Author: Charlie

Retired American nature-lover, living in Costa Rica, photographing birds and other jewels of nature. This site simply reports on my joys of being RETIRED IN COSTA RICA!
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Polydamas Swallowtail Butterfly

Polydamas Swallowtail Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Polydamas Swallowtail, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

 

Polydamas Swallowtail Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

My garden is so much fun! And beautiful! When I run out of new things to photograph in it I guess I’ll start traveling more.  🙂  And by the way, I’ve been photographing butterflies here since 2009. Check out some of the others in my Butterflies of Costa Rica photo gallery. And if you enjoy other interesting insects, I have a Insects of Costa Rica gallery also. And you wondered, “What in the world do you do every day way down there in Costa Rica?   🙂

And my new butterfly book arrived today at Aerocasillas from Amazon.com.

“Butterflies are self propelled flowers.” 
― Robert A. Heinlein

 

 

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Guarumo Cecropia Tree in Symbiotic Relationship with Ants

Guarumo Cecropia tree in my front yard

Guarumo leaves are some of the most interesting in the tropics.

When my personal gardener told me the Guarumo tree would attract Toucans with the seeds, I told him I wanted one! And I have it! It grows naturally only in Central America and is one of several kinds of Cecropia trees. I panicked this week when I saw a stream of tiny ants crawling up and down the trunk of the tree and called Cristian for help! He stopped by after another job today and explained that this ant is the friend of this tree. They help each other in a symbiotic relationship, providing food and housing for the ants who in turn protect the tree from leaf-eating predators. It was also used by Amerindians for medicinal purposes and is now used by pharmaceutical companies.

All of the cecropia trees are the favorite food of sloths, so you most often see photos of sloths in large cecropia trees, but not usually the Guarumo though. Mine will have to be a lot larger to hold either a toucan or sloth! Right now it is just a special kind of symbiotic ants! It not only looks cool, but is a great lesson in working together with smaller, sometimes hated creatures!

A sustainable world means working together to create prosperity for all.
~Jacqueline Novogratz

And by the way, I just this moment realized that today is my 6 month anniversary in Costa Rica! I moved here December 24, 2014. I’m glad I came! Maybe I will eventually figure out a symbiotic relationship with Costa Rica.  🙂

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Movie Adventure & Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica

Photographed this little guy before breakfast this morning when I walked out and saw two hummingbirds flying in and out of my garden. I try shooting them in flight but very difficult! And as good fortune continues to smile on me, this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird landed on a flower. I guess they do have to rest occasionally! This is my 5th species of hummers to photograph in my garden, almost as many as the butterflies. I have a total of 13 species photographed in my Costa Rica Hummingbirds Gallery.  This milestone was before breakfast and my movie adventure today.

MOVIE ADVENTURE
One of my neighbors, Anthony, is a single artist my age renting a house in the next compound. He and I got a taxi a little before 10 AM to go to the bus station without the sweat of walking there ($1 each). We took the 10:30 freeway bus that makes a stop by the Mall in Escazu ($2 each). We first bought our tickets from the computer kiosk with touch screen that didn’t always work, but finally got it to. Then we ate lunch at the American chain restaurant Chili’s next door to the theater. Same menu as in the states. 
We could have seen Jurassic Park for $8 but chose to go all the way with the 1:25 PM 3-D and DBOX, which is a special row of large, wide-aisle seats that moved and vibrated with some scenes in the movie. That was about $14.50 each. DBOX is not worth the extra cost, at least for this movie. Not as effective as the ones in Disney World. The movie is very well done but didn’t make good use of 3-D either, so really the $8 regular movie would have been just as good. And I hope this is the last in the Jurassic series, though they set up something at the end to help continue it. They are covering tired subjects and the story line is weak. But it was a good “first movie in Costa Rica” for me since the fictitious park is supposedly here (though filmed in Hawaii and Louisiana). 
I also learned today that there is an IMAX theater in San Jose and this would have been a good movie to see in it, though even more expensive. I will not go to theater movies as much here as I did in Nashville, but good to know how to do it and that the theater is as good or better than any I’ve seen in the states. All seats are nice, large, comfortable, and with drink holders. Good sound, screen, etc. 
Uneventful 25-minute taxi ride to “Coca Cola Bus Station” on the other side of San Jose in rush hour traffic for the only place to catch a return bus to Atenas (pricey $10 each!) and then our $2 each bus ride back to Atenas where we walked home before dark. An interesting day! And I meant to photograph the theater but forgot in all the busyness of doing it the first time in mostly Spanish. But movie was in English with Spanish subtitles. Whew! Big Day! We were home around 5:15. Tired.

And if you can’t add it up in your head, that is $15.50 each for all but lunch which was about $7.50 or $22 USD for the whole day. Not bad for being in Costa Rica! And it would have been less than $20 if we had been wise enough to choose the regular movie instead of 3-D DBOX.  🙂

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My Library

My library recharges at night, Kindle Fire & Samsung Cellphone (Kindle App).

One of the smartest things I did before the move south was get a Kindle Fire and then add the Kindle App to my cellphone! I read everything from the Bible to novels, National Geographic and occasionally the news, all electronically on my Kindle. When riding a bus or eating in a restaurant I read on my phone. As a quote I used yesterday in the butterfly post says,

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”  
-Marcus Tullius Cicero
FYI, I’m currently reading the latest English version of Don Quixote and it is too early for me to have a judgement on it yet (but a little weird so far).  A couple of days ago I finished reading Pay It Forward, one of the best books I’ve ever read! It is by Catherine Ryan Hyde whom I discovered by accident from a little 99 cent Kindle book by her titled Electric God which was very good and pointed me to Pay It Forward which was also made into a movie. Sorry that Netflix is not streaming it, just on DVD which I can’t get here. It is about how a little boy’s school project to “change the world” actually did! Of course the movies are never as good as the books!  🙂

Locally made bookcase with doors
to protect from dry season dust. It
is between book boxes & guest
room wardrobe.

After arriving I started by reading all of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit,  and all the books in Lord of the Rings series. Great ways to escape the American culture! Those lengthy readings were broken up by two John Grisham mysteries, Agatha Christie, Louis L’Amour, three books on Costa Rica, two science fiction books, and The Psalmist (a mystery) by James Lillieford, a new and interesting writer for me. I’ll try him again.

Because I did bring two hard copy Bibles, my photo books, a couple of books on simple life, and my bird, butterfly, plants and other Central America nature & travel guides, I got a little bookcase (Pequeña Biblioteca), with doors to help with the dry season dust. It is simple, handmade locally, and serves my purpose well. I will also be keeping a few of the genealogy books as I go through them, but all my scrapbooks are going to be photographed and become electronic files as most of genealogy stuff will.

Mostly, my library now is my Kindle Fire! Best library yet!

Nature is my theme, so here’s one nature photo:     🙂

Rainy Day Green! Even with dull, overcast sky, greens seem brighter in rain!
Another view from my balcony in Atenas, Costa Rica!

And for those of you who know Reagan Frazier, he just scheduled a visit with me for two weeks in February 2016, just 8 months away!  🙂  But if thinking about it, February is off limits now.

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Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly (Underneath View), Atenas, Costa Rica

This is similar to the Thoas Swallowtail, but I’m voting on Giant Swallowtail since Thoas is supposedly found mostly in the wet Caribbean and South Pacific. We are finally getting rain here today after much of the week without rain, even though it is “Rainy Season!” I don’t have to water when it rains!   🙂   If you want to live in a garden, you have to tend it!

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Atenas, Costa Rica   (Cool hair-do, huh?)

Yellow-bellied Elaenia,  Atenas, Costa Rica
Both shots from my breakfast table on the balcony

For the birders seeing this, I studied dozens of photos of both the Yellow-bellied Elaenia and the Dusky-capped Flycatcher before I determined this identification. I’m satisfied but never positive about my identification of birds, especially these grayish tan ones! The breast is much more yellow than these two photos show, which is a factor. He would not face me!

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“American Experience” in the Malls

Cell Phone Snap, Food Court, Multiplaza Mall, Escazu, Costa Rica

I’ve been here almost 6 months and haven’t been in a Mall until yesterday and again today. I did not shop in malls in the states, so why here? They are too expensive in the states, but you should see the prices here! Out of sight! But the rich (both Tico and Expat) who want the “American Experience,” love these malls, mostly near San Jose. The above Multiplaza Mall is in Escazu, a wealthy suburb of San Jose where our American Ambassador’s home is located. Yesterday I checked out International Mall in Alajuela near the airport. It is older and smaller, but only until November when the new one being built next door will be larger than Escazu’s Multiplaza AND claims it will be the largest mall in Central America with 300+ stores! 

Since I am not buying the $100 Levis or the $44 Columbia brand cap I liked, why did I go? Partly out of curiosity and partly to check out the multi-screen theaters in both malls, so Anthony and I can go see Jurassic Park next Tuesday. We want a 3-D with English sound track and Spanish subtitles. Their phones are recordings in Spanish. Scratch that! The websites are almost as difficult to follow. So I go talk to live people! Alajuela had only Spanish soundtracks during the day with their only English one at 9 PM – not for us old men! The Escazu theater staff told me today that the 1:25 afternoon 3-D show is in English with Spanish subtitles – just right for us. (Maybe a little help on learning Spanish through subtitles!) And we get a bonus! It is in a “DBOX” theater, meaning the seats will move, shake, vibrate or whatever with the movie, like Disney World! You will get a report Tuesday night. And the price of a ticket is about $8, meaning movies aren’t as overpriced as clothing, etc. 
So, you see, we don’t do without all the modern science things here! Plus I now have a new baby lizard in my living room and he mostly stays on the wall near the ceiling above the outside windows, waiting for insects! Wonder if they live in the Mall?
A Baby Lizard on wall by crown molding in my living room.
Sorry about bad photo, but I wouldn’t turn light on because it would scare him off.
In fact I tried getting closer and he scurried off! Costa Rica Insect Control!  🙂
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Costa Rica Bumble Bee

Bumble Bee, Atenas, Costa Rica
Found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere but do occur in South America
Technically, I’m still in the Northern Hemisphere at Latitude 9.98 in Atenas  🙂
We are less than 10 degrees above the equator.

Bumble Bee going for the deep nectar! Atenas, Costa Rica

Bumble Bee approaching another flower in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

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Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird

Wow! It is very difficult to get good photos of fast-moving birds! I have no special equipment, just hand-held SLR with 300 mm lens. These have been cropped to about 1/4 the original size to see bird or zoom in on it more. A closer zoom is grainy.

Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird
Atenas, Costa Rica


Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica

Note that I see hummingbirds every day in my garden but the moment I walk out the door they usually fly away. I don’t need feeders. They love the flowers! But they don’t stay still for photos!

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Green Orchid Bee

Green Orchid Bee, Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett
Another “fruit” of my garden!

Green Orchid Bee, Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett
Note: This bee lives only in tropical Central and South America