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Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth

Updated Version on 3 October 2026

It has been a while since I’ve photographed a sloth and this one was at Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica on this year’s South Caribe trip, at eye-level on a very leafy tree as we were exiting the park. You never know when or where you will see the next wildlife photo op! 🙂 To see more of my sloth photos, go to the galleries: Sloth, Hoffman’s Two-toed and Sloth, Brown-throated Three-toed (linked). And note that I embarrassed myself, not only with the wrong ID in the first edition of this post, but on iNat where two people told me it was 2-toed and I said back, “count them in the photos.” Wellllll . . . I just learned that the 2-toed is thus on front but has 3-toes on the back, which now I see is obvious in this particular photo. I’m red-faced!

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Sandbox Tree

The Sandbox Tree – Hura crepitans (linked to Wikipedia) in wet tropical lands in both the Americas and moist jungles of Africa; seen here on my walk through just one little part of Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica. It has a lot of other “Common Names” other than the “Sandbox Tree” listed as the official common name. My favorite of them all is the “Monkey No-Climb Tree.” 🙂 Yes, those scales are very sharp-pointed!

¡Pura Vida!

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Hudsonian Whimbrel

This bird used to be called just “Whimbrel” and that common name and its scientific name was for all Whimbrels world-wide. Now “they” have split them into two species with the old scientific name going for the ones in Europe & Asia and the ones in the Americas (North, Central and South) are called Husonian Whimbrel (Numenius hudsonicus) (my gallery link).

Thus another one of my galleries had to have a name change, including each individual photo. Just part of having up-to-date science! 🙂 This smaller, “chunkier” one (compared to the majority) was seen last week at Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge. And if you notice the water is darker and reddish or rusty, it is because the ocean’s saltwater at high tide went up into the Mangrove Forest and the Bloodwood Trees there react to the salt, releasing a reddish sap this time of year, turning the water red as the tide goes back out. 🙂

Hudsonian Whimbrel, Gandoca-Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Banana Azul Photo Gallery Ready!

This year’s visit to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica included a week at Hotel Banana Azul with a day hike in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge and my collection of photos are ready to see at https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2026-09-14-18-Banana-Azul-Gandoca-Manzanillo or you can click on the first page image below to get there. Two disclaimers as to why there are not as many photos this year: The bizarre weather with a Super-El-Niño, wind and rain every day (normally the driest month there), a muddy beach road with no butterflies at all (my main thing there now) and the global-warming and ocean rising has caused enormous erosion of the beaches there now, with almost no beach left. But it is still a beautiful nature place and I have a lot of photos from this year’s trip.

CLICK above image to go to the photo gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

I’ve done blog posts of Caribe photos ahead through the end of September, but wanted to announce my trip gallery now. The first of October I will continue sharing nature photos from my garden and on walks in my hometown of Atenas. If I just look, there is some nature to experience every day! 🙂

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Common Black Hawk . . .

. . . used to be one of the birds I photographed at Banana Azul every year, but not this year. (I did see one fly off one day.) But I got several shots of this one in Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge and we saw him in 3 or 4 places searching for crabs (his favorite food) or other small animals to eat. Just two shots here, but you can see more in my gallery: Common Black Hawk (linked). It is found from the Southwestern U.S. south through Mexico and all of Central America to the northern shores of South America. We have them on both slopes of Costa Rica.

Common Black Hawk, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Two Peacocks . . .

. . . Peacock Butterflies that is, at Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge: the feature photo above is of the White Peacock (my gallery link) and below is the common Banded Peacock (my gallery link) as the only two butterflies I was able to photograph during this year’s week in Caribe Sur, with a few others seen flying but never landing at both Manzanillo and Banana Azul.

Banded Peacock Butterfly, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Collared Aracari

This small toucan is found from Mexico south to Columbia and Venezuela. In Costa Rica it is found mostly on the Caribbean Slope with the only ones on the Pacific side being in the Northwest or the Nicoya Peninsula. While his first cousin, the Fiery-billed Aracari is found along the Central and Southern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. That includes Atenas where I’ve had Fiery-billed in my garden. It looks like this one except for the red bill. See my other photos of this one in my gallery: Collared Aracari (linked).

Collared Aracari, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Beach Spider Lily

A graceful and simple flower along tropical beaches and in the Gardens of Hotel Banana Azul, the Beach Spider Lily, Hymenocallis littoralis.

Beach Spider Lily, Hymenocallis littoralis, Hotel Banana Azul, Play Negra, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Read about this species on Wikipedia or on iNaturalist Costa Rica.

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Eroding Beaches, Diminishing Wildlife, and . . .

I am not through sharing photos from this year’s trip to Banana Azul and haven’t even started on the photos from a morning hike in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (source of my most wildlife sightings this year), but with all the praise I’ve given Banana Azul over the years and what was an annual trip every September (the month with usually less rain), I need a “DISCLAIMER” to previous recommendations for this hotel and area and to explain why I will not continue annual trips here and may not even return to Banana Azul.

At places on the beaches there is barely a space for walking out of the water and in others no dry space at all! Playa Negra, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica. From a beach to a trail!

Read on for my explanation or reasons and to see more photos . . .

Continue reading “Eroding Beaches, Diminishing Wildlife, and . . .”
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Scarlet-rumped Tanager

This one on the Caribbean side has an identical male as the Pacific side male with a slightly different female and they are thus considered different subspecies. I keep my photos separated in two galleries. For more of these from the Caribbean Slope, see Scarlet-rumped Tanager, Passerini’s (my gallery link) and yes, when I first came to Costa Rica these were call Passerini’s Tanager, while the ones on the Pacific side were called Cherrie’s Tanager. If you want to see if you can tell the difference in the two females, check out the other gallery: Scarlet-rumped Tanager, Cherrie’s (linked). And note that some sources say that the difference is seen only in the immature birds! 🙂 It is also interesting that some sources also say that the Cherrie’s is found only in Costa Rica and thus the scientific name includes the Latin “costaricensis.” 🙂 In my photos it seems that the Pacific side females are slightly darker in color with no other differences to me and I have never been where I could compare immature ones. These two photos are both male.

Scarlet-rumped Tanager, male, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!