Tremblant Lifestyle

If you really love scenic locations with plenty of wildlife, then you should plan to spend your vacation backpacking through Costa Rica. The best time of year to visit depends on whether or not you like crowds. From December to April is peak tourist season in this country with crowded beaches and attractions and higher prices. The rainy season during the months of June to September, which is also hurricane season is not a good time to visit because the roads often become impassable. The best time to plan your backpacking trip is from mid-October to mid-December because the temperatures are just right and you still have sunny weather.

You do have to plan your trip carefully because it is not an easy task to find your way around Costa Rica unless you have some idea of the layout of the country. The road system is very poorly maintained. Even though it is only 100 miles wide at the widest point, this journey can take a very long time. The country is made up of five regions, so the best advice is to choose two of these regions for your first visit and them make plans to return for another backpacking vacation to see the others.

It will take you about two days to backpack through San Jose and the Central Valley. This region is home to the majority of the population of Costa Rica. In this area you can visit a volcano, hike through a cloud forest and engage in whitewater rafting on rivers classified as Class 1v. Some of the Olympic kayaking teams actually train on the rapids in the rivers of this region.

In order to backpack through the Alajuela And Northern Guanacaste Region, you need to allow yourself four or five days. This region is located inland from the Pacific and contains one of the last dry tropical forests in Central America located in an inland area. Here you will find clear areas where there are scattered umbrella-shaped conacaste trees standing alone, under which the Brahman cows seek shade from the sun. Climb up the Monteverde Range to backpack through the Cloud Forest Biological Reserve of Puntarenas. You can also take a four-hour drive from San Jose to reach this forest.

The Nicoya Peninsula and Quepos will take you about four-to six days depending on how much time you want to spend in the various locations. This area is the domain of surfers, international tourists that own houses here and the tico farmers of the country. You can spend time on the beaches and trekking inland to see the wide variety of wildlife and birds. As a side trip you can take the ferry across the Gulf of Nicoya to visit Manuel Antonio National Park, where you will meet other backpackers resting on the beach.

The Osa Peninsula is located in the Southern part of Costa Rica. Allow yourself at least five days for backpacking in this region. This area has one of the most biologically dense rainforests on the planet and was one of the first ecological reserves to be built in the world. Here you will glimpse many of the elusive animals that inhabit the rainforest, such as howler monkeys and scarlet macaws. There are many public and private reserves in this area.

The accommodations you choose when backpacking in Costa Rica depend on your finances. There are cheap hostels and hotels as well as expensive resorts in all regions.

 

The beauty of the heavens and the splendor of Mother Nature have found expression in art from time immemorial. The function of art has always been devoted to expressing beauty in all its diversity. No wonder, Aristotle described art as an imitation of life. Human beings take delight in the works of imitation (representation). This explains why man has always tried to represent whatever he sees around. The consequence of this human desire was the inception of landscape paintings- a genre as old as the first century A.D.

 

Landscape art refers to the portrayal of scenic beauty of nature, with the sky and weather conditions taking a considerable area of the canvas. The word ‘landscape’ is of Dutch origin (‘landschap’ meaning a sheaf or patch of cultivated ground). The word was finally included in the English vocabulary in the 17th century. The 15th century witnessed landscape painting gaining recognition as a major artistic genre in Europe. The themes used in these paintings chiefly drew from religious subjects, as can be found in Rest on the Flight into Egypt, the Journey of the Magi, or Saint Jerome in the Desert.

 

Historians often trace the origin of landscape painting to China. However, it was not before the Middle Ages that this genre earned recognition. The Italian painter Ambrogio Lorenzetti is credited with making the first painting devoted to landscape in around 1335. The development of this painting gradually initiated with travelers exploring their surroundings. In Rome, the ‘classical landscape’ flourished through the contribution of Paul Bril and Adam Elsheimer and the Italian painters, Annibale Carracci and Domenichino. The French artist, Claude Lorrain, reproduced some of the best instances of ‘classical landscape’. Set amidst classical subjects, his paintings gave over to vast landscapes with areas of light and space.

 

The 17th century saw landscape paintings embracing domestic and familiar settings especially in the works of the Dutch School- Van Goyen, Rembrandt, Ruisdael, Hobbema, Koninck, Cuyp, and others.The 19th century witnessed English painters taking cue from the Dutch and reproducing exuberant paintings in oil and watercolors. Wilson, Crone, Constable, Turner, Cotman, and Bonington are some of the notable names of the time.

 

Post Constable and Turner, the development of landscape painting occurred in France. The Impressionistic Movement cast a profound influence on this genre of art. The invention of oil paint in a tube changed the style of art. Since then, artists could go out and paint directly from the landscape. Vincent van Gogh carried this tradition forward, where he depicted personal emotions through his paintings. The blend of Romanticism and new Surrealism can be found in the early twentieth century, especially in the painted landscapes of Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland.

 

With the dawn of the modernism, landscape painting found itself projecting some gritty realism, paralleling the work of the ‘kitchen sink’ school in literature. However, landscape paintings are now showcasing a poetic approach as well; the works of Roger de Gray are an instance.

 

Thomas Cole took the landscape painting in the US to new heights with the foundation of the Hudson River School. As times keep on changing, the trends observed in every genre of art keep changing as well. New explorations, new movements, new innovations have always taken art to new heights, and so has landscape painting been influenced by these trends. Original paintings by the renowned landscape artists are treasured and will be treasured by the generations to come.