B.A.R.B. at SongStar
Reports
Abbie's Costa
Rican Adventure, page 1
December 31, 2004–January 13, 2005
By Abbie Banks
Hola. The sky was
still dark when we left the house. We took off very early in the morning
from BWI on December 31, 2004 and after a plane change in Atlanta, we
arrived in San José in the late afternoon. We were very excited to be in
Costa Rica and so we settled in the hotel room and went out to explore and
found out that there was a New Year’s Eve celebration at a sister hotel
about twenty minutes away. After a bit of language interpretation we made
reservations for the Costa Rican New Year’s Gala. Fortunately, we
discovered that a minibus would take us to this gala event. We arrived that
evening and sat with two other couples and totally enjoyed their company. One
couple was from Costa Rica and translated for us all evening and the other
was on their honeymoon from California. The band played Spanish music
and the bandleader spoke entirely in Spanish and my high school French was
of no help. We danced, laughed, ate and toasted the New Year with the
small intimate crowd of about 400 and went back to the hotel exhausted and fell
into bed after a very long day.
We were in a group
tour of about thirty people. For the entire trip we traveled on a brand new bus
with the best driver I have ever seen. Carlos, our group leader was a trained
naturalist and he was young, personable, fit and attractive. The plan was to
visit four major areas of Costa Rica and learn of the environment and people.
The first side trip was to a volcano called Poas. It was located in one of Costa
Rica’s many National Parks. Poas is in a string of volcanoes, which cuts the
country in half from north to south. I was impressed and happy to hear that a
third of the country is protected land.
Needless to say, it
was sunny when we left however, when we arrived at the volcano, the wind was
blowing and it was chilly, rainy and foggy. Many decided not to hike to the top
but Don and I buttoned up and started up the hill leaning into the wind and rain
and I was glad we did because we saw two lifers along the way. With the fog and
the wind and the rain whipping, it was a wonder we
could see each other. One lifer was the Rufous-collared Sparrow and the
other was the Grey-breasted Wood Wren. The thick fog
obstructed the view of the monster volcano or anything else that happened to
be in the sky flying. Oh well, I already saw a volcano erupt in Hawaii. We
headed back because we were both wet and cold and the fog was so bad, I thought
I would lose Don.
The first day in Costa
Rica brought the Common Ground Dove, Green Hermit, Red-crowned Woodpecker,
which I tracked down at the golf course after hearing the ratty tat tat. Right
at the hotel garden, I saw Indigo Buntings, Clay colored Robins and a
Yellow-breasted Chat.
We were only in San
José suburbs for several days. I hiked to the golf course to do some more
birding because we were to leave at the crack of dawn for the wilderness lodge.
There were great flocks of Crimson-fronted Parakeets chattering loudly as they flew
in groups of twenty or thirty. In addition all through the country we saw many,
many Black Vultures and very few Turkey Vultures. I also saw
Blue-gray Tanagers, Lesser Goldfinch, Blue and white Swallows and White-winged Doves. I must say that the breakfast
buffets were all wonderful. There were all kinds of delicious, recognizable and
unrecognizable fruit, omelets, Spanish food, breakfast meats, baked goods and so
on…I kept saying moderation, moderation. Don was in heaven. Well, one does need
sustenance for the busy day ahead. After breakfast, we were in the bus with our
fearless driver, Mario. Mind you, Costa Rica’s road system was built for
one-horse wagons. Some of the roads were actually paved. The roads wind around
mountains and curves and have no guardrails. Along the side, there is evidence
of rockslides and every once in a while you see a rusty car in the ravine. It is
quite a feat to drive these roads in a car, let alone a bus. I was amazed at the
skills of Mario and also thankful of his expertise.
As we drove along the
countryside we saw many fields of coffee. The terrain in Costa Rica is truly
beautiful. Coffee plants were lined in many green rows on the rolling hills and
mountainsides creating a bright green corduroy fabric winding up and down the
hills. We stopped for a bit in the town of Grecia to see the all steel church
and browse the produce market. Driving through the countryside and seeing the
little villages with small huts, I noticed everyone had a dog. Cute little
wagging tails greeted us everywhere. This reminded me of Spain…everyone had a
dog
.
The trip to Tilajari (Tilahari)
Wilderness Lodge was quite a few hours and we continued on the way and stopped
midday at an oxcart factory to see the artisans at work painting the traditional
bright designs on the famous Carretas. I was very interested in the gardens,
which were gorgeous. Hummingbirds and butterflies flitted in and out on the huge
hibiscus and other colorful
flowers. I had great difficulty IDing the Hummingbirds. Every time I saw one for
a nano second, Carlos was elsewhere. I had no trouble IDing the woodies! Soon
after, at a coffee stop, I spotted a gorgeous Hoffman’s Woodpecker. We
were at a roadside coffee stop, which overlooked acres of coffee bushes down
into a valley.
Tilajari was OMIGOD
gorgeous. The place was right on the San Carlos River. The foliage was lush and
green and beautiful. bougainvillea was dripping from everything and huge bright
hibiscus and ginger were plentiful. Birds flitted everywhere. Geckos scampered
and the prehistoric Iguana creatures were huge and everywhere in the trees and
on the ground. Interesting noises
came from across the river and echoed the grounds throughout the night. In the
morning much to my delight, the hotel hung huge rings of melons on sticks from
the trees. This attracted a bevy of gorgeous birds. Since we had to leave for an
outing, I was up at the crack of dawn to see
the grounds and birds. This was a big bird day for me. The
Nicaraguan Grackles were
fantastic…what entertainers. Their yakking never failed to amuse me. Flying over
head, I thought was a Glossy Ibis but, I was told it was probably a Green
Ibis…better yet! I saw a Golden Bellied Flycatcher, Baltimore Oriole
(of course), Rufous-tailed Hummingbird,
the breath-taking Scarlet-rumped Tanager, Tropical Kingbird, yikes…a
House Wren, Northern Chicana, Great Kiskadee, Tropical Peewee,
Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet and the exquisite Red-legged Honeycreeper.
We went on a river cruise, which was great fun. Every time we went on one of
these jaunts, Carlos gave us “the talk.” This was a talk regarding the fact that
he could not conjure up wildlife for us. It would either be there or not. I
guess he didn’t want us to jump all over him if we saw nothing. No
one blamed him for the fog surrounding the volcano, but we all did blame him for
the rain. He said he would try to do something about that and it actually barely
rained much after the foggy volcano day. He kept threatening us with choosing
one of us for a sacrifice to the weather gods.
We were out on the
river and it was a great day with just a bit of cool drizzle occasionally to
ward off the heat. Mangroves grew in snarled masses along the edge. We saw
Little Egret, Little Blue Heron, Green-backed Heron, Olivacious Cormorant,
Amazon Kingfishers, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Grove-billed Ani, Sun Grebe,
Prothonotary Warbler, Hooded Warbler,
Red-winged Blackbirds and Anhinga.
We also saw one of the
most exciting sightings…an albino Howler Monkey. We saw quite a few howlers
along the river, but, at this one site, Carlos became very excited when he
spotted the albino princess. She was the color of a tangerine crossed with a
lemon and she was beautiful and in the dark green jungle growth she just glowed.
Carlos told us that this was the only documented full albino in existence and
many came to study her. I knew then this was a
special sighting. One of the large males seemed to be her appointed protector
and followed her everywhere. Carlos called to the howlers and they responded
which started a great howling contest from our boat to the howlers and back
again. I am sure the monkeys all were saying that this was yet another boat of
crazy touristos. We stayed and watched the monkey show for quite a while and
then sadly we had to leave. Everyone was silent, and wistfully looked back as we
pulled away because we all knew we had seen something very special.
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