Costa Rica Part 1: Arrival and Arenal
Back in April, Carlos and I went to Costa Rica for a week. We hadn't been on a vacation alone together in years, basically since we bought the house (mortgage = no travelin' money). Carlos wanted to go somewhere as a Christmas present to me. Costa Rica had been on my list of places to go for a long time, mainly for the birds, so that's what we went with! We tried to hit the most famous parts of the country, staying a few days each in Arenal, Monteverde, and Manuel Antonio. It was a busy trip so I'm going to split it up into three parts beginning with Arenal. I'll include bird lists - asterisks mean lifers! - with links to articles or pictures about each bird.
More pictures from the entire trip (with fewer stories & explanations) are on Picasa.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
We got in to San Jose in the late afternoon/early evening. My grandmother was already in Costa Rica, visiting a friend who lives in San Jose, so they were nice enough to come pick us up at the airport and bring us to our hotel! We stayed at Hotel Aranjuez, which was very nice. After we dropped our stuff off at the hotel, my grandmother's friend took us to her church to see an Easter-eve service. It began with a fire outside the church, which they used to light big church candles. Everyone inside (including us) had their own candles. People lit their candles from the church candles, then spread the light to the people around them, who spread it to the people near them, until the church was glowing with candlelight. It was very pretty!
After that there was some singing and then apparently they began reading the Bible from the beginning. It was in Spanish so I had no idea what was going on. After about half an hour of that with no end in sight we ducked out because I was starving. We ate at a restaurant where my grandmother's friend had been going for years. I tried black beans for the first time, they are really good! Most of the restaurants we saw in San Jose were chain restaurants we have back here in the US. It was a little odd. Finally after dinner we went back to our hotel to get ready for lots of driving the next day.
San Jose birds: Great-tailed Grackle (saw these in Arizona a few years ago - no lifers yet!)
Sunday, April 4, 2010
We had breakfast at the hotel in the morning. The gardens there were lush and beautiful:
View from the breakfast porch
I finally started getting some lifers as I ate breakfast.
Hotel Aranjuez birds: *Rufous-collared Sparrow, *Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, *Clay-colored Robin (Costa Rica's national bird)
Our rental car showed up while we were eating, and we got on the road as quickly as we could. Our first destination was Volcan Arenal, an active volcano and one of the most popular places in the country. The drive there took several hours on winding roads. We rented a GPS with the car and it was a very, VERY good idea! It let us see the curves ahead and warned us about the many one-lane bridges.
I saw a few birds while we drove but it was impossible to get a good look at or ID them. I was worried at the time - I had a goal of seeing at least 30 lifers on this trip, and I thought if I missed these birds I wouldn't reach my goal. Now I look back and laugh, because I think I ended up with 80+ lifers by the end of the week!
We drove through the main town of La Fortuna, around the north side of the volcano and then west to Cabinas El Castillo where we were staying. One wall of the room was a sliding glass door that looked toward the volcano. The view was amazing!
View from the room later in the evening
I finally got a taste of the Costa Rican heat and humidity. Before the trip I expected to want to live in Costa Rica once I got there. The humidity ensured that will never happen. Maryland is known for its hot and humid Augusts but this was worse than anything I've felt at home! Even just sitting on the balcony to watch birds, I was sweating everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Thank goodness most of our plans involved hiking and I wasn't expected to look nice!
Cabinas El Castillo birds: *Great Kiskadee, *Yellow Warbler, *Passerini's Tanager, *Blue-gray Tanager
Carlos had read online about a good place to eat near where we were staying, so we drove over to Jardin Escondido for pizza and amazing, homemade coffee ice cream. Since it was Easter afternoon we were the only ones there. We chatted with the owner, "Pizza John," for a while, and he filled me in on the birds he had seen around his place. He told us the volcano had been covered in clouds for two months until just today, and that the white streaks we saw on the volcano were the lava and hot rocks rolling down. We felt pretty lucky to see that.
Pizza John encouraged guests to write all over his restaurant
Jardin Escondido birds: Black Vulture, Baltimore Oriole, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, *Tropical Kingbird, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Clay-colored Robin, Red-winged Blackbird, *Bronzed Cowbird
As the day wore on and got a little cooler we took Pizza John's recommendation and walked the Monkey Trail at Arenal Vista Lodge. Luckily for me we did not see any monkeys (I hate them)! We did see and hear from Montezuma Oropendolas. They were the coolest things ever, and some of my favorite birds of the whole trip.
Monkey Trail birds: *Montezuma Oropendola, *Gray-headed Chachalaca
After that short walk it was getting dark so we headed back to our hotel. We ate dinner out on the patio and watching the lava coming down. At night you can see it glowing orange! It didn't look like the rivers of lava you see on nature shows. It was more like an ember from a fire breaking apart and spreading as it rolled down the mountain. I tried to get some pictures but was unsuccessful that night.
Monday, April 5, 2010
One benefit of Costa Rica being 2 hours behind the East Coast was that I easily woke up around dawn. When I did, I heard so many birds, especially the Blue-gray Tanagers and Great-tailed Grackles! I spent a long time on the back balcony of our room, watching birds in the trees around the hotel. I was practically out of my head with excitement. I couldn't ID the lifers fast enough - they were everywhere and I'm sure I missed some.
Red-legged Honeycreeper
Cabinas El Castillo birds: Cattle Egret, *Red-billed Pigeon, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, *Hoffmann's Woodpecker, *Streak-headed Woodcreeper, *Gray-capped Flycatcher, *Tennessee Warbler, Blue-gray Tanager, *Red-legged Honeycreeper, *Groove-billed Ani, *Blue-and-white Swallow, Great-tailed Grackle, Bronzed Cowbird, *Black-cowled Oriole, Montezuma Oropendola
Our goal that day was to hike up Cerro Chato, which is on the grounds of the Arenal Observatory Lodge. This is the first-choice place to stay near Arenal, but it was booked when we started trying to make reservations. It is only about 1KM from the volcano (our place was ~3KM) and is customers-only after 4PM (prime lava-viewing time) and before 8:30AM (prime bird-viewing time). To get to Cerro Chato you have to park near the main entrance to the lodge and walk about a mile down a road lined with eucalyptus trees and fields. There was a nice breeze and the birds were good!
The road leading to the Cerro Chato hike
Cerro Chato is on the right behind the trees
This was when we developed our birding strategy that we used for the rest of the trip. I had the binos and Carlos had the book. I'd look at the bird, tell Carlos which part of the book I thought he should look in, and then I'd describe the bird to him while he tried to find it. It worked out really well.
Walking to/from Cerro Chato birds: *Black-cheeked Woodpecker, *Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, *Brown Jay, *Band-backed Wren, *Blue-black Grassquit, *White-collared Seedeater, *Thick-billed Seed-Finch, *Yellow-faced Grassquit
The hike was... not well-researched. We should have read this first. It was very, very hard. I knew it went to the top of the smaller dormant volcano, but I assumed there'd be switchbacks like you see in Shenandoah. Nope: on this mountain, the trail went straight up. Since it was well-traveled and it rains a lot there, the trail was made out of mud. It was packed pretty hard, almost like clay, so parts of it had been sculpted into little post-holes that you had to put your feet in. That blog post I linked to accurately describes it "like walking up some very tall, muddy, slippery stairs - while feeling like all of the roots of every single tree are trying to either choke you or trip you."
The jungle was neat, at least.
When we got to the top, apparently you are supposed to walk around the rim of the water-filled crater so you can get a view of Volcan Arenal. We didn't know that, so we went down into the crater to see the lake up close. This was after at least 3 hours of walking straight up. I was actually kind of afraid I wouldn't make it back up out of the crater!
Looking down at the lake from the crater rim
The lake was pretty but I wish I'd gone around to the viewpoint. Ah well, at least we got to see two gorgeous Swallow-tailed Kites skimming above the water and dipping their feet in it. We also saw a Violet Sabrewing (giant purple hummingbird) making a ton of noise. And, since the trail was so steep, going down the mountain was very fast!
Cerro Chato hike birds: *Swallow-tailed Kite, *Violet Sabrewing
After the hike we got some food at the lodge's restaurant. It is right up close to the volcano and we watched the rocks coming down. You could hear them rumbling and I decided that the hotel we ended up at was close enough, thankyouverymuch.
View from the Arenal Observatory Lodge deck & restaurant
Apparently those rocks are the size of houses!
In front of the lodge they have a platform with fruit on it to attract birds. Several Montezuma Oropendolas were there, and one was displaying & calling (you have to see video of that here). We saw more honeycreepers and some awesome 80s-style Scarlet-thighed Dacnises in their neon aqua and black outfits. The trees around the deck attracted some coatis too!
Montezuma Oropendola
Red-legged Honeycreeper again
Arenal Observatory Lodge gardens birds:*Chestnut-sided Warbler, *Scarlet-thighed Dacnis, *Green Honeycreeper, *Black-striped Sparrow, *Hepatic Tanager, Montezuma Oropendola, Passerini's Tanager, Red-legged Honeycreeper
After all that we were pretty worn out, so we spent the rest of the evening watching birds and lava from our balcony. I tried to take pictures again and was much more successful!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Tuesday was our last day at Arenal. We had three days planned in Monteverde so we didn't leave in a hurry. In the morning we went to Parque Nacional Volcan Arenal to hike up to an old lava field. This was a much gentler hike compared to the one up Cerro Chato. We saw birds (of course) and wild orchids growing from the lava.
Carlos was excited about the lava, even though he doesn't look it.
We took a quick hike on a side trail through the jungle that lead to a giant ceibo tree.
Back in there we saw White-collared Manakins. They made this electric-snapping sound with their wings, it was really cool and made it easier to find them in the undergrowth. Carlos really wanted to see a toucan, but we never did.
White-throated Magpie-jay at the exit from the park
PN Arenal Birds: *Squirrel Cuckoo, *White-collared Manakin, *White-throated Magpie-jay, *Magnolia Warbler, *Gray-crowned Yellowthroat
After the hike we went to a butterfly conservatory near the hotel. We got to see freaky little Blue Morpho caterpillars and the floaty adults. They also had some jungle frogs. We took a short walk on a trail there. We saw leaf-cutter ants but didn't see many birds (except for a completely nondescript tanager that I could not ID).
The next part is Monteverde, aka birders' mecca!
More pictures from the entire trip (with fewer stories & explanations) are on Picasa.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
We got in to San Jose in the late afternoon/early evening. My grandmother was already in Costa Rica, visiting a friend who lives in San Jose, so they were nice enough to come pick us up at the airport and bring us to our hotel! We stayed at Hotel Aranjuez, which was very nice. After we dropped our stuff off at the hotel, my grandmother's friend took us to her church to see an Easter-eve service. It began with a fire outside the church, which they used to light big church candles. Everyone inside (including us) had their own candles. People lit their candles from the church candles, then spread the light to the people around them, who spread it to the people near them, until the church was glowing with candlelight. It was very pretty!
After that there was some singing and then apparently they began reading the Bible from the beginning. It was in Spanish so I had no idea what was going on. After about half an hour of that with no end in sight we ducked out because I was starving. We ate at a restaurant where my grandmother's friend had been going for years. I tried black beans for the first time, they are really good! Most of the restaurants we saw in San Jose were chain restaurants we have back here in the US. It was a little odd. Finally after dinner we went back to our hotel to get ready for lots of driving the next day.
San Jose birds: Great-tailed Grackle (saw these in Arizona a few years ago - no lifers yet!)
Sunday, April 4, 2010
We had breakfast at the hotel in the morning. The gardens there were lush and beautiful:
View from the breakfast porch
I finally started getting some lifers as I ate breakfast.
Hotel Aranjuez birds: *Rufous-collared Sparrow, *Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, *Clay-colored Robin (Costa Rica's national bird)
Our rental car showed up while we were eating, and we got on the road as quickly as we could. Our first destination was Volcan Arenal, an active volcano and one of the most popular places in the country. The drive there took several hours on winding roads. We rented a GPS with the car and it was a very, VERY good idea! It let us see the curves ahead and warned us about the many one-lane bridges.
I saw a few birds while we drove but it was impossible to get a good look at or ID them. I was worried at the time - I had a goal of seeing at least 30 lifers on this trip, and I thought if I missed these birds I wouldn't reach my goal. Now I look back and laugh, because I think I ended up with 80+ lifers by the end of the week!
We drove through the main town of La Fortuna, around the north side of the volcano and then west to Cabinas El Castillo where we were staying. One wall of the room was a sliding glass door that looked toward the volcano. The view was amazing!
View from the room later in the evening
I finally got a taste of the Costa Rican heat and humidity. Before the trip I expected to want to live in Costa Rica once I got there. The humidity ensured that will never happen. Maryland is known for its hot and humid Augusts but this was worse than anything I've felt at home! Even just sitting on the balcony to watch birds, I was sweating everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Thank goodness most of our plans involved hiking and I wasn't expected to look nice!
Cabinas El Castillo birds: *Great Kiskadee, *Yellow Warbler, *Passerini's Tanager, *Blue-gray Tanager
Carlos had read online about a good place to eat near where we were staying, so we drove over to Jardin Escondido for pizza and amazing, homemade coffee ice cream. Since it was Easter afternoon we were the only ones there. We chatted with the owner, "Pizza John," for a while, and he filled me in on the birds he had seen around his place. He told us the volcano had been covered in clouds for two months until just today, and that the white streaks we saw on the volcano were the lava and hot rocks rolling down. We felt pretty lucky to see that.
Pizza John encouraged guests to write all over his restaurant
Jardin Escondido birds: Black Vulture, Baltimore Oriole, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, *Tropical Kingbird, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Clay-colored Robin, Red-winged Blackbird, *Bronzed Cowbird
As the day wore on and got a little cooler we took Pizza John's recommendation and walked the Monkey Trail at Arenal Vista Lodge. Luckily for me we did not see any monkeys (I hate them)! We did see and hear from Montezuma Oropendolas. They were the coolest things ever, and some of my favorite birds of the whole trip.
Monkey Trail birds: *Montezuma Oropendola, *Gray-headed Chachalaca
After that short walk it was getting dark so we headed back to our hotel. We ate dinner out on the patio and watching the lava coming down. At night you can see it glowing orange! It didn't look like the rivers of lava you see on nature shows. It was more like an ember from a fire breaking apart and spreading as it rolled down the mountain. I tried to get some pictures but was unsuccessful that night.
Monday, April 5, 2010
One benefit of Costa Rica being 2 hours behind the East Coast was that I easily woke up around dawn. When I did, I heard so many birds, especially the Blue-gray Tanagers and Great-tailed Grackles! I spent a long time on the back balcony of our room, watching birds in the trees around the hotel. I was practically out of my head with excitement. I couldn't ID the lifers fast enough - they were everywhere and I'm sure I missed some.
Red-legged Honeycreeper
Cabinas El Castillo birds: Cattle Egret, *Red-billed Pigeon, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, *Hoffmann's Woodpecker, *Streak-headed Woodcreeper, *Gray-capped Flycatcher, *Tennessee Warbler, Blue-gray Tanager, *Red-legged Honeycreeper, *Groove-billed Ani, *Blue-and-white Swallow, Great-tailed Grackle, Bronzed Cowbird, *Black-cowled Oriole, Montezuma Oropendola
Our goal that day was to hike up Cerro Chato, which is on the grounds of the Arenal Observatory Lodge. This is the first-choice place to stay near Arenal, but it was booked when we started trying to make reservations. It is only about 1KM from the volcano (our place was ~3KM) and is customers-only after 4PM (prime lava-viewing time) and before 8:30AM (prime bird-viewing time). To get to Cerro Chato you have to park near the main entrance to the lodge and walk about a mile down a road lined with eucalyptus trees and fields. There was a nice breeze and the birds were good!
The road leading to the Cerro Chato hike
Cerro Chato is on the right behind the trees
This was when we developed our birding strategy that we used for the rest of the trip. I had the binos and Carlos had the book. I'd look at the bird, tell Carlos which part of the book I thought he should look in, and then I'd describe the bird to him while he tried to find it. It worked out really well.
Walking to/from Cerro Chato birds: *Black-cheeked Woodpecker, *Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, *Brown Jay, *Band-backed Wren, *Blue-black Grassquit, *White-collared Seedeater, *Thick-billed Seed-Finch, *Yellow-faced Grassquit
The hike was... not well-researched. We should have read this first. It was very, very hard. I knew it went to the top of the smaller dormant volcano, but I assumed there'd be switchbacks like you see in Shenandoah. Nope: on this mountain, the trail went straight up. Since it was well-traveled and it rains a lot there, the trail was made out of mud. It was packed pretty hard, almost like clay, so parts of it had been sculpted into little post-holes that you had to put your feet in. That blog post I linked to accurately describes it "like walking up some very tall, muddy, slippery stairs - while feeling like all of the roots of every single tree are trying to either choke you or trip you."
The jungle was neat, at least.
When we got to the top, apparently you are supposed to walk around the rim of the water-filled crater so you can get a view of Volcan Arenal. We didn't know that, so we went down into the crater to see the lake up close. This was after at least 3 hours of walking straight up. I was actually kind of afraid I wouldn't make it back up out of the crater!
Looking down at the lake from the crater rim
The lake was pretty but I wish I'd gone around to the viewpoint. Ah well, at least we got to see two gorgeous Swallow-tailed Kites skimming above the water and dipping their feet in it. We also saw a Violet Sabrewing (giant purple hummingbird) making a ton of noise. And, since the trail was so steep, going down the mountain was very fast!
Cerro Chato hike birds: *Swallow-tailed Kite, *Violet Sabrewing
After the hike we got some food at the lodge's restaurant. It is right up close to the volcano and we watched the rocks coming down. You could hear them rumbling and I decided that the hotel we ended up at was close enough, thankyouverymuch.
View from the Arenal Observatory Lodge deck & restaurant
Apparently those rocks are the size of houses!
In front of the lodge they have a platform with fruit on it to attract birds. Several Montezuma Oropendolas were there, and one was displaying & calling (you have to see video of that here). We saw more honeycreepers and some awesome 80s-style Scarlet-thighed Dacnises in their neon aqua and black outfits. The trees around the deck attracted some coatis too!
Montezuma Oropendola
Red-legged Honeycreeper again
Arenal Observatory Lodge gardens birds:*Chestnut-sided Warbler, *Scarlet-thighed Dacnis, *Green Honeycreeper, *Black-striped Sparrow, *Hepatic Tanager, Montezuma Oropendola, Passerini's Tanager, Red-legged Honeycreeper
After all that we were pretty worn out, so we spent the rest of the evening watching birds and lava from our balcony. I tried to take pictures again and was much more successful!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Tuesday was our last day at Arenal. We had three days planned in Monteverde so we didn't leave in a hurry. In the morning we went to Parque Nacional Volcan Arenal to hike up to an old lava field. This was a much gentler hike compared to the one up Cerro Chato. We saw birds (of course) and wild orchids growing from the lava.
Carlos was excited about the lava, even though he doesn't look it.
We took a quick hike on a side trail through the jungle that lead to a giant ceibo tree.
Back in there we saw White-collared Manakins. They made this electric-snapping sound with their wings, it was really cool and made it easier to find them in the undergrowth. Carlos really wanted to see a toucan, but we never did.
White-throated Magpie-jay at the exit from the park
PN Arenal Birds: *Squirrel Cuckoo, *White-collared Manakin, *White-throated Magpie-jay, *Magnolia Warbler, *Gray-crowned Yellowthroat
After the hike we went to a butterfly conservatory near the hotel. We got to see freaky little Blue Morpho caterpillars and the floaty adults. They also had some jungle frogs. We took a short walk on a trail there. We saw leaf-cutter ants but didn't see many birds (except for a completely nondescript tanager that I could not ID).
The next part is Monteverde, aka birders' mecca!