Category: Central Valley

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Last Week of Moving Sale! 8-14 November

There has been no time for blog posts this week with an off and on flow of local people responding to my Moving Sale Galleries (linked) and I have continued to add items for sale, so locals please keep coming back! 🙂 THIS WILL BE THE LAST WEEK OF THE SALE! Ending Saturday 14 November.

The most over-looked or not used categories have been the arts, except for my African Arts Sale Gallery (linked) which has only 3 items left! And they are 3 of my favorites! 🙂 Now I’m telling you about the three other art categories with hugely discounted prices that might interest you . . .

Letting some of my Art Collection go at bargain prices at https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/MOVING-SALE/Wall-Art-By-Other-Artists OR CLICK THE ABOVE IMAGE

This sub-gallery has some of my “Collected Art” from over the many years of my long life and though I love it all, I will likely live the rest of my life in a small apartment without space to display or store it all, so some must go. CLICK ON THE ABOVE IMAGE TO SEE THAT GALLERY, then call for a time to come by and check it out as with the next two sub-galleries.

Last chance to get a Charlie Doggett photo! See what is left at: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/MOVING-SALE/Wall-Art-My-Nature-Photos – The above image is not complete, more have been added, but still going fast!

My first 12 years living here in Costa Rica and many of the last 10 in the USA were given to nature and travel photography and above is mainly wall art from over these last nearly 20 years with a few other things like two mouse pads and I have 5 coffee mugs left that I am just giving away if interested in a mug with a butterfly photo. Like with the previous gallery, call for a time to come look at what is available and finally I have everything clearly labeled with the price and other information. And yes, much of the above are items that did not sell in my earlier efforts in an art gallery and some arts & crafts fairs, but ALL ARE DISCOUNTED AT LEAST 75% with a few as low as $1!

Accent pillows with flower photos on both sides. Go to: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/MOVING-SALE/Flower-Accent-Pillows-1-each

And lastly, one of my favorites, the Flower Photos Accent Pillows, that I never understood why they did not sell at the gallery or the craft fairs, but now you can get a brilliant $20 accent pillow for only$1!

Then My Last Week Here (15-22 November) . . .

If you have ever moved, you know that there are a million things that have to be done and the moving sale prevented me from doing many of them including a physical for entry into a Senior Adult facility along with address changes and cancellations, etc. etc.! 🙂

That last week will be capped off on Sunday 22 November with a “Farewell Charlie Luncheon” at a neighbor’s house with several local friends coming to say goodbye. Then 23 & 24 are the very last minute packing with the actual move on 25 November and the beginning of another chapter of the old man’s life, an adventure to still be discovered from the greenway to the city streets! A lot to explore and discover! Plus a lot of new friends to grow old with. Thanks to all of you for your kindnesses and good wishes and the blog might be quiet again for a while as I finish the transition to a blog from a slightly different perspective. We will see what happens! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Long-tailed Skipper & Traffic Jams Here

A regular in my garden, though not recently, and easy to confuse with Esmeralda Skipper, is the Long-tailed Skipper, Urbanus proteus (my gallery link). It is found all over the southeastern U.S., the Caribbean Islands and Central America.

Long-tailed Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

And oh yeah, this is the first butterfly I have seen on the Desert Rose flower in the 7 or 8 years I’ve had it. But you can see that he is not eating nectar, just resting. The flower is just too deep for most butterflies and hummingbirds. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Extra Costa Rica News Article:

World’s 2nd Worst Traffic Congestion!

“Costa Rica now ranks second in the world for worst traffic congestion, according to new 2025 Numbeo data, with commute times and CO2-heavy gridlock far above the global average. The report underscores how daily jams are hitting quality of life and the environment, especially in the Central Valley.” Tico Times Article.

Tico Times photo

It is mainly inside and around the capital city of San Jose where I have to go with a driver for most of my medical specialist appointments. Realtors in Atenas will tell you that we are only 45 minutes to an hour from San Jose – well . . . maybe at 2 am! 🙂

It is not unusual for my trips to Hospitals Mexico or Blanca Cervantes to take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on time of day, accidents, or highway construction. It is frustrating that there are not enough lanes on the major highways AND that (like in the U.S.) most cars have only one person in them! Many, if not most, tourists want rental cars for the independence and freedom to go where you wish whenever. But many become very frustrated trying to drive here, especially in and around San Jose traffic, while in rural areas it is the pot-holed narrow roads and one lane bridges (or river fording) that make for an adventure. 🙂 I recommend tourists to stay in one place when here for less than two weeks and use lodge or van services to get to and from the airport. Though there is a sense of adventure when driving in Costa Rica! 🙂

And oh yeah! Who are we second to? Nigeria! And having traveled all over Africa, I would put the whole continent as worse than Costa Rica, but this ranking was based on some kind of research. And perceived paradises do have their drawbacks! 🙂 I handle if my not owning a car and using taxis, public buses, and my professional tour driver to get me wherever I need to be. (And now go to San Jose only for doctors!) 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Rain Approaching!

As it does almost every afternoon! And this particular shot of rain on nearby hills was on May 22. A daily afternoon or night (my favorite) is what keeps tropical places like Costa Rica green, beautiful and full of so many species of plants and wildlife. I love it! 🙂

Afternoon rain on nearby hills means soon it will be on my hill. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

My collection of such photo views from my terrace is growing! 🙂

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Poas Volcano on Red Alert!

Many of my U.S. friends who have visited here have included a visit to Poas Volcano NP, which is (“as the crow flies”) just 53.5 km or 33.2 miles from me, though a 2 hour drive through the mountains. 🙂 It has been erupting daily now for a few weeks and increasing in intensity. Today …

The Costa Rican National Emergency Commission (CNE) has declared a red alert for Poás Volcano National Park due to increased volcanic activity, with ash plumes reaching up to 4,500 meters. The park is currently closed indefinitely, and authorities recommend that visitors stay away from the area. Adjacent areas, including Grecia, Sarchí, Alajuela, Poás, Naranjo, Río Cuarto, and Zarcero, are under orange or yellow alerts due to ashfall and gas exposure.

Poas Volcano erupting this week. Photo from Tico Times online English newspaper.

It has always been my favorite volcano to visit in Costa Rica, not only because the closest, but the only one you could look down in the crater and see the bubbling stuff, plus it has a second, older crater with a beautiful turquoise-colored lake. who knows what it will be like after these major eruptions?

Because I live south of Poas and most of our winds are East-West, I don’t get a lot of the ash fall, but some. Before breakfast on my terrace each morning, I wipe the glass-top table off with a Lysol Wipe and then a paper towel. They are black from the small amount of ash we do get. 🙂 Yet farmers near active volcanoes say the ash is excellent for growing vegetables! 🙂

Facebook Video of one day’s eruption: (it would not embed)

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2160888447696509&t=18

Poas Volcano erupting April 23-25, UNC photo frame from video.

And if the FB link above doesn’t work, try the Tico Times article where I first saw it: https://ticotimes.net/2025/04/23/video-poas-volcano-erupts-with-3-5-km-ash-plume-ovsicori-reports

¡Pura Vida!

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Reflected Sunrise

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! 🙂

Reflected Sunrise in the NW hills of Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica – Cellphone shot.
Continue reading “Reflected Sunrise”
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Soon Only White Clouds!

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. 🙂

See more vistas from my terrace in that gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

iNaturalist 2024 Year in Review, Charlie Doggett

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. 🙂

https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2024/charliedoggett

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? 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Continue reading “Soon Only White Clouds!”
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Xandari Gallery is Ready!

Christmas 2024 @ Xandari

Click this image of the first page or go directly to this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2024-December-24-26-Xandari-Resort-Tacacori-Alajuela

CLICK this image of first page to go to the gallery.

Yes, Xandari is expensive, but it is worth it for me as I think the photos tell. Enjoy my “Nature as Art” photos that are different each time I visit there.

¡Pura Vida!

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Cloudy Days Christmas Retreat . . .

. . . was a wonderful experience in spite of the “off-season weather!”

“A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.”

~William Arthur Ward

Christmas Eve Dinner was super good! 🙂
Fountains throughout the gardens.

Read on for more pix and about the grand experience I had with my wonderful friends who run Xandari Resort . . .

Continue reading “Cloudy Days Christmas Retreat . . .”
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The Eaton’s In Atenas

I had surgery Tuesday morning to remove another skin cancer, this one from my nose! 🙂 So the Eaton’s hung out at their hotel until about 10 when I took them on a walk through Central Atenas but I was not motivated to make many photos for some reason, so I got only the spreading tree in the courtyard of Mercado Central and the vista from Casita del Café the next morning (where with a clear sky you see the Pacific, but not that morning), with all the other Atenas photos in gallery linked from earlier photos I’ve made. Sorry. We ate out for lunch in Crema y Nata Tuesday and other Atenas restaurants the next two nights.

Wednesday we had breakfast on the mountain top and I took a taxi home while Walter took them to a Punta Leona beach to photograph monkeys and other nature and I rested. Click the above link for an idea of what they saw in Atenas. Just the first two photos I made on those two days here. The feature photo at top of post is of the vista from Casita del Café during breakfast there Wednesday morning and the tree photo is from Mercado Central de Atenas on our Tuesday walk.

Tree in Courtyard of the Central Market of Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!