all 2-page spread photos on “lay flat” photo paper.

¡Pura Vida!

¡Pura Vida!

¡Pura Vida!

¡Pura Vida!

¡Pura Vida!

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Zebra-striped Hairstreak

This Zebra-striped Hairstreak, Panthiades bathildis, is the third new species I photographed yesterday on the beach road behind Hotel Banana Azul in Puerto Viejo, Limón. It looks similar to another species I also got this year and last year called Togarna Hairstreak, Arawacus togarna (linked to my gallery where you can see the differences in the stripes and the orange trim on the two species). My two shots of this new species below are of the only one I saw.

Zebra-striped Hairstreak, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica.
Zebra-striped Hairstreak, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

NOTE: This is the 3rd and last of the three new species I photographed yesterday on the beach road behind the hotel. This morning an excellent new local guide named Henis took me birding in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge at 5:30 am, where I got at least one new species of birds and at least two new species of butterflies. And thus I’m beginning to get way behind on reporting from the South Caribbean of Costa Rica – but will eventually catch up! 🙂 This afternoon (Wed) and tomorrow I will continue my nature photo collections at Banana Azul, then on Friday Henis is taking me to Cahuita National Park for more wildlife photography, though they don’t open until 8 am! It’s turning out to be a great week here in the South Caribbean while many of my friends back in Atenas are getting the new ARTenas Gallería ready to open on October 4! A lot is happening in pura vida Costa Rica! 🙂

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Calospila cilissa

Another new species for me and if approved will be a new species for the website I volunteer with, butterflies and moths dot org. I’m requesting the addition and I’m pretty certain of the ID based first on the Jeffrey Glassberg book and then iNaturalist website. Note that I have indicated male and female in my photos, since I managed to photograph both and there is a difference! 🙂 Here’s one shot for the email version and then all four shots below that in a little gallery . . .

Underneath Side of the Male Calospila cilissa, Puerto Viejo, Limón
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Sunrise Canoe

The sunrise was not spectacular my first morning, but this guy in a canoe made an interesting subject. 🙂

Sunrise Canoe, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
Sunrise Canoe, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
Sunrise Canoe, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón
Sunrise Canoe, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón

¡Pura Vida!

🙂

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Arrived on the Beach!

And you can take that literally since the Limón Landing Strip in on the Caribbean Beach just south of the provincial capital of Limón with a 25 to 30 minute drive to my Hotel Banana Azul in Puerto Viejo where the owner comes down and welcomes me again! 🙂 Here’s 6 arrival afternoon general shots. Though I’ve started photographing birds & butterflies, I’m saving those for later posts.

Landing our plane on the beach near Limón!
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Flying to the Caribe Today!

Today begins what has become almost an annual tradition of spending a week in the Southern Caribbean of Costa Rica, during September when this rainy rainforest has the least amount of rain. After trying a few other hotels, I’ve settled on Banana Azul as my favorite and it is right on the beach (one of the few!) in a favorite room with balcony overlooking the beach and hotel gardens. It is one of my most relaxing weeks of the year! This Puerto Viejo area is south, near the Panama Border and quite different from my other Caribe fave which is north of the port of Limón and in a great wetlands wildlife national park called Tortuguero.

I have just two morning bird hikes scheduled, one in the Cahuita National Park and the other in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge. Otherwise I just “hangout” at the hotel and beach, walking both the beach and a forested beach road where last year I found a bonanza of butterflies! 🙂

Sunrise at Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón.

Read on for some of my past creative endeavors from the South Caribbean of Costa Rica . . .

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And the Other Birds

From El Silencio, I shared the Trogon & Chlorospingus first and then the Hummingbirds and now here’s the “leftovers!” 🙂 Actually they aren’t all bad photos, but not as interesting as the other earlier-shared 4 birds. Six here, making a total of only 10 birds this trip compared to 23 the previous visit to El Silencio. The number of birds are way down everywhere this year! And no one has a good explanation.

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