This beautiful and delicate-looking flower is not seen as often as some of the other ginger flowers, but is another one of my many favorites! I saw this one a week or so ago at the local Hotel Colinas del Sol. And now that I’m building a gallery of flowers by species (still under construction) I do have a gallery with all my photos of the Crêpe Ginger (linked) with shots from 5 different locations. It is another “foreign” (Asia) flower that has “naturalized” here in Costa Rica. Read more about it on Wikipedia.
¡Pura Vida!
An update to the brief memorial in yesterday morning’s blog post
Yesterday afternoon, I added to my memorial to Yaison Quesada, the only photo I had of him (below) and a list of links to the 11 blog posts where I mentioned him or told about something he had done for me. I wanted everything about him to be in the same place, thus I added it all to yesterday’s nature post addition at: https://www.charliedoggett.net/2026/10/11/the-security-of-tree-limbs/
Scroll to the bottom of that post or click this photo to read about Jason Quesada.
Jason Quesada with Charlie Doggett at the 2015 Star Wars Movie, Alajuela City Mall, CR.
I’m noticing that most birds (with exceptions of course) tend to land in a tree on a limb that is surrounded by other limbs and thus I assume that they purposefully find a “safe spot” out of the reach of possible predators. And in the case of this White-winged Dove (my gallery link) in a Nance Tree, they also make themselves difficult to photograph! 🙂 Or at least the kind of open and posed photo on a clean limb humans like to see. Maybe you could call it “Nature’s Security.” 🙂
White-winged Dove, My Garden, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Sad Loss of a Young Tico Friend
And of course 38 is young to me! 🙂 Yeison went by “Jason” with his English-speaking friends and was one of two, then 12 years younger, guys assigned to me to “practice” my Spanish and as would probably be expected, he practiced more English than I did Spanish, 🙂 but that was okay.
After that first year I saw him only occasionally and he continued to be like too many of his generation of males here, not wanting to work or not keeping a job for long (it seems to me). With his good English, he tried 3 different U.S. Call Center jobs here in Costa Rica and hated all of them, none lasting long. He tried working in A/C Sales for an uncle in Jaco, but “that didn’t work out,” he said. Then off and on jobs as a security guard which he was at my bank when he died last month. During his off and on work he married and had a cute little baby boy, but was not sufficiently supporting his family and she divorced him and he was ordered to pay the equivalent of $400 per month child support and had become quite depressed with the difficulty of that (for him) and seldom getting to see the child.
Last month he walked out on the Atenas railroad bridge (highest in the country) and jumped off into the deep rocky canyon of the Rio Grande River. He was reported missing and not found for two days, and then by the Red Cross Ambulance Service after someone called to report seeing a body in the bottom of the canyon. The official government report of his death is here: https://crhoy.com/nacionales/encuentran-en-rio-el-hombre-de-joven-desaparecido-en-atenas/
Yeison Quesada
My Blog Post Search for my mentions of Jason Quesada
It was mostly during those first 2 to 4 years when I was with him, often as a needed translator then, or at the beginning treating him to a Star Wars movie (his 1st) as the only blog post showing a photo of him (below). But the idea is that in those early years here in CR, he was a part of my life and I deeply regret that I was not able do anything to stop his suicide. He is just one example of the difficulties of being poor in this world, sometimes living a hopeless life. And of course he brought some of his problems on himself (lack of ambition, education and good work ethics), but the popular lifestyles and systems of this world (highly American-influenced) also have some blame. It saddens me to lose a friend who gave up on living in this hectic, crazy world. He was a believer and I put faith in the verse from Psalm 34:18 – “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” I don’t understand, but hope that he is close to God now.
The Laverna Metalmark, Calephelis laverna (my gallery link) is almost identical to the Carolina Metalmark in the States, while this one is found from Costa Rica to Brazil.
I grow two groups of Maraca or Shampoo Ginger (Zingiber zerumbet) (My gallery link). The ones on the west side of my house by the Higueron Tree usually start yellow and turn orange and at a different time of year than these in my “Jungle Garden” on the south side of my casita which usually stay yellow during their 3 months plus of blooming, with some hints of orange. But this year on a south side one has turned a deep red as shown in the feature photo above. I have been cutting the tall plants back to give more sun to ground plants and the more sun might be the reason, though I don’t know for sure. Tropical plants are just as interesting to watch and photograph as much of the wildlife that I usually focus on.
I first experienced this interesting tropical flower on a jungle trip to Mayan ruins in Guatemala in 2006 December – Guatemala where this plant grew right outside my jungle room at Chiminos Lodge. Tropical adventures always include tropical plants! 🙂
Maraca or Shampoo Ginger, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
And two more photos showing the usual yellow and some orange ones . . .
This is a young male Rose-throated Becard (my gallery link) whose throat has not turned rose colored yet and iNat says that some in the rainforest never get the rosy-pink throat. The female is overall reddish brown as you can see in my above-linked gallery. This one landed in a neighbor’s tree for a minute or so, then flew off. I don’t see them very often. They are found from Southern Arizona & Texas south to Panama, so mostly Central American. Read more on eBird.
Rose-throated Becard, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
This year’s visit to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica included a week at Hotel Banana Azul with a day hike in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge and my collection of photos are ready to see at https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2026-09-14-18-Banana-Azul-Gandoca-Manzanillo or you can click on the first page image below to get there. Two disclaimers as to why there are not as many photos this year: The bizarre weather with a Super-El-Niño, wind and rain every day (normally the driest month there), a muddy beach road with no butterflies at all (my main thing there now) and the global-warming and ocean rising has caused enormous erosion of the beaches there now, with almost no beach left. But it is still a beautiful nature place and I have a lot of photos from this year’s trip.
CLICK above image to go to the photo gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
I’ve done blog posts of Caribe photos ahead through the end of September, but wanted to announce my trip gallery now. The first of October I will continue sharing nature photos from my garden and on walks in my hometown of Atenas. If I just look, there is some nature to experience every day! 🙂
This one on the Caribbean side has an identical male as the Pacific side male with a slightly different female and they are thus considered different subspecies. I keep my photos separated in two galleries. For more of these from the Caribbean Slope, see Scarlet-rumped Tanager, Passerini’s (my gallery link) and yes, when I first came to Costa Rica these were call Passerini’s Tanager, while the ones on the Pacific side were called Cherrie’s Tanager. If you want to see if you can tell the difference in the two females, check out the other gallery: Scarlet-rumped Tanager, Cherrie’s (linked). And note that some sources say that the difference is seen only in the immature birds! 🙂 It is also interesting that some sources also say that the Cherrie’s is found only in Costa Rica and thus the scientific name includes the Latin “costaricensis.” 🙂 In my photos it seems that the Pacific side females are slightly darker in color with no other differences to me and I have never been where I could compare immature ones. These two photos are both male.
Scarlet-rumped Tanager, male, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica
For those familiar with the Arenal Volcano area of Costa Rica, you know that name as the name of a Hot Springs Resort there, but did you know that it was named after a plant, Anthurium upalaense (Tabacón)(Research Gate article link)? It is much larger than the anthuriums in my garden and is found on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica with some also overlapping into nearby Nicaragua and Panama. The large leaves of the plant collect small dead leaves falling from other plants where they rot to feed the anthurium. That long red spadix is not a flower but contains many many tiny little flowers that are pollinated by insects and turn into many berries that are eaten by birds. Another amazing new discovery in nature for me! 🙂 And almost exclusive to Caribbean Costa Rica!
Anthurium upalaense (Tabacón), Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limon, Costa RicaAnthurium upalaense (Tabacón), Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limon, Costa Rica
I hope that I’m identifying this new species for me correctly, Fridericus Spreadwing, Quadrus fridericus (iNaturalist Costa Rica link). Both photos were made on the same day, but I think they are two different individuals. And of course I’ve started a gallery for Fridericus Spreadwing (linked) with one more photo than these.
Fridericus Spreadwing, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Found in many more places than the U.S. state of Florida, this butterfly is throughout tropical America from Brazil north to the Florida peninsula and South Texas including the Caribbean islands and all of Central America. I see him frequently in my garden as you can see in my gallery Florida White (linked). In the gallery, the ones with large swatches of dark brown (black) trim are females in the wet season only.
Florida White, my garden, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Florida “Blizzard?”
From Google: “In coastal Florida often tell modern “nature stories” about the massive, sudden irruptions or migrations of these butterflies. During peak population explosions, millions of Florida Whites hatch simultaneously. Residents describe looking out their windows and thinking they are seeing a “beachside blizzard” or “flying white ashes” blowing down the highway. It creates an ethereal, temporary winter wonderland in a tropical climate. [1]” Click that footnote “1” for a video of that “blizzard.” 🙂
