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http://www.fieldguides.com/costarica.htm
Lynn, you may want to check out the Field Guides itinerary to Costa Rica -- they run the very best bird tours. All I can tell you is that I saw a quetzal in the Monteverde Cloud Forest, about a 15-second walk into the park, so for me, it was easy. |
This is my favorite mammal description from the most recent Field Guides trip report:
BROWN-THROATED THREE-TOED SLOTH (Bradypus variegatus) A dead one along the road was followed shortly by another in a roadside Cecropia tree near La Selva. Both animals were about equally active. |
Definitely book a guide aned show your enthusiasm for what the guides show you. We were on a group tour at Monteverde, and afterwards, our birding guide took my husband and I outside the boundaries to an area where the quetzals were nested, and let us check them out with his scope.
Favorite animal encounter: Montezuma at the Ylang Ylang resort, 11/06: 3 capuchins were in the trees above my husband's hammock, and one was eating something out of a jar. Another couple came to observe. One monkey jockeyed to try and get the jar from the other, so that monkey tucked the jar under his arm like a football and took off on hind legs, ala football running back!! As we laughed, the other couple realized that the jar the monkey had was actually their sugar jar from their bungalow, which the monkey had stolen and unscrewed open. The woman suddenly jumped up and bolted for her bungalow, in deep fear that those clever thieves had taken not only her sugar jar, but the underwear she had hanging in her open-air shower! |
I agree that guides love enthusiasm. We've gotten a lot of special attention just by showing some interest. We've gotten paired with some real duds on tours. On Cano Negro, a girl said to me, "Do you like birds or something?" She really seemed like she could not care less. Our guides said he really has to walk a fine line because there's people like us that want to know and learn everything and other people who just want to ride around on a boat.
In Monteverde, we had the WORST woman on our tour. At the very beginning, she saw another guide poke around in a hole to get a tarantula to come out. She wanted our guide to do the same thing; he said it wasn't an appropriate thing to do and that we should leave it alone, and she got furious. She literally stomped off and was kicking rocks; she did not stand with us for the rest of the tour. She literally stood off from our group and guide by several yards. I thought it was nuts, and her husband was embarrassed. We've secretly nicknamed her "cranky tarantula girl." Sometimes I feel sorry for the guides. Most of them seem to be self-taught and just have a real love for learning. |
Thanks all!
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Thit cho, Not only do we have the same sentiments on the outgoing president, our Monte Verde birding for quetzal experience is identical. Thanks for the input on the necro-sightings.
<i>"Sometimes I feel sorry for the guides. Most of them seem to be self-taught and just have a real love for learning.</i>" One demanding couple I was with insisted on being told the Latin name, in addition to the English name, of every bird sited. The Spanish speaking guide, who obviously loved birds and could spot them anywhere, did not know all of the Latin names, but he did know some. When they actually got mean to the guide over a toucan sighting, I took over the Latin translation: "Fruitius Loopia." That shut them up momentarily. |
Hey, we had the same sighting in Monteverde too! We hired a guide to meet us at the park at 7:30. Our taxi pulled in, and before we even paid the guide, he pointed at a quetzal in a tree by the parking lot! Then we saw 2 more when we were ziplining. That was really neat because we were at eye level with them.
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We had one woman who was soooo stupid and obnoxious on our night tour in Monteverde. She elbowed people out of the way so no one else could take a picture of a tarantula. As we wound our way single file through the forest, she lectured the people at the back of the line that they didn't see one animal because "you people are too slow."
But the funniest part was her questions. When the guide pointed out to us a "common possum," she asked him literally "is that rare?" And when the guide pointed out a yellow sidestriped palm pit viper, she asked "that's not dangerous, is it?" No, go give it a kiss. |
02-16 May 2008
Tortuga Island (day trip) - scarlet macaw, brown pelicans, flying fish and narcoleptic collared peccary Pacuare Lodge - sunbitterns, tiger herons, toucans (keel-billed and chestnut mandible), aracaris, vultures, emerald basilisks, Montezuma Oropendulas Monteverde, Selvatura NP and Children's Eternal Rainforest (Hotel Belmar) - howler monkeys, resplendent quetzals, three-wattled bellbirds, creaky bird (the bird whose call sounds like a rusty metal gate), butterflies, hummingbirds, scorpion, grasshoppers, click bugs, green parrots, possums, tree snake (could have been ringed snail eater or false coral), two-toed sloth, three-toed sloth, orange-kneed tarantula, katydid, white chested robins, mating kissing bugs, blue-crested mot mots, common dink frog, Arenal, La Fortuna Waterfall/Volcano Hike/El Silencio hike (Montana de Fuego) - flycatchers, toucans, parrots, bats, howler monkeys, woodpeckers, crested turkeys, green parakeets, white ibis Manuel Antonio NP (Hotel Costa Verde) - whitefaced, howler and squirrel monkeys, two and three toed sloths, long-nosed bats, green iguanas, Jesus Christ lizards, resident black ctenosaur, raccoons, agouti, snake, whiptails, orange beach crab, hermit crabs, boa constrictor, agouti, raccoon 28 September - 31 October 2008 Pacuare Lodge - vine snake, bullet ants, toucans, army ants, leafcutter ants, cane toad, Montezuma Oropendulas Tortuguero NP (Pachira Lodge) - spiders, river otter, white face monkeys, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, green iguanas, caimans, crocodile, boat-billed herons, tiger herons, snowy egrets, red-breasted kingfisher, hawks, vultures, jacanas, emerald basilisks, white ibis, Hercules beetle Rincon de la Vieja,Simbiosis Spa (Hacienda Guachipelin) - coati Arenal, Caño Negro (Hotel Sierra Arenal) – ospreys, black and white hawk, anhingas, jacanas, long-nosed bats, blue herons, green kingfisher, cattle egrets, swallows, snowy egrets, tiger herons, white faced monkeys, howler monkeys, three-toed sloth, green kingfisher, leafcutter ants Osa Peninsula, Corcovado NP and Caño Island (Punta Marenco Lodge) - blue heron, wooing pair of bare-throated tiger herons, brown pelicans, toucans (keel-billed and chestnut mandibled), tamandua, two toed sloth, three toed sloth, Jesus Christ lizard, hermit crabs, emerald basilisk, black vultures, common bush tanagers, green honeycreeper, various small lizards, preying mantis, humpback whales, spotted dolphins "Go give it a kiss!" RAC - you're too funny! LOL and trying to stifle my laughter here at work! |
RAC, that cracked me up! We had some folks in Monteverde that went nuts over a raccoon. Thought that was pretty cute! They were from the UK so had never seen one!
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