I look out over the main river in Tortuguero when in my colorful Caribbean Cottage. I’m in the downstairs one on the left in photo below. It rained off and on much of my arrival afternoon but I got a few photos with an Oropendola my only bird. Took the night walk and might have some photos from that later. And in the morning I do my favorite boat tour of the national park with lots of birds and other animal possibilities, then tomorrow afternoon visit a small community in the middle of the rainforest. So lots of photo-ops! 🙂
My room on the left, downstairs overlooking the river.
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 . . .
The brown on either side of the eye appears to go through the eye and is thus “the mask.” Like many frog species, he comes in different colors making ID less obvious as you can see in my Masked Tree Frog GALLERY or read about the Smilisca phaeota on Wikipedia. We found him in the fountain pool outside the Reception Lobby of Arenal Observatory Lodge.
Smilisca phaeota, Masked Tree Frog, Arenal Observatory, Costa Rica
That’s the species name with there being 5 different species of Leptodactylus genus frogs in Costa Rica, all five appearing on the Pacific Slope and 3 on the Caribbean or Atlantic Slope. World-wide there are 75 species of Leptodactylus! This Leptodactylus savagei appears on both slopes of Costa Rica and was earlier called “Savage’s Thin-toed Frog,” but now goes by two common names: “Central American Bullfrog” and “Smoky Jungle Frog.” This genus Leptodactylus is the largest frog in Costa Rica (and probably all of Central America.) This particular species appears from Honduras to Colombia.
Leptodactylus savagei, Central American Bullfrog or Smoky Jungle Frog, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica
I just got a new Amphibian Field Guide here at this lodge which will help me to better identify and explain the sightings and photos I post on this site. There are 3 other frogs pictured in my Central American Bullfrog GALLERYand I’m reasonably certain that they are all in the genus Leptodactylus, but I need to study them more to specify the exact species. I don’t think they are all “savagei.”
This was just one more of the creatures spotted and photographed on my private Night Walk last night, seen at the lodge’s “Frog Pond” just like the Red-eyed Tree Frogs I posted early this morning. I will be posting other creatures from that night walk here in time. 🙂
My main reason for going on “Night Hikes” is to get more photos of this beautiful symbol of Costa Rica that almost looks “unreal” with his bright colors and “other worldly” look. But he is very real and best photographed with a cellphone as these two were, in the light of a flashlight. Just one more totally cool thing about living retired in Costa Rica! 🙂
I got a lot of other photos of other frogs, snakes, spiders, other insects, but these were my two favorite, so all for now with more to be shared another time.
Red-eyed Tree Frog, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica
Red-eyed Tree Frog, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica
Brilliant Forest Frog (iNaturalist link) or Warszewitsch’s frog, Rana warszewitschii, is a species of frog in the Ranidae family found in Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, rivers, intermittent rivers, plantations, rural gardens, urban areas, and heavily degraded former forests. It is threatened by habitat loss. ~iNaturalist
Brilliant Forest Frog, a threatened species at Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica
I found it this morning in the “Frog Pond” of Arenal Observatory Lodge where I usually find Red-eyed Tree Frogs on night walks here. (I’m getting a private night walk later this week for photos.) The guys at the front desk had no idea of the ID and at first I could not find it on the web, but they helped me with this ID using one of the fold-out ID charts they sell and I followed up with the above link to an iNaturalist website. 🙂
Sign at the Frog Pond, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica.
When I did a Google Search for “Brilliant Forest Frog” one of my 2019 blog posts came up on this species I saw at Macaw Lodge which has different hind legs but “Brilliant Forest Frog” is what that lodge staff told me it was. The beige top and wide black stripe down the side are the same. Maybe they are cousins? 🙂
See that other frog with this ID in my Brilliant Forest Frog GALLERY. They may or may not be the same species. 🙂
That last Friday morning butterfly hike also yielded 6 different species of Damselflies & Dragonflies and I spent hours trying to positively identify them without success! So I just decided to present them without identifications which I really hate doing, but I got only two “probable” IDs! Frustrating! And more difficult than identifying butterflies and moths for me! 🙂
Here’s one for the emailed version and all 6 in a gallery to follow . . .
And all were seen and photographed on Calle Nueva, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica last Friday, 28 October.
In the Caribe where I was last week, there two kinds of Basilisks, both called “Miniature Dinosaurs” and “Jesus Christ Lizards” (because they both “walk on water”). The most popular is the Plumed or Emerald Basilisk (Wikipedia link) and the Common, Striped or Brown Basilisk (Wikipedia link). Here are a couple of photos of each from last week, then be sure to see my galleries for each below that! And I prefer the names of Emerald and Brown! 🙂
This morning’s rain not only interfered with a beautiful sunrise but also dampened my birding expedition with a great guide this morning. I try not to give up too quickly on such efforts, but did cut our hike a little shorter after my camera fogged up on the inside. All 12 of the following birds were photographed in the rain even if not obvious! 🙂 And we saw more birds and other animals, even in the rain! 🙂 Just imagine what it would have been like with a clear morning!
It’s finally completed! And now I can focus on more photos here in Atenas and my garden, though I might still blog some more from Cativo that I haven’t shared yet 🙂 since probably few of you will actually go to this trip gallery linked below. 🙂
This was a better than usual trip and rainforest lodge, though maybe not in my #1 choice yet 🙂 — it’s so hard to compare nature lodges when all of them are so good and each have their own unique things that the others do not! 🙂 If you want to learn more about this lodge, check out their website with this link: Playa Cativo Lodge, Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica. And note that the night-shot of a cabin at the top of their first page is of the cabin I stayed in for a week. 🙂 One of my best cabins ever, anywhere!
This was the third of the 3 “new” lodges I tried this year and was definitely the best cabin of the three and possibly the best overall experience than those at Chachagua or Guayabo, my other two “first time” lodges this year, both of which I loved and enjoyed very much! And I would consider returning to all three! The Cativo food was gourmet like Chachagua’s and the girl guide I had, Alejandra, was one of the best I’ve had anywhere plus the dining room staff gave me one of my best birthday celebrations yet in Costa Rica when I turned 82 there! So, overall a very good experience! 🙂 But I recommend both of the other new lodges also plus my only new lodge of 2021, Bosque del Cabo near Puerto Jimenez, which rivaled this lodge in many ways though I was still to weak from cancer treatment to fully enjoy it.
To see my Playa Cativo Trip Gallery, click that linked title or the image of the first page below. Photos tell a lot about a place if you are considering a visit there! 🙂 And remember that you must travel to either Golfito or Puerto Jimenez and then the hotel arranges a taxi from airport to dock for a boat ride to the lodge. Or if you drive a car, like my Tico doctor friend did, they will suggest where to park it safely before your boat ride to the lodge.
¡Pura Vida!
Trips like this are one thing that make my simple retirement a constant adventure along with the wonderful people and tranquility of the little coffee farming town I live in between these trips. I own no car or house, living happily in a rental house and walking or using public transportation, including for these trips.
You can virtually experience all my trips and tranquil home life through this blog “Retired in Costa Rica” and/or the past trips in my Costa Rica TRIPS Gallery which of course has a sub-gallery for each of the 96 trips I’ve made to every corner of Costa Rica plus 2 to Nicaragua and 1 to Panama since moving here in 2014. This number of trips does include several day-trips but mostly multi-nights lodge trips which are the best of course! And for me, 6 nights somewhere is needed to both relax and experience everything! 🙂
