A tree full of howler monkeys

Trees in Costa Rica can be full of delights and surprises. Birds, iguanas, monkeys or sloths might be hanging around. When driving on secondary roads or taking a walk though the forests, you should take the time to look up into the trees. Here is an example.

This large tree was a resting place for a group of howler monkeys. This photo illustrates how they travel in extended families of a dozen or so. How many monkeys can you find in this tree? There were more monkeys in this group than you can see in this photo. It is common for groups of monkeys to occupy adjacent trees as they move from tree to tree through the forest, stopping to eat and rest.

Tomorrow and the next few days I will show some closer photos of some of the monkeys in this group.

Beachfront massages

Yesterday I asked what would feel good after a day of surfing, and our good friend Sharon of Phoenix Daily Photo and Glenda, my mother-in-law, left comments recommending a massage. Well, they were right.

After a day of surfing, why not have a massage on the beach? The Tamarindo Diria Resort has several massage tables set up on their beachfront for guests of the Diria hotel and condos.

There are also several day spas in Tamarindo where people can get massages and other services for less than half the price you would expect to pay in the USA.

I will start a new series of photos tomorrow. After these surfing photos, I will give you a change of pace and show more of Costa Rica's wildlife.

Done surfing

Near the end of the afternoon, with the sun turning the sea to silver before it turns the sky gold and takes its nightly dip into the Pacific, a surfer has decided to call it a day and walk along Tamarindo beach, back to wherever he lives or is staying.

Just as he is done surfing, this photo will conclude this little series of surfer photos that I have been showing during the past week.

My tease for tomorrow photo is to ask what do you think would feel good after an afternoon of surfing?

Waiting for a wave

While waiting for the next wave, why not fix your hair? It will stay in place and look nice until the next wave comes.

I walked out and took this series of photos of the surfing lesson in the calm part of Tamarindo Bay, which is partially sheltered from the larger ocean waves by an off shore volcanic reef.

As I mentioned, I am not a surfer. In fact, I have never been on a surf board. I used to snow ski (and took 29 stitches in my head from a skiing accident). I imagine waiting on a wave for a surfer is like waiting for a lift line or riding up the ski lift for a skier, except the next wave comes a lot more quickly. In Tamarindo and Playa Langosta, the waves usually roll in one right after another, with barely the time to fix one's hair.

Surfing form

In contrast to the beginning surfers taking their surfing lessons that I have shown during the past few days, this surfer came zipping past me showing the speed, form, agility, maneuverability, balance and coordination of an experienced surfer.

My tease for tomorrow's photo is that I will show the form of another surfer.

Surfing lesson success

Success. The beginning surfer shown in yesterday's photo has advanced from riding a wave lying down to jumping up to her feet.

Now, she just has to get her balance more confidently so that she can stand up straighter and does not have to use her hands as much. I predict that advancement will come soon. Then, she will advance to larger waves.

And when she goes back home from vacation, I am sure she will have lots of stories to tell her friends about how great she did surfing, and she did.

Tomorrow, I will show even better surfing form.

Learning to surf

Here is one of the students in the surfing lesson that I showed yesterday. She is obviously just progressing from the stage where she is riding the waves while lying down to where she will attempt to stand up.

Do you think she will make it to ride the waves while standing? If you are a regular reader of this blog, I am sure you have anticipated that I am setting you up for the answer -- tomorrow.

Today is Sunday, so we have posted more photos on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site. Similar to last week we have posted another set of photos from the UNESCO World Heritage site of Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay.

Group surfing lesson

Here is a surfing lesson in progress. You can see a row of beginning surfers all lined up catching the same wave, but none is yet standing up.

I took these photos with a little "point-and-shoot" waterproof camera, which explains the limitations in the quality of these surfing photos. The camera enables a vantage point that I could not get with a regular camera, as I could walk out in the middle of the surfers.

I have found that with a waterproof camera, it can be tricky to take photos that are in focus because it is hard to stay still when you are being pushed around by waves. The same problem happens underwater as well. It is hard to hold the camera steady if you are swimming trying to catch up with a fish to photograph.

Surfing lesson

This is a "student" getting a surfing lesson at Tamarindo beach. Tamarindo is an ideal place to learn to surf for several reasons.

First, the beach slopes very gently out to sea, so you can stand up right where you surf. You can see that in this photo. The instructor is standing and is ready to give the student a push to help her catch a wave.

Second, you can regulate the size of the waves you want to surf. To the north end of the beach, there are bigger waves that roll in from the open ocean into Tamarindo beach. On the southern end of the beach, the waves are smaller because there is an off-shore island and a volcanic reef under the water that partially shelters the southern end of Tamarindo Bay from the full force of the ocean waves. (The partial protection from the island and reef is what enables boats to be moored in the waters of the southen part of Tamarindo Bay, as you can see in this photo.)

Third, Tamarindo has lots of surf shops where visitors can rent surfboards and get surfing lessons. I often see small groups of tourists getting surfing lessons and progressing from riding the waves while lying down, to kneeling on hands and feet, to standing up.

Contrasts: Forest, town and condos

For today's Monthly Daily Photo Theme of "contrast," here is a view of Tamarindo that shows the contrast between the green, natural beauty and forest of Tamarindo, and the large condo buildings that have emerged above the tree line. The contrast is particularly stark in the case of the new, white condo in the center of this photo.

The main part of Tamarindo is in the foreground, with the southern end of Tamarindo Bay on the right. San Francisco point is visible in the distance, and Playa Langosta is at the top of the photo.

The large white condo in the middle of the photo is called Pacific Park, and its advertising theme is that it has brought "New York style" to a Costa Rica beach. On the top right is another new condo, called Crystal Sands, that is on the beach. At the top left are several condos set back about two blocks from the beach at the entrance to Playa Langosta, which are called Naxos and the Peninsula. All of those condos are 7 or 8 stories high.

I have written in the past about the challenges faced by Costa Rica in managing the growth of the Pacific beach resorts. Limits are now in place that prevent the construction of condos like these so close to the beach. Elsewhere in Costa Rica there is a condo building under construction that claims to have the world's largest penthouse. I don't remember exactly, but I think it will have 10,000 square feet on three levels.

To see how other Daily Photo bloggers have interpreted the theme of "contrast," Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Tamarindo beach at the Diria Resort

Yesterday I showed the ocean and beach in the middle of Tamarindo beach where the Diria Resort is located, from the ocean. Today I decided to show a view up the beach of the the same area in the middle of Tamarindo beach. The resort is behind the palm trees and the low white wall on the left of this photo.

As I have mentioned before, all beaches in Costa Rica are public. The Diria Resort puts these chairs and beach umbrellas out each day for hotel guests, but others are free to swim, walk along the beach and set up their own blankets and beach chairs in the same area. I have never seen the beach too crowded, even during the Christmas - New Year's holiday season when the town is always full.

We stayed at the Diria Resort during the New Year's holiday week during 2005 and liked it so much we bought a condo on the grounds of the resort and later bought a second condo on Langosta Beach.

Tamarindo beach in front of the Diria Hotel

How do you think I took this photo? From a boat? Wrong. This photo demonstrates one of the many things I love about Tamarindo beach. I walked out from shore and took a photo looking back to the beach.

Look how far into the ocean you can walk. I don't remember how deep the water was at this point, but you can see from the camera angle that I was still standing up out of the water when I took the photo. At most of the beaches I have been to in the USA, you can walk out only a short way before you are in too deep to stand up. It is delightful to be able to walk and swim in the water in a large area off the beach. The temperature of the water is also pleasant all year round.

In the background of this photo is a portion of the beachfront of the Diria Resort in the middle of Tamarindo beach

Surfer

Tamarindo is best known as surfing town, so it is time to show another surfer. I took this photo at Playa Langosta, just a few steps down the beach from our condo.

This surfer is just getting ready to twist back towards shore after cutting back towards the crest of the wave.

Surfing looks like fun, but I am not a surfer and I don't think I am in good enough shape to start now, at age 58. My wife tells me that I need to do yoga to increase my flexibility, and I am sure she is right. There are yoga places in Tamarindo, but somehow I doubt that people go to them to get in shape for surfing.

Gonzalo, the lawyer

I recently showed several photos of Pablo, the gardener, so today I am showing Gonzalo, our lawyer, who I mentioned yesterday. His full name is Gonzalo Fajardo Lee. He was a diplomat before he became a lawyer, serving in the Costa Rican embassies in Rome and Madrid.

When buying property in a foreign country, it is certainly important to have a good lawyer you can trust. After selecting a property management company for our first condo, we asked them for recommendations for lawyers. They recommended Gonzalo, and my wife interviewed and selected him during one of her trips to Costa Rica.

Gonzalo has an office in Tamarindo and an office in San Jose, the capital, which is 4 hours away. He divides his time between his two offices. Besides being knowledgeable, providing good service, and speaking English well, one of reasons my wife liked Gonzalo is that his wife holds an important job in one of the televisions stations in San Jose. My wife liked it that Gonzalo was supportive of his wife's career.

Foreigners can purchase real estate in Costa Rica without the restrictions that exist in some other Latin American countries, such as Mexico. There are differences, however, and a local lawyer is a necessity. One of things that we found funny is that the real estate title documents are handwritten by the lawyers in a bound book. There are real property title records in the country and it is possible, and wise, to buy title insurance, and major U.S. title companies have offices in Costa Rica and insure the validity of the title for property being purchased.

Many Americans and Canadians have purchased vacation or retirement homes in either the Pacific Coast resort area, or the central valley near San Jose, which has an ideal year-round climate because of its altitude. The financial crisis and recession of the past year have certainly been felt in Costa Rica because not as many people are looking to buy vacation homes. For people who are open to living in a foreign country, the retirement funds will go a lot farther in Costa Rica than in North America. Furthermore, in the international indexes of the quality of health care, Costa Rica is tied with -- the USA!

Today is Sunday, so that means that my wife and I have posted a new set of travel photos on Viva la Voyage. Today we take you Colonia del Sacramento, uruguay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with colorful, quaint colonial-era streets.

Typical Tico house

This is the house across the street from Pablo in his village. People seem interested to see photos of typical life for Costa Ricans, as I had a number of nice comments about showing Pablo's village and horse during the last few days, and I get a fair number of Google hits on my site from people searching for photos of typical houses in Costa Rica.

This is a typical Costa Rican house. It is not large by American standards, but it is adquate, and it is better than you would find in most developing countries. Costa Rica is the most prosperous country tin Central America. Life is so good in Costa Rica comparied to other Central American countries that there are large numbers of people from Nicaragua who have sneaked into Costa Rica. Some estimates are that as many as 1 million Nicaraguans are among the 4 million people of Costa Rica.

There is a big difference in the housing in a typical local village and Tamarindo, which is a resort that caters to internatinoal visitors and residents. In Tamarindo the condos are built with the type of fixtures and appliances to apeal to North American preferences, wich as washers, dryers, dishwashers, disposals, granite countertops, tile floors and bathrooms. The difference is so dramatic that I remember talking to our Costa Rican lawyer one time and he told me that he does not live in Tamarindo. He lives in a nearby town for locals, not international residents/guests, becuase, he said, that he prefers "Tico prices."

Tico, by the way, is a nickname for Costa Ricans. It is not derogatory at all, as Costa Ricans often use the term and the largest international newspaper in the country is called the Tico Times.

Pablo's village

This is the street where Pablo lives in a typical Costa Rican village. It is not fancy, but it is a pleasant place to live.

Costa Rica is a developing country. It has only 4 million people in an area the size of West Virginia or Switzerland, much of it mountainous. You would not expect that rural villages would have paved streets like Costa Rica's larger towns and cities, but this small village does have street lights, as you can see in the photo.

Costa Rica is making progress in developing its infrastructure, particularly roads. The newspapers carry articles about roads that are to be paved, and the construction of an asphalt plant in the Guanacaste region that will make it more efficient to make road improvements.

One aspect of the public works infrastructure that is important for visitors is that, unlike many developing nations, in Costa Rica the water is safe to drink and the food is fine to eat for people from the USA, Canada and Europe. I drink water out of the tap, although bottled water is also widely available. I eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Neither I nor any member of my family have ever gotten food poisoning or a similar illness in Costa Rica. That is not true in other countries I have visited

Pablo's horse

Here is a closer view of Pablo and his prized white horse. You can see why he is proud of such a beautiful animal. He has another horse, which he keeps in a stable in his yard behind his house. I hope that his other horse, which is a fine looking brown and white spotted horse, did not become jealous that Pablo led the white horse out into the street in front of his house to show it off to me.

This horse is so white that it looks like it belongs in a cartoon or movie galloping across the sky.

Pablo speaks English well. Before I posted my first photo of him about a year ago, I asked him if he had access to the Internet. He answered, "Of course." Foolish me. At least I evidently did not insult him, as he has remained very friendly and he extends such a cordial greeting every time I see him that I know it is going to be another pleasant day in paradise.

Pablo and his horse

Pablo, the gardener at our condo complex, works hard, as I showed yesterday. In talking to him about his life, it became clear that he is proud of his family and his animals, especially this beautiful white horse. I asked if I could drop by his village to see where he lives and to see his horse, and he graciously agreed.

It was perhaps bad manners for me to ask if I could stop by to see his horse, and I would not have risked being too assertive or intrusive if it had not been for my interest in taking photos for this Daily Photo blog. Some readers have left comments asking about typical life for Costa Ricans and some of the people who land on my site from search engines use search terms looking for typical "tico" houses. I therefore decided to see if I could stop by to see Pablo's horse and to see where he lives, even though Costa Ricans are considered to be very friendly people, but they do not typically invite foreigners to their homes.

Pablo lives in a village about 15 km (10 miles) inland from Tamarindo. Costa Ricans in small towns are proud of and retain their ties to a rural, agrarian life style even though tourism, not agriculture, is now the nation's number one industry. Pablo is a good example of this. He works in Tamarindo, a resort area. He worked in a hotel before he became a gardener for our condo building. Although he has a job from the resort industry, he still has two horses and lots of chickens in his small yard around his house. He owns a field just outside his village where his horses can graze in a pasture and he can grow food.

I will show a few more posts about Pablo's horse and village in the days ahead.

Pablo in action

Pablo, the gardener at our condo, works hard. Here are three photos of him trimming pinuelas plants with a machete.

Pinuelas plants are tough. They are a relative of the pineapple, but they have thick, pointed leaves with jagged thorns. They are used to separate the pool and back lawn area of our condo from the beach. They are well suited to be a barrier because people from the beach cannot walk through them to use the pool. They are like a living barbed wire fence.

So why does Pablo have to wade into these plants and whack the tops of the leaves with a machete? Because he is working to enhance the view of the residents and guests of the ground floor units. If the plants grow too high, the people downstairs from us, on the ground floor, will not be able to see the ocean very well from inside their condos.

In the third photo Pablo is pausing to sharpen the blade of his machete. I took these photos from the balcony of our condo. You can see how hard hard Pablo was working, just to improve the view of the people downstairs from us.

In contrast to my photos of Pablo hard at work, tomorrow I will show Pablo at his home doing something that he loves.

Pablo the gardener

This is Pablo, a gardener who does a wonderful job tending to the plants in the gardens that surround our condo in the Langosta Beach section of Tamarindo. I showed a photo of Pablo about a year ago. He had been away from work for quite a while due to a serious leg injury, but he is back performing physically challenging work. I will show a photo of his very challenging work tomorrow.

Pablo speaks very good English. He is friendly and always has a smile to greet people. I asked him to interrupt his work behind our condo and pose for this photo. I neglected to ask him about whether he is a fan of the University of Florida, as he is wearing a t-shirt commemorating their national championship in football. It is not unusual to see Costa Ricans wearing clothing from U.S. sports teams, although sometimes when talking to the person they will not know about the team.

Yesterday we posted some new photos on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site. This week we are featuring photos from New Zealand.