Costa Rica Trip II and III.

1-23-19 MONTEVERDE, COSTA RICA: Today the Nat Geo driver, Caroleena, was right on time and picked us up in a big van for the drive to Monteverde. Monteverde is a town in the Central Highlands, further to the north and in sight of the Pacific Ocean. The trip was 3 hours with the last 20 Km on very bumpy dirt and gravel mountain road with cutbacks, twists and a number of washouts. We saw a lot of sugar cane fields on the way.

We are staying at Hotel Senda, our room is up a steep hill and has great views. We got another sunset. I got a few bird pix today at the hotel, including grackles, who we had all fall in NJ. These grackles are a long-tailed, but otherwise very similar to the common grackle. I saw a coati and an agouti on the hotel grounds in the afternoon.

We have a morning bird walk at the Curi-Cancha Nature Reserve.


The road up to Monteverde, that's the Pacific Ocean in the distance.

Long-tailed grackle. A large flock hangs out on the hotel grounds.

Nice bougainvillea at Senda.

Agouti, a large rodent, at the hotel. The red ear is catching the sunset. People eat these.

1-24-19 MONTEVERDE, COSTA RICA: We were up early for a walk in the Curi-Cancha Reserve, a nearby nature site that used to be a dairy farm. They let the forest take it back and did additional planting of flowers and shrubs. Our guide, Juan Carlos, walked us around the reserve for most of the morning, and we saw many birds, a few squirrels and an agouti. There were toucans, many hummingbirds and several iridescent birds.


Like all the guides, Juan-Carlos, is a genius at spotting a bird or animal in a tree.

Slate-throated Redstart is a tiny bird, flitting around the lower forest. This is the bird on the sign above. Note the red yarmulke.

Judy and Juan-Carlos in front of a huge fig tree. The fig vines grow on some other tree as a parasite, choke it to death, leaving the fig alone on the spot, but hollow and providing animal habitat.

Judy trying out the habitat.

This forest is still open in places that were dairy pastures.

Tree covered with epiphytes. This is the dry, Pacific, side of the country, and that tree is waiting for rain to leaf out. The Caribbean side is the wet side.

Purple-throated mountain gem and Magenta-throated woodstar.

Motmot bird. People come to this reserve specifically to see this bird.

Green toucanet. These pix were taken with the iPhone through the spotting scope, not the best photo, but better than none. It's hard to find a green bird in a green tree with the camera.

Golden-browed chlorophonia.

Back at Senda, we had lunch and went up the hill to the room for naps. In the afternoon there were more birds to see at the hotel, a sunset, and then a taxi into town for dinner at the Tree House Restaurant, built around a huge ficus tree. The setting is dramatic, the food so-so.


Grey-headed chachalaca. A flock of twenty of so were in the trees and on the ground back at Senda. They are chicken-sized and very fast runners.

Sunset looking out to the Pacific.

Tree House Restaurant. You climb the stairs around the trunk to get to the Maitre D.

We have been impressed by the huge national enthusiasm for curating and preserving the environment and nature. Costa Rica has 160 protected areas including 26 National Parks. The protected areas total 25% of the national territory. They abolished their army in 1949, they do have police.

Tomorrow, another morning bird walk and an evening forest walk.

It occurred to me that Monteverde and Vermont both mean Green Mountain.