MayVee Photography

One year ago... I was preparing my trip to Costa Rica

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:52:00 +0000

Hi guys,

I was thinking back of my amazing trip to Costa Rica... and I realized I still forgot to share some pics. It'd be a shame if I didn't share them now, right?
These were shots from Tortuguero. Enjoy ;)

Ready for a ride?

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 17:26:00 +0000

A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after. ~Peter De Vries

Free like a bird in San Gerardo de Dota

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 18:46:00 +0000

Buenos dias!

San Gerardo, a mountain village, is not the most turistic spot in Costa Rica. But it has an enormous variety of birds.
And it is very cold sometimes (especially when we arrived). Luckily we had a small electric fire in our room which we used all night and still I needed 4 blankets. This is also Costa Rica!

The lucky shot of our stay there was one of the Quetzal, the most beautiful bird I've seen in Costa Rica.

Some of the birds frequently seen there were the hummingbirds, woodpickers and the blue-gray tanager.

There was also a waterfall. The path leading to the waterfall was a tricky one!

In my next blog I'll be flying around in Tortuguero.

Ciao!

Marijke

Bahia Drake

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:14:00 +0000

Hello there!

Finally my blog about Bahia Drake. We've already been to San Gerardo de Dota and Tortuguero in the meantime. Hopefully I can still blog about it while I'm here.

So to reach Bahia Drake we took a boat transfer from Sierpe. And yes in Sierpe they know Belgium!

It was a 1 hour boat trip until we were dropped on the shore in front of our lodge.

Dropped together with the lettuce we were going to eat that evening.

A room with a view they say. In the river you could find a caiman. If you prefer something more bigger like a crocodile I advise you to go to the beach. (I saw a crocodile passing by 2 meters from the shore) I must say it was nice swimming there. Not crowded like in Manuel Antonio (I wonder why :) )

Next day we did a snorkling tour to Isla del Caño. The snorkling guide told us that this was the second best Costa Rican place to see seelife. The best place is an island near Columbia Coco island if I remember well (which is extremely expensive).

If we were lucky we could see some dolphins and maybe a whale… Never thought there suddenly would appear 2 big whales with their baby just 3 meters in front of our boat! Amazing!

I had just put my camera away so the pics I have are from a distance. Arrgghhhh!!!

There were also 3 divers in our boat who immediately jumped into the water. One of them gave me this video. Having this healed my dissappointment of not having a good picture.

Having lunch on the island. What’s wrong Joke?

We saw many colored fish. We even saw turtles! We went to the open see with the divers to see more but then it went completely wrong for Joke… The see too rough, the boat ride too bumpy… Luckily she could rest in the arms of our friendly guide J

And that’s how Joke’s first snorkling experience ended.

That evening I stayed in the restaurant internetting when Joke ran by in panic.

I had to come to our lodge immediately!

There was a lizard above her bed. Que problema!!!

Next day: San Pedrillo (Corcovado) national park with its waterfall

We didn’t see much that day. I think all the animals hid when they felt the guide’s enthusiasm that day…

A bird, can’t remember which one:

Though this wasn’t the most interesting tour I am glad I shot this one of the a mother spider monkey with her baby.

The guide told that a man from National Geographic spent 6 months in Corcovado just to shoot a couple of pics of the monkeys.

This was a nice bird, I think it’s a sort of heron but I’m not sure.

An escargot anyone?

And the waterfalls ofcourse. The highest waterfall:

And the smaller one, a little lower:

Who’d think that only 2 hours after this peaceful sunset a tropical storm would hit Drake bay.

For 6 hours rain poured down and the hugest lightning show kept us all awake during the night. The lodge’s owner had never seen a storm like that in 10 years time… and again I was lucky enough to witness it.

Good night y’all,

Marijke

Manuel Antonio - a tropical paradise

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 04:01:00 +0000

Buenas tardes,

Okay I promise in this blogpost there won't be rainy pics. I heard you have already seen enough rain in Belgium by now! (And I also promise I won't post a smiley here)

Before arriving in Manuel Antonio we made a quick stop at Playa Jaco. It’s also a surfer’s paradise.

Joke’s juice was far better than my salad, which literally just was salad! Luckily it only cost like 12 dollars …

Let's see what the sunny Manuel Antonio has to show you.

In the national park we came across an amazing variety of reptiles, mammals, reptiles…

This little lizard (should search for the specific name) was a hard one to find. Too bad I couldn’t get it completely sharp.

Find the sloth! We saw both the two-toed and three-toed.

The cutest monkey I have ever seen, the squirrel monkey

Crabs with red legs

A fiery-billed aracari, very nice!

This is the Gaudy leaf frog, unfortunately sleeping and on the other side of the leaf…

Can you find this one?

This is the boa constrictor hiding between logs of wood on the beach. Shot of the day, yes!!!

The Jesus Christ lizard that can walk over water.

Manuel Antonio has 3 beaches, number 2 and 3 are inside the park, number 1 outside.

This is number 3

For those who don’t know how bananas grow. Nice detail, it takes 1,5 years to grow a banana!

As you can see Manuel Antonio has a huge variety of species. Next stop will be Drake bay with the Corcovado national park.

Hasta pronto,

Maria

Montellueve... huh Monteverde

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 03:19:00 +0000

From Arenal we drove to Monteverde. It was a bumpy ride and the weather switched to cloudy to misty and rainy... And that's how our stay in Monteverde was: rainy! But that's why it's called the rainforest I guess...

On our way we suddenly saw this sign in Santa Elena. The witnesses are everywhere, even in the mountains!

We caught this beautiful sunset in the evening:

The next day it wasn't raining in the morning luckily and so we did a hiking trip through the rainforest (with the hanging bridges). There was also a hummingbird garden (colibri) which had many different kinds of hummingbirds flying around. The sound of them flying around your ears is unbelievable, taking pictures was a challenge. They are incredibly fast and they hardly sit still!

Time to leave again... When we left Monteverde the scenery was amazing. At one side of the mountain we had the misty Monteverde and other mountain villages. At the other side of the mountain the sun showed up and we got to see the magnificent Arenal lake!

Up to Manuel Antonio and the sun!!!

Hasta pronto,

Maria

Antzzzz

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 23:40:00 +0000

Still forgot this on my previous blog. What do you think of these ants walking by?

Hi, Ho! Kermit the Frog here!

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 23:34:00 +0000

"When green is all there is to be, it can make you wonder why, but why wonder. I'm green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful, and I think it's what I want to be.
Someday you'll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me.
It's not easy being green." Kermit the Frog song

On a night trip in Arenal we still went frog watching! We saw quite a few like the glass frog, Savage's foam frog, the Gaudy leaf frog (!) -yes we did but it was too far away to take a good picture :( and a couple of other of which I can't remember the name.

Some frogspawn...

And a few other creatures...

So far our night tour...

I'm getting hungry right now so see ya later. I still be posting pictures of the misty (rainy) Monteverde.

Ciao!

Marijke

Beam me up, Scotty

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:26:00 +0000

Hi,

Yesterday afternoon we went for some adventure. We did the Sky Tram - Sky Trek. The sky tram is (like it says) an aerial tramway that takes you to the highest point of the Arenal reserve .From there the Sky Trek takes you through the rainforest with ziplines. It's a tour of 8 cables, ranging from 60 to 750 meters long that go above the forest canopy. At first I was like "What was I thinkng?!" but after like 2 ziplines it really became fun. I have a small video for you ;)

Marijke

Bird watching

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:26:00 +0000

Hola!

So this morning we got up at 5am to go birdwatching...I thought we'd go on a tour with some grandfathers but even they weren't interested. So we got a private tour with Victor, our guide.
And we saw quite some nice birds like the swallow tailed kite, ora pendula montezuma, banana quit, broad billed motmot, the keel-billed toekan, ...

Hasta Pronto,

Marijke

Arenal Volcano

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:26:00 +0000

Hi there again,

So I was going to update on our stay here in la Fortuna (Arenal) right?

We made this 3 hour drive from Rincon de la Vieja to la Fortuna and saw some amazing views along the way.

This morning we went on a short hiking to the volcano Arenal. You can't get too close to the volcano because it's dangerous. (10 years ago a guide and a young girl died enhaling the gasses)
The guide gave much information about its volcanic history which was really interesting. Arenal's last eruption was in 1968 after it's been sleeping for more than 400 years (there was another eruption in 1525).
But I won't give the whole story because I'm sure you can wikipedia it.

Besides getting told about the volcano the guide also spotted some birds, spiders, animals for us...
Mind you, it's the rainforest and it was raining like mad! And it still is btw :(

Y

ou can see (from top to bottom) the tropical green anole that switches color from brown to green (the local cameleon ;) ), the wandering spider, white-nosed coati and the eyelashed pitviper.

Hurry up Muchacho!

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 04:57:00 +0000

Hello there,

Firstly sorry but the wifi didn't work in our previous hotel. The positive thing about this is that I have some things to tell ya ;)
So where was I? Oh right at the last post I was still dreaming away on the beach of Tamarindo. Sadly we had to leave the Miami like beach town. But before heading towards Rincon de la Vieja we made a stop at the beautiful Playa Conchal (shelves beach) and the not so nice looking city Liberia. The positive side of this city's that you can do some shopping over there. Seriously ladies, there was like a shop that had like 10 sorts of eyelash curlers and 50 kinds of nail polishes. I was so overwhelmed that I actually didn't buy anything - I'm definitely gonna regret this!

Playa Conchal

Anyway we continued our trip to Rincon de la Vieja.We enjoyed the hotsprings right there and the did a horseback riding tour through the park.The next day we still wanted to go hiking. I planned some wildlife shots and some pics close to the Rincon. Unfortunately it was raining too hard so we skipped that one and decided to drive straight to the Arenal (La Fortuna) area. Normally I don't like driving that much but this drive was so relaxing. I really enjoyed it!

At Rincon de la Vieja

Horseback riding with my amigo Muchacho.
They gave me Muchacho, the slowest, most stubborn horse of all! It went from slow to slower to... until it was just me and Muchacho alone.

There was a also a small waterfall we visited on that trip (don't ask for the name 'cause I can't remember).

The scenery was lovely, no pics can show how beautiful it was.

After the horseback riding my hmm really hurt! But that was easily solved with a good massage at the hotel's spa :)

I'm at Arenal right but my post is getting quite long so I'll tell you about it in another post right?

Take care and Good night.

From La Fortuna with love ;)

Chilling in Tamarindo

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 05:14:00 +0000

Hi,

Since yesterday we are in the turistic town Tamarindo. It's a nice, laidback place to chill on the beach. It's also a surfing paradise but I didn't try that one out.
Now today we went on a mangrove boat trip in Marino las Baulas National Park. We saw a black hawk, a crocodile, ibis, howler monkeys... I try to take some pictures but it wasn't always so easy to get a good one... here's the result:

Next stop will be Rincon de la Vieja with its active volcano.

See ya later alligator!

Marijke

Flying like a bird

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 19:01:00 +0000

Hi there,

We've arrived at Playa Ostional after a fun flight with a propeller plane (Nature Air). Really cool! We made stopovers at Tambor and Hotel Punta Islita. The view out of the plane was breathtaking.
And as you can see I've started the wildlife spotting...

Oh and my first loss of the vacation is my Tamron lenshood. I dropped it somewhere in the bushes at Ostional...

See you soon,

Marijke

Stopovers can be fun

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:38:00 +0000

That day you go from one airport to another...

We have arrived in Atlanta. Everything's going well. And luck is on my side again. We have to wait for another 2 hours and it's football on television. :))
Forza Italia!!!

Saluti Marijke

(Almost) Enjoying la Pura Vida!

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:58:00 +0000

Hello Everyone,

The next 4 weeks my friend Joke and I will be traveling through Costa Rica!

I'm planning to post one or more pics a day so you can look what we are up to.

But being a VERY frequent blogger .... don't shoot me if I miss out one day.

Anyway our trip did not, hmmm how can I tell, exactly start like we had planned. We missed our flight* and so I'm posting this not from la San José caliente but from Bélgica nubosa.

Here you have the first pic of me still smiling on my way to the airport :)

For your own sake I won't post a picture of us after our encounter with the rigid lady at the check in.

(->Really she could use a vacation in Costa Rica)

Hasta luego!

Marijke

(*)Actually to be honest I didn't want to miss the semi final European
Championship tonight but ssshhh...

Lichtfestival Gent 2012

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:17:00 +0000

Last weekend Ghent held its second light festival. It was an overwhelming success.

To give you an impression of the city Ghent and the festival I share a few pictures.

Enjoy ;)

You wanna go for a walk?

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:35:00 +0000

This happens when you hike too much! Even the best shoes can't handle it hehe... :)

Oh spiders...

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:34:00 +0000

Anyone who likes spiders?
I don't know which sort of spider it is but it looks creepy.

Like Alice in ... Keukenhof

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:48:00 +0000

I love Spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. ~Ruth Stout

Hi Everyone!

Finally with an almost 2 season delay some pics of my day at Keukenhof .
Keukenhof is an amazing colourful park in the Netherlands. It's known worldwide for its millions of flowers that create the ultimate Spring feeling.
At some point I really started to believe I was part of a fairytale... Enjoy!

Marijke

Oh I haven't posted in a month...

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:15:00 +0000

Sorry it's been a while again. I am busy drawing ...

and babysitting this 2 cute little ones :)

The Philipinne way of life

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 21:03:00 +0000

... on the road to El Nido.

As a preview for my upcoming blog about my journey to the Philippines, I've already made a small selection.
With this selection I want to give a sight on the daily life of the Philippine people on the countryside. You will notice a huge contrast between the modern, fast running place we live in.

I apologise for the quality of these pics. These pictures were mainly taken during a downpour driving to and from El Nido, Palawan. The driver had a heavy foot and I can assure you the roads were very bumpy. So it was more like lucky shooting... (the other pics of the Philippines are fortunately much better)
Anyway, with these pics I just want to show you their pace of life. Don't forget to look at the smiles on the school boys and girls.
I quote a Philippine friend of mine: "Always smile because a smile can wipe the wrinkles away."

Ate Marijke

Do you also wonder what this kid is doing?

These 2 kids definitely have the cute factor

The last one is very blurry but I posted this for a reason. While all those kids were coming from school, these 2 kids came from the forest... from work.

It's a beautiful day

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 21:44:00 +0000

Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world. ~Virgil A. Kraft

Egypt 2009

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:00:00 +0000

A few shots of my (unfortunately too short) holiday in Egypt in November 2009. I spent one week at Sharm-El-Sheikh and flew over to Cairo to visit the famous pyramids and the Egyptian Museum. We also made a trip through the Sinai Dessert (to the Blue Hole -Dahab).

Pyramids of Gizeh

Life around the Nile

Sharm-el -Sheikh

Sinai Dessert (trip to Dahab)

Dahab

Spotting Supermoon

noreply@blogger.com (MV met talent) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 20:33:00 +0000

Have a look outside because the biggest Full Moon in 18 Years occurs tonight.
I don't notice if the moon is really bigger than usual but it sure looks much brighter.

MayVee Photography

One year ago... I was preparing my trip to Costa Rica

Ready for a ride?

Free like a bird in San Gerardo de Dota

Bahia Drake

Manuel Antonio - a tropical paradise

Montellueve... huh Monteverde

Antzzzz

Hi, Ho! Kermit the Frog here!

Beam me up, Scotty

Bird watching

Arenal Volcano

Hurry up Muchacho!

Chilling in Tamarindo

Flying like a bird

Stopovers can be fun

(Almost) Enjoying la Pura Vida!

Lichtfestival Gent 2012

You wanna go for a walk?

Oh spiders...

Like Alice in ... Keukenhof

Oh I haven't posted in a month...

The Philipinne way of life

It's a beautiful day

Egypt 2009

Spotting Supermoon

Have a look outside because the biggest Full Moon in 18 Years occurs tonight. I don't notice if the moon is really bigger than usual but it sure looks much brighter.

Have a look outside because the biggest Full Moon in 18 Years occurs tonight.
I don't notice if the moon is really bigger than usual but it sure looks much brighter.