Rain Drops Haiku
Christmas Day Wildlife Photos
The 6 AM Bird Walk had a different guide, Ronald, and a lot more birds today! Of course most photos are on my SLR camera, but the guide used my phone on his spotting scope for the next three photos below. I have some better ones on my real camera. All the guides here are provided by the Selva Verde Lodge, at a reasonable extra cost or in my case as part of a “Birding Package.”
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| Snowy Cotinga (A first sighting for me) By Nature Guide Ronald on my phone through his spotting scope Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
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| Yellow-throated Toucan (formerly Chestnut or Black-mandibled Toucan) By Nature Guide Ronald on my phone through his spotting scope Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
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| Mantled Howler Monkey By Nature Guide Ronald on my phone through his spotting scope Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica And I haven’t mentioned that I hear them often in the forest here. |
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| Nature Guide Ronald at the front entrance to Selva Verde before we cross the road for birds in a botanical garden. |
Then, late morning I got out of our lodge reserve to visit Dave & Dave’s Nature Pavilion which several people had recommended. It is basically a lot of different kinds of feeders on the edge of a thick secondary rainforest with a lot of birds. It provided me with some good close-ups and of a few new birds. So it was worth the 10 km drive down the highway. The father-son project has a great story behind it but I will let you read about it on their website at Dave & Dave’s.
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| More hummingbirds than I’ve seen almost anywhere else. Some eating out of that heliconia flower. Dave & Dave’s Nature Pavilion, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
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| There was a group of German photographers there with their big lenses. Dave & Dave’s Nature Pavilion, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
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| Dave Senior putting out more fruit for the birds. Dave & Dave’s Nature Pavilion, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
Tonight I am going on the “Night Hike” and hope to get another good shot of a red-eyed tree frog. We will see. Animals are unpredictable. The restaurant has had this Christmas tree up since I’ve been here and they play Christmas music.
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| Christmas Tree Selva Verde Lodge Restaurant #1 Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
Tomorrow I’ve scheduled an early morning boat trip, Guide Evan is going with me. And oh yes, in the rainforest there are still afternoon showers, even in the Dry Season. A shot from my room this afternoon during the short shower to keep everything watered! 🙂
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| Rain seen from Riverside Room 45, Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica |
¡Pura Vida!
And all these photos were made on my cell phone!
Merry Christmas Day! ~Charlie
Dripping Wet!
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| Dripping Wet! (Heliconia in my Garden, Atenas) Is how we feel in Atenas as if Rainy Season will never end! Though usually it has stopped by now. Long range forecasts show more through Christmas. And we are not in a rain forest! 🙂 |
I wrote this a couple of days ago to “get ahead” and sure enough it did not rain today (Friday), so maybe dry season is nearly here! Today I took Anthony to one of my favorite birding places, Tarcoles River for a boat ride and will report on it in the next couple of days. So more bird photos and another first sighting for me! And the weather was clear and sunny!
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| Cell phone snap on Tarcoles River, Costa Rica today, 16 December 2016 And no, I do not miss the snow in the states! Its either rain or sunshine here every day! |
Tomorrow I help with the Angel Tree party and then start anticipating my next big trip 23-27 December to Selva Verde on the Rio Sarapiqui. And well, some Christmas fiestas this weekend. Busy time of year!
Its a Jungle Out There!
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| From my kitchen looking across the DR/LR and terrace at another rain. Our rainiest rainy season in years has everything growing. |
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| Step out my back door and the flower garden is 6-7 feet tall! |
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| And the screen of little palms outside my office/guest room is growing too! |
Usually by December the “Dry Season” or our summer has begun, but it is raining again today and forecasts are for more. Its a good thing that I love the jungle! 🙂
Ready for Hurricane Otto!
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| Copied from La Nacion – Heavy rains & flooding BEFORE the hurricane hits in Caribe. |
Costa Rica’s first hurricane since 1851 is expected to hit land tonight in the northern Caribbean near by beloved Tortuguero National Park or further north in Nicaragua. Atenas is not in the “Red Zone” that expects the most wind and rain, but we will get both all day on the American Thanksgiving while I eat turkey with my neighbor.
For more on the hurricane, today’s Tico Times article
And track it on The Weather Channel and a hundred other websites! 🙂
And the best coverage in Spanish is in our national newspaper La Nacion which Google will translate into English for you. Lots of photos and videos.
They are forecasting up to 20 inches of rain and very high winds in the path (north of us) as it travels all the way across the peninsula to the Pacific Ocean. We will get rain as we have all day today and some winds, but probably not the very high, damaging winds. Yet hurricanes do change paths sometimes, so I bought my bottled water and prepared if it knocks out our power and water. Which could mean no blog post tomorrow night! 🙂
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| There wasn’t a run on water at the supermercado, meaning I guess that most don’t really expect us to have much damage. I’m always the Boy Scout! Being prepared! |
Watching it Rain
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| “I’m too busy to sit in the rocking chair and watch it rain!” Is what I used to say. But I just did it! And have several times recently. So far it has been a good rainy season. And I’m slowing down! |
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| Like Jewels! Rain drips off a cecropia leaf. |
Rain Song – Poem by Langston Hughes
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.
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| And After the Rain! |
After the Rain
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| “After the Rain” from my terrace at sunset. |
Rainy Season Starting!
I’m so happy that for three days straight we have had some rain! It is usually May before the first rain, so this is good if it will just continue and increase in quantity! Going 5+ months without rain makes you appreciate it more!
Rainy Day in the Mountains
After a Tico breakfast at Casita del Cafe outside Atenas with a beautiful vista we drove up into the mountains with hopes of seeing Poas Volcano and the waterfalls of La Paz. Well, as we drove higher the rain increased and at the gate of Poas National Park we were told we could enter for $15 but we would not be able to see the volcano. So we turned around and headed for La Paz Waterfall Gardens where it was raining has hard but we could see most of the sights. Ponchos and a lot of dampness accompanied our tour of the gardens. But we did see quite a bit! And chose not to eat in the expensive La Paz tourist restaurants, instead driving to La Garita for lunch at Arroz Mango. Then home for sitting in sunny Atenas on my terrace until a little Mexican dinner at Donde Bocha Antojeria. An adventurous day!
I will try to label the animals the waterfall later. I guess it was as good of a way to spend an active day in the rain as we could find. I don’t expect any more rain until possibly a little at Tortuguero. It is the dry season, but the high cloud forests and the lowland tropical coastal rainforests can have some rain year around. Not a drop in Atenas! 🙂 Follow Reagan’s Blog for his view of the visit here!
San Ramon, Costa Rica
This is the second post for today, Saturday, about the town separate from the healthcare tour.
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| San Ramon is higher in the mountains than Atenas, meaning it gets much colder and rains more. It rained this morning & in 50’s. |
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| San Ramon’s beautiful Catholic Church facing the Central Park, like every town in Costa Rica. |
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| They also have a boyero or oxcart driver monument like Atenas. I like our Atenas metal one better. This one is on church grounds. |
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| Like every town’s Central Park, you will find children playing, old people talking, teens texting, talking or smooching, and a generally happy, tranquil place. There is a band-shell for musical programs. |
San Ramon is quite a bit larger than Atenas with more businesses and traffic, something in-between Atenas and Alajuela. I do not like it as well as Atenas because of the weather (colder and wetter) and the more crowded conditions. They do have a University campus which is a plus and a couple of museums we don’t have, but I think I will stick with my more walkable small town. Both are very “Costa Rica” in nature with wonderfully friendly people. They have a few hundred expats living there where we have over a thousand in and around Atenas.
The other post today about healthcare tour has more photos of San Ramon and yesterday’s short post has photo of tour group in front of Mural on La Posada Hotel where I stayed.