Variegated Squirrel – La ardilla centroamericana (Sciurus variegatoides)
Yeah, I know, that’s what old men do – watch squirrels in the park! 🙂 But I haven’t done that until recently and snapped a few shots with my phone camera. These are called Variegated Squirrels in English, the most common squirrel all over Costa Rica. I hope that in the future I will sit in the park more whether watching people or squirrels or just relaxing or reading. It is a good place to be! To be in nature and to be in community. And eventually we will have a newly remodeled park which will necessitate more photos! 🙂
Note that we also have a lot of birds in the park also with parrots coming to the tops of one group of palms at one particular time of year and we also have had some Montezuma Oropendola nests in another part of the small park. I’m hoping they keep the trees with the remodeling!
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
~John Muir
Rough translation of sign in park: “Celebrate your life, take care of nature”
Variegated Squirrel Hogar de Vida Campus, Atenas, Costa Rica
This is the most common squirrel all over Costa Rica, but there are two other kinds of squirrels and I have photos of all three of them. See this search of squirrels on my gallery:
Mantled Howler Monkey male Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica
White-nosed Coati Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica
Variegated Squirrel Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica
Black River Turtle Puerto Viejo River, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Costa Rica
Spectacled Caiman Puerto Viejo River, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Costa Rica
See also all my non-bird wildlife photo galleries at OTHER WILDLIFE
And this will be my last post on what I saw in Sarapiquí at Selva Verde Lodge. I highly recommend this lodge and spending at least 3 or 4 nights when you go!
White-faced Capuchin Monkey – Just hanging around! Pura Vida! Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Agouti Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Variegated Squirrel Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Northern Ghost Bat Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Some Kind of Fungus! Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Unless I do a post on plants, that is all from the Campesinos/Carara trip. But every trip seems to have about a week’s worth of posts! Always a lot to share! I love it here!
UPDATE ON RESIDENCY RED TAPE As the attorney told me, I went to the local Atenas Social Security office to be “inscribed.” I took Jason (one of my language helpers) with me as an interpreter and he was absolutely needed! In short, the first desk sent us to another desk which was the appointments desk. Of course we needed to make an appointment (but you do it only in person-not by phone!). I am on standby for July 8 with a firm appointment on July 15.
I have a two-page form in Spanish to be filled out in Spanish. David is going to make it a class project next week in Spanish Class! 🙂 There are a bunch of other things I need to bring like proof of at least $1,000 income, the resolution I got, an electric bill, and a copy of my housing rental agreement. I can hire ” a professional” to help me walk through this, but it is more fun to work with friends and get closer to local Ticos! (And cheaper!) Ten to one odds that there will be some document not exactly right for the July appointment and I will have to go back again, but that is part of the adventure of government bureaucracies!
Variegated Squirrel, Atenas, Costa Rica Found all over Costa Rica, this one by my balcony in a Yellow Bell Tree They can greatly vary in color around the country but all have tail “frosting”
Variegate Squirrel, my first shot peeking around tree trunk, giving a little break from birds and butterflies!
Variegated Squirrel, Atenas, Costa Rica Two moved from Strangler Fig to this tree and back – looking for food? They are about the same size as North American squirrels.
And I continue to get new surprises on my balcony! Maybe after a year I’ll get bored. 🙂
July 8 I get my visa renewed and will start traveling more which means new wildlife photos.
