Costa Rica Holidays 2005

Costa Rica Holidays 2005

We being Geoff and Sarah Upton and our 14- year old twin children Rachel and Joe. Another day in which it bucketed warm rain at had booked to go on a boat trip at dusk out art clip fairy tooth on the lake to look at the Volcano and miraculously, as we boarded the boat the clouds lifted and we enjoyed great views of the lava flowing down the slope. We were glad of our 4-wheel drive on several occasions and when we witnessed tropical 997 hotmail india mumbai downpours we could well understand why there are potholes and bits We arrived at Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve somewhat stiff and shaken from the bumpy drive and enjoyed the hummingbird feeders at the reserve entrance. A quick look at the small estuary added semipalmated plover and yellow-crowned night Monday 15 to Thursday 18 August We spent the days exploring more of the local beaches and countryside, seeing more of the species already mentioned and adding royal tern, roseate spoonbill, white ibis grey-breasted martin, barred antshrike and lesser ground-cuckoo to the list. After recovery they release sick or injured animals back into the wild, whenever possible.
Managed by the same owner, who is incidentally a very keen herpetologist, Las Pumas is a rescue centre for cats and at any one time has most of the six or seven? species that occur in the area. Lake Arenal is at about 2,000 feet above sea level and the mornings could be quite cool at first, becoming warm post bar and grill towards the middle of the day. As well as the birds we saw green iguanas, black-tailed iguanas, Jesus Christ lizards, American crocodiles and howler monkeys.

This was first and foremost a family holiday and I did cfa program in canada not wish my obsession with birds to spoil things too much for the others.

Most of the beaches had some bird interest such as a spotted sandpipers or bare-throated tiger-heron. For some reason it hadn’t left the gate – we never found out why but didn’t care We arrived in Costa Rica as soon as we stepped breathless and tense on to the San Jose flight and looked at all those faces – some Spanish, some indigenous, some European – looking enquiringly but without hostility to see who had held their plane up. At dawn I heard the now familiar sound of a howler monkey outside our villa so I was soon out checking out the neighbourhood’s wildlife.
We noticed the same on other beaches. We took the kayaks down to the lake and paddled out to one of the islands.
In the forest we saw a splendid male slaty-tailed trogon and in surrounding scrub red-legged honeycreepers but the main interest was in the volcanic fumaroles and bubbling mud pools. Admission is free and they simply ask for a donation.
In the morning we drove to the Pacific Coast at Playa Flamingo, seeing many great-tailed grackles and of course black vultures and turkey vultures on the way.

Also on the journey we saw a flock of the large and impressive white-collared swifts. Our nagging suspicion that this wouldn’t be enough was reinforced when our departure from Gatwick was delayed by half an hour. The canopy was pretty quiet as it was cloudy and damp and we didn’t see any wildlife – but I would still recommend Eco Lodge for doing this quintessentially Costa Rican activity. By the lake edge there were lots of olivaceous cormorants and great egrets with a few black-necked stilts, black-bellied whistling ducks, green herons and greater yellowlegs. When we booked the trip the Swiss owner told us we only needed to take sun cream, sun hats, cameras and binoculars. Flocks of Montezuma oropendolas, orange-chinned and crimson-fronted parakeets and unidentified amazona parrots flew over every morning while around the house and garden most mornings I’d see black-striped sparrows, scarlet-rumped tanagers, grey-necked wood-rails, social flycatchers, sulphur-bellied flycatchers, rufous-tailed hummingbirds, sulphur-bellied and grey-capped flycatchers, masked tityras, cinnamon becards, hoffman’s and black-cheeked woodpeckers, yellow-throated euphonias, common tody-flycatchers, house wrens, buff-throated saltators, blue-black grassquits and thick-billed seed-finches. If we went to a beach got there early and left before it got too hot.

The early start was rewarded with close views of many boat-billed herons, bare-throated tiger-herons, wood storks, amazon and green kingfishers, and smaller numbers of yellow-crowned night heron, little blue heron, green heron, olivaceous cormorant and muscovy duck. We arrived at Villa Encantada, which was to be our home for the next week, shortly before dusk and had a quick look round the gardens. This was the first of many encounters with howler monkeys – we saw or heard them virtually every day. Sarah and I stayed on the boat and watched magnificent frigatebirds, brown pelicans, olivaceous cormorants and a brown booby. The villa clearly matched our idea of paradise with its 8 acres of tropical gardens and 32 more acres of surrounding rainforest, with walks down to Lake Arenal. Although not that far we had allowed three hours for the journey and we needed it. The canopy tour was great for the adrenalin rush though. The gardens of the Vista del Valle Plantation Inn were lush, tropical and beautiful, even in the half light.
Outside the ancient hacienda a fearsome-looking ctenosaur stood guard and in the forest nearby we saw white-faced capuchin and spider monkeys, and a good list of birds including brown-crested flycatcher, streaked-headed woodcreeper, grey-headed tanager, roadside hawk, crested guan and turquoise-browed The weather pattern in this area was fairly predictable: warm sunshine all morning, becoming hot towards mid-day, with rain in the afternoon, usually heavy, often torrential. In the car park were green-breasted mango, rufous-collared sparrow and yellow-faced grassquit and the forest was fairly productive with buff-rumped warblers displaying conspicuously, an obliging dull-mantled antbird, and a rufous motmot. Our scheduled flight from Gatwick to San Jose involved a change at Newark for which 1. Biting insects were abundant, especially during or after rain, and so a good protective covering of insect repellant was necessary before going out. . We were looking for something rather specialthis was our 25th anniversary and in view of the mixed ages park city condos utah of our party we have to look for entertainment and activities as well as comfort and luxury. The Vista del Valle Plantation Inn was ideal for our purpose of acclimatization and for me to start learning the birds. By the time we got to Monteverde Reserve we had become quite proficient with the hummingbirds, but nevertheless rejoiced in fantastic close views of the same species in the Hummingbird Gallery, along with some bananaquits – which looked clumsy and gross in comparison. We learned that the rice and sugar fields down here are irrigated by the lake we had come from.

Visitors serious about seeing wildlife would need to allow more time in this fantastic high altitude area because, hummingbirds apart, the wildlife is fairly elusive. Around the villa and beach were magnificent frigatebirds, brown pelicans, hoffman’s woodpeckers, great-tailed grackles, white-throated magpie-jays, turquoise-browed motmots, streaked-backed orioles, rufous-naped wrens, great kiskadees, ringed kingfishers, an american oystercatcher and a spotted sandpiper. Also in the road were several large lizards. It rained for most of the day but the rain was warm. Fortunately we were offered the chance to change from our booked flight which involved absorption band nd ylf changing at Houston with At Vista del Valle I added scrub euphonia to the log making a total of 142 species for the holiday, of which 94 were new for me.

‘You won’t need that’ he replied, ‘it never rains here in the morning. .
However the forest was quiet apart from a buff-fronted quail-dove waddling about on the path in front of us. An airport official confirmed we had missed our flight but after checking with the airline desk a few minutes later saw us running for the plane. A two-hour drive back inland took us to another rainforest-clad volcano: Rincon de la Vieja. New species around the villa today included long-tailed hermit, green kingfisher, white-collared seedeater, black-cowled oriole and red-legged honeycreeper.