Pineapples, La Quinta, & La Selva
Second 24 hours in Costa Rica
Gil had a special treat for us at lunch — a pineapple plantation owned and run by a real showman.
We had a great lunch.
After lunch, our host and owner, Michael, took us on a tour, fearlessly chopping away at pineapples with a machete and offering us tastes.
We returned for pina coladas while I photographed yet another tanager, a Golden-hooded Tanager that caught some food.
That night we stayed at the La Quinta hotel. We had a choice of a 6:30 or 7:30 dinner. Before I could vote for the early one, a few others yelled 7:30 and it was settled without a vote.
It was an amazing first full day in Costa Rica. I was exhausted when I got to my room. The rooms were in a jungle connected by long walkways. Fortunately, I did not have to lug my camera backpack and small carry-on bag too far. I collapsed in the room and decided to wait a few minutes before going back out for photography.
Since we were basically in a dark jungle and since it got dark earlier than I expected, by the time I headed out it was quite dim. I walked along the paths to a distant bridge that overlooked some Caiman. I took this photo bracing my camera on the bridge with a shutter speed of 1/6 sec.
Before we headed out for some night photography before dinner, Ted and Gil gave a presentation about the evolution of the land bridge from North to South America, which is now Costa Rica.
The Central American land bridge was a gradual process involving volcanic activity and the movement of tectonic plates. These geological forces pushed land upwards, eventually connecting the continents and allowing mammals to move back and forth from North to South America.
After the talk, we headed out along the walkways not far from the rooms to try to find frogs and other night creatures. Gil had a pair of flat LEDs mounted to either side of his cell phone and used them to great advantage to get excellent photos. I struggled, holding a headlamp in one hand and a camera in the other.
Here is a photo Gill took of mating Red-eyed Tree Frogs.
By the time I got in position, they had closed their eyes, presumably in bliss.
But I found and photographed a number of other Red-eyed Tree Frogs with their eyes open.
I photographed an Hourglass Frog.
And a Slender Anole.
And a few creatures I have not identified.
Eventually we headed back for dinner.
At times, I compared my trip to Costa Rica with the trip I took the previous year to Brazil. In Brazil, except for the first night pizza at a mall since the hotel restaurant was closed Sunday night, every meal we had was a buffet — breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Most of the buffets were spectacular with a wonderful variety of foods I had never eaten before in more than ample quantity.
In contrast, in Costa Rica, we ordered from a menu perhaps 80% of the time. The times we had a buffet, they certainly did not come close to the variety and quality of Brazil. But when we ordered from the menu in Costa Rica, the food was exceptionally good, especially at the Arenal and Tortuguero hotels.
The late dinner buffet at La Quinta was especially lacking because by the time we got there most of the main dishes were gone. I had a meal mostly consisting of sausages and other leftovers.
The next morning I took a photo of a pair of Grey-cowled Wood Rails on the side of the swimming pool.
Then I moved to a garden area near the dining room to see if I could photograph some birds before breakfast.
Tanagers were certainly present represented by Scarlet-rumped, Red-legged Honeycreeper, Buff-throated Saltator, Bananaquit, and Blue-gray.
I photographed a Blue-black Grassquit in flight.
Of course, a Clay-colored Thrush was present.
And a Black-cowled Oriole.
In the broad entrance from the parking area I photographed White-necked Jacobin hummingbirds; two males followed by two females. Not sure where the name comes from.
Before we departed I found a chrysalis.
And an unidentified squirrel, possible a Deppes Squirrel.
We left the hotel around 8 a.m. heading for La Selva. From behind me in the bus Jill excitedly proclaimed that she saw some large colorful birds high in the trees along the road, possibly Scarlet Macaw. We turned around and I was able to photograph the pair of Scarlet Macaw she had spotted.
We detoured onto a side road searching for something special, without finding it. But I got a few photos of leafcutter ants. Note the cutting claws on the ant in the first photo.
Next to humans, leafcutter ants form some of the largest and most complex animal societies with specific jobs for each ant.
La Selva was a bit disappointing, though we did see two venomous snakes and a beautiful motmot. Also two sloths, but both were hidden by leaves and their faces were not visible. It was very hot and humid with an intense but short rain storm as we finished. Some of our group lingered for a very long time in the air conditioned gift shop after our hike. I had to admit the cool air felt good, but of course our bus/van was also air conditioned. I did not get into shopping like some of the others. Jann and I are trying to downsize.
Here is the Rufous Motmot. Note the very long tail.
A Collared Peccary walked by.
We found a Masked Tityra high in a tree, a species we had seen in several locations the previous day.
There was a Blue-gray Tanager.
And a Long-tailed Tyrant high in a snag.
We found only one hummingbird, a Blue-chested Hummingbird.
A Social Flycatcher sat on a wire. I remembered our great naturalist guide from the Pantanal of Brazil, Fisher, telling me that the oft-sighted Lesser Kiskadee looked similar to the Great Kiskadee and the Social Flycatcher. We saw a few Great Kiskadee in Brazil. All the kiskadee in Costa Rica were Great, no Lesser.
Along the trail a Strawberry poison-dart frog stood out amid dark surroundings.
Our guide planted his tripod and scope on the side of the trail and walked ahead. He knew what he would show us. It was a Eyelash Palm-pitviper (yellow morph). He borrowed phones to take photos for others in our group, but he allowed me to leave the trail so I could photograph it with my phone and with my long lens.
We headed back and met another group clogging the trail and not moving aside. While waiting I took this photo.
The other group had found a very venomous Fer-de-lance right on the side of the trail. I took this photo with a long lens but from only a yard or two away.
We had split into two groups. When we met the other group, I took this photo of Ted as we crossed the main bridge.
From the bridge I photographed a Green Basilisk with strong backlight.
We headed down the trail the other group had explored and found a Collared Aracari.
Our guide spotted a second sloth, but it was impossible to photograph. I could barely see it. But we did get a nice White-whiskered Puffbird as we finished up just before a short but intense rain.
We departed La Selva and headed to Rancho Naturalista. Gil spotted someone carrying a Three-toed Sloth across the road. We stopped and ran back to get a look before it climbed a tree and disappeared. This sloth moved fairly quickly — for a sloth that is — but I got a photo of it on the ground and part way up a tree.
It was hard to imagine that the second 24 hours in Costa Rica would match the first, and it certainly did not. Yet we had a good time and I got more photos of new species. We had a wonderful lunch at Rancho Naturalista shortly before 1 p.m.
