Category: Places

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House Wren?

Well, actually it is a Rufous-naped Wren who happened to come inside my house!

Rufous-naped Wren, Atenas, Costa Rica
(On the back of the couch in my living room! Looking out the screen window.)
Rufous-naped Wren, Atenas, Costa Rica
Making himself at home on a drink coaster. This is what happens with doors left open.

Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches.

~Psalm 104:12 ESV 

Rufous-naped Wren, Atenas, Costa Rica
Singing outside my window in the Strangler Fig Tree

See also my Costa Rica Birds Photo Gallery.
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Dione Juno Silverspot

Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Its top side looks much like a Julia, but underside (folded wings) different.
Sorry – not a good image, but only one made of top side.
Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

Dione Juno Silverspot butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

My garden is getting to be about as good as one of these butterfly houses or farms! It has been like a new species every few days! But the book says June and July are the two best months for butterflies in Costa Rica, so this show may start tapering off soon! I’m enjoying it while I can and don’t miss my Costa Rica Butterflies Photo Gallery!

The average butterfly life is between 5 and 14 days. And I think I don’t have enough time?

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
~Rabindranath Tagore

Enjoying the moments in Costa Rica!  -Charlie

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Colobura Dirce Serendipity

I reach for a paper towel in my kitchen and there is something alive on it!

Colobura Dirce butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica
I read that they like Cecropia leaves and I have a new Cecropia Tree!
But not inside my house!
I don’t even have to go outside to
photograph butterflies!  🙂
But he startled me at first.
The only other place I’ve seen one of these was at a butterfly farm a few years ago. My Guarumo Tree is a type of Cecropia and that may be why he is at my house. This is what happens when your doors are open without screens during the day. The book says this butterfly does not eat the nectar of flowers like most but the above leaves and rotting fruit and for some reason likes to get on wet clothes drying on the clothes line. The top of his wings are dark brown with a yellow stripe. He hadn’t moved when I went to bed, but saw him by the sliding glass door the next morning and observed the top of his wings, but couldn’t get a photo.
ser·en·dip·i·ty
ˌserənˈdipədē/
noun
  1. the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
    “a fortunate stroke of serendipity”
    synonyms: (happy) chance, (happy) accident, fluke

     

And all my butterflies at Costa Rica Butterflies  by Charlie Doggett photo gallery

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Costa Rica Fresh Fruit!

On Feria Day (Farmers’ Market Day) I process some of the fruit purchased . . .

. . . and then have a fruit plate for lunch!  🙂

I cut up half or more of the mango, pineapple and papaya into little squares and put in zip lock bags in the freezer to use in my fresh fruit frescos, refrescos de frutas, batidos, jugo de naturales or just smoothies for people from the states. And there are a lot of other names for drinks made from fresh fruit, plus a rice, cinnamon, and milk drink call horchata or an even better version with vanilla ice cream called leche muella. Fruit rules in Costa Rica!

Images, Descriptions & Uses of The Tropical Fruits of Costa Rica  NEAT PAGE!
Probably at least one fruit here you have never heard of! And sorry, but I have not tried all of them yet! And this list is not all of the fruits found here. 

When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree.
~Vietnamese saying

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Life-giving Rain

At 1:30 I saw the clouds moving in over bright sunshine.

By 4:30 the sun is gone and rain is everywhere, from the mountains to the valleys. Cooler too!

After two weeks of a “mini dry season” it has been good this week to have rain again every afternoon and/or evening! Today it started at about 4:15 PM and is still raining at 8:00 PM which is good after the short dry period here in Atenas. The other extreme is the north of the country and the Caribbean coast has been inundated with rain and flooding, displacing many from their homes and closing several  roads. So Atenas is still living up to our “best climate” fame.

The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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2 Garden Additions Today

A stone-looking concrete bench (banca) by my garden door facing the garden.
I hide garden shoes under it, can sit and watch the butterflies (mariposas),
humming birds (colibríes), and toads (sapos). Sorry! Working on my vocabulario.
🙂

Also got a pot to match two others I have and planted a cluster of little palms
that will grow twice that high with nice looking palm fronds.

Night photos because I just thought to make them!  🙂  On cell phone of course!  You are welcome to come sit on my garden bench or balcony rocking chairs (sillas mecedora) any time!   Pura Vida!

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Another 90-Day Visa Collected!

A 15 hour day and nearly $200 for a bloomin’ rubber stamp with “90”
handwritten over it. But I cannot rent or drive a car without it.

Nine Canadian and U.S. Expats joined tour guide Walter on “Visa Run” today.
Canadians in the majority this time! 5 to 4!

Ten of us squeezed in and out of his new van all day today! 

At the border we wait in lines at Both Nicaragua & Costa Rica Immigration.
This was twice for each country, out, in, out, in! 🙂
A “helper” in Nicaragua did most of our line waiting for us while we shopped.

On the way up a late breakfast at Rincon Corobici Restaurant overlooking river.
Then a late lunch or early dinner here on the way back. Great food & views!

And why do I do this? Only to keep the option of driving open for me until my residency is finalized and I can get a Costa Rica Driver License. (Maybe next March) As a residency applicant, I have a letter saying I can live here without renewing my Visa, but the transportation department says that to drive here with my Tennessee Driver License, I must have a current Tourist Visa. 90 Days is the max you can get per trip out and in. Some people are doing this instead of applying for residency, but not practical in my thinking. So I will continue this every 90 days until my residency and a local driver license is obtained. Two more times probably. And I may decide to do some tourism in either Nicaragua or Panama and accomplish the same purpose on my return. 

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Poverty in Costa Rica

Photo by Tico Times of the slum Triángulo de la Solidaridad
with small child peeking from her home.

This excellent article, Costa Rica’s first slum tour offers visitors a different perspective on paradise, and tells about an organization, “Boy with a Ball,” that is helping to build community in the slums of San Jose and now offers tours of a major slum for tourists as a fund raiser and educational experience about community among the poor. Don’t miss the excellent video clip in it!

Poverty is everywhere including Costa Rica and like most places it is usually worse in the big city. It is also interesting to note that most of the CR poor are immigrants from Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador who came here for better work opportunities than in their home countries. This is not a Global Poverty, Child Mortality Fall Sharply, According to UN.

paradise for everyone, though most are doing better than they did in those neighbor countries. Many of the low-paid house maids are among these immigrants as are some gardeners. Good news is that

Costa Ricans are mostly better educated and have the better-paying jobs. With universal health care and free education through college, there is little excuse for many Tico citizens to live in deep poverty. Immigrants on the other hand have many reasons for living in poverty. I think the fact that most Costa Ricans are very religious, have high moral standards, party a lot and are the happiest people in the world also helps! 🙂 Yet an article in this same newspaper, Tico Times, said in 2014 that nearly a quarter of Costa Ricans live in poverty.   Another 2014 article said Poverty programs enjoy success but jobs would be better. So – poverty continues to be a problem everywhere and there is no easy solution so far beyond us as individuals following the teachings of Jesus as we relate to the poor. And then, maybe that is the solution. 🙂

–

Tomorrow, Wednesday, 9 July, I will be on a 12 to 14 hour trip to Nicaragua to renew my visa and may not be doing a post tomorrow night! The last “visa run” trip like this left me beyond exhausted. A local tour driver takes a van load of us on this trip every 3 or 4 months. I can live here now without a visa but cannot drive a car or even get a rent car. Like to keep my options open! Once I’m an official resident, I’ll get a CR Driver License. 

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Sidewalk Flowers in Atenas

This Bougainvillea is in Roca Verde where I begin my walks. Most other photos are in Atenas Central.
Except for church yard, all flowers are in front yards of local homes, small and large. All homes have flowers!
And this is just a small sample of what I see every day!

Atenas, Costa Rica

Atenas, Costa Rica

Atenas, Costa Rica
Atenas, Costa Rica

Atenas, Costa Rica
Atenas, Costa Rica
Atenas, Costa Rica
Atenas, Costa Rica

Atenas, Costa Rica
Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out-values all the utilities of the world.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Another New Butterfly!

And it is not in any of my books nor can I find it online for identification. Shot in living room.

How can anything this distinctive not be in any of the books?
For now, it remains an Unknown beauty!
On my Living Room window screen.
Atenas, Costa Rica
Whether butterfly or moth, this dude is cool looking!
I’m having this image printed to hang in my house here in Atenas, Costa Rica.

My new gallery now has 20 species in it: Costa Rica Butterflies by Charlie Doggett

And by the way, my “Birthday Breakfast” with Anthony at Kay’s Gringo Postres was great with a yummy omelet, biscuits and gravy, and a fabulous piece of Karo Pecan Pie just like Mother made! It is a place to get American food by a Texas couple. And the only place I know with real bacon!