“Pura Vida” - a deeply ingrained Costa Rican phrase means “Pure Life”. A philosophy representing a relaxed, positive and grateful approach to life.
It is used as a greeting, farewell, thank you and to mean “everything is good”, embodying the nation’s commitment to happiness, simplicity and a deep connection to nature.
I wouldn’t be far off in saying that we experienced all these emotions on our recent trip to Costa Rica. The trip was relaxed (as relaxed as wildlife trips can be 😉), fun, alongwith ofcourse, a strong connection with nature.
Here’s the customary group pic.
As I always say, on any trip, the group you travel with matters a lot. What a fun group we were part of! The companions made the trip all the more memorable.
Our guide on this outing was Toni (Antonio Tsay), first from the left in the pic above, a wonderful person and a great friend. His immense knowledge of the various birding hotspots & beautiful locales with good sighting and photographic opportunities were invaluable. If you ever plan a trip to Costa Rica, I wholeheartedly recommend that you travel with Toni. You can reach him here - @tonitsay
Now, lets begin the journey. Just a heads up that this is going to be a long read. It was a long trip and there is so much to cover. If I don’t do so, it wouldn’t be doing justice. I will try to make it as concise as possible. Grab your favourite beverage and read on.
Quick note : All the images below are either phone shots or screenshots of images shot on camera. Haven’t had time to process them yet 😀. Please click on the smaller images in the gallery to view them bigger.
A quick geographical overview. Costa Rica is a small, rainforested country in Central America with coastlines on the Caribbean and Pacific side. It has a population of around 5 million in a land area of around 51,000 sq.km ( compare this to Bangalore, India - which has around 15 million people in a land area of 750 sq.km ), WOW, right !! No wonder Costa Ricans live a fulfilling life, Pura Vida 😅
Costa Rica is a biodiversity hotspot. Costa Rica holds nearly 5% of the world’s estimated biodiversity, with over 500,000 species, including 12,000 plant species, 800 bird species and 650 mammal/reptile/amphibian species. This high concentration is due to its location, bridging North and South America, tropical climate and diverse habitats, such as rainforests, cloud forests, and coral reefs.
As indicated Costa Rica is a birder’s paradise and had been on my list of places to visit for quite sometime. Our journey to San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica began with a flight to Delhi, followed by Delhi to Amsterdam and then from Amsterdam to San Jose. It was a long one for sure, traveling literally to the other side of the world.
Three of us from the group decided to land up in San Jose couple of days before our actual trip start date. We wanted to cover some of the local highlights and must do’s.
First check was at the lovely SpiroGyra Butterfly Garden , a well maintained and very active ecosystem. Here, we got our first exposure to the wonderful wildlife of Costa Rica. We got to see some of the beautiful butterflies like the national butterfly of Costa Rica, the Blue Morpho and one of the largest butterflies in Costa Rica, the Owl butterfly too, among many others.
Next up was a quick day outing to Manuel Antonio National Park.
Enroute breakfast, little did we know that this rice & beans combo, locally called ‘Gallo Pinto’ would become our staple breakfast in the days to come, we being vegetarians and all :-)
We booked ourselves on a local day tour. On reaching Maneul Antonio, we hired a local guide to take us through the park and its wild inhabitants.
Have to say, this was a good decision and we were able to see quite a lot of the local wildlife. Our guide helped us with capturing some images on our phones held close to the viewing scope. The results weren’t bad at all. Our first encounter with the sloths was here too.
Manuel Antonio is also known for its beautiful beaches. By the beach, we came across iguanas, so many of them.
Quite a bit of effort went into getting the shots 😀
We then, bit adieu to Manuel Antonio.
Ending the day with a lovely sunset.
The following day was a trip to the Poas Volcano, an active volcano which had last erupted as recently as in 2019!
It was a amazing experience. The strong sulphur in the air was very evident from quite a distance away. It became stronger and stronger as we got close to the crater of the volcano. I had not expected to see the crater so up close, was taken by surprise when we reached the viewing deck.
Along with the volcano, we covered the tour of a beautiful Coffee estate, Doka and a magnificently curated La Paaz waterfall garden, a vast expanse of private property which has been converted into a complete wilderness experience, with an entire zoo of mammals, birds, a butterfly garden and a muli-level waterfall and more. Was amazing.
Now, it was time for us to wait for the rest of the group to arrive to begin our birding adventure.
Once we had all gathered together, we headed to a lovely bird feeder to get our cameras warmed up and alongside make our first introductions to the birds of Costa Rica. A few tanagers, honeycreepers, woodpeckers and an inquisitive mammal, the Coati showed up to enthral us.
After making some lovely images we headed to our first major stop, Laguna Lagarto Lodge in Boca Tapada.
The Laguna Lagarto Lodge is situated surrounded by a small lagoon. The entire dining area is on an elevated deck surrounded by bird feeders, a true birders/bird photographer’s paradise.
With so much vegetation and water around, the place is unsurprisingly humid. You could feel the humidity in the air. There could be sun at one moment and there could be a heavy downpour the next, no telling, humidity was the constant factor.
The unpredictable weather was the charm of the place. Sitting around, sipping nice coffee and observing a multitude of species come to the feeders and flutter by, it was like birding, imperial style.
Costa Rica is known to have 12 microclimates as Toni kept reminding us. It is something unbelievable until you have experienced it. Within a distance of 10kms, the climate is dramatically different. Heavy rain at one place and you travel for a few kms and you are at a dry and hot location, it was mindboggling really!
We spent good amount of time in and around Boca Tapada. A densely packed itinerary through the day and the night.
Our first exposure to macro photography was there too and also night photography with the long nosed bats. We sat in a hide watching and photographing different vultures like the Black vulture and the King vulture.
The experince observing and photographing the Red-capped manakin was astounding to say the least, what a bird that is!!. It is called the Michael Jackson bird for a reason and it is so accurate. It literally moonwalks on a tree branch as a part of its courtship display!!
The adventure in pouring rain to photograph the Royal flycatcher was something else, man!, my gear hadn’t gotten that wet in a long time!
After Boca Tapada, we headed to Selva Verde in Sarapiqui. Another magnificent lodge built around 500 acres of pristine rainforest, it was more of a rainforest reserve than a lodge I should say, the scale was unimaginable, at least for me. A completely self contained habitat with so much on offer to the avid nature lover to explore and embrace.
The evening we checked into Selva Verde, we spent some time at their bird feeder. Post dinner, a few of us did a quick macro walk in the night to get some lovely frogs which were active around the lodge.
Morning of the next day we went to a nice, little family farm for a bird feeder and hummingbird feeder to catch some good species. Following that we headed to Cope’s place to get the Spectacled Owl and the Honduran white bats, very important targets in our list.
Cope is an amazing naturalist, photographer and a magnificent painter. It was a honor meeting with him and enjoying his company. We also bought a few of his paintings and got it signed by him, was wonderful. We had a great time at his place.
From Cope, we left to catchup with Kenneth for a true world macro photography session, in the real wilderness at night. After a sumptuous and yummy dinner prepared by Kenneth’s mom, we donned our gum boots and headed off with Kenneth. It was an amazing experience.
Post that long day, we headed back to Selva Verde to retire for the night.
Next morning, post breakfast, we packed up and headed towards Cartago to meet one of our main target species of the trip, the Resplendent Quetzal. En-route, we stopped over at a lovely waterfall too.
Our place of stay, the Paraiso Quetzal had a lovely hummingbird feeder deck. We had a good time there. And, ofcourse, we spent good time with the famed Quetzal too, couple of mornings in a row.
All setup early in the morning for the Quetzal…
After good time with the Quetzal, we headed towards the Pacific side to take a boat ride at Tarcoles. Good time with the shore and water birds, closing the day with a lovely sunset over the river.
With the heat getting intense through the day, our customary refreshments were the fresh juice of the Guanabana fruit during lunch and an Ice cream post lunch 😉
Our stay for the night was at Cerro lodge. This place is known across Costa Rica for its Pizza. The Chef, who also happens to own the lodge is a famous Pizza chef, having won many awards across Costa Rica.
We had the pleasure of feasting on one of the best Pizzas that I have ever had, by far!!
Following day, we spent some time at the bird deck in Cerro lodge to catch the Scarlet macaws that were known to visit. We were in luck. The magnificent birds did show up.
Post that session, we headed to meet our birding guide for the day, Alvaro. We got some amazing sightings and photography opportunities of the Fiery-billed Aracari, a few of the Owl species, Scarlet Macaws and Trogons. Alvaro is an amazing individual who is so well versed in the locales and the avian friends that inhabit them. It is like the birds listen to him and respond to his call. We had a very good time with him.
Then, we headed towards the San Ramon area to retire for the night. Early morning was spent at a bird feeder in place that we had stayed. After a quick session at the feeder, we went to a different property looking for the Long-tailed manakin and the Sunbittern.
Soon, it was time for our next priority targets of the trip, the Bellbird and the Snow-capped hummingbird. Though we had to spend a long time waiting for the Bellbird to show up, it was absolutely worth the time. The Bellbird indeed put on a show for us, not one but two of them, males, vocalising and displaying as they usually do. They were wonderful to watch.
We were able to get good photography opportunities of the Snow-capped hummingbird at the Tapir Valley Nature Reserve, in Bijagua. A lovely trail taking us deep into the reserve. We had an encounter with a Tapir too, that was like an icing on the cake.
Our long, adventurous journey was finally heading towards its last leg.
One boat ride at Cano Negro in that intense heat brought forth a consensus from the group about not going for a second boat ride the following morning 😅
Based on discussions, we headed to an estate where they had setup a hide for the White-collared manakin. After spending some time there, we went to see a family of the Spectacled Owl which had been nesting and rearing chicks in a private property since the last 9 years! It was wonderful to watch the entire family of these beautiful owls.
Post that we headed back to San Jose to rest for the night and catch our flights back home the following day thus bringing the curtains down on our oh!, so, WOW! ‘COSTA RICAN ADVENTURE! PURA VIDA!’
Words cannot truly explain the wonderful experience we had! Loads of memories that will be etched in all our minds for a long time to come. Thanks once again to Toni for all the arrangements and guiding us through.
Watch out for more in-detail accounts of my experiences, coming up very soon here.
Hope you enjoyed reading through. Please let me know your thoughts by dropping a comment below. Adios until the next time.
No comments yet!