Category: Nature

My profession is to always find God in nature.

– Henry David Thoreau

Posted on

Live like a Sloth

“The great benefit of slowing down is reclaiming the time and tranquility to make meaningful connections–with people, with culture, with work, with nature, with our own bodies and minds” 

~Carl Honoré

Photo by Charlie in the Caribbean

—  As vegetarians who eat slow and move slow, Sloths conserve their energy and live happy lives. So maybe we humans can learn something from them at this often busiest time of the year!   🙂   Or just “Retire in Costa Rica!”   like me!   🙂

See my collection of sloth photos in two galleries:

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth   (the one always smiling)

Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth

The featured photo at top is one I took at Banana Azul Hotel in the Caribe Sur. There are sloths all over Costa Rica but more at lower elevations and especially along the Caribbean (Atlantic) Coast.

My friends at Costa Rica Expeditions

have a nice sloth message for you who love baby sloths. See their emailed promotion to visit in January-February when sloths have their babies at:

Sloth Baby-A-WEBTAKE IT SLOW
AND COME TO SEE
BABY SLOTHS IN COSTA RICA

 

 

And one of my favorite T-shirts:

20190604_111253[1]-A-WEB

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Vacant Lot Flowers

“There is poetry among the wildflowers’.”
― Rachel Irene Stevenson

Sure! I look for nature everywhere! And noticed yesterday morning when I left the Coffee Shop that the vacant lot across the street had this mass of yellow swished across it. Wildflowers!

Beauty is where you find it!  And those trees are kind of nice too!   🙂

“Wildflowers are the stuff of my heart!”
― Lady Bird Johnson

¡Pura Vida!

 

Posted on

Arenal Trip Photo Gallery

Wow! Another great trip to one of my top 5 or 6 favorite places in Costa Rica, Arenal Observatory Lodge, with photos of 49 bird species , including the two new lifers for me! Plus 7 other animal species, a new birding trail (Bogarín), the waterfall, wonderful hiking trails and gardens to walk through, and the tallest birding tower in Costa Rica where this year I got lots of Honeycreepers in place of all the monkeys photographed last year, plus a repeat of my favorite room 29 and really good food! I have been so busy after the trip that it has been difficult to process all the photos, but finally done! Check them out at (or click image):

https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2019-November-11-17-Arenal-Observatory

 

Arenal-2019-Screenshot-WEB

Leave the road, take the trails.

~Pythagoras

Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

White-banded Satyr

Wow! Two different Satyrs in two days, though this photo was made more than a week ago while at Arenal Volcano and I just discovered it. After my research on yesterday’s butterfly post, I knew what it was quickly!   🙂   It’s a cousin to yesterday’s butterfly in the Satyr family called a White-banded Satyr. This makes my third Satyr, yesterday’s Gold Stained Satyr and an earlier Double-white Satyr which is similar to this White-banded, found in my 2015 Indigenous Village visit. See more of my butterfly photos in the gallery Butterflies & Moths of Costa Rica.  90+ Flying flowers!   🙂

IMG_5174-A-WEB
White-banded Satyr, Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica

 

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Gold-stained Satyr

Another new butterfly for me – a lifer? 🙂 This one was on my phone camera dated the day after returning from Arenal Observatory and I don’t remember where! It was on a concrete wall which could be a lot of places!   🙂

Though it has been reported in southern Texas, most websites show it in Mexico & Central America with a few in northern South America, particularly Ecuador. An interesting butterfly with a positive identification from websites and my best butterfly book, A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico & Central America, Second Edition.

And  just like with birds it is always fun to add a new species to my collection. My photo gallery of Costa Rica Butterflies & Moths is I think the best one on the web now. Check it out!

 

Butterflies are God’s confetti, thrown upon the Earth in celebration of His love .    

~K. D’Angelo

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Costa Rica President Among Most Influential

Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” include Costa Rica’s President Carlos Alvarado Quesada. Read about it in our Tico Times article.  Or see the brief Time magazine video TIMES100NEXT for why he is a world leader (click video image for sound).

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Waterfall & Tower Hikes

Today I had a morning hike to the Danta Waterfall and afternoon hike to the Observatory Tower they call “The Nest.” Both were good, see photos below. And though still rainy today (I had to leave tower before most toucans arrived), there was almost a sunset tonight or the nearest we’ve had this rainy week and of course what little I got was mostly behind the clouds.   🙂

Waterfall Hike

 

Tower Shots

 

An Almost Sunset

 

Arenal Observatory

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Bogarin Trail

It did rain this afternoon, just a light shower, but enough to keep me from climbing the tower in the rain – so I processed the Bogarin Birds! If you are ever in La Fortuna, Costa Rica, I recommend the place as a good for many, many birds! Saw 40 species! 21 here in photos.

It is a protected reserve right in town – a town I don’t care for but love their Bogarin Trail! La Fortuna is too touristy for me like Manual Antonio and Jaco, packed with competing hotels, restaurants and T-shirt shops!   🙂  Check out the trail website at:   Bogarin Trail  (or their Facebook Page).

My “lifer” or first time bird today is in the featured photo above, White-throated Crake. The name link is to the article on Cornell Neotropical Birds.

Bogarin Trail Birds

Click an Image to Enlarge.

 

Arenal Observatory

¡Pura Vida!