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Continue reading “Waterfalls Book is Ready!”Waterfalls Book is Ready!
Llanos de Cortés Waterfall
My waterfalls trip finally happened yesterday and here is the first of three we visited plus some other interesting sites that I will be sharing about in the coming days. Yesterday was a wonderful day in many ways and typical of my frequent adventures as a retiree in Costa Rica.
The Llanos de Cortés Waterfall (link to their commercial Facebook Page) which of course is Catarata Llanos de Cortés in Spanish! 🙂 And yes, it is spelled correctly for them and the adjacent community. The other spelling with a “z” instead of the “s” is simply a different family name. 🙂 I’m familiar with having a “different” family name. I’m Doggett not Daggett! 🙂
From Overfly to Up-close
Tomorrow (Friday the 14th) is a one-day photo trip, my only planned trip for January, to get photos of two special waterfalls. The first is . . .
The Llanos de Cortes Waterfall I caught from a Sansa small plane flight between Liberia and San Jose Airports in 2019 and finally tomorrow I get to photograph it up close! Llanos de Cortes Waterfall is . . .
Continue reading “From Overfly to Up-close”2022 Adventures Planned
As of today, I have only five of my typical six-night trips planned, less than the every two months goal, but I expect to add some 1, 2 or 3 day trips in-between! In fact, in January there is a day-trip planned for north of where I live to photograph 2 more waterfalls! That will be the last two photos I need to complete my next photo book on the Waterfalls of Costa Rica which I’m titling “WATERFALLS: The Music of Costa Rica.” 🙂
This year’s schedule includes two totally new places along with three repeats of Favorites! Below each of the 3 favorites I’ve added links to my photos from previous trips there. I can’t imagine having a better retirement than I have in Costa Rica! 🙂 There’s always something to look forward to in nature! And a growing Photo Gallery that I’m proud of! 🙂
And the “Feature Photo” at top of Post is also one from Captivo Lodge Website, the view from my room there – supposedly! 🙂
February in Maquenque Eco-Lodge Tree House
This is the lodge where I’ve photographed the largest number of bird species and where I get to sleep in a tree house near the birds and monkeys! 🙂 Photo at right is the “Tarzan” tree house room on my 2020 visit there. See the Lodge Website or my photos linked below from two previous incredible trips there:
April at Guayabo Lodge for Birds, Indigenous History & 2 Volcanoes
This is the first new location for me this year that will have a lot of good birding on campus and in a nearby private reserve, along with a visit to the Guayabo National Monument, an Indigenous Archaeological Site; plus Turrialba Volcano and Irazú Volcano, two of the biggest in Costa Rica that I have not seen yet. See the Lodge Website or specifics on these tours I plan to include from the hotel:
- Guayabo National Monument Tour (with video) or Monument Website
- Turrialba Volcano Tour or NP Website
- Irazú Volcano Tour or NP Website
- Birding in Aquiares River Reserve (owned by lodge)
July Birthday at Playa Cativo Lodge
This is the other new location for me on the other side of Piedras Blanca NP from an earlier favorite, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, but this time on a beach on Golfo Dulce in an even wilder rainforest. See the Playa Cativo Lodge’s Website or YouTube has a lot of videos from there. The feature photo at top is the view I expect to have from my room and the dining room. 🙂
September Back to Quiet Banana Azul in Caribe
Check out the hotel’s website or see my photo galleries from 4 previous relaxing visits there:
Christmas Return to Arenal Observatory Lodge
Check out the lodge’s website or my photo galleries from two previous adventures:
- 2020 December 21-27 (also at Christmas)
- 2018-May 4-9
This is an all-around favorite for just about everything! They are 2nd only to Maquenque Lodge for the number of birds I photograph; one of best rooms & room visitas (I always get Room 29!) 🙂 ; excellent restaurant; fabulous forest trails; the tallest and best birding tower in Costa Rica; a beautiful waterfall; other wildlife besides birds; sitting at the base of the volcano; and close to multiple other great birding reserves and the biggest butterfly garden in the country! 🙂
See my CR Trips Gallery for all the places I’ve visited here.
Expect some stunning new photos in 2022! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Cloud Cuckoo Land a Must-read for . . .
. . . 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!
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
This book is my current read as the #1 on the New York Times best seller list by Pulitzer Prize winning author Anthony Doerr who wrote the best WWII novel I’ve read yet, All the Light We Cannot See that at first I found hard to read with two different parallel stories during WWII of a 12 year old girl in France and a 12 year old boy in Germany and of course their lives eventually cross. A powerful story! Worthy of all the awards! And now . . .
Green on Green
Green may have always been my favorite color, but for now, it definitely is! Our future as a planet is either green or not at all and everyone can plant trees and other plants and contribute to this prime color of green on green! 🙂
Seeing Green on green FutureContinue reading “Green on Green”
WALKING PATHS in My Life Today
Next to maybe “Nature” in general or “Birds” specifically, nothing describes my life of being “Retired in Costa Rica” better than “WALKING!” For seven years now without a car I have learned to get to most needed places on foot; walking to town, to the supermercado or farmacia, to a restaurante; and even better, walking for fun or the discoveries of nature on city sidewalks, my “Country Lane” or “Country Road” walks for photos of birds or other nature and best of all the many wonderful wilderness trails I’ve discovered in national parks and reserves across this beautiful, natural country of Costa Rica. My life here has made experiencing nature and walking (hiking) almost synonymous! The feature photo at top is one of the horizons I experience on “Country Lane” and other paths in Atenas with one of my trip trails below . . .
WALKING PATHS of My Adult Life
Had I not married, hiking would have been my avocation or how I spent all my time when not working to pay the bills. 🙂 But that’s not the way my life worked out. So I squeezed in as much as I could, though mostly before marriage and after the divorce with some during marriage, and the memories of all those times among nature are some of the greatest treasures I have. Most of my photography on backpacking trips and day hikes were of the scenery and nature, but I have a few of me on the hiking trails I will show below on the post-email section of the blog, plus even more of hiking groups I either led (most of them) or participated in group hikes. These will be galleries and you can click an image to see its larger full-frame pix and/or a manual slideshow if you wish.
The feature photo at top is of my Vasque Hiking Shoes, the best hiking shoes I ever had!
Continue reading “WALKING PATHS of My Adult Life”FAVE BIRDS – Spot-crowned Euphonia
The Spot-crowned Euphonia (eBird description) is a favorite for many reasons, including that this photo is so detailed of the female eating a little berry that even her tongue is showing. 🙂 Plus this bird is endemic to Costa Rica, meaning it is found only here and a few spots over the border in Panama. In my Spot-crowned Euphonia Gallery I have shots from only two places and will link to those places and TRIP GALLERIES in The Backstory below, plus I’m adding a photo of the male so you can see the difference. It was photographed at the same time and place as the female and thus they could be mates.