Tag: photos

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My TripAdvisor Reviews Read by 61,000+!

In case you didn’t know, I write reviews of places I visit on the TripAdvisor website. I think you can see all my reviews at: http://www.tripadvisor.com/members-reviews/29charlied  try it. The address is from my member page, so hope it works for the non-member. I have mixed emotions about TripAdvisor, which is good for some things but not all. I don’t recommend it as your main trip planning source. If a hotel, lodge, park, restaurant, etc. has its own website, then your best information is going to them directly. Don’t believe the promise of big discounts from TripAdvisor. And for turnkey trips in Costa Rica I have had good experience with My Costa Rica (https://costarica.org/ ) at reasonable prices. And if you want to get acquainted with Costa Rica, the absolutely best tour of the country at the very lowest price is from Caravan.com  from $995 including all meals and hotels! And of course my friends have me as an possible personal guide or trip planner, though I don’t have the discounts these big companies have. But my advice is free!  🙂

Millions of reviews to help you
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Hi Charlie Doggett
Level 86 reviews 12,492 total points
Your advice has helped thousands
Charlie, 61,888 readers have read your reviews – impressive! As a leading contributor, your advice has really made its mark in our travel community. You’ve also earned a Readership badge with TripCollective. Congrats.
Good advice travels fast – so keep on sharing to see how many more travelers you can help!
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Christmas in San Jose Photos

Big Cities like to do everything bigger and better and San Jose, the capital and largest city in Costa Rica is no exception. See a few photos of Christmas decor and events by Tico Times:

http://www.ticotimes.net/2015/12/25/photos-christmas-2015

Tico Times photos – this of the lighting of tree at Children’s Hospital

AND MY DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS?

I’m hoping to stay home all day with no interruptions to the many things I want to do and some rest! 

WITH CHRISTMAS COMES THE WIND!
It actually started some a couple of weeks ago, but it is here full force now! I’m having to keep the sliding door screen closed and my garden door with no screen closed because so many leaves, flowers, bugs and dust blow in! This will be the norm through February or March with it getting more dusty the longer we go without rain. And if Turrialba erupts again, we will get ash or gray-black dust! That is just part of living in paradise!  🙂

And the crazy thing is that it is during this windy, sometimes dusty period that we have the most tourists and snowbirds trying to get away from cold weather up north. I think I’ve decided I like the rainy season (Jul-Oct) or “green season” better and it’s two shoulder periods (May-Jun & Oct-Nov) which have very little rain but are greener and more pleasant. So for the next 3 months or so we put up with wind, dust and snow birds! Then tranquility begins again!  🙂

And for my Canadian friends:




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Silent Art Auction a Community Party

Both children and adults were excited about my nativity collection. All sold!

It was a wonderful community party for families,
here watching one of the Music School performers.
With my photos & paintings all around them! 

Some of my art collection was sold in Nashville, but I shipped a lot here and after going through it for the pieces I could use in my house, everything else went in the Silent Auction, a first time experience for many here. The hundreds of people who came were nearly all Tico, wonderful local folks. Only 3 or 4 expat or gringo households showed up. Everything was purchased and some at bargain prices! It does my heart good to know how much of my art/photos are in Tico homes here in Atenas! And the Atenas Marching Band (free Music School) and Su Espacio have benefited pretty well from the sales. But, as David said, the best thing about it was how much fun people had being here and being together and discovering new things cheaply. He is thinking of beginning a monthly flea market as a similar social experience and opportunity for struggling people to bring in a few dollars. It is all about community at Su Espacio! 

The Music School Choir sang along with lots of individual music acts, almost like a recital among my photos & art.

The Music School Mom’s sold yummy Tico Food to help with fund-raising.
Mi tamal y el café era muy delicioso! 

David (my Spanish teacher) and his wife Corinna were the cashiers.
They operate Su Espacio Community Center. He is a Tico from Atenas
and she is Italian! They have two beautiful children!
And of course it was the Tico adults who bought the art, in spite of my other photos showing mostly kids! 

And now Atenas has been introduced to “Silent Auctions!”  Before this weekend, an “auction” meant some men were selling their cows at the bull ring. And our cultures continue to blend!  🙂

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” 
― Barack Obama


“No one has ever become poor by giving.” 

― Anne Frank, Diary of Anne Frank

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Choosing & Hanging Art

One of the toughest jobs settling in my new rent house has been choosing what art to use . . .
. . . or really, what art to keep and what to give away. I’ve done it! Here’s the results and from now on I will be focused on making new art! And oh yes, my walls are all concrete! Had to buy an electric drill and concrete drill bit. But worth it!   🙂   And landlord said I could drill all I want! I just pay for spackling and a paint job when I leave.

On wall opposite the kitchen I put “Reelfoot Green,” a favorite photo of mine
which at 34″ x 24″ is a transition from outdoor trees in windows right and left.
I see fig tree through office left and yellow bell trees through living room right.
The linoleum print of “Staghorn Summac” in the
Smoky Mountains was a gift from my mother-in-law.
+ 2 of my recent garden butterfly photos on canvas.
Corner of Living Room opposite my birds wall.

Coming in from balcony or sitting on couch, you see a wall of tropical birds.
Photos are mine, Costa Rica & Panama, Kuna Indian Bird Mola is from Panama.
Painting of Scarlet Macaw is by boatman’s wife on Amazon River Mission Trip.
Bust on table if from Mali, West Africa and little basket from The Gambia.
Clock with rotating pendulum was an anniversary gift from LifeWay.
I normally do not like art above kitchen cabinets, but this gift from a Masaii
young man of Kenya was a gift after we entertained him overnight in Memphis.
The colors fit here and no where else until I find a better place rather than donate.
In the laundry room off the kitchen I found a place for my Cow Weathervane
photo I made at Nashville Farmers’ Market. Glad to keep it!
Above my Office desk is “The Trader,” a cloth painting by a Fula artist in
The Gambia West Africa and my favorite charcoal head of Christ by W. Hoffman.
Opposite my desk above a brown couch/bed is a Fula Batik from The Gambia.
And a favorite photo of my Amazon Indian guide waiting in the rain by canoe.

Again, I normally would not put art above cabinets, but to hold on to these,
I have last week’s mystery butterfly photo and my Tortuguero Sunrise photo.
The dark is my bookcase and the light is my guest room/office wardrobe.
Both are photos on canvas.
Above my bed is the print of “Christ in Gethsemane” by Heinrich Hofmann, 1890.
It was in my grandmother’s bedroom until she died. The hand-carved cross is
from the Pleasant Hill Kentucky Shaker Village. My monotone brown bedroom!
I know, it looks like a monk’s room! That’s okay. It is peaceful and where I sleep.

My photo of a Mandinka Potter in The Gambia with a
portion of Isaiah 64:8 printed on it. Opposite my bed.
“O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, you are the potter.”

As I leave my bedroom, a monkey wood carving from Makasutu Forest, Gambia.
And my collection of caps to protect a mostly bald head from sunshine. Art?
As you enter the hall from garden is my oil painting
by Uncle Harlan of Mulberry Creek, Arkansas.

Painted by my Grand Uncle Harlan Hunt of a real place in North Arkansas Ozarks.
My bedroom to left and office, kitchen, living room to right. 
Also in hallway, going to garden are two flower pictures by bathroom door.
Tennessee Tulips are my photo on canvas and Yellow Roses oil painting
by my Uncle Harlan Hunt. 
Coming out of the bathroom you see my photo of
a door in 1582 Spanish Fort San Juan, Veracruz, Mexico.
Another one of my favorite photos on canvas!  
In the bathroom opposite the mirror is my panorama of Vinales Valley, Cuba.

At 36″ wide, I think it makes a beautiful vista for a bathroom. One of my favorite shots from the Cuba tour, Vinales Valley.

I emptied about two of the large boxes of art for my walls, etc. Hard decisions.
There are two boxes of family photos, etc. I am keeping, for now anyway.
Now the rest of these go to Su Espacio for an Art Silent Auction this Saturday
to raise money for both the community center and the Atenas Marching Band
and its free music school for low income children. Then I get my dining room back!
And the 3 pieces of rent house art I’m keeping are the fruit paintings in dining & kitchen.
I love them!

You can pray that lots of people show up for the auction and are generous in their bids. I’m hoping to raise more than a thousand U.S. dollars or 500,000 colones. 9-11 AM this Saturday, 18 July, at Su Espacio Community Center across from the Coopeatenas gasolinera.

To see photos of the art being offered in the auction including 22 international creches, go to: 
http://www.pbase.com/charliedoggett/costa_rica_art_benefit_auction_atenas

And here’s the English version of the flier we are using to advertise it:

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Boxes, boxes, everywhere!

Some of the book boxes in my office & the African Chest unpacked already.

I intended to move here with only what would fit in the max allowed 5 suitcases and with more preparation time I could have. But once I was on the time line to move I couldn’t get rid of everything quick enough and decided to ship about 20 boxes of scrapbooks to photograph (make digital books) and destroy hard copies here. Then there was my art collection and good number of framed and canvas photos I liked and knew I could use some of, so boxed them securely for shipping. I also had a few boxes of misc. stuff, Christmas decorations (should have given away) and some winter clothing (big mistake!).

And more on the other side of my office!

I ended up with about 50 boxes shrunk wrapped on pallets that were shipped in December, arriving in Costa Rica in shared container space on a boat by February. Because I knew I would not likely stay in the apartments, I kept my boxes in storage in Alajuela near the San Jose Airport until this week when they were delivered to my new house.

Now the lovely, uncluttered house is a mess for a long while! Though I have already unpacked 4 or 5 the first day! I have to get ruthless again to clear out this stuff, like I did with all my furniture in Nashville. I’m still getting little checks from ReMix Furniture where much of my stuff was on consignment sale there.

Once I display the artwork and photos I think fit here, I will probably give the rest away. And the Christmas decorations will go to Su Espacio Community Center for their first Christmas tree this year if I can hold the decorations until maybe November. My manger scene collection may get advertised on Craig’s List Atenas.

But the scrapbooks and genealogy books/research will be the most difficult and time-consuming to deal with. And then there’s the stamp collection I didn’t get sold before the move. Craig’s List again! I’ll be busy for awhile!

Artwork, photos and Christmas stuff in my Living/Dining Room.
Plus the wicker trunk in my bedroom.
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Walking Snaps Today

Walking by Alajuela Cathedral this morning
I was struck by this beautiful flowering shrub.
Cell phone snap

Walking through Atenas later today, I caught this Blue-crowned Motmot
with my cellphone in someone’s yard. I did have to crop in a bit on this one.

It was a very busy day today and I did not get everything accomplished that I intended, but did get a lot done. Tomorrow Cristian and his crew come to finish my garden and add some trees and shrubs to my yard. You will probably hear about them tomorrow! And eventually I will get around to making and showing some photos of my new house. A busy two weeks!

By the way, Trip Advisor, for which I write reviews, has just published its “Top 10 Beaches in Central America” list and 8 of them are in Costa Rica! Or see the actual Trip Advisor site listing where you have to hit the arrow to scroll through the photos of each beach.  Makes me want to reconsider living at a beach, but probably not! 🙂  Beaches are hotter, more humid, and more expensive for living. I can get to a beach in 2 hours or less any time I want to.

Interested in the Nicaragua Canal? Click to read the latest news and how construction has begun. 

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ZOOAVE Yesterday

The animals are tucked into little nooks along trails like this.

Yesterday I spent more than two hours at an animal rescue organization’s beautiful little zoo only 20 minutes away from where I live. It is in La Garita, Costa Rica which I pass on the way to Alajuela. It is called  RESCATE ANIMAL zooave. That title link takes you to their website which can be viewed in English.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In 2020 this facility has been “rebranded” to eliminate the zoo concept and is now called Rescate Wildlife Rescue Center.

The zoo is a beautiful tropical garden good for two hours of walking just for the gardens. There are a lot of animals, mostly birds. The word “ave” is Spanish for bird and it is primarily a bird zoo, but there are monkeys and many other animals plus the wild animals like iguanas and squirrels stealing bird seed. And wild birds flying in and out.

Today we had a 2.5 hour meeting of residents with part of the new apartment management and the attorney for the owners in Holland. If they do everything they promised, I will be staying long term in these apartments. A former administrator is back and the new director is coming from Holland in a month or so. I like them both and the attorney. So things are looking better by the day! And had lunch with a couple from Canada at a little Italian restaurant in town. Keep finding new, good places to eat! Though places like this one have American prices.

The adventure continues! Pura Vida!