Category: Mountains

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My 2022 in Photos

From the top of a volcano to the mangroves at the ocean’s edge and even in the tiny garden behind my casita, I’ve daily photographed nature for 8 years here and called that photography “Nature as Art!” and shared it in this blog.  🙂 

I like this Collins Online Dictionary definition:

Nature is all the animals, plants, and other things in the world that are not made by people, and all the events and processes that are not caused by people. 

Thus in nature I worship God and find my peace & inspiration from Him, the creator of it all!

Each year I find it difficult to select only 12 photos from the year and I first tried to come up with 12 “categories” of nature to make sure I selected a variety, but that became as cumbersome as trying to have a “photo-a-month.” So I decided to just stick with “12 favorites,” even if more than 12 are favorites! 🙂

So, however labeled, here’s 12 photos I made in 2022!

Happy New Year and Pura vida! 🙂

This 1st of 12 is looking out at the Pacific Ocean from Playa Cativo Lodge, Golfo Dulce, Piedras Blancas NP and the 12th photo below is a shot  looking out over the Atlantic Ocean at sunrise from Hotel Banana Azul. Coast to coast nature photos!   🙂

To the nearly 500 email subscribers: I hope you read on for the other 11 favorite photos . . .

Continue reading “My 2022 in Photos”

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Christmas Day Very Busy!

As I celebrated living in Costa Rica for 8 years, I had a very special Christmas Eve Dinner and this morning went to the Butterfly Conservancy in El Castillo on the lake, then hiked one of the trails here at Arenal Observatory and after another great dinner of baby back ribs, I’m going on a private Night Hike, just me and the guide! It was their suggestion since with the regular night hike of a group of 10 they knew I would find it difficult to make photos. Most of “my” lodges here really take care of this old man!  🙂 Photos from the night hike will come tomorrow.

And I haven’t had time to process photos of butterflies or anything else today, so here’s photos of the great sunny weather we had today and my first view this week of the volcano! The lake shot was at about sunset time, though the sun is not seen there this time of year, it’s still more pleasant with clear skies!  🙂  Much more to share tomorrow!

Every day so far this trip the volcano has been covered in clouds until . . .

. . . beautiful blue skies all day today – the first time to see Arenal Volcano from Arenal Observatory Lodge.

Arenal Lake at about sunset time today, Arenal Observatory Lodge.

 

 

 

 

¡Pura Vida!

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Hilltop Clouds

Zooming in on just the tops of my nearby hills. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

And my Vistas GALLERY!

And don’t forget that I will be one of 21 artists at the BIG ART SHOW this coming weekend at Hotel Colinas del Sol on 8th Avenue – See you there! 🙂 Read more about it on the JIT Atenas FB Page!

And “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” as shown in this Tico Times online article about a neighborhood in San Jose. I’ll be showing my photos of Christmas decorations in Atenas after the Art Show is over!

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Morning Vista . . .

. . . is one I never tire of and though the same, it is slightly different every morning with changing light, sky, clouds and foliage. I am so thankful to live retired in a tranquil little farming town in what might be the most nature-centered and ecology-minded little country in the world! We use 99% renewable electricity and are slowly but steadily moving towards electric cars and buses and have more than 25% of the country’s land set aside in reserves or national parks and we still plant trees! Pura vida!

View from my terrace every morning at breakfast + birds & butterflies! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

View GALLERY: From My Roca Verde Terrace

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Hillside Vistas

It is looking like someone may soon buy this property and live in the big house on top of our hill as my new landlord, so I walked up to the now vacant big house the other day for some “Hillside Vistas” of what they can see from there that I can’t from lower down on our hill. Nothing spectacular and the mountains opposite us that I usually photograph were covered in clouds, so here’s some closer views that I can’t see from my house and I like what looks like hillside farm land near us that I hope will not be covered with houses anytime soon! 🙂 Que sera, sera . . .

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Xandari Trip Gallery

I do an online photo gallery (or galleries with the sub-galleries) and the gallery for my recent little two-night stay at a favorite place is now up at https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2022-Aug-31-Sept-2-Xandari-Resort-Alajuela

Or you can just click this first page image and get there!

The highlight of this little trip was the large number of butterflies seen and photographed with 29 species having useable photos for the gallery. And I am still trying to catch up with posting all my butterfly species on butterfliesandmoths.org! 🙂 Butterflies rule! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Xandari Flowers – Works of Art

Over the years here my favorite flower gardens have been the ones at Xandari because of (1) the large variety of species, (2) their placement in forest settings with architecture that is colorful and complimentary to flowers and (3) the additional wild flowers you can find on the forest trails. Earlier this year I found their match on variety of flowers at Guayabo Lodge near Turrialba, Cartago, though not arranged or laid out in as beautiful a surroundings as Xandari. And for some reason, this year Xandari seemed to have fewer flowers, especially in that front garden trail along the entry road, but certainly enough for me to make a lot of “flower art!” 🙂

One photo for the email announcement and then a gallery of some of my favorites from this short two-night stay at Xandari Costa Rica. Enjoy . . .

Flowers are works of ART at Xandari Costa Rica!
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Last of Xandari Butterflies . . .

. . . and I think one of these 9 is actually a moth, but I can’t find an ID. The immense variety of butterflies and moths here in Costa Rica can be overwhelming at times but is also one of the joys of being here! 🙂 It depends on which website or book you read, but with more species still being discovered here, some say there are now 1,500+ known species of butterflies and over 12,000 species of moths (not all identified), so it is not surprising that I can’t find an ID for everyone I photograph. 🙂

And as is my practice, one photo here for the emailed announcement of this post, followed by a gallery of all 9 final butterflies (maybe 2 are moths) from my visit to Xandari Costa Rica last week. I may still share some other photos from that very unique hotel in Alajuela and then back to nature shots around where I live for the next two weeks before my Caribbean trip the 19th of September. Pura vida!

Blue-vented Mimic-White
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Forced Respite From Blogging

Well, it was just two nights away, one of my shortest overnight trips yet in Costa Rica, and I was planning on a blog post each night. But first it was Google Chrome, then MS Edge and finally Firefox browser that all refused to let me into my own website to post (and one other site) saying I was on an “unsafe connection (hotel Wifi) and that someone at my own website might steal by personal information including credit card numbers.” 🙂 Grrrrrrrrr.

So I just took a respite from the blog. No big deal. And here are the photos I was going to post that first night there (Wednesday) simply showing my room. The large rooms, or really spacious villas, plus the overall architecture is the highlight of Xandari Costa Rica for most guests, that and also the original art and statuary in every room and in the gardens. Then the first class restaurant and for nature lovers like me, a protected rainforest with 5 waterfalls and beautiful gardens around the buildings plus for other people, 3 pools and a Spa! It was a good respite and even though fewer birds this time (fewer all over Central Valley because of the strange weather this year), I photographed 5 or 6 birds plus more that 25 species (still counting) of butterflies with about 6 new or first-time seen species for me! Here’s one photo of one of the butterflies for the email version of the post, followed by a gallery of 6 shots from my room . . .

Orange-striped White by my terrace.
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A Two-Night Respite

I was getting tired of sharing the same butterflies and stopped posting them for a few days on the blog. Then I realized that probably the reason I’m not seeing birds like usual is the noise of the construction of two houses across the street. Grumble, grumble! But – they sodded grass and planted palms today, so maybe they’re nearly finished! 🙂

Then decided I needed a short break to a favorite nature resort very near here, a 45 minute drive, and my first return since 2020. So about 11:00 this morning my driver will take me to Xandari Nature Resort on the edge of Alajuela, our provincial capital and the location of the San Jose Airport, hidden on a mountain overlooking it all in a thick rainforest with 5 waterfalls, a farm, lots of flower gardens, birds, butterflies, great food, Frank Lloyd Wright style architecture filled with beautiful art and no construction work! There is nothing to not like about Xandari, unless it is the price! 🙂 But sometimes one needs to splurge for a day or two! 🙂

Check out the galleries below from my 4 previous trips there and oh yes, this is the only hotel that has a complete library of all my Costa Rica Photo Books! 🙂 – Click the date of each previous trip below to see my gallery from that visit to Xandari . . .

2020 August

Xandari Nature Resort, Alajuela

And links to 3 other earlier visits to Xandari . . .

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