Trees Archives - Page 51 of 69 - Retired in Costa Rica

January 15, 2021January 11, 2021

A Little Jewel

On one of my walks on the nearby “Country Lane,” I found this simple little tree covered in yellow blooms, like many Costa Rica trees now, and liked it!

The Feature Photo is the broad view of the landscape with the little solo tree, while below I include a closer view from another angle, all from behind a fence, and I never cross fences! 🙂

“Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy.”
~Isaac Newton

¡Pura Vida!

Tonight or tomorrow I will begin reporting on the Cloud Forests of San Gerardo de Dota in Savegre Hotel. It is a lot different from my Central Valley coffee farming town of Atenas! 🙂

January 14, 2021January 14, 2021

Just in time! The night before I leave on another trip I finished my photos from the Christmas 2020 trip to Arenal Observatory Lodge with more than 50 species of birds! And 5 are lifers for me! Plus a whole lot of other photos from this favorite lodge. For now the birds are presented alphabetically by their English Common Name. Later I will make time to arrange by species families according to my birding guide book. Overall I’m pleased with this collection of photos and moving on to the next collection! 🙂 To see gallery CLICK above link or the image below:

¡Pura Vida!

January 14, 2021January 14, 2021

Wilderness Bridges

The several swinging bridges at Arenal Observatory Lodge connecting the many trails are a lot more secure than those rope bridges we made in Boy Scouts, but just as thrilling! 🙂 Here’s some shots of two of the hanging bridges I hiked over during my Arenal Visit Christmas Week. CLICK an image to see larger . . .

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”
― Douglas Adams

Tomorrow Begins Another Adventure . . .

I don’t plan or intend to have trips just 3 weeks apart! It takes me longer than that to process the photos! 🙂

But because I had to reschedule this next trip, originally set for a March-April overlap week, just as the Pandemic was taking over . . . Soooo I told them to “reschedule it around the middle of January, not thinking about my Christmas trip – But anyway . . . I’m shifting gears from a rainforest at the base of a volcano to a cooler Cloud Forest in San Gerardo de Dota, starting tomorrow at the Savegre Hotel and Nature Reserve. (NOTE: their website is under reconstruction and only the home page shows for now.

This is one of the lodges I stayed in on my first trip to Costa Rica in 2009. It’s the best place in the world to see and photograph the Resplendent Quetzal bird. And the coldest place I’ve been in Costa Rica with fireplaces used at night. Since no rain in January, it is a little warmer at 13° C or 54° F average low to high of 27°C or 81°F, but hey guys! I freeze to death here in Atenas when it gets down in the 60’s F. 🙂

The new lodge website linked above is under construction, so instead of their photos, you can see my photo galleries of 3 previous visits, all a very long time ago 🙂 . . .

Photo Club Trip to Mariam’s Cabinas, Sept. 2015 (I’m still a newcomer here then!)
After my “Live in Costa Rica” Relocation Tour at Trogon Lodge, August 2014. (Planning the move then!)
And on the January 2009 Birding Tour with Savegre in 3 sub-galleries: Birds, Savegre & Cloud Forest. It was my 1st trip to Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

January 12, 2021January 11, 2021

Enamored by Trees

Towering above me, ever-present, at Arenal Observatory Lodge – TREES! – – – Just one of so many reasons I love the Observatory! I still haven’t mastered how to photograph the beauty and grandeur of trees, but will keep trying. Here’s a few of my shots and you might be interested also in their own website/blog article The Rainbow Trees of Arenal by my friend & fellow Atenas resident, Shannon Farley. Rainbow Eucalyptus trees (Eucalyptus deglupta) were a part of the award-winning sustainable hotel’s reforestation program along with many more native trees in this natural rainforest area.

Rainbow Eucalyptus Trees at Arenal

Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree
Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree
Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree
Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree

Evergreen Forest Surrounding one Villa

Evergreen Forest
Evergreen Forest
Evergreen Forest
Evergreen Forest
Evergreen Forest

And so Many More . . .

From a Conservatory Cabin
Fern Tree
Plants Growing on Trees!
Thick Forest at Lodge
Silk Cotton Tree at Butterfly Conservatory
At Caño Negro
Arenal Conservatory
Arenal Conservatory
At Caño Negro

“A tree is our most intimate contact with nature.”
― George Nakashima

¡Pura Vida!

And maybe My CR Trees Gallery for many more!

Part of my bigger Flora & Forest Gallery

January 10, 2021January 9, 2021

Volcano Views

I thought I had more different views than this but it is no longer new to me, so didn’t take as many photos and the one I took from the butterfly garden didn’t take so here’s 2 from my room, one from a hotel garden and one from the road in front of the Butterfly Conservatory.

From My Room
From a Lodge Garden
Road in front of Butterfly Conservatory
View from My Room

¡Pura Vida!

January 9, 2021January 6, 2021

Other Wildlife at Arenal

Wednesday I shared my photos of “Other Wildlife at Caño Negro” which was a different wetland world on a day trip away from Arenal and the 3 Monkey species seen there were shown in two separate posts. Now sometimes there are more monkeys and other animals in Arenal Observatory, but this trip I photographed 10 species and I’m sharing just 8 of the “other animals” (not birds or butterflies). All were seen on the grounds of Arenal Observatory Lodge, one of my favorite places. Later I will have my trip galleries completed and will summarize here all the amazing wildlife and other nature seen and photographed on this Christmas week trip. CLICK an image below to see it larger:

Red-eyed Tree Frog Sleeping in daytime camouflages.

“Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization.”
– Charles Lindbergh

See my photo galleries OTHER WILDLIFE.

¡Pura Vida!

January 3, 2021January 3, 2021

January Yellow – Far and Wide!

Around the first of January every year in Costa Rica the skylines, forest tops and trees in every direction seem to be ablaze in yellow. In my yard it is what we call “Yellow Bells” in English, while many others here and throughout the country are the Yellow Cortez Tree and in other places the Brazilian Fire Tree. These shots are from recent short morning walks through my neighborhood. CLICK image to see larger . . .

“How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun.”
– Vincent Van Gogh

¡Pura Vida!

My related Photo Galleries: Flora & Forest

And more photos from Arenal & Caño Negro are coming! I’m still organizing photos! 🙂

December 26, 2020December 26, 2020

Orange Howler Monkey?

I have a lot to share from today’s (Saturday’s) excursion to Caño Negro Wetlands Reserve, but the most unusual (and all I have time to present tonight) is the totally orange Howler Monkey. And of course the first question is why?

Albino? That is what the CostaRica.com website says and what I believe is the reason.
Pesticides? That is what this article in Costa Rica Star says, a mutant caused by the sulphur-laden pesticides sprayed on the nearby pineapple plantations. I guess possible.
Our guide today said it was caused by incest which might relate to or be the cause of #1.

Regular Mantled Howler Monkeys are black with an orange spot or streak on their backs (mantled). But this rare mutant fellow is all orange and the first I’ve seen like this.

Today’s (Saturday’s) trip was an all-day affair, not returning until 4 PM, so I am tired and can’t process all the many other photos from today now, but will share later.

Tomorrow morning I return home and will then finish processing many more photos from this great Christmas Week at Arenal Observatory Lodge inside Arenal Volcano National Park. Yes, we had some rain this week but that didn’t dampen my spirits! 🙂 And it was sunny the whole time at Caño Negro today!

¡Pura Vida!

December 25, 2020December 25, 2020

Monkeying Around Christmas Eve

December 24 was a beautiful, sunshiny day! And my 6 year anniversary of living Retired in Costa Rica! I arrived on Christmas Eve 2014 and haven’t stopped exploring this tropical paradise a single day and I’m still blogging about it! Except for the first two Christmases getting “settled in” as a Costa Rica Resident, I have traveled every Christmas week since, to a National Park or other nature preserve.

The 23rd (day before yesterday) was when I scheduled Néstor, my birding guide here, and it was totally cloudy and raining all day. With nothing planned the 24th, it was a bright blue sky, sunny day! So I went hiking on my own, figuring maybe I could see some of the same birds in better light for better photos. Nada! Nothing! Almost no birds! Maybe they were in the tree tops “sunning?” 🙂 But . . .

On the other hand, on the first three rainy days I saw no monkeys and yesterday on the trail looking for birds I saw this troop or family of Mantled Howler Monkeys (my gallery link). They were way high in the Cecropia trees eating leaves, but I managed to get a few distant shots of these common monkeys here:

“We’ve just barely stopped being monkeys.”
~Duncan Trussell

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Christmas Day’s main event was a visit to the nearby Butterfly Conservatory this morning, but it may be a few days before I get to those photos! 🙂 A Merry Weekend to you! And tomorrow, Saturday, I go to Caño Negro Reserve for birding – always a good place for birds.

Arenal Observatory Lodge, Arenal Volcano National Park

¡Pura Vida!

December 22, 2020January 14, 2021

1st 24 Hours of Birds

My birding hikes are not until tomorrow, so these 20 species I got on my own and wanted to get them out before what I hope will be some new or different birds with Guide Nestor whom I’ve had on both of my previous trips here. He is good! They always ask if you have any target birds for the hike and I will tell him the same thing I did last year, “Yes, the Umbrella Bird and the Yellow-eared Toucanet.” These are both fairly rare birds and difficult to find in the thick forest and I want to add them to my collection. 🙂 But I won’t get my hopes up!

I just hope we don’t have rain tomorrow morning like we have had most of today. Here we are on the Caribbean Slope which tends to have more rain than the Pacific slope where I live. But it is still the beginning of the dry season here with less rain than they’ve had the last 6 months. We will bird from 6-8 AM, have breakfast, then the rest of the morning. So I’m hopeful with a half day with a birding guide I will get lots of birds!

Now a slide show of the last 24 hours of birds on my own with two shots of Scarlet-rumped Tanager because the male and female are totally different and two of the Brown Jay with one flying and the other perched; 22 shots of 20 species including my “lifer” I introduced yesterday: