Quetzals Part Tres

Sunday, February 26
I don't know what is going on. I go to bed earlier than at home, often between midnight and 12:30, but I wake up at 6:30 or so and am ready to get up. That doesn't happen at home. Perhaps it is the anticipation of what wildlife may be walking or flying around, since the amount drops steadily from early morning until about 8:30 when it is already pretty hot. I roamed around at 7AM but did not see much new. It was getting harder and harder to see new things the longer we are here. After breakfast we were feasting on some papaya on the deck when an aracari came swooping past us, right over the pool. Unlike other sightings, this time I got a good look at it, with its bright red upper toucan-like bill and distinct lines. We were excited! A nice way to start a Sunday. We spent the day hanging around the pool. I did drive to a grocery store in Uvita, and nearly got in an accident. Drivers here do as they please. Some drive old beaters and putter along under the speed limit. Others pass on curves, double yellow lines or any time it is convenient. I came around a corner to find a car in my lane. He clearly was completing passing about six or seven cars and I had to move to the shoulder to avoid a head-on collision. It is now after midnight so I think we made it through the day without any incidents, breakdowns, etc. I did try to listen to a sermon from the church's website, but it was not updated for two weeks so there was nothing new since we left. Not impressed. I was all set to overlook our fantastic view, with my earphones on and an iguana at my side. I played crosswords instead.

Monday, February 27
Another hot, 32+ degree day. We hung around until after lunch. Hanging around involves all of us sitting on our outdoor bar stools with cameras ready, reacting to the slightest movement in case we see a new bird, or, the elusive aracari which flies by like a bullet once every few days but never lands near by. We also check several times per day in the tree where the sloth hangs out, but none of us have seen him since the first day. A neighbour said there were two sloths in the tree last night, but of course we never are around to see. After lunch, I am becoming accustomed to eating papaya, we went to Uvita playa, a beach in Ballena Marine Park. The beach had a very long shallow stretch, so you had a long way to walk to get waste deep, making it a good beach for kids. However, the waves were pretty high. Every now and then there would be a large wave with a second larger wave only two feet behind it, giving you a double wallop. On several occasions they almost took my shorts off, leaving me with a plumbers crack. We then got a nice, big mango smoothie in town before heading back home. I absolutely love Costa Rican mango smoothies.
We got lots of messages from kids and facebook entries about snow in Vancouver. Winter continues to defy global warming on the west coast. We related to the bad weather. When we got home, we went into our pool to cool off as it was hot. Soon, a rain storm moved in, pelting us with cool rain drops, the first rain since we got here. It lasted about 25 minutes, drenching everything, but then the skies cleared again. However, the temperature dropped significantly, perhaps 10 degrees. By 9:30PM, I actually put on a sweater to sit outside.

Tuesday, February 28
Our day started at 4:30AM. We were on the rad by 5:00, taking a two hour drive to Carara National Park. There we met up with our guide, Victor Chavez, who I had hired online based on TripAdvisor recommendations. Victor led the four of us on a two and a half hour walk through the park. He had a biology degree and a love for birds, and said he could identify about 80 percent of the bird calls. We found lots of small birds, two kinds of bats and the scarlet macaw. We really enjoyed Victor. For once we had a guide who spoke English, (self-taught), and was personable, joking around lots. By 9:30 we finished our walk and drove a short distance to where we were picked up by bot along the banks of the Tarcoles River, which skirts the park. We had the boat all to our selves and Victor and the boat operator gave us a personalized tour down the river, spotting many, many birds and crocs, including many varieties of herons and egrets and the most beautiful little bird, the pygmy kingfisher. We came almost within reach of a black hawk which had just caught an iguana and was starting to eat it, even though it was still moving. We got amazing photos. After the tour Victor gave us some water and fresh fruit and shared his testimony of how he had suffered cancer and was expected to die. He had an out of body experience where he saw heaven and met Jesus. It changed his life. He fully recovered and pursued his love of wildlife, going to university. He also was married with two girls when his wife one day said she did not love him, and left with one of the girls. He hung on, praying for reconciliation, and eventually she returned. They are now happily reunited, and he works hard at fixing what he knew were his own deficiencies in the marriage. It was very moving and we all hugged it out before we departed. Afterward, we went to a small villa we had been to in 2007 a few km. away. It was now fully converted to a hotel so we left. We Stopped in a small town just before Jaco to go to  restaurant Victor recommended, el Pelicano, which was on the beach. There I had a so-so mango smoothie, while the rest had large margaritas with a corona in it. The food was very good but it was fortunate none of them had to drive. We decided to drop by Jaco on our way home. Jaco is a surfer's town and probably the most modern place we have been to on this trip. There are modern high-rises lining the long beach and actual souvenir stores. No sooner did we get there and Jo discovered she had lost her glasses, she was wearing sunglasses. G and BIL stayed in Jaco to shop while Jo and I drove back to where we came from, about a 10 minute drive, to try and find the glasses. They were not in the restaurant, but Jo had switched glasses to take a picture on the beach. Sure enough, she found them lying in the sand. Quite a relief! We returned to Jaco to do some souvenir shopping souvenir and then returned home, arriving at sunset. The evening was spent struggling to stay awake, and reviewing the good, and even many more bad photos we had taken. We were in bed by 11:30. What a great day!

Wednesday, March 1
This was a relaxing day around the unit. The only excitement was when Jo was in the pool and tried to clean up some leaves at the bottom by grabbing them with her feet and raising them to her hand. The last one was difficult to pick up. When she did, she realized it was a dead mouse. She freaked out and did not go back into the pool the rest of the day. This was the last day in our place, unit 28. Tomorrow we move to unit 22, which has a nice infinity pool and is supposed to be roomier. I hope we do not get a repeat of the problems we faced in this unit.

Thursday, March 2
The move from unit 28 to 22 went very smoothly. We were told that the cleaning staff would clean unit 22 first and then come to do unit 28 where we were staying. When they arrived, we could move into unit 22. By 10:30 we were moved in. We were amazed and happy with unit 22. Everyone said it was nicer, but I was trying hard not to get my hopes up, since so often that leads to disappointment. We walked into a spacious place with a more modern kitchen, better utensils, another dynamite view of the beach from three sides, a larger upper deck for sitting on, more spacious bedrooms with more modern looking AC, nice bathrooms, a king bed in one of the rooms, and an awesome infinity pool with a view of the beach and ocean. The pool was three times larger and nicer looking. It felt like we were staying in the lap of luxury here. The water temperature of the pool was very warm, in fact, I could have enjoyed a few degrees cooler. After lunch, we went and did some grocery shopping in Uvita, then spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool. The yard had high trees beside and over the pool and they were always filled with little birds. At sunset, a number of white-faced capuchin monkeys came down to visit up, coming within perhaps five feet from the upper deck.

Friday, March 3
The day started early again, as we got up at 5:45 so we could get an early start on visiting Manual Antonio, one of the most popular parks in the country, about 47 km. away. It is already hot at sunrise, so early morning is very important for bird watching. As we step out the front door to our car, Jo spotted a bright red bird in the tree. It was larger than a robin, a trogon, and we took a few, ok a lot of pictures of it. Then two aracaris, the bird that had evaded us since we were here, landed in the tree behind the trogon. What a great start to the day. Driving to the park took over an hour due to construction and traffic in Quepos, the town outside the park. The park involved walking down a main trail for quite some distance, and then you could veer off to other trails that climbed up and down to viewpoints. The main trail ended at a beach. There were many guides at the main gate, offering their services. They led groups of 8-12 people for 90 minutes or so, stopping frequently to discuss plant life, point out wildlife and show them on their scope if possible. We chose not to use a guide. The first 800 meters or so of the trail was very busy with groups of people starting out, but it thinned out the further you walked. Whenever a group gathered somewhere to see something, we could just wander up and find out what they were seeing. During the day we saw four different sloths, groups of capuchin monkeys and howler monkeys, a lot of crab-eating raccoons, (identical but slimmer than our raccoons), several coatis, a agouti and a number of different birds. It got very hot by the time we reached the end of the main trail and took a side trail. By now BIL's shirt was thoroughly drenched in sweat, and his shorts were not much better. I wore swimming trunks. We hiked for about three hours. By then, everyone's water supply was almost used up, there are no vendors in the park, and the complaining about the heat and climbing of stairs on the trail flowed as fast as the sweat down people's arms, legs, foreheads, etc. I must admit that while I too was hot, I am able to stand the heat fairly well, and sweat far less than everyone else. By 11:15 we had completed the trail and we walked to the beach, a gorgeous sandy cove with that wonderful greeny-blue colour. We took turns watching our belongings while the rest swam in the warm water. This was the first beach where there were no big waves and you could stand in deep water without being hit by waves. While we were all in the water, sister G was on the beach guarding. An aggressive raccoon came and tried to open our backpack. She frantically tried to shoo him away, while a few people stood by taking pictures but not helping. she ended up hitting him on the side which resulted in hissing, but he did leave. There were many capuchin monkeys in this area who will get into anything and steal what the can if you are not careful. After cooling down, we ate the sandwiches we brought and then stated our final walk, a loop around a peninsula at the end of the park. My t-shirt was dry, but BIL's clothes were still drenched. The trail had a lot of ups and downs, and soon everyone was super hot again. By the time we returned to the beach, BIL looked like he was on his last legs and ready to keel over, and, much to my chagrin, the rest were more concerned about getting more water than a second swim as we had planned. We walked back to the main gate out of the park and bough bottled water from vendors on the street. Then we found a hotel bar that served smoothies, and ordered mango smoothies. We were more than half done when the server asked if we wanted more. Jo said she might, thinking he meant selling us a second round. However, he came around with the rest of the smoothie he had made, and refilled our glasses for free. Wonderful. Jo and I wanted to go to the beach across the street from where our car was parked to swim, but G did not show much enthusiasm for it because she did not want to go home wet, and the BIL informed us he did not thing he could go swimming. His legs were too tired, and he had no energy left. He was wiped! We drove home and went into our bathwater pool instead. (The ocean was not much cooler than bath water either.) We went out for dinner to the same restaurant we went to last Friday, enjoying the local group that played there. It was quite busy and it took over an hour to get our food. But, pura vida. A great day, despite some very hot, tired people.

Saturday, March 4
It was a very hot, muggy day today. The temperature reached 36 degrees in the afternoon. After a relaxing morning where we hung out mostly indoors with the AC, we decided to get out for a while and go to the beach in Dominical. Several days ago we asked Jou if he could get us some beach towels as the towels we had were not good for the beach. He said he would, but of course, it still hadn't happened so we picked up a few towels from the vendors on the beach. The beach was pretty much deserted because of the heat and the red flags posted. Even the beach chairs and umbrellas were packed up. We had to abandon our swimming plans and instead went for some smoothies before heading home and to our pool. Even though the pool was very warm, it was still refreshing enough in the hot weather. At night we were sitting outside when we heard a rustle in the bushes, and then a little head poked out of the frons of the little palm tree beside out deck. It was a little mouse opossum. He sat for a long time near the railing and the poor little guy probably got blinded by all the flash photograph going on. Another unexpected critter sighting.

Sunday, March 5
I got up late, at about 7:45 and found sister G all excited. She had been desperately trying to photograph a good toucan or aracari picture and was a little jealous that I had better shots. Our aracari sightings so far had been at a distance or in the shade. This morning she spotted one sitting in the sun in a bare tree near our pool and she got some good photo. She said she was so excited she was almost shaking and nearly dropped the camera. After breakfast we tried going to the beach in Dominical, but the red flags were still up. Then we drove about 30 minutes south to the town of Ojochal where the beach was supposed to be good. We found only narrow, pot-holed dirt roads that led to a beach where mostly locals seemed to hang out, and where the only shade was far from the water and the it would take forever to get to reasonable deep water. We decided against it and went home to our own pool. We face-timed with our kids and then went back in the pool. Soon, we saw two toucans sitting in a tall tree overhanging the pool. They flew up the hill, and in trying to spot where they went, I discovered instead a aracari sitting in a tree. More photos! Then I spotted something. On investigating, I found a baby sloth hanging in a tree only about 5 feet from our upper deck. More photos. We BBQ'd hamburgers but the briquettes, which are flat pieces, burn so poorly that they cooled down long before the burgers were cooked. We had to fry them partially. Later in the evening, while sitting on the deck, we again had a visit from the mouse opossum, who just sat there looking at us for quite some time. A good wildlife day!