Read below about a new “Great Big Story” coming March 25 – The Brave – I received as a subscriber to The Great Big Story.
It is time to do something about man’s destruction of earth!
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Introducing: “The Brave” |
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The Brave
For My New Hampshire Friends
One section of my photo gallery was recently added as Pre-Costa Rica Travel. I am slowly adding one trip at a time until it is finished, starting with my Latin American travels since that is where I live now. 🙂
But one couple living in snowy New Hampshire just left their winter visit to Atenas to return home until their trip next January which will be longer or two months next year. They are not sure yet about retiring here, but wrote to say that my blog keeps them looking forward to their annual trek here.
Well, their message reminded me of my only trip to New Hampshire which was a fall color photography trip in 2004. including lots of vistas and 22 covered bridges along with many of my other interests! So I just got motivated (by new friends) and added this photo gallery ahead of schedule with some of my favorite fall color shots. See this “New” old travel gallery now included here – CLICK Linked Title Below:
2004 October – New Hampshire
A part of the joy of being “Retired in Costa Rica” is occasionally remembering old times and places which is something my photography and Gallery provide, along with the personal pages of my Blog/Website on the top menu above (still being developed). And of course I continue my regular reports on Costa Rica! 🙂 My first love now!
“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”
―
¡Pura Vida!
Punta Leona Photo Gallery
I really got a lot of good photos on this last trip and finally have them culled and organized into a gallery for the trip. See this newest photo gallery at:
I’m not doing a photo book on this trip yet but plan on a book of the area after two more trips there, giving a broader picture of the Jaco-Carara Mid-Pacific Costa Rica. I have trips to that area in both June and July, so a book in August maybe? And it will include my earlier trips to Carara, Tarcoles and Jaco – so maybe a larger-format book. Change is good.
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
~ Marcel Proust
¡Pura Vida!
OTHER WILDLIFE – Punta Leona
I did not get as many photos as in some places, but “other wildlife” was not my goal. There were lots of squirrels and iguanas which I mainly ignored. And of course the birds and butterflies were in separate posts! Click an image to enlarge or start a manual slideshow:
“A forest’s beauty lies with its inhabitants.”
―
See my Other Wildlife Galleries for many more Costa Rica animals
See my Punta Leona Trip Gallery
And visit the Hotel Punta Leona Website for more about this nature place!
¡Pura Vida!
Tortuguero – THE BOOK
The book is now finished with photos from 3 different trips to Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica and I think it is pretty interesting. You can go to the book online and Preview it electronically free! And of course best seen at fullscreen since it is all photos. Click this link or the book image below for the preview:
http://www.blurb.com/b/9315463-tortuguero
“A brave heart and a courteous tongue. They shall carry thee far through the jungle, manling.”
~Rudyard Kipling
See my 2019 Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge Visit Gallery for more on this exciting rainforest trip!
Or the Turtle Beach Lodge website or Laguna Lodge of my previous visits.
¡Pura Vida!
Tortuguero Photo Gallery
My usual next step after a series of blog posts on a Costa Rica lodge visit is to post in my GALLERY another TRIPS sub-gallery on that particular visit and here it is:
2019 Feb 9-13–Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge or click image:
“To Travel is to Live”
– Hans Christian Andersen
¡Pura Vida!
OTHER WILDLIFE – Tortuguero
And there were more! A wetland rainforest like Tortuguero has many animals and this is just a sampling from the River Otter to the Spider Monkey – a lot more than just my birds! To keep it simple I’ll use the auto-slideshow today, randomly presented and the name of each animal appears at the bottom of photo. This is part of the beauty of Tortuguero National Park – enjoy!
OTHER WILDLIFE – Tortuguero
“A forest’s beauty lies with its inhabitants.”
― Anthony T. Hincks
See my 2019 Tortuguero Turtle Beach Lodge Visit Gallery for more on this exciting rainforest trip!
Or the Turtle Beach Lodge hotel website
Or my photo book on 3 visits to TORTUGUERO, The Amazon of Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Maquenque The Book is Published
Or go to the book in my Bookstore at:
http://www.blurb.com/b/9282399-maquenque-ecolodge
A New Favorite Lodge
I hesitate to rank or say there is only one favorite birding lodge, but this is in the top 3 or 4 best easily based on both the number of birds I photographed (53+) and the new birds I photographed for the first time or “lifers” of which there were these 7:
- Great Tinamou
- Swallow-tailed Kite
- Brown-hooded Parrot
- Black-crowned Antshrike
- Streak-chested Antpitta
- White-collared Manakin
- Northern Water-thrush
This is also one of the best or easiest places in Costa Rica (the whole world?) to get close photos of the King Vulture. My previous photos were made through a spotting scope, so I was thrilled to have Sergio pick me up at the lodge and take me to his blind on a nearby bluff where the King Vultures hangout and from his blind that he calls a “hide” I was about 20 to 30 feet from King Vultures.
Plus the lodge guides are excellent birding guides and found birds I would never have found on my own plus on the night hike I got a photo of the rare Red-webbed Tree Frog which is on the cover of my book. The DIY trails are excellent also for birding where I got several birds on my own.
The food is very good with excellent wait staff and by planning ahead nearly a year I got one of the 4 Tree Houses as my Treehouse Room for the week – an unbelievably unique experience which yielded all the Howler Monkey photos in my gallery (by climbing up 55 steps to my room). Or see my entire “Trip Gallery” 2019 Maquenque Ecolodge.
And check out the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge a true experience in nature! I highly recommend it for all nature lovers and especially for birders! Just be aware that it is not near anything familiar, a 4-hour drive from my house in Atenas to a river on the Nicaragua border.
¡Pura Vida!
Maquenque Smaller Water Birds
Water birds are impressive and numerous all over Costa Rica with most of these found in all lowland waters on both the Pacific and Caribbean sides. I never tire of river trips or wetland visits because the surroundings are always changing and even though I see some of the same birds every time, they are never the same! At Maquenque I had both a river trip and lived for 5 days on lagoons that attract the same birds in these wetlands (el humedal en español) of the Caribbean Slopes of northern Costa Rica. A birding paradise!
Click Image to Enlarge
¡Pura Vida!
You may also enjoy my Costa Rica Birds Gallery
and my 2019 Maquenque Lodge Trip Gallery
See the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge
Maquenque Parrots & More
Everyone loves parrots and the general family includes not only Parrots, but Macaws, Parakeets and these other more distantly related birds, the Ani, a Woodpecker and Trogons plus I’m including two types of Oropendolas which are in a category of their own, all at Maquenque. Enjoy!
¡Pura Vida!
You may also enjoy my Costa Rica Birds Gallery
and my 2019 Maquenque Lodge Trip Gallery
See the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge