Costa Rica

The big attraction of San Gerardo de Dota is quetzal spotting - ‘a strikingly coloured bird in the trogon family’. Apparently these birds will only appear if you get up at 5am and stand in the freezing cold surrounded by birders with telescopes, binoculars and huge cameras. Unfortunately I hate standing still, being cold and surrounded by people, so definitely not my favourite part of this holiday! I was also feeling very light headed due to the altitude (and an empty tummy) so walked back to the lodge after a brief glimpse of a green feathered thing through a telescope. Rusty had driven and given a lift to two birdy people so had to stay until another quetzal had deigned to appear and had its photo taken. Meanwhile on my walk back, I took a photo of the lodge and a much more visible hummingbird. After breakfast we went for a walk round the lodge area, finding it quite tough going again due to effects of the altitude. It is such a beautiful lodge and we had a very happy couple of hours...

We spotted a member of the frog chorus on the way back to the room last night The view from the cabin this morning was gorgeous and a Scarlet Macaw flew over after breakfast (not on photo!) It was another long drive bumping back to the coast road Then joining the trucks labouring up the Pan American highway into the mountains. The road climbs to over 3400 metres through the clouds and the temperature dropped from 34 C on the coast to 9 C at the top.  We found a back of beyond cafe to have lunch - no menu, no choice! Unfortunately I had a horrible allergic reaction to something, probably all the dust swirling in the car’s air conditioning, and couldn’t stop sneezing all the way so had to have a long snooze when we got to the lodge. My usual happy hiking will have to wait until tomorrow. Trogon Lodge is a remote mountain retreat perched at 2400 metres in a river valley.

We went to sleep to the sound of a deafening frog chorus and woke up with a feathered dawn chorus. Fortunately it was much cooler during the night than the sweltering humidity of the day. We were booked into a guided birding tour at 6.30am but this turned into the whole morning and lunch with a lovely Canadian ecologist called Lisa and a thorough education into Costa Rican nature.  This area has over 300 different species of birds, most famously the scarlet macaws which you can hear squawking before you see them. Sadly I didn’t manage to get a photo, but we had a great view of them from the lunch table. I had no idea there were so many different types of hummingbird and that they are pathologically antisocial and aggressive (I still think they are gorgeous!) There is also a bullet ant who’s bite feels like you have been shot - another creature to add to my list of creatures to avoid! I’ve just been for a very sweaty walk and taken photos where you have to play spot the birdie... An...

As there was a long drive today, I got up at dawn and went for a 4 mile walk to Ostional beach. It was deserted and utterly stunning. I was hoping to see a nesting turtle but they are few and far between at this time of year and all I saw were the tracks of a turtle that had been and gone. It was sad to leave Hotel Luna Azul as it is such a peaceful and idyllic place, (apart from the tarantula that visited our outdoor bathroom and Rusty shooed away with the shower!), but it was time to start heading south. We had 30km of bone rattling rough road again before the paved road meant I could pass the time reading whilst Rusty put up with my music choice. It was a 5 hour drive to the Carara National Park where we are staying at Macaw Lodge for 2 nights. Unfortunately much of the journey was on a truck filled main road with some scary overtaking, but once we got to Carara, it was back to the bump fest for 15 slow km. The lodge is well and truly in the middle of nowhere and our bungalow is eve...

This hotel really is rather wonderful, it’s in such a beautiful location, perfect for a sunset glass or three of rose last night. T oday was all about the turtles, starting with a boat trip from the nearby San Juanillo beach. Apparently these turtles are having a lovely time copulating and will do so for 8 hours... These solo turtles are presumably still looking for a date.. We also saw a shoal of yellowfin tuna, but didn’t have the necessary fishing tackle to catch lunch. We went snorkelling on the way back, first time swimming in the beautifully clear Pacific Ocean, with lots of pretty and fortunately not scary fishies. Lunch was again in the hippie chic ‘Ancient People’ restaurant where the food (falafel and hummus wrap obvs) and the eavesdropping are great. Overhead today said by a girl to a barefoot man: ‘ I wanna gift you a healing energy session’. The rest of the afternoon consisted once again of a lot of not a lot - bit different to a cycling trip!

Today was all about exploring the Pacific coastline, starting with a very hot and dusty 3 mile walk to a viewpoint above the hotel. Lots of howler monkeys in the trees here. Breakfast at the hotel was delicious again. With added entertainment from black vultures coming for a drink. We drove down the coast ‘road’, a very bumpy and dusty bone shaker, to Nosara where it seems the  wealthy US ‘hippie’ surfers like to hang out/pose. I really don’t understand why rich women ruin their faces with plastic surgery!  The roads are so bad that so far, there has been very little development but that could soon change. The beaches are so beautiful - this is Playa Guiones, very popular with surfers. This one is Playa Pelada - my favourite with beautifully clear rock pools It also has La Luna - a very trendy beach bar where I had a delicious passion fruit and mint drink (shockingly alcohol free!) Finally, this is Playa Ostional which is a turtle nesting refuge and shockingly hot - brief phot...