2nd trip to Costa Rica - Help
 

Hi folks,

Thanks for all your help (suzie, shillimac et al). We came back from an awesome vacation in CR in July at Bosque Del Cabo in the Osa Peninsula.

Man. The scarlet Macaws were really amazing. And the bird tour at the Bosque Rio Tigre with Abraham was the simply amazing.

Now, we are planning on our second trip. Need help. The max we can spend is 5 days.

So, options are either day tripping to good spots from SJO or go to 1/2 locations/lodges and spend a few days.

Our interests are birds and some wildlife. Beach would be excellent bonus, but not as high priority as birds and wildlife.

We are considering December (Christmas) or early Feb as 2 possible times for travel. we dont want to get stuck in rain.

please suggest some parks where we have a good chance of seeing more macaws/parrots/quetzals etc. A rainforest experience added to this (like the Osa) would
be awesome too.
I browsed through some messages on the list and a few names keep cropping up
1) La Selva
2) Carrara
3) villablanca
4) Los Angeles Cloud Forest
5) San Gerardo de Dota/savegre

Please suggest any option for 5 days with minimal travel/driving fro SJO. We are open to day tripping from SJO.

Thanks a lot for the awesome suggestions on the Osa. It was truly mind blowing.

TB

If you are looking for Quetzals, Monteverde, the Tapanti reserve and San Gerardo de Dota are awesome.

Monteverde has more population, and has been welcoming guests longer. So there are more hotel and restaurant choices. San Gerardo has some amazing habitat, and you are almost guaranteed to see at least one Quetzal, and probably more.

For parrots, you have to get to the Caribbean slope. Tortuguero is widely known for the turtles that nest there. But this is an extremely rich Eco system. Lots of parrots and waterfowl. Crocodiles, cayman, sloths, and of course monkeys complete the equation.

You can buy reasonably priced two night packages that come and go from San Jose. Maybe combine this with a day to Tapanti for the high elevation species?

If you have a choice between Christmas week and February, definitely go in February. We are already seeing availability problems all over the country for Christmas. Even if you are able to find space, rates are higher and the areas will be crowded. Which means long waits at restaurants, larger groups for guided tours, and packed beaches.

Hope this helps! Let me know if I can offer more advice.

Warm Regards,
Pat Hewitt
(Travel Professional)

We just stopped by our local birding store to pick up some cardinal seed and were chatting with the owner who is a devoted birder. We told her we just got back from CR, and her eyes lit up, and she said, "Did you go to Monteverde?!" She had just gotten back and loved it and was raving about everything she saw.

We just got back from BdC and agree that the Osa is amazing. We met a couple who had gone to a place called Rara Avis - they said it's an amazing place for birding. I'm not familiar with it, but you may want to check it out. As a word of warning, it sounded very rustic, but they loved it. We're new to birding so were unfamiliar with a lot the species they were mentioning, but apparently some were quite rare.

Thanks Pat.

What about the La Selva biological station or Villablanca ? Are these good palces to visit in Feb as well ?

If we had 3 full days and 4 nights, (we dont necessarily have to do day trip out of san jose. We just dont want to drive more than 2 - 2.5 hrs) what would u recommend ?

Our trip to Osa was amazing. I guess any places with chances to see lots of Quetzels/Macaws/Parrots would be great for us + some activities like horse back riding in rainforest/medium intensity river rafting etc.

Thanks a lot
TB

Glad to read that you had such a great trip. Bosque has been a favorite of ours for several years now. We managed to work a night in when in that area in June and got hugs from everyone. One of the girls even welcomed us home.

I had been hearing great things about Abraham and spent a few nights there by myself to check it out a few years ago. I requested the cabin not knowing it was so alone out there. I am a huge chicken in the dark but I made it 2 nights out there before heading to one of the lodge bedrooms. My husband and I request it all the time now. It is an awesome place to bird. Abraham is incredible. He even found a Gulfo Dulce poison dart frog and a Sicklebill for us a few weeks ago. Glad you enjoyed him as well.

Here are a few suggestions, it will be hard to top Bosque del Cabo though.

Feb is a perfect time to see the Quetzals in the San Gerardo de Dota area. They are in full display and the fruits are in. There is a private finca that has planted trees for them and (for a small fee) you can just sit on a hill and watch them. We saw one fly overhead as we got out of the car in their parking lot. I had one fly by at about 4 feet off the ground and about 15 ft away from me. I have seen Quetzals in several places but that was incredible. You can generally see them year round out in the woods as well.

We did get to watch a pair building a nest right on the side of one of the trails in Monteverde just a few weeks ago.

We didn't see much in the way of birds at Villa Blanca but we only had about 3-4 hrs of non rainy time to go looking in the afternoon. We saw a Jacamar which is always fun, 2 emerald toucanetes right by the dining room and some manakins as well as others. There are no Quetzals there but they do offer a tour to a place about 45 mins away to see them. Haven't done that.

A place that we have been trying to find time to go to is Bosque de Paz. Sounds pretty interesting.

La Selva is a good place to bird. Don't think I would stay there. We usually stay at La Quinta de Sarapiqui but have also stayed at Selva Verde. The bungalows sound nice there. We just stayed in one of the river rooms. Saw my first white necked Puff bird at La Selva as well as my first Great Green macaw and snowy cotinga. Saw my first Pied Puff bird at a little cooperative farm just north of that area that we were staying at this trip. The Sarapiqui area also offers things to do other than birding such as white water rafting or slow river boating to see wildlife.

Villa Lapas is a decent place to stay near Jaco. Not lux by any means but not the pits either. They have very good birds right there on the grounds and it is close to Carara which is a very unique place in that it get the northern Guanacaste birds as well as the central Pacific birds. There are also Scarlet Macaws there but you probably won't get nearly the look at them that you did at Bosque del Cabo. You'll see birds and wildlife at Carara. We saw an absolutely beautiful black and white snake (non poisonous). We smelled and heard the peccaries but didn't go looking for them. There are monkeys. Tons of manakins. Oh yeah, don't go swimming in the Rio Tarcoles there...that is where the huge crocs live.

Don't know if you are interested in visiting a place like La Paz waterfall gardens but they do have good birds there. I saw my first prong billed barbet just off the dining area.

One last place that I can think of is Rancho Naturalista. It has been a few years since we were there but I suspect the birding is still good. A couple of top guides are there. Steve and Kevin Erwin are definitely the most intense bird guides I have ever met. We ran into Steve at Tigre. He stopped in on his way back from birding in Panama including the Darien area. The last time we stayed there there was a large group from England. Those guys are tough to bird with. I have never had someone push me out of the way to see a bird. No offense meant to any brits who might be reading this. I understand many of them even wear beepers at home in case a good bird shows up. I honestly prefer a more relaxed type of birding. The morning coffee on the balcony was fun. Kathy Erb's husband took us down to the Rio Tuis to look at property and do some birding and then we stopped at their house for a cold drink. Saw my first Sun Bittern on that river. Saw my first snowcap and Forest Falcon at Rancho Naturalista and had a ball watching the hummingbirds take baths in the water pools out in the woods. I know people have seen turquois cotingas there. Those are always wonderful to see.

Not Costa Rica but was wondering if you have ever been to Tikal. It is one of the most incredible places I have ever been for birding not to mention great temples. We saw 100 species in one day with a guide that grew up in the park.

Volcanogirl, we went to Rara Avis once. Not our favorite place but from other reports we may have just had an unlucky trip there. We saw very little in the way of birds up there even with the bird guide. I think it was bad timing because I know people have seen good birds. Extremely rustic. We had a mouse come in and eat our soap every night. The ride up was horrific. We (and just about everyone else) ended up walking at least half way because the ride was downright scary. The cook was incredible and could work miracles with not much. The owners weren't there and the poor people working there were just trying to make do with very little. Hopefully things have improved.

Happy travels

Suzie2, thanks for the info. on Rara Avis. I trust your expert opinion on that one - crossing it off the list.

My suggestion is take three days and spend them in San Gerardo de Dota, at Savegre Lodge, as mentioned above.

February is a very good time there for Quetzals. The area also has many high altitude species, [the lodge is at 7200 feet],and other birds of the mountains.

Quite a number of the birds in that area are found only in the highlands of Costa Rica and adjacent Panama.

San Gerardo is very different from the Osa. Daytime highs are around 70 degrees with nights going down into the 40's. The air is remarkably clear and fresh, and the scenery is beautiful.

From the Interamerican highway down to the Lodge you descend from about 10000 feet to the Lodge at 7200 feet on a winding little road that traverses some beautiful oak-bamboo cloud forest. The lodge has trails through this habitat as well as along the Savegre River.

The great majority of birds here will be different from those you encountered on the Osa.

The Lodge is Tico owned and managed by the Chacon family. They are passionate about their birds and about their beautiful valley.

Rooms are pleasant and the food is mostly typical Costa Rican fare. Nothing like the high-end luxury of Bosque del Cabo, but a wonderful Costa Rican experience.

A very interesting day trip is to take a guided birding tour up into the Paramo. This is an area essentially above the treeline with most of the vegetation being dwarf bamboo that grows tightly together and other small shrubs and grasses. This is a Costa Rican habitat that most tourists do not get to explore.

This is one of my favourite places in Costa Rica [actually one of my favourite places ANYWHERE...]

Cheers

Jerry

If you like to see some macaws...and if I am there the day you drive by...I can take you to my farm...some times I see as many of 50 macaws flying around...as well as tucan...my farm is by Jaco up in the hills...thanks God we still have it...great views...you can see in a clear day almost all the way to Manuel Antonio...300 acres of virgin forest...with waterfalls...and a bunch of birds...they said that about 400 have been identify there!!

R.A Luis

Just buckle up and enjoy the ride in paradise!!

Jerry,
We tried to get in to Bosque del Tolomuco this trip but no answer when we called. I suspect they were out of town as we even left messages. We ran into that with other places too. We will be fairly close to it at the new house so hope to get there in January. They have a cabin with a kitchen so we may think about staying there for a week or so during the building. They have a good bird list. It is between the turn off to San Gerardo de Dota and San Isidro right off the hwy. Seems like it might turn out to be a good place to combine with San Gerardo de Dota.

That was a wonderful description of San Gerardo de Dota. We have seen other great birds up there as well as the Quetzal. We are looking forward to being able to go up more for some morning birding when we get settled in.

We are near the Skutch place and will have a guest room if you are ever interested in visiting there.

Suzie2, thanks for the offer !

suzie, Thanks a lot for the detailed post. Awesome information. You should write a book on CR. I would buy it.

gannetmusic, thanks to you too.

BTW, while we were returning from Bosque, we decided to stop near lapa rios. A sloth was climbing down a tree right in front of us. It was just amazing. Also, the views of the rainforest from Lapa Rios was simply amazing. Not as great view of the ocean as Bosque Del Cabo, but the views of the rainforest meeting the ocean were mindblowing.

Abraham at Bosque Rio Tigre is THE guy to go birding with. He is also such a modest/friendly guy. BTW, I have a scoop on Bosque Rio Tigre. They might be shutting down as its getting financially tough for them to maintain the place. You might to go back again and enjoy a birding tour with Abraham b4 that happens. Again, they may not be shutting down if things improve (financially) for them. But, its such a beautiful property. We also went horse back riding
in rainforest ouside Bosque. Its about 20 mins from Bosque and part of it is in the rainforest and part along the beach (pacific). It was totally awesome.

Thanks again
TB

Oh no!!! They didn't say a thing when we were there. They have been struggling for a while now but I had no idea it had gotten that bad. We just spent 3 nights with them in June. Liz had just gotten back from the states the day before. That is one of my favorite places. Orlando even designed his new house to be similar to the Tigre lodge. We wanted a similar place too but it wouldn't work where we ended up buying. I love the open way they did everything. Abraham and Liz are quite the contrast to each other. He is so laid back, she is so talkative.

Thanks for the news (I think).

Terrible news!!

Luis