Category: Travel

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Cloudy Day Lake Vistas

Lake Arenal was the first first man-made lake built in Costa Rica to create electricity with a dam, famous for having covered the town of Arenal and its cemetery with water. The town’s residents moved to a “Nuevo Arenal” which is now called Castillo, where the Butterfly Conservancy is located. It is also a popular local fishing lake and is surrounded by tourist attractions, Arenal Volcano National Park (La Fortuna) on the east, Monteverde on the west and Tenorio National Park nearby along with Caño Negro and many lodges/hotels & hot springs. And yes, some expat retirees have built homes on the lake!  🙂

My earlier May trip to the Observatory Lodge was better for lake shots because the sun sets over the lake that time of year! No really good shots this time, but sort of what a lake looks like in cloudy and rainy weather.  🙂

Here’s 5 shots from this trip, two of which are multi-shot panoramas . . .

Lake Arenal, Costa Rica

 

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Limited Volcano Views This Trip

Though I always go to the lodge that is closest to the volcano (and surrounded by the most forest!), this trip Christmas week was the first time the volcano was covered in clouds most of the time. The only clear day, all day, was Christmas Day, with clouds and rain all the rest of that week! But with all the photos I’ve been sharing, you can see that the rain or clouds didn’t dampen my spirits too much!  🙂 Here are four different views of the volcano from four different locations including the one sun-shiny day shot!  🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Arenal Observatory Lodge Website

Or for what the volcano looks like this very moment:

Arenal Volcano Live Web-Cam

And note that the camera is mounted on the side of the lodge building just above my room 29 or my room deck, so basically the same view I got from my room or would now if there.  🙂

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Conservancy Butterflies

The Butterfly Conservancy in the village of Castillo on Lake Arenal near Arenal Observatory Lodge is very good with multiple greenhouses for the different butterfly habitats plus outside natural butterflies with all being native to Costa Rica. And for the history-lovers, this is the little town that was once called Nuevo Arenal after the lake was flooded to make electricity and covered the original town of Arenal.  🙂

I only got useable photos of 14 species with 15 photos here because the White-spotted Prepona is so different with folded wings and open wings. 🙂 And I will just start with him as the first two photos followed by 13 more:

Archaeoprepona amphimachus (above)

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Arenal Butterflies 2

Today I’ll just share 5 butterflies that I have only one view of and then even though I have another dozen or so from the lodge, they are not identified yet and and I’m behind on that ID work! So tomorrow I will start on the identified butterflies from the Costa Rica Butterfly Conservancy in Castillo on Lake Arenal, not far from the lodge and where a lot of lodge employees live.

¡Pura Vida!

And my Photo Galleries for these five species . . .

Arenal Observatory Lodge Website

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4 “Smaller” Birds at Arenal

With 4 birds in today’s post and 4 more tomorrow I will have shared all that I got useable photos of on the Christmas trip. And no, I got no “lifers” or first-time seen birds on this trip, but that is expected when you have photos of more than 359 species of birds in Costa Rica!  It’s getting harder to find a new species!  🙂

Chestnut-sided Warbler, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica

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5 “Medium-sized” Birds at Arenal

Trying to group birds by size is not real accurate, but now it leaves me with 4 “smaller” birds for tomorrow and 4 others for the next day!  🙂  Then I will get on to other wildlife and the many butterflies photographed at Arenal Observatory!

Buff-throated Saltator, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica

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The 5 BIG BIRDS this trip

Yes, you can sometimes see a hawk at Arenal Observatory, but I did not this time nor the two larger toucans, Keel-billed and Yellow-throated, which I have every other visit. But these 5 are still impressive birds and there’s six photos because the male and female of the Great Curassow are so different. I debated about putting the Collared Aracari here, since he’s the smaller toucan, but he seemed too big for the “medium birds” post that’s next.  🙂  And despite their bad reputations, both vultures are beautiful (when flying) and so important to the ecology of our lands!

As usual, one photo for the emailed notice with the others in the online post . . .

Crested Guan, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica

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