Here is a slide show of 15 birds I photographed here. You can also see my Xandari Birds Gallery in the Xandari Trip Gallery I am now building separately online.
¡Pura Vida!
Birds at Xandari
Waterfalls and Challenging the Ethnocentric Mind
Xandari is different and that challenges me to be different. One example is that more than in most places I am speaking Spanish with all the staff and they love it! They help me when I don’t know a word and they encourage me! When I walk into the dining room now they all come up and speak to me in español. I smile and we chat. It is a great feeling!
As the linked video below suggests, change is not easy. Change can be overwhelming like these 5 waterfalls here at Xandari. But wow! It’s wonderful as the college student show in the video. Thanks to Retire for Less in Costa Rica for sharing this video first!
¡Pura Vida!
See my Trip Photo Gallery: 2018 Xandari Resort
Xandari costa rica (their website)
The need to create is overwhelming!
I just read an online article by a creative photographer named Dan Milnor who was sleeping in his truck as he traveled through mountain deserts making photographs. Someone asked him why he was doing that and what would be done with all the photos? He told them “possibly nothing” would be done with the photos but “I was doing it because the need to create is overwhelming, regardless of the end result.” Spoken like a true “starving artist.”
Well, he kind of speaks for me and why I travel all over Costa Rica photographing birds and other things in nature and the beautiful culture. THE NEED TO CREATE IS OVERWHELMING and I enjoy it more than anything else I do.
And tomorrow I leave for one of the most creative lodges I have stayed in yet in Costa Rica, Xandari Resort (click the Costa Rica section of this resort with 3 other locations being in India), just an hour or a little more from here, north of Alajuela on a mountain. There I plan to experience (and photograph) a blend of art, birds, nature, architecture, and 5 natural waterfalls – while resting and being creative myself with my cameras. Just 4 nights this trip (a more expensive place!). Expect blog posts from there starting tomorrow night (Saturday). And I will continue to fill in the static pages on my new website, now featuring this blog and I hope improving! More fun anyway! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Retire Here on Less Than $30,000 a year!
One of the regular blogs I read is Christopher Howard’s Live in Costa Rica (he also does the best relocation tour) and his latest blog post quoted International Living Magazine on Costa Rica being one of the best places in the world to retire on less than $30,000 a year. Read his post or go to the online version of International Living and maybe find it there. And bear in mind that it is still true even with Costa Rica having the highest cost of living in Central America, but right now I don’t think you want to retire in any of the other Central American countries! (Panama being a sometimes exception.) I chose to retire in luxury in Costa Rica over sliding into retirement poverty in the U.S.
Description of 5 Locations in Costa Rica that Retirees Love in an International Living article.
Today’s photo is of a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, the most common in my garden and possibly all over Costa Rica or at least in many of the places I have visited. They are aggressive and chase other species of Hummingbirds away from feeders and even “their” garden sometimes. Thus I have mixed feelings about them! 🙂 ¡Pura Vida!
An Eventful Day
8AM Spanish Class with Hilda my new “more mature” teacher who has been trying to help me understand past perfect participles in Spanish and I’m not sure I do in English! 🙂
An errand-running morning after class with about 5 stops and much accomplished.
2:30 bus to Alajuela gave me time for my late lunch or early dinner there before a 4:30 appointment with another new Jesus in my life, Dr. Roberto Jesús Gamboa Arend, Dermatologist. He looked at all my “tags” and other growths, moles, assuring me that I do not have cancer, then used the nitrogen or whatever to freeze-dry most of them. I have a cream to put on each of them until they fall off on their own, which took two pharmacies to find and I barely made the 5:30 bus back to Atenas which was standing room only. I stood less than a minute when a young man, maybe 20 I guess, got up and insisted I take his seat. This is typical of the high respect given to older people here. A good feeling.
I’m home and tired now with only 1 little errand for tomorrow. Whew! Photo is of sunset from my terrace last night.
¡Pura vida!
Flowers at Tranquilo Bay
A sampling. To see more go to the 2018 Bocas del Toro gallery.
Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
See my “Trip Gallery” at:
2018 Tranquilo Bay, Bocas del Toro, Panama
More Water Scenes from Bocas
You may remember my first post from this trip, Life on the Water – check it out again and then here are some more water scenes in addition to that post and the Bird Island & Soropta Canal photos! It is all about water at Bocas del Toro, Panama!
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| Our dock at Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| A Little Island within swimming distance of our dock This was the best area for snorkeling with colorful coral and fish! Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| 15 year old Scott, one of the owner’s sons and an excellent birding guide! Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| Sunrises & Sunsets were mostly indirect for my times on the water Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| A common view when we went away from the island Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| I think this is a lodge or restaurant on one of the islands Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| And many people lived on the islands and thus on the water as here in Bocas Town Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
See my “Trip Gallery”:
2018 Tranquilo Bay, Bocas del Toro, Panama
Isla Popa for the Snowy Cotinga
One afternoon we had a 2 hour boat ride around a smaller island called Popa.
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| This is the only island in the Boca del Toro Archipelago to have the Snowy Cotinga. We searched for over an hour before we finally found one of these semi-rare birds. Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
For the birders among my readers, this is only my second time to see and photograph a Snowy Cotinga. The other time was Christmas before last at Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí.
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| And everyone likes to see a toucan! This is now called the Yellow-throated Toucan Popa is close enough to the mainland for toucans to fly to them. Our island, Barsimanto, is not, thus no toucans! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| Brown Pelican Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| Brown Pelican Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| Being in the Atlantic Ocean with lots of islands and mainland nearby is pretty! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| I love the trees! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| I love the trees! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| I love the trees! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
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| And the houses and tourist cabins are interesting too! Popa Island, Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama |
Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
See my “Trip Gallery”:
2018 Tranquilo Bay, Bocas del Toro, Panama
I am now back home in Atenas, Costa Rica after a very long day getting back with rain and heavy traffic making it a slower drive and not back home until about 8:30 or 9:00 PM Wednesday night. Today, Thursday, was busy with laundry, grocery shopping, bank visit, and lots of text messages and emails to deal with. Friday I meet a young friend for lunch who wants to practice his English and I will practice my Spanish. And Saturday morning I will go to Alajuela to pick up another photo book that has arrived. I probably will be sharing more photos from Panama for another week. It was a good trip!
And in between all the other things I will be back onto building my new website and maybe transferring this blog to it.
Early Birds 2
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| Blue Dacnis Female Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| Passerini’s Tanager Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| Palm Tanager Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| Kiskadee Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| Green-breasted Mango Hummingbird Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| Tropical Kingbird Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| Plain-colored Tanager Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
See my “Trip Gallery”:
2018 Tranquilo Bay, Bocas del Toro, Panama
And my photo gallery: Panama Birds
Early Birds 1
I was going to do one post with the first or early birds photographed here on the lodge grounds, but with 14 already I’m dividing it into two posts of 7 each. Then we go to another island today and the mainland tomorrow for many more birds I hope! But with slow internet, 7 is enough for one post!
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| Red-lored Parrot Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| Red-lored Parrot Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
There are also Mealy Parrots and Blue-headed Parrots here, but I have no photos of them yet.
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| Lineated Woodpecker Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| Black-cheeked Woodpecker Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
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| Boat-billed Flycatcher Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
There is a slight difference between this flycatcher and the Kiskadee which I will show one of tomorrow. They are easy to confuse!
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| White-lined Tanager Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
The “white line” is on his shoulder and only seen when in flight.
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| Blue-gray Tanager Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama |
Living slow in the jungles on an island in the Western Atlantic or Western Caribbean Sea. It is very hot and humid and you tire easily but it is a great place with lots of wildness, This afternoon we go to another island for a particular bird found only there, the Snowy Cotinga. Tomorrow we do the first of three trips to the mainland for birds. The two families running the lodge are very accomodating of us and our needs/desires. Cabins are very nice and the food is very good. We are experiencing a Panama version of pura vida!
TTranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge
Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
See my “Trip Gallery”:
2018 Tranquilo Bay, Bocas del Toro, Panama