“TRANQUILO” – My Favorite Spanish Word!

Tranquilo calm, quiet, peaceful, relaxed, laid-back, unfazed – are some of the English words the online Spanish Dictionary (spanishdict.com) lists as equivalents.

Above: Tranquilo Sunrise at Macaw Lodge, Carara NP
Feature photo at top: Tranquilo Sunset on Calle Barroeta, Atenas

At first I wrote a lengthy essay on my need for “tranquilo” and how it has changed me, then decided it was “too much.” 🙂 So I’ll just let the photos speak for . . .

A “TRANQUILO” life of “Retired in Costa Rica.”

¡Pura Vida!

Blog, Website, Gallery, Bookstore

Or Just the Photos

🙂

Banded Skipper?

This is a “general ID” with the book having a full page of different banded skippers, but none show the orange on tail like mine and none with 6 or 7 spots on outer wings like mine, but otherwise matching several of the “Banded Skippers.” See my other photos of this same butterfly in my Banded Skipper Gallery, all from my garden. None of the online sites I studied help me. There are so many species of butterflies in Costa Rica that it could even be one not officially identified or labeled yet. 🙂

Banded Skipper? – Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Banded Skipper? – Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

See my Banded Skipper Gallery for more shots of this butterfly.

Or see all of my CR Butterflies Galleries.

¡Pura Vida!

Flowers! – what more could I ask?

When I walk through my garden of by others in the neighborhood, I think of Victor Hugo’s statement in Les Misérables . . .

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”

― Victor Hugo

Torch Ginger or El bastón de emperador, My Garden contrasting dead and vibrant one.

See my little Gallery of Saturday’s walk among the flowers, 8 in my garden and 3 from the neighborhood . . .

Continue reading “Flowers! – what more could I ask?”

Pre-Rain Walk

It was cloudy before the rain (better for my radiation-damaged skin) but I could see, hear and smell the rain coming. Soon after I was back from my “Country Lane” Walk, our afternoon shower started which has become regular now, meaning that the rainy season has really started, after severa false-starts. 🙂 The above feature photo is from my terrace with rain in the hills behind Atenas Centro and soon it came all over. I never tire of trying to make a photo of those hills which are never the same. This one is a 4-shot panorama.

One of my favorite shots from the walk . . .

Cacti along the entry wall of Hotel Colinas Del Sol.

And four more shots from the walk + . . .

Continue reading “Pre-Rain Walk”

El Camino de Costa Rica – New Info

A Hiker Guide

One of my blog readers, Patrick, who is thinking about beginning his retirement in Costa Rica (like I should have!) shared with me the just-released new hiking guide available on hiking coast to coast across Costa Rica. It’s first on his agenda here! Are you interested in such a hike?

Available on Amazon as paperback or Kindle edition: El Camino de Costa Rica Hiker Guide

There’s also a newer video of the trail than the one I showed earlier plus more new info on the website and I found a good “Make the Leap” story I’m also linking! 🙂 . . .

Continue reading “El Camino de Costa Rica – New Info”

Have You Ever Watched a Campfire?

Have you ever watched a campfire
When the wood has fallen low
And the ashes start to whiten
‘Neath the embers crimson glow

With the night sounds all around you
Making silence doubly sweet
And the full moon high above you
Just to make the spell complete

Tell me were you ever nearer
To the land of hearts desire
Than when you sat there dreaming
With your friends around the fire?

Author Unknown
Montgomery Bell State Park July 2003
Continue reading “Have You Ever Watched a Campfire?”

El Silencio – GALLERY 2

The “Trip Gallery” for last week’s 4 nights at El Silencio Lodge & Reserve in Bajos del Toro, Alajuela, Costa Rica is now completed and ready to visit by clicking the image below or this web address with many photos not yet shared on the blog:

https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2021-02-15-20-El-Silencio-Lodge

And because I was there just 6 months ago, last September, and was not having a knee problem, I have even more photos in THAT FIRST TRIP GALLERY, especially more waterfalls! 🙂 Just click the gallery title below to see it . . .

2020 September 14-19 — El Silencio Lodge & Reserve

The joy of being “Retired in Costa Rica!”

¡Pura Vida!

Base Jump Highest Bridge?

You must be crazy, very young (or both?) or maybe a professional base jumper? It just so happens that the highest railroad bridge in Costa Rica is over the Rio Grande River right here in my adopted hometown of Atenas, Alajuela Province. But no trains have gone over it for many years and it is not considered safe and so difficult to get to, I don’t even have a photo of it. It would require me to illegally walk down a busy freeway and onto the freeway bridge over the river to get this old picture, which is from Tico Times online newspaper and very old since it shows a train going over the bridge! 🙂 Some people now walk over the RR Bridge but not me! 🙂

Read all about the crazy American who jumped off this bridge with a parachute and then got lost trying to find his way out of the canyon. Hmmmm. 🙂 In this Tico Times Article in English which includes a video of the guy jumping off which I also include in my continued post:

Continue reading “Base Jump Highest Bridge?”