Costa Rica

To live in Costa Rica means walking inside exuberant jungles, trekking along cool water streams, visiting nice beaches, discovering impressive waterfalls and watching awe-inspiring sunrises and sunsets. To capture this beauty, patience and perseverance is needed, along a critical eye to spot great compositions. I am blessed enough that through my hiking and birdwatching trips, many of these places reveal themselves in front my eyes. I hope you enjoy taking in the view from your screen.

One of my favorite scenes are rain forest canopies, specially in the low elevations, where “Botarrama” trees dominate with their broccoli shape. To be honest, I don’t like to eat broccoli, but I really enjoy seeing these trees as they overshoot the rest of the forest. In general, the landscape looks monochromatic with so much green, but it reminds me of the large ecosystems full of diverse living forms that are supported by the forests. The cacophony of sounds coming out of it is a testament of that diversity.

Another favorite is waterfalls and streams inside the rain forest. The landscape is dominated by the green vegetation and dark tree trunks visible under the forest canopy, and complemented by the smooth white pattern of water as it moves fast downstream. Just as the scenes look gorgeous, the experience is also wonderful, as many of those vistas are reached through enjoyable hikes through the forest, and the sound of moving water once you reach destination is among the most peaceful events that one can witness.

And then comes sunrise and sunset. An explosion of red, purple and yellow colors fill the sky, which makes you wonder if it suddenly was lit by fire. During sunrise, the clouds move slowly and shine with the first light, while the land is still dark and the trees look like silhouettes. During sunset, the light fades out gradually and gives way to the stars and the moon as the sky turns pitch black.