Category: Hotels-Lodges

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Our Skunk Encounter

I was the only guest to take the birding walk the other morning and Pablo & I had this skunk to cross our path in front of us! (Ideal for a photo!) Though there are several species of skunks, I’m reasonably certain that this one is the Striped Hog-nosed Skunk – Conepatus semistriatus (linked to my gallery with 3 other photos of this, my first sighting of a skunk in Costa Rica). 🙂

Striped-Hog-nosed-Skunk, Punta Leona, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Today, Friday, 26 December is my last day at Punta Leona. Tomorrow at noon, one of Walter’s drivers, Alex, will pick me up and return me home where I will again have decent internet service and will share a lot more nature photos from this visit and in one post will give the pros and cons of this unique place and explain why I may not return. Tomorrow’s post may also be done in the afternoon, then I will get back to my morning posts.

¡Pura Vida!

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Scarlet Macaw

The usually slow internet was completely down yesterday, so late on this post. The Scarlet Macaw (my gallery link), or Lapas Roja en español, is kind of a signature bird for Punta Leona since they have nesting boxes with continuous video coverage online of several of the boxes where you can watch the babies grow up and leave their nest. But the birds are all over the property and this shot was made about one block from my hotel room.

Scarlet Macaw, Punta Leona, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Toucan Eating Banana Flowers

My one photo today through the very slow internet here is probably my favorite from the 6:15 am birding hike today.

Yellow-throated Toucan and Banana Flowers, Punta Leona, Costa Rica

The bird was eating banana plant flowers and interestingly at breakfast this morning a monkey got in and stole a banana of a man’s plate. 🙂

Tomorrow I will share one butterfly shot from the 9:30 am butterfly hike, during which I was not feeling great and will definitely slow down the rest of my time here! By 10 it is almost unbearably hot & humid and I was exhausted, coming back to the room for a nap and then this afternoon another nap. 🙂 I guess I’m an older man than I want to admit. 🙂

Tonight will be the hotel’s “special” Christmas Dinner. Tomorrow I will focus on the beach on Christmas Day with shore birds early morning, maybe a tidepool effort at low tide, and maybe a sunset reflection on the ocean, since the sun sets here now behind the land with the coast at an angle. 🙂 The better sunset place here is at Villa Coleta up the hills from Punta Leona.

Merry Christmas to all the faithful readers!

¡Pura Vida!

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In a Forest by the Sea

I got here in more time than usual because of heavy traffic, maybe the many San Jose residents who escape to the coast for Christmas. 🙂 And as always the coast is hotter than the mild climate of Atenas! Fortunately my room was ready ahead of the official check-in time and I went straight to it in what they call the “Selvamar” section of rooms with each pathway of rooms named after a Latin American country. I’m in the Cuba section and love the room with a small outside patio and everything here is surrounded by tall trees, thus tonight’s photo from my room.

Hotel Punta Leona Selvamar rooms are all surrounded by trees!

I may share photos of my room and the Selvamar rooms area later which is all nestled into the forest surrounded by many tall trees. I think it is the best place to stay for a short visit to Punta Leona and I will tell about other lodging later.

I organized my room and then did a lot of walking and got hot and tired, so I utilized their free shuttle buses to get back to my room. 🙂

Tomorrow morning before breakfast, I take the morning bird walk and then after breakfast the butterfly tour! 🙂 My only other tour is a sloth walk on Thursday. The last time here I also went to Carara NP for birds but decided not to this time, nor the nearby Tarcoles River morning bird boat tour. Instead, I will explore the tidepools and the gigantic trees trail here instead. And later I will write an evaluation of Punta Leona (their website link) telling what I like and what I don’t like about it, but for now just sharing photos and maybe only one photo a day since the internet is a little slow here. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Pacific Coast Beaches Today

I’m spending my Christmas or the next 5 days on the closest beach to where I live, Punta Leona, Jaco, Puntarenas Province in a protected transitional forest with lots of birds including the Scarlet Macaw, monkeys and other wildlife, plus two beautiful beaches for walking, birds, tidepools, sunsets, etc. I do not swim in the ocean anymore for multiple reasons.

My only other time at Punta Leona was in 2019 (trip gallery link) at a different time of year (March) and I’m hoping for better sunset photos in December than I got then. Plus I plan to explore the tide pools between the two beaches this time (new to me) and spend more time on the forest trail of “gigantes” or giant trees over 55 meters tall, enjoy the butterfly house and the Macaw nesting boxes. Punta Leona Posts will start tonight. Below this introductory photo is a gallery of my beach photos from 2019 . . .

Sunset on Playa Mantas, Punta Leona
Continue reading “Pacific Coast Beaches Today”
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Favorite Green Life Photos 2025

To live in a green world, absorbing both the oxygen and the green spirit is one of the greatest blessings of living in Costa Rica. I randomly picked these photos as representative of this spirit, though many others could have represented it just as well . . .

Red Croton, Atenas — The Simple beauty of nature!
Continue reading “Favorite Green Life Photos 2025”
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Favorite “Other Wildlife” Photos 2025

More photos from outside Atenas in this category because I always see more wildlife at the parks, reserves and lodges than at home, which may be best. 🙂 And with less travel this year there were fewer exotic animals, but here’s a few that are pretty interesting 🙂 . . .

Red-mantled Dragonet, Tortuga Lodge, Tortuguero NP
Continue reading “Favorite “Other Wildlife” Photos 2025″
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Merry Christmas!

Hoping you will have a happy December as I expect mine to be. I will be slowing down with only 3 doctor appointments! 🙂 My health is doing well with mostly the wonderful public health system here in Costa Rica, an ultra sound scan every 6 months showing me cancer free, a monthly nurse visit to my house, checking on me and data on my CPAP machine, and just a month ago I got new hearing aids compliments of the Cost Rica Social Security! Life is good in Costa Rica! 🙂

Continue reading “Merry Christmas!”
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Green Heron – All Weather Bird + Trump Stops Mail Service from Costa Rica

This water bird is familiar to most people in North America as he is found in all of the contiguous states and in southern Canada south through Central America and the Caribbean Islands and in the northern tier of South American countries, always on or near water. But I do see more of them down here than I did in Nashville! 🙂 You can see my collection of photos made here in Costa Rica at Green Heron Gallery (linked).

Green Heron, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

Trump Stops Mail from Costa Rica

The Costa Rica Post Office (Correos de Costa Rica) informed me earlier that they could no longer accept mail addressed to anywhere in the USA because of the unpredictable tariffs on all mail, including letters, with no way to charge us. Some other shipping services have also stopped sending to the U.S. like Aeropost & ARCR, though I can still receive packages from the States through Aeropost. The local Correos is now suggesting that you use the more expensive EMS, DHL, UPS or FedEx. Every day brings another reason that I’m glad I live here and not there! 🙂 The United States is being destroyed quicker than I thought they could. Below is copied from an email I received yesterday from ARCR . . .

Mail Service to USA and Canada has been Discontinued
According to a September 2, 2025, article in La Nacion, due to the duties that the Trump administration has imposed on imports from Costa Rica, los Correos has temporarily stopped accepting mail and packages addressed to anywhere in the United States or Canada.
This includes letter mail. It has been reported that Aeropost is following suit. The status of other mail forwarding services is unknown at this time. Check with your mail forwarding service provider.

When are Americans going to wise up and get rid of the worthless Republicans running (ruining) the United States?

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A Tropical Waters Icon

The Anhinga, sometimes called “Snake Bird” because when swimming with his long neck out of the water he/she looks like a snake swimming. This bird is found in all of the tropical Americas on the water where it dives into the water to catch a fish and then afterwards sun-dries itself on a tree as in these two photos, one a male (all black) and one a female (with brown neck). See more of my photos from Costa Rica in the Anhinga Gallery (linked) with most seen on rivers, though also on lakes.

Female Anhinga, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica
Male Anhinga, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica

And yes, this makes three days that I have reverted back to my Tortuguero trip for photos. That is because I’ve had some “lean” days in my garden recently (doing posts a week or more ahead now) and I always have more that can be shared from places like Tortuguero! 🙂 Every national park and wildlife reserve here is a rich source of nature photos!

¡Pura Vida!