Not sure why I didn’t shoot the road! 🙂 But I guess the surrounding farmland and hills captivated me too much. Here’ a few favorite vistas:
Calle Balsilla Landscapes
Calle Balsilla Birds
I must admit that I was more focused on butterflies than birds when we walked Calle Balsilla last week, plus we were later getting there which means fewer birds, but I did get these 4 bird species along with my 11 species of butterflies! 🙂
Interesting that the above dove is the only bird I photographed that was not totally black in color! 🙂
Continue reading “Calle Balsilla Birds”Calle Balsilla Butterflies
Judith LaBelle introduced me to a new “country road” in Atenas the other day that is likely better for birding! But, because of car trouble, we got there later than planned, with not as many birds photographed (only 4) which I will share tomorrow, but I was wowed by the butterflies flitting along the side of the road when no farmer riding a horse was going by. 🙂
It’s on the other side of Ruta 27 by the Tarcoles River after the dam or after Rio Grande has become Rio Tarcoles. There is a small rural community known as Balsilla de Mora, centered around a church by that name in Atenas Canton that includes some people living over the nearby province line in San Jose Province adjacent to our Alajuela Province. Farming people don’t pay much attention to canton and province lines! 🙂
I’m featuring this neat unidentified butterfly that was our trip target and then 10 more butterflies below it for a total of 11, including 4 new species for me! 🙂 And I’m thankful to Judy who saw this same butterfly on her last trip there and took me back looking for it. There is never a guarantee of repeat sightings of birds or butterflies, but, just as we were leaving, we saw it! I still can’t find it in my books or on the internet, but will keep trying for an ID! 🙂 There’s 1,500+ butterfly species in Costa Rica!
One of the Grass Skippers
This Skipper showed up on my kitchen counter here in Atenas, Costa Rica last week and I have searched diligently both in books and the internet and cannot identify him specifically, but I am pretty sure he is in the subfamily of Skippers called “Grass Skippers” (Hesperiinae) and that’s the best I can do! There are over 1,500 species of butterflies here in Costa Rica, not to mention the over 12,000 moths! So ID is a challenge and I’m taking on that challenge the best I can. 🙂
And one more photo in slightly different light . . .
Continue reading “One of the Grass Skippers”Youth Service Project
On one of my walks to town the other day these high school aged kids did not see me snap a photo of them with my phone. They were evidently doing a service project, possibly through the school, painting this public picnic table at the City Sports Park next to the covered Basketball Court. Hopefully they are painting all of the several at this park which are always full at lunch time with a very popular empanada shop across the street in one direction and fried chicken (el pollo frito) a block the other direction. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
A Browner Swallowtail
This is another Polydamas Swallowtail like I showed before my trip, but the underside of his wings here are more obviously brown than the others which were dominated by black. It could be because I had better light, but it still seems somewhat like a different species. Polydamas Swallowtail (butterfliesandmoths.org) for descriptions, locations, etc. and you can compare all of my many photos of this species in my Polydamas Swallowtail Gallery. And it is interesting to note that all of my photos were made in my garden.
Cativo Photos not in Blog
Or in the case of some galleries, not many were in the blog. The links are to sub-galleries in my Trip Gallery titled: 2022 July 1-7 – Playa Cativo Lodge, Golfo Dulce & Piedras Blancas NP in case you want to go to just one subject of your interest, click it below:
- Hotel Art at Playa Cativo Lodge
- Trees at Playa Cativo Lodge
- Many Interesting Trail Signs
- Wilderness Trails
- Boats
- Shots from Airplane
¡Pura Vida!
Playa Cativo Photo Gallery
It’s finally completed! And now I can focus on more photos here in Atenas and my garden, though I might still blog some more from Cativo that I haven’t shared yet 🙂 since probably few of you will actually go to this trip gallery linked below. 🙂
This was a better than usual trip and rainforest lodge, though maybe not in my #1 choice yet 🙂 — it’s so hard to compare nature lodges when all of them are so good and each have their own unique things that the others do not! 🙂 If you want to learn more about this lodge, check out their website with this link: Playa Cativo Lodge, Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica. And note that the night-shot of a cabin at the top of their first page is of the cabin I stayed in for a week. 🙂 One of my best cabins ever, anywhere!
This was the third of the 3 “new” lodges I tried this year and was definitely the best cabin of the three and possibly the best overall experience than those at Chachagua or Guayabo, my other two “first time” lodges this year, both of which I loved and enjoyed very much! And I would consider returning to all three! The Cativo food was gourmet like Chachagua’s and the girl guide I had, Alejandra, was one of the best I’ve had anywhere plus the dining room staff gave me one of my best birthday celebrations yet in Costa Rica when I turned 82 there! So, overall a very good experience! 🙂 But I recommend both of the other new lodges also plus my only new lodge of 2021, Bosque del Cabo near Puerto Jimenez, which rivaled this lodge in many ways though I was still to weak from cancer treatment to fully enjoy it.
To see my Playa Cativo Trip Gallery, click that linked title or the image of the first page below. Photos tell a lot about a place if you are considering a visit there! 🙂 And remember that you must travel to either Golfito or Puerto Jimenez and then the hotel arranges a taxi from airport to dock for a boat ride to the lodge. Or if you drive a car, like my Tico doctor friend did, they will suggest where to park it safely before your boat ride to the lodge.
¡Pura Vida!
Trips like this are one thing that make my simple retirement a constant adventure along with the wonderful people and tranquility of the little coffee farming town I live in between these trips. I own no car or house, living happily in a rental house and walking or using public transportation, including for these trips.
You can virtually experience all my trips and tranquil home life through this blog “Retired in Costa Rica” and/or the past trips in my Costa Rica TRIPS Gallery which of course has a sub-gallery for each of the 96 trips I’ve made to every corner of Costa Rica plus 2 to Nicaragua and 1 to Panama since moving here in 2014. This number of trips does include several day-trips but mostly multi-nights lodge trips which are the best of course! And for me, 6 nights somewhere is needed to both relax and experience everything! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Baby Emerald Basilisk
Or maybe that should be “Juvenile” or even “Immature” as some of the words scientists use to describe young wildlife without all the characteristics of their elders, like the big dinosaur fins on their back! I struggled for some time on the ID of this guy I photographed in my garden last Saturday, thinking at first he was one of the many anoles, but after a lot of research, I’m pretty confident of this ID. 🙂
My Emerald Basilisk Gallery with more adults than babies! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Royal Firetip Butterfly
Another new butterfly for me! And in my home garden no less! 🙂 The Royal Firetip or Mysoria barcastus is found from Mexico through most of South America, and just one more of our myriad of butterflies here! Though I’m finding new butterflies on most of my trips to different forest locations, the vast majority of my Costa Rica Butterfly Collection (150+) has been photographed in my Gardens here in Atenas! And I have now become as interested in butterflies as in birds, with both being somewhat of a challenge to photograph. 🙂 Here’s 3 photos of this new species for me:
