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The return flight was from Palmar Sur, the closest airport to hotel but it has no ground crew, thus the co-pilot has to do everything from wheel blocks to loading luggage! 🙂 But Palmar Sur does have a new terminal building as does Drake Bay that we stopped in on the way back to San Jose and Drake Bay does have a ground crew! 🙂 I just love the sights from these short flights across Costa Rica. Below are 7 favorite shots from my return flight to San Jose . . .
There have been 3 nice sunsets in a row now with the rain subsiding. This is the Dec.25 Sunset and early tomorrow I head back home in Atenas with an interesting flight from Palmar Sur to Drake Bay and then on to San Jose with lots of photo-ops! 🙂
I will be sharing more photos from this Uvita visit over the next few days. There is so much photography inspiration in the rainforest! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Today I took the “Whale-watching Tour,” 4 hours on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with 4 other tourists, all from Germany, and we saw much more than a whale which we only saw during our last hour. Later I will post about the natural arches, birds on Whale Rock Island, snorkeling, and other things we did or saw – just the dolphins and the whale today with 3 photos of each. Note that whales come up for air only every 10 to 15 minutes and stay up for only 3 or 4 seconds and one doesn’t know where they will come up! 🙂 Almost impossible to photograph! 🙂 Below whale shots are me barely catching the tail as it goes back under water – same whale, 3 different times. Fortunately, Dolphins stay on the surface longer! 🙂
“Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.”
– Sarah Kay
NOTE: We saw most of our whales somewhere near this rock which they seem to like! The name is because of their presence and not its shape. Here every July-October.
I just keep loving this country more every day! 🙂
And I’m way behind on reporting events and photos from this trip with Tuesday at the hotel experiencing and photographing a moving sloth, 4 crested guans, a flock of toucans and other birds followed by today’s mangrove boat trip on the Rio Sierpe with an unbelievable collection of photos I’m still sorting. Another great day in paradise with a birding guide tomorrow on the hotel property and Friday the Nauyaca Waterfall. Never a dull moment when you are “Retired in Costa Rica!”
¡Pura Vida!
And continued thanks to Cristal Ballena Hotel for making all of these exciting tours possible! A great place to stay when in Uvita!
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
With rain and clouds every afternoon and early evening we haven’t had much of a sunset this week but tonight was a good teaser!
“A sunset is the sun’s fiery kiss to the night.”
―
I was so busy photographing birds off my terrace and the above sunset that I haven’t had time to present the other shots from Whale Watching – but will eventually! 🙂 See more of my sunset photos in my VISTAS, BEACHES, SUNRISES, SUNSETS Photo Gallery.
Good Night from Cristal Ballena
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
¡Pura Vida!
WHALES! The magic of seeing them and the difficulty of photographing! I spent 4 hours on the ocean this morning trying to do that. Not easy, but a real rush and satisfaction. None of our whales today jumped out of the water like you see in the classic photo and we were told that it doesn’t happen very often. In fact they even have some days when no whales are seen, so we were lucky to see 5 or more!
Our guide said all of these are humpback whales, though they looked like two different species to me, but maybe some are juveniles which are often different in many other species.
And we had 4 “species” of people on our boat! A group from Argentina, another group from Chili, a family from Costa Rica, and one little old man American who now lives in Costa Rica. Guess which language was spoken on this tour! 🙂
I’ll do another post tomorrow with scenery, boats, swimming and other information, but these photos are just a few of my whale photos – my reason for being here. CLICK IMAGE TO SEE LARGER.
The full size versions of these photos are in my Trip Gallery for 2019 Cristal Ballena, Uvita, sub-gallery Whales. I’m developing this trip gallery day by day during the trip. And read about my hotel at their site: Cristal Ballena Hotel.
As a matter of information, all these whales are from the south, along the Pacific coast of South America and possibly from Antarctic. They come here every July-October for the warm waters and to calve their babies. Then in December to March we have whales coming from the Pacific coast of the States and Canada and as far north as Alaska and the Arctic and Russia. But we don’t get as many of these in Costa Rica because some go to Hawaii.
Ships are expendable; the whales are not.
~Paul Watson
¡Pura Vida!
This trip gallery: 2019-September 13-21–Cristal Ballena, Uvita
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| Dog on Porch Roof, Tarcoles, Costa Rica |
Tarcoles Village is where the Tarcoles River goes into the Pacific Ocean near Jaco and Carara National Park. It is where I have taken four boat trips on the river including the one today. It is where we got our good photos of Scarlet Macaws yesterday morning before going into the park where they are even more difficult to photograph. (Sharing those photos in tomorrow’s post.) And it is just a typical Tico small town, quiet, lazy, hot, and humid with sights like above and below before you get on your boat for the cruise.
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| A boy brings in part of the morning catch at 8:30. You can buy fresh fish along the road. |
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| He caught those fish in a boat like this. |
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| Then repair the nets for tomorrow’s catch. |
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| The main road through Tarcoles. |
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| And the only sign seen more than Coca Cola, Costa Rica’s own, locally made, Imperial Beer. |
For you Nashville readers, Kevin Hunter has ridden through this village with me for our birding/croc cruise. I came here two mornings on this trip; Friday for Macaw photos and Saturday for photos of other birds from a private boat. Someday I will just come and photograph the village.