Category: Costa Rica

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¡tenga paz! Stay Calm!

My new Tico T-shirt (la camiseta)
It has a local slang expression to ask another person to “stay calm.”

For locals, I got this at Arteria, a little shop with many items using local slang, located on 1st Avenue in San Jose, across from Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones.  (The link tells of other locations.)

I will wear it to my Su Espacio Lingua Fiesta tonight.  🙂

LITERAL TRANSLATION?
SpanishDict.com & GoogleTranslate both say:  “have peace”

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New Looks in Garden

My photo gallery Flora & Forests      or directly to the sub-gallery My Home Gardens
Note that in these and all of my photo galleries at Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA I have added the new gallery header that is available at Smugmug which features one of the photos in that gallery. An improvement by Smugmug I think. 

Politics
Yesterday I told you that there were versions of the Women’s March on Washington in more than one town in Costa Rica. Well, today I learned that some of my rich Republican friends in Atenas had an Inauguration Celebration Party at one of their large houses on Friday night. Unfortunately it is not just poor Democrats migrating to Costa Rica. But I think I can safely say that most Costa Ricans are horrified at the prospects of the Trump presidency. 
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Banded Skipper

Banded Skipper
My Home Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
The gardener found it and came got me for the photo.
I have other shots of one inside my house.

 

Women’s March in Washington is also happening in Costa Rica Saturday in multiple locations. Respect for women is very important here and the new U.S. President’s attitude toward women is shocking to Costa Ricans! People still ask me “How can your country elect a man like that as president?” I have no good answer beyond my embarrassment and to say that I did not vote for him, nor did the majority of the voting citizens. But I’m glad I live in Costa Rica now! With a Republican congress and president the states will soon be in multiple wars and huge debt. I have a different idea of greatness.
See also my photo gallery for Butterflies & Moths 
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Chachalacas at My Breakfast Table

Immature Gray-headed Chachalaca
Flying out of a Yellow-bell Tree in my gardens, Atenas, Costa Rica
Two Immature Gray-headed Chachalacas
Sitting in a Yellow-bell Tree in my gardens, Atenas, Costa Rica

Identification Explanations for the Birders Who Read This

When I first saw them I thought “Black Guan” which can be in this part of the country, but on closer examination, they do not have the red eyes and legs that all black guans have, nor the blue facial skin. I knew we had Chachalacas in Roca Verde, so I resigned myself to darker than usual Chachalacas and thought maybe Plain rather than Gray-headed, BUT, the book says Plain don’t live in this part of the country, only in Guanacaste. And my earlier photo of one in my garden (note how much lighter) fit the Gray-headed description and they live in the Central Valley. Plus some online investigation shows some juvenile Gray-headed Chachalacas to be very dark or black. Also the white tips on the tail feathers are only seen in the Gray-headed Chachalaca. Here’s another one at Rancho Naturalista  which is darker but not black. 
Whew! Identification can be a challenge sometimes and every species seem to have some exceptions!
See my photo gallery of BIRDS

Read about Gray-headed Chachalacas on NeotropicalBirds by Cornell University
Or a different kind of article on Wikipedia

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Jungle Flowers at Sarapiquí

See also my photo gallery Flora & Forests   or   go straight to My Garden
Flowers, birds and butterflies! What beautiful expressions of God’s colors I get to enjoy!
And today my gardener planted a new kind of butterfly bush that will bring many more butterflies he promises!
-o-
A Nation of Immigrants, an interesting article on how Costa Rica accepts the fact that it is made up totally of immigrants (much like the States) with fewer indigenous people (Indians) than the states. Read how Costa Rica still welcomes immigrants and thrives because of them. And we are regularly listed as one of the top happiest countries in the world! Interesting!
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My New Web Page: Lodge/Hotel Reviews

Trogon Lodge, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica
A new webpage of both words & photos in my Photo Gallery
This took several hours of work and was not all easy!
The hardest part was because I seldom make photos of the building!
I now have reviews of 29 Costa Rica lodges or hotels I have stayed in.
So if you travel in Costa Rica, add this page to your research!  🙂
If you love nature, Costa Rica is the place to travel! Just see my photo gallery!
Soon I will add a similar page for Nicaragua and Panama, though not as many places!

-o-

If you are not aware, most Cubans trying to get to the states have now chosen to fly to Columbia and travel by land up through Central America to the Texas border, meaning we have crowds of Cubans coming through Costa Rica daily. 
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A Biologically Diverse Place

Costa Rica is home to more than 500,000 plant & animal species,
nearly 4% of the total species estimated worldwide, making Costa Rica
one of the 20 countries with the highest biodiversity in the world.
Of these 500,000 species, a little more than 300,000 are insects.
And oh yes, the above flower I shot at Rancho Naturalista Lodge is
commonly known as anthurium, tailflower, flamingo flower, and laceleaf.
And all of my photo galleries show off this biological diversity: