Costa Rica: Esquipulas
We took an afternoon trip with Elias, the Parador's naturalist, to an area inland called Esquipulas.
There's so much land for sale in CR, it's very tempting to buy something, but that would just put the prices up for local people, like what happens in Jersey.
One of the first birds we saw was the Blue-throated Goldentail, a lovely hummingbird.
Elias was very excited by this Zone-tailed Hawk.
We saw lots of these gorgeous Machete Flowers.
The Yellow-throated Toucan is quite common, but spectacular nonetheless.
Weirdly, the Costa Ricans have chosen the rather dull-looking Clay-coloured Thrush as their national bird. It does sing beautifully.
Some lovely decorative fungi.
Gorgeous horse and mule buddies - the mule looks like it's saying "What you look 'pon? You look upon my Lesley?" (Famalam.)
And this bird, the prize of the day, a briefly seen 'lifer': the Turquoise Cotinga.
Funny thing: on the way up the hill, when we said 'hi' to Elias' daughter who was riding a motorbike with a friend, up a very bumpy pebble road, he sternly advised her to put on her mask. Never mind about the fact that she had bare legs, inappropriate footwear, and no crash helmet!
There's so much land for sale in CR, it's very tempting to buy something, but that would just put the prices up for local people, like what happens in Jersey.
One of the first birds we saw was the Blue-throated Goldentail, a lovely hummingbird.
Elias was very excited by this Zone-tailed Hawk.
We saw lots of these gorgeous Machete Flowers.
The Yellow-throated Toucan is quite common, but spectacular nonetheless.
Weirdly, the Costa Ricans have chosen the rather dull-looking Clay-coloured Thrush as their national bird. It does sing beautifully.
Some lovely decorative fungi.
Gorgeous horse and mule buddies - the mule looks like it's saying "What you look 'pon? You look upon my Lesley?" (Famalam.)
And this bird, the prize of the day, a briefly seen 'lifer': the Turquoise Cotinga.
Funny thing: on the way up the hill, when we said 'hi' to Elias' daughter who was riding a motorbike with a friend, up a very bumpy pebble road, he sternly advised her to put on her mask. Never mind about the fact that she had bare legs, inappropriate footwear, and no crash helmet!