Caitlyn and I returned from Costa Rica on the red eye on Saturday night after spending a week in this beautiful country! I can easily say that it is the best trip we have been on together and the wildlife that we saw was nothing short of spectacular!
I have posted a few of our better shots that exemplify some of the things that we saw, but this blog post just scratches the surface of what we observed. I will keep text to a minimum so that you can just enjoy the pictures. I am still working out some of the identification of the wildlife we saw, so if you know better, please let me know!
For context, we flew into Liberia, Costa Rica and spent our first night at Playa Hermosa. Personally, I found the town unappealing; it reminded me of a typical rundown town in Mexico, and the area was so dry that, as Pat had told me before, it was "one match away from going completely up in flames". Nonetheless, the beach was matchless and we had a great time in the waves (until some huge ones came and we lost my hat, Caitlyn's sunglasses and her earrings). After that it was 2.5hrs inland up into the lush mountains adjacent to the Tenorio Volcano National Park and the Rio Celeste Hideaway Hotel for the remainder of our stay.
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Playa Hermosa beach
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| Great Kiskadee - the most common bird we saw in Costa Rica |
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| Mantled Howler Moneky with baby on the back! |
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| Streak-backed Oriole |
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| Orange-fronted Parakeet |
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| Black-headed Trogon |
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| Common Black Hawk |
These next shots are from the Rio Celeste Hideaway Hotel. This is the nicest and most well run hotel I have ever been to.
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| The paths at Rio Celeste Hideaway Hotel |
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| Our balcony view! |
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| Relaxing on our balcony |
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| Caitlyn feeding a Coatimundi a banana! |
The hotel had its own walking trail down to the Rio Celeste river adjacent to the Tenorio Volcano National Park that traveled right through the jungle!
The water of the Rio Celeste River!
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| Summer Tanager |
We went on a night hike the first evening we arrived, and headed into the jungle with our guide Pablo. We were the only one on this and nearly all other tours that we did through the hotel! Caitlyn was able to (mostly) get over her fear of snakes!
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| Northern Cat-eyed Snake (non-venomous) |
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| Short-nosed Vine Snake (non-venomous) |
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| Fer de Lance! A very venomous snake responsible for most of the snake fatalities in Costa Rica. This one was young and was quite small. We gave it a wide berth! |
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| Tarantula! I am not sure what kind, but it was huge! |
On the second day of our adventure we did a hike through the Tenorio Volcano National Park. Here is some of the wildlife and scenery we saw!
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| Huge spider by the park office |
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| Leaf bug of some sort |
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| Female Bare-necked Umbrella Bird |
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| Great Currasow -large, turkey like bird. |
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| Pygmy Squirrel |
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| Green Honeycreeper |
We stopped at the iconic Rio Celeste waterfall. This photo has not been adjusted, this is the actual colour of the water!
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| Carmiol's Tanager eating a Cicada |
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| The blue lagoon! |
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| Cocoa Woodcreeper |
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| Broad-billed Motmot! |
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| Hognosed Viper! |
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| Black-throated Trogon |
The hotel grounds and local roads had their own wildlife as well, here are a few shots from the area.
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| Rufous-tailed Hummingbird |
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| Bannanquit |
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| Swallow-tailed Kite |
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| Crimson-fronted Parakeet |
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| Caterpillar of some sort |
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| Sloth!! This guy hung out right outside the hotel entrance basking in the sunlight. |
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| The most common Tanager - Passerini's Tanager |
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| Treefrog of some sort on our balcony railing. |
