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Typical Tico food is nothing to write home about; its main dish is "casado": one-platter with gallo pinto (rice&beans), a piece of meat and vegetables or salad. To give any stronger flavour to casado one needs to apply Salsa Lizano. Luckily, on the Caribbean side people did not forgot about the spices from the islands they have arrived from, and food is much tastier. Seafood is of course always fresh out of the local waters. For our dinner we have opted to splurge a bit and have ordered lobsters. The soda we have eaten were a small business, maybe 4-5 tables, and chef was more then happy to show us how he prepares them.

 

Ready to be cooked

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Pan fried

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Served with gallo pinto and plantains

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A whole (fried or grilled) fish can be ordered in almost every soda; on Pacific side those are mostly deep fried while on the Caribbean side grilled are more commonly found.

 

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Our day started early as we have had an appointment with local birding legend, Abel Bustamante. The rain again played havoc with our plans; what should be a great birding day turned into a slow and wet walk around the village. Oh well, maybe next time? There were birds, yes, but far from the quantity and quality I have hoped for. Thus a couple of other subjects that have caught Zvezda's interest and eye:

 

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Butterflies are not my forte so any help is warmly welcomed!

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The blue crab and the butterflies photos are absolutely wonderful. Once again, great job Zvezda!

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Love the green basilisk and the blue crab.

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Dave Williams

Great photography.... and stop making me hungry, I'm trying to lose weight at the moment!!!!

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Zvezda says Thank You for compliments on her photography, @xyz99 and @Zim Girl.

 

@Dave Williams as tasty those might look, nothing compares to proper Fish&chips portion; not in taste and less so in calories :P.

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Dave Williams

That chocolate cake looked very tasty!

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Great photos of the butterfies by Zvezda. I don't know too much about butterfleis either, but the two strikingly coloured ones may well be the red and the blue form of the Postman Butterfly ( Heliconius Erato)

Just me and Google, though.....;)

Edited by PeterHG
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Wonderful to see some of the Caribbean side, that's one area of CR we've never visited. More fantastic photos!

 

Surprised you saw so many butterflies in the rain.

 

The first one (blue/white) is Heliconius Sara (Sara Long Wing.) The 3rd one is Heliconius erato, (Red Postman) very common. Not sure on the others.

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Thanks for ID, @janzin and @PeterHG. Obviously it did not rained the entire day, and butterflies were out quicker then birds.

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Cahuita National Park is a lovely small park with only one trail following the beautiful coastline of the Caribbean sea between Cahuita and Puerto Vargas, with Punta Vargas being its central point. Deep green of the rain forest meets the aquamarine of the ocean ... at least that it looks in a good day. We have seen it on its bad day. Entrance to the park is either from Cahuita side (on donation) or from Puerto Vargas side (10 USD). We arrived at Cahuita and my idea was to walk the trail without hiring a guide. We all have our long lenses and binoculars and I have been there twice already, so why paying for the guide?? But Michael was of opposite idea, and luckily so, as when we have decided which one of the several guides to hire, he informed us immediately that the trail is cut off by a high water in the otherwise narrow stream. He suggested to try the Puerto Vargas side so we drove there. The entrance fee was only 5 USD and that should raise some suspicion with me. Anyway, we have walked the boardwalk, and then we hiked to the ocean. The light was really bad and birds were not there but there is always something or someone to be photographed in the rain forest. The highlight, at least for me, were the Capuchin monkeys. On the bright side of the weather, it did not rain when we were inside the park.

 

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Capuchin monkeys

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Not one but 2 spiders

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Green and Black Poison Dart Frog

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Edited by xelas
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Our guide soon realised we were a bit disappointed with the lack of birds so he took us to a "secret" trail just outside of Cahuita. That decision was spot on, and I will leave to Michael to show us the birds from that trail.

 

Our third full day in the area we have walked the roads around Manzanillo on our own. If you are into sloths, you must come to Manzanillo as they were hanging from almost every tree (OK, I do exaggerate a bit). A few iconic poses, all 3-toed Sloths:

 

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When you can get really close to the bird, the result is often spectacular

 

Collared Aracari

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Imagine how this would look like on a sunny day! If nothing else this is THE reason to come back again. Soon.

 

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Edited by xelas
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Nice Samurai Sloth photo!  I think he can give Zatoichi a run for his money...

 

All around great photos xelas!

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Thanks, Daniel! Not very familiar with Zaitochi; who is this guy ??

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LOL 

 

It's a very long running show in Japan about Zatoichi, a blind masseur who also happens to be a lightning-fast swordsman.  

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Congo Bongo´s "Long Dream House" was exactly that, one of the nicest self-accommodating places I´ve ever been to, the amount of space we had was almost ridicolous - although very much welcome. It made those rainy afternoons much more bearable, just doze off in the hammock and let the world pass by. When I say rainy I´m not talking about a nice gentle drizzle btw but this:

 

 

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This Northern Barred Woodcreeper was living in a dead tree right in front of the house, every morning I waited for it to get out.

 

The garden was not as prolific for birds as I had hoped, and they absolutely ignored the fruits we put outside to attract them. Well, little wonder with the amount of fruiting trees nearby. At least a few Agoutis would come out for them after dawn.

 

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Bright-Rumped Attila

 

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The sound of Howler Monkeys was always close, especially when the rain would come on - they are good weather forecasters. We´d often see them but always high up in the canopy.

 

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I don´t know anything about Butterflies but the "Wildlife of Costa Rica" Field Guide by Reid, Leenders, Zook and Dean (which I do recommend as a nice overview) depicts a few of them so I´d say this is a Malachite (Siproeta stelenes).

 

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Definitely our favourite garden inhabitant.

 

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Congo Bongo does have its own beach access. Our house was at the other end of the compound, close to the street (not an issue, no traffic to speak of), so it´s about 500m or more to get down there.

 

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Which would be an extremely muddy affair under these conditions so they built a tyre path - works very well.

 

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And a nice opportunity to see a lot of different crabs in all sizes.

 

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The seaside in Costa Rica is surprisingly devoid of birds. The odd Pelican now and then, the Frigatebirds, that´s pretty much it. In summer there are no Gulls or Terns around, and the first waders just start to arrive at the end of July.

 

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Spotted Sandpiper, by far the most common wader, especially later on the Pacific side.

 

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Collared Plover

 

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Even though conditions were again not very favourable I indeed found Cahuita quite pleasant. Not exactly brimming with action but if you care for the smaller things always something to see.

 

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Agouti enjoying breakfast.

 

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I can be pretty stubborn with trying to ID critters but gave up on this one.

 

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Black-Crowned Antshrike

 

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Ringed Kingfisher, the largest Kingfisher in Costa Rica

 

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The Capuchins were a bit wary first but became much more relaxed pretty soon.

 

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Proboscis Bats, a really tiny species, less than 5 cm. They always line up like this, one above the other. I can only imagine they do this for camouflage.  Each group consists of a single male and his harem of females.

 

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The "secret trail" outside the park Alex mentioned was pretty interesting, very good habitat, but we were there a bit too late, almost at noon, so bird activity had slowed down already.

 

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Green-And-Black Poison Dart Frog. A highly toxic animal. The very small amount of poison the frog possesses is enough to make a human heart stop beating. However, like most poison dart frogs, it only releases its poison if it feels threatened, and wild specimens can be handled provided the human holding it is calm and relaxed. It loses its toxicity in captivity due to a change in diet. This has led some scientists to believe that the green-and-black poison frog actually takes its poison from the mites and other insects on which it feeds

 

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Streaked Woodcreeper

 

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We had a specific target here - our guide told us a Great Potoo was roosting in an old tree at a creek. Well, we found the creek, and were pretty sure which tree it would have to be, but even after staring at every branch and leaf we saw absolutely nothing. Potoos, huge birds as they are, are absolute masters of camouflage. We were about to give up when finally our guide spotted it - even when he told us where to look it was difficult to find the bird. But there it was:

 

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The first of many Roadside Hawks, on the way back.

Edited by michael-ibk
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A few sunrays for once, magically transforming the misty grey into the proper beauty of Carribean beaches.

 

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Great-Tailed Grackle, one of the most common birds in Costa Rica.

 

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A juvenile Black Hawk, also seen very regularly. Crabs make a good part of their diet so they are never far from water.

 

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Red-Tailed Squirrel, very similar to our familiar European species.

 

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A very accommodating Black-Cheeked Woodpecker searching for snacks in the bark.

 

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Juvenile ...

 

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... and adult Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

 

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Chestnut-Coloured Woodpecker

 

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Andreas and me walked a bit into the National Park (which extends all the way down to Panama). Beautiful and feeling much "wilder" than Cahuita. We did not get very far because once the trails departed from the coastline they became so muddy and slippery that it just would have been too dangerous. But the little we saw we enjoyed a lot.

 

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Spotted Sandpiper

 

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Golden Orb-Weaver

 

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This is a popular area for surfers:

 

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Sun? Blue Sky?!? How is that possible? It was a bit vile of the Weather God to grant us one of our nicest days for a travel day, when we were driving from Manzanillo onwards to our next destination.

 

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Black Terns

 

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Amazon Kingfisher

Edited by michael-ibk
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Dave Williams

Loving this report but I do feel for you all with the weather you seem to have had ( so far anyway). Our experience was that we had lots of sun even though it was the rainy season the time we went in August. I'm looking forward to hearing about the logistics too. Having had previous experience was this the perfect route or would you change things?

 

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As for the itinerary, it was about the best way to cover as many different habitats in 3 (4)weeks. We surely have missed a couple of birding highlights but we have covered about all a birder would want to check in Costa Rica. Driving our own car was also a huge plus. As 2 of our previous trips were also in August I know about the expected weather ... just not have it this time.

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That video of the rain is very impressive.

The place you stayed looks very nice, and the Poison Dart Frog is amazing.

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I fully agree with Tony about the rain video and I continue to be amazed at the quality of the photos you all managed to take in spite of the conditions.

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INTERMEZZO

 

 

A beautiful sunny morning ... but we have to leave the Caribbean coast as our next stop was somewhere in the mountains near Turrialba. Smooth driving, several stops for birding ... then a traffic jam. As we have passed by a traffic accident a few kilometers ago my first thought was of another one. Luckily, it was not the case. 

 

Soon we have learned there is a local strike that has halted the traffic on this main road between Puerto Viejo and Limon. As a stubborn driver on a mission, and with Zvezda as a navigator, I tried to reach the small gravel road that might get us around the blockade. Well, I did managed to push us to the front of the line, but no further, as also the side road was blocked for transit. Not much to do then to join the folks and to enjoy the strike.

 

As this was my second strike in Costa Rica, I knew eventually they will clear the road and we will be able to proceed. When, that was a question no one has a perfect answer to. Not even the strike HQ, obviously. What was interesting, and what showed the general state of the Tico's attitude to the life, was the fact that nobody was too excited (= angry) about being held a hostage on the road. I am not sure if such a situation would not deter quickly if in Slovenia. Anyway, the time (= cca. 3 hours) passed by relatively quickly, between taking photos of birds and of people. At least that was the case for me, as I was cruising between the bridge and the vehicle while others have decided to stay in the vehicle to safeguard the luggage and to watch the show from a distance.

 

The bridge over Rio Banano that was blocked for transit of vehicles while foot passengers and emergency vehicles have the right of passage.

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Gartered Trogon, used to be Violaceous Trogon but was recently split into Gartered Trogon, Guianan Trogon and Amazonian Trogon

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Police forces were there but just as observers

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Ringed Kingfisher, male, the largest kingfisher of this hemisphere

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Part of the strike forces; while they look lovely those ladies were quite determined to keep the stand up

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Two Mangrove Swallows, probably discussing what the heck is going on up there

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At that moment the much larger, nationwide strike was probably already been planned out; maybe this one was just the test to how the folk and the police and the government will react?! Maybe yes maybe no. @Whyone? was in Costa Rica during that other strike (which is not yet completely done) and could add some info to this intermezzo.

Edited by xelas
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TURRIALBA

 

Turrialba is a generic name for the area along the road 10 that connects Caribbean side (Siquirres) with Central Valley (Cartago). It is also often overlooked, if not ignored part of Costa Rica. True is that this is a hilly country, part of the Cordillera Central with Volcano Turrialba as its most imposing element. Yet the main reason is that visitors to Costa Rica mostly are on a shorter term visits, and if part of their visit is the Caribbean coast, they want to be there, or get out of it, as soon as possible. And using road 32 over Braulio-Carillo NP is indeed a faster option.

 

That leaves Turrialba and its highlights entirely to nature lovers, mostly birders, and those few history buffs, as at Guayabo de Turrialba there is the most important (and about the only) historical site on Costa Rica's soil. It dated into pre-conquistadoers era. As we have not have time to stop there, more info can be gathered on the net.

 

Road 10 is a relatively narrow two-lane, twisty and slow-moving road that soon disappeared into the low flying clouds and fog. When those opened for a brief moments, we could enjoy in some great vistas.

 

Our arrival was planned to be at midday, for lunch. When we were stopped at Rio Banano, there were no real hopes that we will get to our accommodation in time. But the rest of the drive, despite the narrow road and low visibility was surprisingly quick and efficient and thus we have arrived at Rancho Naturalistahttps://ranchonaturalista.net - just in time. We were greeted by Lisa Erb, an energetic lady that is the manager of this place, and were treated with what this specialised birding lodge is so famous for: hummingbirds and gourmet food. For the two nights we were the only guests at this birding/gourmet lodge. And thus we have had a personal chef!!

 

Rancho Naturalista has rooms in main building, where the feeders are, and a few casitas around the main building. We have booked 2 rooms on the first floor of the main building; one was Sunbittern and the other was Snowcap. If you are interested which room has the best position, it is Snowcap. While all three rooms have direct access to the communal balcony where the hummers are performing all day long, Snowcap is at the end of that balcony and not many of other guests would walk in front of the glass doors to this room. For those planning to have more privacy, staying at one of the chalets is better option.

 

Entry road to the lodge is steep and rough and not suitable for sedan type of car; although wet it did not required for 4WD to be engaged. After the first time going up and down, the second time it does not look that scary. Yet it requires a certain level of confidence from the driver.

 

Our room was large, comfortable, all in wood which we just love, with well equipped bathroom. No coffee machine but there is a coffee/tea station just outside on the balcony. I do not remember seeing any A/C, and anyway none is needed in that altitude.

 

The start of the approach road

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Snowcap room ...

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... with seating area ...

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... and bathroom

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Communal balcony; view towards Sunbittern (far) and Cotinga (near) rooms

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Same balcony, view toward Snowcap room

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While gourmet food is not something that attracts my attention, maybe just the opposite, this time I have enjoyed very much the food offered by the lodge. The rate includes three meals per day, and all meals that we have had were just perfect. Yes, it was too much food, I admit, we should walk much more in between those meals, but every dish was so colourful and tasty, it would be a sin to leave the food on the plate. Freshly grown products, vegetables, etc prepared in an artsy way to please both the tasting buds and the eyes. I should took more photos but I hope below images will deliver the idea!

 

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Meals are served the communal way, and as we were the only guests, we were often joined by other members of the management team. That gave us the chance to exchange small talks and to ask many questions. All in all, it was by far the beast eating experience of this trip, at least for me and Zvezda.

 

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