Category: Hotels-Lodges

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My 2019 Nature Adventures

A different hotel/lodge every month except April when a gang from Nashville come to volunteer in the children’s home here in Atenas. 4 lodges are repeats but such great places they will be totally new experiences! I start this month near the Nicaragua border sleeping 5 nights in a treehouse and from there it is everything from Whale Watching to Tapirs and of course lots of birds! There will be new wildlife this year and also its the year I expect to top 300 bird species that I will have photographed in Costa Rica! What a life!   🙂

And you may wonder why I am planning so far ahead? Well, it was not far enough for some places I wanted to visit, especially for next Christmas when my first two choices were already booked. Costa Rica and its best lodges and hotels are very popular and stay booked more than a year in advance.

The links on the hotel/lodge name is to that hotel’s website, if you are interested. And the map gives the approximate location of each visit this year using the month number for when I visit that spot and listing indicates lodge or national park visited that month.

  1. Maquenque Eco Lodge, Boca Tapada
  2. Doubletree San Jose & Turtle Beach Lodge Tortuguero
  3. Hotel Punta Leona, Jaco Beach
  4. Hogar de Vida Children’s Home, Atenas
  5. Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui  *
  6. Macaw Lodge (Nat Geo), Carara National Park
  7. Xandari Nature Resort, Alajuela  *
  8. Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Caribe (Carnival Week)  *
  9. Cristal Ballena Hotel, Uvita (Whale Watching) Ballena NP
  10. Hotel Hacienda Guachipelin, Rincón de la Vieja National Park
  11. Arenal Observatory Lodge, Arenal Volcano National Park  *
  12. Tapirus Lodge, Braulio Carrillo National Park

*The 4 starred hotels are repeats for me, meaning I really like them!  🙂  And this is what it is like to be Retired in Costa Rica, the name of my blog! Pura vida!

For those who know Costa Rica the map helps understand where I’m traveling this year, my first to not go to Osa Peninsula, as I explore new places.

CLICK MAP TO ENLARGE  
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2018 in Review – Photo A Month

One favorite photo from each month of 2018 – And I had trouble picking just one! Thus the header photo above is an extra one from October and the only one here from Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, my #1 lodge this year. 

 

January 2018 – My Discovery of Calle Nueva in my own neighborhood!
Calle Nueva Photo Gallery
February 2018 – Visiting Orosi Valley & this Mirador de Ujarras along with Tapanti National Park & more!
Orosi–Tapanti Photo Gallery
March 2018 – Red-eyed Tree Frog, Danta Corcovado Lodge, Corcovado National Park, Los Patos
Danta Corcovado Photo Gallery
April 2018 – A group from First Baptist Nashville on my front porch. They came a volunteers working in the Hogar de Vida Children’s Home for a week. I’m not allowed to show children faces, thus picked this photo.
Hogar de Vida Photo Gallery
May 2018 – Mantled Howler Monkey, just one of many great shots from Arenal Observatory Lodge, Arenal Volcano National Park.
Arenal Observatory Photo Gallery
June 2018 – Golden Collared Manakin at Tranquilo Bay Lodge, Bocas del Toro, Panama.
Tranquilo Bay Photo Gallery
July 2018 – Xandari Nature Resort, Alajuela for nature hikes, art and spa!
Xandari Photo Gallery
August 2018 – Emerald Toucanet, Soda y Mirador Cinchona, Alajuela Province
Soda y Mirador Cinchona Photo Gallery
September 2018 – 3-Toed Sloth, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica Caribbean.
Banana Azul Puerto Viejo 2018
Banana Azul Puerto Viejo 2017
October 2018 – Keel-billed Toucan on my Terrace for Breakfast, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
All My BIRDS Photo Gallery
Just COSTA RICA BIRDS  Photo Gallery
November 2018 – Snow Egrets’ Ballet, Rancho Humo, Palo Verde National Park on the Tempisque River
Rancho Humo  Photo Gallery
December 2018 – Blue Morpho Butterfly, Si como No Resort, Manuel Antonio National Park & Quepos
Si Como No Resort  Photo Gallery

Wow! This was too hard to do! My very best photos were probably all in 3 or 4 months, so I will try something different next year, like maybe my top 5 or so favorite photos. I think I will also try to rank the hotels/lodges/parks I visited this year.

Ranking My Top 7 Lodges in 2018

I rank for all aspects of the lodge for a birder and/or nature lover, not necessarily in this order: number of birds and other wildlife seen, quality of guides, quality of overall service, restfulness of room, quality meals, overall ecology consciousness and sometimes the extra services, depending on the place and situation. My 2018 Top 7 lodges and hotels in order of my preference or enjoyment:

  1. Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, north of Golfito
  2. Danta Corcovado Lodge, Corcovado National Park, Los Patos Ranger Station
  3. Arenal Observatory Lodge, Arenal Volcano National Park, inside the park
  4. Rancho Humo, Palo Verde National Park in Guanacaste
  5. Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo
  6. Tranquilo Bay, Bocas del Toro, Panama
  7. Xandari Nature Resort, Alajuela

¡Pura Vida!

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Sun Setting on 2018 & My Celebration Begins!

The above photo is one of my sunsets at Manuel Antonio National Park in 2015, my first year here! I go back to celebrate 4 years living here! Photographing new birds and other animals, walking forest trails and one of the most beautiful beaches in Costa Rica, getting one or more relaxation massages, and eating gourmet food every day for a week as I create more Costa Rica Nature Photos! That is my kind of Christmas Celebration and I anticipate a fabulous week! Here’s one of the resort’s several videos:

Or browse the Si Como No Website   —   This is living!   🙂

3-toed Sloth I photographed there in 2015.

Retired in Costa Rica 4 Years Christmas Celebration

Starts Tomorrow, 21 December 2018

¡Pura Vida!

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Two Gifts This Morning

I opened two gifts this morning – my eyes.

 

Photo is of a Caribe sunrise, Hotel Banana Azul,

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

 

My prayers go to the Bush Family in their loss . . .

. . . a truly great & humble man!

George H. W. Bush

Humility is not thinking less of yourself,

it’s thinking of yourself less.

~C. S. Lewis

REPORT ON MY BIOPSY:  After removing the 10 stitches from my arm (where all that cancer was confirmed removed) and the two stitches from my face for the biopsy, Dr. Gamboa gave me the facial biopsy report:

In brief, it says I have another carcinoma cancer on my face which is a smaller and slower growing type than the one on my arm. No problem waiting until January to remove the rest of it (the biopsy took most of it). Because of the delicate and thinner skin location next to my eye, we will be doing a more complicated and more efficient (more expensive) “Mohs Surgery” with two doctors doing it with a pathologist standing by to make sure they get all of the cancer as he examines each layer as removed (continuous biopsy). It will not be in his office this time but in a clinic, hospital-like, operating room, but still out-patient. He is checking on availability of other doctor and the clinic for the week of 21 January – after my Boca Tapada trip.  Remember —  the doctors work around my trips!  🙂    Important! That is where I sleep in a tree house 5 nights!

Dr. Gamboa also “PRESCRIBED” wearing a wide-brim hat instead of the ball caps I’ve been wearing and of course sunscreen every day when out. I sure love sunny Costa Rica, just 673 miles north of the equator, but with the value of the sun also comes with some potential dangers for someone like me who loves the outdoors. I have already become more careful, even though the doc says these current growths and cancers were probably caused by sun I got as a child or teen, more sun now can make it worse, so I must be cautious.

¡Still Pura Vida!    🙂

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“Home on the Range”

Northwest Costa Rica, the Guanacaste Province, is mostly flat, dry and generally with more sun than rain with lots of cattle ranching. Today Walter drove me to and through this area of Costa Rica for my 5-night stay at Rancho Humo where it is near the end of Rainy Season, so nice and green now! Above photo is from my room deck when I arrived. Here’s a few shots enroute and on the first of 6 days at “Home on the Range.”

BIRDS First Afternoon, 30 minutes in Wetlands

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On the Road to Rancho Humo

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My “Jr. Suite” at Rancho Humo

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Rancho Humo Outside Views

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And their 2 Minute Video on Rancho Humo:

 

¡Pura Vida!

 

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Today at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge

No rain today – so far at 3pm! I had a wonderful 6am birding hike with birding guide Kevin and returned for breakfast and the morning photographing wildlife from my cabin terrace – amazing!

Below is a slideshow of a few of today’s photos – mostly birds but some other animals. Tomorrow Kevin and I go on a boat trip through the mangroves which always yields a lot of birds rain or shine. Then over the weekend I plan to just enjoy walking the forests that surround me here and the really good food someone else is preparing!  🙂  And oh yeah,  a night hike one of those nights which is always interesting!

And I’m hearing thunder now, so rain tonight which is always the best time and well, it just started at 3:42!  🙂

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Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval [tropical] forests, … temples filled with the varied productions of the God of Nature. No one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body. 

— Charles Darwin

¡Pura Vida!

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Xandari Room – Art Gallery in Nature

My room at Xandari Resort Costa Rica is like an art gallery sitting in a garden or surrounded by nature. Here’ two slideshows to explain; first is views of each part of my room or rooms – more like an efficiency apartment. Second is a slide of each piece of art placed somewhere in my room or rooms, including three outdoors.

The original owners or developers of Xandari were an architect and his artist wife. They included an art studio here where students came and created the art that is all over the property including each villa or room. Later I will show some of the art that is outside in the gardens around the buildings. It is one of the most unique places I have ever been and a lot of birds too!  🙂

VIEWS OF MY ROOM

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PIECES OF ART IN MY ROOM

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To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

~Henry David Thoreau

-o-

¡Pura Vida!

See my Trip Photo Gallery:  2018 Xandari Resort

Xandari costa rica   (their website)

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Hotel Lobby, Restaurant & Activities – Villa Blanca

On top of the hill, the center of everything that happens at Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My trip gallery: 2017 Villa Blanca
My reviews of other Costa Rica Lodges & Hotels  if exploring this fun country. Note that at Drake Bay I stayed at the sister hotel of Villa Blanca, Aguila de Osa – both are Greentique Hotels.
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My Cabin at Villa Blanca

All rooms here are cabins – 36 of them!
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel
20 km North of San Ramon, Costa Rica

 

Morning Fog is Common in the Cloud Forest!

Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel
20 km North of San Ramon, Costa Rica

 

Fireplace felt good some nights!
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel
20 km North of San Ramon, Costa Rica

 

Comfortable Bed
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel
20 km North of San Ramon, Costa Rica

 

View out my front door
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel
20 km North of San Ramon, Costa Rica

 

View out my back door
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel
20 km North of San Ramon, Costa Rica

 

Stained Glass Window in my Cabin
Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel
20 km North of San Ramon, Costa Rica
 
My trip gallery: 2017 Villa Blanca
My reviews of other Costa Rica Lodges & Hotels  if exploring this fun country. Note that at Drake Bay I stayed at the sister hotel of Villa Blanca, Aguila de Osa – both are Greentique Hotels.
And oh yeah, I’m home now, writing this Friday night to post Saturday and it will be emailed out Sunday morning around 2 am. I still have several more posts I want to make before I’m finished telling about Villa Blanca, the facilities, the grounds & vistas, a chapel, and a research center.
100,000 Views is what the counter says this blog passed yesterday with 83 views that day. Thank you for keeping up with “Retired in Costa Rica” and all my adventures and photos! I love it here!
¡Pura vida!