Colourful Costa Rica
A visit to Costa Rica has been on my bucket list for several years, and in January this year I achieved my dream. I must say it exceeded my expectations. We decided to go on an organised tour, as we felt we would see and learn more about the country with a guide.
We flew into San Jose, the capital and had two nights there. The next day we had a city tour and visited a local market, which sold just about everything, and then went to the National Theatre and the Gold Museum, all of which was very interesting.
The next morning we had a 6.30am start, by coach and then boat to Tortugero on the Caribbean coast. We stayed there for two nights at Laguna Lodge which was set in beautiful gardens, facing the river. We saw lots of wildlife, including sloths; iguanas; scarlett macaws; a mexican hairy porcupine and red-eyed frogs, to name but a few!
We then travelled by boat and coach to Sarapiqui, which was inland and set in a lush rainforest. We had two nights here and on the first night we did a guided night walk. This was fascinating and a bit scary at times, especially when a coral snake, (one of the most poisonous in Costa Rica), slid across the path in front of us! We saw a tree frog; lots of insects; a sleeping howler monkey and several tarantulas! On our way back we saw a mother and baby sloth hanging from a tree, a wonderful sight!
After we left Sarapiqui we travelled to Arenal for one night in the hope of seeing the volcano. Sadly it was cloudy and wet, so we never saw the top of it.
We then journeyed to Monteverde, in the Cloud Forest. I have never experienced a Cloud Forest before and it was really strange as the sky was blue and the sun out, but there would be very fine rain blowing across. It was here that we had our first sighting of the Resplendent Quetzal, which was very hard to photograph as it was well hidden in the trees!
After two nights in Monteverde we headed to Tarcoles, for a Crocodile Safari, before going to our next hotel for two nights. This was one of my favourite excursions. we only saw three crocodiles, but so many different birds, it was just amazing. We saw different species of heron; kingfishers; pelicans; black hawks; osprey; roseate spoonbills; cormorants; caracara; scarlett macaws and some howler monkeys sleeping in the trees.
We also visited the Carara National Park before heading to Dominical for two nights. The next day we visited Manuel Antonio National Park, which was one of the places I was looking forward to visiting and it didn’t disappoint! We saw lots of wildlife including another mum and baby sloth high up in the trees. As we were leaving the park we came across a troop of white faced capuchin monkeys!
The next day we had a boat ride down the coast to Corcovado National Park. We saw dolphins and brown booby birds on the way there and also coming back. We were very fortunate to see an anteater; some spider monkeys and a tapir as well as lots of birds.
From Dominical we travelled inland to San Gerado de Dota. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful little restaurant where there were lots of birds in their gardens. We saw hummingbirds; acorn woodpeckers and sooty robins, the last two I had never seen before. Our accommodation for our last night was down in a valley and again was set in lovely gardens with lots of beautiful flowers, birds and butterflies. We were up early for our last morning walk to look for the resplendent quetzal and we were blessed to see a male with his long tail and also a female!
From there we travelled back to the airport for our overnight flight back to the UK. One thing that I will always remember is how colourful and vibrant the country was. I am so glad I have been able to visit Costa Rica and would highly recommend it if you love nature and wildlife.
If you would like to see my photographs from my visit to Costa Rica, please click on the link below.