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Sometimes a beautiful hill or mountain hides the sunrise as it did yesterday for my early morning bird walk, making photos of birds in the shadows difficult – but patience! The sun eventually comes over the hill! 🙂
And today I slowed down my activities by necessity.
Continue reading “Sunrise Behind the Mountain”
Yes, that is one English translation of today’s Spanish named waterfall, Catarata Rio Agrio. With agrio meaning bitter, tart or sour which is how the water tastes because of minerals.
And my first afternoon walk was cut short because the clouds literally moved in as shown in earlier post with a sort of mist, not exactly rain, but my camera was getting wet and time to go in! 🙂 See all 8 photos from the walk . . .
Continue reading “Afternoon Walk”
El Silencio Lodge and the nearby pueblo of Bajos del Toro are in the Cloud Forest in mountains much higher than where I live in Atenas though not as high as my January visit to San Gerardo de Dota – but still the clouds move in sometime as they did this afternoon after my arrival and during my first walk around the property.
Continue reading “In the Clouds”
Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.
~Leonardo da Vinci
A photo from San Gerardo de Dota that I liked and didn’t include in my flower post. Sometimes it’s the little things that impress me the most, yet often get overlooked like this diminution of light.
¡Pura Vida!
One of the flower photos I posted from Hotel Savegre had a bee in it which I did not acknowledge – so I do so here. Plus a technician is trying to get me a work-around to include the featured photo in the emailed announcement. This entire post is suppose to be included in the email announcement. We will see.
And if you like bees, check out my Bee Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
One of my new favorite lodges in Costa Rica is El Silencio Lodge at Bajos del Toro in my own province of Alajuela, north of San Ramon in the cloud forest mountains where there are many waterfalls. I was there last September and as I frequently do, I made a little 7X7 inch photo book about my experiences there, sending them a copy plus one each of my general birds and butterflies books for their other guests to enjoy. When the owner came down from San Jose and saw the books he was so impressed that he told the staff to offer me two free nights in this luxury lodge.
Well, of course I accepted the offer and will add-on two more nights at my cost for a great 5-day visit the middle of February! 🙂 If you want to see a free electronic preview of the book online, click the title here: El Silencio, Touching Souls, inspired by a quote from Mother Teresa:
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.
~Mother Teresa
¡Pura Vida!
Or you may like visiting my “Trip Gallery” on 2020 September El Silencio Lodge.
Hotel Savegre is a much different hotel than I remember it from my 2009 visit when it was a long row of rooms like an old-fashion motel stuck in the forest with a separate building for the office and restaurant. Then there were gardens in front with lots of hummingbird feeders and a few little trails into the forest. Today, no feeders! Just natural flowers and other plants to attract the birds.
Today it is a new, modern, 4-star hotel that I still think should be called a “mountain lodge,” but that was not the vision of these first pioneers in this little mountain resort community. And one of their adult sons was my birding guide this time! It is the largest Hotel-Spa-Nature Reserve in San Gerardo de Dota and is a big attraction to both tourists and Ticos from the cities wanting to get away. In fact, the weekend part of my time there on this trip was totally booked, every room! And I estimate at least 80% local Costa Ricans, called Ticos here.
Below is a gallery of what shots I got of the hotel. The rooms are now in groups of 2 to 4 around gardens with at least one garden table and chairs for each 2 or 4 rooms. It is rustic-modern, very comfortable, with a heater in every room, that is needed, especially at night! And Wifi in each room that was not working in my room, so I just used the public areas for Wifi. And a modern fireplace in every section of the restaurant which I guess burns something like butane? The food is as good as I’ve had anywhere, not exactly “gourmet” which would sound pretentious (not them), but is just high-quality food, very well-prepared with a large assortment of choices.
Here’s a few of my photos of the facilities you can CLICK to enlarge somewhat or for the full-sized images go to my The Hotel Gallery in the bigger Trip Gallery which is now completed:
And My “Trip Gallery” — 2021 January – San Gerardo de Dota
¡Pura Vida!
Here’s some of the many beautiful visitas from Hotel Savegre. And I would not ask my driver to stop for photos on the way up or down the narrow, steep, winding, mountain road, but the drive down gives even more beautiful vistas! (If your aren’t the driver!) – 🙂
Tomorrow will be some hotel photos, then just one more day of “Misc.” Photos! 🙂
And I have my “Trip Gallery” finished at 2021 January, San Gerardo de Dota Hotel Savegre.
¡Pura Vida!
Starting today the government of Costa Rica will begin the Covid19 vaccinations of everyone age 18 and older at no cost to the person. Read the Tico Times article. And older people like me will be first. I was told they would call me within the month for my appointment at the local public clinic.
¡Pura Vida!
One of the many wonderful things about Hotel Savegre is the huge piece of property it sits on in a mixture of primary and secondary forest – the “secondary” parts being where early farmers cleared land that has now been “re-forested” as has a large portion of Costa Rica as farming methods have improved and are becoming less destructive of the natural environment. The guide in some of the photos is Marino Chacon, a son of the man and woman who pioneered this first hotel/lodge in the truly amazing hills of San Gerardo de Dota. His parents are pictured on one of the trail signs included below in my two collections. CLICK image in first gallery to enlarge, which you can’t do in the second one as a slideshow.
And I have my “Trip Gallery” finished at 2021 January, San Gerardo de Dota Hotel Savegre.
¡Pura Vida!
How one person found relief from the pandemic and politics in nature:
¡Pura Vida!
