Colibri's Trip Report - 2/9-2/25/09, Pt. 2-Adventures in Arenal & Sarapiqui

Our terrific Tortuguero tour is over, so back to the Don Carlos to pick up bags and bid farewell to the cute Dutch couple who had shared our Tortuguero adventure.

Next day we headed up to Arenal, taking our time exploring some of the small towns along the way. The orange blooms of the poro tree (a type of erythrina) were brilliant beacons throughout the Central Valley area. It's easy to see why their nickname is "flame of the forest." We've lucked out on the weather again, a beautiful sunny day with fluffy white clouds rolling over the mountains. Some of the areas really reminded us of farms in Austria or Switzerland with cows grazing peacefully on the green hillsides.

We stopped to visit the beautiful church in Grecia and admired the altars. Then we headed to Sarchi Norte stopping at Else Kientzler Botanical Garden run by the German company, Innovaplant Kientzler. This ten year old garden is continually growing with seven hectares and had interesting plants. Once again I spotted the rufous tailed hummingbird and began to wonder where all the others were I saw last year. This is a good stop for any gardening folks. We were the only people there and although we had set it up in advance, they still seemed surprised to see us, not a lot of traffic comes their way, I guess.

Shopping at the Artisans Cooperative in Sarchi, who could resist?! By the end of our trip we realized what reasonable prices they had here, particularly on some of
the mola items and we should have bought more of it. Oh well, next time...

Late afternoon brought us to Arenal Paraiso Hotel where we checked into superior cabins for a couple of nights. About 85% of the volcano had been visible for the last part of the drive and we could see the outline as darkness fell. We loved our cabin, plenty of room with two beds, large bathroom and shower and a great front porch with rockers. The grounds are beautifully landscaped with a variety of tropical plants, very lush.

Waking up the next morning was a different story - volcano? What volcano?! Our good luck with the weather had ended! Several of us met for 6 am birdwatching on the hotel grounds and we saw mealy parrots, kisadees, kingbirds, tanagers, flycatchers, parakeets, honeycreepers, bananaquits and once again, only the rufous tailed hummingbird. By breakfast the rain had started up and most opted out of the horseback ride while the canopy tour was canceled.

By noon, the rain had slacked off enough for the zip line to be running and since it was going to be our only opportunity, we stupidly signed up. I convinced my German friend what fun it would be - little did we realize that the lines would twice as fast due to the rain! My first run was so exhilarating - I loved flying through the air, but when it
came to stop, major trouble, I squeezed, I pumped, I pulled and that darn tree and platform just kept coming - WHACK! Thank God that double rope or whatever it is was there to stop me because I was flying! So, that pretty much scared the heck out of me and I was anxious about the next one - same thing - flying through the air was fantastic, through the clouds, over the misty canyon, yeah - this is great fun, try to stop and
it's not happening....that definitely took the fun right out of it – how many more lines to go? 9, yikes! I was finally able to stop on the final three lines and I think that was because they were more lateral, not as fast as the others. The second to last one flies right over the river which was gorgeous. My friend and I both decided no more adventure outings – did you know that two new types of sloths were discovered that day? The blue eyed American sloth (me) while my friend was dubbed the 10 toed German sloth – that fits our personalities more so than the adrenaline junkie type. I don’t know if my problem was due to the stiffness of the wet glove used to brake or some carpal tunnel syndrome trouble I’ve had from too much computer time or what. Oh yeah, I got a two week souvenir from the zip line when the guide unhooked me from the cable, but dropped the clamp on my cheekbone – lovely shades of black, purple and yellow! Once was enough, never again.

We straggled back to the cabins looking like something out of “The Little Rascals” show. We were covered in grease, mud, dirt and God only knows what else. My husband (who wisely toured an organic farm instead of zip lining) went into convulsions and grabbed the camera for photos since we were such a mess. Once he stopped laughing and we looked in the mirror, we couldn’t believe our eyes. I was still digging mud out of my ears after my shower!

The rain had stopped and the evening was much more to my liking – soaking in the heated pools at Eco-Termales. It was quite therapeutic to stand under the waterfall and let the water massage away the stress of the afternoon. What a lovely atmosphere Eco-Termales has with its natural setting and beautiful landscaping. The chicken dinner was great and the drinks didn't hurt - anything to forget our adventure!

Since the night was still so cloudy we didn’t bother trying to view the lava flow. If you don’t know the volcano is actually there, you most likely are not going to see any lava or rocks!

Next day brought sunshine and a trip out to the Hanging Bridges. We spent about two hours hiking and spotted white faced capuchins, howler monkeys, a trogon and loved the different ferns, fungus and miniscule flowers. Emerging from the trails, we had the best view of the volcano with only a few clouds at the very top. Lots of photos were taken in case this was our first and last sighting!

A good lunch at la Choza de Laurel in LaFortuna, some shopping time and we headed off to our next hotel. Although we found this a great time to travel (spring break had not yet started, so mainly couples, no families) Arenal Paraiso didn’t have enough rooms for more than two nights for us. Since we had done everything we wanted to do in LaFortuna, we had booked at Tilajari Resort Hotel in Muelle since this put us on the road to both Cano Negro and to Sarapiqui, our next destination. First we decided to go check out the iguanas at the bridge, loads of them just waiting for our arrival.

Tilajari Resort was beautiful – DH and I had been upgraded to a suite with a bedroom, small living room and a loft with three more beds. We had a huge tiled terrace overlooking the river with iguanas hanging in the trees. The grounds were lushly planted with many different varieties of heliconias, gingers, vines and calliandras. At sunset and sunrise I stationed myself near a calliandra tree flush with pink and white blooms that I was not familiar with, but knew it would be a great hummingbird magnet. Sure enough, what appeared – a rufous tailed hummer – did all the other species leave the country or what?! Finally a brown eared hummingbird showed up along with a green violet ear – success!

Tilajari has numerous feeding stations throughout its grounds, so tanagers were eagerly feeding on fresh fruit. After birding at sunrise followed by breakfast we took off for Cano Negro, spotting our best view of a sloth ever right by the roadside. It was hanging from a bare branch, no leaves obscuring it, so the cameras were clicking.

Cano Negro was lovely, another peaceful day spent on the water enjoying the wildlife. We barely had the boat turned around when we spotted a family of howler monkeys. This was followed by the basilisk lizards, lineated woodpecker, caimans, white faced monkeys and the long nosed bats. Plenty of water birds were spotted – different types of herons, egrets and ibis. I have to admit that although Cano Negro was good, we were very spoiled at Tortuguero! However, I think Cano Negro is the best option for wildlife viewing when you are in the Arenal region. Of course, we spent three days at Tortuguero versus several hours at Cano Negro, so the two really shouldn’t be compared. It’s definitely worth it.

Next day found us off to the Sarapiqui region which is one of the rainiest areas in Costa Rica. The weather gods were on our side once more as the day was warm and sunny. We went to Tirimbina Rainforest Center for the chocolate tour – very informative and worthwhile. My biggest mistake was not realizing it was back in the rainforest and it was the only time I forgot to put on insect repellant while wearing knee length shorts. Our guide, Wendy, made us change out of our Keens into black rubber boots due to the bullet ants. I never saw or felt a mosquito so either no see’ums or chiggers or something got me, but by the time we got to Selva Verde I looked like I had the chicken pox on my legs, absolutely covered in welts. I still have remnants of the bites (which never itched) two weeks later – lesson learned the hard way.

Selva Verde only had room for one night, but I would love to stay longer here. The setting is phenomenal, all the buildings up on stilts, very large screened windows in the huge river rooms in the middle of the rainforest. You are surrounded by lush vegetation in all directions and wake up to the howler monkeys roaring nearby. Ceiling fans provided a breeze for part of the night until we turned them off.

Early morning was another birdwatching excursion (funny, I only watch hummingbirds at home!) with parrots, toucans and, of course, the rufous tailed hummingbird spotted along with a howler monkey. The Sarapiqui River has been severely affected from the January earthquake with landslides releasing large amount of soil and debris into the river. Massive fish kills have resulted from the lack of oxygen and many birds along with some wildlife have left the area. The bridge going over to the private reserve is totally destroyed and must be rebuilt so hiking isn’t an option there.

We had planned to head to La Paz Waterfall Garden, but had changed our plans after the disaster struck and instead scheduled a tour of La Selva. The OTS guides there are extremely knowledgeable and we spent a few hours walking through the rainforest with them. We saw a broad-billed motmot, great green macaws, squirrel cuckoo, two families of peccaries, and a sloth along with the noisy Montezuma Oropendolas building their nests. Once more, the rufous tailed hummingbird made its presence known…I realize how spoiled I was last year at Monteverde seeing 8 species at the Hummingbird Gallery within 30 minutes!

Next destination was the small garden of Heliconia Island. This had been designed and planted by a man named Tim Ryan but bought out by a Dutch couple who have added on a B & B. Friendly dogs and masses of heliconias and gingers greeted us as we walked across the small bridge to the island. The peaceful setting of this garden is perfect for a quiet retreat and those wishing solitude. We loved the numerous varieties of flowering heliconias with their unusual shapes and designs.

This week was great, but I couldn’t believe the lack of hummingbird species and frogs. I had read that Selva Verde and La Selva were some of the best places for both of them. Guess the good weather had them hiding from me…

Our final week in Costa Rica diverts from the typical tourist route and activities – stay tuned for Part 3!