I look out over the main river in Tortuguero when in my colorful Caribbean Cottage. I’m in the downstairs one on the left in photo below. It rained off and on much of my arrival afternoon but I got a few photos with an Oropendola my only bird. Took the night walk and might have some photos from that later. And in the morning I do my favorite boat tour of the national park with lots of birds and other animal possibilities, then tomorrow afternoon visit a small community in the middle of the rainforest. So lots of photo-ops! 🙂
My room on the left, downstairs overlooking the river.
I learned about the fun and silly holidays from a Washington Post article, including February 12 as Hug Day!
This celebration is part of someone’s idea to stretch Valentine’s Day into a week. No need to buy flowers or candy for this day, thankfully. Just offer friends and family something that has been scientifically shown to lift their mood: a hug.
February 12 – National Hug Day!
¡Pura Vida!
🙂
New Trip Blog Posts Start Tonight!
Also TODAY is the day that I fly on a little Sansa Airlines 12 passenger plane to one of my favorite wilderness places in Costa Rica, Tortuguero National Park, as mentioned yesterday. So most likely you will get a post from there tonight, assuming that their internet WiFi is as good at this most expensive lodge in Tortuguero as they claims it is. 🙂 Tortuga Lodge & Gardens
Much wildlife spotting is done from a boat at Tortuguero.
So expect a week or more of photos and comments from what travel magazines call “The Amazon of Costa Rica” and one of the few places in the country where travelers have actually seen a Jaguar (from a boat) though they are mostly nocturnal like all the wild cats here. Plus I expect a lot of birds, some butterflies and several other animals, along with the tropical rainforest and rivers/canals and of course some great Caribbean food and 4 good nights of sleep! 🙂
With local activities returning after two years of none because of Covid, Atenas had only the second Tope (= horse show or horse parade). For years the city had stopped it because the horse people had been trashing the town with what was almost a drunken brawl. Well it started again just before Covid and with the pandemic over, is on again. And theirs is unique in that it is at night which supposedly allows for more participation. Well, my evaluation is not very positive. The first two dozen or more horses were ridden by serious horse people with well disciplined horses just before it became dark. Then as if queued by the darkness, hundreds of horses chaotically rode all over the streets, back and forth, with a large percentage of the cowboy wannabes drinking beer and other liquor handed them by people in the audience from their ice chests. There was no order and no particular beauty. I would personally prefer a tope in the daylight with no beer or other alcohol. But I don’t have to go next year and probably will not. I like the Oxcart Parade better anyway! 🙂
2023 Tope Nocturno de Atenas
That’s one pix for the email announcement and online is a slide show of my poor quality night photos.
The main reason I gave to people back in Tennessee when I moved to Costa Rica was that “I could not afford to travel and live in retirement in the United States where everything is too expensive, especially healthcare.”
Tropical River Otter, Tortuguero in 2019 & feature photo is a White-crowned Parrot, also at Tortuguero in 2019.
Nature Travel
And travel into nature was then already my favorite retirement activity. I’m the only one I knew then in Tennessee who had visited all 54 of the state parks there! 🙂 Yet my favorite place for nature had already become Central America and especially Costa Rica, though I did carefully check out Panama for retirement also. So after 4 trips to Costa Rica (+3 to Panama & 3 to Guatemala), I made the big decision and moved to Costa Rica! Never for a single moment have I regretted it! 🙂
And of course you do know that I mean Peacock BUTTERFLY! 🙂
There are two species that I see here, the more common is the Banded Peacock that I see all over Costa Rica and shared one from last week’s visit to Xandari, but maybe my preferred is the simpler but elegant White Peacock Butterfly, Anartia jatrophae. Click that link for my gallery photos of them. They are also found all over Costa Rica, though not in the abundance of the Banded Peacock. These are the only 2 “Peacock” butterflies in Costa Rica, while Panama and south into South America there is also a Red Peacock Butterfly which is similar to the Banded but with thicker bands of red where the Banded has thinner white bands.
White Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Because the 2023 Xandari Trip Gallery is now ready for you to see all this year’s photos from this colorful nature resort, I will just summarize what was to be the last 4 posts on that trip and you can see the photos in the gallery which is more and better than a few here! 🙂 The last 4 categories each have a gallery that I’m linking to with the 4 pix below:
I photographed only 4 birds mainly because of the high winds we were having there that week. Here’s just 1 of those 4 and to see the others, click the above link or this image:
Clay-colored Thrush or Yigüirro, the National Bird
Though there did not seem to be as many Flowers on this trip as in earlier ones (different time of year), there were still a lot and you can see the ones I photographed by clicking the above link or this one image.
Bird of Paradise Flower, Xandari Costa Rica
Thirdly are some of the Leaves & Nature Things that I love to photograph out in nature anywhere I go! And I think I got a few interesting ones this trip including the feature photo at top of the post. Check them all out at the above link or click this one photo:
Nature as Art, Xandari Costa Rica
And last but not least are a few photos I made of only a sampling of the Trees & Trails at Xandari. Click that link or this one image to see more:
This is a very common butterfly here and one of many in the family Pieridae – WHITES, YELLOWS & SULPHURS, though this was the only one from this visit to Xandari. In that linked gallery there are photos of 23 species and many came from Xandari on earlier visits.
Cloudless Sulphur – Phoebis sennae
Cloudless Sulphur – Phoebis sennae at Xandari Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
And the 2023 Xandari Trip Gallery is now ready for you to see all my photos from this colorful nature resort.
Yesterday’s Freshness . . .
. . . was felt when I went to and from Central Atenas on the first day of school. Everywhere were happy, smiling, chatting school kids of all ages, kindergarten to 12th grade wearing brand new uniforms and marking the real beginning of 2023 for them! School year here is February to December. It made me feel good about living en el pueblo de Atenas!
The largest family of butterflies is Nymphalidae – BRUSHFOOTSand you can click that link for my galleries in that family where I now have photos of 93 species. I did get one more photo from this family that I cannot yet identify, so not included here.
Banded Peacock – Anartia fatima
Banded Peacock – Anartia fatima at Xandari Costa Rica
Banded Peacock – Anartia fatima at Xandari Costa Rica
Erato Heliconian – Heliconius erato
Erato Heliconian – Heliconius erato at Xandari Costa Rica (also called “Postman”)
Carolina Satyr – Hermeuptychia sosybius
Carolina Satyr – Hermeuptychia sosybius at Xandari Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
And the 2023 Xandari Trip Gallery is now ready for you to see all my photos from this colorful nature resort.
Though there will still be a few more blog posts on my little 2-night visit to Xandari Costa Rica, I’m going ahead and sharing the completed photo gallery for this trip. After the blog posts, my “Trip Galleries”are the main depository of my photos made all over Costa Rica and I encourage people traveling here to explore the trip galleries to see which places fit their interests best.
