The sun rises in the east behind other mountains that are behind the one that my house is on the west side of. 🙂 Simply put, I cannot see much of a sunrise from my house or terrace that faces W/NW where the vista of little mountains I often share are located. But when I am not sleeping late, I can get out on my terrace and get what I call a “reflected sunrise” on those hills in the W/NW. This past week I’ve been sleeping as late as I could to help cure my sick stomach which is now finally well! (I think!) But these two early morning “reflected sunrise” shots were made earlier in March. The feature photo at top is a panorama of three shots on my Canon 750D and this shot below for email version was a quick snap on my cheap Samsung Cellphone! 🙂
The first shot on my cellphone is close, as I step out through my gate onto the road by the cow pasture and begin another walk. The second photo on my camera is a merging of 3 shots of the far mountains in a common panorama vista from my terrace. I love where I live! 🙂 Plus it is not far from some totally different vistas I can visit in rainforests, beaches or cloud forests. Pura vida! 🙂
The cow pasture across the road from my casita on a hill, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.And the distant view from my terrace, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
See the photo gallery titled: From My Roca Verde Terrace for many more similar vistas. And FYI: “Roca Verde” (Green Rock) is the name of the housing development where I live, named after the big green (moss-covered) rock just inside the entrance gate. 🙂
Atenas: “El mejor clima del mundo!” “The best weather in the world!”
As my age, health and increased cost of living here begin to require, I simply need to reduce the big activities, so only 3 trips this year of 4 nights or more, and I may sneak in some day trips or even a 2-nighter at a nearby lodge – we’ll see! 🙂 But I’m still focused on nature and have plans for a few changes in my garden this year. And the three “big” trips are going to be very good, as always! 🙂
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird in a Heliconia Flower, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Golfito, Costa Rica.
It will be a coastal rainforest jungle in July as I return to Esquinas Rainforest Lodge for my 3rd visit and second time on my birthday! 🙂 Both photos with this post were made at Esquinas Lodge.
Then in September I’m exploring the “Amazon of Costa Rica” again at Tortuguero National Park on the Caribbean Coast instead of my usual Hotel Banana Azul beach trip. I like all the lodges in Tortuguero, but Tortuga Lodge & Gardens gets my vote for the most comfortable with the best food! And I don’t care if it is more expensive! 🙂
Then I finish the year with Christmas at Ballena National Park, Uvita in another favorite lodge, Hotel Cristal Ballena with a room overlooking the Pacific and nightly sunsets! Plus their 30 acre rainforest refuge! 🙂 And “Ballena” = “Whale” in English.
Sometimes you see the world different from a boat on water and this was the case while on Rio Tarcoles last week. Below one photo for the email version is a slideshow of 6 shots from the river.
Our January 7 day trip with 6 Canadian friends from British Columbia to Rio Tarcoles & Punta Leona Beach was a fun trip with lots of nature photo ops! And I now have the “Trip Gallery” finished! Click that link or the image of the first page below or this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2025-January-7-Rio-Tarcoles-Punta-Leona In many ways, these trip galleries are my “base galleries” from which I glean photos for subject galleries like Birds! While photos made in my home garden go directly into the subject galleries if they even make a gallery. 🙂 But I love these trip galleries because I always make more photos on a trip!
CLICK this image of the first page to go to this gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
My needle biopsy went well yesterday and now I just wait for their report that I will receive in my February 12 appointment. And my sister Bonnie learned that her “colon cancer” was primarily an ovarian cancer that spread to her colon, and now they are about to begin chemotherapy after one more procedure. Our mother and brother both died of cancer and now it looks like the rest of us may go the same way. Only Dad never had cancer. The doctors said he died when his heart just stopped, not a heart attack. And Bonnie and I will both look for the positive while we fight our different types of cancers. Thanks for your prayers!
These photos are from my kind of “catch all” category that I call “Leaves and Nature Things.” In this case, all leaves with one whole tree on the hill above my house. Tomorrow will start January pix and tomorrow is when I’m taking some Canadian friends birding on the Tarcoles River early, then looking for monkeys on Punta Leona Beaches with Walter. A full day, so those pix won’t be until at least the next day or later but coming! 🙂 Then Wednesday I go see the doctor in San Jose who is monitoring the possible spread of my facial cancer. And another morning will be given to visiting Dan Sheaks’ bird feeders where he gets a lot of toucans! So a busy week again! 🙂
This photo from my terrace was made on December 16, so maybe by now those few little gray rain clouds have already disappeared from our skies here. 🙂
December 16 vista from my terrace.
The “Rainy Season” which is sometimes called “Winter” (el invierno) here is generally from May to November, but there can be an overlap of rainy and dry seasons in December with pretty much no rain from January through March or April called “Summer” (el verano) here and then in late April or May the rain starts again to keep beautiful Costa Rica green! (With climate change we’ve had a lot more rain this December!) And that description above is mainly for the Central Valley or center of this little country with both coasts, coastal lowlands, and a few internal low areas called rainforests have rain year around as do some of the cloud forests high in the mountains.
And then there is the northwest part of the country, called Guanacaste (that province name), which is dry most all year with some deserts and only a few really wet areas like Palo Verde NP or Rincón de la Vieja. So if you don’t like the weather one place, go somewhere else! 🙂
Plus a little interesting trivia is that here in the Central Valley our two rainiest or wettest months are usually September & October while the year-around wet and rainy Caribbean Coast has their least amount of rain during those two months. Thus I usually travel to the Caribbean side in September or October! 🙂 But it’s not the same on the mid & south Pacific Coast which can have rain year around like the Caribbean. 🙂
CLICK IMAGE ABOVE to go to the report or click address below (assuming they allow non-members in). AND YES! All those photos in the montage above are ones I submitted to iNaturalist. Their A-I work I guess. 🙂
The above-linked report includes lots of data, graphs, and the actual photos or you can go to My Observations page (linked) to just see which ones I submitted. Just beginning!
I have for 10+ years submitted my bird observations to eBird and in the last 2 or 3 years my butterfly observations to butterfliesandmoths.org, but in May of 2024 I started submitting all of my nature photos to iNaturalist Costa Rica (en español, Naturalista Costa Rica) including the birds and butterflies (double reporting them). 🙂 Though plants are included in iNaturalist, right now I’m only submitting the unusual ones or ones that I need help identifying! 🙂 My online gallery and website/blog will disappear after my death, but photos I submit to these organizations will be there for posterity! 🙂 Maybe that will be my legacy? 🙂
As every year on New Year’s Eve, I am trying my best to narrow down my favorite photos to just 12 – pretty much impossible! 🙂 But I always do it anyway and never by the months. This year I created 6 categories of photos and chose 2 pix in each. As usual, the birds category was the most difficult to narrow down, so tomorrow I am publishing another post with the 9 runner ups in the bird category. 🙂
The Categories this year are: 1) Birds, 2) Butterflies, 3) Other Insects, 4) Other Wildlife, 5) Flowers, 6) Landscapes. And the ones labeled from “Atenas” are all from my garden except the vista from Casita del Café.
My twelve choices for 2024 will be below this one photo for the email version. They are a slideshow in the online version, so email recipients please click “Read More” below for 12 great photos! 🙂
One of the neighbor couples, Russ & Holly, had their second Solstice Party yesterday and it was cloudy (but never rained) meaning no really good photos, but an example of expat life in Costa Rica. 🙂
Solstice Party, Roca Verde, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Solstice Party, Roca Verde, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
