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When I got here about 11 this morning it was cloudy and lightly raining and it stayed that way all day as you can see in the photos below, but at sunset I managed to capture a little bit of light through the clouds and by saturating the color in the photo it almost looks like a sunset! 🙂
One of the fun things about some of my trips is getting to fly in a small plane. Though I almost had to hire a taxi to drive down today because yesterday I got an email from Sansa Airlines telling me my flight to Palmar Sur was canceled. But fortunately when I called Sansa they had one seat left on the 9 am to Quepos which is a little bit further from Uvita, but okay – an hour taxi drive which is better than 4 hours drive from Atenas. 🙂
I always keep my cellphone camera busy on these little short 30 minute flights. Here’s 5 of the many shots I made:
With the huge increase of Covid Omicron engulfing the U.S. and other parts of the world, you may wonder why I risk traveling here in Costa Rica? At least 7 reasons:
Tomorrow morning early I fly Sansa south to the Palmar Sur Airport south of Uvita and then back north by car to Uvita where I’m doing a repeat visit to the Hotel Cristal Ballena (Hotel site link) on a hill overlooking Uvita’s Whale-watching bay on the Pacific Coast (feature photo & one below). I will not be quite as active as I was on my last trip there: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita (link to my trip gallery). The photos from then will show you what a wonderful place it is to just hang out at the hotel and hike in their private rainforest not to mention all the nearby sights! December-February is the time for Humpback Whales from South America to be there, so I might get to see & photo one! 🙂
And here’s just two of the wildlife I photographed from my room terrace last time . . .
Continue reading “My Christmas Treat”
The Yellow Bells have started blooming and maybe the Triquitraque will be when I return with two little blooms already. My stone indigenous guard will watch over all while I’m gone! 🙂 It is always a pleasure to return to my own garden, a different pleasure than the adventure of travel. I love both!
At the Catholic Church Central Park, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
There is an inside manger scene to the right of altar, but people were praying in that area and I did not want to disturb them.
My Atenas Catholic Church GALLERY.
My 2021 Christmas Photos GALLERY.
¡Pura Vida!
They usually have a nativity, but for now just this tree and laurels around the entrance.
My 2021 Christmas Photos Gallery
¡Feliz Navidad!
The family that does “Two Weeks in Costa Rica” blog/newsletter has an article about what Ticos do during the holidays which is also “Summer Vacation” from school for all ages with graduations the middle of December and the start of new school year in February. Thus lots of “family vacations” during this time, especially the week between Christmas and New Years when many businesses and factories, etc are closed. The beaches and mountain lodges are full of Ticos that week! Everything is already festive by December 1 with many decorations up and special meal preparations started. Read about it in the Two Weeks guy’s article:
Christmas And New Years In Costa Rica: A Festive Time (“2 Weeks in CR” Blog Page)
Attending a Tamale-Making Class en Español 2017
This Year’s Mall Christmas Trees 2021 Blog Post
2019 Christmas Trees here
2020 Monkeying Around on Christmas Eve at Arenal Observatory where I will be again next Christmas or 2022. Good lodges like this one are booked solid for Christmas a year ahead. I just made my ’22 reservations.
Birds & Tapir – A Perfect Christmas!
Christmas in Costa Rica 2018 (including a cute TV ad)
Madrigal Renaissance Christmas Banquet 2018 (all expats)
2017 Atenas Christmas Parade – one of the best!
Well . . . too many to list them all! You can do a blog search on “Christmas” for more! 🙂
My 2021 Year in Books Read (Goodreads page).
Merry Christmas! – ¡Feliz Navidad!
¡Pura Vida!
Well, just one of many vistas from the hill above my house, but one of my favorite, the hilltop farm of the local farmers’ university here in Atenas, usually covered in cows. 🙂
And that’s the last photo to share from my “Walk up the Hill!” 🙂 Just 4 more days before I go to a Pacific Coast resort south of here for Christmas where I will do daily “same day” reports on that part of my paradise! 🙂 Happy Holidays!
¡Pura Vida!
On my walk up the hill the other morning a couple of little planes flew over and I decided to “capture” the second one in a photo! It is not one of our commercial passenger planes, Sansa Airlines, but some older private plane doing who knows what? 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
. . . lovers of stories, books and libraries – the 3 main characters in this multi-layered story of totally different people from the 1450’s all the way through 2020 and to the future in 2164, all impacted by this fictitious lost and found story by a very early Greek writer who called his story “Cloud Cuckoo Land” (in Classical Greek of course!). It touches on so many life issues and about our own future on earth that I won’t try to list them all. You move between the stories of totally different people (ages 12 to 86) affected by Cloud Cuckoo Land (the Greek novel) in Constantinople (1450’s), Bulgaria (1450’s), Idaho (1940’s to 2020), Korea (1950’s), and outer space (2164) so that like his “All the Light” book (just 2 overlapping stories) you can get confused at first (if not more so). Eventually the many complicated pieces of the puzzle start coming together and you too begin to get what all these others are getting from Cloud Cuckoo Land. It is more multi-layered than Anthony Doerr’s previous classic All the Light We Cannot See (Goodreads Reviews), but just as impactful (if not more so) and will certainly become another classic! I highly recommend both books! 🙂
Read some other Goodreads Reviews of this NY Times best seller, Cloud Cuckoo Land. Now I will simplify my reading escapes with another Agatha Christie mystery! 🙂 Rest my simple mind which is still spinning from this read. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!