Wishing you the best through the holidays and a Pura Vida New Year!
~Charlie
I will be slowing down the next two weeks, but still posting some on the blog, as I prepare for Christmas Week at the Tapirus Lodge, in Braulio Carrillo National Park, one of our largest and wildest parks in Costa Rica. New adventures, new photos all the time! 🙂 Retired in Costa Rica!THANK YOU for following my blog! ~Charlie
¡Pura Vida!
Red-legged Honeycreeper, Maquenque Eco-lodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica, January 2019.
And check out my Photo Gallery if you haven’t recently – Its “My Costa Rica!” 🙂
The clear skies from my terrace on today, December 1 (feature photo above), hint at what the next 5 months could be like as the rainy season slows down and stops for no rain in the Central Valley Dec-Apr. But like weather everywhere, there are sometimes exceptions and as a gardener I happen to like rain! 🙂 Either way, I will adapt!
The above shot is a single shot on my cell phone.
Below is a composite shot on big camera yesterday with clouds.
This Article Title link is to an old newspaper article that still holds true today as the government here is not yet ready to spend billions of dollars on a new airport (25 minutes west of Atenas) which would be in a lower, flatter, larger valley of farm land for much greater expansion than the current international airport in Alajuela (45 minutes east of Atenas) which is basically land-locked with expensive developments, though closer to the capital of San Jose. The new one would be closer to the Pacific Coast beaches and resorts.
The debate will probably never end (seen in responses to above article) and it will never happen until both the president and the legislature make it a priority which they still have not done. I expect to die before it actually happens, if ever, and it really doesn’t matter that much to me. 45 minutes is close enough to a major airport! 🙂
Artist rendering of new airport in Orotina.
And a “Profile” is on the CAPA Center for Aviation website.
Plus I’m happy with the new Domestic Terminal (my photo gallery) at the current airport, since my only flights now are short hops within Costa Rica on little local planes with Sansa Airlines. So if you’ve heard there will be a new San Jose Costa Rica International Airport, don’t expect it before 2030, if ever, unless you want to donate money to the government to build it and maybe get your name on it! 🙂
“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:
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.
At Margaret & Dario’s house on top of one of the Roca Verde hills with the assistance of Susan and Fred, 26 of us had a huge American-style Thanksgiving dinner with Turkey, Ham and Beef Brisket along with more vegetables and salads than I can list after gourmet appetizers and Champagne, followed by a course of exotic cheeses and then deserts. Each of us brought a dish of something and a bottle of wine. It was a feast fit for a king and even though I only ate breakfast beforehand, I feel stuffed (Thursday night after dinner) while I write this.
Thanksgiving is not a Tico holiday, but the Ticos who came sure enjoyed it! 🙂 Margaret and Susan are the high-energy, highly organized leaders of the Roca Verde neighborhood and put this together.
SORRY MY CELLPHONE PHOTOS ARE NOT GOOD which I will blame on the lighting and I didn’t even try to get the group photo by the pool because it was dark, raining and the light worse. But we had a lot of fun with a great meal and I have two new couples-friends!
Margaret’s Group Photo on Facebook.
“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.”
“Too much, too early” is what I’ve been saying about the commercialization of Christmas since I was in high school I think – A long time! 🙂 And one of the unfortunate things about Costa Rica is the adoption of this Christmas Commercialization starting at Halloween. I have not bothered to photograph the many Christmas trees in the supermarket and smallest little shop to the malls and American chain stores this year, not to mention in the Public Hospital, city halls, etc. It is everywhere here now – too much like the United States which I guess is where some of our businessmen learn their trade! 🙂 We even have “Black Friday” Sales here even though Thursday is not a Thanksgiving Holiday here! Explain that! 🙂
I’m so glad that for my Christmas Week I am looking forward to a week in the forests of Braulio Carrillo National Park. 🙂
The featured photo today is of the welcome sign right here in my neighborhood, Roca Verde, which some will see as wonderful seasonal cheer, and sort of is, while others will see it as cheap commercialization. Lord help Costa Rica not to become too Americanized! But keep the spirit of Jesus in Christmas which I commend the Catholic Church here for celebrating Jesus so well at Christmas (even at home)! While I am closest to God now in nature and will commune with Him in the forest again this year for Christmas. But I will have an American-style Thanksgiving Dinner with like-minded expat friends here this Thursday. So, Happy Holidays! 🙂
“These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and, instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar.”
― John Muir
As National Geographic closes out their human history project or “Genographic Project,” they have just made all information available one last time to participants, of which I am one, having sent them my cheek swab in 2013. They are no longer accepting participants and totally close the project at the end of 2019 with data going to another research company, FamilyTreeDNA.com. Here is link to the latest summary image of my DNA family history findings (won’t let me copy image}:
And I am posting the more detailed information (12 pages) on my Family History web pages if you are interested. Their latest (22 Nov 2019) report of my DNA ancient roots are on a sub-page of the above family history page called Genographic Project Family Report page. And at the conclusion I posted the original 2013 Summary Image which is almost the same with fewer participants. And I’m posting that DNA Summary Image in my Family History Gallery also. FYI.
And for relatives doing research you may also find helpful photos in my Family History Photo Gallery, though much more recent than these ancient DNA trails from Africa! 🙂 Though a few images from 1800s.
Family history is not my main activity or hobby now, so additions to these family pages may seem very slow or seldom, but I have great plans for them! 🙂
And actually there are some pretty interesting things on my family history pages now like the 1800’s Hardgrave Family Cemetery I discovered in Nashville, TN while living there and the stories and photos of my Uncle Earl Doggett’s World War II sacrifice. More to come! Little by little! (Or poco a poco we say in Costa Rica!) There’s even a page just for Stories from my life – eventually family history! 🙂
“Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Postscript to Regular Readers: For the last two days I did not have internet connection and I will share that story soon + my very busy week with two medical appointments, a lost phone and more! Too busy a week!
Check out the article & images of The Simpsons Discover Costa Rica, Episode 7 of Season 32, in “Live in Costa Rica Blog.” Or watch the 1 minute advertisement for that episode below:
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).
Today was the first time we’ve had enough sunshine for the Arenal Volcano to be totally visible or almost! A beautiful day and my guide Nestor, whom I also had a year and a half ago when here before, took me to Bogarin Trail (or their Facebook Page) where we saw about 40 species of birds and I got usable photos of about 21. If it doesn’t rain, I’m going back up on the tower this afternoon, meaning I won’t have time to post my Bogarin Bird Bonanza, including my second lifer this week, a White-throated Crake. Another good day! And the blog posts pile up! 🙂
I think I forgot that they are on the Caribbean Slope – east of continental divide (their rivers flow into the Atlantic) meaning November is maybe the rainiest month! 🙂 As soon as the plane got out of Central Valley over the mountains it was raining and hasn’t stopped since. But I love the rainy season in general and have had some great experiences in the rain, like at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, so I scheduled all my birding hikes and will do the best I can even if under an umbrella! 🙂 Funny thing is I tried to book this trip for Christmas week and they were already full nearly a year ago. I’m thinking about booking for Christmas 2121. 🙂
The best photos in this post (I think) are the “Plane Shots.” Enjoy and expect some wet reports this week!
TAKE IT SLOW![20190604_111253[1]-A-WEB](https://www.charliedoggett.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/20190604_1112531-A-WEB.jpg)
