Tree with walking roots

This tree in Tamarindo has what are referred to as walking roots.  The trunk does not reach the ground, but splinters in lots of different directions, and spreads it base.

This provides shelter and habitat for animals.  I will leave it to my imagination to contemplate what creatures might find a home in that thicket.

This week we are showing some more photos from my wife's recent trip to Guatemala, featuring the market town of ChiChi and Guatemala City on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Red flowers in the trees

All over Tamarindo, especially along the beach, we have trees the bloom with red flowers.

This week we have photos of the people of Guatemala posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Bird perched on a walking root.

This bird seems to be enjoying the strong perch of the walking roots of this tropical tree.

This week we have photos of Majorica posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Silhouette of a tree in the rain forest

I like the atmosphere of this tree silhouetted against the mist.

I took this photo in one of the central valleys near San Jose.  We don't have rain forests near Tamarindo.  Northwest Costa Rica is a coastal dry forest.  The rain forests in the central highlands begin about 90 minutes away.

This week we are showing photos of the Galapagos Islands on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

It's a Jungle Out There

During the next few days, please join me on a little raft float trip on the Penas Blancas River near Arenal Volcano, several hours inland from Tamarindo.

Some of the river raft trips near Arenal are thrilling white water adventures with rapids.  I took a leisurely float trip so I would have more opportunities to photograph some wildlife.

We have new photos of the colonial architecture of Grenada, Nicaragua posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Barnacles on a Tree?

Continuing with my little series on biodiversity, here is a photo of a tree that has what appears to be barnacles on its truck.  I don't know the type of tree this is or why it has this adaptation.  In North America, it might be to discourage bears from climbing the tree, but we don't have bears in Costa Rica.  We have sloths and monkeys that climb trees.  This would make an ideal tree for a bear to scratch his back.

This week we are showing photos of the Spanish colonial architecture of Grenada, Nicaragua on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Monkey Ladder

I have had a few posts in the last few days about biodiversity, so here is a photo of one of the unusual plants in Costa Rica.  It is called a monkey ladder, and with good reason.

The turning shape of the vines that lead from the canopy to the ground provide excellent hand holds for monkeys to climb up and down.

This week we are showing photos of the Spanish colonial architecture of Grenada, Nicaragua on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Red blossoms in trees

I don't know what these trees are called, but lots of the trees in and around Tamarindo have these red flowers to add an accent color to the lush green of the forest and the trees along the beach.

This week we are showing photos from Waterford, Ireland, the home of Waterford Crystal, on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Walking tree

Trees that drop roots into the ground are often called walking trees.  The roots seem to progress primarily in one direction so that the tree "walks" along in that direction.

This tree is in the gardens  in the courtyard of the Capitan Suizo Resort in Tamarindo.  I took the photo from the lobby, looking down into the gardens, which explains the perspective of looking down onto the tree.

This week we are showing photos of the architecture of Grenada, Nicaragua on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Airborne roots

This tree might be a cousin of the tree with walking roots that I showed yesterday.  These are not walking roots, as this tree has a strong central trunk, but the tree does drop roots through the air to the ground.

This week we are showing photos of the architecture of Grenada, Nicaragua on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Toppled tree

After yesterday's photo of a giant mangrove tree, here is a photo of yet another giant tree, although this one has toppled over in the soft, damp soil right next to the mangrove swamp.

We have photos of ancient Khmer temples of Cambodia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Huge mangrove tree

This photo shows how remarkable mangrove trees are.  Although they are usually small on the shores of the estuary with a thicket of airborne roots, they can also grow towering trunks to become very high.  This tree has a tall trunk even though the trunk did not grow from out of the ground.

The trunk is airborne, supported by he smaller roots.  If you have not yet visited our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week, I recommend that you do so because we have posted photos of similar trees that have dropped roots down onto the top of some of the ancient Khmer temples of Cambodia.

Mangrove thicket

This photo shows how dense the mangrove roots can be in the swampy estuary.  It would be impossible to walk through a mangrove forest, except on trails that have been cleared.

I think black and white at times accentuates the patterns, shapes and lines in photographs.

This week we have photos of ancient Khmer temples of Cambodia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Narrower reaches of the mangrove swamp

Although the estuary is wide near the ocean, it extends with narrow fingers into the mangrove swamp.  The tour boats travel to the upper reaches of the estuary to let people see the mangrove thickets up close.

They also stop so people can take a hike on some of the trails that lace through this natural habitat.

25% of the area of Costa Rica is set aside in national parks and wildlife refuges, the highest percentage of any country on earth.  That is a primary reason, along wit the biodiversity, that ecotourism is the number one industry in the country.

We are showing photos of Bangkok, Thailand on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.  We loved it, and we hope you will enjoy our photos.

Mangroves in a tidal estuary

This is a little closer view of the structure of mangrove trees in a tidal estuary.  The roots take hold in the shallow sand bar, but there are no leaves below the high water line.  The tide flows in and out under the tree.

The tree provides habitat for wildlife, as I will show in my posts in the next week or so.

These wetlands are also important areas for water runoff during the rainy season.

We are showing photos of Bangkok, Thailand on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.  We loved it, and we hope you will enjoy our photos.

Coconut on the beach

In contrast to yesterday's photo of new coconuts hanging from a tree, today I am showing a photo of an old coconut that had washed up on the beach.  I don't know how this broke open.  It looks like someone may have cut it open.  It provides a good cross section of the anatomy of a coconut.  A little crab is enjoying the fibers.

It won't happen to this coconut, but some coconuts that wash up on the beach can sprout a stalk from the coconut that can take root and turn into a tree.

This week we have photos of Angkor Wat and other nearby temples of Siem Reap, Cambodia, on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Coconuts on the tree

Today's photo looks up from the flowers of my photos posted during the last few days, and shows a cluster of coconuts hanging from one of the many palm trees in the area.

I try to avoid walking under coconut palms that are loaded with coconuts, as they will fall to the ground.  There is a debate on the internet about whether coconuts are dangerous.  Apparently some scientists when discussing some other remote threat have at times made comments that people are more likely to get injured by a falling coconut than whatever else they are talking about.  

Some of the internet attention to this subject was prompted by a visit by President Obama to the Ghandi Museum in Mumbai in 2010, when the Indian officials cut all the coconuts off the trees before the President arrived to make sure that none would fall on him.

The consensus of the articles on the internet that I found was that reports of deaths from coconuts falling are an exaggerated myth, not supported by research or other evidence.  Nevertheless, why take a chance, as a falling coconut would hurt, even if it is an exceedingly remote hazard.

This week we have photos of Angkor Wat and other temples of Cambodia on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  If you have not been there, I think you will be fascinated by a quick visit to our website, or a visit in person to Siem Reap, Cambodia.