Category: Places

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Guarumo Cecropia Tree in Symbiotic Relationship with Ants

Guarumo Cecropia tree in my front yard

Guarumo leaves are some of the most interesting in the tropics.

When my personal gardener told me the Guarumo tree would attract Toucans with the seeds, I told him I wanted one! And I have it! It grows naturally only in Central America and is one of several kinds of Cecropia trees. I panicked this week when I saw a stream of tiny ants crawling up and down the trunk of the tree and called Cristian for help! He stopped by after another job today and explained that this ant is the friend of this tree. They help each other in a symbiotic relationship, providing food and housing for the ants who in turn protect the tree from leaf-eating predators. It was also used by Amerindians for medicinal purposes and is now used by pharmaceutical companies.

All of the cecropia trees are the favorite food of sloths, so you most often see photos of sloths in large cecropia trees, but not usually the Guarumo though. Mine will have to be a lot larger to hold either a toucan or sloth! Right now it is just a special kind of symbiotic ants! It not only looks cool, but is a great lesson in working together with smaller, sometimes hated creatures!

A sustainable world means working together to create prosperity for all.
~Jacqueline Novogratz

And by the way, I just this moment realized that today is my 6 month anniversary in Costa Rica! I moved here December 24, 2014. I’m glad I came! Maybe I will eventually figure out a symbiotic relationship with Costa Rica.  🙂

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Movie Adventure & Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica

Photographed this little guy before breakfast this morning when I walked out and saw two hummingbirds flying in and out of my garden. I try shooting them in flight but very difficult! And as good fortune continues to smile on me, this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird landed on a flower. I guess they do have to rest occasionally! This is my 5th species of hummers to photograph in my garden, almost as many as the butterflies. I have a total of 13 species photographed in my Costa Rica Hummingbirds Gallery.  This milestone was before breakfast and my movie adventure today.

MOVIE ADVENTURE
One of my neighbors, Anthony, is a single artist my age renting a house in the next compound. He and I got a taxi a little before 10 AM to go to the bus station without the sweat of walking there ($1 each). We took the 10:30 freeway bus that makes a stop by the Mall in Escazu ($2 each). We first bought our tickets from the computer kiosk with touch screen that didn’t always work, but finally got it to. Then we ate lunch at the American chain restaurant Chili’s next door to the theater. Same menu as in the states. 
We could have seen Jurassic Park for $8 but chose to go all the way with the 1:25 PM 3-D and DBOX, which is a special row of large, wide-aisle seats that moved and vibrated with some scenes in the movie. That was about $14.50 each. DBOX is not worth the extra cost, at least for this movie. Not as effective as the ones in Disney World. The movie is very well done but didn’t make good use of 3-D either, so really the $8 regular movie would have been just as good. And I hope this is the last in the Jurassic series, though they set up something at the end to help continue it. They are covering tired subjects and the story line is weak. But it was a good “first movie in Costa Rica” for me since the fictitious park is supposedly here (though filmed in Hawaii and Louisiana). 
I also learned today that there is an IMAX theater in San Jose and this would have been a good movie to see in it, though even more expensive. I will not go to theater movies as much here as I did in Nashville, but good to know how to do it and that the theater is as good or better than any I’ve seen in the states. All seats are nice, large, comfortable, and with drink holders. Good sound, screen, etc. 
Uneventful 25-minute taxi ride to “Coca Cola Bus Station” on the other side of San Jose in rush hour traffic for the only place to catch a return bus to Atenas (pricey $10 each!) and then our $2 each bus ride back to Atenas where we walked home before dark. An interesting day! And I meant to photograph the theater but forgot in all the busyness of doing it the first time in mostly Spanish. But movie was in English with Spanish subtitles. Whew! Big Day! We were home around 5:15. Tired.

And if you can’t add it up in your head, that is $15.50 each for all but lunch which was about $7.50 or $22 USD for the whole day. Not bad for being in Costa Rica! And it would have been less than $20 if we had been wise enough to choose the regular movie instead of 3-D DBOX.  🙂

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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