Tree on the ridge line

This is a close photo of one of the details in yesterday's photo that was lost in the large scene.  I liked this tree on the crest of a distant hill and zoomed in on it.

We are showing photos of Egypt this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site, including some of the experiences that await tourists visiting the country might enjoy.

Countryside

This photo is another pastoral scene of the countryside near Tamarindo, taken last summer, which explains the cloudy skies, as we are in the dry season now.

This was across the road from the location where the cattle were crossing the road in the photos I showed a few days ago.

Costa Rica plants about 5 - 7 million trees per year to make up for the fact that pasture land such as what you see here has replaced what used to be forests.  The country is on track to become the world's first carbon neutral country in about 10 years, as more than 25% of the land is set aside for parks and nature preserves, the highest percentage of any country.

We are showing photos of Egypt this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site, including some of the experiences that await tourists visiting the country might enjoy.

Iguana

It has been a while since I posted a photo of an iguana.  I have not meant to neglect them.  It is easy to overlook them, as they are so common.  This green iguana seems to have lost his way.  He should be camouflaging himself in branches of green leaves, not these brown twigs.

We are showing photos of Egypt this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site, including some of the experiences that await tourists visiting the country might enjoy.  I hope that Egypt returns to stability soon so that tourism there will thrive and help the local economy.

Machete

In my photo of the cowboy a few days ago I mentioned his machete, which is very typical of those who work the land in Costa Rica.  Here is a close photo of the weathered, heavily used sheath of a machete.  This was not the cowboy's machete, but was around the belt of Pablo, the gardener for our Langosta condo.  

I have shown Pablo in the past, and he took us to visit the ranch that I showed extensively on this site a few months ago.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  This week we are showing photos of Egypt, including some of the people, the tourist police, and some of the experiences of a tour of this magnificent, ancient country.

Bull

Nearby the scene of the cattle drive photos that I have shown during the past few days was a pasture that held this massive bull.  We stayed safely on the other side of the fence, although the fence obviously would not have held the bull in this photo of he decided that we or our cameras annoyed him too much.

This week we are showing photos of the dry, mountainous Atacama Desert of northern Chile on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  It is quite a contrast to the lush green coastal lowlands of Costa Rica.

Cowboys

Here is a closer photo of the cowboys who drove the cattle down the road and across to another pasture.  They seemed to enjoy their job.  They obviously dress casually for the warm weather.

You may notice the common tool of a machete hanging from the belt of the cowboy in the foreground.

I took this photo last summer, which explains the late afternoon clouds.  Right now is the heart of the high season, with sunny, dry weather.

This week we are showing photos of the dry, mountainous Atacama Desert of northern Chile on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  It is quite a contrast to the lush green coastal lowlands of Costa Rica.

Cowboys

This photo shows the cowboys who were tending to the cattle herd that we encountered on a rural back road about 15 minutes inland from Tamarindo.   They are part of a long tradition of cattle ranching in Guanacaste, the northwest province of Costa Rica. They were cheerful and not reluctant to be photographed.

This week we are showing photos of the dry, mountainous Atacama Desert of northern Chile on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  It is quite a contrast to the lush green coastal lowlands of Costa Rica.

Cattle heading form the road to the pasture

This photo shows the next stage of the cattle drive from a day use pasture to the pasture where the cows spend the evening.

Several days ago Jack commented that the cows look thinner than cows in New England.  That is a common reaction when people see the local Brahman cattle.  They are not malnourished.  They live in the midst of lush vegetation.  They are thin and naturally have a bone structure that protrudes prominently.

Tomorrow I will show a photo of the cowboys who were herding these cattle.

This week we are showing photos of the dry, mountainous Atacama Desert of northern Chile on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  It is quite a contrast to the lush green coastal lowlands of Costa Rica.

Why did the cows cross the road?

After the cars and motorcyclist shown in my last two photos had passed, the cowboys decided that it was time for the cows to make a left turn from their walk down the right side of the road, and cross over to the other side.

I will keep this series going for a few more days.

This week we are showing photos of the dry, mountainous Atacama Desert of northern Chile on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  It is quite a contrast to the lush green coastal lowlands of Costa Rica.

Cattle and cows

Here is another photo of the cattle drive sharing the rural road with whatever traffic needed to pass.  The cows looked like they were used to the cars.

You can see the sheen from the somewhat oily skins of the Brahma cattle that are common in Costa Rica.     The northwest area of Costa Rica has a lot of cattle ranches.  Some of the large property holdings have evolved from the large tracts of Spanish colonial land grants land, similar to some of the large land holdings in California.  In most of the rest of Costa Rica, it is more common to find small farms which are also plentiful in our area.

This week we are showing photos of the dry, mountainous Atacama Desert of northern Chile on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  It is quite a contrast to the lush green coastal lowlands of Costa Rica.

Cattle drive

When traveling the back roads of Costa Rica near Tamarindo, this  photo shows a scene that you might see. Local ranchers are taking their cattle from a pasture where they were grazing during the day back to the ranch where the cattle will be spending the night.

It is more like a daily commute than the long cattle drives of the American West.  But, there are cowboys who will ride to keep the herd together as they go down the road.  In this case a motorcycle rider is scooting around the her, which had drifted to  occupy the entire road, rather than staying in their lane.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site. This week we are showing a few more photos of the Atacama Desert in Chile.  I am sure that you will agree that it is unique.

Bull

Several months ago I posted a series of photos of a ranch, which included photos of some of the cows out in the pasture.  I commented that there was no bull in the pasture.  So here is a bull.  No I did not go out into the pasture with the bull.   I stopped the car along side one of the back roads to take this photo from the safety of the other side of a barbed wire fence.

I know not to get close to a bull.  My wife's family has had a ranch in rural Arizona since the 1880's.  Her brother once was trapped in the ranch house, unable to go out, because of a bull in a very bad mood.

This week we are showing photos of Chicago on our on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Sailing excursion

Every afternoon the catamaran sailboat in this photo heads out from Tamarind Bay to a few spots for snorkeling, usually near a few rocky islands up the coast.  The crew provides snacks of fresh fruit and drinks, and then the boat returns at sunset so the visitors see the sunset from sea.  It makes for a very pleasant afternoon.

This week we are showing photos of Chicago on our on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Bicyclist at sunset

We commonly see swimmers, dogs, surfers, and paddle boarders on Tamarindo beach, but here is a photo of some people walking their bicycle along the beach.

In Tamarindo, the best route from some places to other places is along the beach.  The beach front street reaches a dead end in the heart of town, and another road angles towards the beach and becomes the beachfront road further south, heading towards Langosta.

Maybe these people are walking the bike along he  beach because it is a shortcut to dinner.  Or maybe they just prefer the beach because there is less traffic and they like the view, particularly at sunset.  Whatever the reason, I think they made the right choice.

This week we are showing photos of Chicago on our on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Flower and high-contrast photography

This is another photo of one of the flowers around our Langosta condo.  It appears to be a variety of heliconia, although I will confess that my knowledge of different types of tropical flowers is rather limited.

The contrast between the bright flower and the dark background illustrates something that I recently read about photography while trying to get a better understanding of histograms.  Each f-stop on the camera allows twice as much light as the next higher f-stop number.  The human eye can handle the contrast of light that is equivalent to a range of about 8 f-stops, but a camera image can capture a range of only about 5 f-stops.

Consequently, in many scenes there is a range of brightness or darker areas that the eye sees, but which the camera will record as blackness or white-out.  In today's photo, the background was not as dark as it appears in this photo, but I obviously set the exposure to capture the light on the flower and allow the background to be darker in the image than it was in reality.  I like the effect of highlighting the subject of the photo.

It is essential to set the exposure manually or to use a "spot meter" for a photo such as this, rather than relying on the camera's automatic exposure.  The automatic exposure will often result in a setting that averages the light for the dark and light areas of a high contrast photo, which will cause the brighter subject to be washed out.

This week we are showing photos of Chicago on our on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Butterfly and flower

I mentioned yesterday that the orange flower was a food source, and here is a photo of one of the many butterflies that we see fluttering around the flowers most of the time.

Happy Valentine's Day.

This Vaentine's Day is also the 100th anniversary of Arizona becoming a state, and my wife, Julie has a special post commemorating Arizona's Centennial on her Scottsdale Daily Photo website.

This week we are showing photos of Chicago on our on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Orange flower

This is typical of the flowers that surround our condo.  This flower is a little past its prime, and it appears to have provided food for s little nibbling around the edges of its petals, which is important o for the food chain that supports so many birds as we have.  One of the benefits of a tropical climate is that there are flowers in bloom all year.

This week we are showing photos of Chicago on our on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site, featuring different lighting conditions in America's "Second City."

Flowers in front of our condo

After yesterday's photo of our condo from the beach, here is a photo of our condo from the street. With my long series of photos of the nearby Crystal Sands condo, I felt I should show a photo of our place.  As this photo shows, we have a nice flower garden along the street and surrounding the building.

The flowers, trees, building and sky combine for an explosion of color.  I will show a few photos of the flowers in the days ahead.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  This week we are showing some additional photos of Chicago, featuring different lighting conditions.

Our condo on Langosta Beach

Here is a late afternoon photo of the beach at Playa Langosta, with our codo in the background.  I took this photo some months ago, as it is now the dry season and clouds like this are rare from Nov. until April.

We are showing photos of Tanzania this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Surfer leaving the ocean

Here is a surfer walking out of the surf on Tamarindo beach. I think the woman I showed yesterday had more enthusiasm walking from the ocean back to the beach, but this guy certainly has his own style.

Although I am not a surfer, I think the way he carries his surfboard in his hand rather than under his arm is "body English" that means "I'm cool."

We are showing photos of Tanzania this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Young woman stepping out of the ocean

The young woman in this photo was obviously enjoying herself swimming at Tamarindo beach. She was with a friend and emerged from the surf with a bit of flair, don't you think?

She looks a bit like the pose of the Winged Victory statue in the Louvre, a copy of which is atop the dome of the Arizona State Capitol.

As you may recall from past photos, I try not to be discriminatory, so I will balance today's photo with a similar photo tomorrow, which my female readers may prefer.

We are showing photos of Tanzania this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Mother & baby monkey crossing the road

Julie and I backed away from the area where the howler monkeys in this series of photos were crossing the road.  The alpha male, seeing that the others in his group lacked the ability to jump from the trees on one side of the road to the trees across the road, jumped back to the original side where the mother and baby were sitting in a branch.

The alpha male led the mother and baby down the trunk of the tree to the ground and they scampered across the road.  Julie and I backed away to give them ample distance and to make sure that no cars were coming.

This little story shows why it is beneficial that the government now requires that all new condos and homes in the Tamarindo area will have to leave about half of the land in vegetation.  The howler monkeys need pathways to travel from tree to tree.  The Capitan Suizo Resort, a couple of blocks away, has a little pathway hanging high up across the street for the monkeys to use to cross the road.

We are showing photos of Tanzania this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site, including a photo of a different kind of monkey than this.

Monkey leaping from tree to tree

The howler monkey in this photo has leapt from the tree on the left, but his body is already heading down and the branches of the tree across the road to the right are not within his grasp.  The problem is that the ends of the branches on the left were so small that they did not provide very much forward momentum when the monkey jumped.  Instead, the monkey's jump pushed the branches back more than propelling the monkey forward.

You can imagine Julie's and my shock when the monkey came flying out of the tree and landed in the road just a few feet from us.  We were also horrified because the monkey did not land softly like a cat.  We could hear his chest thump from the impact onto the road.

The monkey walked into the forest on the right, rather slowly, then crawled up into the trees and seemed to be OK.  Julie and I then backed away to give the monkeys more space, and another monkey then tried to make the same jump.  He also fell to the street.   At that point, there was yet another problem.  What would the mother and baby do?  The answer, of course, will be shown tomorrow.

We are showing photos of Tanzania this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site, including a photo of a different kind of monkey than this.

Monkey in mid-air leaping from tree to tree

The howler monkeys in these photos wanted to cross the road from the trees on the left to a grove of trees that leads to the beach on the right.  The problem, however, is that the canopy of the trees does not cover the road.  

The alpha male howler jumped through the air, and I managed to catch him in the middle of his leap. He grabbed the branches on the right and climbed up into the tree.  He then waited for the rest of the group to follow him.

What do you think happened next?  The answer, as usual, will be shown tomorrow.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos today on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  This week we are showing scenes of Tanzania, including a Maasai child, wildlife, and the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Monkey on a wire

The family of howler monkeys in this photo series wanted to cross the road.  But howler monkeys like to stay in the trees and avoid coming on the ground. This howler walked down the wires running along the road to scout for a good spot to cross the road.

We stood relatively still in the road so that we would not bother them.  Nevertheless, this monkey looks apprehensive and concerned.  I will explain why tomorrow.

Despite our presence and the challenge of crossing the beachfront road, the howlers did not howl.  They can be heard for more than a mile (1.6 km) when they start howling in their very low voice.

We are showing photos of Egypt this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Monkeys climbing from the roof to the tree

This photo shows the mother howler monkey climbing from the roof to the branch.  The baby is still on her back, which is common.   You can see the extra tail hanging down, which is the baby's.

It must be nice for the baby to hitch a ride, and the travel habits of the adults, jumping from branch to branch, are certainly too difficult for an baby.  In fact, the mother encountered difficulty a few moments after we took this photo, as I will show in the days ahead.

We are showing photos of Egypt this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Mother & baby monkey walking on roof

The howler monkey mother and baby in the photo that I posted yesterday got up after sitting on the roof for a few moments.  They walked towards one of the trees in which other of their group were sitting on branches and eating.

Julie and I were concentrating on the monkeys on the roof rather than the monkeys in the tree branches above us because it is difficult to photograph dark howler monkeys pointing the cameral up towards a bright sky.

You may be able to guess what happened while I was taking photos of the monkeys on the roof while standing under a tree with several other monkeys in the branches above.  Yes, I felt a warm liquid on my arm.

We are showing photos of Egypt this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Mother & baby monkey on the roof

In this photo, the mother and baby howler monkeys paused momentarily to take a look at us.  Howler monkeys travel in families of about 10 or so.  When Julie and I came across this group, some of the monkeys were in the trees adjacent to this little shade pavilion.

We always stop and stare to enjoy the howlers, and they do not mind.  The will look at us as we look at them.  They generally do not approach people.

There can be a disadvantage of standing below a group of howler monkeys, as I will explain tomorrow.

We are showing photos of Egypt this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Theme Day: Animals -- Howler Monkey

With the worldwide Daily Photo Theme Day for Feb. 1 being "animals," I thought i should post a typical Costa Rican animal.  Here is a photo of  a howler monkey on the roof of a  shade structure at the entrance to a condo building about a half block from our condo in Playa Langosta.  As this photo shows, at times howler monkeys come right into Tamarindo, although that is somewhat unusual.

Usually we see howler monkeys while driving in forested areas between towns, or on wildlife viewing excursions.  When we took these photos, we were simply walking from our condo to lunch on the main street in Lagosta, a residential area of Tamarindo.  I will show a series of photos of these monkeys during the coming week.

We are showing photos of Egypt this week on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

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