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| Walking home from town I passed this children’s soccer game in the Recreation Park. I was surprised that they had artificial turf! Just for “official” games in the dry season, I guess. Not there other days. |
New Graffiti on Skateboard Ramp
In the city recreation park in front of Central School Elementary is all kinds of recreation from soccer to volleyball that I’ve shown before. Well, the skateboard ramp just got a fresh coat of paint in the form of some new graffiti or public art that should please the skateboarders! Tuanis! Mae! (Cool! Dude!)
Shot with my cell phone and cropped a little in the computer. I shared some graffiti a year ago that was not as interesting and the more distant shot of skateboard ramp is particularly less vivid! Most of the other graffiti shot last year is about the same with 2 or 3 small new additions on walls.
Labeling My Wildlife Photos
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| Some of the books I use plus the internet now. |
Before the Yorkin Trip I had four books specifically for Costa Rica wildlife (in above photo) and the bird book, A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica, was the best of those (seen in above photo by Stiles & Skutch, 1989). I am now replacing it with a 2014 book by one of the members of the birding club I just joined, Robert Dean, The Birds of Costa Rica, A Field Guide. It is obviously more up to date and has more birds. This is the second edition of his book. I’ve ordered it from Amazon.com and it should be here by next week via Miami.
Our birding guide for the club and my first club trip, Pat O’Donnell, also recommends an app (he co-authored) which I got for both my phone and Kindle called “Costa Rica Birds – Field Guide” which is available from most app stores or directly from the producers at BirdingFieldGuides.com It is very good with lots of photos of all the birds of Costa Rica and a filter to help you label your bird photo. I may end up using it more than the book. We’ll see! With my Kindle Fire I have gone to almost all electronic books anyway.
The Panama bird book (in first photo)is very good, more recent than my first Costa Rica book, and can be used as a backup for identification. We almost have the same birds with a few exceptions. It is our southern birds and their northern birds that overlap. Likewise our northern birds overlap with Nicaragua.
The Costa Rica butterfly book in the top photo is very limited, so I also use the U.S. National Audubon Society guide (glad I kept it!). The only more thorough butterfly book for Costa Rica I’ve found is a college textbook for $80+ and I haven’t gone that far yet! Plus it is probably more technical than I want. I just want images to help me identify my photos.
The internet is good for some creatures, but not all. I still have unidentified butterflies and birds in my photo collection! I have also joined some websites or online organizations to help with birding and bird identification, but not a lot of help yet. So please know that when I label something “Unidentified,” it is not because I didn’t try! 🙂
Likewise I have one book on Costa Rica plants and it is about as limited as the butterfly book. So plants are sometimes even more difficult to label and I’m learning that the common Spanish names and English names are not simply translations of each other. Maybe I should go with the Latin! 🙂
Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.
~Wernher von Braun
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“Costa Rica Extra” Sports Tidbits:
Was Recreational Ziplining Really Invented in Costa Rica? Yes indeeeed! No data on whitewater rafting which is also big here.
The most popular sport in the little farm town of Atenas is el voleibol (volleyball) with one high school the national champion most years! We have a park with a beach volleyball court, all sand! I don’t know how it ranks in popularity in the country of Costa Rica, but is definitely popular, especially on the two coasts along with surfing there.
Though el futbol (soccer) is the most popular spectator sport in Costa Rica, el beisbol (baseball) is a close second as is el practicar surf (surfing) and el ciclismo (cycling) where we were just ranked high in the El Tour de Francia. And Costa Rica has the Latin American Champion Surfista (surfer) almost every year!
The happiest people on earth love their sports and recreation and smart gringos avoid driving to the beach on weekends when the highways are literally packed bumper to bumper with Ticos at the beaches! Pura Vida!
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“Time is a game played beautifully by children.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments
― Heraclitus, Fragments
“Weekends don’t count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.”
― Bill Watterson
― Bill Watterson
Atenas Graffiti
It appears on an ugly wall behind the High School in first two photos, then on the concrete wall of a city park in front of the Primary School. It is the only graffiti I’m aware of and wonder if it was a school art class project?
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| A 4 or 5 shot panorama of wall behind high school that I walk by almost every day. There’s more beyond gate at right, next. |
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| More behind the high school gym to the right of above image. |
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| The front of the high school however would never have graffiti. |
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| Wall on big city recreation park in front of primary school, more in next photo. This park has soccer, basketball, volleyball, skateboard, and more recreation. |
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| Though not all great art, it too seems too well organized to be vandalism. Note the skate board ramp is also painted with graffiti above & below. |
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| Skateboard ramp in city park in front of Escuela Central. |
“People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish… but that’s only if it’s done properly.”