Tide is Turning

I'd like to thank two of my students from Costa Rica, 2014 for these fabulous photos. The first one is the coati mundi that visited us regularily, or rather whenever there were worthwhile food scraps to be had. He was about the same size and shape as a racoon, and just as tenacious. 

Coati Mundi at Montana Azul, our home in the central Costa Rica Chirripo mountains. Thanks to Diane Gourdeau of Montreal for this photo.

I can't tell you what kind of bird this is, but this is who the coati mundi is stealing from! The poor birds all had to fly away whenever he/she mounted the food post. Lot of free entertainment.  Thanks to Barb Dickson of Almonte for this photo.

This was a quicky that I'm not totally happy with. My intention was to capture the light coming into the Casa Grande at Montana Azul, but also to not the grandeur of the proportions of this very high entrance way. There was something graceful, almost majestic about the way the curtain hung, so long,..the the light on the curtains , and reflected on the floor was lovely. This was very close to the food perch that attracted so much wildlife. 

After all the winter weather we've experienced since we came back, it's very easy to day dream about being back there, in the perfect 75-ish degree weather that happens in this mountainous area.

All the staff at this resort were super friendly, flowers abounding everywhere. 

I would like to say that Montana Azul is a special place. This is a retreat center that has been financed by people from all over the world, who have a special interest in projects of a spiritual nature. The place exists for retreat of a spiritual nature, but also acts as a healing house for local youth, serving to make their lives better. We felt priviledged to be welcomed to stay at this sacred place, complete with a meditation garden and buddha statues everywhere, as well as many other symbols of other spiritual philosophies. Montana Azul welcomes all spiritual groups on retreat, from around the world. We were the first art group they had hosted. 

Stay tuned, my next post will be about the special feeling at Montana Azul.