I jumped the gun on a surfing photo. I got excited. Let’s break from the Circle of Life series and go back to it later. :) This is me at the Manuel Antonio Beach in Costa Rica. Manuel Antonio is considered a surf town and their beaches had glorious waves. The truth: I didn’t actually go surfing. I’d rather keep my legs, so I just borrowed some boy’s surfboard to take a poser photo. I wish it were a pink board though.

Baboon in deep thought. Do not disturb.

I am halfway through the Circle of Life series, I think we have about 7 more to go. Then we’ll move on to surfing photos. And helicopters. And parasails. And mountains. And beaches. And self portraits. And a million others.

Happy birthday to my little sister who is in Paris right now. Can I be in Paris, too? She has turned 18 and is about to enter one the most exciting chapters of life – The University Chapter! University was truly the greatest and I would relive those 4 years over and over and over until it was no longer possible. Not that it’s possible to begin with (lol).

My day goes like this: I wake up, go to work, study through my hour lunch, work again, drive home, process / ship Etsy orders, blog quickly, study again, then about an hour of downtime before bed. It’s non-stop and has been that way for a few months! I feel like a robot. I’ve resorted to avid text messaging to keep in touch with people I love. Face time is scarce with schedules like this. :(

I have to study now but I do want to say that I love the detail on these animals. Look how intricate it is! These iguanas were hanging out in a local woman’s backyard. No big deal.

A little chubby furball bird on a barbed wire.

You have no idea how much I’d rather throw my head on a pillow and take an amazing nap after this post than open my books to study. Such a daily struggle. But we all know that the nap, no matter how inviting and rejuvenating, would leave me with such loathsome remorse upon my waking, therefore it’s smarter to just overcome the temptation and hit the lovely books.

Crocodile Rock by Elton John.

There were dozens of crocodiles sunbathing in the Tarcoles River in Costa Rica. This croc had his jaw hanging open like this for hours as if waiting to be fed a good meal. Yum yum.

Remember, we’re not in a zoo or a showroom. These animals are in their natural habitat and you see them while you’re cruising on the road or strolling along on a street. It’s amazing really.

These spiders are everywhere on plants in Costa Rica. They look like Terminators and they build terminator webs that are so strong, if you tug on them, they don’t break. You’d have to tug pretty hard and by then, the spider would’ve taken a bite out of you.

She’s nothing fancy but she’s still a beauty. There were herds of humans standing in very close proximity to her, flashing their cameras while she chomped away at the trees, completely fearless. It was neat considering deers in Canada run from humans.

I’ve been revisiting some old Bryan Adams songs – I drift in and out of his music as time passes. Him and John Mayer and of course John Lennon, Elton John, and Paul McCartney have written some of the most beautiful love songs in the world in my opinion. At the top of my head:

Woman by John Lennon
Maybe I’m Amazed by Paul McCartney
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman by Bryan Adams
Your Song by Elton John
Your Body is a Wonderland by John Mayer
Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty

I have an old soul for music, so many of my favourites were born into the world before I was.

I’m not positively sure what this little green guy is, but it appears to be a Gecko??? I obviously wasn’t paying attention to the tour guide at the time. If you know exactly what it is, please feel free to share. Until then, it’s a Gecko. (lol)

If you want a sneak peek of the Circle of Life series so far (from Costa Rica), check them all out on Etsy – I’ve already listed them for sale. Otherwise, you can check back here daily because I’ll be posting one at a time for the next few days and then some. I’m completely in love with this series. Take me to KENYA next.

I’ve decided to scrap the National Geographic Edition title for my wild animal series and rename it to The Circle of Life, inspired by the Lion King. I’m trying to make this series as marketable as I can at my Etsy shop! They’re probably best targeted towards a young boy’s bedroom or nursery.

In any case, meet the Squirrel Monkey. They were damn hard to capture because they move so fast and your neck feels like snapping off from staring up at enormous trees for long periods of time, trying to find a monkey that is still for just two seconds and not flying in every direction.

Happy August! Here’s my first national geographic shot from Costa Rica. It’s a sloth! I have never seen a sloth before and had no idea what they looked like. This is what they look like. They have a perma-smile, they move in extreme slow motion, they have bugs of all sorts feasting and breeding inside their hair, and they are completely and utterly defenseless. In other words, they’re useless. That’s how ‘Sloth’ came to be one of seven deadly sins – it speaks to laziness mostly. This sloth showed up on the side of the road and was making its way across so slowly that we had to pick him up and dump him on a tree. It was comical.