audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
We visited Costa Rica the first 11 days of December, on a National Geographic conservation areas land tour + added an extra hotel night before and after. This trip was great for wildlife overall and birds. Also stayed at some awesome hotels out in the countryside.
We flew into San Jose Airport (only 3hrs 40mins from Houston) and stayed at a hotel with extensive grounds nearby. Visited some lowlands then transferred to a beautiful hotel near the Arenal volcano. This hotel even had a volcanic hot spring. We used that as a base for 3 nights, visiting several areas including more lowlands and Arenal Volcano National Park. Then we had a boat crossing of Arenal Lake, on our way to Monteverde Cloud Forest, a stop at the Don Juan coffee and chocolate farm on the way. 2 nights in Monteverde visiting several areas including tree canopy bridges, and then transferred to the Pacific Coast area staying on the beach at the beautiful Culebra Bay in Guanacaste province. Visited Tamarindo area as well. Several small boat tours as well as hikes. We flew out of Liberia to return.
We saw three species of monkeys, two species of sloth (four sightings but only body parts way up in trees, ha ha), caimans and crocodiles, the absolutely stunning and tiny eyelash viper, several other mammals, and tons of birds including Toucans and Macaws, etc. DH was in heaven with his long lens camera and all the hotels we stayed had extensive grounds for him to explore on his own. I recorded several dawn bird choruses (thanks Merlin!). But the absolute best was hearing the pre-dawn echoing roars of the Howler Monkeys as they answered each other in the distance (although one morning I think one was right outside our window). We were the only experienced birders in the group, but thankfully for us the guide was a serious birder and photographer and always volunteered to lead those interested in a pre-breakfast bird walk. Several of the other participants really got into this even though they weren’t birders, so that was fun.
The temperatures were quite pleasant although more humid than we are accustomed to. Everything was so green and lush as it was the end of the wet season. Chillier in Monteverde cloud forest area ~5000ft to quite warm on the Pacific Coast. It’s a great country to visit. People are very laid back and friendly and many speak English well, even though I found their Spanish very easy to understand and often spoke in Spanish. The food was very good - we ate a lot of different traditional dishes and it seemed that most of the food is locally raised plus awesome tropical fruit raised locally. Our guide was fantastic overall and the whole trip arranged very efficiently so we got to see tons of stuff. All the hotels had outstanding breakfasts.
View from our balcony of Arenal Volcano tip just peaking out from the clouds before sunrise. Kioro Spa and Suites hotel near La Fortuna.
An eyelash viper wrapped around a bromeliad at shoulder level along our hiking trail at Arenal National Park. At the start of the hike, the park guide told everyone not to reach out and touch anything. That’s a small bromeliad for scale.
We flew into San Jose Airport (only 3hrs 40mins from Houston) and stayed at a hotel with extensive grounds nearby. Visited some lowlands then transferred to a beautiful hotel near the Arenal volcano. This hotel even had a volcanic hot spring. We used that as a base for 3 nights, visiting several areas including more lowlands and Arenal Volcano National Park. Then we had a boat crossing of Arenal Lake, on our way to Monteverde Cloud Forest, a stop at the Don Juan coffee and chocolate farm on the way. 2 nights in Monteverde visiting several areas including tree canopy bridges, and then transferred to the Pacific Coast area staying on the beach at the beautiful Culebra Bay in Guanacaste province. Visited Tamarindo area as well. Several small boat tours as well as hikes. We flew out of Liberia to return.
We saw three species of monkeys, two species of sloth (four sightings but only body parts way up in trees, ha ha), caimans and crocodiles, the absolutely stunning and tiny eyelash viper, several other mammals, and tons of birds including Toucans and Macaws, etc. DH was in heaven with his long lens camera and all the hotels we stayed had extensive grounds for him to explore on his own. I recorded several dawn bird choruses (thanks Merlin!). But the absolute best was hearing the pre-dawn echoing roars of the Howler Monkeys as they answered each other in the distance (although one morning I think one was right outside our window). We were the only experienced birders in the group, but thankfully for us the guide was a serious birder and photographer and always volunteered to lead those interested in a pre-breakfast bird walk. Several of the other participants really got into this even though they weren’t birders, so that was fun.
The temperatures were quite pleasant although more humid than we are accustomed to. Everything was so green and lush as it was the end of the wet season. Chillier in Monteverde cloud forest area ~5000ft to quite warm on the Pacific Coast. It’s a great country to visit. People are very laid back and friendly and many speak English well, even though I found their Spanish very easy to understand and often spoke in Spanish. The food was very good - we ate a lot of different traditional dishes and it seemed that most of the food is locally raised plus awesome tropical fruit raised locally. Our guide was fantastic overall and the whole trip arranged very efficiently so we got to see tons of stuff. All the hotels had outstanding breakfasts.
View from our balcony of Arenal Volcano tip just peaking out from the clouds before sunrise. Kioro Spa and Suites hotel near La Fortuna.
An eyelash viper wrapped around a bromeliad at shoulder level along our hiking trail at Arenal National Park. At the start of the hike, the park guide told everyone not to reach out and touch anything. That’s a small bromeliad for scale.
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