Monday, April 20, 2015

Carara National Park - April 20

The howler monkeys, making a racket woke me up 15 mins before the alarm. It was neat laying in bed listening to them.

I had a restless night, I am guessing due to going to bed too early, around 3 hours before I normally do but I had to get up 3 hours earlier so it evened out.

We were ready too early and waited in the lobby and listened to the birds and monkeys.

Got picked up on time and passed through the town of Quepos, this is where my weather comes from. The town is actually 3 feet under the sea level and until 10 years back flooding was a big problem. Now there are dykes that do help.

Arrived at our destination in an hour and half. This is a serious bird spotters destination so there aren't hoardes of tourists. We had a private tour with guide Michael who was extremely accommodating and allowed us to take all the time we needed to take pictures.

My interest was mostly the Macaws and sure enough we found two flocks and Michael helped me take pictures though hubby's spotting scope.







The Macaws are big, beautiful, and colorful birds, and make a lot of harsh noises. The first flock were eating macadamia nuts and second palm nuts.







It was a typical lush rain forest and we saw many species of birds including:

Spoonbill
Buff rumped fly catcher
King fly catcher.

We saw a ghost bats, which does look ghostly and are loners unlike most bats which are in colonies.








We saw the second flock of macaws on our way out and spend quite sometime photographing them.

Also sighted a Toucan in the same area.









Pretty soon it was time to leave, we had walked for nearly 3 hours which flew past very quickly.

Lunch was part of the tour and stopped at a wayside diner Marea Baja (low tide) in the town of Jarco. This was a buffet style as well with 3 different types of rice, 3 types of meat, fried sea bass, vegetable, salad, and desert. Like yesterday, it was no fuss authentic Costa Rican cuisine and very tasty.

Back at the hotel to rest and freshen up and then hopefully go for a walk and eventually end up at two for one cocktails during the happy hour at the Tiki Bar.

An adventurous and great day so far.

Went to the Tiki bar, Sudip didn't want a margarita, so I had two margaritas and Sudip two PiƱa Coldas.

Decided to go to the seafood restaurant next to the reception area today, it's called Claro Que Seafood Restaurant. We had the steamed red snapper with steamed vegetables and boiled potatoes, even though red snapper is not one of my favorite it was still very good. I am definitely in seafood paradise.

Another early morning bird watching trip tomorrow, this one is to the Manuel Antonio National Park, just 10 mins from our hotel. It is also at the sea level; we should have a good view of the beach.


Location:Hotel Si Como No

1 comment:

  1. The ghost bat is actually pretty cute. I've never heard of them before.

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