Day 1
We had an uneventful trip from Tucson to Houston to Liberia, Costa Rica. We arrived as the sun was setting so when we went for our taxis, it was dark.
As usual, Costa Ricans are friendly and helpful. We arrived at our hotel, settled in, then met for dinner in the restaurant.
Day 2
The next morning we were already spotting interesting birds in the hotel’s extensive gardens around a big pool.
After we collected the rental cars, we went to Walmart to buy supplies and then drove to our next hotel near the Palo Verde National Park. Google said the park is temporarily closed. We tried to check into it but no one can give us a definitive answer so as a consolation we are taking a guided boat ride with lunch into the park on the Bebedero River.
We spent the afternoon on the extensive grounds of our hotel birding and admiring monkeys in the trees, aguotis, many interesting birds, and nearly tame deer. Adjacent to our hotel is a bird sanctuary filled with very noisy toucans and parrots.
The list of birds I saw today includes: squirrel cuckoo, Rufous-backed wren, clay-colored thrush, Hoffman woodpecker, white lores gnatcatcher, cinnamon hummingbird, social flycatcher, scissor-tailed flycatcher, and orange-fronted parakeet. The more experienced birders saw even more birds than me.
We had a delicious dinner in the hotel restaurant tonight. I had a dish called “casado” which means “married”. I had grilled fish, rice with black beans, grilled plantains, salad, and some sort of fried cheese. It was filling and tasty. The flan was excellent.
Back in our room, we attempted to get organized for tomorrow’s adventures and went to sleep early.
Day 3
Today we took a fantastic boat ride with Blue Pass Tours. We drove to the river and stopped once for birding at a series of ponds. I took a good photo of a wood stork flying overhead.
At the river location, we ate a good lunch and then met our guide, Gustavo. He was leading another tour of Americans and we kind of added ourselves to their tour. He was very knowledgeable and showed us many birds and other animals.
We saw an anteater sleeping in a tree, many crocodiles, howler monkeys, iguanas, lizards, and so many birds.
Today’s bird list includes: long-tailed manikin, green kingfisher, black-headed trojan, orange-chin parakeet, Inca dove, red-billed pigeon, green-breasted mango, mangrove swallows, cattle egret, wood stork, greater kiskadee, crested caracara, grooved-bill ani, tropical kingbird, black-necked stilts, little heron, great blue heron, bare-throated tiger heron, black-crowned night heron, Muscovy duck, and turkey vulture.
Day 4
We took a very pot-holed and bumpy road to Santa Elena after recent flooding rains. We arrived in touristy but still cute Santa Elena and checked into our hostel. There’s a reason young people stay at hostels. Two of the five beds in the room were bunk/loft beds. The windows don’t close and the towels are pathetic. We didn’t have a/c and there was no hot water. Most of the hotels I stayed in in Africa were far better.
So, okay, I got myself a room for $33/per night. We had a fun afternoon exploring the town, eating lunch at Sabor Tica, and sharing a big pizza for dinner at the Quetzal Hotel. We went to bed early to be ready for our 6:30 am meeting time with our guide Jason.
Day 5
We found our guide just fine at the CASEM Artists Coop in Monteverde. Nothing looked familiar to me from my first stay here in 2006.
Right away, before we even left the parking lot, we spotted numerous birds, including the motmot, which we had seen the day before at our hotel.
After a bit of birding, drinking coffee, and chasing monkeys away from our food, we decided to visit the Curi Canchas Reserve to maximize our chances of seeing the crown jewel of birds in Latin America: the Resplendent Quetzal. Jason led us 5 minutes away on his motorcycle and we paid the entrance fee, then headed up a wide trail into the cloud forest.
After days of drenching rain, we were so lucky to have clear, mostly sunny weather. Anyone who’s been here longer than us has long, dreadful stories about the rain.
We started to spot birds right away. Or I should say Steve and Jason were spotting birds both by listening to their calls and seeing birds. I saw lots of them with plenty of coaching from Jason. He had a telescope on a tripod and he was a master at locating the birds. There were perhaps 15 groups of birders there and the guides all helped each other out, letting the others know exactly where they saw which birds.
Jason also managed to keep a list of birds seen for us on eBird and before we even parted, he had shared the book with us. Amazingly, we saw 31 birds INCLUDING the Resplendent Quetzal. It was extraordinary.
Quetzals eat avocados and wild avocado trees are massive but covered with small fruits. Quetzals eat two or three at a time, then spit out the pits. The main symbol and currency of Guatemala is the quetzal, but unfortunately, Guatemala let the old-growth avocado trees get cut down so it is much easier to see a quetzal in CR than in Guatemala.
We spent till about 11 am walking and birding, and frankly, we were all tired so the tour was over.
We said goodbye to Jason and visited the Colibrí Café (hummingbird cafe) at the entrance to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. They had about 6 feeders out and there were probably 30 birds buzzing around us, ignoring us, bickering, then flying to the roof of the gift shop.
After an afternoon of travel planning, and picking up clean laundry, we returned to Sabor Tico for another good meal.
Tomorrow we pack up and the true birders are off to the south for two stops while Linda and I plan four glorious nights in La Fortuna near Arenal Volcano National Park.
Day 6
Linda and I split off from the other three in our group to spend four consecutive nights at the same hotel in beautiful La Fortuna by the Arenal Volcano. We took the long, but mostly smooth road to La Fortuna and arrived at lunchtime.
We were delighted by the improvement in our accommodations. Our room is brand new and we have a balcony overlooking the Arenal volcano. The pool seems nice and the grounds are a treasure trove of bird-watching opportunities. A beautiful river runs through the property.
After we settled in, we drove toward the town and stopped at a walking path to see sloths, birds, and exotic plants. It was a huge success. I saw a huge sloth and a sort of toucan!
We ate a yummy dinner in town and drove by the hotel we’ll stay in when we visit next week.
Back at the hotel, we planned for the three days we’d spend here.
We first had a great visit to a wildlife-spotting trail called Mariola Trail. We saw a sloth and lots of birds and plants. I saw my first toucan, called an Aricari.
We ate dinner in the busy tourist town of La Fortuna at Fotuneñero.
Day 7
We enjoyed a hot spring spa for quite a few hours and laughed when we saw a black-headed trogon watching us in the water. There was also a long Lazarus lizard on the wall.
We stopped by Papa’s Place, which is a birding hotspot in town but it had too many people there and we couldn’t get in.
We ate lunch/dinner at Las Colinas, a hotel restaurant that we would be staying at later in our trip.
Day 8
We visited Papa’s Place and were stunned by the number of birds there. Gerard at Papa’s Place puts corn out for the great curassows and plantains on feeders for everyone else. It was just extraordinary how many birds gobbled up the food. Gerard took me out into the gardens to see a fer-de-lance snake. Yikes! They are very dangerous.
We ate our only bad meal of the trip to date tonight at Mary’s BBQ. They had bad food and lousy customer service. Later we checked the reviews and it was indeed bad.
Day 9
We drove in the pouring rain in the dark to Mistico Park for a hanging bridges trip with an emphasis on birds. It was basically a bust with a dull guide, very few birds, miserable rain, and dangerous limbs falling near us. The whole country of Costa Rica is water-logged, with dangerously high rivers, washed-out roads, and fallen trees all over.
We had a swim then a walk through the town followed by an over-priced steak dinner.
Day 10
We got up early and drove to meet the other folks traveling with us at a McDonald’s in Guápiles. We snaked back on a series of small roads to the Suerte River (suerte means “luck”) where we found an entire operation that gets people and goods to the Tortuguero National Park by flat-bottomed boats called lanchas. The ride to the island was fantastic. Our luggage was piled on the front platform and the boat driver sped through the muddy water.
Our hotel was Casa Marbella and we soon had the lay of the land, which was a narrow peninsula between a sound and the Caribbean Ocean.
The river or sound was natural and beautiful and the black-sand beach was rugged and nearly deserted. The beach had big driftwood logs and pounding waves. It’s been stormy here in Costa Rica and the surf looked treacherous. I only put my feet in the water though I had seen pictures of the beach here with tranquil blue water for swimming, so it was a little disappointing.
We had dinner at El Patio and turned in early because our day started at an eye-popping 5:30 in the morning.
Day 11
We had a quick coffee before hopping into bird expert Miguel’s boat. Right away we were spotting incredible life-list birds. The guide was a local from birth and he could differentiate bird calls over the motor and other sounds. Everyone seemed pleased.
Miguel could see it was going to rain so he brought us back to the hotel to eat our breakfast. After the meal and the heavy rain stopped we got back in the boat and saw the small canals in the national park and more birds. The heavens opened yet again but the boat had a foldable roof which kept us dry enough. Then the tour continued in the bright hot sunlight until we were exhausted and needed a break.
We had lunch and dinner at Buddha Cafe, which was very good.
The next morning we got up, got on the boat to the parking area way up the river, got back in our cars, and drove to La Fortuna.
We checked out a birding trail before dinner.
Day 12
We had a good breakfast in our hotel before a three-hour session at Papa’s Place. The three who had not been there before were impressed and we saw lots of birds.
Day 13
Arenal Lodge Observatory. We got lots of rain and almost no birds, but we did see a snake and some coatis. I climbed the observation tower. The wind was blowing, it was raining, and the tower was just sketchy enough that I was shaking the whole way up. We stopped at Sendero Bogatín and I saw a sloth and a red frog.
Day 14
Today we had a nice breakfast and drove along beautiful Lake Arenal to Liberia. Back at our original hotel, Hotel Boyeros, we swam in their nice pool, yet again packed our bags. I ate at a nice, modern Asian restaurant across the street.
Day 15
We enjoyed a last buffet breakfast which of course included Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) with good fruit, fried eggs, and plantains.
We gave ourselves plenty of time to return the rental cars and relax before our flight to Denver.
The experience in Denver was one for the ages and I’ll tell you about it over a glass of wine sometime. Our flight to Tucson got us all home to our beds by midnight.