Category: Travel

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Select U.S. tourists start September 1 . . .

Here’s the details in a TicoTimes.net article: Costa Rica to allow U.S. tourists starting in September.

Congratulations to you in the New England States (New York north) for ignoring Trump, maintaining shut-downs and requiring masks! Because you are considered “safer” now Costa Rica will allow you to visit as a tourist following strict guidelines including a health insurance policy, a negative test and wearing of a mask. Check online or with your airlines for the requirements, also in an earlier TicoTimes article I linked . Welcome to paradise New England residents! And thanks to Steve & Lucy in New Hampshire for alerting me! Hope to see you soon! 🙂

For the rest of you Americans to see what you are missing, check out my photo gallery called:

Charlie Doggett’s Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Costa Rica Coronavirus Treatment & Tourism Restarts

Read this interesting health new article in English explaining how Costa Rican scientists developed drug that stops the coronavirus. (article from qcostarica.com) It has been verified effective by George Washington University in the States and is undergoing trials here now. A vaccine is still needed for prevention, but this treatment will help prevent many deaths. Again Costa Rica leads the way!

Costa Rica coronavirus updates for Monday, August 3, article in TicoTimes.net. Not good, but we still had our first flight here from out of the country after 173 days of no flights. Those who come from only Europe, UK and Canada have very strict requirements related to Coronavirus to enter the country. Read more at:

Immigration Administration clarifies new Costa Rica entry policies, article in TicoTimes.net. And if you think you have a work-around by flying to Canada first, don’t! Because your passport tells where you live and if you go to another accepted country first, they will require you to stay in that country 14 days before coming on to Costa Rica. 🙂

Watch: Iberia plane receives water-cannon salute as commercial flights resume in Costa Rica, article in TicoTimes.net with video. The first tourist flight here since March is celebrated in multiple ways, but these tourists from Spain have a lot of Coronavirus health requirements to meet to continue their visit here, including a stay in quarantine if not already officially tested for the virus before arriving. Results of tests are usually in less than a day, depending on various factors. Read previous article for all the requirements. Even if from a “qualified” country, you have to really want to be here to “jump through all the hoops.” 🙂

I’m glad that as a resident I can visit any tourist spot open with only the requirement of a mask. But with an abundance of caution, I go nowhere else until the middle of September on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica in one of my favorite beach hotels, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. 🙂

U.S. repatriation flights to & from Costa Rica will continue in August, TicoTime.net. This is for both directions, U.S. citizens “trapped” here can fly to Fort Lauderdale and Costa Rican citizens (not expat residents like me) can fly back to Costa Rica only to the San Jose airport and will be placed in quarantine for 14 days and verified virus-free.

TMI? One friend in the states likes to say that to me when I give “Too Much Information!” But this is only for those interested or needing the information. Plus all of this is a part of “The Year to Remember – 2020!”

¡Pura Vida!

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Virgen Rainforest Paradise

This morning I leave at 8 AM with Walter, my local transportation for out-of-Atenas trips, on a 3 hour drive north of here but still in our Alajuela Province. It’s on the San Carlos River near the Nicaragua border as a private nature reserve and eco-lodge that is one of my favorites in Costa Rica, where I’ve photographed more species of birds than any other one place and where I can sleep in a tree house room, watching howler monkeys and spider monkeys from my room. See my 2019 experience there and this short video of the virgen rainforest reserve says it all:

My Paradise Rainforest this week!

I will be here through next Monday – 6 nights in the tree house to celebrate my 80th birthday on Saturday the 4th of July! And, as long as the WiFi in their main building works, I will be posting blog reports every day! Maybe one tonight.

Because of world-wide increasing Coronavirus, the borders of Costa Rica remain closed to non-residents where we have the lowest infection rate in Latin America! But hotels, lodges like this one, and restaurants can open at 50% capacity to local residents only with required social distancing and masks, making places like this more pleasant (no “Ugly Americans” or “aggressive Japanese”) and less crowded. Two weeks ago they told me that in addition to me they had two couples coming for part of the week with me alone the other days, though that could change with late registrations! 🙂 Many Ticos are just now discovering the great tourism in their own country.

I will wear a mask when not eating and around other people, including my birding guide just to be extra cautious. I will not take their delightful boat trip to a little jungle village with great people that I enjoyed but will avoid this time due to COVID19 possibilities. I will mostly traipse through the jungle solo and stay safe from the virus. There have been NO CASES among the lodge employees (mainly one family) nor in the nearby town of Boca Tapada. But I will still be cautious because it is close to Nicaragua where the virus is more rampant and we are still getting new cases in Costa Rica.

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.” – A.A. Milne

My BIG BOOTS Adventure . . .

Yep! I’m taking my big boots this trip because I’m going in a car and can! 🙂 Plus they fit me and the lodge loaners don’t always fit . . . and I’ll be in a rainforest during the rainy season so they are needed! And my poncho!

I know . . . the boots are dusty, but why clean when they will get muddy this week! Plus I had to empty out the spiders and spray with that bug spray before I consider putting my hand or foot inside! 🙂

“Adventure is worthwhile.” – Aesop

¡Pura Vida!

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Nature as Art – Up Close

Today I spent some time in the garden trying to be Georgia O’Keeffe with her oversize flowers, curves and colorful shapes in leaves, mountains or whatever she painted. I love her work! Here’s 10 of about 100 photos I made today in the garden.

It was also a “practice” for next week when I will be at Maquenque Lodge, not only photographing lots of birds, but hopefully some “Nature as Art” photos of many other natural creations in that beautiful wilderness setting, partly from my tree-house room!  🙂   Click an image to enlarge it or start manual slideshow.

Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.

~Marcus Tullius Cicero
See my Flora & Forest Costa Rica gallery for more of this type of “art.”
Or for some of my old Tennessee “Nature a Art” Photos, another gallery with images sized as I sold them in arts & crafts fairs in the 2010’s.
¡Pura Vida!
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Why time seems to be going faster while we are in lockdown

Have your days seemed pass slower or be longer and then your weeks and months passing faster? It is an interesting psychological phenomenon you can read about on BBC at this link:  Why time seems to be going faster while we are in lockdown 

Or if you are one of those weird Americans who prefers to read American publications, try this one in the LA Times:  Is time flying by oddly quickly during COVID-19? Here’s why you may feel that way

CLOCKS

Now . . . back to the future in Costa Rica!   🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Some time ago I canceled my cable TV subscription and used the money for stronger internet service through which I occasionally watch a documentary or older movie from the Costa Rica version of Netflix (fewer titles than in the U.S.). Tonight (Wednesday) during my dinner of a pulled pork sandwich and cole slaw from Atenas Poco Loco (“To Go” or “Para llevar” here), I watched the BBC/Netflix movie The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, based of course on the book by the same title available from Amazon.com Books. I was so touched by the movie that I felt compelled to recommend it or the book written by the boy himself as a now adult engineer.

Having lived in The Gambia West Africa for three years, I of course related to almost everything in this excellent true story of a 14 year old boy in Malawi who had to drop out of school and help the family farm because they could not afford the school fees. In the midst of a common African drought the boy sneaked into his old school library and learned about windmills and thanks to his old science teacher’s device to generate electricity with the moving bike wheel he adapted it to a homemade windmill that generated enough electricity for a small pump to pump water from the well and irrigate the drought-stricken farm. I saw the life-changing effects of windmills in The Gambia too.

A moving family story with authentic African culture, scenery, and hardships. When I returned from The Gambia I often said that every American should live for 3 years in Africa to see what the real world is like. Well, this movie or book will give you a taste! I highly recommend it.

“Extreme poverty anywhere is a threat to human security everywhere.”

— Kofi Annan

¡Pura Vida!

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Car in Ditch

My rent house is on the side of a hill above a residential street inside the Roca Verde development. I can look down through the trees and other plants to the street if I wish – not my favorite view!   🙂

A week or so ago I heard a crash below me and a car driven by one of my Tico neighbors had gone into the concrete ditch made for rainwater going down the hill. No curb or barrier or guardrail along the rainwater ditch. Here’s 3 shots on my cellphone of the guy in the ditch, the flatbed truck preparing to pull him out and the guys helping the truck by pushing on the car (which they always do here!). The car was all scratched up and probably had some wheel, axle or alignment problems, but he drove away it away without needing the big truck to take him into a shop. Pura vida!   🙂

Daily I thank God for not owning a car!   🙂

 

“Walking is the only form of transportation in which a man proceeds erect – like a man – on his own legs, under his own power. There is immense satisfaction in that.”
― Edward Abbey

¡Pura Vida!

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The BIG BOOK!

Finally –  “the big book” – what I’ve been planning for nearly 6 years!  Almost all the birds I’ve photographed since moving to Costa Rica in 2014. I haven’t finished photographing birds here, and next month at Maquenque Lodge I could easily get a photo I will regret is not in this book! But why not do it now, with the Coronavirus Down Time providing time to create and the year of my 80th birthday as a celebration excuse!   🙂  If I keep putting it off, there won’t be a book! And this one is so much bigger and better than my recent Roca Verde Birds book which was just birds in my yard!

Here’s the bookstore official description:

Click cover for preview. Best at full screen!

About the Book
Eighty-year-old retiree from Tennessee, Charlie Doggett, has lived in and explored the rainforests and cloud forests of Costa Rica for 6 years, sharing photos and experiences in his “Retired in Costa Rica” BLOG. This book has 420 bird photos from his blog – more than 300 species of birds, named in both English and Spanish with a complete English-names INDEX. At 230 photo pages, 10 X 8 inches, it’s a great gift or coffee table book about Costa Rica, printed on 100# Premium Lustre Gloss Photo Paper.

Available in a hardcover edition or a PDF electronic version. You can PREVIEW the book electronically for free at: https://www.blurb.com/b/10150063-pura-vida-birds

Check out what I’ve been doing for the last 5+ years!   🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Clouds

So, I’m photographing clouds and not even from an airplane!   🙂   The photo is from my terrace at breakfast like so many! And for more BIG SKY photos, see my gallery:  VISTAS, BEACHES, SUNRISES, SUNSETS COSTA RICA

Since Costa Rica is open for local only tourism now (and I’m local!), I thought I would reschedule that April trip to San Gerardo de Dota for the next week or two. I’m ready to go photograph some new birds and without foreigners I’m less likely to encounter the virus! So I may not wait until the July trip, though so far I’m unable to contact the right person at the Savegre Lodge with their website and email down on Friday and the guy I got on the phone was obviously not a reservations employee and had trouble understanding my bad Spanish, so I will try again this week. Like much of the world, a lot of Costa Rica is simply shut down!  I’ll just have to enjoy the clouds!    🙂    Maybe I’ll see a bird there!

“If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations.“

-Charles M. Schulz

 

¡Pura Vida!

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World Turtle Day

Whether you are thinking of one of the ocean giants or a common river turtle, today is the day to remember the fragility of our decreasing turtle population and to do your part in the conservation of turtles!  Read more about WORLD TURTLE DAY and consider getting involved.    Https://www.worldturtleday.org/

The feature photo is a baby Olive Ridley Turtle I released Christmas 2017 in Tambor Bay. Read more about their program at Tambor Turtle Rescue. Costa Rica has the protected birthing beaches of thousands of ocean turtles every year. Did you know that . . .

Five species of sea turtles and eight species of freshwater turtles have been recorded in Costa Rica. All sea turtles are endangered and two of the freshwater species populations have been reduced, mainly due to poaching, being caught as pets, illegal trade, and the destruction and pollution of their habitats.   ~Freshwater Turtles of Costa Rica & Sea Turtles of Costa Rica, an NHBS Field Guide available online. 

See also my Costa Rica Turtles Gallery for more photos of turtles here.

Today, May 23, 2020

WORLD TURTLE DAY

¡Pura Vida!

And 2 days later I find and add the short video Nashville Zoo Celebrates Turtle Day  which is cute and mostly for children.