Here’s the LINK to the photo book of my trip two weeks ago: Caribe Tuanis Click title to REVIEW the book electronically in my bookstore, all pages for free! Best seen at Full Screen!
Jumping at Bribri Watsi Waterfall
The title is my fusion of two Costa Rica slang words and is not grammatically correct Spanish! One Tico tried to get me to add “El” like “The” in English. No. “Caribe” is CR slang or short for Caribbean which I think is used in English some also and the slang word “Tuanis” is like the American slang of earlier years “Cool.” So my English translation of the title would be “Caribbean Cool.”
Three-toed Sloth this year – Rare face shot
Since my last year’s book on the Caribbean was all birds and nature, I wanted to do something different this year, featuring teens jumping off a waterfall and surfers riding the waves plus Bribri Indigenous People, and of course the Rastas of all Caribbean Culture. Enjoy!
My Costa Rica Birds Gallery is still big with almost 270 species of birds included but is a little cleaner and easier to use now, especially for birders. Instead of one gallery with a jumble of 400 to 500 photos arranged alphabetically, it is now a folder with a SEPARATE GALLERY FOR EACH SPECIES so there is no longer the confusion of having multiple images of some species, but when you browse you will only look at one image of each species and then click it if you want to see that image larger or see multiple images of that bird. A separate gallery for each species. That will make it even more efficient as my collection of bird photos grows and gets better!
Plus birders will especially like that I have them ARRANGED BY FAMILIES or in the order found in the book The Birds of Costa Rica, A Field Guide.
Emerald Toucanet — One of the 269 species in my new CR Birds gallery.
And you might want to know that I am uploading the full-size image here so you can DOWNLOAD ONE FOR FREE and use as you wish or PURCHASE A PHOTO (like the above Toucanet) as a “Card,” “Paper Print,” “Wall Art” print (I’m favoring high-gloss metal now) “Keepsake,” or “Phone Case.” It is a service of Smugmug.com with multiple vendors at their prices with me getting only $1 per order which is okay with me because I’m retired now! And not in business! At the bottom of each enlarged photo is a green button BUY for you to go to the purchase options. Check it out for all the neat options for some of my birds or other Costa Rica photos!
Flash Postscript! 2 of my photos made the final 10 cut for header of the Facebook Group Atenas Costa Rica InfoMine are the Spanish Dancers & the Pink & Blue Sunset Mountains. For a header I prefer the sunset photo as better for type face going over it, but I do not expect to win, believing that either the orange tree or green landscape will win and of those two I prefer the landscape also because it is better for titles printing over it. Members of the facebook group vote for the new group header photo.
“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
― Henri Cartier-Bresson
Some trips I put more energy into getting many more bird photos, this year in South Caribe was more relaxed and slower, focusing a little more on culture and people, but here are my 10 birds and 1 nest photos representing 8 species with 3 having both male and female photos. My one “lifer” or first-time seen bird was the Gray-necked Wood-Rail.
Birds are still my first passion, but tomorrow I will share the “Other Animals” seen here this year including one of my better sloth photos shot near the hotel, as were most of the birds. I saw a few water birds from a distance but not as many as usually seen here. And I’m very pleased with my new Tamron 60mm lense which has really helped to zoom in on more birds!
Gray-necked Wood-Rail
Slaty-tailed Trogon female
Slaty-tailed Trogon male
Yellow-throated Toucan
Black-cheeked Woodpecker
Clay-colored Thrush or Yigüirro
Kiskadee
Passerini Tanager female
Passerini Tanager male
Variable Seedeater female
Montezuma Oropendola Nests
The sound of birds stops the noise in my mind.
~Carly Simon
See my TRIP Photo Gallery: 2018 Caribe South, Puerto Viejofor many other kinds of photos from this fun trip and for more on the South Caribe see these other past trip galleries:
Early this morning I used my favorite driver, Walter, to take me on an hour and a half drive up the mountains near Poas Volcano (which will reopen by December if no more eruptions). I have been hearing about a little Soda (small family restaurant) for a long time that everyone says I must visit for the wide variety of birds at their feeders and one of the most beautiful waterfall vistas.
I was not disappointed! Here is a slideshow of some of what seen and you can go to my TRIPS Photo Gallery for a gallery of today’s trip, Soda y Mirador Cinchona that will give you larger and more photos to see of one more great place to visit in Costa Rica! Birds are presented in the order found in the book The Birds of Costa Rica, A Field Guide.
I watched these two at breakfast this morning as they perched together on that cable for the power lines. Maybe this dove and pigeon are role models that some North Americans need today. Very different but happy together.
(Sorry, but I could not get a photo of them together with both in focus at my distance. They were like 6 to 10 inches apart but down the hill and across the street from me.)
White-winged Dove and Red-billed Pigeon are both common and plentiful here. Their name links are to online articles about each bird on the excellent Cornell Lab of Ornithology Neotropical Birds site. Also see these two and other tropical birds in my BIRDS Photo Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
Some tribes of birds will relieve and rear up the young and helpless, of their own and other tribes, when abandoned.
The National Bird of Costa Rica is known for singing in the rainy season in April and May, thus his honored position in Costa Rica, yet a simple bird. Seen here in my back garden, hiding behind a limb he thinks.
Here is a slide show of 15 birds I photographed here. You can also see my Xandari Birds Gallery in the Xandari Trip Gallery I am now building separately online.
One of the regular blogs I read is Christopher Howard’s Live in Costa Rica (he also does the best relocation tour) and his latest blog post quoted International Living Magazine on Costa Rica being one of the best places in the world to retire on less than $30,000 a year.Read his post or go to the online version of International Living and maybe find it there. And bear in mind that it is still true even with Costa Rica having the highest cost of living in Central America, but right now I don’t think you want to retire in any of the other Central American countries! (Panama being a sometimes exception.) I chose to retire in luxury in Costa Rica over sliding into retirement poverty in the U.S.
Today’s photo is of a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, the most common in my garden and possibly all over Costa Rica or at least in many of the places I have visited. They are aggressive and chase other species of Hummingbirds away from feeders and even “their” garden sometimes. Thus I have mixed feelings about them! ¡Pura Vida!
One afternoon we had a 2 hour boat ride around a smaller island called Popa.
This is the only island in the Boca del Toro Archipelago to have the Snowy Cotinga. We searched for over an hour before we finally found one of these semi-rare birds. Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
For the birders among my readers, this is only my second time to see and photograph a Snowy Cotinga. The other time was Christmas before last at Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí.
And everyone likes to see a toucan! This is now called the Yellow-throated Toucan Popa is close enough to the mainland for toucans to fly to them. Our island, Barsimanto, is not, thus no toucans! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
Brown Pelican Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
Brown Pelican Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
Being in the Atlantic Ocean with lots of islands and mainland nearby is pretty! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
I love the trees! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
I love the trees! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
I love the trees! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
And the houses and tourist cabins are interesting too! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
I am now back home in Atenas, Costa Rica after a very long day getting back with rain and heavy traffic making it a slower drive and not back home until about 8:30 or 9:00 PM Wednesday night. Today, Thursday, was busy with laundry, grocery shopping, bank visit, and lots of text messages and emails to deal with. Friday I meet a young friend for lunch who wants to practice his English and I will practice my Spanish. And Saturday morning I will go to Alajuela to pick up another photo book that has arrived. I probably will be sharing more photos from Panama for another week. It was a good trip!
And in between all the other things I will be back onto building my new website and maybe transferring this blog to it.
And not in business! At the bottom of each enlarged photo is a green button 
