This was Pattie's and my first trip to the tropics, and with
school still in we left Jasmine and David with a close
friend who also stayed at our house. This was
certainly a life experience for us, and I hope to convince
Pattie to take a few more with me (mebbe every year), but I
will definitely have to trade off on some knitting cruises
or winery biking tours or something to convince her ;-)
And, I don't think the kids will let us get away without
taking them too!
Update: thanks to all the kind feedback
from trip members and other visitors. Many thanks to
Marietta for suggestions on the butterflies,
updated here.
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The Birds!
So far, I've noted some 309 birds seen in
the trip, of which 239 were lifers. Of around
2,400 pictures I took (and 50 or so by Pattie) I
managed to get them pared down to 600, which I
thought was too many to publish. And, I wasn't sure
how to organise them, all contributing to this long
delay.
Here is a gallery of
favorites, and here is a full
trip list. There are
many pictures available from the trip list thumbnail page that didn't quite make the gallery
there,
but they were all that I could get for some of the birds.
And finally, here are a few pictures of birds I
couldn't identify:
unknown birds; feel free to
email me with suggestions |
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The travelogue...
For the non-birdy touristy pictures, check
out this gallery. |
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The other animals...
Check
this gallery for all the other animals we saw
and photographed. |
 |
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Where we visited, and our itinerary
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View Larger Map
Some of the tags on the map are smooshed
together, so zoom in on the map to see more
detail. Actually, for most of the points,
you can zoom right in to see the resorts and
trails. And a red lava spot on Arenal!
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February 12: Leave SJ, arrive
Toronto
February 13: Leave Toronto, arrive
San Jose, Costa Rica
February 14: Sightseeing around San
Jose with Leo, Shirley, Karina and Andrea
February 15: Leo drives me to the
Pacific coast, we hike in Carrera National Park,
take a boat tour of the crocodile river, Tarcoles
February 16: Relaxing around the
hotel Double Tree Cariari Resort
February 17: Tour starts; heading
toward the Caribbean lowlands, a stop at La Paz
Waterfall Garden and another cafe, arrive at La
Quinta resort
February 18, 19, 20: Much time
spent at the La Selva Biological Station and
Reserve, and a half day at Virgen
February 21: A stop at Braulio
Carillo National Park before heading south to Cerro
de la Muerte and the Hotel de Montana Savegre
February 22: Birding around the
Savegre River, and then to the peak of Cerro de la
Muerte for some timberline species
February 23: Finishing the tour
with a hike around the Savegre River, heading back
to the Double Tree Cariari.
February 24, 25, 26: Off to Arenal
Volcano, and the Arenal Observatory Lodge and a
Smithsonian Room (with a view!); hikes to a lava
trail, and general relaxation
February 27: packing it in, to San
Jose where we catch our flight back to Toronto
(-15C!) and then...
February 28: finally home!
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The
Trip List |
Legend: (L) = a lifer; (H) means we only heard it;
means I have one or more pictures; check the
thumbnails here to
see them (it takes a while to load though) |
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