Baltimore City Farmer's Market

Every Sunday from 7 until they are sold out, the Farmer's Market is open for business under the Jones Falls Expressway in downtown Baltimore. It is not just your normal farmer's market, it is more like a carnival, craft show, food market, street food smorgasboard all rolled into one. Besides the great opportunites for people watching there is a feast for the eyes of colors and textures everywhere. The array of seasonal fruits and vegetables is endless. There are organic meat vendors that include chicken, pork, beef, bison and goat. You can buy milk, yogurt and cheese products. There are flower and herb growers. There is honey, homemade jams, nuts, barbecue sauces, pastries, crafts. As for food choices, you can feast on Cajun, Mexican, African American, French, Thai or Nouveau Cuisine. Everytime I go I discover something new. The only problem is that it is becoming so popular that the parking in the area is at a premium and the line for Zeke's coffee gets longer and longer.

Oh so red radishes

I can never seem to pass up a thyme plant.

A basket of mixed mushrooms

More mushrooms

This lettuce was yummy.

Tomatilas

Peppers

Blue crabs, a Baltimore tradition

Wheely Good Smoothies

If you power the blender yourself on the bike you save a dollar. I chose a banana, mango, ginger smoothie and it was wonderful.

I have to get some of this next time.

Savory pies

Thai goodies

Dumplings

Harpers Ferry

When my cousins from Scotland came to visit in June I tried to take them to as many different sites as possible. We visited Baltimore City, Philadelphia, Lancaster County PA, and Washington DC. I thought it would be nice to see some hills and farms in the countryside of Maryland so we headed up 70W to Harpers Ferry.

In attempt to see as many states as possible I thought Harpers Ferry would be a good destination since the town is located at the intersection of three states: Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. From where I am standing here on the railroad bridge I am actually standing in 3 states.

This is where the Shenandoah River empties into the Potomac River.

The Shendoah River and the Potomac Rivers

There is a footbridge that runs alongside the railroad tracks and over the river.

Jefferson Rock

Thomas Jefferson, one of the town's most famous tourists, visited Harpers Ferry in 1783 and climbed the hillside above Harper House. He pronounced the view of the water gap from this vantage point "one of the most stupendous scenes in nature" and "worth a voyage across the Atlantic." I hope my Scottish cousins agreed.

The town is built on the hillside. Here you can see the church on the hilltop from the bottom of town. Over the years this lower part of town has flooded many times.

Some of the shops have been restored to look as they might have in the 1800's.

The General Store

Old stone steps

Harper House

The church at the top of the hill

Old buildings have been lovingly restored

Manuel Antonio Park

While in Jaco, we took a side trip to Manuel Antonio Park in Quepos. We booked the excursion with Jaco360 and for a modest price we were picked up at our hotel, driven to the park and had an excellent tour of the park with our guide, Walter. We stopped at a fruit stand on the way and our guide bought a huge bag of fruit for each of us, including the most delicious pineapple I have ever eaten. While in the park we saw Two-Toed and Three-Toed Sloths, White-Faced Capuchin Monkeys, Howler Monkeys, Squirrel Monkeys, many birds and other little creatures.

Sloth


Forest Crab

White-Faced Capuchin Monkey

Monkey Family

Bats

Fiery-Billed Aracari

Basilisk Lizard

Crab

Return to Jaco

So now it's beachtime. After a hard few days of birding it's time for some rest and relaxation at the beach in Jaco. We stayed at our favorite condo at Paloma Blanca. We enjoyed walks on the beach, walks into town, dining out, sunning and swimming in the pool and of course a little more birding.

Jaco view facing south

Jaco view facing north

Anyone for horseback riding on the beach?

Got to bring home some Lizano Salsa, the taste of Costa Rica

And enjoy this while you are here

Crested Caracara... you didn't think we didn't do any birding did you?

Turquoise-Browed Motmot

Why are sunsets at the beach always so much more beautiful than anywhere else?

Kathy and George

Costa Rica June 2011

In early June George and I took a trip to Costa Rica. We arranged our trip through Costa Rica Birding Journeys, owner and operator, Randall Ortega Chavez. I have used Randall in the past on several trips and have never been disappointed. (There is a link to his website in the sidebar.) He arranged all our hotel accomodations, picked us up at the airport, transported us to all our hotels and guided us on our birding expeditions. He knows my bird list and what I am missing so he planned our destinations with the best possible chances of adding new birds to my life list. With this in mind our first destination was Heliconias Lodge in Bijagua, Upala in the north of Costa Rica. This was a rustic but very lovely and comfortable lodge that came with a daily 6am wakeup call from the nearby Howler Monkeys. Excellent birding was as close as the grounds of the lodge. There were beautifully maintained trails and a series of hanging bridges which take you to the canopy of the rainforest where the birds are. In two days of birding at Heliconias we were able to see 112 birds of which 29 were new. The highlights were the Ornate Hawk Eagle, Tody Motmot, Long-Tailed Manakin, Ocellated Antbird, Streak-Crowned Antvireo, Black-Headed Antthrush, Green Shrike-Vireo and White-Necked Jacobin.

There are 4 Hanging Bridges along the trails at Heliconias Lodge that take you to the canopy of the rainforest where the birds are. The average height of the bridges from the ground is 90 meters and length is 130 meters. They were very narrow and extremely shaky which made it a challenge to focus binoculars on birds, but the view of the rainforest from this vantage point was awesome.
We found this nest of the White-Neck Jacobin right along the edge of the trail.

Here is the White-Necked Jacobin (hummingbird) on the nest.


This is the Jicaro Danto tree. It is the only tree in the world to bear blossoms on the trunk.




Jicaro Danto blossoms

One of many wonderful old trees in the rainforest.

Heleconias Lodge is located at the foothills of the Tenorio Volcano. This is the volcano as seen from the Lodge.

Just to the north is the Nicaraguan border. If you look closely you can see Lake Nicaragua in the distance and two old volcanic mountains in the Lake.