Well, we had a real sunset tonight, so that will be a separate post a little later. Here’s the representatives of daytime today . . .
Later tonight I will have some sunset photos to share.
¡Pura Vida!
A Bird, A Bug & A Bouquet
Second Day Report
I woke up to rain this morning which continued until after breakfast when it cleared off and was mostly a hot, sunny day as you can expect some of the time on the coast. 🙂 The below photo is what the ocean view looked like just AFTER breakfast. All afternoon I hoped for a clear skies sunset but around 4pm the clouds and rain starting moving in. Below this ocean image is a gallery with a couple of birds (12 species today!), one butterfly and one tree from a wonderful walk in the rainforest this morning plus my effort at a sunset photo again this evening in the rain. 🙂
A Cloudy-Rainy Start
When I got here about 11 this morning it was cloudy and lightly raining and it stayed that way all day as you can see in the photos below, but at sunset I managed to capture a little bit of light through the clouds and by saturating the color in the photo it almost looks like a sunset! 🙂
My Christmas Treat
Tomorrow morning early I fly Sansa south to the Palmar Sur Airport south of Uvita and then back north by car to Uvita where I’m doing a repeat visit to the Hotel Cristal Ballena (Hotel site link) on a hill overlooking Uvita’s Whale-watching bay on the Pacific Coast (feature photo & one below). I will not be quite as active as I was on my last trip there: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita (link to my trip gallery). The photos from then will show you what a wonderful place it is to just hang out at the hotel and hike in their private rainforest not to mention all the nearby sights! December-February is the time for Humpback Whales from South America to be there, so I might get to see & photo one! 🙂
And here’s just two of the wildlife I photographed from my room terrace last time . . .
Continue reading “My Christmas Treat”Of the Marvelous – Trip Book
Sorry there were two posts yesterday, the old man gets flustered on the computer sometimes and makes mistakes! I intended for one of those today and this one for tomorrow, but here it is anyway! 🙂
I think this is one of my best books yet on travels around Costa Rica, this one about my week in Uvita on the southern Pacific Coast, whale-watching, many birds and other wildlife, sunsets, a river trip and visiting one of the most beautiful waterfalls I’ve seen yet in Costa Rica, Nauyaca Waterfall, my 27th waterfall to photograph here!
You may see or “Review” every page of the book electronically for free without having to order. Enjoy another one of my tropical adventures in Costa Rica! ~Charlie
The book: https://www.blurb.com/b/9678019-of-the-marvelous
Or click the book cover image:
“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.”
~Aristotle
And for even more photos see my “Trip Gallery” 2019 Cristal Ballena, Uvita
¡Pura Vida!
Hotel Grounds – Cristal Ballena
Included are shots from their “Rainforest Trail” which is a fairly dense forest with a lot of old growth big trees which is refreshing but difficult to photograph birds in because of all the limbs and leaves! 🙂
I did not show my room this time but the rooms are on the hill just above the restaurant and pool seen at top of feature photo above or in the pool photo below at upper left. Rooms 10-14 look directly over the ocean and sunsets, while other rooms like mine have garden views with partial ocean views. (My room views are seen in gallery Day Vistas.) I got more birds from my garden view but the premium rooms have better sunset views (cost more) and with clouds & rain every afternoon in rainy season there is not much sunset to see. See the hotel website for more information at https://www.cristal-ballena.com/
Cristal Ballena Hotel, Uvita
CLICK Image to Enlarge
“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more”
―
For more photos see my Cristal Ballena Trip Gallery
¡Pura Vida!
Vistas
And into the forest I go to lose my mind and find my soul.
~John Muir
Day Vistas
Sunset Vistas
All from a week at Cristal Ballena Hotel, Uvita
See also my Ballena Trip Gallery for ocean & river vistas.
Bonus Article
From the “Live in Costa Rica Blog” — What is the best way to do one’s due diligence for retiring or living in Costa Rica?
¡Pura Vida!
Fruits & Flowers
Just a few of the beautiful fruits and flowers blooming all over the hotel grounds at Cristal Ballena Hotel with 2 shots made on the river trip in same area.
“Almost every person, from childhood, has been touched by the untamed beauty of wildflowers.” ~Lady Bird Johnson
¡Pura Vida!
For more area photos, see my Trip Gallery:
2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
OR for more Costa Rica Flowers see my gallery:
Butterflies – Cristal Ballena
Though butterfly season is past its prime, there were quite a few at the Cristal Ballena Hotel in Uvita last week. Here’s some I was able to capture photos of (many I couldn’t).
“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
~Nathaniel Hawthorne
¡Pura Vida!
See my Butterflies Gallery and
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
Birds at Cristal Ballena
Here are photos of 20 species of birds I photographed around the grounds of Cristal Ballena Hotel, about a third of them just outside my room! It is a good birding hotel! I actually photographed more species here than on the Mangrove Boat Tour! 🙂 And I will record all of them on my eBird page, even though I got no new species this trip – but I did get several better photos of some species which is always another goal! Enjoy and as always CLICK image to enlarge or start a slideshow.
Cristal Ballena Hotel BIRDS
See my BIRDS Photo Gallery and
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
“Some birds are poets and sing all summer.”
~Henry David Thoreau
¡Pura Vida!