For most people it would be a horrible day with almost constant rain, but my all morning birding hike with breakfast break was good for me including this one “Lifer” or first-time seen bird.
I still don’t have a count of how many birds I photographed in the terrible light, but I will report on that tomorrow. Nestor says he saw or heard 82 species and I’m sure I didn’t see half that number, but will tell tomorrow. The selfie here is me with Nestor, my guide.
This Bicolored Antbird is my first to see or photograph and my second Lifer on this trip. Learn more about him at the eBird Description. CLICK below images to enlarge:
I arrived at Arenal Observatory Lodge in time for lunch with my driver and my first afternoon of looking for birds with 11 species photographed including the above Emerald Tanager (link to eBird description) which is a “Lifer” or first-time-seen bird for me! And a colorful one found only in Central America plus Columbia & Ecuador.
I did lots of walking including to the top of the 28 meters or 92 ft. tall observation tower with 146 steps on stairs. I’ve gotten lots of birds and monkeys from this tower in the past, but not today with it being overcast and very windy when I went up today, but I got several landscape shots including this one I call “A Sea of Treetops.”
My “Sea of Treetops” shot today from the top of Arenal Observatory’s observation tower.
“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”
I just found this feature image from the May 9 “Big Day” of bird counting for eBird when I walked, counted and photographed birds in Roca Verde and adjacent Calle Nueva. The only non-bird photo was this above of a “House in the Forest” which I think I shot because it was so appealing to me, beckoning me into the forest.
Then just as I started to use it in this post as a wishful place, PRESTO! I realized that I already have it! It is the same kind of thing I have created with my little rental house, planting trees and flowers all around it where there were none already until I now have a slightly more modern version of the above house in the woods. Mine is seen below:
From Driveway Above House
From Driveway or Neighbor’s House
From Lower Driveway
From Entrance Gate
From Street by Gate
From Street
My Terrace in the Forest
My Cecropia or Guarumo Tree by Terrace
Flowers
Entrance Garden
I love my “house in the forest” and the “jungle” I’ve created around it. This was “wide open” or mostly barren when I came 5.5 years ago, so I’m proud of my “reforestation!” 🙂 Plant a tree! It will make you happy!
A few weeks ago I spoke to this “living in a forest” with my blog post Forest Window and back in January I did a post titled My Windows – My World where I actually showed you the view I have from every room in my house! 🙂 You see, I love forests and living in them! 🙂
But I also live periodically all over Costa Rica now and those many forests can be seen through my eyes in a Flora & Forest Gallery and of course other galleries with the birds & other animals in these forests! And oh yes, today is the day I leave for one of my favorite forests in Costa Rica, Arenal Volcano National Park and the wonderful in-park wilderness lodge Arenal Observatory Lodge (link to lodge website). So maybe an arrival-day blog post report tonight! 🙂 Enjoy your own trees and plant some more! 🙂
“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”
Costa Rica is technically in the northern hemisphere, though only about 13° above the equator, so I guess we could call it “Winter Solstice” like the rest of the northern hemisphere. But it actually ends what Costa Rica calls “Winter”or our “Rainy Season” (May-Nov) with already 2 or 3 weeks of no rain in Atenas now. So our “Summer” has begun which means no more rain until next May, with a few rare exceptions. And until March the wind blows more. (More on the wind in another post later.)
Since most northerners don’t like rain on their vacations, it also begins the high tourist season (in normal years) 🙂 with no rain and slightly warmer weather Dec-April (but only by a couple of degrees). For example, in Atenas the average temperature in Fahrenheit is the mid-70’s year-around (winter & summer). No one here has or needs heaters or air-conditioners except some coastal or beach houses/hotels that have air-conditioning because it is hotter and more humid along both coasts. One of several reasons I don’t live on the beach.
Now . . . Will tomorrow really be our shortest day and longest night? like Canada & the U.S.? Technically yes, but because or our proximity to the equator, our total daylight variance over a whole year (December to June solstices) is only 30 minutes difference, meaning that in most places all over Costa Rica it gets dark sometime between 5 & 6 PM every evening and the sun rises between 5 & 6 every morning, year-around. 🙂 Thus we hardly notice winter solstice here. Pura vida! 🙂 And oh yes, the featured photo is one of my sunrise photos from the Caribbean or Atlantic Coast at Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo.
“There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”
One of my walking places I’ve shared a lot is Avenida 8 that turns into a dirt road that I sometimes call a “Country Lane” or “Country Road.” And if I go to the end of that dirt road down a hill I’m at a connector highway called “Radial 27” that runs only from central Atenas to our nearby toll road to the capital or the beach, Ruta 27. In town it is also Avenida 0 that runs in front of the central church, central park, central mercado and ends at Central Cementerio. 🙂
If I keep walking, like I did Monday, I enter the highway at the Farmers’ Market Pavilion and then, to get more exercise, I walk up the highway hill into Central Atenas where I turn left on Calle 4 and go four blocks to Avenida 8 and left down it 6 more blocks to my house in Roca Verde. I call that “My Radial Circle Walk” with more hills and more exercise! And though I don’t do it often, I need it now to get in shape for hiking at Arenal next week! 🙂
The Feature Photo of Radial 27 above is where I stopped and pulled out my cell phone to photograph the sign that lets visitors know they are entering Atenas – sponsored by Claro, one of the cable TV companies here. Just as I pointed my phone camera at the sign the moto (a motorcycle is called here) entered my frame and he must have known it because if you zoom in on him you see he is giving me the Peace Sign (V) just as I snapped. And “no,” it wasn’t the ugly finger sign or I would not have told you! 🙂 Most people are not ugly here! But they all like the peace sign! 🙂
“I love walking because it clears your mind, enriches the soul, takes away stress and opens up your eyes to a whole new world .”
Well . . . a “blended” model of every other day in person and every other day online beginning February 8 for public schools and in January for some private schools with masks and social distancing required for everyone! Read about it in Tico Times online: Costa Rica will resume in-person learning in 2021.
Today I walked past Colegio Liceo during their “graduation” of seniors with everyone outside waiting to go in for diplomas, one family at a time. Unfortunately 2020 has not been the best year to be a graduating senior! But it is what it is and will certainly be memorable! 🙂
Costa Rica has had hardly any children with the virus and the country as a whole low in cases compared to the United States, though we are still dealing with cases, mainly in the big city of San Jose and some along the Nicaragua border with Nicaragua being hit hard and their 3rd world country government doing little to prevent cases, kind of like the USA :-). Costa Rica still has a national requirement of masks in public and 1.8 meter (6ft) distancing anywhere in public with restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and other businesses limited to 50% capacity and automobiles only allowed on road every other day based on tag number with big fines for cheating. These kinds of precautions help! 🙂
The featured photo is one of my old ones of Escuela Central Atenas, the public elementary school here. During the down time workers have repainted it from this institutional beige color to a little brighter institutional gray and white now. Sorry I haven’t photographed it yet.
KLM names airplane after Costa Rican national park
Read about it in Tico Times article. The Boeing 777-300 was baptized “Cocos Island National Park” in honor of the Costa Rican Pacific island that’s an important conservation area for terrestrial and marine wildlife (and that was the inspiration for the fictional Isla Nublar in “Jurassic Park”).
December 24, 2020 is my 6 year anniversary here! But the first Christmas Card was sent before I left on Christmas Eve 2014 as a combination Christmas Greeting & Change of Address Card, thus 7 cards+ since I’ve designed two for some years. In fact, this is the second one for this year! 🙂
I’ll tell you how the sun rose, a ribbon at a time. The steeples swam in amethyst, The news like squirrels ran. The hills untied their bonnets, The bobolinks begun. Then I said softly to myself, “That must have been the sun!
~Emily Dickinson
Charlie Doggett Photo of sun rise on the Central Church of Atenas, Costa Rica.
NOTE: Today’s photo makes 8 days of blog photo posts all from the one morning walk of photos last Thursday, 10 December, a week-a-go today. And I had prepared all 8 posts by Friday afternoon the 11th. I don’t always do a week’s worth at once in advance, but glad I did this time as I have other projects I’m working on. Starting next Monday I will be doing daily blog posts one day at a time, reporting at least a portion of that day at Arenal Observatory, Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica, My Christmas Treat Trip! 🙂
There is a fairly new art shop in town called Tienda Galería Pachacuti Arte across from Central Park next to Banco Nacional that is operated by two artisans, a Tico friend who makes jewelry from local stones and a new artist from Peru who is principally a painter though does other art forms too. He named the shop after Pachacuti, leader of an Inca tribe thought to have built Machu Picchu in his honor in Peru. Their art shop is upstairs in this building and has a lot of beautiful work. Its a shame there are almost no tourists here now because of the pandemic. They asked me to present some of my photography for them to sell, but so far I am resisting any involvement in retail sales. 🙂
The mural of a black panther means that evidently this form of the cougar or puma (just black in color) evidently exists in Peru (not that I know of in Costa Rica, but possible). They are rarely seen in Florida of the U.S.
Another bit of ethnic color in central Atenas, Costa Rica. Pura vida!
One of my closest neighbors, across the street, seems to look at me and say “How can I help you?” Or is that just my good imagination? Only the cow knows! 🙂
Moo may represent an idea, but only the cow knows.
~Mason Cooley
¡Pura Vida!
Costa Rica’s ‘La Sele’ unveils uniforms inspired by biodiversity:
And well, an ad for New Balance too! They make the national team uniforms & the “official” fan T-shirts.
