I just got back from my weeklong trip to Costa Rica around midnight Friday night. It was a bit of an adventure getting there - as you fly in to San Jose and then take a hopper flight to Puerto Jimenez - it's a 12 person plane, but they were never full, as they weigh the passengers and baggage. It was also a little exciting to be landing and looking out at this tiny little landing strip surrounded by trees, and even houses right on the side of the runway.
Anyway, the whole trip was utterly amazing. I was on a yoga retreat - actually yoga and dance. I've done almost no dancing in my life, but have been taking bellydance classes last year and my teacher was one of the women leading the retreat, so I signed up. It was so much fun. Not too much structured time, so we had lots of time for going on sunrise wildlife walks, swimming, just hanging out in hammocks, etc. One morning a few of us did a sunrise horseback ride on the beach.
Accommodations and food were amazing. I was on the second floor of a casita - no windows, just fully open and screened in, with a small deck and hammock in the shade. About 100 yards from the beach, so you could hear jungle noises and ocean surf at the same time. The whole thing felt like living in a happy zoo without cages. Or more accurately, a cage to keep yourself in at night. Haha. There were pairs of scarlet macaws all over the place, squawking and bickering with one another. I saw probably a dozen toucans, which seemed so surreal that I questioned if that's what I was seeing the first time. Probably unsurprisingly, since we were staying at the Iguana Lodge (near Puerto Jimenez), there were also iguanas all over the place. Smaller black ones on the ground, and large green ones with the bigger spines down their back up in the trees. There are a couple of Basilisks (aka Jesus Christ lizards, because they can run across water without sinking) that hung out near the main lodge where we ate breakfast.
We had a mostly free day on Tuesday, where I elected to do a boat tour where we started with watching dolphins (dozens of spotted dolphins - some even leaping out of the water, showing off for us), then proceeded to a wildlife preserve, where they mostly rehabilitate animals and release them back into the wild, so you can't see those. But they have a handful of animals that can't be released that are used for educational purposes that you can meet. A couple scarlet macaws, a toucan, a tayra (which is like a large weasel/wolverine type of animal) - this one had been a pet but never fed properly and was in such bad condition when they got it that they almost euthanized it. Now she's gorgeous and healthy, but too tame from being raised as a pet to be safe (they're normally extremely shy of humans). She'd probably head straight for civilization and eat people's chickens and cats and get herself shot as a pest. They had some capuchin monkeys, which can't be released unless they know for sure what troupe of monkeys they came from - otherwise the monkey troupes kill strange monkeys on sight. Also an ocelot that had been raised as a pet, improperly fed, etc. She was gorgeous, but she had escaped once and then they luckily found her again as skin and bones - she's lacking hunting skills and has some hip issues from a lack of calcium in her early life. My favorite was actually the porcupine, which is perfectly healthy at this point, but apparently "prefers room service" and just kept finding his way back when they tried releasing him. I got to pet him, because he's so chilled out and happy sitting in the hollow log in his cage, eating almonds. They also have a few sloths - apparently if they don't stay with their mother long enough, they don't learn what leaf combinations they need to eat and can't survive in the wild. At least you don't feel too bad for sloths in an enclosure, as they move so little! We also saw 2 wild spider monkeys up close that were hilarious to watch.
After that, we headed out to snorkel in a couple different places. I'm not very experienced with snorkeling, but this was definitely the best I've done. I think the coral was better in Hawaii, but the fish were fantastic here. Amazing starfish with neon blue, or black contrasting outlines and spikes. I saw a moray eel - that was a first for me in the wild. He was black and white and yellow in a gorgeous lacy pattern. Totally out in the open as he was digging a new burrow/den/whatever you call it. It was a smaller one, but so pretty. There were a few really neat areas where the gentle waves would come over the rocks, really aerating the water and in those areas there were just loads of tiny versions of the adult fish - fun to see the "nursery". We also saw a variety of small pufferfish and one just enormous one - probably close to 2' long (un-puffed). I didn't even realize they get that big. Anyway - probably snorkeled for several hours (VERY thankful I brought a white long sleeve rash guard!)
On our way back over to Puerto Jimenez, we saw something that looked like a rock floating in the water through the binoculars. Our captain stopped the tiny boat (there were only 4 of us on the tour) and cruised over and it was a huge green sea turtle. She eventually picked up her head and looked at us, then raised her flippers up and dove away. So amazing. And immediately after that, we saw a neon yellow sea snake. (Apparently the "xanthic" morph of the yellow bellied sea snake - usually they are only yellow on the bottom - this was solid canary yellow - it's pretty much unique to the Golfo Dulce). He was right on the surface - we had to talk one of the guys on our trip out of picking him up. I love snakes, but I do know sea snakes are generally highly venomous, even if they aren't that aggressive. Let's not find out, eh? Anyway, then we saw a bottlenose dolphin on our way back to the dock. (so 2 of the 3 dolphin species in the area) So cool!
After that, we headed back to the lodge, where we had yoga/dance class and then a bonfire and dinner on the beach in the evening. Followed by some extended skinny dipping in the ocean under the full moon. The water was something like 84 degrees - definitely a temperature that I felt like I could stay in comfortably virtually indefinitely. With gentle waves and soft sand (unusual for Costa Rica). Perfect.
They have a naturalist on staff, who was awesome and led bird walks at 6am daily. Sometimes it was a bigger group, other times just me and my binoculars. Lots of amazing birds - brown pelicans, magnificent frigate birds, gorgeous white terns that very dramatically dive straight into the shallow water. Loads of black vultures and even some turkey vultures (less common in that area). I saw hummingbirds, double toothed kites, cherrie's tanagers, red lored parrots, a variety of parakeets, a cuckoo, black hawks nesting, a pair of nesting white necked puffbirds (which nest on top of termite nests so the baby birds can eat termites), a golden naped woodpecker, a blue crowned manakin and red legged honeycreeper (which I never ever would have seen without our guide!), and a bright rumped attila - which had a gorgeous song, but was super hard to spot. Then once i found him, I couldn't figure out what it was without some help - as that one is pretty generic looking. I also never would have seen the green iguanas up in trees without his assistance - as they blend in very well and don't move while sunbathing.
I was also on a bit of a quest to find a snake (I love snakes), which, despite there being plenty of them out there, is generally not something most people see. It's dangerous to stray from the paths as you don't want to step on a viper hidden under the dry leaves, so I wasn't too optimistic, but finally happened on a really cool green parrot snake (I can't figure out why "parrot" as they are way too small to eat any kind of parrot). But anyway - absolutely gorgeous - bright green on top, white on the bottom - about 4-5' long and super skinny. They look very much like a vine and blend in when they sit still. I also saw crocodiles on both trips to and from the little airport.
continuing in the next post...
Anyway, the whole trip was utterly amazing. I was on a yoga retreat - actually yoga and dance. I've done almost no dancing in my life, but have been taking bellydance classes last year and my teacher was one of the women leading the retreat, so I signed up. It was so much fun. Not too much structured time, so we had lots of time for going on sunrise wildlife walks, swimming, just hanging out in hammocks, etc. One morning a few of us did a sunrise horseback ride on the beach.
Accommodations and food were amazing. I was on the second floor of a casita - no windows, just fully open and screened in, with a small deck and hammock in the shade. About 100 yards from the beach, so you could hear jungle noises and ocean surf at the same time. The whole thing felt like living in a happy zoo without cages. Or more accurately, a cage to keep yourself in at night. Haha. There were pairs of scarlet macaws all over the place, squawking and bickering with one another. I saw probably a dozen toucans, which seemed so surreal that I questioned if that's what I was seeing the first time. Probably unsurprisingly, since we were staying at the Iguana Lodge (near Puerto Jimenez), there were also iguanas all over the place. Smaller black ones on the ground, and large green ones with the bigger spines down their back up in the trees. There are a couple of Basilisks (aka Jesus Christ lizards, because they can run across water without sinking) that hung out near the main lodge where we ate breakfast.
We had a mostly free day on Tuesday, where I elected to do a boat tour where we started with watching dolphins (dozens of spotted dolphins - some even leaping out of the water, showing off for us), then proceeded to a wildlife preserve, where they mostly rehabilitate animals and release them back into the wild, so you can't see those. But they have a handful of animals that can't be released that are used for educational purposes that you can meet. A couple scarlet macaws, a toucan, a tayra (which is like a large weasel/wolverine type of animal) - this one had been a pet but never fed properly and was in such bad condition when they got it that they almost euthanized it. Now she's gorgeous and healthy, but too tame from being raised as a pet to be safe (they're normally extremely shy of humans). She'd probably head straight for civilization and eat people's chickens and cats and get herself shot as a pest. They had some capuchin monkeys, which can't be released unless they know for sure what troupe of monkeys they came from - otherwise the monkey troupes kill strange monkeys on sight. Also an ocelot that had been raised as a pet, improperly fed, etc. She was gorgeous, but she had escaped once and then they luckily found her again as skin and bones - she's lacking hunting skills and has some hip issues from a lack of calcium in her early life. My favorite was actually the porcupine, which is perfectly healthy at this point, but apparently "prefers room service" and just kept finding his way back when they tried releasing him. I got to pet him, because he's so chilled out and happy sitting in the hollow log in his cage, eating almonds. They also have a few sloths - apparently if they don't stay with their mother long enough, they don't learn what leaf combinations they need to eat and can't survive in the wild. At least you don't feel too bad for sloths in an enclosure, as they move so little! We also saw 2 wild spider monkeys up close that were hilarious to watch.
After that, we headed out to snorkel in a couple different places. I'm not very experienced with snorkeling, but this was definitely the best I've done. I think the coral was better in Hawaii, but the fish were fantastic here. Amazing starfish with neon blue, or black contrasting outlines and spikes. I saw a moray eel - that was a first for me in the wild. He was black and white and yellow in a gorgeous lacy pattern. Totally out in the open as he was digging a new burrow/den/whatever you call it. It was a smaller one, but so pretty. There were a few really neat areas where the gentle waves would come over the rocks, really aerating the water and in those areas there were just loads of tiny versions of the adult fish - fun to see the "nursery". We also saw a variety of small pufferfish and one just enormous one - probably close to 2' long (un-puffed). I didn't even realize they get that big. Anyway - probably snorkeled for several hours (VERY thankful I brought a white long sleeve rash guard!)
On our way back over to Puerto Jimenez, we saw something that looked like a rock floating in the water through the binoculars. Our captain stopped the tiny boat (there were only 4 of us on the tour) and cruised over and it was a huge green sea turtle. She eventually picked up her head and looked at us, then raised her flippers up and dove away. So amazing. And immediately after that, we saw a neon yellow sea snake. (Apparently the "xanthic" morph of the yellow bellied sea snake - usually they are only yellow on the bottom - this was solid canary yellow - it's pretty much unique to the Golfo Dulce). He was right on the surface - we had to talk one of the guys on our trip out of picking him up. I love snakes, but I do know sea snakes are generally highly venomous, even if they aren't that aggressive. Let's not find out, eh? Anyway, then we saw a bottlenose dolphin on our way back to the dock. (so 2 of the 3 dolphin species in the area) So cool!
After that, we headed back to the lodge, where we had yoga/dance class and then a bonfire and dinner on the beach in the evening. Followed by some extended skinny dipping in the ocean under the full moon. The water was something like 84 degrees - definitely a temperature that I felt like I could stay in comfortably virtually indefinitely. With gentle waves and soft sand (unusual for Costa Rica). Perfect.
They have a naturalist on staff, who was awesome and led bird walks at 6am daily. Sometimes it was a bigger group, other times just me and my binoculars. Lots of amazing birds - brown pelicans, magnificent frigate birds, gorgeous white terns that very dramatically dive straight into the shallow water. Loads of black vultures and even some turkey vultures (less common in that area). I saw hummingbirds, double toothed kites, cherrie's tanagers, red lored parrots, a variety of parakeets, a cuckoo, black hawks nesting, a pair of nesting white necked puffbirds (which nest on top of termite nests so the baby birds can eat termites), a golden naped woodpecker, a blue crowned manakin and red legged honeycreeper (which I never ever would have seen without our guide!), and a bright rumped attila - which had a gorgeous song, but was super hard to spot. Then once i found him, I couldn't figure out what it was without some help - as that one is pretty generic looking. I also never would have seen the green iguanas up in trees without his assistance - as they blend in very well and don't move while sunbathing.
I was also on a bit of a quest to find a snake (I love snakes), which, despite there being plenty of them out there, is generally not something most people see. It's dangerous to stray from the paths as you don't want to step on a viper hidden under the dry leaves, so I wasn't too optimistic, but finally happened on a really cool green parrot snake (I can't figure out why "parrot" as they are way too small to eat any kind of parrot). But anyway - absolutely gorgeous - bright green on top, white on the bottom - about 4-5' long and super skinny. They look very much like a vine and blend in when they sit still. I also saw crocodiles on both trips to and from the little airport.
continuing in the next post...