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In the Costa Rica News
Alajuela City Workers Strike
You do not see strikes often here outside the capital city of San Jose (where they shut down the already horrible traffic), but the other day when in Alajuela a small group of city workers (police, fire, others) were striking across the street from City Hall which had police barricades to keep them off city property (sorry I didn’t photo that!). The homemade signs or posters taped to the railing of a closed business were complaining about waste of money by city and low salaries for employees – plus they were blowing horns and beating drums to attract attention and possibly annoy city offices across the street. Common low pay complaint around the world I guess.
Though life is much better here than in the states for the poor, greed still causes the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. Life is not always fair.
Safe working conditions, fair wages, protection from forced labor, and freedom from harassment and discrimination – these must become standard global operating conditions. ~Paul Polman
¡Pura Vida!
I have an Alajuela photo gallery if interested in more from our provincial capital and home of the San Jose Airport.
Bonus for CR Travelers
One of the CR Travel Agencies I use is Costa Rica Expeditions and they just sent out this message with 5 Secrets of Visiting Costa Rica in October. Helpful information for traveling here near the end of our “Green Season.” (Rainy Season) Anytime is a good time to visit Costa Rica!
Hotel Grounds – Cristal Ballena
Included are shots from their “Rainforest Trail” which is a fairly dense forest with a lot of old growth big trees which is refreshing but difficult to photograph birds in because of all the limbs and leaves! 🙂
I did not show my room this time but the rooms are on the hill just above the restaurant and pool seen at top of feature photo above or in the pool photo below at upper left. Rooms 10-14 look directly over the ocean and sunsets, while other rooms like mine have garden views with partial ocean views. (My room views are seen in gallery Day Vistas.) I got more birds from my garden view but the premium rooms have better sunset views (cost more) and with clouds & rain every afternoon in rainy season there is not much sunset to see. See the hotel website for more information at https://www.cristal-ballena.com/
Cristal Ballena Hotel, Uvita
CLICK Image to Enlarge
“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more”
―
For more photos see my Cristal Ballena Trip Gallery
¡Pura Vida!
Most Beautiful Country in the World!
Well, you already know what I think about Costa Rica, but Conde Nast Traveler published it’s ranking of “The 40 Most Beautiful Countries in the World” and Costa Rica tops the list. 🙂
The photo above is one I took of Nauyaca Waterfall last Friday – one of many beautiful waterfalls in the world’s most beautiful country! 🙂
“It is good people who make good places.”
― Black Beauty
¡Pura Vida!
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
Rio Sierpe Mangrove Tour
Wednesday of my visit to Uvita I took a taxi back close to the Palmar Sur Airport I flew into for the Mangrove Boat Tour on Rio Sierpe – my sixth place to do a Mangrove or River Tour in Costa Rica which always provides a lot of birds and other wildlife to photograph. This one did not disappoint! (Not my best, but very good!)
A Couple of Coincidences
The big surprise for my solo boat tour with a captain and guide was that Carlos Gonzales was the guide – the same guide I had in Drake Bay at Aguila de Osa Hotel in 2017. He is one of the few “older” guides I’ve had in Costa Rica with the majority looking like they are fresh out of college. Carlos is 71.
Plus the funny coincidence was that the boat captain was also named Carlos and my name in Spanish is Carlos! 🙂 Tres Carloses!
Birds
Other Wildlife
River Scenes
“Oh, Eeyore, you are wet!” said Piglet, feeling him.
Eeyore shook himself, and asked somebody to explain to Piglet what happened when you had been inside a river for quite a long time.”
―
🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Another Nature Adventure arranged by Hotel Cristal Ballena!
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
Active Sloth
An oxymoron? Maybe, because they do sleep about 80% of their time and for why you will have to read about sloths on Wikipedia – the animal, not the cardinal sin! 🙂 The one sleeping in a tree near my room at Cristal Ballena Hotel near Uvita, Costa Rica decided to move around about the time I went out to check on him and here’s a portfolio of his activity. 🙂 Click image to enlarge or start slide show:
“Live Slow”
Says my Sloth T-shirt
![20190604_111253[1]-A-WEB](https://www.charliedoggett.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/20190604_1112531-A-WEB.jpg)
¡Pura Vida!
See also my Sloth (3-toed) Photo Gallery and
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
Nauyaca Waterfalls
Wow! Nothing like it anywhere! The featured photo above is the Upper Nauyaca Falls and the one below is the Lower Nauyaca Falls & Swim Hole with my new friends from Portugal in the water before the crowds arrived.
Below is a brief slide show of people in the swim hole and the truck ride up the mountain dirt road to the falls which is alone is quite an experience while others road horses or walked uphill for an hour and a half. Truck for me! 🙂
Nauyaca Waterfalls & Cristal Ballena Hotel official websites.
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
“There’s no better place to find yourself than sitting by a waterfall and listening to it’s music”
―¡Pura Vida!
Morning & Night Make a good Day!
I planned to post the report on Rio Sierpe Boat Trip today but still not finished – so just a quick glimpse at today, another nature day! 🙂
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”
¡Pura Vida!
@
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
Ocean Vistas Uvita
“Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.”
– Sarah Kay
NOTE: We saw most of our whales somewhere near this rock which they seem to like! The name is because of their presence and not its shape. Here every July-October.
Made Possible by the . . .
I just keep loving this country more every day! 🙂
And I’m way behind on reporting events and photos from this trip with Tuesday at the hotel experiencing and photographing a moving sloth, 4 crested guans, a flock of toucans and other birds followed by today’s mangrove boat trip on the Rio Sierpe with an unbelievable collection of photos I’m still sorting. Another great day in paradise with a birding guide tomorrow on the hotel property and Friday the Nauyaca Waterfall. Never a dull moment when you are “Retired in Costa Rica!”
¡Pura Vida!
And continued thanks to Cristal Ballena Hotel for making all of these exciting tours possible! A great place to stay when in Uvita!
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
Quick! Snap it!
WHALES! The magic of seeing them and the difficulty of photographing! I spent 4 hours on the ocean this morning trying to do that. Not easy, but a real rush and satisfaction. None of our whales today jumped out of the water like you see in the classic photo and we were told that it doesn’t happen very often. In fact they even have some days when no whales are seen, so we were lucky to see 5 or more!
Our guide said all of these are humpback whales, though they looked like two different species to me, but maybe some are juveniles which are often different in many other species.
And we had 4 “species” of people on our boat! A group from Argentina, another group from Chili, a family from Costa Rica, and one little old man American who now lives in Costa Rica. Guess which language was spoken on this tour! 🙂
I’ll do another post tomorrow with scenery, boats, swimming and other information, but these photos are just a few of my whale photos – my reason for being here. CLICK IMAGE TO SEE LARGER.
Whales in Costa Rica
The full size versions of these photos are in my Trip Gallery for 2019 Cristal Ballena, Uvita, sub-gallery Whales. I’m developing this trip gallery day by day during the trip. And read about my hotel at their site: Cristal Ballena Hotel.
As a matter of information, all these whales are from the south, along the Pacific coast of South America and possibly from Antarctic. They come here every July-October for the warm waters and to calve their babies. Then in December to March we have whales coming from the Pacific coast of the States and Canada and as far north as Alaska and the Arctic and Russia. But we don’t get as many of these in Costa Rica because some go to Hawaii.
Ships are expendable; the whales are not.
~Paul Watson
¡Pura Vida!
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita