San Rafael, Alajuela — January 2, 2025

A sunset view from a hilltop garden, with the sun low in the sky casting long rays across a grassy lawn.

I came back to San Rafael for New Years. The garden sat on a hill above the valley, and by late afternoon the sun was already low, throwing long rays across the lawn.

A nighttime landscape photographed from an elevated vantage point, looking out over a dark valley scattered with clusters of yellow city li…

There is magic in these hills. The valley filled with small clusters of yellow lights, scattered loose across the floor of it. Heavy gray clouds moved in and broke open around the moon, steady through the drift.

A nighttime view from an elevated wooden deck looking out over a valley dotted with distant city lights stretching across the horizon.

I kept turning the phone, trying to fit the moon and the line of town lights into the same frame. I never quite did. That felt about right for the second day of a year.

A sideways night photograph showing a cloud-streaked sky with a bright moon glowing through thin clouds and a smaller bright point of light…