Costa Rica! Part 1

Ok, enough of a wait. I said that I would write a mini trip report, and what better time to do so, one month after saying that?

We went to two different places in Costa Rica. We spent two days in the Peninsula Papagayo, near Liberia, CR. For the next five days, we were at an ecolodge called Lapa Rios, in the Osa Peninsula. Lapa Rios was incredible. You'll see why.

On March 19th we left for Costa Rica. Since we had to take a few flights, we got there while it was already dark. The next morning though, we decided to go exploring.

Birds were everywhere. In the first 15 minutes, we had about 15 different bird species, and some variegated squirrels and iguanas. While having breakfast, the birds were watching our every move. Drop that piece of food... The grackles were very noisy, and you could hear them from a mile away.

For the rest of the day, Virginia and I wandered around, ticking off many bird species and seeing lots of iguanas and variegated squirrels. We also went paddle boarding, and saw some pufferfish, not to mention the ever-present pelicans.
In the late afternoon, we saw our first monkeys. They were Howler Monkeys, and sleeping up in the trees, trying to avoid the heat.

In the evening, the whole family went for a walk. We went up a hill, and saw quite a few more birds and... more monkeys! This troop was very active though, foraging and literally swinging from tree to tree. There was also a little baby monkey with them, which at one point was much farther behind the troop. The mum went back to it, and threw it on her back. No monkey business there.

This little guy was only a foot or two away.

Day 2 - My Birthday!

Yeppers, I'm 13! Yippee, a teenager.

In the morning, Virginia and I went on a walk back up to where we saw the monkey troop yesterday. We saw quite a few birds, and the monkeys again. The coolest birds we saw were the White-necked Puffbirds and Black-headed Trogons. Oh, Costa Rica. Such diversity..... And colour.

 White-necked Puffbirds

Black-headed Trogon

At breakfast, we met up with the grackles once again, along with a Rufous-naped Wren.

Very humanized

In the evening, we went on the 'Trail of the Giants' tour. This involves taking your own golf cart and zipping around the golf course, supposedly while being lead by the tour leader. Well, we were dropped off at the mini golf at first, so we weren't with the leader for the first part. That's fine, we'll have some fun. We saw quite a few birds, and some more Howler Monkeys. About halfway though, we met up with the group. They had stopped and were looking at the view.

I guess that's a nice view....

We continued on, and came across a herd of coatis. There were probably around 20 individuals in all. 

Besides more birds, we didn't see much else on the tour. The next day we left for Lapa Rios, and our Costa Rican adventure only truly got started then.

-Bridget