stream Archives - Retired in Costa Rica

January 22, 2022January 21, 2022

Goose Egg Falls

Hmmm! What is this? Well, you see, my trip planner, Walter, works very hard to please his customers with little “extras” and knew about an unnamed waterfall along our return highway near San Ramon or in that Canton (county), just 20 meters off the highway! So we stopped and parked in the edge of the mud by the highway and walked through the mud down a rocky little decline (that I almost fell on) to a stream to be where we could see this waterfall with minimal water right now in dry season. Well, it was rocky as you can see in one photo and the bottom of my shoes were muddy. I put my weight down on one, possibly wet, rock and slipped falling backwards on the rocks, banging my head on one of those big round ones. It hurt bad for about a minute or 2 only. Then I felt a growing bump on my head.

I thought I was dead or seriously injured and so did Walter who was concerned about me for days. But I’m fine now, just immediately after the fall I had a big “Goose Egg” which is what we called a “bump on the head” as a child in South Arkansas! 🙂 The goose egg on my head lasted until the next morning and was gone. no more pain after the fall and I was already crazy, so you can’t tell if it affected me that way! 🙂 And I got to add one more waterfall to my collection from this one day trip. (45 sounds better than 44 in my gallery) 🙂 And I will try to work it into the photo book if I can.

When we drove over the bridge over that stream a sign said: “Rio Catarata” which in English would be simply “Waterfall River.” Thus my own name for the falls works for me! 🙂 Pura vida from Goose Egg Falls!

Unnamed Waterfall in San Ramon Canton, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

May 28, 2020May 25, 2020

Pretty Bird, Nasty Place & Bad Photos

Walking to the supermarket Monday morning I crossed one of these “seasonal streams” or THE NASTY PLACE, a storm sewer creek where unfortunately some locals dump their “gray water” (sink & bath/shower water) which is always whitish from the soap, especially with the hand-washing emphasis these days. 🙂 There is no public sewage in little Atenas with everyone’s toilets going into their private septic tanks that work better without the abundance of “gray water.” Houses like mine have the gray water going into a “root-system-looking” group of pipes deep into the ground where the water goes through holes in the pipes and soaks down through dirt and rock purifying it before it gets to the underground aquifers, from which come our well-water or drinking water. 🙂 TMI?

As I crossed over the “bridge” (street over a concrete culvert or pipe) where the city is bulldozing to widen the road or bridge at that point (extend the concrete pipe), I see a Lesson’s Motmot, THE PRETTY BIRD, fly up from the stream to a tree and I quickly grab my cellphone for a photo at quite a distance and thus the herewith BAD PHOTOS! Yes, I know that I could carry my big camera with me everywhere I go, but just don’t find that very comfortable or convenient (especially in the supermarket) and settle for what I can get with the cellphone camera. And it is okay for buildings, people, or even flowers which let me get closer than the bird will! 🙂

Anyway – that’s my story! And I’m sticking with it! And I apologize if you find the part about “gray water” objectionable! 🙂 ¡Así es la vida! That’s life!

20200525_101316_001-A-WEB — Look closely in upper left corner for the Motmot on a dead tree limb.

20200525_101328_002-A-WEB — Just consider this “cellphone pixelation art.” 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

February 2, 2020February 3, 2020

02-02-2020

Just had to write this unique date down! It is one of the few dates that works for both Americans who write the month first and all the rest of the world who write the day first! Plus it just looks cool! All those twos and zeros! Say it like this: “O-two O-two, two-O two-O” 🙂

POSTSCRIPT: Larry Yarborough wrote in the comments below what I did not know about this unique date:

FROM AXIOS:

Today’s date is a rare eight-digit palindrome (reads same, forward and backward), 02/02/2020 — the only one of its kind this century:
Aziz Inan, a University of Portland (Ore.) professor who has a website chronicling 500 years’ worth of palindromes, tells the Post about today’s rare configuration — where both MM/DD/YEAR and DD/MM/YEAR are palindromes.

“The previous eight-digit palindrome like this was 11/11/1111, 909 years ago. We’ll only have to wait another 101 years for 12/12/2121.”
P.S. Today is “the 33rd day of the year, which is followed by 333 more days.” ~Thanks to Larry Yarborough for sharing this Axios Post!

The feature photo is of the cow pasture and tree line along a little stream across from my house. This morning at 6 I decided to walk over along that tree line with my camera looking for morning birds – nada! Not a one! As has been the case the other times I tried that very “birdy-looking” area. The water in the stream is quite polluted (gray water from houses nearby) which may be the reason for no birds or it was windy this morning, though that time of year. And I’ve never heard of cows scaring birds! But not one bird over there! (Maybe snakes?) I do better just sitting on my terrace! Though walking uphill like I did yesterday is even better! I will do that more often!

The dove below was on the power line in front of my house and the shot of something burning nearby was the only photo I made from the cow pasture. Sugar cane farmers are burning the remains of their fields after the harvest this month or occasionally someone burns trash, though they are not suppose to in the dry season! 🙂 ¡Pura vida!

IMG_0625-A-WEB — **White-winged Dove** on power line in front of my house looking at the cow pasture.

IMG_0629 -A-WEB — Someone burning something nearby, as seen from the cow pasture.

Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream. ~Khalil Gibran

¡Pura Vida!

02-02-2020

October 15, 2019October 14, 2019

La Victoria Waterfall

20191014_085157-WEB — Santiago, left, & his dad Javier

One of the 5 waterfalls on the hotel property is where the whitewater tubing adventure begins but I did not want to do the tubing, so the adventure tours staff let me ride on the early guide’s bus (5-miles) to the falls and ride back on the return bus.

I just photographed the falls which included a short hike down the mountain to the falls with my guide Javier and his 8-year old son Santiago (asst. guide). Fun guides that also took me to the butterfly garden and snake exhibit after the waterfall + birding along the way. A very good morning before it started raining! Bird, butterfly & snake photos will come later.

Quebrada Victoria (a small stream) forms the waterfall at the point where it flows into Rio Colorado and at that juncture is where the tour staff & participants depart on the whitewater tubing (in big tractor inner tubes) down the rocky Colorado River – see feature photo above. Easy enough for families with children to participate. I did that growing up in Arkansas as a kid and had a day-long tubing trip on a similar river when in college and decided it was not needed again! 🙂

The tours here also include a serious whitewater rafting trip down a bigger, wilder river with class 3 & 4 rapids, but I’ve also done that in TN and once was enough! 🙂

La Victoria Waterfall

It was not the prettiest but one more check off the list!

Javier insisted on making a photo of me with his son, who, like all Tico children and youth, was very respectful of age and very helpful, polite & friendly! A joy!

20191014_085210 -WEB — Santiago & Charlie on the trail to Victoria Waterfall.

“Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures.”

– Lovelle Drachman

This happened yesterday. Today I have another guide (Johnny) + Javier taking me birding here & then on a tour of the national park. Lots more photos! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!