Fun from Costa Rica

Everyday Jan Yatsko had a
creativity exercise to get our juices flowing. This one was using a Spanish word that started with a drawn letter. I picked a "U"! I had already drawn the crocodile at the River Tarcoles and decided to go with "ultravioleta" and paint him purple. Without that "U" I never would have gotten a "cocodilla ultravioleta".

Diane and I went up to the cloud forest in San Gerardo de Dota and the Savegre River. While hiking we poured water on the rich soil of the trails and I painted the background of this page. Then I added bits of plants from the trails and around the hotel.

San Gerardo de Dota is very popular with the bird watchers. Large groups come to see the numerous

song birds, woodpeckers, hummingbirds and of course the Quetzal. It really is a spectacular bird but who could pass up sketching those "birders", they were almost as entertaining. Can you say, "zip off pants"?

Jan had a bandana on her list of what to bring. We had a great many laughs over the bandana and it's possible uses. I actually came to rely on that bandana in my pocket and have bought three more since returning home. I was enchanted by the silhouettes of the trees covered with moss, vines and bromeliads. These bromeliads are the epiphyte variety that attach themselves to the trees. They don't cause any harm to the host trees. I loved the different varieties.

Robert Bateman Sketchbook Pen and Watercolor.