Nother wee trip

Well overdue for another venture into the Costa Rican mountainside, I decided for Joan’s birthday to head out and see if we could get some better pictures of the elusive and aptly named,’Resplendent Quetzal’. This bird is like no other; whole chapters have been written about its beauty, it is the national bird of Guatemala and also the name of their currency to name but a few.

After searching the net in search of suitable accommodation and the likely hood of fulfilling the above pursuit I found the, ‘El Toucanet lodge’; wood cabins built into the mountainside of the beautiful and quant village of Copey de Dota, in the lush green valley of the Los Santos Forest reserve. The internet page mentioned a free morning bird watching hike and as I had not yet seen a ‘Toucanet’ I thought, ‘yep this sounds like the place’.

We set out early in the morning and headed for San Jose (the capitol of Costa Rica) usually a three and a half hour drive. Joan not wanting to pass all those stores without even a quick look on the way put us back a couple of hours. We then set the GPS for, ‘Santa Maria de Dota’, the nearest town to our destination and forthwith were sent on a magical mystery tour of the business end of the very busy city of San Jose and Cartago; two and a half million people live here over two thirds of the population of Costa Rica. Two hours later and a wee bit frazzled we are now heading up over the mountains from the central valley plateau of San Jose at around 2000 feet above sea level to over 7000 feet. To complete our merry go around we now start heading down again, ears all a poppin’ but this time down precarious steep narrow winding roads with gorgeous vistas in every direction. Ah! Now this is what I’m talking about, OK so were lost …nothing new here, even the GPS has given up, it displays a big question mark and politely shuts itself down, I’m thinking we’ve come through a time warp or something, everything is S..l..o..w..i...n...g.. …D…..o….w…....n. We find a wonderful little restaurant to kind of,’ take an accounting of the situation’. We sit overlooking a valley of severely steep coffee bean plantations, clouds oozing over the opposing mountains filling the valley with wisps of vapor. After a hearty lunch and now ready to go to war we find out from a friendly farmer that for the last hour we have in fact been going in the wrong direction. OK back up to 7000 feet we go. Down the other side of the valley, this reminds me of a Disney ride. The truck is starting to get a little pissed the brake drums are now glowing and were chugging, almost like its running out of breath. Eventually we find our destination we jump out of the truck and do a quick Irish Jig…. ye haaaa! We’ve been driving since six thirty this morning it is now four pm and Greg the owner tells us we are only a hour and a half drive from San Jose. Yes well …we know that …..but we ..ehem …wanted to see some of the countryside… yeah that’s right. We settle into our digs, it has a king size bed wow! Little kitchenette and a fireplace, excellent. A fireplace you might ask, in Sunny Costa Rica. Yup! We are at around six thousand feet, at night it will go down to around twelve degrees C.

After an excellent meal of baked Trout (they farm it here) we head off to our now cozy room, I had lit the wood burning fire earlier. No TV, no internet… hmmm, what I gonna do now. We stay for two very relaxing nights, read a lot and take pictures of the bird visitors to our cabin see photos, a comin'. The morning hike brings a couple of birds that I can add to my life list but…. NO GOD DAMN QUETZAL! Didn’t it know I was coming! Sorry about that folks you see that’s the way it goes; nature is nature you jest can’t turn it on and off when you want. I found out quite a while back that beauty is all around us, we just have to look for it, I kinda learned that from bird watching but it actually seems to apply to more than just birds.

Anyway here is a Beautiful ‘Flame-colored Tanager’ and it’s shy mate that I caught on Camera at the ‘El Toucanete lodge’

We went on a, ‘discovery drive’ on the Saturday afternoon on a sometimes precarious dirt road that went over the mountain toward the picturesque village of ‘Providencia’ then up around, ‘the Quetzal national park’ Yep folks I’m tryin’. We didn’t see the elusive Quetzal but had a brilliant scenic drive. Here are some pictures of the drive.

We’re pretty much above the clouds here around 6500 feet

Yep That’s my Joanie

Wild flowers everywhere you look

Not sure what variety this young feller is , He’s a juvenile hawk probably a, ‘Broad winged’

On our route over the mountain toward the Tapanti rain forest and return back to our digs we found a hotel aptly named, ‘Paraiso de Quetzal mountain lodge’ Hey this looks promising!

We booked a guided trail hike for the following morning at 6 am, this is my last ditch attempt folks!

We have to get up a 4:30 to get our s**t together load up our stuff, try to start our truck which is now refusing because it’s just too damp and cold at 9 degrees, it is after all a Costa Rican car and is not used to all of this. We manage to wake up the whole valley noisily cranking and belching huge swathes of black diesel smoke into this virgin atmosphere. Up and over we go again over seven thousand feet; the sun is just starting to make its entrance as we arrive at the lodge.

This little guy has found a novel bed to try and keep warm in

A ‘Sooty Robin’ flittering around’ the camp

Probably a female Black and Yellow Silky -Flycatcher

A Sooty Capped Bush Tanager

Magnificent Hummingbird

We all head out together; a mostly German tour with some young Costa Ricans and a couple of local guide’s on a quite strenuous hike, both Joan and I feeling the altitude; that’s our excuse for being ‘downright out of shape’. In amongst all our wheezing and gasping for breath the scenery is quite amazing but so far with all the expert imitation whistling and calls from the guides ….’ NO GOD DAMN QUETZAL’

BUT….. Then when we are so ready to just give up and I am at the point to sell the damn camera and let somebody else carry the friggin heavy camera and lens back. I’m gonna take up ping pong or something less annoying. We are blessed with Mr Quetzal himself, yes folks he’s been out back putting on his make-up and practicing his lines, combing his furtive feathers ready and poised to pose. I almost get a stiffy as lens and camera go into overdrive; there is smoke coming from the auto focus. I am so excited I’ve accidentally walked over three Germans probably causing the next world war. I hear faint grunting as I use somebody’s head to get some extra height. Mr Quetzal is strutting his stuff; just a tap dancing amongst the leaves and branches, bowing and waiting for the thunderous applause from the crowds below. At one point I’m sure he looks down at me and points one of his colorful appendages and seems to say ‘I WANT YOU BABY’. When I think I can’t take any more, I notice that in the millisecond that we’ve been here I’ve used up as much memory as I have all year. Oh no! Not enough space! so get rid of the previous two weeks’ worth of foto’s OK there might have been some grammy’s there hmmmm!... get rid of ‘em make some more space.

Introducing, from his world tour.....WAIT FOR IT ..... 'MR. RESPLENDANT QUETZAL'

Breakfast time! Eating his favorite fruit from the Lauraceae a member of the family of avocado

Burp!..... oops .....excuse me!

God am I the most handsome bird in the forest or what

If you get any closer mister I swear to god I'm gonna poop on you

And now for the piece de resistance Mr. Quetzal’s final bow :

Ahh I can rest now

This is a picture of the, ‘Paraiso de Quetzal Montana lodge’ apparently only $50 per night P/P includes all meals and guided hike. Plus woolly blankets.

Here are some pictures from outside our house in October:

A 'Squirrel Cuckoo' also very aptly named; he scurries up and down the trees just like a Squirrel, about a foot long from tip to tip.

Always on the lookout for the unusual, I found this moth in the garden one morning, he’s about two inches long, I believe one of the leaf mimic variety. He didn’t have me fooled , ‘I can see you’