Art In Bloom

Back in The Lou and time for the Saint Louis Art Museum's annual Art In Bloom show. Throughout the galleries, top floral designers are invited to create an arrangement that interprets but does not copy a particular painting or statue.

Beautiful things to see but hard to shoot. STL has a lot of public events for a city our size but, as time passes and word gets around, they get more and more crowded. Pretty tough to take pictures with the masses walking into your shot. I may go back today when the museum opens for another try.       

STL DPB On The Road - The Sad Mariachi

There are many restaurants in Tamarindo near the beach. On all of our visits we found mariachi bands going from one to another, playing a few Mexican songs and asking for tips. It's optional but I always give them something. The music is pretty good and it seems like a hard way to make a living.

As a rule, the performers are pretty cheerful. However, the affect of this accordionist told me that something was weighing him down. He never smiled, but he still played well.       

Lizards And Leftovers

I need to run through some more images from Costa Rica until there is an opportunity to shoot new material back here. (There is something on  tomorrow.) Going back over the files, I found this. For some reason it got past me on my first review. This was taken during a night walk in the Monteverde cloud forest with a superb local guide. How he finds these little critters in the dark, even with a flashlight, is beyond me.   

City Dailly Photo Theme Day - Play

I managed to come up with something from Costa Rica for CDP theme day. This was taken at just about the same place as the photo in yesterday's post.     

Endless Summer

Costa Rica is about half way between the Tropic of Cancer and the equator. The Pacific coast is warm all year round but there is a wet and dry season. It's hot every afternoon at this time of year and rarely rains. From April-May until around November it rains pretty much every afternoon, sometimes in torrents. The tourist authorities euphemistically call that the green season.

Big slap in the face getting back to work this week. Editing and posting time is limited so I'll pare down the content. This scene is a couple of hundred meters down the beach from the condo where we stay, as sunset approaches.      

STL DPB On The Road - Mystical Torment

We visited someplace near Tamarindo that was new to us, La Senda (the path). It sounded interesting but turned out to be not so pleasant. In fact, Mrs. C characterized it as torture.

Two European women have developed this new-age-y, sort of mystical place not far out of town. There is a labyrinth (as opposed to a maze), about 3 km long with the path marked by cacti. It’s supposed to be designed around energy centers and sacred numbers, if that's your cup of tea (it's not ours). After a very cramped van ride from town, one of the owners gives an introduction and leads you to the labyrinth. 3 km is a long way after a day in the heat! The walk starts just before sunset and it’s dark by the time you finish. No one tells you to bring a flashlight. If I didn’t have one on my phone it would have been hard to get out safely. The whole thing was quite exhausting. We had to maintain a forced march just to get out, despite our fatigue. The experience reminded me of one of Ellie's favorite kid songs.

The second photo is one of the owners giving her explanation, but it could be a preview of the headache that awaited us. Then the inexorable march began. There was a pause at the first, um, vortex, where a woman played singing bowls - nice, but stereotypical. Visitors were invited to meditate (never a bad idea) or to make expressive paintings. After this short break the slog resumed.

Later, they served dinner to the visitors at one long table. Pretty good food but the table conversation with interesting people was better. Someone asked Mrs. C what her favorite part was. The exit, she said.   

STL DPB On The Road - A Parade In Liberia

After our walk around in Liberia we found that there was a local festival starting. Not sure what it was about but there was a parade at noon that Friday. Worst possible light and fill flash wasn't up to the job at a distance. Still, it was a lot of fun. Some of the horses are trained to prance, almost to dance. Note the Los Angeles car wash and parking lot. This is Costa Rican cowboy country.