Costa Rica, Part 1

Our flight from Orlando on Saturday, March 1, was delayed over an hour, 10 minutes at a time. I was crossing my fingers that there any FAA employees left after the DoGE bros continue in their misguided run through the federal government. Perhaps the airlines laid off too many pilots. TSA was easy-ish because a nice young woman took us around to the front of the line, we assume because we looked/are old. Then we tried to follow the instructions of a masked agent who continued to speak very quietly, even after I twice said we were hard of hearing. I guess better than the ones that bark orders.

On the bright side, we had plenty of time to enjoy lunch at the Sunshine Dinner in Terminal C. Easy flight, and when we got to immigration in San Jose, another nice young lady took us to another head-of-the-line. We must be looking pretty bad. Met up with Kathy and Lee, and after a slow drive to the city, delayed by accidents and a stop at a Fresh Market for tourist-level spending on beer and mixers, we arrived at the DHotel, née Park Inn, to comfortable rooms, (although we did have to ask to be on the same floor), and a good dinner of casado, i.e. beans, rice, meat, plantains, etc. 

Sunday, March 2: We walked 12k+ steps or about 4.1 miles around San Jose on the first day of our “low impact” birding tour that our friend Lee put together. Frankly, I’m impressed we made it that far. Our guide Paul, former government security officer, now private security consultant, took us first to Cartago, to see Las Ruinas and the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles, where we all patted the little Virgin statue. Does her protection extend to UUs? I bought a bead bracelet with a “silver” medallion of the Virgin. Lee bought a lung charm. We also tried copo: shaved ice, powdered milk, kola syrup, sweetened condensed milk, topped by a marshmallow. Sweet and a brain freeze. Paul said it made us ticos, i.e. Costariqueñismos.

Lunch at Nuestra Tierra of a huge parailladas, an Argentinian dish with sausage, grilled chicken, tostones, and maduros plantains, yucca, chayote, guacamole, beans and rice, black bean dip, tortillas, chips, shrimp, potato cubes in a vinaigrette, and other condiments. Delicious, but way too much. We encouraged Paul to take the leftovers.

Fueled up, we walked around downtown San Jose. Of all the buildings, parks, and monuments that we saw, and all the history, politics, and folklore Paul told us, I am most fascinated by the large round stone balls, evidently carved by prehistoric people, perhaps the Diquis. Or aliens. The spheres are 2’-6’  in diameter, and we don’t know their purpose. Illegal for individuals to own, they now are in the front of government buildings and on display in the National Museum. I definitely want one. I suspect even the fakes are fairly pricy.

Monday, March 3: We met our guide Jorge and driver Larry. On the road by 7:00. What happened to our relaxed tour? Leaving the city, we drove for about 2 hours to get to the countryside. Past local shops and every American fast food I know of. (Side note: now that Hooters in the US are closing, what will happen to those in Costa Rica?) All of the buildings and home have barbed wire topped fences and gates with little roofs over them. Paul had said the crime level is extremely low. I wonder if that’s because it’s too hard to get through all the barriers. The city and countryside are clean. I didn’t see any litter.

Our ride up the mountain was past coffee farms, big and small. Some shade houses had papaya and perhaps foliage plants. Once over the pass at approximately 6,300’, we saw dairy cows. Too steep for farming. Towards the bottom, there were a few beef cows.

We stoped for several hours at a soda, aka small restaurant, that had papayas and plantains laid out on branches as feeders. It attracts the birds and the birders plus 1 squirrel. We saw silver, blue gray, and scarlet-rumped tanagers. Pronged billed and crimson barbets, honeycreepers, hummingbirds, and a quail dove that was particularly hard to see down on the forest floor beneath all the vegetation. Hummingbirds came to feeders within reaching distance, completely ignoring us. Jorge patiently told me the names over and over. Lee and Diana, the fifth member of our group, took pictures. I bought macaroons, homemade marshmallows, and a coffee for Grant as our cover charge.

Lunch at Fongo Chincona which means the food is cooked over a wood fire, although I did notice a microwave too, (Grant and I chose fish casado), then arrival at the Selva Lodge. I love the heliconias. When we lived in Fort Lauderdale, I had several varieties, including a bright pink one from Costa a Rico that succumbed to an exceptionally long cold spell one year. Our room was up 2 steep walkways, as was Kathy and Lee’s. They insisted to be moved next to Diana, who was in a room only up the first walkway since Lee cannot walk uphill and made that clear to the tour organizer. There were no other lower rooms, so Grant and I got our exercise. 

Short break, then birding in nearby field. First up: a sloth in a large, far off tree. Then seed eaters, a squirrel cuckoo, parakeets, and tatyrants . A pair of scarlet macaws, our goal birds there, flew to a high tree and preened in the sunlight. The female flew into a cavity and disappeared, and the male flew off. We watched red lored parrots gather to roost. As we were leaving, the female macaw popped her head back out for a while, then joined the male in another tree for more preening. 

Paul had given us a 5 Colon bill which has a rendition of “Alegoria” by Aleardo Villa on its backside. The original is a mural in the ceiling of the National Theatre in San Jose. The restaurant had a 6’ wide painted wood carving of the bill.

Shrimp Alfredo for dinner, then looking for frogs from the deck. Too much wine with dinner. This is not a weight loss tour.

Tuesday, March 4, Happy Mardi Gras: I am up early, sitting on our little patio to listen to the dawn chorus. My Merlin app has heard oropendola, tanagers, saltators, thrush, flycatchers, and a bronze tailed hummingbird. It is just getting light enough to start seeing the birds, but the mosquitoes have arrived too, or at least a couple. A pair of bay wrens are building a nest in a large leafed bush behind our room. I watch them from our patio.

Buffet breakfast. I chose black beans and rice with plantains, forgetting it is Shove Tuesday. Maybe pancakes tomorrow.

Our morning is at Donde Cope, a side garden with a small creek at a modest house that owner Cope has turned into a living by feeding the birds which bring in the birders. Our group had reserved his space for the entire morning. At first tanagers (scarlet rumped, blue grey, and palm), hummers (white necked jacobins, one with a damaged wing; rufous-tailed; violet-headed), clay-colored thrush, blackbirds (red winged, melodiously, and great tailed grackles), honeycreepers (red legged, shinning, and green), and caciques. Then the big girls came: several oropendola, 4 aracari (one missing an eye), and 6 toucans, (one with an upper beak missing its tip). Two wood rails walked through. An American pigmy kingfisher, with a damaged foot, dove after fish and the fish food Cope threw in the water. This must be the home for damaged birds.

Cope served us delicious cups of coffee.  After I ate an Apple ID brought from the lodge, I asked if I could throw the core out to the birds. Nope, put it in the compost pile where it will attract mosquitoes which the poison dart frogs eat. Odd, I said. Our compost attracts fruit flies, not mosquitoes. I learned in Spanish, there isn’t a separate word for what we call mosquitoes in English. They are all just “little flies.” 

Wednesday, March 5: Bus drive from Selva Lodge to Caño Negro. We stopped along the way to see flocks of wood storks, great egrets, snowies, a few white ibis and several roseate spoonbills, all of which we see in Florida, but not in the quantities here. I spotted a red-breasted meadowlark and several tiger heron. There were Nicaraguan grackles, like our boat tailed ones, but a little smaller, a cattle tyrant, and kiskadees, all along the road.

Lunch at Foñgo Caño Negro, casado de cerdo humidoro (smoked pork) for me with a dragonfruit con leche drink. We checked in at the lodge, Kathy and Lee in #7 and us in #37, the 2nd to the last most distant room. Diana initially was in #38, but since she’d paid for a handicapped room near the front, they quickly moved her to #2. I am still not clear why the organizer didn’t make it clear that we wanted close rooms when making the reservations. Fortunately, we can still make the trudge.

Now we are in the hotter lowlands. To be cooler on our boat ride, I rolled up my pants and just wore my sports bra under my long sleeved sun shirt. I vaguely wish I’d brought sandals, but my 1-pair-of-shoes-for-the-trip experiment has been okay.

The Rio Frio is muddy and swift. Like the tourists who come to Florida and want to see alligators, I wanted to see caimen and wasn’t disappointed. Although smaller than our gators, they made up for it in being omnipresent, on shore and in the water. When we stopped at one site to consider walking a muddy trail to bird, we scared one up onto the path. I don’t think they are much of a threat to humans; I don’t want to find out. We also saw small iguanas and several basilisks.

The major birds were all types of kingfishers, including the green-rufous. If we see the belted, the only species we have in Florida, we will have seen all the types here in CR. There were quite a few tiger herons, anhingas, and wood rails, however the highlight was an immature agami heron, tucked back in the vines. We were heading back to the dock, so the light was getting low. I’m not sure if Diana or Lee were able to photograph it, but I could see it well with my binoculars.