Category Archives: R. Doug Wicker

June 8, 2016 · 5:35 am

The Costa Rican Jungle

White-headed capuchin

Our next tour stop was at a farm. No, it wasn’t the crops we were here to see. It was the wildlife, particularly the white-headed capuchin monkeys. You have to be careful with these little guys, as the agitate very easily. No sudden moves, and read the body language. If they’ve had enough of your attention they’ll make it known.

Friendly guy

Of course, it helps if you have treats for them.

Where’s the food?

So don’t come empty handed. Don’t worry. The human residents will supply you with what our furry relatives desire.

Oh, there it is!

Besides monkeys you may see other jungle residents, such as this white-nosed coatimundi:

White-nosed coatimundi

As for what is farmed here, I assume it’s the cashew tree from how many there were. In the following shot you can see the cashew fruit — the green-skinned cashew apple — on which is attached the cashew nut. The nut is enclosed in the smaller, curved reddish pod.

Cashew apple and nut

Here is today’s photo gallery. Click on any image below to enlarge and to bring up today’s slide show:

Mama and baby

White-headed capuchin

Monkey farm

Posing for pics

Cashew tree

Fruit!

Grooming the kid

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Tagged as Costa Rica, Golden Princess, photography, Puntarenas, R. Doug Wicker, travel, travel photography, vacation

June 6, 2016 · 5:35 am

Arriving Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Puntarenas Lighthouse

The Golden Princess left Callao, the seaport serving Lima, on Friday, March 20, 2015, and sailed northward. We were leaving South America behind us and heading toward Central America. Our next destination was along the isthmus that links the North and South American continents. After three full days at sea the Golden Princess docked at the port city of Puntarenas in Costa Rica on Tuesday, March 24.

Puntarenas

Stepping off the ship we saw two sand sculptors plying their trade for tips on the beach alongside where the Golden Princess docked. Their subject this day was the scaryAmerican crocodile. I’ll be showing you living examples over the upcoming series on this destination.

Sand sculptors alongside the dock

Here’s a look back across the Gulf of Nicoya:

Gulf of Nicoya

And a view of the beach:

Puntarenas beach

One last look at that lighthouse before we head inland:

Puntarenas Lighthouse

Ursula and I had an appointment inland, so our stay in Puntarenas was necessarily short. Our first stop on this tour was the beautiful Hotel Villa Caletas (one of Central America’s Top Five hotels) for some outstanding views:

The view from Villa Caletas

The hotel itself is quite photogenic as well:

Villa Caletas

After Villa Caletas we stopped at the outer edges of the Costa Rican jungle for some quick pictures of wild parrots:

Wild parrots

Colorful Parrot

Costa Rica jungle

On Wednesday I’ll present to you our first stop deep in the jungle, complete with a visit with white-headed capuchin monkeys, a white-nosed coatimundi, and cashews in the wild.

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Tagged as Costa Rica, Golden Princess, photography, Puntarenas, R. Doug Wicker, travel, travel photography, vacation

June 1, 2016 · 5:35 am

Storming The Beaches—Omaha and Utah

Pointe du Hoc

Next week marks a solemn anniversary of a tragic triumph of epic proportions. This “Longest Day” began in the dark of a moonless night on June 5 and continued throughout the murderous day of June 6, 1944. The location of this historic battle was along a 62-mile strip of blood-soaked sand and smoke-shrouded cliffs lining the beaches of Normandy, France.

No trip to Normandy is complete without a pilgrimage to the beaches that took the brunt of the great D-Day Invasion of World War II. There were five invasion beaches in all stretching over this 62-mile front—Juno (Canadian and United Kingdom Forces), Gold (United Kingdom), Sword (United Kingdom and Free French Forces), Utah (United States) and, most infamously, Omaha (United States).

Omaha Beach was very nearly a disaster with a total of 3,000 U.S. casualties and 1,200 U.S. dead—many occurring within just minutes of arrival. Invasion personnel were pinned down by unexpectedly heavy German resistance even before making it out of the icy waters of the pounding surf. At one point early into the invasion, General Omar Bradley seriously contemplated evacuating what remained of his devastated forces, and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery considered diverting elements of V Corp from Gold Beach to assist. Fortunately, U.S. Forces finally managed to break through the German defenders, eventually linking up with forces from other beaches as well as paratroopers and glider assault forces that hand landed behind enemy lines the night before.

Total casualties of Allied troops that day among the five beaches and the airborne troops who preceded the invasion numbered around 10,000, of which approximately 2,500 were killed. German forces suffered an estimated 9,000 casualties. U.S. losses alone were 1,465 killed out of a total of 6,603 casualties.

Over the month following the initial invasion nearly 30,000 Americans lost their lives liberating Normandy. After the war relatives of the deceased were given the option of having the remains of their kin shipped home or left in the country in which they fell. In an expression of gratitude for these sacrifices, France ceded to the United States 172.5 acres for the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Today all but one of the 9,387 grave sites contains the remains of a member of the U.S. military who died in World War II. The exception is one lone combatant from World War I. That would be Quentin Roosevelt, who was transferred to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial to lie beside his brother, Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., who led the Utah Beach Invasion and who died of a massive heart attack just thirty-six days later.

Further inland elements of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne were having their own problems with Mission Boston. The paratroopers of the 505th Infantry Regiment missed their landing zone and wound up drifting into the town of Sainte-Mère-Église. In one particularly famous incident that night, Private John Steele‘s parachute became snagged on the town church, leaving him dangling above the ground to witness the carnage as several of his fellow paratroopers were gunned during their descent into the central square. Private Steele survived by going limp and feigning death. Eventually, the Germans brought him down and took him prisoner.

As you peruse the photographs below, you will see that Private Steele’s predicament is commemorated even to this day with a mannequin in full combat gear dangling by parachute from the town church. Take a close look at the church stained glass windows as well. You’ll see references to the 82nd Airborne and images of paratroopers.

One final location you’ll find pictured below is Pointe du Hoc. Pointe du Hoc is infamous as one of the more needless tragedies of the D-Day Invasion. Nearly everything that could go wrong with this operation did go wrong, not least of which was that the mission was to capture large gun emplacements that weren’t there. Though the concrete casements were still in place, the 155mm canon had been relocated about a mile away. The photograph overlooking Utah Beach through a slit of concrete was taken from inside the German Command Bunker at Pointe du Hoc.