Of course with all those photos, I had to make a book! It is mostly birds but includes culture photos of Granada, people, Semana Santa, and interesting roadside shots across the country. You can click on the image above and electronically thumb through the book for free. No purchase required! 🙂
Tortuguero Toucans
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| Collared Aracari Toucan Eating Papaya in the village of Tortuguero, Costa Rica |
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| Black-mandibled Toucan Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Keel-billed Toucan At Park Headquarters Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica |
All photos by Charlie Doggett and copyrighted
It is late and I am tired as we got back home from Tortuguero at nearly dinner time and I had to water the gardens. I will add more photos from Tortuguero tomorrow and the following days. And I hope you are beginning to see why I like Tortuguero so much! 🙂 Pura Vida!
The Toucan by Shel Silverstein
Tell me who can
Catch a toucan?
Lou can.
Just how few can
Ride the toucan?
Two can.
What kind of goo can
Stick you to the toucan?
Glue can.
Who can write some
More about the toucan?
You can!
Christmas Eve Anniversary! One Year in Costa Rica!
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| Merry Christmas from my Terrace where I added Poinsettias to a potted palm. A cell phone selfie. |
And the poinsettias, well, they grow in some people’s yards! Year around!
And most of the people are loving and Christ-like year around. Always Christmas!
And I have been here a full year on Christmas Eve!
It is home now! Pura Vida!
And most of the people are loving and Christ-like year around. Always Christmas!
And I have been here a full year on Christmas Eve!
It is home now! Pura Vida!
AND TONIGHT I DID WHAT I WAS TOO SICK TO DO LAST CHRISTMAS EVE! I went to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service and Lord’s Supper at Iglesia Biblica:
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| It started with some from the Spanish congregation singing two Christmas Songs in Spanish. Beautiful! Then with the help of screens, we sang Christmas Carols, most with one verse in English & repeated in Spanish. Nice! In between the carols the English pastor read portions of the Christmas story from Luke. |
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| We ended with candle-lighting and singing of Silent Night. Then to fellowship hall for punch and Christmas Cookies plus visiting. I decided tonight to start attending regularly again, even though I still don’t care for praise bands or all the Wednesday night Bible studies (too complicated to explain). But I need the Christian fellowship! |
And now that I am home it is noisy with Christmas eve celebrations around town. There are two competing concerts or singers plus fireworks. And last night it was a soccer match celebration. These are partying people here! Any excuse will work for a party! 🙂
I Wish You A Happy Christmas!
“It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes or bags!
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
‘Maybe Christmas’ he thought, ‘doesn’t come from a store…
Maybe Christmas perhaps… means a little bit more!'”
– Dr. Seuss
Thanksgiving and Angel Tree Completion
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| Our Angel Tree still had 6 left yesterday a.m. but by afternoon all 6 were taken! |
Friday, Saturday and Sunday I am one of about 4 volunteers staying at Su Espacio to receive the gifts as they are brought in. They are kind of trickling in with still 99 not here yet out of the 300, but Ticos do everything at the last minute David keeps reminding me – so by Monday or Tuesday most will probably be turned in (Sunday is the deadline). We have plenty of money to buy gifts for any children that are missed and until next Saturday, Dec. 5. I got more deeply involved in this than I really intended, but it has been fun with a purpose helping a lot of poor children get some nice Christmas presents – possibly the only gifts they will receive this Christmas. So a good thing! And I like to do good! 🙂
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| Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner at my neighbor’s house next door Thursday. Don & Lynda on right are from Oregon & live across our shared driveway. The lady and her daughter on left are “snowbirds” from Wisconsin renting a house 2 doors down for 2 months. |
Snowbirds are beginning to arrive, though some wait until after Christmas. One Canadian couple I was with in the apartments are already here and will stay until sometime in January. Others will come in January. It kind of reminds me of my two years in Miami where the population increases in our summer or your winter with the cold weather residents. And I’m sorry to say that the rain seems to have stopped. We will probably get a few more showers up into December maybe, but “Dry Season” has started.
One good thing about dry season is that I won’t have to put my leather shoes out in the sun to keep them from growing mold! And I recently found a new place for mold to grow – on the sweat bands of my ball caps. They are now hung upside down to help the sweat bands air out! And I have been throwing some of them in the washing machine too! Pura Vida! 🙂
15th of September Post 1: CHILDREN!
I’m still sorting the 600+ photos from a wonderful nearly 3-hour parade for Independence Day here with lots of bands and flags and children. Tonight I share just a few of my children shots, some in the parade and many watching it. This satisfies what I wanted to photograph in last night’s lantern parade and did not accomplish. Children are so photogenic!
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| Watching the parade with me at Gelly’s |
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| Representing one of the schools in the parade |
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| Nicole, 6 or 7, is already a drummer in a band! Son of my Spanish teacher, in band I raised $ for. |
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| Some of the dancers weren’t so good, but this group was great, with traditional dancing! |
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| I watched this boy sneak under the railing to sit on curb for closer view! |
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| The red, white & blue traditional dress is most typical for Independence Day and I’ll show adults wearing them another day. |
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| And this is the typical traditional dress for boys and men. I wore a hat like this but no bandanna, just a red, white & blue shirt! |
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| Another traditional dress for 15th of September! All of these are made by parents or a seamstress, you cannot buy them in stores. |
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| And finally, a father-son bonding moment on the parade route. This may be my favorite photo from the parade. |
I have lots of photos of a lot of bands and really a lot of flags I’ll share a few of, plus some adult costumes and some “different” things in the parade in future posts.
A People Day
And not a single photo of all the neat people I related to today!
I waved goodbye to my neighbors Don & Judy and the landlord’s gardener Javier as I walked out our compound gate for my Spanish Class at Su Espacio. Then “Buenas Dias” to Luis, the guard at our Roca Verde gate. It is my habit to say just “Buenos” (the new, younger greeting) to everyone I meet on the sidewalk walking to town. If someone refuses to make eye contact, then they don’t want to be spoken to, so I don’t force them! 🙂
I greet the shop keepers around the Su Espacio Community Center and whoever is already in the center, except the exercise class which is very busy! Everyone here is so nice and friendly and we all greet and visit at first. The two hours of Spanish with an hour and a half just talking in Spanish which is what I need the most to learn the language! After class I visit with another student a bit and then head for the post office to wait in line to get postage on a letter to the states.
I mailed my request for U.S. Voter Registration to Nashville as a citizen living out of the country. I’m only allowed to vote in national elections, which is mainly the presidential election every 4 years. To vote for mayor or governor you have to actually live in the city or state. Makes sense! My national election vote is counted among the “Absentee Voting” and I read somewhere that they only count those if the election is very close and it could make a difference. But I like doing my duty!
While waiting in line at the “Correos” (Post Office) I see the business associate from my old apartments, Hacienda La Jacaranda with the new manager. We talk for 5 to 7 minutes in Spanish no less! I’m so proud of myself! The new manager wants some of my photos to possibly use in promotion or marketing of the apartments. I will gladly provide them gratis. I really want that place to succeed! It has so much potential. Then after talking to the two ladies I got acquainted with a nice guy behind me in line who speaks fluent Spanish and English and he chose to use English mostly with me.
From there to Coopeatenas, my supermercado, for about 4 items and a visit in the produce section with Carol, a former Spanish student who may come back. She is from Inglaterra (England) and just got back from a business trip back there. We talked in Spanglish! 🙂
By then it was late enough for lunch and as I was headed toward La Carreta I bumped into Jason, a local Tico young man who helps in Su Espacio Spanish and English classes, for conversation and tutoring. I offered to treat him to lunch for some Spanish practice (meaning we only talk in Spanish) and we did, mostly! Soon after we sat down Corinna and Nicole came in for lunch but they did not sit with us because they were using this time for Nicole to work on a jigsaw puzzle (he’s the 6 year old son). So they were at the next table. Then one of my first Tica friends in Costa Rica, Anna, came in with an American friend and tenant in one of her houses and did sit with us. The 80 year old friend just moved here from the states and speaks no Spanish, so English took over again with a few exceptions with Jason and Anna. Wow! A big day already and then it started raining (Hallelujah!). After lunch I walked Jason home under my sombrilla (umbrella) and then on home myself. We are going to start getting together more to just talk in Spanish. His cousin sells good wood fire oven pizza and I’ll have him over for pizza one night and talk in Spanish. Whew! Hey! It is really hard work for me to carry on a conversation in Spanish! 🙂
I’ve been home the rest of the day and still greatly enjoy being “Home Alone” but also enjoyed the many encounters with friends today and much of it in Spanish! The best Spanish Class is talking with live people in Spanish! It is one of my goals! Pura Vida!
Shots of Birding Club Members
Though my focus is always on nature, I did make a few shots of the 18 club members on trip.
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| Pat is our club birding guide and very good at finding birds! He is from states but married to a Tica with CR children now! |
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| “Now are you sure everything is in a waterproof bag? |
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| Our feet were wet before we ever got to canoe. |
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| Dugout canoes with outboard motors on the rear and traditional pole in front. |
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| Right outside our thatched roof housing we find many birds! |
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| At least once we didn’t have to wade the stream! |
There are about a hundred members of the “Birding Club of Costa Rica” with expats possibly being in the majority (or at least were for this trip). Each and every person is so nice and very interesting with people like my roommate who still works for the World Bank, another retired from the United Nations, and another who sold his software company to Steve Jobs and built a home in Costa Rica. Then there’s the writer and the fun Dutch couple, the author of the latest Costa Rica birding book and so many many more to get acquainted with! I look forward to it!
The only meeting is an annual business meeting with everything else being field trips to find birds. And a cool Christmas Party they tell me! I never made time for a birding club in the states, so this is going to be fun! I’ve already bought the club T-shirt! 🙂
“I think the most important quality in a birdwatcher is a willingness to stand quietly and see what comes. Our everyday lives obscure a truth about existence – that at the heart of everything there lies a stillness and a light.”
― Lynn Thomson, Birding with Yeats: A Memoir
Festival de Artes, Escuela Los Angeles de Atenas
I’ve gone from visiting two high schools to a primary school today. I’m helping them with promotion of their garage sale in October, raising money for a playground.
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| A younger class represents favorite storybook characters in a skit. Some creative Mom’s with these costumes! |
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| This was the first program in their new outdoor auditorium/theater with covered stage here and covered bleachers. It did rain for part of the program and they invited me to sit in the VIP tent. 🙂 |
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| Nicole, son of David & Corinna at Su Espacio. He’s front & center in red as they sing a song. |
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| Snow White tells her own story complete with magic mirror behind her and basket of poison apples in hand. |
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| Another class has skit on recycling and sorry my photo does not include the girl in a really cute dress made out of newspapers. |
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| A guest band from a school in Alajuela marched in, played concert, and then here they marched out of the outdoor arena (after the rain). They were very good and kind of like a New Orleans Dixieland Band. A common style band in Costa Rica seen at most fiestas & with dancing. That is Nicole and his mother Corinna on far right clapping. And the girl snare drummer was a fave along with a girl sax player! |
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| Disney is dearly loved here! This mural is in the entry hall of the school. |
A child’s smile is like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.
~ Author Unknown
~ Author Unknown
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| And after all that, plus hiring a maid who starts next Tuesday, I get a dinner sunset like this! PURA VIDA! |
Choosing & Hanging Art
One of the toughest jobs settling in my new rent house has been choosing what art to use . . .
. . . or really, what art to keep and what to give away. I’ve done it! Here’s the results and from now on I will be focused on making new art! And oh yes, my walls are all concrete! Had to buy an electric drill and concrete drill bit. But worth it! 🙂 And landlord said I could drill all I want! I just pay for spackling and a paint job when I leave.
. . . or really, what art to keep and what to give away. I’ve done it! Here’s the results and from now on I will be focused on making new art! And oh yes, my walls are all concrete! Had to buy an electric drill and concrete drill bit. But worth it! 🙂 And landlord said I could drill all I want! I just pay for spackling and a paint job when I leave.
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| On wall opposite the kitchen I put “Reelfoot Green,” a favorite photo of mine which at 34″ x 24″ is a transition from outdoor trees in windows right and left. I see fig tree through office left and yellow bell trees through living room right. |
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| The linoleum print of “Staghorn Summac” in the Smoky Mountains was a gift from my mother-in-law. + 2 of my recent garden butterfly photos on canvas. Corner of Living Room opposite my birds wall. |
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| Coming in from balcony or sitting on couch, you see a wall of tropical birds. Photos are mine, Costa Rica & Panama, Kuna Indian Bird Mola is from Panama. Painting of Scarlet Macaw is by boatman’s wife on Amazon River Mission Trip. Bust on table if from Mali, West Africa and little basket from The Gambia. Clock with rotating pendulum was an anniversary gift from LifeWay. |
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| I normally do not like art above kitchen cabinets, but this gift from a Masaii young man of Kenya was a gift after we entertained him overnight in Memphis. The colors fit here and no where else until I find a better place rather than donate. |
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| In the laundry room off the kitchen I found a place for my Cow Weathervane photo I made at Nashville Farmers’ Market. Glad to keep it! |
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| Above my Office desk is “The Trader,” a cloth painting by a Fula artist in The Gambia West Africa and my favorite charcoal head of Christ by W. Hoffman. |
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| Opposite my desk above a brown couch/bed is a Fula Batik from The Gambia. And a favorite photo of my Amazon Indian guide waiting in the rain by canoe. |
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| Again, I normally would not put art above cabinets, but to hold on to these, I have last week’s mystery butterfly photo and my Tortuguero Sunrise photo. The dark is my bookcase and the light is my guest room/office wardrobe. Both are photos on canvas. |
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| Above my bed is the print of “Christ in Gethsemane” by Heinrich Hofmann, 1890. It was in my grandmother’s bedroom until she died. The hand-carved cross is from the Pleasant Hill Kentucky Shaker Village. My monotone brown bedroom! I know, it looks like a monk’s room! That’s okay. It is peaceful and where I sleep. |
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| My photo of a Mandinka Potter in The Gambia with a portion of Isaiah 64:8 printed on it. Opposite my bed. “O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, you are the potter.” |
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| As I leave my bedroom, a monkey wood carving from Makasutu Forest, Gambia. And my collection of caps to protect a mostly bald head from sunshine. Art? |
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| As you enter the hall from garden is my oil painting by Uncle Harlan of Mulberry Creek, Arkansas. |
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| Painted by my Grand Uncle Harlan Hunt of a real place in North Arkansas Ozarks. My bedroom to left and office, kitchen, living room to right. |
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| Also in hallway, going to garden are two flower pictures by bathroom door. Tennessee Tulips are my photo on canvas and Yellow Roses oil painting by my Uncle Harlan Hunt. |
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| Coming out of the bathroom you see my photo of a door in 1582 Spanish Fort San Juan, Veracruz, Mexico. Another one of my favorite photos on canvas! |
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| In the bathroom opposite the mirror is my panorama of Vinales Valley, Cuba. |
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| At 36″ wide, I think it makes a beautiful vista for a bathroom. One of my favorite shots from the Cuba tour, Vinales Valley. |
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| I emptied about two of the large boxes of art for my walls, etc. Hard decisions. There are two boxes of family photos, etc. I am keeping, for now anyway. Now the rest of these go to Su Espacio for an Art Silent Auction this Saturday to raise money for both the community center and the Atenas Marching Band and its free music school for low income children. Then I get my dining room back! And the 3 pieces of rent house art I’m keeping are the fruit paintings in dining & kitchen. I love them! |
You can pray that lots of people show up for the auction and are generous in their bids. I’m hoping to raise more than a thousand U.S. dollars or 500,000 colones. 9-11 AM this Saturday, 18 July, at Su Espacio Community Center across from the Coopeatenas gasolinera.
To see photos of the art being offered in the auction including 22 international creches, go to:
http://www.pbase.com/charliedoggett/costa_rica_art_benefit_auction_atenas
And here’s the English version of the flier we are using to advertise it:
Boxes, boxes, everywhere!
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| Some of the book boxes in my office & the African Chest unpacked already. |
I intended to move here with only what would fit in the max allowed 5 suitcases and with more preparation time I could have. But once I was on the time line to move I couldn’t get rid of everything quick enough and decided to ship about 20 boxes of scrapbooks to photograph (make digital books) and destroy hard copies here. Then there was my art collection and good number of framed and canvas photos I liked and knew I could use some of, so boxed them securely for shipping. I also had a few boxes of misc. stuff, Christmas decorations (should have given away) and some winter clothing (big mistake!).
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| And more on the other side of my office! |
I ended up with about 50 boxes shrunk wrapped on pallets that were shipped in December, arriving in Costa Rica in shared container space on a boat by February. Because I knew I would not likely stay in the apartments, I kept my boxes in storage in Alajuela near the San Jose Airport until this week when they were delivered to my new house.
Now the lovely, uncluttered house is a mess for a long while! Though I have already unpacked 4 or 5 the first day! I have to get ruthless again to clear out this stuff, like I did with all my furniture in Nashville. I’m still getting little checks from ReMix Furniture where much of my stuff was on consignment sale there.
Once I display the artwork and photos I think fit here, I will probably give the rest away. And the Christmas decorations will go to Su Espacio Community Center for their first Christmas tree this year if I can hold the decorations until maybe November. My manger scene collection may get advertised on Craig’s List Atenas.
But the scrapbooks and genealogy books/research will be the most difficult and time-consuming to deal with. And then there’s the stamp collection I didn’t get sold before the move. Craig’s List again! I’ll be busy for awhile!
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| Artwork, photos and Christmas stuff in my Living/Dining Room. Plus the wicker trunk in my bedroom. |