Bird of the Day: Eastern Bluebird (Atlanta, Georgia)
Author: James Zainaldin
Bird of the Day: White-crowned Parrot
Tacacori, Costa Rica
Bird of the Day: Montezuma Oropendola
Tacacori, Costa Rica
From the Flora-Files, Part 4
This little gem can be found along the path to the art studio.
And so the flora-files march on (see past posts, starting from the most recent here). Continuing these posts has become a way for me to reflect on the wonderful opportunities I had at Xandari and around Costa Rica to come into contact with a lot of fascinating and beautiful flora and fauna. As I peruse my photo catalogs and look for pictures to post, I feel like I’m back there, even briefly. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Clay-colored Robin
Yigüirro, the National Bird of Costa Rica
Tacacori, Costa Rica
Bird of the Day: Black Vulture
Tacacori, Costa Rica
From the Flora-Files, Part 3
Outside of Xandari lobby
Continuing the flora-files (see post #2). Continue reading
Masters of Disguise
The green coloration helps this cricket blend into its leafy environment
Members of the animal kingdom have developed an amazing number of ways of defending themselves from predators. Some have highly evolved poisons that can wound or kill animals many times larger than themselves (think venomous snakes and spiders, or poison dart frogs); others have barbs, spines, or just generally prickly parts that render them unappetizing, making would-be-assailants think twice about the hassle of getting the creature into its craw; finally, there are more innocuous methods of self-defense, like cryptic camouflage. Cryptic camouflage makes the creature more Continue reading
Butterflies from the Butter-files
As I mentioned in the “flora-file” series (see posts #1 and #2, more are forthcoming), I’m posting a number of photos I collected during my time at Xandari Resort & Spa this summer. Some of these photos aren’t of plants, so I’ve got to think of another punny name for this post featuring butterflies: what about the “butter-files”? It’ll have to work for now! Continue reading
From the Flora-files, Part 2
Orchard, garden paths
As promised in the first post, more flora (with captions identifying the locations around Xandari). And more to come!
Orchard
Bird of the Day: Hoffman’s Woodpecker – Male (Xandari Resort, Costa Rica)
photo credit: Seth Inman
From the Flora-Files, Part 1
Right of the reception
Although, as I detailed in my last post, my internship at Xandari is over, I still have a great backlog of images that I never had a chance to upload while there. (My computer broke.) I’d like to share the better of those photos with everyone here. I’ve named this post “flora-files” because I think the title sort of punny: “files” in the sense of records on Xandari’s flora; and “file” in the sense of the Greek φίλoÏ‚ (philos), “love,” the same one that shows up in “Philadelphia” or “audiophile.” Look out for more from the flora-files… I’ll detail where I find these flowers around Xandari in the caption, so that if you’re lucky enough to be here while they’re in bloom, you can go seek them out.
Garden paths
Doka Coffee In-Depth: o, Una Tarde de Café
Tarde de Café con Doka Estate (An Afternoon of Coffee with Doka)
As mentioned in a recent post, Xandari was joined last week by one of Doka Estate’s coffee experts, Natalia Vargas, who gave a presentation on the estate’s process of growing, harvesting, and preparing coffee. The presentation also involved a coffee-tasting session so that we could see… er… taste the fruits of Doka’s hard work. This latter part of the presentation is what I’ll be mostly focusing on in this post. I don’t want to give too much away, in case I spoil the fun of visiting the Doka Estate for yourself when you’re next staying at Xandari, but seeing as it was a very informative and enjoyable a presentation (at least for a coffee lover), and that Xandari should soon be in a position to capitalize on the knowledge in its own coffee endeavors (most recent post here), I thought I’d spill just a few of the beans here, no pun intended.
Coffee table set-up
Natalia first walked us through the actual growing, selection, and harvesting process. All the beans at Doka originate from plants alread Continue reading
Bird Fun (…and Aristotle?) around TacacorÃ
Papier-mâché penguins and other birds from the fourth grade class
In his recent post on our work at the local school in TacacorÃ, Seth outlined our papier-mâché and painting ambitions with the third and fourth grades there. The second half of the week, Seth and I were split up because of the kids’ conflicting class schedules. I took fourth grade on the last few days, and he worked with third grade.
In his Poetics, Aristotle elaborates an aesthetic theory partly on the basis of μίμησις (mimÄ“sis), or “imitation.” According to Aristotle, humans are “mimetic” beings, that is, disposed to imitate nature and other human beings. Art’s basis is precisely in Continue reading
Peaberry Coffee
Mostly standard coffee beans (some Peaberry beans may have snuck in!)
A friend from the Doka Estate (on Doka see our most recent post on coffee) visited Xandari yesterday to tell us more about the process of growing and preparing coffee from seedling to cup. We’ll go into what we learned in more detail in another post, but for now I wanted to share something interesting I learned about different types of coffee–specifically about the type of coffee called “Peaberry” (or caracoli). Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Lineated Woodpecker (Xandari Resort, Costa Rica)
Photo Credit: Seth Inman
The Fate of Coffee . . . at Xandari!
A coffee leaf (Arabica sp.)
If I hadn’t put the ellipses and “Xandari” in the title, this post would have been a lot more mundane, because the fate of (most) coffee beans isn’t particularly interesting from an existential standpoint. Or, on second thought, maybe it is very interesting? Now that I think about it, different answers might betray different philosophical commitments. For example, what would be a better answer to the question of coffee’s fate: “roasting, grinding, and filling someone’s stomach” or “waking somebody up”? The previous answer is a mechanical life-history of matter composing the coffee-bean, while the latter places coffee in a meaningful context of life, where “coffee” isn’t a chemical sequence, but rather a beverage people consume for the flavor and its beneficial effects–“coffee” as most people besides chemists perhaps think of it, that is. Anyways, this post really isn’t about philosophy, even if the title has me (and perhaps you) waxing contemplative over how we make sense of things.
What this post is really about is the fate of wild coffee plants around Xandari Resort. You’ve already seen how Seth and I have been planting coffee in a bid to bring back the bean around Xandari (see Seth’s most recent post here, from which you can bounce all the way back to the first ones) and learned about the history of coffee at Xandari (here). When Xandari first began to be converted from a fertile, shade-grown coffee plantation Continue reading
The Seasonality of Flowers
These flowers are called “fósforos” in Spanish, meaning “matches.” (Guess why!) They’re much beloved by Steely-vented Hummingbirds.
Xandari’s guests often remark on how difficult it is not to take dozens, even hundreds, of photos around the resort–one reason for that is the abundant flora. Even though I know I probably shouldn’t do another post on flowers (see my others here and here), I will use a similar excuse and say that I have a very hard time walking by the amazing blooms and not pulling out my camera to snap a quick picture. Flowers only bloom for a short time before dropping their petals and waiting in repose for the next season–this small window of loveliness is one of the reasons why they are so compelling. Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Tropical Kingbird (Xandari Resort, Costa Rica)
Photo Credit: Seth Inman
Bamboo Wind Chimes for Birds
One of the finished chimes
The picture above shows one of a couple bamboo wind chimes that Seth and I built to put up around Xandari. The sound is, err, rather wooden–but definitely mild and pleasant! You may be asking why we took it upon ourselves to demonstrate our mighty artistic prowess. Well, we really had the birds of Xandari in mind with this project. Specifically, a poor Buff-throated Saltator who had thrown himself against the spa window so many times that he had Continue reading
Organikos 