Category: Places

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Giant Swallowtail Butterfly

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly (Underneath View), Atenas, Costa Rica

This is similar to the Thoas Swallowtail, but I’m voting on Giant Swallowtail since Thoas is supposedly found mostly in the wet Caribbean and South Pacific. We are finally getting rain here today after much of the week without rain, even though it is “Rainy Season!” I don’t have to water when it rains!   🙂   If you want to live in a garden, you have to tend it!

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Atenas, Costa Rica   (Cool hair-do, huh?)

Yellow-bellied Elaenia,  Atenas, Costa Rica
Both shots from my breakfast table on the balcony

For the birders seeing this, I studied dozens of photos of both the Yellow-bellied Elaenia and the Dusky-capped Flycatcher before I determined this identification. I’m satisfied but never positive about my identification of birds, especially these grayish tan ones! The breast is much more yellow than these two photos show, which is a factor. He would not face me!

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Costa Rica Bumble Bee

Bumble Bee, Atenas, Costa Rica
Found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere but do occur in South America
Technically, I’m still in the Northern Hemisphere at Latitude 9.98 in Atenas  🙂
We are less than 10 degrees above the equator.

Bumble Bee going for the deep nectar! Atenas, Costa Rica

Bumble Bee approaching another flower in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

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Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird

Wow! It is very difficult to get good photos of fast-moving birds! I have no special equipment, just hand-held SLR with 300 mm lens. These have been cropped to about 1/4 the original size to see bird or zoom in on it more. A closer zoom is grainy.

Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird
Atenas, Costa Rica


Fork-tailed Emerald Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica

Note that I see hummingbirds every day in my garden but the moment I walk out the door they usually fly away. I don’t need feeders. They love the flowers! But they don’t stay still for photos!

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Green Orchid Bee

Green Orchid Bee, Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett
Another “fruit” of my garden!

Green Orchid Bee, Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett
Note: This bee lives only in tropical Central and South America

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This is the way. Walk in it.

LifeWay VBS 2015 Theme Journey Off the Map, and yep! Parts of Costa Rica look like this!
Remember, Jurassic Park was here! Some thought of Costa Rica with Avatar, but there are no blue people here! 🙂

I just read about the jungle theme “Journey Off the Map” and focus verse of Vacation Bible School at my church back in Nashville. I love it! It is where I have been and where I am now both physically and spiritually:

Isaiah 30:21, “And whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: ‘This is the way. Walk in it.'” 

I taught in Vacation Bible School this time last year at First Baptist Nashville and learned then this would be the theme and verse. I liked it. Soon afterwards I wrote a poem based partly on this Bible verse:  “Metaphors of Modification” which was one of the early posts on this blog. I’ll let you click the link to read it if you wish. It was back when I was still dreaming, before even the relocation tour.

I have felt at peace ever since about my “Costa Rica Decision Process,” the first title of this blog, and at peace about the final decision I made in September, and all that has happened since then.“This is the way. Walk in it.” (And I understand that the spiritual meaning of this is not specifically about my move. I hope to write more about the verse later, because in some ways it is another “life verse” for me.) I will miss teaching in VBS this year and especially the theme. If you are one of the good guys who helps in VBS, think of me down here in Costa Rica!  🙂

ADDENDUM: WORSHIP WITH FIRST BAPTIST NASHVILLE ONLINE TODAY

When I was in the apartments the first four months, I was walking to the nearby little non-denominational evangelical church most Sundays and the two times I tried the “streaming worship service” from First Baptist Nashville, my connection was not good enough to get more than little hiccups of video. With my new and better internet connection in this house I discovered today that it works very well here! I’m thankful for many reasons! The local worship in Spanish is not always working for me and Pastor Frank started a new sermon series on “Mile Markers of Life” today. I’m looking forward to his messages and thank Bill Latham for sharing them on Facebook.

But the biggest surprise today was that the flower arrangement in the Nashville church looks like it could have come right out of my Costa Rica garden, with Heliconia and Red Ginger dominating the arrangement! Both are blooming in my garden every day! Maybe they chose it for the exotic VBS theme! VBS starts there tomorrow. Here’s the two dominate flowers in their arrangement:

Heliconia in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica
Red Ginger in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Both of the above two flowers in my garden were a part of the flower arrangement at First Baptist Nashville today as I saw them on the computer screen in a streaming of their worship service.

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Metalmark Butterfly

One of the many Metalmark Butterflies, I’m pretty sure. No positive ID.
Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett
Metalmark Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett

My private gardener team came and did some good work yesterday. I’ve retained them for once or twice a month maintenance of garden and trees. (The ones who installed my garden.) The property gardener does a lot but works for about five or so properties doing mainly the big maintenance, weed-eating, etc. Most people here get a maid, I get a gardener!  🙂   Maybe a maid later. Still emptying boxes now.

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Wanna see my baby pictures?

Baby Howler Monkey & Mom at Hacienda La Jacaranda, Atenas, Costa Rica.
Photo by Charlie
“Come on Mom! Let’s go!” White-faced Capuchin Monkey
Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica – Photo by Charlie
And another White-faced Capuchin Monkey Baby on Mom’s back.
Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica – Photo by Charlie
Yep! It’s a baby! Green Parrot Snake
Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica – Photo by Charlie
And – incredibly- with my cell phone through the guide’s spotting scope.
Baby (youngster with Mom just below him on tree stump) Stripped Iguana
Tarcoles River, Costa Rica – Photo by Charlie

Now look at these professional photographer’s shots of “Costa Rica’s Most Adorable Baby Animals.”

Look at little kids and wild animals, these are two groups of things that whenever I’m with them forces me to be in the moment.
–Dominic Monaghan

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Mowing the Grass in Hilly Atenas

Javier mowing the hill behind my house. All mowing is done by weed-eaters.
Only in Central Atenas are there flat lots where a regular lawnmower might work.

I close the doors to avoid flying debris. I am feeling a little better, so virus med & diet is working.

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Tico Love Affair with Limons & Mayonaise!

Limon mandarinas is the full or official name. They are neither lemon nor lime.
They are the green things in the middle that look like limes,
though tree-ripened ones can be almost orange in color. Sold in bags of 12!

They are squeezed on everything from salads to your favorite meat, yet I am yet to see them made into a drink. A wedge of one is stuck on or in the glass of some drinks in bars and restaurants. I no longer use any kind of salad dressing, but just cut up a limon and squeeze it over my salad with some herbs. Delicious! You can read more about them online. But another surprise about Ticos is their love affair with Mayonaise!

More varieties of Mayonnaise than any other condiment at Coopeatenas!
And an even larger variety at Walmart! But the unquestionable favorite is
Mayonnaise con Limon!

Yep, in that photo everything to the right of the brown bottles is mayonnaise! And the brown bottles are another Tico favorite, Salsa Lizano! It is particularly loved on Gallo Pintos (special beans and rice dish) eaten most often at breakfast with eggs. It is somewhere between Worcestershire Sauce and a vinegary steak sauce. More about food here later!